Starting PC build shortly...

[Desert Rat]

Antec P182 case
Quadcore 6600 ($266 after price cut on July 22)
Intel 975XBX2 Motherboard
Zalman 9700 CPU cooler
Zalman 600HP power supply
Corsair XMS2 DHX PC6400 (2x2GB) total of 8GB
Probably a RAID 1 array for OS and APPS or might get a Raptor Drive from..
400-500GB storage drive for images. (already have external drive for redundancy of images)
Nvidia 8600GT 256MB video card from EVGA propably
Vista 64bit Premium
Plextor DVD-R burner
extra Antec case fan

[Harv]

I have no idea what you are talking about here. :wacko::wacko::wacko: My approach has always been to phone Dell and ask them to ship me a computer. This is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy over my thick head.

[haibane]

Eric two comments. First I have had some serious trouble getting 64 vista to install at all. So I went 32bit. Seconldly the 8000 series of Geforce cards are not worth the extra cash IMO. I would shell out the cash on a top of the line 7000 unless I was willing to buy the 8800. The main plus of the 8000s is the direct x 10 compatability and with nothing using DX10 there is no point in buying it untill they go down in price a lot later. So the lower series 8000s are mearly feature ridden with all these dx stuff, but the higher end 7000s can whoop up on a medium line 8000 based on shear performance. I would recommend a 7900. I just bought a 7600, but that was cause it fit my budget nicely and I only wanted something to better run Aero. More later if I think of anything

[Desert Rat]

Eric two comments. First I have had some serious trouble getting 64 vista to install at all. So I went 32bit. Seconldly the 8000 series of Geforce cards are not worth the extra cash IMO. I would shell out the cash on a top of the line 7000 unless I was willing to buy the 8800. The main plus of the 8000s is the direct x 10 compatability and with nothing using DX10 there is no point in buying it untill they go down in price a lot later. So the lower series 8000s are mearly feature ridden with all these dx stuff, but the higher end 7000s can whoop up on a medium line 8000 based on shear performance. I would recommend a 7900. I just bought a 7600, but that was cause it fit my budget nicely and I only wanted something to better run Aero.
More later if I think of anything

What were your problems with Vista 64bit???

[haibane]

Went to install. Got to the part where it was completing the install. Didn't freeze but didn't finish. I left it for a week to work on its own and it never finished. Vista's a Pain. Use only if you have to IMO or if you have a ton of hardware and just want to. Its insane how much memory vista eats. Linux on the same system with a slightly more advanced GUI had a much easier time and would have ran nicely on 512mb of ram. I had to buy a second 1gb stick to get vista to cooperate nicely. I find the programmers were extremely sloppy and the software was rushed to the market. I also hate how vista asks you before everything you do and if you disable that it gives you a red shield. I could write a page of my complaints to be honest. In order to get vista 32bit to install I had to format and install a fresh copy of XP first, but I was doing the upgrade.

[Rudi]

You will have no end of problems running Vista 64-bit Premium, Eric. You will not find many 64-bit drivers for your peripherals (and the 32-bit drivers won't work). You will eventually give up and go back to 32-bit... :)

[haibane]

Its odd cause 64bit linux has tons of drivers... even some from nvidia etc.

[Rudi]

It's more the printers, scanners, stuff like that - there is just no 64-bit Vista support at this stage...

[haibane]

Silly microsoft... Although I must admit I don't see everyone's favorite Apple releasing anything 64bit remotely.

[Rudi]

Mac OS X Leopard will be fully 64-bit (coming in October). The current OS (Tiger) is already 64-bit in parts...

[haibane]

I stand corrected.

[Rudi]

Best part with Mac OS X is that it will be fully back-compatible. 32-bit apps will run on the new OS.

I have to admit that I am a little perplexed at Microsoft's inability to get Vista right. It's at least three years late, they have taken most of the really cool stuff out of it over the years (to keep backward compatibility), and STILL it's not up to snuff! Anyway, no skin off my back, just wondering how that can be...

[haibane]

Yeah I figured Apple would make it backwards compatible and that is becaues Linux has their setup backwards compatible. Should be some neat things coming out soon. To the OP, you might actually think about waiting a little bit as SP1 for vista should be out soon and also there should be some good hardware coming out just about every day.

[Martin]

Eric that will make a very nice photo editing and gaming system, mine is very similar but I only have 4 gigs of ram, I use xp 64 bit and had no problem with drivers so you may want to consider that instead, I did get a couple of 150 gig raptors and really like them and there great for a scratch disk. I was going to go raid with them to they didn't come in at the same time and I wanted to get the system going, still something I might do down the road.

The E6600 overclocks nicely I had mine running nicely at 3 ghz.

Martin

[equetefue]

I build computers on the side as a hobby. I have a couple of recommendations if you are interested.

My current system http://equetefue.com/2.html

[Desert Rat]

Well, finally got all the parts yesterday for the system. Picked up a Quadcore 2.4Ghz for 270 at mwave.com.

I installed Vista Home Premium 64bit edition. Rudi I have all the drivers I need..

Epson has a 64 bit driver
Video card 64bit
Intel drivers 64bit

Everything I need currently I have installed as of now and runs properly. Only thing I need is a update for my Nikon scanner which I have not used in about 2 years now anyways...

[Desert Rat]

Well I finally did it this past weekend... The price was right on the CPU. Not totally put together.. Currently ony running on 4GB ram with Vista 64bit...

System really smokes in processing...

A unscientific test showed a stitched panorama.
10 image stitch of 70MB files.

old system P4 3.0Ghz 3GB ram 9 minutes
new system Quadcore 3.4Ghz 4GB Ram 2 minutes

[imageswest]

.

[Desert Rat]

Well, system is up and running now for a week.. Contrary to others opinions I had zero issues finding 64bit drivers for my peripherals and hardware..

Secondly, Vista 64bit premium installed in about 20 minutes with zero issues as well...

System is pretty darn fast now....

[stilllearning]

I'm glad things went well for you. It's been a while since I'd built a PC(dec-00). It was only a PIII-800 on a an ASUS board. Don't remember the number but it was considered good for it's time. Sold it to a doctor for his office. He retired it to his home and from the last I'd heard it was still going.

I'm still leary of Vista. I guess I still smarting over the Windows 95 debacle. I'll probably run my old computer with XP till the wheels fall off and then get a new one with Vista already installed.

[haibane]

Eric, Glad it worked out for you. I must have one of many faulty discs then. Also, I am no longer on vista and back to XP and was on linux for a short while because one day when I turned on the computer vista would not boot