My latest computer build

After I had a major computer failure, I set out to build a replacement for it. The computer is used for general browsing, web site maintenance etc. I'm not into gaming or other processor intensive things so I set out to build a budget computer. Being impressed with the Asus pc900ha netbook that I've had for about six months I began investigating the Intel Atom processor that most of the netbooks share. I discovered that Intel's latest Atom processor is a dual core running at 1.6 ghz. Unlike most other processors, the Atom's have to be purchased mounted on a mother board. There are a number of mother board manufacturers offering boards with the Atom N330 processor. I went with the Intel D945GCLF2 Atom motherboard.

To say I'm impressed with this board would be an understatement. The typical computer builders concerns about cooling are almost of no concern as this is a low power consumption board that runs extremely cool. The best part of choosing this board is it's $89.95 price from Tiger Direct.
I added 2gb of DDR2 ram also from Tiger Direct.
For a hard drive I recycled the 80 gb Sata drive from my dead computer.
The Atom board can be mounted in just about any case as it is a 6.5"X6.5" ITX board. I decided it would look dwarfed in a traditional tower case so I opted to build it in a new case. I used the 12.75"X8"X7" Ark PI-01 case available from Newegg for $44.99. It is a good choice for something different from the "typical" computer case. Performance is far better than I expected. It runs much faster than the 2.8 ghz P4 with 2 gb ram that it replaced. I will post a further evaluation of this mini-machine once I've had a chance to run it a few weeks.I'm already convinced that it's a good computer for the minimal money I have invested in it.