A bit old, but it’s always never too late to get great value for your money. Check out AnandTech’s System Buyers Guide: $1000 to $2000. Dated last last Monday, AnandTech’s proven pretty on-track when they come up with their own here’s-what-you-get-with-this-budget features.

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The sad fact with self-assembled PCs is that the importance of power supplies are forgotten. This component deserves some weighty consideration, especially since many make the mistake of buying a power supply that provides more than they really need. This obviously ties up money that could’ve been used for a better video card or processor.

Before you even think of assembling your own PC, you should take a look at AnandTech’s article on Debunking Power Supplies. The money quote:

If people really took the time to examine system power requirements, we would see a tremendous increase in sales of 300W to 400W PSUs. The truth is that the vast majority of systems would run optimally with such a “small” power supply. Even if you’re running SLI/CrossFire, you don’t actually need a 750W power supply. (Of course, we recommend purchasing a good quality power supply, as there are certainly “750W” PSUs out there that can’t reliably deliver anywhere near that much power.) To help dispel some myths relating to power requirements, we’ve put together a couple of charts.

Check out the whole article here.