Originally posted by [AK]Leonidas
This computer shopping is going very well. Between Zorro's info, the technical hardware site he pointed me to, and the vendor site Palooka pointed me to, I'm almost there. I just have a few questions left:

How do I know what wattage I need on my case?
That's a tough question to answer largely because the answer that you get from anyone will largely be based upon opinion... However, in MY humble opinion, I can't imageine why you would want to buy anything less than a 350W supply, especially one manufactured by Enermax (there is not a single manufacturer that does any better...trust me...). To play it safe, I would definitely consider the 450W version of the supply since it will work with virtually every CPU of any speed of any power consumption you can possibly imagine...
What is ECC vs. non-ECC RAM, and does it matter?
ECC RAM has error correction facilities built in to correct the errors that can be created by spurious cosmic rays...seriously...no kidding... While it doesn't happen often, it DOES happen, so it could potentially save your bacon once or twice throughout the year... One minor downside is that you'll see a VERY VERY small performance degradation with ECC, but it's not really worth considering... One thing you DON'T need to worry about, on a semi-related topic, is Registered vs. Non-Registered RAM. It doesn't make any difference, so don't pay for it. Just make sure you buy your RAM from Crucial or Mushkin. Accept no substitutes (unless you can verify that the RAM is made by Corsair).
[/b]Is there much performance difference between RAM with a CAS latency of 2 versus 2.5? [/B]
Yes! Buy nothing but CAS 2. If you can find it, buy PC2400 (in lieu of PC2100).