[Defiant]

Don’t know where you are getting your parts, but I pay a lot less for a motherboard/cpu combo than you do. Last one I made was over a year ago, I got a quad core amd mobo combo for about $115. Memory is about right. I got 4 gb last time, now would get 6 or 8.Not sure what video card you are using, i would get a 1 gb model for under $50. Gaming, real gaming, is different. Case with power supply is under $50. Monitor is about $30 high. I get stuff on sale at fry’s or geeks, and when i have everything, i put it together. Made about 8 or so computers over the years. The savings is not so much any more.

[astyanax]

The prices I listed were to build a current (here referred to as “next-gen”) machine with high-end (intel, nvidia) off the shelf parts (i7 processor, mobo with 6gb/s SATA and USB 3.0, etc.)
As for where, mainly Microcenter when they have good deals ($150 GTX 460) and Newegg. I do game so I have way more horsepower than I need. But every couple of years or so when I build the next one, my current unit gets handed down to one of the kids and is good for several additional years. (Daughter has an i3, 9 year old son is using a core 2 duo, and 5 year old is stuck with a p4 and agp card, but it's more than enough for what he uses it for.)