Before you say it…yes, I know that it would probably be cheaper to buy one but for what I’d like to have in my new one, it might just be better to build it instead. Plus the experience would be invaluable too.

However, from some of the research I’ve been doing lately, it seems there is a vast market for “refurbished or reconditioned” computers. Most come with no peripherals like monitors, keyboards or a mouse but are certified as being the same as what you’d buy in a store. Warranties are varied depending on who you’d buy from but that’s where the shopping comes into play. Comparing prices, warranties and machines would probably net me around 15 to 30% savings over a new machine. It’s just that the refurbished one would be around 3 to 6 months old by the time it becomes available for purchase again due to all the stringent testing that goes on before they put a refurbished computer back on the market again.

Presently, my old one has the following inside:

• AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 2.0 GHz Processor
• 2 GB’s of RAM
• 1.44MB Floppy Drive (disconnected as I don’t use it anymore)
• Hard Drive “A” 120 GB Maxtor 7200 RPM
• Hard Drive “B” 160 GB (unknown)
• CD ROM 16x DVD ROM
• CDR-W 52×24x52 CD-RW, Burner, w/sfw
• 64MB GeForce 2 MX/400 Video Card
• ATI Radeon 9200 SE Video Card
• Sound 32-Bit 3D Surround Sound
• Network 100/10 BaseT Ethernet Port
• Case ATX Mid Tower w/Case Fan & 4 Full / 6 Half Drive Bays
• 300 Watt Power Supply

Now this system is around 5 years old now and has had several upgrades done to it. Not to mention a few OS reloads due to some malware/spyware junk that couldn’t be gotten rid of when I was running some version of Windows primarily.

What I’d like to have in a new one (and what I’ll be shopping around for to compare prices) is something faster with more capacity for some projects I’ve got lined up. The ability to run up to 3 monitors at once also is on my list. 2 will do but 3 would be better.

I’m not all that heavy into gaming but I do enjoy a game once in a while so the CPU doesn’t have to be game level but not so far from it that I’m stuck with a 640×480 resolution. Yuck!

I do use photo editing software a pretty good bit plus web development software along with graphics creation. So, something that would handle apps like The Gimp (or Photoshop), Kompozer (or Dreamweaver) and Inkscape (or Fireworks) with ease; run multiple open tabs in Firefox and have Thunderbird running with not so much as a sneeze would work just fine.

Now, graphics wise, I’d like to have the NVidea 8800 cards powering the monitors. The frame rates are wonderful and would do just fine for the gaming and other apps I would be running.

Storage is another problem. What I’d like to do is to run 3 hard drives. One for my Windows applications that I’ve bought over the years (and refuse to just trash because I prefer to run Ubuntu) and games and the other 2 for my Linux distro called Ubuntu. One drive would be for the OS and the other would be for file storage (photos, music, other junk). Drive speed would be preferable at 7200 RPM if I could get it and capacity would depend on pricing at the time of purchase.

A case to house all of this in would be more along the lines of ease of maintenance, aesthetically pleasing and with the required ports needed up front that would be used the most like USB and a multi-card reader for cameras, camcorders, cell phones, etc. Size would not be an issue as it’s going to sit beside the desk anyway.

So, my search is on and I’m going through computer magazines both online and in print. Talking to folks who’ve built their own machines to get ideas and what to watch for is helping too. I keep going back to one online magazine for research called Computer Shopper. So far it’s been helpful.

If any of you have built your own and have some tips or advice or decided to just buy one built to your specs; feel free to toss some advice this way. I’d like to hear what you came up with for your purposes or what you had custom built and by who.

Hmm, wonder which item would be the starting point? Case? CPU? Hard Drives? What?