[Mr. Ski]

Disclaimer: Hope it's OK to start another one of these -- couldn't find a recent one on the first 10 pages tonight...

So I'm looking to build myself a new PC for home. I've only bought Dell's going back over 12 years. Thought about doing that again, but I want to go the 'build it myself' route this time -- I'm comfortable with the process, and want to give it a go.

My budget is $1000-$1200 or so. This is just for the PC itself. Already have nice 24" monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, etc. Also can probably re-use the internal 16x DVD burner I have as it's less than a year old and has been rock solid. Will be running XP Pro SP2 for now.

Don't play any graphics-crazy games; heaviest use is Photoshop CS3 and business software (MS.SQL 2005 based Accounting Systems). Also would like some sort of RAID system for HD mirroring (RAID 1? or 10?).

So, assuming I'm shopping at Memory Express or similar, where shoud I begin? Intel Dual or Quad core? Lots of RAM?

What would people recommend?

Sincerely appreciate all help.