[red-beard]

About 1 hour to assemble, maybe 2 if you've never ever done it. Loading the OS and doing the updates over the internet take the longest part of it. But that is walk away stuff.

Too bad you're not closer, I'm about to build another one this weekend. And before the end of the year, I'll be building another Phenom X6 system with some leftover parts and a few buys.

A few things:

Most of the Motherboards are ATX or micro-ATX. Make sure the case you buy can fit what buy.

If you're looking to do a higher end system with AMD, go with a Gigabyte MB. They seem to have the best price point. Make sure that it can handle the 125W processors. If you want maximum performance go with MSI and really fast RAM (DDR3 2133).

Make sure you get a case with at least a 650-750W powersupply.

From the same website, you can see the videomarks from the videocards. I settled on a RADEON HD 4870 (mine was made by XFX) for price vs. performance. It smokes! But produces a lot of heat!

Pickup a USB 2.0 card reader. They are cheap and make it easy for all the different kinds of cards.

You want the 64 bit OS. Windows 7 Home is fine.

I don't plan to put Blu-rays on my PC. I went with a "generic" DVD burner. They are like $20.

You want a minimum of 4GB of RAM. Make sure what the MB can take on type, size and speed. Do not buy in 6GB increments. This is something that goes with the Intel machines. If you want this for a while, get 8GB RAM.

Don't buy a CPU cooler. The 1090 comes with one.

I would suggest you get a "slot cooler". It is an extra case fan that fits in a spare slot. Getting a case with more than one fan is a good idea for a high performace machine.

Motherboard (Gigabyte or MSI)
Case & Power Supply (750W)
Hard Drive (2 if you want RAID) (6GB/s SATA)
CPU (AMD Phenom X6 1090)
RAM (4GB, SD3, Speed based on M.B.)
DVD Burner (Buy a $20 one, SATA)
Multi-Card Reader
Video Card
Operating System (Win 7 Home or Win 7 Pro x64)
*Keyboard & Mouse
*Speakers

You can re-use the * items if you have them.