Well, the word has come down from the mountain that my loan did indeed get approved for next semester. I might even have a little extra. The best plan I had for that extra was the essential computer upgrade. I’m torn between just starting a whole new system or just upgrading basic components in this one. Lemme give you a list and you can tell me what you think:

Current System:
AMD K63 – 450mhz
Asus P5A Mobo
392Mb of PC133 Ram
Creative Labs GeForce 2 GTS
Maxtor 10G HD
Maxtor 20G HD
Soundblaster PCI 128
Plextor 32x SCSI CD-Rom drive
Yamaha 6x6x16 SCSI CD burner
+the usually extras (network card, floppy drive etc)

So, that’s what I go. Pretty sad huh?

I want to get something fairly new so I won’t have to upgrade for another 3 years (like I did with this one). I think 3 years is a good shelf life for a PC. Plus I won’t just throw this away, I have every intention of slapping a few network cards into it and making it my little server/router bitch.

I’d like to get something along these lines:

New case w/300w+ power
motherboard: either the Soyo SY-K7V or the Gigabyte GA-7VTXE
Athlon 1800+ or faster
PC2100 DDR memory
GeForce3 Ti 500 (LeadTek WinFast maybe?)
DVD Drive

So, now the question is… sound I keep all the stuff I have that’s useful (HD’s, soundcard, CD drives, etc) or should I go full boat and pick up something like one of the new WD1200 hard drives and a SoundBlaster Audigy X-gamer. Should I go back to IDE or stick with SCSI? See, these are the decisions I can’t make. I also realize that SCSI items would be twice the price of IDE stuff. So there’s cost to consider. I don’t know. What do you guys think?

Also, PART 2 of the music essay is on its way tonight. Later.