Thanks again to one and all for the great advice!  Tweaking and reconciling here and there, I've moved to the following new setup plan, which comes to about $1850.  Would have loved to boost to 4gb RAM but will plan to do that later (after the sticker shock wears off for my wife).  Same with a DirectX 10 compatible video card, if my son ever gets desperate for a DirectX 10 game (and only after the prices on those vid cards come down).

Any and all comments and suggestions on this alternative rig would also be greatly appreciated!  cheers... Tguyus

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail

ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink - Retail

Intel BOXD975XBX2KR "Bad Axe" LGA 775 Intel 975X ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 675 (PC2 5400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail

EVGA 512-P2-N635-AR Geforce 7950GT KO 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

[TWO:] Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Onboard sound

SONY Black 2M Cache E-IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner - OEM

SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive Model MPF920 Black - OEM

COOLER MASTER Mystique RC-632-KKN1-GP Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Thermaltake Purepower W0129RU ATX12V 600 W Power Supply 115/230 V CE, FCC, UL, CUL, TUV certification - Retail

 NEC Display Solutions 90GX2-BK Black 19" 4ms DVI LCD Monitor 400 cd/m2 700:1 - Retail
 
OPTI-UPS SS1200BLK 6 Outlets Voltage Stabilizer

Microsoft Windows XP Professional X64