Since it’s impossible to work….I hit up newegg.com to experiment with a few ideas.

The PC I wish I could buy:

 1 * Thermaltake Armor Extreme Edition ATX Full Tower case ($180)
  ; drooling over the VA8004BNS !!!
 1 * 600W Thermaltake PSU ($130)
 1 * Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 or E67x0 2.4/2.66Ghz ($190-$240)
 1 * 1024MB DDR2 667Mhz (PC5300) ($22) ; Kingston preferred
 2 * SATA 250GB HDD ($160 total)
 1 * nVidia Geforce GPU (<=$130)
 1 * Turtle Beach RIVIERA Sound Card ($30) ; ALSA support :-)
 1 * 3.5" Floppy ($7 OEM / $20 retail)
 1 * DVD Burner ($45 retail)
 1 * CD || DVD Reader ($20 retail)
 1 * 10/100MB Ethernet NIC ($12 at the local shop ;-))
 1 * 104 Normal Keys KB ($20) ;  Logitech Access would be nice & cheaper
 1 * Wired Laser Mouse ($40)
 1 * 17" LCD Monitor, 4-5ms, No Widescreen! ($180-$200)

 Estimated Total: < $1350 depending on variables and RAM
  + Motherboard ($70-$120), any extra fans/cables

This is a much better PC then the one I am sitting, $1600 worth !!! And I supplied my own Mouse (replacement), Monitor, and had a Keyboard when I bought it. Although I do admit, a PC Desk and sound card was necessary to add to the pre-build… Hehe The system I had originally planned to build was about the same price range as this custom list but with less specs and a complete system minus the monitor and kb… bloody thing even had a UPS in the price factors! In the end, I ended up having my mother raising all freaking heck, to the point that I had to concede to *not* build my own, or she would really drive me crazy until I did F’up. To which I had my brother raising hell at the very idea (the family gamer), to which I ended up shopping for a pre-build to shut them both up (compromise of no DIY but higher specs) and got stiffed on the core factors… Rather then building my ideal ‘personal’ machine, I got stuffed into a Gateway Multi-Media PC that I didn’t want. Over a year later, that PC I bought has been a royal pain in the neck, often needing coercion to get it to do what I want. It has repeatedly failed to work with most tested Linux Distro’s without a lot of kicking, although it does love FreeBSD 6.x as long, the only good thing I can say 🙂 Instead of the GF6600 I had planned for the prebuilt came with a GF6200 (A real POS but still a major upgrade) and a TV Tuner; shitty PSU, funky BTX Mobo, and a signle 500GB drive Vs the good PSU, standard ATX Mobo, and Dual Seagate drives (1 for Windows, 1 for BSD). And a card reader which I can’t use (no media) vs the Floppy drive I wanted so badly. The sound card I had to buy to get the pre-built working properly for my needs was a $80 reck, it is a major POS under Windows… But works great under Linux and FreeBSD, which is why I bought it haha. If I ever could have that level of cash for a PC again, I’d hit Fry’s and build it from parts there….. Rather then letting my family have any say in the matter.. *sighs*, why did I have to be diplomatic instead of exercise my right to freedom?