My PC Builds
I don't always follow my own advice because sometimes you want something and the price is just right. With regards to the Western Digital Drives on the one PC build below, 2 of those drives came out of old computers I upgraded for family using Hitachi Drives. But I did SIN when I bought the WD 500 GB drive, it was just the perfect price at the right time.
PC #1
This is my main machine. This computer has been ticking away for quite a long time and has had hard drive melt downs twice. Luckily I didn't lose any data. I also now closely monitor the SMART information for each hard drive to make sure I have plenty of time to backup and replace them. One of the drives on this PC is at 81% and was at 82% for the last month. At that rate I can probably expect another 6 months before I will have no choice but to replace the drive. I'd do it today, except for my student wage... which is 0$ per hour. Surprisingly, this computer outperforms the one shown below it. I have no idea why and I have been looking into it for over a year.
- Windows XP 32 bit, sp3
- ASUS A8V v2
- AMD Athlon 64 3500+
- 2MB Generic OEM Memory + 1MB Micron... yes, I mixed them.
- Creative Technology Sound Blaster Audigy ZS
- Pair of HITACHI Deskstar T7K250 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA133 3.5" Hard Drives
- eVGA GeForce 7800 GS 256 MB
- LG GH20NS10 Super Multi DVD-RAM SATA drive
- LITE-ON shw-160p6s CD RW Drive
PC #2
I was so thrilled to build a new PC a couple of years ago and have a two core CPU. But after a while I started noticing it was not quite up to snuff. Faster GPU, had more memory at the time than my other PC, SATA hard drives, 2 core CPU, and even faster memory. I had Windows XP on it up until a month ago. One of the benefits of being a student is that Microsoft is willing to give a steep discount on the Windows 7 upgrade. Was only $30. I skipped the Vista nightmare thankfully! XP still rules, but Win 7 is pretty nice. I figured this was also a good time to 64 bit, and so far it's been really painless.
- Windows 7 64 Bit
- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+
- 3MB Generic OEM Memory
- ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe
- eVGA GeForce 9600 GT 512 MB
- WD 160 GB HD
- WD 500 GB HD
- HITACHI 80 GB HD
- WD 80 GB HD
- LG GH20NS10 Super Multi DVD-RAM SATA drive
Note
I don't mention keyboards or mice because they are pretty much just low-end Logitech devices I purchased in bulk a few years ago when building multiple PC's. With one exception. I am still using an old IBM keyboard that predates this century becauses it's alot more solid than anything I've bought recently. Unfortunately I can't get any drivers for it since IBM got out of the personal PC market. I think I have Windows 95 drivers somewhere, but they wouldn't work with XP.