Building/Buying a gaming PC

The EARS aren't bad. It even beats some of the 7200 drives, I personally like quiet computers. When gaming things are loaded into RAM, so what if your loading time is a few seconds slower. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/wd-4...554-2.html

Get this PSU, the 690II is great with hiding cables, so modular or not doesn't matter much, you can hide it all!

Why not get a DVD Burner? http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.asp...6827118039

See if you can somehow get qualified for this (Friends, family, friends' friends): http://www.microsoft.com/student/office/...fault.aspx

OEM or not, you can activate the serial multiple times, just shouldn't have two computer with the same serial at the same time. Once you've activated online a few times, it'll ask you to call in to activate. IMO no difference between OEM and Retail.

So, by the looks of it, the EARS aren't too bad, and the performance drop isn't a ton. I guess I'll get that. Any objections?

When you say get "this" PSU, which PSU do you mean? The one I currently have picked out, or did someone recommened one and I missed it?

For the DVD burner...I feel like this is a stupid question. I'll ask it anyways. Would it also be able to read CDs/DVDs? If it can...then I guess there's really no reason to not get it.

And for the OS, I should probably just get the $100 OEM instead of the $200 retail? Any difference other than one's OEM and the other is retail?