I’m really not having a good time with my PCs at the moment.  Last week my Windows Home Server died, taking with it a lot of my music and photos. Now my main PC has died and won’t boot into Windows.  I don’t know why all my bits and bobs are all failing at the same time, as my laptop is playing up as well.

I’m really annoyed as I’d decided about 5 mins before the latest crash that I was going to bring forward the PC upgrade I was going to do in April.  My plan was to order a new processor, motherboard and memory with the old components going towards a building a 2nd media center for my new home.

If I can get my PC working again I’m going to do a full backup of all my files and strip the whole machine down. In fact, I think I’m actually going to give all of my PCs a full rebuild as they are all running a bit slow and have picked up a lot of crap over the months. I’ve tried installing a WHS backup with no joy so far, and I’m now trying the repair option on the Windows Vista installation CD.

I’m thinking of the following spec for my new PC. It’ll be interesting to see what people think in particular of the mobo selection, particularly PC experts like Zath and Kline. I’m not going to bother with much overclocking; I just need a nice stable and cheap motherboard.

New PC

• Processor: Intel Q6600 - NEW
• Motherboard: Asus P5K SE - NEW
• Memory: 2GB Value memory - NEW
• GPU: X1900XTX - OLD
• Scard: X-Fi Xtreme Music - OLD
• Cooling: Swiftech GPU&CPU watercooling - OLD
• Chassis: Gigabyte Aurora - OLD
• PSU: Seasonic S12-600 - OLD

I’ve gone for an intel processor for the first time because pound for pound they are much better than AMD at the moment.

New Media Center PC

• Chassis: Thermaltake Mozart VS4001SNS - NEW
• Processor: 4200+ - OLD
• CPU Cooling: Coolermaster Hyper TX2 - NEW
• Motherboard: DFI Lanparty - OLD
• Memory: 2GB - OLD
• GPU: ASUS EN8800GT - NEW
• PSU: Antec Neo 550 - NEW
• Scard: Auzen X-Fi Prelude 7.1 - NEW

Even though my other media center has a better CPU (4600+) and I could put the new soundcard and GPU in that machine, I think I’m going to put the new components in this HTPC and use it in my main room because the Thermaltake case is much cooler. I think the new soundcard will go well with the new SVS 7.1 speakers I’m planning on buying, and the more powerful EN8800GT graphics card with the new 1080P plasma I’ve already purchased.

Any thoughts on the new components before I whip out the credit card?