‘Mike’s Window’ is written in Windows Live Writer which is running in Vista 64. This is the OS which everybody loves to hate. I do have Windows 7 64bit  RC installed too but I prefer Vista.

This is my production PC.. Biostar T6100-939. AMD 64 3500+ (single core), 4 x1gb Kingston value RAM, MSI nVidia 6600 256mb, WD 320gb SATA II, WD 160gb SATA II, WD 80gb IDE 7200rpm, LG DVD –RW/+RW 16x, LG CD 52x, NEC 1.44mb FD

Not state of the art by today’s standards, but it will play Halo and Fable with maximum detail enabled. It is slowish booting to desktop because I have a fair bit starting all at one time but, other than that, it works really quite well and I don’t ever get BSOD’s. It runs a full complement of production software which includes Office 2007 Ultimate. AV protection is courtesy of ESET NOD32 v.4.

The work area PC (Windows XP Pro SP3) which also doubles as a print server for the network is an aging Intel D845 running a low powered P4 1.7ghz, 640mb, ATI Radeon 9250 128mb, 80gb IDE, LG CD-RW 52x32x52, DVD 16x, 1.44mb FD. There is an HP DeskJet 5150 attached. AV protection varies between trials of free solutions.

The general use PC (Windows XP Pro SP3) is an ECS L7VMM, AMD 1.7ghz, 1.25gb RAM, ATI Radeon 9250 128mb, LG DVD –RW/+RW 16x, 1.44mb FD. It runs Office 2003 Professional and an assortment of other stuff. AV protection is courtesy of ESET NOD32 v.4.

Networking is courtesy of a D-Link DI 624 wireless router which is not as reliable as I would like it to be re wireless connections.

I will freely admit that, funds permitting, I would probably change all of the above hardware for newer stuff, but the reality is that I don’t need newer stuff. What I have works well for the purpose for which it is used. The one item I will most likely change is the router which would be replaced for a more Vista compatible unit, and which would also be network printer capable.

What I want to put across is that you do not need state of the art stuff if all you do is general stuff, even if running Vista or Windows 7.