Rich-M

Yep I agree.

Whoa that is outrageous...

Actually that was quite true N3....not only was color super expensive, but the shelf life of the chemicals was 24 hours. Not sure about today...

That's a matter of opinion but Realtek vs Intel, not not on my side would I ever buy that. Intel cards never die. Yeah the R280 has marvelous graphics and I really do appreciate it. It seemed for quite a few years the onboard sound was getting better and better and all of a sudden it went down hill again and not sure exactly when or why.

Start here: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/build-your-own-pc,2601.html

Saves answering my question too!

OH BS and good hacker can get through them anyway but the users can never remember them. I can't wait for the day everything is run by facial recognition software. Oh and I didn't know about Opera based on Chrome, time to look at that one again. I just hate IE though I have been using it lately because I am so sick of the issues with Chrome and FF.

PC makers don't include disks these days but there is probably a Recovery Partition that will take you back to day 1 for you to use after you backup any important files and data first.

It depends on what you are trying to build because you really don't build your own solely to save money. For me it started out in that building my own was the only way I could get all of what I wanted on a system. The more you do it the better you get at it and often times you can save more money building but not by buying all the components at one time. Buying them when you see a good price enables you to have things ready for the new build that cost less when you finally go to use them i.e. today you see a 240 Gb Ssd drive for $99 so you buy it and put it aside.

What version of Windows?

My client systems should have every possible function doable. Free like Cd Burner XP and Irfanview are always onboard as is Win Patrol, Mse and Mbam Free and Open Office. Atf Cleaner and Siw are there for me as well as jv16 Tools, Wot, Adblock Plus on all browsers and there are always 2. Of course Java and Adobe Flash and Reader Auto Defrag/ I know you were concerned about open slots by 98% of mine have either Apu video or onboard video and sound. Some of the better units have Video Cards but really there is nothing else to add to them. I can't think of the last time I filled a pci or pci-X slot in a client unit while I do use them on mine occasionally. Right now on the Msi system I am using almost every slot available but that is the first time that has been true even for me in years. I used to add a pci-x Intel gigabit Ethernet card but I don't even bother with that any more. Of course I didn't realize I could use the second big pci-x slot for anything and do now thanks to William here. Hey that is why we all do this.

Newer versions of Windows have shut down "Auto Play" Mike.

Yes it just slides in but it has the holes on the side to fasten as you would a normal hard drive or use sliders if your case accommodates them.

Wow 10 usb ports on that board....looks nice.

If you look at the bracket Dougie they are about 1/2 apart and remember an SSD has no moving parts so they really do not generate heat anyway.

Good point Dougie on the free Pro Version trial....

Good to know thanks kick.

The reason I don't put much faith in the tests including the famed VB100 is that there are so many ways to measure the product and why I love NOd32 is the site protection I have never seen on another product. That is true "outside the box" protection because the problem never gets near the system, it simply gets avoided. I never went far enough testing Emsisoft to ascertain if it has that too though in day to day use I never saw any evidence it does. But however the WOT is so effective, in many cases another product never has a chance to react but I have seen NOd32 react before WOT whern both are on hand.

If contrast means anything to the photograph, black and while can really enhance it.

Not sure what that is all about but the Security community thinks very highly of Emsisoft and it is the one product that really is for Virus and Spyware combined that I know really works. I ran it for a year on one pc here and was very impressed with it and I know Starbuck is a fan also.

I agree with Kick and today seldom use anything more than a live cd to play with Linux anyway. Puppy Linux which is relatively easy and a small footprint allows you to save files on the host pc running live-cd so that when you come back you have a history and that is a nice way to learn. My biggest problem when I used to run a Linux pc as a bench machine to read client hard drives was I never could install anything to it and I really did try learning how to do that in Linux but just could not get it. When I dual booted for a while on the same pc it seemed whenever I really counted on the thing to bootup somehow it was always corrupted so I just stopped playing. With Windows off on this charade to end Windows OS as we know it and "sell you what you need" after Windows 10, I may well go back and finally master Linux if I have the time because I can see I am not long for Windows now.

I totally concur though I might be tempted to add Emsisoft to that list as I feel equally good about that product and wonder if that isn't the one that sooner or later replaced Mbam. All of the recent phone calls about Mbam update issues is really unnerving and I think the program is imploding right in front of our eyes.

Note you can use one for two drives, that is what caught my eye originally even though I never used them that way.

You will find the interface much improved but again its best feature is its site protection, I have never seen better.