Practical Dream

The Practical Dream Machine

Here are the specs for this power machine.  They aren't all the absolute best, but they're pretty close:

• CPU:  Lower end option:  Celeron 366 PPGA with MSI Slotket adapter overclocked to 550 MHz OR Intel Pentium III 450 MHz (w/ or w/o overlcocking to 558 MHz). 
  Higher end option is a Pentium III "E" 600 MHz overclocked to 800 MHz.
• Motherboard:  AOpen AX6BC Pro II.  Other possibilities are MSI BXMaster or Asus CUBX. 
• RAM:  Two Corsair / Micron 128 MB PC133 SDRAM DIMMs for a total of 256 MB.
• Hard Drive:  IBM 22GXP 22 GB 7200 rpm IDE Hard Drive (a lower cost alternative is Maxtor's 7200 rpm IDE Hard Drive - 30 GB).
• Video Card:  Matrox Millenium G400 MAX (for videophiles) or one of the Nvidia GeForce cards with 32 MB DDR RAM (preferably the Guillemot 3D Prophet) - for gamers. 
• Case:  InWin Full Tower Case (Q500) with 300 watt power supply.
• Modem:  3Com/US Robotics External FaxModem Pro (USB/Serial). 
  OR:
  NIC:  D-Link DFE-530TX PCI Ethernet card.
• Monitor:  19" Princeton Graphics AGX900 Monitor with Sony Trinitron .25 dpi tube. 
• CD-ROM Drive:  Creative Labs 52x IDE CD-ROM Drive.
  OR:
  DVD-ROM Drive:  Pioneer 16x ATAPI DVD-ROM Drive with software decoding (purchase the RealMagic Hollywood Plus decoder card if desired)
• Sound Card:  Creative Labs' Sound Blaster Live! Value 3D audio sound card.
• Speakers:  Altec-Lansing ADA305 Speakers with Dolby Pro Logic Decoder and USB controls (optional use). 
• Backup:  Iomega IDE Zip Drive (100 MB).
  OR:
  Castlewood Orb 2.2 GB Removable Drive.
• Floppy Drive:  Teac 1.44.
• Mouse:  Microsoft IntelliMouse PS/2.
• Keyboard:  Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite USB or PS/2. 
• Printer:  Epson Stylus 640 or 740.
• CD Burner:  Plextor PX-W8432TI 8x write, 4x rewrite.

 Options:

• Game Controller:  Gravis Xterminator Game Pad.
• Scanner:  HP 5200 CXI Scanner.
• Digital Camera:  Kodak DC210 Plus.
• Video Capture:  Iomega Buzz. 
• UPS:  OptiUPS 650ES Battery Backup with Voltage Regulation.