Fans are relatively cheap, and I chose for the processor a Coolermaster Hyper TX2. I realise that the processor came with a cooler as standard, however I want to be sure that there would be no chance of my frying the processor – and for a trace over £8.00 it seemed to be a small price to pay.

In addition I chose a Western Digital 250GB hard disk, and a fan controller/card reader. I considered getting a DVD/rw, however in the end I decided that cannibalising the old Cdrw and DVD player for one of the old machines.

The other thing I thought about was a 3.5” floppy drive, however when I thought about it I realised that over the last few years I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I had need to use a floppy drive, and besides, I have more than enough flash drives for my portable storage needs.

Other than a cheap pair of speakers, the only thing that remained was a case to house everything. Ebuyer stock a number of budget cases that really look the part. I chose a Casecom black mid tower. What I thought was striking was the window on the side, as well as the front mounted 120mm fan, as well as an 80mm exhaust fan. As both fans are illuminated with blue LEDs, I thought that a couple of blue cathode tubes would set off everything nicely.

Not being sure what I wanted in the way of speakers in the long term, I decided to get a cheap pair of USB powered speakers to keep me going until such time as I had decided what would be best, bearing in mind the potential problems of exporting amplified speakers.

 All of this, along with an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) version of Windows XP Home Edition, and a Kingston 2GB RAM kit, I ordered from Ebuyer. Their competitive prices, the fact that they had everything in stock, and the bonus of free delivery meant that within a few days I was ready to put everything together.