Finally bit the bullet and have purchased the new “bits” and built a new PC (with assistance from Snork!) My old PC was built when I was in the UK in 2001! – i.e AMD 1.25GHz, 512k RAM, 40GB Hard drive etc…. it was about to die and the fans sounded like they were about to take off!

So here is the spec of my new toy (cost about $1200NZD with Vista Premium and Office s/w included in that price) : hmmm more power…..

• CASE – Asus VENTO TA-915 ATX Mid Tower
• DVD DRIVE – Asus DRW-2014L1T LightScribe SATA DVD-RW
• MOTHERBOARD – Asus M2N-VM HDMI Socket 940 AM2 GEFORCE 7050PV DDR2 1066 PCI-E
• RAM – Adata 4GB Dual Kit (2GB*2) DDR2-800 PC6400 240Pin UNB PC2-6400
• PROCESSOR -AMD Phenom 9550 Quad Core 2.2GHz
• HARD DRIVE – Western Digital 7200rpm 640GB 16M SATA Hard Disk
• TV TUNER CARD – Hauppauge WinTV-HVR4000 HD Quad-mode TV receiver

 You’ll notice I have a TV tuner card in the mix – next project is to get it to work so I can get Freeview (DVB-S or DVB-T) and record TV onto my hard drive.  A bit of a mission I believe with New Zealand specs using the latest codecs and standards for HD transmission. 

Will let you know how I go with setting this up…..