Wow, I'm still getting more "bang-for-my-buck" without your advice... haha. But thanks! I guess it's where we live & what we want (and time)
This is the point I was trying to make
The above system is ridiculously budget and probably far too crap for most people's purposes, but it'd go together and work. I could just as easily specify a killer system that'd be overkill for anyone's purposes, just as you've specified a mid range one that might be a) too much or b) too little for someone's purposes. There's no "one size fits all" - it really does depend on what you're doing