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Planning to build a new PC

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About 6 or 7 years ago I wrote a series of blog posts about the process of selecting components for a new PC. Believe it or not, the PC I actually built as a result of those posts is still my primary PC today. I’ve added addition hard drive, and memory and replaced the video card a few times, but otherwise it’s the same box. And it’s beginning to show its age. Okay, more than just beginning to…

So I am starting to again plan to build a new PC and figured I might as well blog about it again. If only to give myself a place to track my hardware decisions.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

  • Intel Quad-Core processor (or better, maybe Intel i7)
  • Minimum of 8GB of RAM
  • Asus SLI-capable motherboard (P5Q or P6?)
  • Intel X25 or OCZ Vertex SSD hard drive (system drive)
  • Western Digital SATA hard drive (bulk storage)
  • Promise SATA RAID controller (maybe)
  • Antec 300 Case
  • NVidia video card (GT 260?)
  • Windows 7

Any suggestions?

Why Are We Still Using Internet Explorer 6?

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There has been some discussion online recently between public servants about how the public service is still overwhelmingly using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6. I got involved when someone tweeted a link to this site: http://hey-it.com/download.html. The site provides cute posters asking the IT folks to basically get off their arses and give us a newer web browser. I responded back that there are other issues involved when upgrading web browsers, such as legacy application compatibility, and that things aren’t as clear cut as it may seem from the perspective of someone outside IT.

Well, responses to that included “don’t punish users for your deployment issues” and “are you afraid of losing your job if I upgrade my own browser”? Oh, and the term “visionless IT geeks” was tossed around. My response to this was a flurry of tweets quoting other folks rhyming off reasons why large organizations all over still use Internet Explorer 6. I then signed off Twitter and did not log back in for two days.

I essentially had a hissy-fit.

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