I am a little confused here. Are you building your own system? If you 
are not then why are you purchasing all of the components? The best 
thing to do is what you are somewhat doing, research what is best. Don't 
buy these items yourself however. I don't know where you live but find a 
tech or company that deals with adaptive technology. Contact your local 
blindness and visual services agency for some referrals. Make a few 
phone calls or on line research and see who has a good reputation. Once 
you find someone call them and discuss your needs with them. As dealers, 
they can get the components that you want much cheaper then you buying 
them yourself. Make sure that who you select has a good reputation. You 
don't want someone who may not be experienced and basically take 
advantage of you or give you something inferior. Don't always listen to 
others who are in so called tech groups or self proclaimed 'experts'. 
What I mean by this is that a lot of people say things but really don't 
know what they are talking about or why - ie use Linex, windows sux, 
etc. A little bit of knowledge sometimes is worse then no knowledge at 
all. You have to decide what you like using, what is easiest and what is 
most compatible with everything that you use. Don't use something that 
you don't understand.

You can get a state of the art computer and spend thousands but within a 
year or so it will be out of date. Technology changes to quickly in the 
field. What you want is a good base computer that can be upgraded as new 
technologies emerge. Vista is new but you may as well get it instead of 
waiting. All updates will be available free to those purchasing it. 
Updates are free with registered copies. Why invest all the time and 
money in a new system just to have to upgrade it in about a year? 
Upgrading will cost you a considerable amount of money and time.

It sounds like you want a duel processor which is good, you sound like a 
multi tasker Audio files and games take up a lot of hard space so you 
want a hard drive that is large - 500 gig or more - and fast. Audio 
programs and games use a lot of memory so 3 to 5 gig would be advisable. 
Video cards vary as to what you want to do. Contact the JFW techs and 
ask what they recommend for audio, video cards. You want a motherboard 
that can be upgraded per processors, power supplies, memory, bays,etc. A 
motherboard should have enough usb ports to handle all that you have or 
want and then some extras. Decide what software you want installed - ie 
Office, Real Player, Word, etc. and see what is compatible with what. 
You don't want to add software that is going to be incompatible with 
some other program causing your system to crash. You should have but not 
required, an external hard drive large enough to back up all of your 
files. You want dvd/cd players/recorders. You are looking at about 
$1,500.00.

Good luck.

Mick

Missy Hoppe wrote:

>Hello, everyone........
>  
>


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