FYI: There are used , off-lease boxes widely available that are one-two years old that are plenty fast for multi monitor setups and quite a bit of real-time analytical work. These can be had for around 300.00. Much cheaper than new and much easier than building.
Every now and then Dell builds up a bunch of inventory in their "refurbished" department and they have to blow these machines out. Plus, you get the same Dell Warranty as offered on "new" machines. I picked up a P4 at 2.60 with 512mb of RAM and an 800 FSB on Windows XP for $775.00 in early July.
End of quarter is usually a good time for Dell deals. I think it was waggie who had a discussion about power supplies, they are important, esp. with powerfull vid cards. Cal, where would I go to look into the off lease thing?
We get ours through dell. if you dont have a business arrangement with them then there are many vendors that are resellers and refurbishers. These can also be had on Ebay although it is usually cheaper to go direct.
Since you are in Minneapolis go to General Nanosystems in Dinkytown which is a white box maker. They can set you up with some nice stuff, customized. Nice looking, shiny magnesium/aluminum cases. http://www.nanosys1.com/