My Ultimate PC Dream MachineMy Dream Machine, it never fails that I get asked the question whats the best computer or what kind of computer do you have. O.K., here's the answer. First as I have more than one computer and we'll divide it up between AMD, and Intel processors. Lets start with my current AMD based computer. I,m running an: AMD Athlon 64 3800+ X2, 1 gig of Corsair DDR PC3200 160gig Western Digital Parallel ATA, 7200rpm 250gig SATA Maxtor 7200 rpm 80gb external drive MSI K8T Neo series Mainboard with a VIA K8T800 chipset HP 8x DVD420i DVD burner Liteon DVD/CDRW combo 7 in 1 memory card reader Floppy drive(rarely used, I use my flash memory key now) Blue cold cathode light Temperature sensor/fan speed controller Ultra X-Connect 500 watt power supply, with detachable cables Creative Labs Audigy 2 sound card Dell Superman, 5.1 THX suround sound speaker by Altec Lansing Creative Labs 56k Modem blaster not used thanks to DSL by SBC, and a Firewire/USB 2.0 combo card MAG innovision 19" Flat panel monitor Logitech wireless keyboard and wireless optical mouse combo Logitech MX1000 wireless Laser mouse, its awesome (The mouse was just replaced this christmas by Santa (me).) Super Flower Case with windows on both sides and on top.  Next up Deus ex Machina, my ultimate AMD based Dream Machine. We'll start with the case. I like the Raidmax Samurai in candy apple red. For a great selection of cases and modding gear check out Xoxide.com  The heart of the machine will be the AMD Athlon 64 FX-62, running at 2.6GHz with on die memory controller. Pop that baby in an Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe mainboard with Nvidia N-Force 4 SLI chipset, outfit it with a pair of of 1gig Corsair XMS Xpert DDR PC3200 and twin PCI Express GeForce 6800 Ultras. I would toss the stock power supply that came with the samurai and opt for a PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool 510 Deluxe Express, throw in a Creative Labs Audigy 2ZS and some Logitech Z-5500 Speakers for good measure. Now for storage I'd put a Western Digital Raptor 10,000rpm 74GB as my primary and a Maxtor 300GB DiamondMax 10 with 16mb buffer for my secondary. Lets talk optical drives now, Plextor's the only way to go with a pair of PX-716A's 16x Double layer DVD burners. Now lets top it off with an HP 2335 23" LCD and a Logitech wireless MX3100 W/MX1000 laser mouse and Keyboard combo. That about sums it up, this little setup would only set you back about 6 grand. 
Above is my current Pentium 4 box, it consists of: Pentium 4, 3.2GHz 800mhz FSB w/Hyperthreading 1 gig of corsair DDR PC3200 RAM 160gig Western Digital Harddrive Sony 16x dual layer DVD burner ATI Radeon All in Wonder 9600 Pro FIC small form factor case Below are some updated pictures I just added a memory card reader below the DVD burner. The above boxes are several years old now, my latest box utilizes the Intel Core 2 Processor E6600 dual core at 2.4ghz with 1 gig corsair DDR2 667mhz, 2 500gig WD harddrives equaling 1 terabyte of storage, 2 plexstor 16x dvd burners, and an ATI all in wonder X1900 in a Thermaltake Aguila case and Antec Neo 480 watt power supply. 
Now for the Intel based dream machine, alot of the components will be the same, the only major differances will be the CPU, Intels P4 Extreme Edition processor, the Asus P5AD2-E Pemium Mainboard, an Nvidia GeForce 6800 Ultra, since this board dosn't support SLI and another case I really like is Thermaltakes Shark, pictured below  Get the gear you need to build one of these beasts at either Xoxide.com 
 MORE TO COME |