I beseech you to read an old blog entry I wrote about credit cards. If you're paying anything less than the full amount of your credit card bill, you should not be using one.  Credit cards can be great, but they are dangerous in your situation.

I wish you the best of luck, whatever you do. 

Woah! Most of the responses are very extreme recommendations for someone who is new to PCs. I highly recommend buying a pre-built PC if you have never built one before so that:

• You can return it if it doesn't work
• You can get support if something goes wrong 

If you are insistent on building your own PC, PLEASE visit a reputable PC building website first. I would recommend the following reading before deciding if you want to build or buy:

• Extremetech Builder's Guide
  
• Anandtech Buyer's Guide

You can argue that pre-built PCs are laden with "craplets" or "crippleware", little programs that bog down your PC and amount to little more than ads, but it's easier to remove them than to build a PC from scratch with no prior experience, or to accidentally fry your new motherboard because you weren't sure about which connector went where.

If you decide to buy a prebuilt, check out slickdeals.net for some good deals (a referral site). 

Either way, I wish you the best of luck and happy gaming! 

If you're looking for cheap, try freeafterrebate.info . I got a Ultra Wizard mid-size case (free after rebate) and I've been happy with it, great airflow, inexpensive even without the rebaet, looks good, no door on the front (I hate doors!), and front USB and mic outputs.

If you live near a Microcenter, they have a great selection. 

Otherwise, I believe the X-Dreamer II is the most popular PC case right now due to a combination of quality, price, and appearance. Try Newegg.

No Lemmings, no Populous, no Frogger, no Pitfall, no Zork.

Best games ever? 

Based purely on popularity it'd be a toss-up between:

• Starcraft
• WoW

Pac-Man, Tetris, and Solitaire are excluded because they were games before the PC (Pac-Man was a standup arcade first before it came to personal computers). Personally I'd vote for Freespace 2.

Metal Slug is already available as an anthology for the Wii, so you can forget it coming to the VC. However, I have fond memories of Samurai Shodown, despite some seriously balancing issues among the characters. I'm talking to you, Ukyo Tachibana!

If they added in some sort of online support to be able to play against other Wii owners, it'd be nice. It's not like we don't have the technology available to us. 

[QUOTE="Bozanimal"]

You can get FREE HDTV for life with the right equipment. It might sound like a bad infomercial, but I switched from cable/satellite entirely to Over-The-Air digital broadcasting and now I have all the major networks plus a number of great free stations. With HDTV packages over $100 a month in most areas - particularly here in Boston - this saved us a boatload of cash.

If you're interested in getting HDTV over-the air, you'll need an antenna and receiver. Check out:

Find out what stations you'd get

http://www.antennaweb.org/

Info on your area and DIY help

http://www.avsforum.com/

Where to purchase supplies

http://www.solidsignal.com/

http://www.partsexpress.com/

Lobster_Ear

FYI: You don't need an HDTV to enjoy digital signal for free over the air. Check out my Blog on the topic for more info! Best of luck.

I like Ubuntu but it will not run on my hardware at all, though SUSE does the job.K_r_a_u_s_e_r

I think I'm going to try Xubuntu. My computer is old (Athlon Thunderbird 1Ghz), so I'm hoping this will run quickly and efficiently, while providing access to all the major functions I'll need.

I'm crossing my fingers! Thanks for all the help everyone, and let me know if you have any further suggestions for an opensource n00b, or apprehensions regarding Xubuntu!

As much as i love 24, the show sucks this season. I figure, improve it or axe it.bluezy

The show has really redeemed itself over the past two weeks. In fact, 24 is one of only two shows I still watch consistently (Scrubs is the other).