http://www.anandtech.com/memory/index.html
There are 2 articles.. searching for the memory Holy Grail, part 1 & 2. Also read the Mushkin and Adata 2 for the fast times. Lots of great info on all the new DDR's out and the -E deluxe board.
Oh yeah, I had those already. Good links. (BTW, what's wrong with the "quote" function here? Every time I use it, it only quotes ONE LINE and not all the text I need to quote. This started recently).
Someone asked about power supplies. I did a lot of research on this and the best one is the Fortron/Source FSP400-60PFN. It's also about the cheapest. It was half the price of some units tested. It only has ONE FAN, yet it ran the COOLEST of the bunch at different sites that review supplies. Out of 12-15 supplies, it had the 2nd to lowest memory test errors. Less than a 1% different from the 1st place finisher in that specific test, and it was half the price. It also had the 2nd highest or highest actual wattage output. I only paid $59 for mine. It's the
heaviest supply I've ever held. Out of about 4-5 sites that tested supplies; all gave that supply the top rating. The only drawback to it, is it's really ugly. Looks like a cheap, typical gray, ATX supply.
vortexted, I already answered that about the hard drives.
You cannot install any critical updates without first installing an OS. After you install XP,
install SP1 and NOT SP1a, then install the mobo drivers, next install the rest of your drivers to get rid of any yellow marks in the device manager. You may have to install a patch for USB 2.0 support before the USB drivers on the mobo CD will 'take'. Then, install
ONLY what you
definitely need from the win update site.
It's too much to type here, but suffice to say that the majority of what the update site tells you that you need,
you not only don't need it, but they can screw your PC up bad. You have to click the "read more" links below each update and read about them to decide if you need them or not. The update site is stupid, it's not what it used to be. In addition to it telling you to install BS you don't need (which in many cases is also trackware); contrary to what the M$ jerks say at the site,
the site does indeed scan your ENTIRE HD's, and DOES INDEED not only send personal info back to M$, but also sends info back to the manufacturers of OTHER software and programs on your HD's! What I do, is subscribe to a newsletter than informs you of ALL available updates, then I read about them to see if they are applicable in my case. If I find that I need any, I go to
a NON MS website to download them. The second best thing you can do is do what I suggested above about the update site: [shudder] let it scan your HD to tell you what's available, write those down, then read about them by searching for the update # @google, but do not download the updates you need from the update site. Get them from elsewhere. The less time you spend at that site, the better. Also remove ANY cookies from MS on your HD when you are through, empty the Content.IE5 folder (dumping it from IE options does NOT remove everything), and clear your history. At least on my PC, I CANNOT manually remove individual MS links from your history!! The only way to remove them is to clear your entire history, and on my PC it takes about FIVE or MORE times of hitting the dam' "delete" button for the history to clear! The less M$ tracking and spying crap you have on your PC, the better.