Follow up to:

Well, I've finally got my Custom Built PC up and running. I must say, the thing is BLAZING fast. With the recent release of QCharts 6.0.3 and 8Gig of DDR2 RAM (DDR3 is currently too expensive), I'm looking forward to finally having a machine that can keep up with my expectations.

The real point: I've basically had the store build a Mac, with Windows Vista 64-bit. If I could find a way to put all 128G Ram into this machine, I would. It's also upgradable to a Quad-Core... but again, the price-to-performance ratio for what I would be doing is just not convincing enough to shell out the cash... maybe later.

All that horsepower to run QCharts, MS office (possibly), Rip DVD's for one client & browse 10 web pages... seems like a waste. Truth be told, this is probably the First PC that I've "enjoyed" working on. It doesn't lag (yet) and it runs much cooler than the Dell. Of course, it has a fairly massive heat sink on the processor and 4 fans in it... the darn thing BETTER run cool. It would have been better if the ENTIRE case would have acted as a heat sink to the system, but why ask it.

One thing I've got to give my PC using friends... their computers are often upgradable longer than my Mac. All they need to do is replace parts. My mac doesn't offer such continuous customization. That's fine, by the time I get to when it NEEDS an upgrade, I just buy a new machine.

After dropping about $1,800 into this machine, I expect it to run for another couple years where I MIGHT upgrade the processor and motherboard. So far, the guy that built the machine has been building PC's for 11 years at his current post. He said that this machine is a pretty good build and should perform well for quite some time. If you're wondering whether I've become a windows convert. No. I still don't trust windows and don't know how to fix it WHEN it breaks... still, this is the closest I've come to converting. That is until I get a Mac Pro with all the toys and 8 X 42" DLP monitors and gobs of RAM.

One day I'll stop using a Mac. But I'll be dead then... so I guess you can't count that, can you?