Last time I talked about my new computer I was discussing the ins and outs of construction. Now let’s wrap this up with some notes on final setup.

Once the computer was all put together and setup, it was time to install the operating system and all of the other goodies that I need to do what I need to do.

The package came with Vista 64, so for the first couple of hours in the life of this computer it was installing the base operating system, service pack 1, and a multitude of patches and updates via Microsoft Update. Of any part of the process, including construction, this was the biggest time consumer. It goes to show that no matter how fast your computer is, or how much memory you have, installing the operating system (unless it’s Linux) is going to take a while.

Once Vista 64 was in place and running it was time to install the necessary drivers for all my components. This included updating the EVGA Nvidia drivers to the latest, installing the Intel Control Center and INF files for the motherboard, and performing any necessary BIOS updates for the motherboard and DVD RW (each one did have a BIOS/firmware update available).

I consider that to be “the basics” – and once I was done with that I set it up in my home office.

As you can see from this picture (and the text), cable management is an issue with this case. As you saw in the pictures from the construction phase, the power supply has a TON of power cables that go completely unused unless you have a full tower with an insane number of internal devices.

Since I don’t have that many devices in the computer that require power, most of those cables have to get shoved into the unused drive bays so they are out of the way – but still you can see a number of them hanging there.

After the basics were done and the computer was connected up to my monitors and peripherals, it was time to install all my goodies. Here’s my list of must-haves:

• google toolbar
• google Earth
• Filezilla
• Putty
• Quicken
• Tweetdeck
• Adobe AIR
• iTunes
• OMEA Reader (RSS)
• MS Office
• last.fm (for scrobbling music from iTunes)
• Firefox
• VSO Image Resizer (since there isn’t a powertoy for Vista to do this)
• MSN Live suite
• CCleaner
• Flickr Uploader
• BOINC
• Audacity
• Adobe Acrobat & Premier
• USPS Shipping Assistant
• Paint Shop Pro

And then the games…at the moment I don’t have that many installed because I’m still trying to figure out what I’m in the mood for – but so far we’ve got: SimCity 4, Neverwinter Nights 2, Oblivion, and The Witcher. Once I get through those I’ll see what comes next.

And so here is the final setup as it looks today in my office:

On the shelf above I’ve got my speakers, some artwork, figurines from my trip to Argentina, and a couple stuffed animals just for fun.

That’s about it. Thanks for coming along with me on this adventure in building a new computer and best of luck to those of you who are doing the same! I’d love to hear about the rig you’re building so feel free to comment and share!