Everyone is probably right about the ram so I'm changing that to 6mg of a different brand, and whoever said 6 fans is correct also, didn't have the stats in front of me at the time, but I remembered it was quite a few.
Also, the HD is a SATA drive.
As for the XP pro vs. 64bit vista, I'm going to stick with the vista. Most of the reviews I've seen lately blame most of the vista problems on trying to run that OS on a cheap system. This one isn't top of the line, but it ain't bare bones either.
I'm trying to get the most I can for the money. If I was willing to spend another $300 to $400 I would go with an ASUS P6T deluxe mobo and i7 processor.
Also, from some of the aritcles I read when I decided to build my own, most people undervalue the importance of a good power supply. This all started when I wanted to upgrade the vid card on my Dell dimension 9100 and figured out the crappy 375w power supply wouldn't run anything that was worth buying. Further research lead me to first to the conclusion that updating stock off the shelf systems is a waste of time as is buying another upgraded such system. Which brings me to where I'm at now, building my own.