Cost comparison: iMac Core Duo vs. homemade PC

[Kaido]

I ordered a new iMac the other day for my wife's birthday. I decided to do a cost comparison of PC parts for fun. Obviously it's not a 1:1 comparison, but I tried to come pretty close. Here's what I found, based on Newegg prices:

• $50 - Case with power supply (vs. iMac case & power supply)
  $100 - Motherboard (vs. iMac motherboard)
  $300 - Athlon X2 dual-core @ 2ghz (vs. Intel Core Duo @ 2ghz)
  $100 - 250gb hard drive (vs. 250gb hard drive)
  $50 - DVD burner (vs. 8x slimline DL DVD burner)
  $50 - Bluetooth & 802.11g (vs. internal Bluetooth & 802.11g)
  $150 - 256mb ATi x1600 video card (vs. 256mb ATi x1600 video card)
  $200 - 2gb ram (vs. 2gb ram)
  $20 - keyboard/mouse (vs. Apple keyboard & Mighty Mouse)
  $440 - 20" widescreen Dell LCD monitor (vs. Built-in 20" widescreen LCD)
  $150 - Windows XP Pro (vs. OS X 10.4.4)
  $65 - Logitech Quickcam 5000 (vs. built-in iSight)
  $30 - Remote control (vs. Apple's IR remote)
  $20 - 2-piece speakers (vs. built in 12-watt speakers)
  $100 - Nero 7 (vs. iLife 2006)

PC Total: $1825
Comparable iMac: $2074

So, for about $200 extra bucks, you can get all that stuff shrunk into just the monitor. Not bad! After my research into switching, I've discovered that the main thing you'll miss in a PC is gaming. Apple has a growing number of games, but until I can play Half-Life on a Mac, I'm keeping at least one PC around Anyway, just thought I'd share my findings. Also, there are some great Mac-like utilities for PC that I've documented in this thread at NotebookForums.com. Feel free to discuss this comparison!

 

[MrHayt]

I have a PoweBook Laptop and a self build PC desktop. Lemme tell you, the laptop is much less of a pain in the ass interms of upkeep.
Ive had the laptop for about three years, never had to reformat as ive never noticed a slowdoen in proformance. The PC, however, i usually reformat once a year.

Of course, my PC just wastes any mac in exsistance interms of proformance, so for now, im gonna stick to a mac laptop(good for school because it has a lack of games) and a PC desktop because I like to fiddle with it and its faster and has games.

I hope one day more games are released for mac, i like the unix based system and the sexy interface...and the lack of crashing

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

$414 Sceptre X20G-Naga III (newegg.com)
$297 Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (zipzoomfly.com)
$147 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 (newegg.com)
$144 Windows XP Professional x64 (newegg.com)
$126 Radeon X1600 PRO 256MB (monarchcomputer.com)
$102 Antec NeoHE 550W (ewiz.com)
$89 Maxtor 250GB SATA (ascendtech.com)
$83 Epox EP-9NPAJ (newegg.com)
$40 NEC ND-3550A (newegg.com)
$29 LCT ATX case w/front USB & audio ports (supergooddeal.com)
$29 Logitech 961402-0403 QuickCam Chat (newegg.com)
$21 802.11g PCI (newegg.com)
$18 bluetooth USB (supergooddeal.com)
$12 keyboard & optical mouse (supergooddeal.com)
$9 stereo speakers (supergooddeal.com)
$1,117

Not sure about Nero or a remote.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: hurtstotalktoyou
$414 Sceptre X20G-Naga III (newegg.com)
$297 Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (zipzoomfly.com)
$147 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 (newegg.com)
$144 Windows XP Professional x64 (newegg.com)
$126 Radeon X1600 PRO 256MB (monarchcomputer.com)
$102 Antec NeoHE 550W (ewiz.com)
$89 Maxtor 250GB SATA (ascendtech.com)
$83 Epox EP-9NPAJ (newegg.com)
$40 NEC ND-3550A (newegg.com)
$29 LCT ATX case w/front USB & audio ports (supergooddeal.com)
$29 Logitech 961402-0403 QuickCam Chat (newegg.com)
$21 802.11g PCI (newegg.com)
$18 bluetooth USB (supergooddeal.com)
$12 keyboard & optical mouse (supergooddeal.com)
$9 stereo speakers (supergooddeal.com)
$1,117

Not sure about Nero or a remote.

Nice! Yeah, I was just trying to compare it feature-to-feature. My one gripe about most macs is their lack of internal upgradability as far as hardware goes. Unless you get a G4 tower or a Power Mac G5, you're out of luck. Even with a G5, you have limited hard drive and optical drive upgrade paths.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: MrHayt
I have a PoweBook Laptop and a self build PC desktop. Lemme tell you, the laptop is much less of a pain in the ass interms of upkeep.
Ive had the laptop for about three years, never had to reformat as ive never noticed a slowdoen in proformance. The PC, however, i usually reformat once a year.

Of course, my PC just wastes any mac in exsistance interms of proformance, so for now, im gonna stick to a mac laptop(good for school because it has a lack of games) and a PC desktop because I like to fiddle with it and its faster and has games.

I hope one day more games are released for mac, i like the unix based system and the sexy interface...and the lack of crashing

Yeah, my a64 3200+ with 2gb ram toasts everything I've used to date, PC or Mac. I think that PCs will always be faster than Macs unless Apple opens up their software for general use, which will probably never happen (but hey, they did release it for Intel chips, so who knows?). The lack of crashing and need to reformat the system are nice features in OS X. Unix with a nice interface is partly what drew me to the Apple platform. IMO, PCs and Macs are about the same now, OS and hardware-wise. PCs just require more maintenance as a tradeoff; you get better performance with more software and hardware support for a lower price as a result. I don't think that I will ever completely switch because of that.

 

[MrHayt]

You can already install OSX86 on a PC, look on thepiratebay.org or mininova.org

 

[dexvx]

Originally posted by: hurtstotalktoyou
$414 Sceptre X20G-Naga III (newegg.com)
$297 Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (zipzoomfly.com)
$147 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 (newegg.com)
$144 Windows XP Professional x64 (newegg.com)
$126 Radeon X1600 PRO 256MB (monarchcomputer.com)
$102 Antec NeoHE 550W (ewiz.com)
$89 Maxtor 250GB SATA (ascendtech.com)
$83 Epox EP-9NPAJ (newegg.com)
$40 NEC ND-3550A (newegg.com)
$29 LCT ATX case w/front USB & audio ports (supergooddeal.com)
$29 Logitech 961402-0403 QuickCam Chat (newegg.com)
$21 802.11g PCI (newegg.com)
$18 bluetooth USB (supergooddeal.com)
$12 keyboard & optical mouse (supergooddeal.com)
$9 stereo speakers (supergooddeal.com)
$1,117

Not sure about Nero or a remote.

I'm not sure where you get $1117 out of it. It's $1560.

 

[w00t]

Windows XP Pro/Home < Apple OS X tiger

that you can never compare.

 

[shoRunner]

Originally posted by: dexvx

Originally posted by: hurtstotalktoyou
$414 Sceptre X20G-Naga III (newegg.com)
$297 Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (zipzoomfly.com)
$147 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 (newegg.com)
$144 Windows XP Professional x64 (newegg.com)
$126 Radeon X1600 PRO 256MB (monarchcomputer.com)
$102 Antec NeoHE 550W (ewiz.com)
$89 Maxtor 250GB SATA (ascendtech.com)
$83 Epox EP-9NPAJ (newegg.com)
$40 NEC ND-3550A (newegg.com)
$29 LCT ATX case w/front USB & audio ports (supergooddeal.com)
$29 Logitech 961402-0403 QuickCam Chat (newegg.com)
$21 802.11g PCI (newegg.com)
$18 bluetooth USB (supergooddeal.com)
$12 keyboard & optical mouse (supergooddeal.com)
$9 stereo speakers (supergooddeal.com)
$1,117

Not sure about Nero or a remote.

I'm not sure where you get $1117 out of it. It's $1560.

addition ftw

 

[Mik3y]

Originally posted by: Kaido
I ordered a new iMac the other day for my wife's birthday. I decided to do a cost comparison of PC parts for fun. Obviously it's not a 1:1 comparison, but I tried to come pretty close. Here's what I found, based on Newegg prices:

• $50 - Case with power supply (vs. iMac case & power supply)
  $100 - Motherboard (vs. iMac motherboard)
  $300 - Athlon X2 dual-core @ 2ghz (vs. Intel Core Duo @ 2ghz)
  $100 - 250gb hard drive (vs. 250gb hard drive)
  $50 - DVD burner (vs. 8x slimline DL DVD burner)
  $50 - Bluetooth & 802.11g (vs. internal Bluetooth & 802.11g)
  $150 - 256mb ATi x1600 video card (vs. 256mb ATi x1600 video card)
  $200 - 2gb ram (vs. 2gb ram)
  $20 - keyboard/mouse (vs. Apple keyboard & Mighty Mouse)
  $440 - 20" widescreen Dell LCD monitor (vs. Built-in 20" widescreen LCD)
  $150 - Windows XP Pro (vs. OS X 10.4.4)
  $65 - Logitech Quickcam 5000 (vs. built-in iSight)
  $30 - Remote control (vs. Apple's IR remote)
  $20 - 2-piece speakers (vs. built in 12-watt speakers)
  $100 - Nero 7 (vs. iLife 2006)

PC Total: $1825
Comparable iMac: $2074

So, for about $200 extra bucks, you can get all that stuff shrunk into just the monitor. Not bad! After my research into switching, I've discovered that the main thing you'll miss in a PC is gaming. Apple has a growing number of games, but until I can play Half-Life on a Mac, I'm keeping at least one PC around Anyway, just thought I'd share my findings. Also, there are some great Mac-like utilities for PC that I've documented in this thread at NotebookForums.com. Feel free to discuss this comparison!

you forgot to add the price of the OS and other applications that make the mac a mac. the typical mac is no more expensive then a comparative pc if you include the software. apple includes software when selling the comp. pc's generally only include a limited OS.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Mik3y

Originally posted by: Kaido
I ordered a new iMac the other day for my wife's birthday. I decided to do a cost comparison of PC parts for fun. Obviously it's not a 1:1 comparison, but I tried to come pretty close. Here's what I found, based on Newegg prices:

• $50 - Case with power supply (vs. iMac case & power supply)
  $100 - Motherboard (vs. iMac motherboard)
  $300 - Athlon X2 dual-core @ 2ghz (vs. Intel Core Duo @ 2ghz)
  $100 - 250gb hard drive (vs. 250gb hard drive)
  $50 - DVD burner (vs. 8x slimline DL DVD burner)
  $50 - Bluetooth & 802.11g (vs. internal Bluetooth & 802.11g)
  $150 - 256mb ATi x1600 video card (vs. 256mb ATi x1600 video card)
  $200 - 2gb ram (vs. 2gb ram)
  $20 - keyboard/mouse (vs. Apple keyboard & Mighty Mouse)
  $440 - 20" widescreen Dell LCD monitor (vs. Built-in 20" widescreen LCD)
  $150 - Windows XP Pro (vs. OS X 10.4.4)
  $65 - Logitech Quickcam 5000 (vs. built-in iSight)
  $30 - Remote control (vs. Apple's IR remote)
  $20 - 2-piece speakers (vs. built in 12-watt speakers)
  $100 - Nero 7 (vs. iLife 2006)

PC Total: $1825
Comparable iMac: $2074

So, for about $200 extra bucks, you can get all that stuff shrunk into just the monitor. Not bad! After my research into switching, I've discovered that the main thing you'll miss in a PC is gaming. Apple has a growing number of games, but until I can play Half-Life on a Mac, I'm keeping at least one PC around Anyway, just thought I'd share my findings. Also, there are some great Mac-like utilities for PC that I've documented in this thread at NotebookForums.com. Feel free to discuss this comparison!

you forgot to add the price of the OS and other applications that make the mac a mac. the typical mac is no more expensive then a comparative pc if you include the software. apple includes software when selling the comp. pc's generally only include a limited OS.

I included Windows XP and Nero to compare to OS X and iLife 2006, both of which are included with new Macs. Granted, OS X comes with tons of wonderful additions, but for the sake of a simple comparison, I excluded them. Things like Spotlight can be replaced with Google Desktop Search and Slickrun on PC, Expose with Top Desk, the Dock with ObjectDock, etc.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: MrHayt
You can already install OSX86 on a PC, look on thepiratebay.org or mininova.org

Yeah, unfortunately there isn't a lot of hardware support for things like wireless cards. Plus, no matter how fast your PC is, it still runs pretty slow. Check out PearPC too if you're interested in OS X on a PC.

 

[w00t]

the thing is when you buy a mac you dont do it because of the hardware it's for there software.

 

[Mik3y]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Mik3y

Originally posted by: Kaido
I ordered a new iMac the other day for my wife's birthday. I decided to do a cost comparison of PC parts for fun. Obviously it's not a 1:1 comparison, but I tried to come pretty close. Here's what I found, based on Newegg prices:

• $50 - Case with power supply (vs. iMac case & power supply)
  $100 - Motherboard (vs. iMac motherboard)
  $300 - Athlon X2 dual-core @ 2ghz (vs. Intel Core Duo @ 2ghz)
  $100 - 250gb hard drive (vs. 250gb hard drive)
  $50 - DVD burner (vs. 8x slimline DL DVD burner)
  $50 - Bluetooth & 802.11g (vs. internal Bluetooth & 802.11g)
  $150 - 256mb ATi x1600 video card (vs. 256mb ATi x1600 video card)
  $200 - 2gb ram (vs. 2gb ram)
  $20 - keyboard/mouse (vs. Apple keyboard & Mighty Mouse)
  $440 - 20" widescreen Dell LCD monitor (vs. Built-in 20" widescreen LCD)
  $150 - Windows XP Pro (vs. OS X 10.4.4)
  $65 - Logitech Quickcam 5000 (vs. built-in iSight)
  $30 - Remote control (vs. Apple's IR remote)
  $20 - 2-piece speakers (vs. built in 12-watt speakers)
  $100 - Nero 7 (vs. iLife 2006)

PC Total: $1825
Comparable iMac: $2074

So, for about $200 extra bucks, you can get all that stuff shrunk into just the monitor. Not bad! After my research into switching, I've discovered that the main thing you'll miss in a PC is gaming. Apple has a growing number of games, but until I can play Half-Life on a Mac, I'm keeping at least one PC around Anyway, just thought I'd share my findings. Also, there are some great Mac-like utilities for PC that I've documented in this thread at NotebookForums.com. Feel free to discuss this comparison!

you forgot to add the price of the OS and other applications that make the mac a mac. the typical mac is no more expensive then a comparative pc if you include the software. apple includes software when selling the comp. pc's generally only include a limited OS.

I included Windows XP and Nero to compare to OS X and iLife 2006, both of which are included with new Macs. Granted, OS X comes with tons of wonderful additions, but for the sake of a simple comparison, I excluded them. Things like Spotlight can be replaced with Google Desktop Search and Slickrun on PC, Expose with Top Desk, the Dock with ObjectDock, etc.

that's another very good point. you can get pretty much any type of application or program open-source for windows. personally, my argument on the whole mac vs pc war isnt about price, but it's about versatility. the pc is obviously more versatile, but the mac can do anything a PC can aside from over the top gaming, which will change soon because of the transition to an x86 architecture. this, technically, should allow game makers to any game a hybrid for osx and windows since the program is the same. i believe they only need to change the execution and the way the OS reads the software.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: w00t
the thing is when you buy a mac you dont do it because of the hardware it's for there software.

I dunno, probably half the reason I bought it is for the hardware, both because of the specs and the looks. It looks great and it's fast by today's standards, plus the OS is great. Main reason though? My wife uses Movie Maker on XP and either the audio stinks or the video stinks (that weird audio bug), plus it crashes waaaaaay too much. I showed her iLife at the local Apple Store on an iMac and were ended up being there for half an hour lol.

 

[XBoxLPU]

"Mac-like utilities for PC" is far from the real thing. OS X is an OS, not a piece of software...

OSX86 for the PC is sluggish and buggy with limited hardware support.

I love my PowerMac G5 for everything and just use my PC for gaming

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: Mik3y
that's another very good point. you can get pretty much any type of application or program open-source for windows. personally, my argument on the whole mac vs pc war isnt about price, but it's about versatility. the pc is obviously more versatile, but the mac can do anything a PC can aside from over the top gaming, which will change soon because of the transition to an x86 architecture. this, technically, should allow game makers to any game a hybrid for osx and windows since the program is the same. i believe they only need to change the execution and the way the OS reads the software.

I agree, versatility, as well as price. $299 for a complete Dell; $1200 for a complete iMac. You do the math Anyway, as far as versatility goes, that's part of the reason I'm switching over to Mac. Sometimes I think there's TOO much for Windows; there are only a few applications that I really use on a regular basis. Might as well get a nice, stable Mac with a pretty GUI and focus on using those apps without all the other distractions.

As far as programming goes, I don't think it's *quite* that simple. I've never done any programming for Apple equipment, but I have for Windows and Linux systems. There's quite a change going from system to system; just because Apple is now Intel-based doesn't mean it will make it easier -- programmers still have to make it work in OS X. However, I'll keep my hopes up for Half-Life 3 on Mac

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: XBoxLPU
"Mac-like utilities for PC" is far from the real thing. OS X is an OS, not a piece of software...

OSX86 for the PC is sluggish and buggy with limited hardware support.

I love my PowerMac G5 for everything and just use my PC for gaming

Yup, definately. I agree. For one, OS X doesn't choke when you put in an optical disc

 

[Trader05]

Also when you compare $299 Dells, you are dealing with the lowest end crap ex. Celeron 256mb 30gb. I just built a pc to get into the game again and it only cost me $1180 with 17" LCD and everything shipped....im more than happy with it. Now with Apple using Intel chips, its like compairing windows to linux...same bs

 

[Bluestealth]

There are PC solutions for this such slim/flexATX, mini-ITX that are just as small and far more upgradeable. Just think you can upgrade and take your screen with you! I know for sure that HP offers these mini-PCs because I have seen them. In the PC world the all-in-ones didn't work out and they were phased out. Just because MAC users like them doesn't mean that PC users are looking for the same thing. I think there are still some PC companies that will build you a computer built into a monitor, just have to find them. Why are we comparing a laptop processor to an Athalon X2. I think that the above setup kicks the ass of the core duo except maybe for bussiness apps(what the core duo was designed for).

I would not say that my X86 is buggy, I just have to pay attention to hardware incompatibilitys and driver incompatibilitys and I can steer clear of most crashes. Most of the time the reason for an X86's crash is due to a piece of bad software. I can keep windows up for months at a time, often I have to restart because a MICROSOFT patch, not a hardware issue. If MAC was deployed on as many systems and so varied of hardware you would see similair failures. Apple has 100% control over what hardware goes into their machines, and can actually test every hardware combination that it might run into(or lack of them).

Lack of hardware support? X86? really?

 

[dexvx]

Originally posted by: Bluestealth
Why are we comparing a laptop processor to an Athalon X2. I think that the above setup kicks the ass of the core duo except maybe for bussiness apps(what the core duo was designed for).

Because the Yonah and X2 are about the same clock for clock for most applications, including business and games.

 

[Mik3y]

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Mik3y
that's another very good point. you can get pretty much any type of application or program open-source for windows. personally, my argument on the whole mac vs pc war isnt about price, but it's about versatility. the pc is obviously more versatile, but the mac can do anything a PC can aside from over the top gaming, which will change soon because of the transition to an x86 architecture. this, technically, should allow game makers to any game a hybrid for osx and windows since the program is the same. i believe they only need to change the execution and the way the OS reads the software.

As far as programming goes, I don't think it's *quite* that simple. I've never done any programming for Apple equipment, but I have for Windows and Linux systems. There's quite a change going from system to system; just because Apple is now Intel-based doesn't mean it will make it easier -- programmers still have to make it work in OS X. However, I'll keep my hopes up for Half-Life 3 on Mac

Since Apple is transitioning to x86, it will be able to read the same coding and such any PC could right now. The new apple computers will be able to support vista too, which allows it to support any pc software. The fact that it can support vista means that it will read the same code, but becasue OS X is not vista, it will need to be executed differently. I read an article linked from Anandtech sometime not too long ago, and they spoke out about how it wouldnt be difficult at all to make software, such as games, all hybrids to support the different formats from different operating systems, as long as the cpu is based on the same architecture i believe. I talked to my uncle about it too, who's a computer engineer, and he says taht it would be a quite simple transition, that is if apple allows all of this. with steve jobs, i'm not too sure, but i believe that apple is perfectly capable of htis.

 

[w00t]

Originally posted by: Mik3y

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Mik3y
that's another very good point. you can get pretty much any type of application or program open-source for windows. personally, my argument on the whole mac vs pc war isnt about price, but it's about versatility. the pc is obviously more versatile, but the mac can do anything a PC can aside from over the top gaming, which will change soon because of the transition to an x86 architecture. this, technically, should allow game makers to any game a hybrid for osx and windows since the program is the same. i believe they only need to change the execution and the way the OS reads the software.

As far as programming goes, I don't think it's *quite* that simple. I've never done any programming for Apple equipment, but I have for Windows and Linux systems. There's quite a change going from system to system; just because Apple is now Intel-based doesn't mean it will make it easier -- programmers still have to make it work in OS X. However, I'll keep my hopes up for Half-Life 3 on Mac

Since Apple is transitioning to x86, it will be able to read the same coding and such any PC could right now. The new apple computers will be able to support vista too, which allows it to support any pc software. The fact that it can support vista means that it will read the same code, but becasue OS X is not vista, it will need to be executed differently. I read an article linked from Anandtech sometime not too long ago, and they spoke out about how it wouldnt be difficult at all to make software, such as games, all hybrids to support the different formats from different operating systems, as long as the cpu is based on the same architecture i believe. I talked to my uncle about it too, who's a computer engineer, and he says taht it would be a quite simple transition, that is if apple allows all of this. with steve jobs, i'm not too sure, but i believe that apple is perfectly capable of htis.

steve jobs isnt going to let it pass... I can just see it now he could of made mac os x work on a pc but nope. why is he going to let his macs run vista?

 

[Mik3y]

Originally posted by: w00t

Originally posted by: Mik3y

Originally posted by: Kaido

Originally posted by: Mik3y
that's another very good point. you can get pretty much any type of application or program open-source for windows. personally, my argument on the whole mac vs pc war isnt about price, but it's about versatility. the pc is obviously more versatile, but the mac can do anything a PC can aside from over the top gaming, which will change soon because of the transition to an x86 architecture. this, technically, should allow game makers to any game a hybrid for osx and windows since the program is the same. i believe they only need to change the execution and the way the OS reads the software.

As far as programming goes, I don't think it's *quite* that simple. I've never done any programming for Apple equipment, but I have for Windows and Linux systems. There's quite a change going from system to system; just because Apple is now Intel-based doesn't mean it will make it easier -- programmers still have to make it work in OS X. However, I'll keep my hopes up for Half-Life 3 on Mac

Since Apple is transitioning to x86, it will be able to read the same coding and such any PC could right now. The new apple computers will be able to support vista too, which allows it to support any pc software. The fact that it can support vista means that it will read the same code, but becasue OS X is not vista, it will need to be executed differently. I read an article linked from Anandtech sometime not too long ago, and they spoke out about how it wouldnt be difficult at all to make software, such as games, all hybrids to support the different formats from different operating systems, as long as the cpu is based on the same architecture i believe. I talked to my uncle about it too, who's a computer engineer, and he says taht it would be a quite simple transition, that is if apple allows all of this. with steve jobs, i'm not too sure, but i believe that apple is perfectly capable of htis.

steve jobs isnt going to let it pass... I can just see it now he could of made mac os x work on a pc but nope. why is he going to let his macs run vista?

because he said he would allow it. he wants apple to be more versatile in terms of software, but also by keeping os x from hitting the pc, it would also provide os x with more security. some people would like things limited to themselves only. surely, apple isnt all about just money, because they could be seriously making a lot with os x on pc. also, the thing about os x is that you wouldnt ever need to purchase a newer version. apple allows mac users to download an entirely new version of their os for free, such as os 9 to os x.

 

[BDawg]

Originally posted by: hurtstotalktoyou
$414 Sceptre X20G-Naga III (newegg.com)
$297 Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (zipzoomfly.com)
$147 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 (newegg.com)
$144 Windows XP Professional x64 (newegg.com)
$126 Radeon X1600 PRO 256MB (monarchcomputer.com)
$102 Antec NeoHE 550W (ewiz.com)
$89 Maxtor 250GB SATA (ascendtech.com)
$83 Epox EP-9NPAJ (newegg.com)
$40 NEC ND-3550A (newegg.com)
$29 LCT ATX case w/front USB & audio ports (supergooddeal.com)
$29 Logitech 961402-0403 QuickCam Chat (newegg.com)
$21 802.11g PCI (newegg.com)
$18 bluetooth USB (supergooddeal.com)
$12 keyboard & optical mouse (supergooddeal.com)
$9 stereo speakers (supergooddeal.com)
$1,117

Not sure about Nero or a remote.

Don't forget to include shipping from all the different locations.