Wyre

CANADA - I am such a dope... http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/p/2d0RX

GIGABYTE GA-78LMT-S2 G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 4GB (2 x 2GB) Model F3-12800CL9D-4GBRL AMD FX-4130 3.8GHz Socket AM3+ Quad-Core FD4130FRGUBOX That should just fit in the $200 dollar mark.

mATX or full ATX?

so 200 dollars for mobo/mem/cpu ?

If you are asking about which has the best protection... that is a UPS. Beware that some active PFC power supplies do not like square wave outputs. You will need to find a UPS that supplies a sine wave output. Also a UPS is a physical disconnect from outside voltages. A surge suppressor has a small gap that allows dangerous voltage to bleed off into ground. However this is not really good protection from lightening strikes. Always remember to turn in your warranty cards as good manufacturers will support any damaged equipment behind their surge suppressors. APC Performance SurgeArrest is usually who I recommend for a surge suppressor.

Paint it all black...... Seriously need a bit more information. What processor / socket? The overall number of heatpipes are not really valid. The quality of the heatpipes matters far more.

Could you please provide me with your router model?

This is usually caused by an out of balance fan. If you reach in and touch the hub of each fan you should be able to isolate which fan is the culprit. Then it is just a matter of replacing the failed fan.

About 10 years ago I owned a line of 4 computer repair shops. One day a woman walked into one of the sites and asked "Can y'all put a bigger brain in my box?". I was lucky that my business partner (a much more mature individual) was standing there as he smoothly took over the conversation. I very quickly excused myself from the conversation... left the area... and quickly forgot how to breath for about 5 minutes. After the lady left (with a full build sheet in hand) both my business partner and myself damn near died from laughing.

512GB SSD SAMSUNG 840 Pro Series MZ-7PD512BW 2.5" 512GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Limit 3 per customer. $479.99 Your Price: $389.99 With Promo Code EMCYTZT5563

This is mostly for Slick... as he has had this damn theme stuck in my head for a while now.

1 year on an Asrock Z77 mATX motherboard here. Only thing I dont like is the (onboard THX?) sound. It is fairly noisy on the sound floor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northbridge_(computing)

Is there a specific website that you like to use? NCIX / NewEgg / Tiger etc etc etc ?

Yes, Audio Technica ATH-A900X

Very nice rig! Welcome to the site

Commander Keen > DOOM > Wolfenstein 3D

LOL, that is true... but the game search servers were working until last week. Looks like they finally shutdown the back end servers.

After 14 years GameSpy has shut down. RIP: Feb. 21, 2013 GameSpy, as we know it, began in 1999. Today, 14 years later, it has reached the end of the road. We had a good run, and we want to sincerely thank all of you for reading and joining in discussions with us. It's been fantastic. Just to be clear, we're not being shut down because PC gaming isn't a big, important, and growing thing -- because it is. That's not even debatable. It's not even because the GameSpy staff did a bad job of talking about it. Hell, from where I'm sitting we did anawesome job, particularly in covering the technical quality of PC versions of cross-platform games in our Port Authority features, reality-checking the hype of about-to-be-released big games with our Questions & Concerns series, delving into the nuances of MMORPGs, strategy, MOBAs, and simulations in our columns, regularly checking up on free-to-play games in Free Agent, calling out Microsoft's neglect of PC gamers, mocking Ubisoft's claims of a day-and-date PC release of Assassin's Creed 3, breaking the news on SimCity's lack of save/reload, and of course our amazingly bizarre The War Z interview. read more @ gamespy.com For gamers out there that are of more advanced years. GameSpy was the only way that we could connect with friends, search for servers, and catch up on gaming news. For me at least this is a very sad day

torrent the uplay version (you can get an un-cracked uplay version) and just drop it into the correct folder. Start uplay back up and away you go

classic symptoms of a failed northbridge (by the sounds of it anyway).

COX Communications:

Packet and network shaping will always introduce more latency in the network traffic. This is essentially what the 'killer nic' does. And I completely agree with the true PC gamer options being overkill.

http://products.ncix.com/detail/intel-pro-1000-gt-gigabit-ethernet-pci-network-adapter-card-nic-a9-15706.htm Intel Gigabit Pro series card. I am a network admin by trade. We never have issues with these cards. It may be a bit overkill to use an enterprise / professional grade NIC for a gaming rig... But, it is always better to go with overkill.

Any VPN service should work just fine. Used to play quake with friends using Hamachi.