Thanks patonb. I really appreciate it. No, I don't need the hdmi, the optical audio, or the gigabit ethernet. They were cool additions that would be nice but unnecessary. I'm also not looking for a ridiculous amount of hard drive space. 500 gb or a little more would be sufficient for my needs. If you think the money for a larger hard drive could be put towards a better cpu , a better motherboard, or more ram I would be completely fine with that. Thanks again for all of your help!