Bought my new [photo editing] computer.. at last!

After agonizing over the past month.. reading up on the hardwarezone and vr-zone forums, visiting Sim Lim Square numerous times and poring over price lists from Fuwell, Bell etc.. I finally took the plunge on a new PC.

My old machine - a Pentium 3-733 with 512MB ram had lasted me for some time (7 yrs!), so I wanted to build a machine that would last for quite a few years mainly to manage my photos and run Photoshop. The major consideration for me was the graphics card and since I dont game too much (except for the occasional Tiger Woods golf game or Diablo/Guild Wars slash), I decided to get a low end graphics card that will support DX10 for longevity. My final config ended up like this.... purchased from PC Themes on the 4th floor of Sim Lim Square -

• CPU - Intel C2D E6750 2.66Ghz (with Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro heatsink/fan)
• Motherboard - Asus P5K-E (comes with wireless!, been using Asus for years)
• RAM - Crucial Ballistix PC6400 DDR2-800 (decided to splurge on some nice bling bling ram even though they were double the normal ram :))
• Hard disk - Western Digital 320GB Sata2 16MB cache blah blah
• DVD Writer - Asus Lightscribe DRW-1814BLT Sata 18x (cheap lah..)
• Graphics - Asus EN8600GT 256MB (a tough choice but I decided to go with nVidia because I am not sure how ATI will fare under AMD control)
• Casing - Lian-Li PC-A05B (small and cool case.. with 120mm fans)
• PSU - Silverstone Element ST50EF-Plus 500W
• Monitor - HP w2207 22inch LCD (coming from a 15 incher.. this is bliss!)
• Keyboard - Logitech Classic Keyboard Plus
• Mouse - Logitech Mx518
• Speakers - Bose AcoustiMass 5 (hooked up to an old Technics amp)

Installed it all together with my wife (love u b!)with minimal screaming.. :) Took 4 hours.. what with all the reading of the manuals and with Harry interrupting... Vista and Photoshop CS2 here we come!

My old PCs (drumroll please... tatatataaa!!)

DREWHOME - 2000-2007 (moved to Dads place)

Pentium III-733Mhz
Asus CUSL2 motherboard
512MB SDRAM
Asus ATI MX400 32mb graphics
Creative soundcard
Maxtor 80gb & 40gb + HP CD-writer
Enlight case
Compaq Proliant keyboard + Microsoft optical mouse
Compaq 15in LCD
CH Flightstick Pro
Fav games played - Warcraft 2&3, Starcraft 2, Icewind Dale, Diablo1&2, Tiger Woods golf, Guild Wars etc

DREWII - 1995?-2000 (status - retired)

Pentium 1 200Mhz
Asus MB
128MB EDO RAM
Diamond Stealth 64 DRAM PCI graphics
Turtle Beach Monte Carlo sound (big mistake!)
IBM 16GB hard disk
4x CD reader
Viewsonic 15inch CRT
Fav games - Warcraft, Starcraft, Sims

DREW1 - Pre-1995 (status - retired)

Aris brand
Intel 486-66
32MB RAM?
Mag Innovision 17inch CRT
2.1GB, 4GB hard disk
Fav games played - Microprose Xcom UFO Unknown, Doom

Pre DREW1
Amiga 500
Apple II clone - 64MB