Ang, I'm so sorry to hear about your data loss! I bought my first home computer 5 years ago and it was because I had located a close-out retail copy of Bryce2 for only $12 U.S. I realised I would need a system to run it on so I bought a used Cyrix 166mhz system with a 1gig HD and 32megs of ram! I was pretty naive about computers then obviously! The system lasted only 4 months before it died. This inspired me to buy a magazine on building your own computer and I bought all the parts on the checklist. I couldn't believe how easy it is to build your own system! Since then I have built over 20 systems for myself and others.It is fun to build your own system, and there is a wealth of info on the web about doing so. One of the great things about it is getting the exact equipment and software config. that you want.