Maybe the newer 'IDE solid state disks' and 'IDE Flash Disks' as offered mainly by Transcend are worth considering? There are SLC and MLC-type solid state disks, I read SLC is the one to get. Unfortunately buying hardware new is more expensive then 2nd-hand bargains:

-Transcend IDE Flash Disk 4GB UDMA Mode 4 costs about Euro 50,- review (8GB version)

-Transcend IDE solid state disk SLC 8GB UDMA Mode 4 costs about Euro 106,-
review of a similar product

Just for thread closure sakes...

I decided to ditch the Dell OptiPlex all together, the final 'build' specs are in this thread: My Dell GXPro Pentium Pro 200MHz (which I'm about to get rid of). *PICS*

The Dell had too much going against it:

A) Non-standard physical layout
B) Not a tower
C) Non-standard PSU (Dell Brand?)
D) Not enough ISA/PCI connectors

So... I went w/ a mid-tower design using this mobo: Hot dang, I think I have my perfect machine GA-586HX I still have yet to do a full proper system spec thread w/ pics though. That should come in the next few weeks.

PS, this thread should be moved to the Marvin forum.