I'll give some other system alternatives later on cow, kinda busy.... but on another note in defense of system integrators (read dell, HP, etc). The real premium on those systems is for the WARRANTY. Take it from me, i've built MANY a system and unless you yourself are very familiar with building them or troubleshooting them, you could well be SHOOTING urself in your foot building it yourself. Sure Dell and the ilk don't necessarily use the best part (save their XPS systems etc which are expensive) but they could be a headache free solution. NOTE I SAID COULD BE, as my take on dell is... well they SUCK and NOT in a GOOD way. But like I said i'll hit yuh up some more options in a while.