Storing Stuff Everywhere

I'm in the market for a new computer, and of course I'm building it myself. I built my current PC, dubbed "Dragonfly" in early 2004 with a budget of just $600, and I have done pretty well over the last five years. Built with an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ CPU, 512 MB of DDR memory, a Radeon x700 GPU, and a 160 GB SATA hard disk drive, I built a machine capable of playing one game: Half-Life 2. This game meant so much to me that the expense to build a new machine was nothing major.

I've made some minor tweaks over the years: upgraded the video card to a Radeon x1950 Pro (the x700's cooling fan failed), added a hard disk drive or three, bumped up to a gig of memory, and got a now-12 year old 17-inch CRT monitor that's ultra-crisp and perfect for gaming.

Now in 2009, I'm looking to upgrade my PC, although this time gaming isn't behind my move. Prices for components are aligning to be very desirable, component decent enough to build a mid-to-high end computer for about the same $600 that I spent five years ago. I intend to reuse parts where possible: my video card is still worthwhile, my hard disk drives still usable (if not a bit small), and my case/power supply adequate. With that said, I'm in need of a new heart: a new processor means a new motherboard means new memory.

While remaining a gaming machine primarily, I need a PC that's hardcore on multitasking and virtualization, as I intend to run Linux and experiment with other operating systems virtually, so a multicore processor and lots of memory is a must.

I'm also looking to store a lot of information. Media, files, ISOs, and tons more, then back it all up for safe keeping. While I have a combined total of 502 GB of drive space across four drives now, I really need something larger. I'm eyeing an HDD in the range of 750 GB to 1 TB (terabyte) to house my collection of MP3s and digital photos. The biggest reason for the size upgrade, however, comes in the form of video: I intend to begin backing up all my DVDs in digital form: one high-quality copy for general viewing, and one "portable," iPod-compatible copy as well (since I have the iPod touch and all now). Backing up all my DVDs would take a looooong time, but the effort would be worth it. I'm not jumping on the Blu-ray bandwagon any time soon, so high definition isn't a high priority for me... buy keeping my current favorite movies intact is.

So for a new computer I'm looking to buy some of the best of the current gear that's on the verge of being replaced. In other words, Core 2 Quad instead of Intel i7. Along with a quad core processor from Intel, I'm looking at an all SATA-compatible motherboard and 4 GB of memory, although I'm still working out these details. I'm also eyeing a very nice $200 22-inch 1080p LCP monitor from Dell, which would serve multiple purposes: an excellent workspace for writing and programming, as well as a future display for an XBOX 360 (perhaps a summer purchase).

I'm planning to get all this buying underway by the end of this week, so stay tuned as I update my progress on this project.

B3 out.