I am also a weenie then. I overclock anything and everything that is overclockable. The performance gains can be quite substantial.

Rusty

I think we should start a "Proud to be a Weenie" club.

Robert -- thanks for the extremely helpful input!

I think it may be time to move this thread into the Glitches forum, where we may get additional feedback from the experts, overclockers, and other kinds of hardware geeks that hang out there. So I'm copying the thread over there to Glitches.

I think you should mention that when you start over-clocking you should also think about cooling and adding extra fans.

That's a good point Geo . A good case with (2)120mm fans ( 1 intake , 1 exhaust ) is recommendable . Plus a good quality CPU fan and heatsink would be a must .

Another alternative to building your own system is to have it built by a local computer shop. You would be likely to get support from the person who built it. The only drawback to building your own system is the fact that each component has its own warranty not the whole system. Also, MS is releasing a new OS this year. You may want to keep thqat fact in mind when picking out components. Kay

My thanks to everyone who has given me advice. I still haven't purchased one yet, but am getting very close.

I was going to go with the Dell, until I started getting feedback from all of you. My present computer was "built" and I was able to up-grade it over the years to its present state. So if I want the new one to do the same, I think I will get it built, as well. And thanks to all of you, I think I now know what components to get.

Now I just have to find someone to build it for me....