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2.  Get retail rather than OEM version of burner to get software.

 

I bought a OEM version of my second Lite-on, BTW, as I read the original (Nero) drivers would still work (It was a newer model, slightly faster)

Guess what, they didn't work!

I found a set of "generic" Nero drivers though, for about $10, which did work, but I'll buy the Retail version next time!

Incidently, I've been building my own systems since my last pre-assembled one (which was a 386), and let me say it is getting easier and easier to set them up.   While you don't save a lot of money building them yourself, you do get better components.  

The downside is if there is a problem...    I've had bad memory, bad motherboards, bad drives, sometimes it is hard to figure out what is wrong, too.  But components do seem to be getting better.

The ATI cards (at least some of them) are supposed to have problems with 64-bit Windows, I hear.  My "old" system has a ATI workstation card (a 9800 Pro), the new one has a ATI gaming card (a 1950X), the later seems to run Max 9 AND Poser better, if anything, but it doesn't really support dual monitors (in spite of what ATI says).  I'm going to try a second video card in the new box. 

After I lost a couple months of work in my old-old system I got a lot more religious about backing up my new-old system (which has RAID 0, plus a dedicated backup drive).  However, as the new-new system is on RAID 10 I don't plan on doing many backup (RAID 10, as you probably know is RAID 0 + 1, you need 4 identical drives).  Still, I make my living on the computer, for others it might not be worth it.

Thanks very much, Jim, for the additional insights.  It's great to be able to get all this great ex ante advice form you, svdl, and all the others who have been willing to take time to share your wisdom and experience on this.  I really appreciate it.

Latest tweaks to the system plan are:

1.  substitute a Corsair 520w PSU for the Thermaltake

2.  drop the Zalman CPU fan and use the cooler included with the E6600 CPU

3.  substitute a Lite-On DVD burner for the Sony ... retail version

4.  substitute a NEC floppy drive for the Sony (saves $2.00!!  I can tell my wife I'm really economizing!)

Seems like the last major decision I have to make now is on the OS:  Win XP Pro x64 or plain Win XP Pro (don't want to do Home version since I want to be able to network this machine to the others in my house).  Some commenters have made me nervous about driver problems with the x64 version, but my understanding is that there are advantages to the x64 version.