I have project "Deep Thought" in progress. The building of my first home made machine - dual core chip, 8gB RAM, 2 x 512mB video cards, 2 x 500gB HDDs (RAID). 64 bit Vista Ultimate.
I'm nearly there with the shopping list which, fur various reasosn, is all from
www.newegg.com but still need case, power supply and DVD drive(s) - and maybe some extra cooling fans.
Cases, to my uneducated brain are just steel boxes - so why are some $20 and some $200?
I thought I'd found a reasonable combo with
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129024 as for US$110 it includes a 500W power supply (which would retail for $US55 on it's own) and free shipping (no tax payable).
But then I find another 500W supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817148027 for just $40 (dropping to $25 with rebates).
I also saw a PSU with "SLI" technology for only $40 after rebates at
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817159054 and, whilst I don't understand what "SLI" is - it matches the promotion for the video cards and the motherboard.
Front sockets (USB/Firewire/Audio) I may have built in, I may purchase a "media centre" panel to fit in one of the large drive bays.
Where do you begin?