The websites will give you better pricing and save you tax. Some of
the tax savings will be eaten up by shipping, but not all.
Also, the websites have a better selection then the my local stores.
However, we don't have Fry's here in Backeastland (I've been to the
one in Vegas, and sorely miss having one out here).
The websites seem to have an advantage. But you also have to consider
that there is a major convenience factor in just being able to go out,
buy the stuff, take it home, and start putting it together, all in the
same day. It's also MUCH more convenient to be able to return and
exchange stuff locally. Only you can determine how much that's worth.
For me, I have a system set up in a shopping cart on Newegg, with my
mouse cursor hovering over the 'Buy' button. Then again, the local
sources out here absolutely stink compared with Fry's. There's no
combination of stores out here were I could get everything I want, let
alone a single source, so buying local really isn't an option.
On another subject, I would downgrade your processor selection and
beef up the rest of your system to allow for overclocking. There
isn't any 64 Bit SW out there to run on the AMD 64. As far as the P4
goes, I'm planning on getting a 2.6GHz chip and overclocking it to
3.2GHz on a Asus Springdale-based mobo. Not only do you get the same
processor speed as the labeled 3.2GHz part, but you get better memory
and FSB throughput in the process.
But, if OP knew what Google was, we would not even