My sister took possession of her "new" AMD Athlon 64 PC two weeks ago, replacing her seven-year-old Win98SE HP Pavilion. I had a local computer shop assemble the machine from new parts and parts left over from earlier upgrades.

The new:
*Cooler Master Centurion 5 case ($30 after MIR from CompUSA). Replaced the front 80mm chassis fan with a SilenX iXtrema Pro fan -- moves more air and is quieter.
*AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice single core ($82 from Egghead).
*EVGA GeForce 7900GS video card. It was on sale at Fry's with a MIR. I used my Fry's gift card my sister and her husband gave me for Christmas, so it cost me nothing.
*Antec TruePower Trio 550W PSU.
*250GB Seagate HD.
*Pioneer DVD burner.
*3½-inch floppy drive.
*MS optical mouse.
*Belkin Gold Series surge suppressor.
*Windows XP Home Edition.

The used:
*Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard. Replaced the loudly dying chipset fan with a Zalman ZM-NB47J heatsink. It works, with about 2mm clearance for the video card.
*Two 512MB Super Talent PC3200 RAM modules.
*Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card.
*Two-year-old 19-inch LaCie CRT.
*Ten-year-old HP keyboard (a heavy sucker with a good feel).

The future:
*A quality set of speakers.
*External USB or FireWire HD.
*Ubuntu (dual-boot system).

Despite the improper wiring job by the computer shop, the system was stable, even while running AquaMark3 and Memtest86+. However, the CPU and chassis fans were running at one-half to one-third speed. Sometimes they didn't run at all. Connecting the fans into their proper power connectors didn't fix the problem. After messing around in the BIOS setup and Windows, I fixed the fan problem, but I don't know which of the following actions did it: I removed the external dual SATA port connector, which had signal cables plugged into SATA3 and SATA4 on the motherboard. The connector was not powered. The Seagate HD signal cable was plugged into SATA2. I replugged the HD into SATA1. I then removed the CMOS battery and cleared the RTC RAM. I replaced the CMOS battery with a fresh one.

Later, I reinstalled Windows XP and was greeted by an error message near the end of the install. Setup could not copy a DLL from the CD. I removed the CD and carefully cleaned it with a non-abrasive lens wipe. Setup was able to continue and I ran the System File Checker as soon as I got to the desktop.

I installed the drivers and security software, activated Windows, and downloaded dozens of updates from Microsoft. I then installed some choice open source software, freeware, and made some desktop backgrounds from pics of her infant granddaughter (very cute).

My sister wants the PC to last her ten years and wrote me a check for $400.

Good Vista review: Windows Vista: The Best Case for Windows XP Ever, by Dustin Sklavos. In short, he calls it "Windows ME Part 2."