Q. I was reading your column recently about building your own computer although I haven't made my mind up to do it yet.

I also regularly note your software utility recommendations and I was thinking that you probably have a really great system yourself. What type of computer do you personally use and do you have any really great recommendations for components?

A. I have a Dell that I use just for still image photo editing and to capture motion video which I then edit and produce on another computer.

I do, however, have a computer I built myself that I really like, it's the one I use to write “Straight Talk About Computers” and other technical articles that I produce weekly. It uses an Intel motherboard with a 1.7ghz P4 processor (given to me by a friend who wanted more power). Whereas I'm quite happy with a less than cutting-edge processor I do want my PC to have as much memory as I can fit or afford.

The Intel motherboard I use has two available memory slots, in them I run 1GB of PC 133 RAM and would have the maximum of 1.5GB if one gigabyte modules were more affordable. Before I go any further let me say that, where possible, I buy all my components locally. My only indulgence with my current working computer is that it is built inside a clear acrylic case and looks like it is made out of glass which is an attention-getter in my computer repair workroom.

I justified the extra expense by telling myself that I will be able to use it as a teaching tool and better explain the various components inside the computer to my customers without having to constantly take the side off. When assembling PC's or repairing them I favour large capacity, high quality power supplies with double fans. The one on my work computer has the capacity of 500 watts.

For Pentium 4 motherboards I never use one with less than 350 watts. To keep up with technology I am now burning 4.7gb's DVD's. I use a Pioneer DVD recorder since I was told that the Sony unit that I originally preferred may have reliability problems.

I like the fast throughput of USB 2, so on all my PC's I have added a Belarc USB 2 PCI card to give me extra high speed ports on the back. I also use a Soyo USB 2 front mounted panel. I don't have any FireWire devices but if I did I would be able to connect them into the Audigy 2 card.

I prefer large hard drives and for myself I wouldn't be bothered with anything smaller than 80 GB. I connect to the Internet using an external Ethernet DSL modem and for a sound card I favour the industry standard Audigy 2 by SoundBlaster. It's not exotic I know, but it's affordable and produces an excellent sound. I'm a great believer in a cool running PC so all together my PC's use up to five fans including the processor fan. Unfortunately it sounds like the road behind Belco when they're all running.

Burning DVD's, maintaining a huge online music collection and still having room to keep my backup files means I need lots of external storage and for this I favour Maxtor external hard drives connected by USB 2.

The feature that most differentiates my office computer from most other PC's is that it uses a dual screen video card, the Matrox G550.

This means that I sit facing two side-by-side computer monitors, powered simultaneously by the same computer and that I can, for example, look up the Internet on one monitor, note something and read from it or drag it perhaps into an open Word document or other application displayed in the other monitor. I can even drag objects from one to the other or use both screens to show the same very large image or file over their combined viewing area. I imagine this might be very useful for some serious spreadsheet applications but I can tell you it's wonderful for music editing. The Matrox G550 video card is quite affordable and certainly less expensive than an exotic gaming video card such as the ATI Radeon 9700 or Chaintech 5800.

For a savvy business user I recently installed the Matrox card displaying on two flat screen 17 inch LCD monitors. For relatively little cost the customer now has in her office effectively a 28 inch wide monitor for a fraction of the price of the cost of a single monitor of that size.

This is one upgrade that I can categorically endorse. I use a Logitech wireless optical mouse and keyboard combination although I'm thinking of returning to a more conventional Compaq keyboard because I prefer the solid feel. I have to admit to one indulgence though; I have recently added a Hauppauge TV tuner video capture card. This is a PCI add-on card which is connected by ordinary TV coax to the CableVision box allowing the watching of cable TV on your computer.

Or at least that's the way it used to be when CableVision worked in my neighbourhood. What a tremendous TV picture you can get on a good computer monitor! The TV picture-in-picture can be resized so it only occupies a small portion of your screen if you prefer. I try a lot of gadgets in my line of work but this one is a definite keeper.

James W. Lapsley of ComputerWorks, specializes in PC repairs, upgrades and advice for the home and small office user. ComputerWorks welcomes your questions and comments Send your PC questions by e-mail to computerworks@logic.bm or by phone to 293-0992.