I'm soliciting the help of members of this esteemed group in
building a new computer system.  I need lots of help because I
don't even know where to begin.  I do know that I'm locked in
with the current off-the-shelf computer system that I use and
I've been told by some _very_ knowledgeable people that the best
way to avoid being locked in again is to build my own computer
from scratch.  That's what I hope to do.

Particulars:  I'm 56 years old and semi-retired.  I'm not an
expert on computers by any means but I'm a very knowledgeable
user.  I'm the person the neighbors call when they can't get
their system to run.  I purchased my current computer system in
1993 and I've upgraded it about as far as it can be upgraded.  I
use all kinds of software including MS Office 98, Lotus
SmartSuite, a lot of Boreland products, and I'm a big internet
user.  I'm not much in to games right now but I might be if I had
computer that would run them.  I anticipate that I will continue
to use current versions of all the software that I now have on my
computer plus good software developed in the future.  Possibly, I
might even want to try Linux or some other operating
system in addition to Windows.

Considering that my current system has been shipped half way
around the
world four times and has never failed to operate, it has been a
good system.  However, it also seems to have forced me into a
situation where upgrading the memory is very expensive and
further increasing the processor speed is impossible.  A lot of
currently available add on components will not work with my
current system. I have two new scanners that will not interface
with it.  I want to avoid all my current problems, if possible,
by building my own system.

My plan is to turn my current system over to my wife for use in
her genealogy research.  For that reason, the ability to network
the two computers here at home with both of them on the internet
would be useful.

Thanks in advance for any help and recommendations anyone could
provide.  Sorry that this is worded so poorly but I don't know
where to start asking specific questions.

Loy

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