Howdy all,

Time to replace the desktop computer I use at home (office).

My wife's son is building me a brand new machine from scratch. He has built quite a few over the years, and I have every confidence he knows what he is doing...hardware wise. What he has built is fast and so far 100% reliable machines. This is the BOM for new components (cables left out):

LG 20X DVD±R Super Multi DVD Burner Black ATAPI / E-IDE Model GSA-H55NK

SONY Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model DDU1615/B2s

Rosewill R6A34-BK 0.8mm SECC 120mm Fan ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6600

CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-6400

ABIT IB9 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

GIGABYTE GV-NX76G256D-RH GeForce 7600GS 256MB GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Silent Pipe Lead Free Video Card

There are a few other goodies like a cheap 3.5 floppy drive (ya never know when you might need it), but overall I am building this to be a fast and effecient machine for my office/personal use.

I was thinking XP Professional...but reconsidering. I need an OS that I can understand and will work, every day, with the least troubles.

I am thinking maybe XP Home would be better? (I've always used Windows, and don't know Linux, etc. at all. I "can" change...but is it worth it?)

Whattayaallthink?

Mike

Seagate Sata HD has a 5 year warranty. I would recommend at least 500 or more on the Power supply. Abit (MB) and Corsair (DDR) are good choices, same as mine. HD, digital is a must have. I have Vista Ultimate which replaced my MCE. At first I had my concerns, but since the update downloads have improved a bunch since clean install, I am pleased. You might now consider V as your OS on a new machine. That way you can learn both at once.

As always, you never know until you boot it up for the first time if it's gonna work, no matter how many you build. An exciting moment for sure. Good luck and enjoy.

My .02

Mike, windows2k Pro if you can get it. You won't regret it. The onliest way you could possibly improve on it would be to run it in a MAC using bootcamp but you already slammed that door.
I was never a MAC guy until I got my MACBOOK Pro at work and now I can't imagine ever goinig back to an IBM machine.
I'm running AUTOCAD, SOLIDWORKS, COREL as well as windows XP Pro and Office 2003 for XP within a fully integrated network. It runs faster, smoother and more stable that I ever experienced with any IBM machine no matter whether I'm wired, wireless or VPN'd. In a nutshell, I'm totaly convinced. I can hardly wait for Leopard so I can plug in my new 30" monitor while at my desk.

Gee, I'm surprised to hear a Windows 2000 recommendation. While I have never owned that operating system at home, there have been quite a number of machines at work with it and everyone who has it hates it. It is the slowest booting OS I have ever seen.

Now I grant you that it could have something to do with the work network configuration, but all other OS's work just fine.

At home I use XP, my wife uses XP, and my standby system computer is XP. I have both home and pro versions. The one thing that I hate is how many updates are necessary to get things right initially, but once that is out of the way, it's been good.

Just my $.02

My W2K machine is always on. So much for slow booting. Never had to update to keep the scum bags out. Never had a blue screen event and it is very stable in a network environment. Not as glitzy as XP but rock solid every time I get on the puter. Lot's to be said for works every time, wouldn't you agree?

You can either switch to Mac, or you can use poorly cobbled together 20 year old fuc<ed over, rebuilt technology that was stolen from Apple in the first place.

With the new Intel Proccessors and the only 21st Century Operating System you can run both Mac OS 10.4.9 and Windows, but why the hell would you want to waste your time with a turd like Windows? Oh and that BS about there being no software available for Macs is Bullsh|t.

>APPLE'S POWER PRO<

Yeah, what JLH said.

500+ watt power supply.
5 year warranties on HD's are A GOOD thing.
2GB of 800MHZ RAM is good.
Bump up the graphics card if you plan on running Vista. X1950 Pro, etc.

STRONG RECOMMENDATION TO RUN VISTA. XP is the biggest pile of crap...right next to Windows 200...followed by WinME, Win 98, 95, NT4.....

I've found this to be a really solid MB. Great board for those that want to do some clock chipping.

GIGABYTE GA-965G-DS3 LGA 775 Intel G965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard

The case, drives, etc are all pretty standard and OK.

Oh yeah, get a pair of the HD's and run a RAID 1 system (mirroring)...that's if your MB supports SATA raid.

That PC will rate about a 6.5-7.0 on a scale of 1-10. Not high end, but not crappy either.

Kinda of fun typing that up while on my MacBook Pro. Not nearly as nice as my ProMac, but hey, we all gotta make some sacrifices every now and than.

Parker, took your advice and got the kid a Mac book pro... I have hated Apple forever but gotta admit its pretty cool.

Good man!

The nice people at Xerox's PARC lab and I have a solid chuckle every time we read "stolen from Apple".

when they power up the dilithium crystals you can run your teleporter right from your PC. i'll trade you my luke skywalker for your obi-wan-kanobi.

Sorry Merg. Geek Speak. Might as well just step away from this thread. Nothing to see or read here that you would understand. No pretty pictures or pop-ups.

Hey Merg, if you take the internet connection out of the back of the computer and stick it in your ass you can download these threads straight to your brain. Honest.

Man, I wish I could say that to a few people during the day.....

Thanks SOL...now come clean the coffee off my keyboard!

That's the funniest damn thing I've seen in a long time. Worth remembering that line.

Parker ( and all) I went ahead and did the bad deed and ordered XP Home with the service packs, etc. Might as well stick with what I know...but wish I had learned enough about the other OP systems out there.

Mike

PARKER:

It isn't too late to make changes, and Chad says the RAID 1 is a good idea. So, I am going to buy another HD today, and also considering changing the OS to XP Pro. (I really need to stick to a Windows based OS, and Vista will not work with my anti-virus (CA).

Mike

If you're planning to keep this PC for 5+ years, this is an okay set up. RAID 5 would be better IMO for data recovery and read/write performance, but I assume your motherboard does not support it and does support RAID 1. My only other suggestion is to get a good UPS to protect against surges. You'll need one that protects your network cable to get full coverage if you are not wireless. Remember to save important stuff to CD or DVD on a regular basis anyway. Some of my friends use a removable USB hard drive for storage. Can't be too careful with sensitive data.

If you plan to upgrade every 2-4 years like I do, this is not how I would do it, but ot each their own...

then you and parker can fight the Klingons ( hanging out of parkers anoose) for interstellar domination of Uranus.


That was funny though....i will give you 8 and one half points for the phrase and a bonus 3 for originality. I did chuckle...thats worth at least 1/2 a point. Your rackin up quite a few points in a game where points dont matter.

No one told you???????????????????????????

Points DO matter!

How far are you behind?

I have Kaspersky Anti-Virus for my Vista. It's one of the best and near the top of the list of the best choices out there.

Just built up a conroe Windows 2003 Server with 4 750GB HD's using raid 5 on a 3Ware card. Been doing that for years. RAID 5 is my friend.

Mike could store a LOT of porn on that puppy!

Ok, that was one of my departmental backup servers. No porn on there - not to my knowledge (yet).