If I want to build something myself, what would be a most-bang-for-the-buck dream system that I could put together ( including maybe a 19"+ monitor ) for $600 or less?
What do I want it to do?
I'm not a gamer. I do a little AutoCAD sometimes, not a lot. I play chess with CM9000 sometimes ( no speed needed for that ).
But by the same token, I don't like to wait for the computer to do things either. I like to run a lot of stuff, like Streets & Trips, Winfax 10 Pro, Pegasus Mail, Weatherbug, etc., and Seamonkey for my browser, which appears to be a RAM hog.
I'd prefer to run XP Pro, after what I've heard lately about Vista.
I prefer AMD. No, not prefer, demand. I see no point in paying hundreds more for "Intel" inside.
I'm a 59 year old who has an ASET ( Associate in Science in Electronics Technology ) from 1969 ( yes, vacuum tubes and discreet components ) and then worked in electronics R&D for 27 years before learning martial arts from age 50-57 and becoming a process server in late 2006.
I built my own several years back but that was a pain, with IRQ's and all that. Now we have PnP.
I'd like a MOBO with a nice number of expansion slots. Those seem like guns or tools to me, you can't have too many.
2 core? 4 core? I'm not sure how much speed I need, or want to pay for, but I'm currently running about a 7 year old AMD XP 1.6 with a 266 MHz FSB, recently upgraded from 512 MB RAM to 1.5GB, so probably something like a Gigabyte with SATA HD's might be breathtaking to me?
I need something with a DVD now, this old box just has a ROM burner and the latest Streets & Trips requires DVD. I want to get into a DVD camcorder to, or maybe one with a HD, and see if I can do night vision of the people I serve, by having my partner in the car run that.
So I may need to save and play with video.
I also have to save copies of the legal documents I serve for several months in PDF form and that's rapidly using up my 40 GB HD now.
So what would you suggest, for something I could blaze with, for a total cost of under $600?
Hey can people build their own laptops too? I could use something to run Streets & Trips with a GPS in the car, but that might be too cheap to mess with building it myself?
Melissa
http://www.coloradoprocessservers.net
What do I want it to do?
I'm not a gamer. I do a little AutoCAD sometimes, not a lot. I play chess with CM9000 sometimes ( no speed needed for that ).
But by the same token, I don't like to wait for the computer to do things either. I like to run a lot of stuff, like Streets & Trips, Winfax 10 Pro, Pegasus Mail, Weatherbug, etc., and Seamonkey for my browser, which appears to be a RAM hog.
I'd prefer to run XP Pro, after what I've heard lately about Vista.
I prefer AMD. No, not prefer, demand. I see no point in paying hundreds more for "Intel" inside.
I'm a 59 year old who has an ASET ( Associate in Science in Electronics Technology ) from 1969 ( yes, vacuum tubes and discreet components ) and then worked in electronics R&D for 27 years before learning martial arts from age 50-57 and becoming a process server in late 2006.
I built my own several years back but that was a pain, with IRQ's and all that. Now we have PnP.
I'd like a MOBO with a nice number of expansion slots. Those seem like guns or tools to me, you can't have too many.
2 core? 4 core? I'm not sure how much speed I need, or want to pay for, but I'm currently running about a 7 year old AMD XP 1.6 with a 266 MHz FSB, recently upgraded from 512 MB RAM to 1.5GB, so probably something like a Gigabyte with SATA HD's might be breathtaking to me?
I need something with a DVD now, this old box just has a ROM burner and the latest Streets & Trips requires DVD. I want to get into a DVD camcorder to, or maybe one with a HD, and see if I can do night vision of the people I serve, by having my partner in the car run that.
So I may need to save and play with video.
I also have to save copies of the legal documents I serve for several months in PDF form and that's rapidly using up my 40 GB HD now.
So what would you suggest, for something I could blaze with, for a total cost of under $600?
Hey can people build their own laptops too? I could use something to run Streets & Trips with a GPS in the car, but that might be too cheap to mess with building it myself?
Melissa
http://www.coloradoprocessservers.net