About 3 and a half years ago I put together this computer. At the time, this thing was a beast. It had a full gig of RAM and at 24 gig hard drive. It could run two monitors and capture video. There was nothing my computer and I couldn’t accomplish (except for running a personal web server with XP Home).

Since then things have remain relatively unchanged. My mom upgraded me to a flat-panel monitor (which I absolutely love), I dropped in a second hard drive to add storage space, and I upgraded my heat-sink and power supply when their hums became too annoying, but that’s about it.

It was a combination that worked great, until recently.

With the type of work I do, I frequently end up with Photoshop, Firefox, Thunderbird, MS Office Accounting, Open Office, and some specialized print software all open at the same time. Photoshop itself can be taxing on your system and adding all the rest just made things drag. Plus, I’m installing Illustrator, InDesign and Dreamweaver in a couple days. I decided it was time for an upgrade.

The UPS man delivered two new sticks of RAM to my apartment today. I opened up the computer, took out my pair of 512s and slid in my 1Gs. I few moments later the machine was up and humming.

Now I’ve got Photoshop, Firefox, Thunderbird, MS Office Accounting, Open Office, and my specialized print software all open at the same time – and Alt+Tab works like a breeze.

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