... needs, you should simply go with a mini tower, or a mid sized tower case if you plan to add allot of extras into your system. Also, you may be tempted to get once of the fancy non-gray cases, ... prices keep on going down all the time). As your shopping for a hard drive, you'll probably see a whole bunch of different brands. To keep it simple, stick only to: Maxtor, Western Digital ... parts; what to buy, what to avoid, what to look for, etc. Well once you get passed the awful "spending" money part of building your own new computer, you can start getting into the fun...