GoneGaryT's Journal: Birth of Monster.... just a PC

Likasay, my current PC is a Cyrix 686 @ 133MHz w/64Mb RAM, an old Matrox Mystique video card, a 3Gb and a 30Gb hdd, CD-ROM and not much else. The monitor is a !0 year old 15" CRT Western Digital. It has all been Good Enough for a number of years.

Was Good Enough. Until, of course, I started using a Dell 17" TFT monitor at work, which I really really like. So, I thought, maybe I could buy one for home. But then, the Matrox won't do 1280x1024, which I also really really like. So I'd need a new graphics card. But if I got a new graphics card, I'd probably need a new processor. And I'd really like to watch DVDs on the new monitor.. you see where this is going?

Over the Christmas period, I very nearly bought a high-end Athlon system from bestpricecomputers.ltd.uk, until I saw their "No bare hard disks" policy, which totally pissed me off. So I let the matter rest... until I went back to work and the Dell, that is.

The net result is that the old credit card has taken a hammering this week; if I was going to self-build, I had to make a fair job of it. This is what is about to arrive at my door - one of my colleagues has christened it "Monster", even though none of it has arrived, let alone been put together:

Quartz midi-tower case w/400W PSU
Chaintech ZNF3-150 motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 64 3200+
2x Crucial 512Mb PC3200 DIMMs
Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu Ultra-Quiet CPU cooler

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 80Gb UDMA133 hdd
2x Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 160Gb SATA150 hdds
NEC DVD+-R/RW 4x IDE burner
AOpen CD-RW 52r 52w 32rw IDE burner
Sony USB Ext FDD

AOpen GForce FX5900 128Mb graphics
Iiyama ProLite 17" TFT monitor.

I think that lot might do the trick... although I'm agonising over a M$ Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, as you do. And the mobo does 7.1 sound, so I might get some decent speakers. Stay tuned for the outcome...(the bankruptcy courts at this rate)