Re: OT: What does "home-building" mean to you?

I'm a tech, so when I build a home system, I get twice the
machine at half the price, and my software license costs
go directly to what I want or need .. like XP Pro and Office.
I only build machines that I am able to test before I buy,
so I get past the sales hype ... and also past the user hype
when someone claims they have a really great system,
only it behaves in ways they ain't tellin' ... and it is impossible
to upgrade. Right now, I have about $950 in this system:
AMD64 Athlon 3000+
Gigabyte mobo with nVidia3 chipset
2 gig ddr400
ATI 9800 Pro 128
Antec SLK1650B psupply 450watt
usb keybd-mouse, 3D joystick, flop, Iomega zip 250
front connector panel for ALL connections for testing and play
Creative sound card and system, big base, 2 stereo wall mounted
DVD, cdrw combo, 160 gig SATA 8msec, 160 gig usb Maxtor
Viewsonic LCD 19inch 4 msec .. DVI input
Hauppauge pvr 350 with cable TV in, FM radio, and OTA rf antenna
DSL
OS WinXP Pro, Office Pro, PowerDVD, McAffee AV, Postini,

System runs clean and fast. Drives are imaged to USB drive and my
games look good and run well with no lockups or stuttering. Cable
TV is really sharp. Web is well defended. Video and digital camera
is simple to download and archive. Email .. no spam. Scanner and
color printer are usb, and both work without problems at all. Colors
in my games look like movies with FPS in the 50s average. No
smearing on LCD 4 msec monitor. There is no way a commercial
PC meets these standards in every respect. There may be a single
better item, but no way is it as well integrated and functional. I have
priced out an equivalent Dell system, and it would cost me $2700,
not include the PVR 350, or the usb backup drive, or DSL, or 3d
joystick, and their best LCD monitor is 8 msec .. but good. And,
I suspect that the difference between my system, and the Dell
is the profit margin.

johns

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: USB 2.0 flash drive and XP Pro
    ... Since the USB flash drive works flawlessly on 4 computers and 3 operataing ... The machine that is running XP Pro also ... >> I have read through this newsgroup and searched the internet, ... > jump drives parallels yours. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.hardware)
  • Re: USB WD My Book Pro 500GB Not Recognized
    ... Firewire requires that you connect it as USB and install the firewire ... We have four of these drives (Premium not Pro) and they are all recognized ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: Re-install of XP Pro - Problems?
    ... > I'm upgrading the computer on which I run XP Pro. ... The drives on the current one will be ... > but...the new machine has only a USB floppy, so at what point during the ... > install does XP Pro recognize USB devices? ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: USB WD My Book Pro 500GB Not Recognized
    ... Declaro wrote: ... Firewire requires that you connect it as USB and install the firewire driver from the MyBook. ... We have four of these drives (Premium not Pro) and they are all recognized by SBS2003. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: 0x0000007B
    ... I determined that my inability to boot the XP Pro setup CD was a problem ... That added about 50 additional drivers. ... When I converted a USB memory stick to a virtual floppy disk, ... since the bootable image on the XP install CD ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.embedded)