Just glancing by, I'm guessing that your prices are for OEM chips and are (maybe) from crap companies if you can get them for that cheap...either that or they aren't winchestor core chips. DVD burner, NEC 3000 series, best around for around $70. For the Seagate harddrives, consider the Seagate Barracudas, otherwise get the Maxtor SATAII 16MB buffer for a hundred more ish. They rocks! Might also wanna take a look at Jpeyton's guide, its quite useful if you've been gone for a while and just got back into the game...its no longer stickied, but its always on the first or 2nd page. Hope that helps.