having some serious cpu issues

[Undertoad]

System building itself is not all that difficult, it's knowing what components go with what and which are the best choices and such, so that if you have to support it yourself you can.

The only advantage of a bare bones system is that the trickiest processes in system building are kinda done for you. Mounting the CPU, mounting the heat sink on the CPU, bolting the whole thing down correctly and attaching the basic IO ports and selecting the right DIP switches -- that's 90% of the battle right there.

But if you can convince someone to help you out with building the first time -- say, by bringing them a case of Red Hook ESB and/or a sack of something similar -- I, I mean they might be convinced to walk you through some of the heavy lifting so that you can get a truly elite system and not settle for a barebones which will probably have a truly crappy case and power supply. Then you'll know what to do next time, or at least with a question to the Cellarites. You could even score a Cellar T-shirt out of the deal, any color as long as you like black.