actually, when you look at the whole of ocr, you'd find that most people here don't know enough about the hardware side of computers to select and install the best components for their system. or, they knew at one point and don't know about some of the more modern components and the special stuff you need to worry about.
and yeah, i can probably finagle a decent deal on parts. i have two friends who work both in electronics - one at a custom computer shop (he gets 15% off on parts) and one with the agency that sells the stuff seized through a bunch of bank and police seizures.
@ga jedi knight - look me up when you start having problems. we might be able to save some of the hardware (optical drives, hard drives, etc) for your new machine.