[ninty]

Is cyberpower a good company? I've never heard of them. Personally, I would stick to recgonizable names who we know put decent parts in the computer, while cyberpower could be putting anything in there.

I'm thinking of getting a new comp and I believe i'm going to build it myself. I really want to do that. You get exactly the parts you want and pay for.

Sound card - i've never used an actual sound cared believe it or not. I just never wanted to go out and buy one while the onboard was right there. I really don't know the difference, but everyone buys them. If i'm getting a new comp, i'm netting new surround sound speakers so i'll get a sound card for maximum quality. Onboards can be a pain sometimes with cartain games. I had trrouble running moh and bf with my onboard but that was a year or two ago. Todays should be pretty compatible. If you just need sound and aren't looking for extremly high quality etc. onboard is fine i think. My music sounds fine with onboard.

I have always used the onboard network card. Works fine for me. again i don't really know the difference between getting one with your mobo, and then paying an extra 50 or 100 for another one.

Thermal paste...i suppose if you wanted the best possible connection between the cpu andthe heatsink, then yeah. but remember you only need a very thin layer. If you do it too thick, it doesn't work. very thin is all you need.