Time For A New Build- My Last 32 Bit Will Be An Intel

I've pretty much stuck with AMD, in all previous builds, because I feel Intel is basically charging you a premium to pay for all of their advertising & commercials. I have yet to ever lose an AMD processor so I think AMD must be doing something right.

However, a few months ago, I had the good fortune to happen across what I think was a stellar deal on a new motherboard. It was a close-out at mwave.com for the Shuttle AB60R. This is a totally loaded board- has everything I wanted & then some...but is an Intel board- thus the need for a Pentium 4 chip.

I really wanted to go close to max & get a 3.0Ghz- but just couldn't justify that price tag. I wanted a retail box- which extends the warranty from 1 yr. to 3 yrs. I ended up settling on the 2.6Ghz which I picked up at a very good price on ewiz.com.

Now, lastly, comes the RAM. This board & CPU runs at 800mhz- so I went with 400mhz DDR from newegg.com. It'll be 2 GB of OCZ's finest. Getting that at a spectacular deal, as well, after rebate, sale, free shipping, & $50 Xmas gift card redemption. Woot!

So, I'm psyched! My "newest" PC is now 4 yrs. old- & showing it's age as I attempt to run ever more processor-intensive apps & games. For business use mainly- this will be perfect for running all of my virtual machines within VMWare. I intend to install Windows 98, ME, W2K, & XP- plus various Linux, as I have time.

I do more in Xandros than the others- but since the player is free & VMWare community provides the images, why not try them all?

Now, just have to find the time & space...My office is a shambles- & I really need to start there, I suppose? However, I'll need to set up the board to verify the RAM is good, in the least. Can't RMA it after I cut the UPC for the rebate. I have an idea what I'm going to do with the office/workbench...just need to get the last of the repairs out so I can re-work it all.