Hi all, I'm going to put a new system together between now and Christmas, to eventually replace my current Athlon XP 1600+ system. Based on price / performance point I'm considering the following: Asus A7N8X-Deluxe Motherboard. ATI Radeon 9600 (don't really want to spend the higher $$ on a 9800 pro).I've decided to move away from Nvidia this time. AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton 1024 MB Crucial PC3200 Dual DDR Antec Mini Tower SX635B-II I'm going to hang on to my current soundcard (Turtle Beach Santa Cruz) and speakers (Klipsch). I haven't decided on a hard drive yet. I'm open to any opinions on the components I'm considering. Fire away.... Tia Gary

By christmas the 9800XT and nVidia's new cards should be around, and retailers will be trying to sell off for thew holidays all those 9800 pros, so you might be able to get one on the cheap. Otherwise,the 9600 is still a good card. Your not really miving away from nVidia because you are still using their chipset on your motherboard, but I agree that the Radeon is a better option than a GeForce FX (at least this year). Since your motherboard supports Serial ATA, I strongly suggest getting a serial hard drive. Maxtor's seems to be fairly popular. I can't recommend a cd/dvd/r/rw drive or drives because you havent specified what you are lookng for. Your case is an excellent choice.