It's been a while since I've looked at building a new PC, because the PCs I build tend to last a very, very long time.  My current system is still extremely fast, but XP is starting to show its age, and upgrading to Win7 is impossible with the dated motherboard I have.  It's pretty rare that hardware specs outlast software requirements, but here I am.

So after doing a bit of research, I built a cost-effective but very high performance PC on Newegg, and I thought I'd share.  A few things are missing (like a keyboard, mouse, video card, and monitor) because these things will be re-used from the last system since they're still essentially perfect (Razer Mamba mouse, LG Flatron W2452T 24" LCD + secondary smaller old Dell monitor, Microsoft Ergo 4000 Keyboard, and a Geforce GTX 460).

My goal with any PC is simple:  Find the FASTEST parts that aren't ridiculously priced due to being too close to the cutting edge, and keep the overall system cost within a reasonable amount.  In the past this was typically under $1000, but the new SSDs cost a bit more.

I went with 16 GB of RAM - probably overkill, but I thought 2 GB was overkill when I built this PC, and I hit the cap all the time with all of the apps I run.

The Core I5-2500K is the overclockable version of that processor, and while an i7 would have been nice, the cost just isn't justifiable (another $100 or +50%) for the performance gain it provides (+5-10% at most.)

The new PC features a solid state drive for the main OS/Program Files drive, and two secondary 1 TB drives (1 for data, 1 for pure backup.)

It's hard to find good information on fast standard HDDs with all the attention on SSDs these days.  But that Samsung Spinpoint is as fast as it gets.  There are faster drives available, of course, but again, it's about a reasonable price/performance ratio, leaning toward the high end of the performance range.  The trick is to find the items that are priced within the range of standard, slower competitors, just before the huge uptick in price kicks in for the premium, cutting edge parts.

Any quesitons, post to Facebook!

My Wish List Details

Qty.	Image	Product Description	Unit Price	Savings	Total Price
2		SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive Model #:HD103SJ Item #:N82E16822152185 Return Policy:Standard Return Policy In Stock	$64.99		$129.98
1		Thermaltake V3 Black Edition VL80001W2Z Black SECC / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case Model #:VL80001W2Z Item #:N82E16811133094 Return Policy:Standard Return Policy In Stock Mail in Rebate Card	$49.99	-$5.00 Instant	$44.99
1		ASUS SABERTOOTH P67 (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel P67 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard Model #:SABERTOOTH P67(REV3) Item #:N82E16813131702 Return Policy:Standard Return Policy In Stock	$219.99	-$10.00 Instant	$209.99
1		OCZ ModXStream Pro 700W Modular High Performance Power Supply compatible with Intel Sandybridge Core i3 i5 i7 and AMD Phenom Model #:OCZ700MXSP Item #:N82E16817341018 Return Policy:Standard Return Policy In Stock Mail in Rebate Card	$129.99	-$40.00 Instant	$89.99
1		Intel Core i5-2500K Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz (3.7GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor BX80623I52500K Model #:BX80623I52500K Item #:N82E16819115072 Return Policy:CPU Replacement Only Return Policy In Stock	$219.99		$219.99
1		OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) Model #:VTX3-25SAT3-120G Item #:N82E16820227706 Return Policy:Limited Replacement Only Return Policy In Stock Mail in Rebate Card	$299.99	-$45.00 Instant	$254.99
2		G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL Model #:F3-14900CL9D-8GBXL Item #:N82E16820231455 Return Policy:Memory Standard Return Policy In Stock	$89.99		$179.98
Subtotal:					$1,129.91

This is an old article I wrote years ago, and I've continually been surprised at how much traffic it continues to receive via one of my old domains.  I've decided to migrate it here to my main blog.  I've done some very minor editing and link fixing but it pretty much looks the way it was years ago.  It is basically a highly irresponsible experiment in how lean you can make a Windows XP installation, while still retaining a fair amount of usability (take that word with a grain of salt), only for highly adventurous people.  Unfortunately due to recent server migrations I have no way of knowing how old this article is.  My sense is that it is more than 4 years old.

Building a Windows XP Chopper

(or, how to make Windows XP use less than 32 MB of RAM)

by Erik Knepfler

   The term Chopper originally came from the early days of motorcycling, when financially disadvantaged motorcycling war veterans (read, "broke bikers") would chop up and remove their unfixable bike parts instead of replacing them.  It made their bikes leaner and lighter for the races, hill climbs, and infamous duels in the Circle of Death ("C'mon!  I just swept the Circle of Death!").  Thus, the Chopper was born.  Later the whole Chopper thing mutated and became crazy, but I digress.

    At some point, Windows XP change from being a fairly quick, efficient, stable improvement over Windows 9x to being a virus and spyware infested beast with more services running than most people have teeth.  Memory use hit an all time high - some people just boot their machine and it's already using 200+ MB of RAM!

    A Windows XP Chopper is an OS chopped to be the leanest, meanest, most trimmed down version of itself possible.  The purpose of this is to create an XP operating system that is dedicated to executing ONE TASK AT A TIME, guaranteeing full attention to that application at hand, with as few background processes running as humanly possible.

    I warn you.  This is not like other guides.