My New Home Built Vista Box?

It is getting close to that time again when I must rebuild my windows computer.  I have built my own every time but one, the first computer I purchased over 10 years ago.  And I have always stayed under $1000.

Currently I am running an Athlon XP 2600 (2.08 GHz) box, with 1 Gig of RAM, a upgraded last year GeForce 6600GT 128 MB graphics card (last of the AGP), 2 Hard drives (150 + 80 GB), etc…. and is getting a bit long in the tooth.  I am noticing 100% CPU usage doing just normal activities.  I have worked hard on tweaking and getting the system as lean as possible to make it tolerable.  And with Vista coming at the end of January, it is a good time to fix the problems.  

Since I have the Beta installed on a test partition of this computer, I ran the Microsoft Vista Upgrade Advisor, I get the following scores:

Capture

For the first time in many years, I am going Intel.  

Some may wonder why I do not just buy a new computer since I have to replace the core parts from a company such as Dell.   Well, my answer is three fold.

#1.  If I was going to buy a computer from a company, it would be Apple so I could run both Vista and OS X as I do on all my other computers.   And if I were buying Apple, I would have to go for the Mac Pro since I have a Macbook, MacMini, and iMac already.  But I do not have the cash for a Mac Pro or the real need for that much power.  Which leads me to #2.  

But first a side note:  Why doesn’t Apple have a box between the MacMini and the MacPro?  The iMac’s are all-in-one’s which I do not need.  I need a BOX.  The MacMini is not big or powerful enough and the Mac Pro is too much.  Should I wait till after MacWorld?  I have heard nothing of a new Mac coming….

#2.  I already have multiple monitors, multiple internal DVD and CD drives, a good sound card, and excellent case & power supply.   I do not need these things, or new software (other than Vista), so why purchase them?

#3.  And last, I love to build my own.  I love getting the parts, assembling and installing.   I love tweaking and tuning it and getting it to come alive.  I just love it.

Currently I am eyeing the following (note, I am NOT a gamer):

Asus P5B Deluxe (retail)
eVGA GeForce 7900GS (retail)
Intel Core2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz (retail)
(2 x 1GB) Corsair XMS2 DDR2 SDRAM DDR 800 PC6400 (retail)
(2) Seagate Barracuda 7200 Perpendicular 250 GB SATA Hard drives (OEM)
*note: Links are for viewing purposes and not necessarily where I would purchase.

This is looking to be close to $1000 which I do not want to exceed if possible (with shipping and minus rebates).  Let me know if you can find a better configuration at the same price or better!