The million dollar PC, We can rebuild him, better, faster,stronger. Options

[AC9breaker]

Yeah, after years of saying I was gonna do it, I'm finally doing it. Building myself a PC. I've been trying to read up as much as I can on stuff and have been browsing newegg speculating. Anyway, I figured this would be more productive if I got some input for you guys. Primarily this is gonna be a gaming PC, but I at the very least want this PC to be relevant for 5 years, and I'm gonna be using it for more then just gaming. School, musings, w/e. Possible I'll be leaving the PC on for long periods of time so maybe cooling will be a factor?

I like me some nVidia chips and I'm not planning on overclocking (yet) so intel is fine with me. Any ESD precautions I should take and such would also be appreciated. I'm planning on working with a 900 dollar budget for the rig itself. But it's flexable. So... show me ya moves!

[Crushinator]

Norton 360 is a fucking joke. HUGE waste of resources, and its a complete bitch to get off your computer when it screws something up (and it will).

If you're going to use norton only use the anti-virus part, not the whole 360 or internet security package. There's nothing blatantly WRONG with Norton Anti-Virus, its just as effective as any other big-name antivirus software. As far as overall usability I do like it more than McAfee Antivirus, McAfee's interface just sucks.

If for whatever reason you want an "alternative" antivirus, give NOD32 a try, its actually better at catching some sneakier viruses than NAV or Mcafee, but its not quite as easy on the resources.

As far as Oddies' advice goes, its just not reasonable for anyone who isn't 100% confident they can take care of any virus infection that might happen to hit their computer. Its great when you're able to browse safely, on your own terms, knowing what types of things are threats to your system. Avoiding them and blocking them manually. But the truth is most people can't do that, and most people are much worse off having no protection. I'm glad you are actually making sure you DO have an AV program installed, AC.

I think a lot of computer geek-types (myself included) have this idea in their head of "hah AV is a joke, waste of valuable computer resources and money, if anything pops up I'll fix it myself." And because the "geek friend" is who everyone turns to for advice, they tell their friends they DON'T use any AV software and then their friends end up hosing their computers and having to pay to get it fixed. After having to fix hundreds of computers people screwed up by simply not having adequate protection, I know how easy it is for anyone to screw over their computer with a just a few errant clicks.

Anyways, TL, DR. Just get Norton Anti-Virus, not Norton 360 or Norton Internet Security.