My new toy arrives tomorrow

I've been getting a bit sick of the junk boxes I'm working on, and finally broke down to get a new box.

• CPU - Intel 3.2 GHz C
• Motherboard - Gigabyte - Intel 865PE800
• RAM - 2 x 512 MB Samsung DDR SDRAM PC400
• Drives - 2 x Seagate S-ATA 200 GB
• Case - GMC Pung - 3 cooling fans
• Power - 350watt power supply (DAO)
• NIC - 100 Base-T
• Video - Geforce 4 FX5700
• Sound - Onboard AC97 (Go figure that one for those that know me)
• Monitor - Samsung SyncMaster 927DF - max 1920x1440 @ 65Hz, 1600x1200 @ 75HZ, 1280x1024 @ 85Hz
• Optical Drives - None - I have several at home
• Floppy - None - Why would I need one anyways?

It won't make for a decent DAW or NLE, but I'm only worried about raw speed at the moment for development.

The video card was just so I get a dual monitor setup happening. I don't play games, so that didn't factor in. If I'm in a serious pinch, I can always get my mom to do stuff for me IF I can get her to learn how to use FTP. (She's got one wicked nasty mother NLE - but lives on the other side of the planet...)

I'm going to stick in a DVD burner I have, so no other optical drives are necessary.

Sound - well, I won't be sampling in much, and most will be computer generated, so I can still maintain 24/96 quality for most things, and I'm going to release a new professional quality sample rate converter sometime soon, so anything that is 16/44 or whatever, I can just convert. I've already got some of the best software available, although there is no end to my wish list when it comes to sound...

Monitor was a tough call. I wanted 1600x1200 @ 85Hz, but they were a lot more expensive - almost double what I paid.

Hard drives are always easy to choose as they have a distinct sweet spot. Went with S-ATA for speed because SCSI is still way expensive and only justifiable on servers, DAWs, and NLEs.

For the CPU, I just wanted to stick with Intel because I've been burned by AMD systems before, and don't want to experiment further with them. I stayed away from Xeon because of cost and compatibility. Northwood seemed to be a decent choice.

So, how'd I do for a new system?

A good system, but it seams you overshot it just for development.

Until sometime ago I was developing on an old 486 DX4 100Mhz laptop for a few days of the week when I was in my other house up north, no problems.

Well, I got a call, and they were having trouble getting the CPU, so it's coming tomorrow.

As for overshooting, I do want to do a few other things of course, but they just aren't the main focus. The speed will be nice when it comes to encoding there.

And I'm crossing my fingers hoping that Notepad fires up ok...