Hi everybody, I just wanted to say that this weekend I succeeded in putting together my first computer. I'm very excited. My Dell 166 Pentium power supply died. It seemed simpler to use what I could from that computer and get a new case and motherboard. I learned a lot- in particular about what not to do- the PCBUILD directions helped, but I'm bad about only reading directions when I have problems... I learned how important it is to buy a good case- I did not buy the one described in the PCBUILD directions and it was hard to work with. Anyway, next time I think I'll go slower and do more research and ask more questions- I kind of went off half cocked! New: Generic Mid tower case Abit BX6 slot 1 motherboard : one AGP slot (2X or 4X or 1X ? who knows?), 5 pci slots, 2 isa (one pci and isa share a slot), room for four dimms (max memory is 1 GB) Celeron 400 processor (put it on a card and slide it into the slot 1 socket) Soundblaster 16 card Viper V770 graphics accelerator Old parts: floppy and cd drives hard drive modem keyboard, mouse 64 Megs SDRAM software from defunct computer monitor from defunct computer generic network card (pci) (successfull networked and sharing an internet connection with my other computer) So far it's running ok. I'll have to see how it goes. Next time I think it will go easier and I'll know a bit more about what questions to ask about the motherboard and processor as well as how to get a better case. If I didn't have all the used parts I had I sure wouldn't have saved any money putting it together, but the experience of putting it together and watching it boot and all is worth more than money. Also, I remember reading this somewhere, but can't find it- about magnetic tip screwdrivers- are they ok to use? I remember that they don't have a strong enough magnetic to bother anything, but want to ask again. I could not have done this if not for this list and the encouragement of people like Elizabeth Boston and the other men and women on the list who do this all the time. Thanks. Can you telll how happy I am to have finally built a computer?! Warm Regards, Mary PCBUILD mailing list is brought to you by: The NOSPIN Group http://nospin.com - http://nospin.org