Robert_Charlton - 12:49 am on Oct 21, 2004 (gmt 0)

Build your own home PC if it gives you kicks. For a professional machine my sincere advice is make sure you have one-butt-to-kick if things go wrong. If price is a factor it makes all the more sense to get it done by someone who does this for a living.

Macro - I hear what you're saying. If I were getting a dedicated professional video editing setup, I wouldn't go to a clone builder (great for office and gaming machines)... I'd go to a dealer who specializes in professional video systems, and I would run my business apps on a separate machine. I probably want something in between. Maybe it's simplest to make the two-machine decision now and focus on business and web apps on this machine, but that's a frustrating thing to do if I can choose wisely now and keep the door open.

I hope I made it clear, in any event, that I'm not considering building my own machine, but I am trying to make sure I get some industrial strength components in places where the clone builder might be into skimping. At the same time, it's hard to tell them that I value dependability without then having them try to sell me the moon in all components.

Thanks for all the information. I surf with Active-X off, and most of these power user sites are into glitz, so I can't get silentpcreview.com to load, but I was able look at Antec reviews on other sites. Are there guidelines anywhere for computing how large a power supply I need?

The hard drives the clone maker recommends with this system, btw, are the WD Ultra 100s... 60, 80, or 120Gb, or the 120JB. I don't think these are SATA.

I've gotten several recommendations for the ASUS P4P800, but the clone builder doesn't like them because there are too many options that are hard to configure, and I'm getting a sense that I don't really need what the board offers. I've been running an ASUS board on my current system for years.

Re Dell, I've heard several warnings from friends who should know that, in underpricing everyone else, Dell has had to sacrifice quality.

One graphics card I've been considering for the interim is the nVidia GeoForce FX5200, which would let me play an occasional game to see what it's like, which I know is all the gaming I'd ever be doing; but I'm not sure I need even that much of a card.