davathar - i don't know if this will help you or not but i live in the 6th largest city in the USA and through casual "trash picking" have become the proud owner of just about every version of an MS operating system over the past 10 years. this has also given me a supply of 40 and 80 gig hard drives which i keep for archiving completed ISO's. i keep the best "boxes" for test chassis environments. some days driving back and forth to work i'll pass a PC or two in the trash. i throw them in the trunk and when i get home i usually plug them in just to see if they spin up. i hit eject on all of the CD/DVD trays and have been rewarded more than once. you would be surprised at the condition some people toss away their old PC's. take your time and listen to the forum advice. MSFN opened up new worlds for me once i slowed down and absorbed what the group recommended. our favorite software vendor gives plenty of information and tools away too. good luck & keep reading.
