hi all thanks for info, sorry i have been "virtual" shopping all morning,

fixer
    i've already got a 250Gb external at mo' so put 100min in but i found a 320Gb (see below)

Acadia
     thanks for that link will check it out in a minute

Svdl
    i will definetly check out those parts, might need to sit down first when i look up the price for 8Gb ram!! LOL, would you mind checking these specs for me please, as these are the results of my recent "virtual shop" which i can then compare with what you recommend, could you tell me if this lot so far, is good and if it all would work together, and what if anything else i would need please.

my virtual total shopping bill this time is $1,275.37 Usd (but without sound yet)

Case.......Dynex ATX Mid Tower pc case with 500w power supply
Motherboard........Nvidia nforce 680iLT SLI ATX Motherboard
CPU..........Intel Core2 Duo processor E6400
Ram........PNY 2-pack 1Gb Pc2-5300 DDR2 memory (still looking for 4GB bits)
Graphics card.......Geforce 8600GTS OC Graphics card
Hard drive........western digital 320Gb Internal parallel ATA Hard Drive
Dvd+RW........Samsung 18x Internal Double layer DVD+RW / CD-RW

with that setup i'm allowed 4Gb Ram i think, not sure if i'm allowed more or not.

these parts are from the bestbuy.com site.

 

Thanks for any advice again. (off to search for your parts now)