Hi Guys! 

Rotten people! They could at least make the link work right. The combo I'm looking at is at Tiger Direct and it's the Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Motherboard and Intel Core i7 950 Processor BX80601950 Bundle. It is under $500 and I'd bet it will last as long as anything I could buy! 

I have a nice, new case- a full tower. I own my house so I'm not going anywhere. I fully expect to have to replace optical drives and such numerous times over the years. It has always been so. I have never had a hard drive go down on me yet, but I know it's just a matter of time. 

As a matter of fact I have been looking at blu-ray drives simply because they have come down in price. I do backups every six months onto disk, and with the data I have on my computer it can take a month at this time. Blu-ray holds so much more that I really think it would be a worthwhile investment for me, even though the prices will come down some more eventually. 

Although it may not be exactly what I want in the future, I think that the computer I'm building will last 10 years. Even if I upgrade to something else long before then, It will still function as a secondary computer for the kids who visit me to use. I have a functioning computer now that is 11 years old. I was using it as my primary machine up until about 2 years ago, although I was starting to get frustrated with it. 

The power supply I have in mind is not one of the top brands, but it looks really good. It's the Ultra X4 850-Watt Modular Power Supply. 

The one thing that I'm concerned about, because I have limited knowledge of these things, is the video card. The motherboard I'm looking at doesn't have onboard video, so I need to pick one right away. I have 2 monitors with HDMI interfaces. With school, I can't live without them! I suspect it will be no different when I'm writing nonfiction for a living. Of course, I would like to have some good quality for my movies. 

As for the 64 bit issue, I agree. I want 64 bit. I can relax a little, though. With Windows 7 it is possible to upgrade to 64 bit any time I like. I can install a 32 bit OS, test out my new computer, add the parts I need to it, and make sure that it is fully ready for 64 bit before I commit. It's just a matter of making sure I have all the drivers and such that I'll need. Then I can convert my laptop, play with it awhile, and then take the plunge with my desktop. 

What I'm glad to see is that the ideas I already had are being verified by you guys. I really appreciate the input and I am looking forward to anything else you might have to tell me. 

Denise 

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