I walk past the components at a couple of stores I visit (like Fry's, with it's online version at Outpost.com), and always feel the tug of "build it yourself." I'd love to do that one of these days, get one of those fancy clear and neon brushed metal boxes and add to it. . .

It is the software that kills you in the computer acquisition these days. It used to be the cheap part of the computer.

I'm using free security software and just recently switched to the antivirus and firewall provided by Earthlink. I don't like seeing as many ads as appear, and some software crashes rather than closing when I try to close it. I'm tweaking things. Most of the rest of the software was purchased.

SRS