Hi ho...

Okay. The good news is I just purchased my MOBO and it's the Nf7 and on its way from BuyXtremeGear.com. Looking forward to putting that baby in. I found it for $69, including the S/H charges so, thus far, here's my tally on parts, etc...

19" monitor - $140
Raidmax Scorpio 868 mid-tower case (yellow) - $68
Pacific Digital Mach 52X CDRW drive - $16
Abit Nf7 MOBO - $63

So, now, it's time to get that cpu and at a good price. I have found one under $85 bucks and the site looks reputable. Any other places you guys know of where I can get the same cpu? How much extra cooling do I really need on the cpu AND motherboard? My case has the ability to add 7 fans at once so would that suffice? I may add a blowhole fan someday soon too for added cooling. Also, I may have found my graphics card online but I'm worried it won't work well or at all with Maya... the ATI Radeon 9600 XT. It has 128 MB of memory and uses quad rendering engines among other things. I'm really excited about getting it. It's going to be $156 once I get the $$$ for it so we'll see. Has anyone heard of this card? Gotta blast. Thanks guys and if I don't respond again til after the holidays, y'all have a very safe and happy Christmas!

Russell