I bought the parts about 7 yrs ago and plugged them all together, using a standard PC case, Asrock motherboard and Athlon (2,000?) processor and so on. Forgot the rest now, but do remember fitting an extra fan.

It was pretty easy to create, the computer, although handling the parts with large, gardening roughened hands, wasn`t.

It`s still there and is used as Mrs O`s primary internet computer.

It`s been running Windows XP, for 7 yrs without antivirus installed and without ever having a software glitch or needing a re- installation. To that success - the credit has to go to Acronis True Image software, which is set to revert to the previous state ever time the computer is switched on.

Every few months, I turn it on, update things such as new versions of browsers and run the Microsoft updates. I then `accept` these with the Acronis software - and things continue as before, reverting to the previous `clean state` when switched on.

Sometimes I`ve dowloaded a complete antivirus suite, run it, found nothing, turned the computer off and on, then the antivirus software is gone too - just as any viruses are on normal reverting, reboots.

The computer runs noticably faster without antivirus software.

At times, Mrs O encounters trouble in the form of infected web pages, files and so on - obvious from the computers behaviour. But a reboot, auto revert - and it`s back to it`s normal, fast running, clean, state.

So it`s 7 yrs and counting. There`s stacks of software on it now, so I cloned the disk a while back and keep the original as a backup, in the loft.

Best of all, the computer runs for months on end needing no attention from me.

I`m still wondering what will give way first and be unrecoverable, Windows XP, needing a re-installation for the first time, or perhaps the Motherboard or Processor?

It`s become an interesting experiment.