I'm hoping to get the case tomorrow, so I can build it this weekend. Loading the HDD seems to take longer than the build. I like em to just be able to switch it on, fully loaded patches and security and all.

That Motherboard your going to use has 6 USB ports, four at the back and "cough" two for the front, but you wont be needing those   http://www.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=A7V8X-X&langs=01

It's got front panel audio out as well,

Your right there Rodders,

I was just saying to Simon earlier tonight. My XP2000+ CPU is now 43% cheaper than it was less than a year ago when I bought it. A XP2000+ [equiv to a 2G Intel] can be had for £50 whilst a XP3000+ is ballpark £212, what will they be selling for next year I wonder?

Yes indeedy.  You've got to jump in somewhere.....and whatever you pick will be a laughable doorstop by the time the next edition of of your favourite computer comic comes out, so why worry!  You're already screwed (whether you know it or not), and have just bought another expensive education.

 

While I'm no expert, I think I'd have probably gone for the second one.  

Well you know Sandra, when I 'loaded' my mates HDD, it had about 2.77GB on it. And I thought right, image it and store it on my Image partition. Bugger would not do it, now his HDD was 5400 and mine are 7200rpm, I wonder if that had anything to do with it?

Anyway we will find out because I've got a 60GB 7200rpm HDD coming tomorrow, I'll try it with that. Otherwise I'll keep the initial installation "cough" shorter and ghost it.

Simon, I'm near to tears mate, reading your last post, but of course I know the story of the 60GB HDD.

See both me and Simon had ordered 40GB HDD's from CCL, anyway they were out of stock, and we are both itching to build our respective PC's. But before they came back in stock 60GB drives went out of stock, then came back in stock this morning, only £3.87 dearer than the 40G which was still OOS. So I'm on the blower and change my order,  then I PM Simon starting the message 'Quick Quick Simon' sent it but then realised Simon had emailed me also with an 'Update'..... ....go on you tell em Simon ...I'm near to tears again

MMMMMMM see what you mean,  

but hang on, Simons put a curse on my C: just after I wrote that last email, tears and all. My PC froze, never do that in 11 months since I built it. Only way out was a reboot, anyway got back up and running and clicked on shortcut to a data sheet I had done tonight but had not saved.

Missing file been moved, goes into explore, finds it opens it, last data input 16 July, plus my virus definitions were out of date it said. Funny I thought, so I looked in 'My Computer' and my Maxtor hard drive was missing, so it had defaulted to my Deckstar hard drive, which I made Slave after I installed this new Maxtor on 16 July. [ Maxtor are a bag of sh*te Simon, and I believe you may have two   ]

So I disconnected the Dekstar, pressed the button and it booted to the Maxtor, how strange, run Norton and no virus found mmmmmmm



Done a virus check, all clear

Now I'm just looking back through the GoBack files around the time I posted that last post at 12.33am and at 12.28 am and 57 seconds  I see Diskeeper kicked in, I wonder.

Bugger it, I'm off to Bed folk will think we are bothering Sandra  

 

Oh, for Chrissake!  Are we now saying Maxtor are sh*te, when I possibly have two coming??  I did do some research before I bought it (them), and they seemed to have a good reputation.

Anyway, to complete the story of my two hard drives, as Tony said, CCL were out of stock of the 40Gb, so I e-mailed them to say send the 60Gb instead.  Found out then that that was also out of stock.  Didn't get an instant reply to the e-mail, so phoned the next day to cancel the Hard Drive order, so they could send the rest out.  Had also substituted the GeForce gphx card for an ATI Radeon, as the GeForce was OOS.  Bloke said I should receive order by Monday.  Went and ordered another Maxtor 40Gb from Watford Electronics, at virtually the same price.

Then I got an e-mail from CCL later in the day, saying thanks for my e-mail, and that the order had been changed as per my e-mail, and would be delivered today.  Then read Tony's PM, and found that the 60Gb Maxtors were back in stock!  So now I'm waiting to see if CCL send out the original order, with amendments, including the 60Gb Maxtor, in which case I will have two!  And after all this, they're sh*te??  

I think that the only drives I would consider if I was buying  one now are the Seagate or the Western Digital ones.
The new WD Caviar SE with 8mbs cache seem to be very good value at the moment if you shop around and are currently the only hard drive that comes with a 3 year guarantee :doggie:

OH NO THEY ARE NOT, CCL are offering Samsung Hard Drives with a three year warranty, but naturally.......they are out of stock  

Oh, for Chrissake!  Are we now saying Maxtor are sh*te, when I possibly have two coming??  

Nar, I'm only 'winding you up' Simon, it is probubly a boot sector issue I'm having, ah you have me near to tears again.  

I'd take a Maxtor or a Hitachi/IBM over a WD or Seagate any day of the week Simon

See Simon,

listen to the expert [and a bloke]

ignore her from the high hill they called Pendle [in local folk law it's know as the haunt of witches] why do you think she is always about in the wee small hours, and gone by the dawn.

Just checked the order, and it's on the van for delivery to day