buy:

Intel Core2 Duo E6600
Xp Pro
1Gig @667
256mb nvidia geforce 7300le
250gig hdd
no floppy, no monitor, no speakers
integrated 10/100 nic
integrated sound card
1 year warranty. Free shipping.
total $1,023
take it out of the box, plug it into the wall, ready to crunch.

build:

E6600 - $315
Asus P5W $185
Xp Pro $100
1gig ram @667mhz $125
geforce 7300le $65
seagate 250g hdd $150
nic $15
no warranty, no shipping.
total $955.00

Thanks for the feedback Xaak and DT. 

I have a question for you Conroe owners, would it be possible if you could list what you paid for your conroe establishment?

If so, can you list out the parts required to build?  If anyone would like to specifiy what I would need in particular, that would be groovy.  I am new ot building my own, thus... answering your initial question DT, why buy?  because I've never built my own.  It was always easier to buy...

Please advise.... TIA

My cheaper box at current prices:

Core 2 Duo E6600 - $313

Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3  $149

Crucial Ballistix 1GB Kit DDR2-667 PC2-5300 $149

Gigabyte GV-RX13128D-RH Radeon X1300 $54

Antec Smartpower 2.0 400w $57

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250620AS 250GB Serial ATA (3.0Gb/s) 7200RPM Hard Drive w/16MB Buffer $85

Case:  Optional

Total:  $807

for Asus P5B Deluxe add $40

Free shipping from ZipZoomFly.

BB, I can't speak for the asrock mobo, as I've never used one, but I've had bad experiences with non-intel chipsets performance wise.  If you're getting DDR2, I woudn't buy a board that support regular DDR as there has to be performace compromises involved in designing the board around slower memory.  Experience tells me don't skimp on the mobo.

The Corsair is nice memory, but it might not overclock as well as the better stuff, but it is a whole lot cheaper .

You can use a PCI video card, and the newer 965 boards are typically coming with one IDE connector, you can run 2 IDE devices, typically one hdd and one optical drive.

When are you planning on building? Sounds like the best of both worlds would be a custom build with a new Core 2 Quadro, which would work with all of the above hardware. Sometime after the first of the year, Intel will be releasing the mainstream versions , looks like the first month or two they will be focusing on the high end gaming rigs.