I got a Cyberpower labeled disc which has the full version of Win 7 on it. At most you'd have to copy down the Serial Key off the side of the machine. At worst, I can sell you my copy of Win 7 so you have your own personal version. I guarantee it'd be cheaper than Microsoft. Plus, we're neighbors, so we could even meet up for the exchange.

EDIT: To clarify, yes it came with Win 7, but should you need a full retail copy I have one I'd be willing to part with for dirt cheap. I didn't forget how last year you hooked me up with turbine points ;)

Lol, well good thing one of us remembered:)

If you decide to go with that 600 dollar build let me know via PM if you want the retail copy of Win 7. Officially it's the upgrade version, but it's the full version. They marked it "Upgrade" as a marketing ploy when it first came out but had to put the full version on the discs for those upgrading from Win xp as xp is not directly compatible with 7.

I have an Asrock P67 Extreme6. I love this motherboard and the ridicilous amount of connections ans features. If you want something that's relatively cost-effective and slightly futureproof, I'd get this or Extreme4, depending on whether you want to use crossfire or not. I don't know about the z68 version, but you'd think quality-wise it isn't any worse.

I'f you're into software compiling and stuff like that, a 2600K wouldn't hurt. It's not that much more expensive when you think about it. The most cost-effective solution for gaming is a 6870 radeon. Get two and you'll have a beast, provided you have the patience to sort out occasional driver problems...

I play almost every game on full settings with my 6870 and 2500K, and have no problems. For memory I'd say get Corsair Vengeance, just make sure they're compatible with an aftermarket cooler (if you're getting one).

My two cents :D

I've bought four CyberPower PCs (well, three PCs and a laptop, if you care to quibble about nuance) - two for me, two for friends or family. No problems from a CyberPower computer in ten years. It's no Falcon Northwest, but you get a good PC without paying for a name.

Oh, but god help you if you have to talk to their customer support.

can i be your friend?

This. I haven't had to work with their customer support because I haven't had any issues yet, and for 600 bucks I got a pretty badass computer that handles everything I throw at it.

I got my computer back in 2003 from CyberPower I only had 3 issues so far, a bad power supply, my CD drive broke and I had to replace the hard drive. Not to bad for an 8 year old computer and I think most of my troubles come from moving it around all the time. It has been in 5 different states and about 10 different apartments.

Those are pretty bad ass. Who makes the better ones? Sapphire?

Any cheaper recommendations that are workhorses? I'd rather not go more expensive.

I decided to pull the trigger on a 2600K and the ASRock Extreme 7, which is ridiculously overpowered I know. I'm actually thinking about one of the 600 USD comps prebuilt for my daughter since I can fix/mod it as I need. Looking at it I kept thinking "man if you're putting a SSD in there anyway you're at 700 USD or so already, just get what you want". Probably not my most economical or researched purchase, but I've been hemming and hawing over building this damned thing for 8 months or so now.

Memory heat spreaders are probably only worth the money if you're going to overclock your RAM. Since RAM is solid state you don't have to worry about heat damage nearly as much, so most RAM can quite happily cook along at 70-80C without any long term damage as long as there's basic airflow. (As an aside, my professors at college ran a high temperature lab to test the long term function of routers, switches, and servers at temperatures well above what's recommended by the vendors. I wouldn't throw a space heater by your PC just for grins, but they found that at 160 F there were no performance hits or heat damage to servers, and the routers and switches were good to 180 F with a consistent 500 CFM airflow)

And if you're considering a SSD, also consider a SSD hybrid. I was skeptical of them for the first year or so, but Seagate has done a tremendous job with their Momentus model. An 8 gig cache loads up your O/S and your commonly used programs at solid state speeds, and you still get the high read-write cycles of magnetics for storage, which is plenty fast enough for loading up video game data, movies and video clips, music, and the like. Plus SSD hybrids fail over to passthrough, which means that four years down the line when you're upgrading your storage and you relegate your old drive to secondary status, you've got the years of use on the magnetics even if the SSD cache fails. No such luck on a pure SSD, which fails over to "screw you, buddy."

Sixteen gigs of RAM is cheap. That's the best upgrade for any new desktop that you can make, honestly.

I tried getting the hang of computer hardware during the summer, but after a ridiculously long time of reading I was just more confused that I was in the beginning. I then asked the AfterDawn people what they would buy from a certain store if they were on a similar budget as I was. Within a few hours there were some questions about what I wanted, so I answered them and logged out. Two days later I checked how the thread was going along. There were a few rig suggestions, some messages about what worked and didn't work about them, and finally a hive collective-approved set with a few alternative bits and pieces (namely, the case). Works like a charm.

Sapphire makes great cards, as does EVGA. Mine is XFX, which isn't bad also, but make sure you get one that works! :D a 6870 is the best bang for your buck in terms of performance per dollar, you just can't get better than that (except maybe 6850, but it's a bit underpowered)

If you need a cheap, relatively powerful processor, you might want to look at the Phenom X6, they usually have good application performance. I myself was trying to make a build for 600euros but it involves so much compromising that I dished out 200 more and got a machine that is at least 40% better in terms of performance.

I just wanted to post a special thanks to cjgreen (for answering an insane number of PMs very patiently), CymTyr (for his recommendations and hooking me up with a copy of Win 7), and everyone else who contributed. I finally yoinked my 4 year old components and replaced the lot of them.

For the curious, I went with:
Intel Quad Core 2600K Sandy Bridge
ASRock Z68 Extreme7 Gen3 mobo
80 GB Intel SSD (320 series)
OCZ 750 Watt PSU
Coolermaster 212 Plus CPU cooler (which is an amazing steal at 24 USD)
16GB (4x4GB) Corsair RAM (one of the low profile sets of sticks)
2x XFX 6870 video cards (Crossfired, this was probably a waste)
ASUS DVD Burner since it appears I only have working IDE cable burners and new, high end mobos don't have legacy IDE slots anymore:)

I put this all in my trusty Lian Li case (LIAN LI PC-V1000APlus II Silver Aluminum ATX Mid Tower, this is a discontinued case, they have newer models now, it's still a very slick case, though).

In the process I gutted my old components out into my daughter's machine and she now has a much updated rig until I can afford to buy her an iBuyPower or something (even at 4 years old its pretty good for what she wants to do with it).

So thanks again! I took so long to post since I was still tweaking shit and the case wasn't closed (half of it still isn't I have to figure out a way to get my 3 pin case fans attached to the PSU, I need to get some cheap adapters).

That's a pretty monstrous machine there- congrats on getting it all put together. I actually just finished putting together a new machine for myself as well, also to replace my current 4 year old computer (and had used this thread for collecting background info as I put together a collection of parts). Got it put together in the days leading up to Christmas while visiting family (and jolted some family members out of their mid-day naps with my ritual cry of "IT'S ALIIIIVE!!!"), and now that I'm back at my own home I'm right in the middle of the process of getting all my files backed up to an external drive before I plug in the new machine and start getting it all configured. 'Tis the season for new gaming rigs, I suppose.

Thanks! It feels beefy:)

I think my lowest Win 7 "score" is 7.2 for the hard drives (I plugged in my legacy ones as well), the rest are 7.6 and above.