So I've just finished putting together my new PC. It was fun, frustrating, and somewhat rewarding This is the first one I've ever built myself, and it was definitely a new and great experience.

Here's all the specs on the new machine. Not too shabby, I must say

-AMD Athlon 2100+ 1.73GHz processor
-1GB (two 512 sticks) of PC2700 RAM
-SOYO Dragon Ultra Platinum Edition motherboard
-Lian-Li PC75 Aluminum case w/15 drive bays and extremely large side window
-Antec True550 power supply (550 Watts)
-80GB Western Digital Caviar Special Edition HDD w/ 8MB buffer
-Windows 2000 w/Service Pack 2
-Floppy drive (hey, it's silver, so it's special )

Those were the new items that made up the new machine. The rest were items from my old Dell that were mostly upgrades to that machine:

-Toshiba DVD drive
-HP 9200i SCSI CDRW
-Adaptec 2930 SCSI card (think that's the model...)
-Iomega ZIP 100 internal drive
-100GB Western Digital HDD (7200RPM)
-ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon


I think that's about it. Hope I didn't forget anything...

Anyway, I'm really enjoying this thing. Despite a cabling problem that had me cursing for about 5-6 hours, the rest of the setup wasn't too bad. Windows has been acting up on me a bit, but I'm not too worried. I just need to get it set up and going.

So that's all! I just wanted to brag a little. I'm sure there's plenty of folk out there with much better machines than this, but this one's mine, so I'm proud of it

It's a great feeling when a plan comes together

Yea I would be too..thats an awesome machine! 550W power supply though! Are you gonna run your house off of it as well?

Well. He does have 15 drive bays in his case...

- Trevor

Hehe, yeah. I think I need more drives to fill those bays. It's hard to know what to do with them

Basically I wanted a LARGE case because I'm tired of the crappy mid/mini-towers. Too small!

The total opposite of the PC I just built then. It's one of those small Shuttle SV-25 motherboard & case combos

I'm trying to get it quiet so I can leave it on without disturbing people but the CPU fan is incredibly loud!

- Trevor

Yeah, a lot of people have seemed to be going small with their new PC's. My route was purely a "Dude, you're getting rid of a Dell" attitude

I'm working on that route, too. Currently I have a list of hardware. It will be probably a few months before I'm ready to start... and I'll be doing a piece at a time, for the most part

My Dell is still very reliable, so it will become the second machine in a feeble home network. I and a couple friends like to play a few games on LAN here and there, and I'm getting sick of moving stuff - it's heavy.

One is trying to convince me to get into Diablo II, but right now the only thing I care about is quieting down my computer and getting my empeg into the car.

You laugh about the 550 watt power supply, I have 2 350's strapped onto mine. One runs The motherboard, the other runs the drives. Before, I was having CONSTANT lockup problems. It looks odd, but it works like a champ.

BTW, it's an Athlon 1.4 /w 1G PC150 mem, 4 40G (striped) DVD, CDR, Geforce2 64M (needs to be upgraded) SBLive platinum 5.1 (piped into an amp /w 12" JL audios ) I am in need of a new MoBo and Processor, but I am thinking about the video card first.

I guess I can see your point. My MAME cabient runs a 350W PS to run the mobo and drives, and I have another 235W one to run my amplifier, marquee light, coin door lights, fans, etc. Works like a champ that way.

My cabinet just uses regular fluorescent lights for the marquis and a 110 fan, and there IS no coin mech, yet.

Got any pictures? Unforunately I dont yet, but it looks EXACTLY like the Ultimate Arcade III at www.mameroom.com. I used the plans exactly.

sure... Try http://www.kenner.la.us/mason

Well, despite the fact that it may have serious problems, I'm still proud of my little machine. I've finally gotten pics of it up here:

http://www.dignan17.com/gallery/newpc