so my 360's output decided to stop working today. was annoyed buy thought the warranty would cover it. apparently the 3 year warranty is only for the RROD problem. so my particular problem would be fixed by shipping my xbox out, being charged $99 and getting my xbox back only to have it most likely die again in a few months.

so i can't decide if, i should spend the $99 to get it fixed OR buy one of the newer 360s (which i heard from somewhere don't fail nearly as much as the launch consoles) when the price drops to $299 next month.

what would be my best option? thanks to all who read and reply.

when i built my pc, i didn't have enough cash to afford an OS at the time and i knew for a fact i didn't want vista (still not sure if i do), so i downloaded a trial edition of xp64. anyway, my trial period is running out (in the next week or so), and i'm wondering if there is a way to change the windows cd-key to the cd-key i get when i purchase xp64. this way, i won't have to format and reinstall windows all over again.

also, i know xp64 has a bad rep going for it, but i've been using it for 120 days now (trial period) and have not had one problem. so i'd rather this topic not start an xp64 bashing fest, but rather if it possible to do what i am wondering. thanks for any responses!

thanks for the input thus far. the consensus seems to be to dumb down the PSU and don't go SLI.

Only reason i'm going with the 1000w PSU is because it is better to just get one of those now so i have a PSU for the up and coming and because it's $160 after rebate. Which is roughly the same price as a pretty good, 650-750w.

And i wasn't saying i was going SLI right away. I was toying with the IDEA of going SLI. I'm sure when nvidia releases those 9000 series GPU, i'll just abandon the SLI thing and jump on one of those. that is of course when they drop in price and if i feel my 8800gt isn't performing up to par anymore (which i don't think should be a problem).

But everything else seems to be ok besides the PSU? Any other suggestions on CPU heatsinks/fans?

Pretty new at this, and there is no such thing as a perfect computer part as it is all in the eye of the beholder. That being said, this is what me and my roommate have compiled together for our future rigs. Don't judge too harshly! We're new!

CPU: Intel Q6600

Case: Antec 900

PSU: CoolerMaster 1000W

Hard Drive: Western Digital 750GB

Motherboard: ASUS P5N32-E SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI

RAM: CORSAIR XMS2 4GB(2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

Video Card: EVGA 512-P3-N802-A1 GeForce 8800GT Superclocked 512MBORBFG Tech BFGE88512GTOCE GeForce 8800GT 512MB

I chose the lower clocked versions of the 8800gt because i thought heat might become an issue when I eventually add another one in for SLI. I also am torn between EVGA and BFG. EVGA has the step-up program but BFG has the lifetime warranty. They both probably perform about the same, but the EVGA is clocked a bit higher.

I will be adding a better third party heatsink/fan to the CPU as well, but do not know much about them. I am open to suggestions.

I will be running Windows Vista Premium 64-bit on this system as well.

Oh, I will be using this monitor as well:DELL SP2208WFP

So, there you have it. You may now critique. (thanks to all of those who take the time to share their thoughts!)