The processor is Intel's high-performance Core i7-930 processor, codenamed Nehalem. This is a 2.8GHz, 64-bit, quad-core CPU built on 45nm process technology.

Informal benchmarking of this processor against the ones in my older computers shows a 5-10x performance increase on parallel C compilations. That's very impressive.

The primary reason for the new computer was that I needed a 64-bit machine for software development.

The memory is Patriot's 4GB DDR3 1333 Desktop Memory. I bought six modules for a total of 12GBytes.

In the past, I would buy computers with half of the memory populated. I would later buy the other half as a mid-life upgrade. Today, memory is so inexpensive that it made sense to buy all of the memory at once.

The motherboard is an ASUS P6T SE. This motherboard is similar to the highly-acclaimed ASUS P6T except that it lacks the SLI feature.

The P6T SE suits me perfectly. The instructions were clear and installation was straightforward. This is a very high-quality motherboard. I encountered absolutely no problems in setting it up.

The P6T SE offers a large number of options for overclocking. I didn't try those since I prefer my computers to run reliably at their rated speeds.

The graphics card is a mid-range ATI Radeon HD 4670.

Gamers select graphics cards based on their 3D performance. I select graphics cards based on their ability to work under Linux with open-source drivers. That criteria narrowed my choices to exactly one manufacturer - AMD's ATI division.

As of this writing, the ATI HD 4670 works under Linux with open-source drivers almost completely correctly. I encountered one minor bug in the 2D drawing that I hope will be fixed in the next release of the X Window System. I am running the Xorg 1.7.5 driver, not the closed-source driver from ATI.

The hard disks are Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA/300 drives. I bought two drives for a total of 2TB of storage. As usual, I installed the operating system on one drive and put my data files on the other.

The quality of a disk drive is measured by its ability to hold data reliably for years to come. I own a half-dozen Seagate drives and have had good experiences with them. Even my five to seven year old Seagate drives still work fine.

The optical disks are LG 22x DVD Rewriters. These work well and I have yet to encounter any read errors.

I bought two drives since I occasionally read or write two DVDs at once. Optical disks can be less-than-reliable at times, so I usually make more than one copy of my data on DVDs.

The capacity of optical disks has been falling behind hard disks for the last two decades. Today I rarely use optical disks. Instead, I periodically mirror the hard disks on all of my computers for backups.

The power supply is a Thermaltake TR2 RX 850W. It is big and heavy, as one would expect of a power supply that can deliver almost a kilowatt.

The power supply has twice the capacity of what the computer currently needs. It is better to get a bigger power supply than to risk overloading a smaller power supply.

I was quite pleased with the modular cables and the very quiet fan.

The case is an Antec Three Hundred Mid-Tower ATX case.

The case has plenty of room for all of the computer's components. Ventilation is excellent. The case came with two large fans and mounts for three optional fans. It provides a place under the disk drives to hide excess cabling. Both side panels are removable. I found the case to be very easy to work with.

The Antec Three Hundred offers simple, timeless styling with only two small blue LEDs on an otherwise unadorned black box. There are no weird plastic shapes or arrays of flashing LEDs. Thank you, Antec.

One nice touch is that the power and reset buttons are flush to the surface so that they cannot be pressed accidentally.

The keyboard is a Kensington "Keyboard for Life" and the mouse is a Logitech M100. These components have become so inexpensive that not much can be expected of them.

I chose the Kensington "Keyboard for Life" because it offers a completely standard layout. All of the keys are in the right places and there are no extra browser or media buttons that wouldn't work anyway under Linux. In the world of keyboards, innovation is a minus.

The mouse is very nice with higher resolution than my previous mouse. Both the keyboard and mouse have wired USB connections. I wanted to avoid the battery-charging nuisance of wireless units.

The monitor is a Hyundai W242D 24 inch 1920x1200 LCD.

At the present time, LCD manufacturers are discontinuing 1920x1200 displays and offering only 1920x1080. I find that to be a step backwards, so I grabbed one of last 1920x1200 LCDs that I could find.

The Hyundai W242D offers a nice large screen with high resolution. However, the viewing angle is narrow and due to the screen's size, there is a noticeable shift in brightness from the top to bottom of the screen when viewed at normal distance. My unit had no dead pixels.

The printer is a Brother HL-2140 Monochrome Laser Printer.

This is the most compact laser printer that I have ever seen. It is also the least expensive at the unheard of sale price of $70. Of course, the catch is that toner cartridges also cost $70.

The Brother HL-2140 offers impeccable print quality (as one would expect from a laser printer running at 600 dpi). Even with the $70 toner cartridge, the Brother HL-2140 has a much lower operating cost than inkjet printers.

The Brother HL-2140 is fully supported by Ghostscript under Linux.

The speakers are Altec-Lansing units left over from my previous computer.

Speakers don't change over time, so there was no need to buy new speakers.

The speakers are a 4.1 configuration with front and rear speakers plus a bass module. I use only the front speakers and the bass module.

One benefit of building a computer from components is that one doesn't have to pay for a pre-installed operating system that one wouldn't use.

I installed Slackware64 on the computer. At the present time, I'm running Slackware-current to get the latest hardware support. This code will migrate into the next stable Slackware release.