On reviewing this list, I must note with some satisfaction that I think I more or less actually have my dream pc now. It's fast enough, it's nearly quiet enough (and it will be real quiet when I get round to replacing the GPU fan – I already have the replacement and just need to install it), it has the programs that I need, it does TV/VCR, it has SurroundSound? , it has a nice TFT monitor, a good printer. I'm not currently making use of the WirelessLan? .

I should lean back and be happy now just don't tell me about all the good new stuff out there...

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Any item marked with is a wish! See also the new page about MyMediaCenter.

Software

NotepadPlus is a great little replacement for the standard WindowsNotepad? . It does all the things that you were annoyed Notepad can't do, and some more. It's free. NoteTab is similar but highly customizable (great power at the cost of some complexity) and comes in a free, Standard and Pro editions.

ScooterSoftware's BeyondCompare2 is the best tool to compare files, folders, and FTP directories. An absolute must-have if you work with programming or web publishing. Easily worth the $30.

AllaireHomesite? 3.01 is simply the best HtmlEditor? I've seen so far. I find that hand-coding gets the best results anyway and is a lot more flexible than using WYSIWYG tools. These days it's called Macromedia Homesite 5, which is terribly slow and not nearly as useful as the old v3.01 (thought it knows newer standards). I wonder if Macromedia would sue us if I gave you an evaluation version (ahem) of the good old version.

I can't avoid mentioning the MozillaBrowser as well as InternetExplorer. Both are very good, and each has advantages over the others. In my mind, they all have many advantages over other browsers though. I use both browsers a lot, and I must admit that lately I've been preferring the MozillaFirefox browser and the MozillaThunderbird e-mail client because they're both slim and fast, and even have elegant user interfaces.

PowerVCR II 3.0 Deluxe can turn your PC into a TV and digital video recording center. http://www.gocyberlink.com/english/products/product_main.jsp?ProdId=20
Nevermind I now have Medion Home Cinema which includes all that.

PowerDVD 5 is the latest evolution of the world acclaimed DVD software player that offers maximum video and audio playback entertainment on the PC. http://www.gocyberlink.com/english/products/product_main.jsp?ProdId=28
Nevermind I now have Medion Home Cinema which includes that.

Hardware

Input

Keyboard and mouse

Forget all other keyboards and mice -- the only thing I need is the FingerWorks TouchStream? keyboard!

Infrared

For my PDA? it would be very useful to have an infrared connection (IRDA) rather than the serial cable. The connection speed would be the same, and it still requires a cable on the pc, but it's one less cable to have on my desk. To illustrate, here's a Froogle search and a random product.

Output

Video

I already have a Radeon 9000 Pro 128MB 3D graphics card that I'm happy with.

I want a good TvTuner? card for my pc. Does anybody have any suggestions? The Happauge models 250 or 350 seem to be very good choices, or perhaps one of these.
Nevermind I now have Medion Home Cinema which includes all that.

A VideoProjector? would be practical (but terribly expensive). I don't really want to have a TV if I have a TvTuner? in the pc anyway, and I already use the pc to play DVDs and digital movies. Unfortunately, a video projector usually doesn't have a tv tuner so it must be hooked up to one somehow, and again I'm picky: I don't want to pull cables everywhere. I wonder how much can be done wireless?

Maybe something like this gimmick would be useful to bring PC media onto the TV screen? ... or perhaps a simple hole in the wall and a 10-metre S-video cable would do the trick. (And this review says it's not worth the money.) Maybe this one's better.

Possibly this feat to use my pc as a media center is too far-fetched to be practical. An orkut forum discusses realistic options, and perhaps the most realistic if somewhat resigned choice would simply be a proper WindowsMediaCenter pc.

Audio

SurroundSound? is a wonderful thing when combined with a computer and a DvdDrive? . I already have the Creative Inspire 5.1 5300 which I'm very happy with.

A Soundblaster Live 5.1 Digital very nicely delivers the signal to the speakers.

I'm looking for a good wireless solution for the other rooms in my apartment, so that I can listen to my pc-based music in other rooms as well. Comments are welcome! Add them right here. Edit this page ( How? )

• So far, the only really useful wireless audio solution I've come across is from Creative.
• I gotta suggest a SlimDevices SqueezeBox2... -- JanGB - 26 Jul 2005

Printing

Got a Canon PIXMA iP3000 which is simply excellent. A recent (Sep 2004) comparison between ~40 color printers showed that this one was far the cheapest in total costs over a 3-year period in both the high-usage and low-usage scenarios. So it should be good for the money, and I'm impressed with the actual print quality and the features (duplex printing, printing directly on cd's! and more).

Other

Noise reduction

Silent pc: I stopped using my old Pentium4 and got a new Medion pc that's very quiet

Networking

http://www.linksysinfo.org/ offers a wealth of information and extras for Linksys routers. Recommended is the WRT54G wireless router, http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?childpagename=US%2FLayout&packedargs=c%3DL_Product_C2%26cid%3D1115416825557&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper