I recently started the process of building a new machine. Vista has shipped, along with a new Adobe Creative Suite 3, Microsoft Office 2007, and since new and improved CPU cycle sapping – "productivity enhancers" are on the way (Orcas and Katmai) it's time to upgrade. My old AGP based, AMD socket 939 motherboard, with DDR 400 memory and IDE drives doesn't feel fast anymore. My Xbox 360 currently smokes my PC as a game machine at the moment. It felt like a new chapter in the never ending war between Gate's Law and Moore's Law (right now I'd say Microsoft is winning) had dawned. Anyway, here's what Vista thinks of my current machine…

Regrettably, my machine feels like 2.4, despite the fact it has 2 GB of RAM, so it's probably influenced my initial thoughts on Vista. At any rate, a few weeks ago I scored an AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ CPU and some Mini-ATX board made in some 3rd world country by 8 year old orphans special from the local Fry's for $229. Apparently the new Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs is putting a world of hurt on AMD. Usually AMD's top of the line chip doesn't sell for $200, 2 months after general release. That's OK, AMD's pain is my gain. I figured at that price, I could throw away the motherboard and come out ahead. So for the past month or so, I've bought a lot of modern hardware to go with my fast CPU (EVGA 8600 GTS - DX 10 – PIC-E graphics card, WD Raptor SATA hard drive, Lian Li 500W power supply, DDR2 800 memory, an AM2 ATX motherboard, etc.) Besides, if I want to switch back to an Intel platform or upgrade to a multi-monitor setup, I needed compatible/faster parts anyway.

So this past weekend, I put everything together, and the machine refuses to boot or post. Lovely… I then play musical spare parts to figure out what part is bad. Unfortunately, since the entire machine is made up of new parts of unknown quality, it takes me longer to figure what's causing the problem. Typically, I just upgrade on component at time, which makes it easier to play PC doctor. Anyway, I eventually figured out that the Asus M2N-E motherboard didn't like my CPU. So go back to Computer Stop and exchange the board out for an Asus M2N-SLI motherboard. No luck either… At this point, I figure I need a BIOS upgrade since all the part combinations I've tried seem to work when I threw the CPU in the Mini-ATX board I got. Unfortunately, I need a slower CPU in the motherboard in order to flash the BIOS. According to the Asus website, the 6000+ is a compatible CPU, although Google-ling for answers led me to many complaints about that CPU/Mobo combo on the various hardware forums and no real answers.

At any rate, after a week of frustration I've dropped the whole thing off with the technicians at the local computer store and let them play the make it boot game. I figure their time is cheaper than mine (I got a Realtor.com feed to implement), and they are more likely to know the ins & outs of modern hardware than I do (like why does my power supply have a 12V 4+4 power connection, but my motherboard doesn't?) Anybody know what the differences between the ATX v2.0 and ATX v2.2 PSU standards? I initial thought my power supply was the problem, but I tried an old Enermax PSU and it had the same problem with that motherboard.

Building your own PC is fun and a relatively inexpensive way of getting a screaming fast machine. Unfortunately, when the parts don't want to play together, it becomes a joyless experience. Ugh, now I know why people buy Dells & Apples.