Custom-built Computer

[Bob]

Goal #1: To have a shelf-life expectancy BEYOND 2006 / 2007.

well, it'll be out of date mid 2005, obsolete end of 2006. (moore's? law - yes, I know it's intended for processors, but it tends to hold reasonably for lots of other components.) It might still be ok for things by 2007, but it will be far from top of line line, assume that things don't break down from wear & tear before then. Buying something decent now, and then something else in 2 years time wold probably have been a better solution, they could also have saved money by keeping the monitor, optical drives, keyboard/mouse from one bought now. Then, replacing those with cheap components have a second computer in 2 years time as well.

Besides, I was going off a Dell setup they were looking at, so I didn't exactly flex my brain on other options

You were even looking at a Dell? Bad, Bad (If there's one thing I've learned, it's NEVER buy a Pc from a manufacturer)

Absolutely NO AMD chips. That was another specification. *shrugs* To each their own. I'm an Intel fanboy, myself, but even here I would have been leaning towards AMD. They said no AMD, so I said "Ok."

Remind me to report you to the /. crowd ;-)... is it worth getting the lounge /.ed again?
Do they have Intel stock?

I had orignally only put in 2 Gigs, as that was what they had specified. Then they decided, last night, to up it to 4 Gigs. Why is beyond me - I didn't bother asking. They wanted as much memory as humanly possible.

Good job you didn't get an Athlon64... they can address a lot of RAM.

It's what they specifically asked for - one drive for reading, one for burning.

Good decision, both for that reason and because the computer doesn't become entirely unusable if one dies. When I get around to building my new one I've be going dual optical, a DVD & a CDRW.

Next highest Pentium 4 chip @ NewEgg.com: $1070, roughly. And sold out.

Since money seems to have been no object, you could have gone with a dual processor system (does windows XP share stuff out beween them automatically?) or just use Linux and the GIMP instead of photoshop. Linux would also allow them to squeeze every last drop of performance out of, XP is evil in it's system demands. My dad's PC is a P4 2.2GHz with XP, mine is a Duron 1.3GHz with W98. Mine runs faster (ok, I've got more RAM, but still, XP is a beast).

It will be used for a LOT of digital photography, as well as tons of work-at-home business

So what's the $520 graphics card in aid of? by the time anything comes out that's able to fully exploit it, it'll likely be obsolete anyway

Well, their/your choice, arguing with g/f's parents about anything is a surefire method of somethingorother. If they can say $5k budget, then I suppose they either have more money than computer-market sense (no offence intended to anyone), or really do want a dream PC (except the Intel processor)

-Bob