The Main Issue was around Money (Surprise, Surprise ;-). I had an idea of what I wanted to do & what I would need to do it. Mainly from in - depth conversations with Rob (Youngest Brother) who knows a lot more about these things than anyone else I know.

Anyway, as fortune would have it, some Shares from the Conversion of a Building Society to a Bank (which I voted against happening) were sitting around doing very little. After some Investigating they sold and the money used to purchase this Computer. As it turned out the Shares were sold on the day (a Friday) that they reached their Second Highest Price. Their Highest Price was on the following Monday (can't complain really, can I, damn that greed thing ;-)

This meant the 'package' could include a Printer & even a few Upgrades on the Original Ideas. Followed the Suggestions (mantra ;-) that others had been chanted by many, 'Spend as Much as You Can Afford to'.

So, with money in hand, with Magazines (from Rob), and some recommendations from Which Magazine (visit Which OnLine, WOL) came the Difficult Task of Choosing what bits I wanted.

I (we?) came up with the Following List (JAN 98);

• Pentium II Processor - as fast as could be afforded,
• 64 MB RAM (Random Access Memory) - Minimum,
• 4 - 6 GB Hard Disc - Not the Largest then, Bigger Discs were a lot dearer,
• 15 inch Monitor - quite a bit extra then, 17 inch was out of the Price Range,
• DVD ROM (Read Only Memory) - The way of the Future!?!
• AGP Graphics Card - Better for Gaming, Imaging & Video Playing,
• SoundBlaster 64 Card - Probably the Best at that time,
• 56 K Modem - Fastest Speed on a Traditional Phone Line,
• 'Natural' Keyboard - to avoid Repetitive Strain Injury,
• Colour Printer - whatever was affordable with what was left over, probably a HP (Hewlett Packard) there weren't the packages that you can get these days,
• Windows 95 - 98 was getting some good Reports, although there was all that Issue around the 'enforced' use of Internet Explorer 4, etc.

I had already decided to go for a 'Ready Made' Computer rather than Setting Up myself, this would have been with Rob's Assistance & at the Time Rob's Work was taking Him all over the place & taking up a lot of His Time.

Which? Magazine (Which? OnLine) provided some Names; dan, Gateway & Viglen. They had All come out fairly well in their Consumer Tests recently & seemed to have a come out reasonably well in Past Tests.

dan & Viglen received a visit as they had showrooms that were 'local' to have a look & Compared them to the Details sent by Gateway. Viglen weren't offering some of the features that the other Two were, they were more Business Computers & the Speakers were In - built (the latter was not even an option).

Although Gateway seemed a little Cheaper , for roughly the same Setup, I decided on dan as their After - Sales Service was Highly Rated in the Which? Tests (whether good or not I certainly needed to Use Them, Read On for more on this Subject).

I bought a Hewlett Packard HP 820 Cxi from Tempo (who have stopped trading!) for a reasonable amount (I hope!). It was being discontinued and was £100 cheaper than the Price quoted in Which? Magazine (WHICH? OnLine).

With a few extras, like Floppy Disks, Paper & spare Ink Cartridges the total amount spent £****, well let's just say it was in excess of £!!!!, more than originally planned for (Damn those Shares ;-)

Just to put things into some kind of Perspective, as is my nature, I did check on the cost of buying the same system about 8 months later & found that I could have bought it for about £600 less. I have never been back since, as the fear of what I might find out was too strong.

Most people who follow stories on technology have heard the phrases similar to, "Out of date as soon as it's bought" and the totally worrying, "Future - Proof" - a term which has less validity with each passing second.

The Main Board Failed within 4 days & back to the shop it went - for 2 weeks!

It may have been the Lithium Battery, as the Clock was not functioning properly, all the Repair Report said was that the system was tested & the Main Board had Failed & been Replaced.

So finally - off once again, only a little more apprehensively this time.

This time I managed to connect up the MPEG 2 Board this time - the instructions from dan were not all that clear, if I remember rightly, it didn't even mention it! Reading the DVD Drive's Manual a few times did the trick.

This time everything seemed to be running fine. And so it remained until the next little hiccup (hiccough) arrived. So the next step was to Install the Printer, a few Games & finally the bits & bobs needed to get on Internet (more on this Topic, Click Here)