but he just wants to game

No... wants to build a gaming computer. :)

Besides... consoles are due for graphics overhaul.

go to bing[dot]com and search for Tiger Direct Cashback - use that site and you will get a 13% cashback on all the crap you are buying... and FWIW - get a Dell SW24'' instead its 1/2 the cost and same quality

That cashback works on many websites and the percent back changes almost daily so you have to be watchful. Newegg has gone up to 15% at one point, Amazon has done 10% (most I have seen).

Top websites to order from:
~Newegg
~Directron
~Tiger-direct
~Amazon

Local:
~Fry's electronics
~Micro-center (Only if they are having a sale)

I personally like zipzoomfly.com (used to be google gear many years ago)

they have a lot of free shipping items.

unfortunately in the past few years their selection has gone downhill along with pictures. newegg is still the best for shopping.

I always keep zipzoomfly in my list to look at, but never end up ordering from them.

yeah they've really slacked of as of late

[OT]
NewEgg has been price gouging. I RMA'd some G.SKILL memory. After over a week of not hearing anything I called and was told they refunded the money because it was out of stock. I told them I was supposed to be given the option to wait for it to be in stock again. That same day I called the memory was in stock, but it was selling for $95 instead of $75 for 4GB. To resolve the issue, I recently reordered the memory and was given $20 refund from the order. The memory backed town to $90 when I bought it.

ZZF has a nice offer that will lower prices of components by a few bucks, plus they had rebates on three items of interest (Intel SSD, CPU, and Corsair PSU). I'm still waiting for my rebate cards at the moment... gas money!
[/OT]

EQUINOX... post your specs and pictures of your build!

ZZF does a similar thing, when items go out of stock on their website they will lower them a bit below competitors price and then when they come back in stock shoot above others all of a sudden. I have had many items with alerts from them so I could jump on a price when they came in stock, but when I got the email the price was way above normal.

Memory prices are particularly volatile because they are shipping out of Asia, and the fluctuating weak US dollar has been all over the place. Because places like Newegg by stuff by the container load their price is dictated by what they paid for the particular container at the time it shipped, so when they get new stock the price can change. But given that you had an outstanding order they should have made good on that order anyway. Glad to see you got it sorted in the end.

I would have ordered all this stuff on the weekend, now that you lovley people have guided me along to a good choice - however I'm going to be out of town next week on christmas vacation in Texas, my home state, Go Shiner Bock!, and if I order now, all the crap will come in next week while I'm not here. :P

the LED Monitor I'm still flakey on, I know I want an LED monitor, as I love my 55" LED Samsung TV, so I want a monitor to match with millions of contrast ratio. I just through out the Samsung as a quicky choice for now. When I buy the actual monitor, it will end up being something along the lines of LG or Dell I'm predicting. I just want that 1920 x 1200 resolution max though.

What specifically will you be doing with this (monitor question)?
~Gaming
~Movies
~Do you care about response time?
~Do you want accurate color?

Going to through another angle out at you:
TFT Technology Breakdown and Model/Panel Index - [H]ard|Forum
Great thread about current technology on monitors, soon to be out of date almost, but not to much has changed really.

Well I went ahead and bought my computer parts and put majority of it together this weekend. All except my OS hard drive. I visited my family for Christmas, in Texas, and they have a Fry's Electronics nearby. I was able to find all my parts at a price matched level as online stuff, and I only had to pay taxes for the convenience. Here's what I ended up buying.

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

HD: Intel X25-M 80GB SSD (in mail), Velociraptor WD 300GB 10,000RPM

PSU: Corsair TX850W Power Supply

MOBO: Asus Rampage Extreme II Motherboard

CPU: Intel i7 920 Processor

GPU: Diamond Radeon HD 5850 w/ HDMI

Heatsink: Coolermaster V8

Peripheral Cooling: (6) Cooler Master 80mm fans

Case: Lian Li Aluminum Full Tower (Salvaged from 6 year old build, will replace)

Monitor: 24" LG Flatron W2486L LCD/LED Backlit

The monitor I immediately regret as I know I wanted that samsung, but I didn't wait to get it, as I could only find it in Best Buy stores that are nowhere near by, the LG monitor, Fry's had in their store, and the 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio is what was the most important to me, and the LED backlit making it 1" thick. I already found a dead pixel on the bottom left though. :(

I'll take pictures once the Intel SSD comes in, then I can install windows 7 on it.

I like it. I have an Alienware desktop, quad core etc, and I have the raptor setup, very smooth. I didn't go SSD because it was overpriced in the configurator (this is 6 months ago) but I read they are generally fast. Looks like a solid system.

Sucks to hear about the Samsung. I have 3 Samsung monitors (as old as 2, 4 and 6 years) and a Samsung LCD TV (1 mo old) and all are fabulous. I swear by them.