Every time I build a new machine, I have to learn a whole new set of technologies. I inherited the 64 bit machine I use now, but have added and replaced a few parts with items of my own (and better) choice.

Never skimp on power supply. It pays to overdesign wattage. The machine won't use more power than it needs, so why not have a bit of overkill just in case?

So far most of the power-requiring graphics cards I use feed off the standard main power supply plugs, same as hard drives and other components.

I don't have advice on CPUs, since the last time I looked at them was over two years ago. My standing advice is to find the bleeding cutting edge of the technology, and then take one step back. This way you get hot performance and not so many "new product bugs."

It's like my policy of never installing 1.0 of anything.

Solid state hard drives are at the cost point that gigabyte disk drives were a few years ago. How durable is the data? Excellent question. Do they have answers yet when the tech is this new? I can see them as a big plus for laptops.