Not sure by what you mean is a new DS model, but is not the DS2.

From my understanding, this will be a new hand-held system that succeeds the DS. It will incorporate the graphics chip capable of producing graphics similar to the GameCube is what I heard. It is backward compatible and also has DS in its name, would you not call that the DS2?

3DS = DS2 in my opinion (as much the XBox360 = XBox 2)

Just a heads-up, but you may want to reconsider the case.

I have considered the Antec Sonata III before when I built my PC almost 2 years ago. I have read a lot, and my impression from reading others' reviews is that the case is relatively small (compared to other mid-tower chassis). This poses two problems: 1) heat may be an issue and 2) your video card may not fit inside the case.

The video card you chose is pretty big, so I am not sure if it will fit inside that case. Anyhow, this is just a warning. I do not own the Antec Sonata III, so I do not know what kind of issue it may have.

Yes, I have had this happen before. In my case, the motherboard had short-circuited and the CPU was dead. However, I got both replaced for free because it was a Dell under warranty.

As for your friend's case, make sure the motherboard was installed with stand-offs. Otherwise, it may have already short-circuited.

From the symptoms you have described, it may be one or both of these two:

1) The motherboard had short-circuited (if motherboard screwed in too tight or not installed with stand-offs perhaps?)

2) The CPU is dead (if thermal paste and/or cooling device was installed inproperly perhaps?)

Hope that helps.

Yes, it's compatible.

Graphics card compatibility-

Motherboard: Must have a PCI Express x16 expansion slot (however, I believe all current motherboards within the last few years come with at least one of this slot)

Power Supply: Must have enough watts and total amps on the 12v line(s). In your case, 400 watts is necessary (no idea how many amps though).

The PC you and your friend is trying to build is rather expensive.

Motherboard: Great, but unnecessary if its expensive upper-end features aren't going to be used.

Graphics Card: Expensive. Minimal performance boost over the 8800GT, but costs way more.

Enermax: That's one expensive and powerful power supply, but you would be fine with something like the Cooler Master Real Power Pro 750w (if you don't mind that it's not modular, so lots of cluttering sleeved wires). CM RPP 750w isn't compatible with MSI motherboards though, but you should be fine with your listed motherboard.

CPU: No comment

Hard Drive (Raptor): Overrated, it helps with loading any software including the OS. If that justifies the price for you, then go for it. (Don't worry that it's only SATA I because hard drives overall don't read or write very fast at all even when spinning at 10,000RPM. The SATA I interface transfers at a max rate of 1.50 Gb/s, which is about 187.5 MB/s. That's a lot. When I try to read or write on my 7200RPM 320 GB seagate barracuda hard drive, it reads and writes at 60-70 MB/s max at the same time.You can try copying and pasting a large program file on your hard drive to see for yourself.)

Hard Drive (Caviar): No comment.

Monitor: No comment.

OS: No comment.

There are no difference in performance between 2x2GB rams and 4x1GB rams, so long that they are inserted in pairs for dual channel. DDR3 rams are overpriced and will yield no more than a 1% increase in overall system performance over the slowest DDR2 rams. Rams are so fast that it is even trivial to upgrade from DDR to DDR2 rams because rams are bottlenecked by the hard drives that stores all the information the rams need to retrieve from.

For your case and fan question, it depends on the size and speed the fans are spinning at. Also, mid size chassis is vague, some mid size chassis are huge, others are smaller. Giving the dimensions of the chassis would be more helpful.

It took me at least 20-30 hours researching, buying,and putting everything together for my first PC. It took me less than 5 hours to just put the parts together after I have everything for my first custom-built PC though.

Anyhow, a lot of people are undermining Dell's warranty. If you buy the computer parts separately, you have to ship them separately (after your store's warranty expires), and the process generally takes 1-2 weeks. Also, you would have to contact each manufacturer separately before you can send your parts in for the replacements. This will cost you a lot of time and some money (shipping).

Dell's warranty on the other hand only requires you to call them once, and it took them 3 or 4 days to have a technician come to my house with all the computer parts to fix my computer when I had a problem. You get to schedule the appointment with the technician before he comes too. Although contacting by phone Dell did take approximately 2 hours for them to figure out 1) is something really wrong with my computer, and 2) what parts could possibly be the problem. The technician ended up replacing my motherboard, processor, and a SATA cable.

ok, wheres the boot thing specifically in msconfig? which tab i meanrazorsedge678

Checking for the boot devices and memory (RAM) test is what slows down your boot-up the most. And you must restart your computer (or turn off and turn back on) in order to access the BIOS setup. Just hold onto the "Delete" key immediately when your computer is booting up.

I modified my post to give simpler instructions, but I can't give you step-by-step instructions because the GUI-layout for each motherboard's BIOS setup is different.

You can try reading your motherboard's manual on how to access and modify things in the BIOS, but it's really straight-forward once you enter the BIOS by hitting or pressing and holding onto the "Delete" key as soon as you turn on your computer.

As for turning off the GUI and certain start-up programs, that's just straight forward. Hit the "Start" icon on the lower-left screen and click on "run." Type in "msconfig" (or "msconfig.exe") and hit "enter." I am using Vista, and the "No GUI Boot" check box (it should be checked) is under the "Boot" tab.