[Nomad Zophiel]

If ratings are your primary concern, there's always the option of playing an AI.

[Chaemera]

Very true, though it's worth noting that even the Elite Hacker to the Max™ wouldn't see the light of day in Fizzygoo's game, he's limiting players to SR4A options only.

[Fizzygoo]

Hehe, nope, no AI for these guys to play, must reign them in and let them see the world from a stock runner perspective first

[Nomad Zophiel]

I never really looked at the AI rules before last night. Its an interesting balance. They can start out with +2 to two commlink stats and +3 to the other two (max) but only three intiative passes with no way to get more and none of the cool cyberware that a superhacker will end up with. So while you can get the 'link's stats up to 9 without going milspec, an AI is going to be slower and have a smaller hacking dice pool than a meat 'runner.

On the other hand, if a PC AI is doing something other than being the primary hacker AND is willing to let the party's hacker use his home node, its game on.

[raggedhalo]

Over time, AIs can also have Rating 12 programs.  o_0

[Ultra Violet]

Actually they can get up to Rating 14, since the System Rating could be up to 7.

[Nomad Zophiel]

Assuming a commlink with all 6's:
An AI can raise the rating to 9 but pays Luxury Lifestyle to do it.
An AI can have an intrinsic program of rating 12 (6+6Optimized, max 2*AI rating)
Any hacker can program a rating 12 program (6+6)
Anyone with access to the AI's home node can program a rating 18 program (9+9)

Or to be really nasty, with a base rating 10 commlink:
An AI using it as a home node can raise its rating to 13
Maxing out its intrinsic programs at 14 (Limited by the AI's Rating*2, which can get to 7 with any Exceptional Attribute)
Or a hacker can write a rating 20 program
or if its a home node, either one can write a rating 26 program

However, when it comes time to write programs the AI is going to have a dice pool of 13 max plus any programming suites and/or environments. An advanced Hacker is going to have a dice pool closer to 22 and 5 IP per round instead of 3.

Edit: Unless the AI has the 10 point Piloting Origin, in which case it can program itself an equally hideous Profession Activesoft giving itself a dice pool of 7+program rating for a single skill (25 on the base 6 commlink above).

[Casazil]

One of the books has a list (Unwired I think) for makeing new parts YES it takes months to do EVEN years but then again your starting character is not a new born or even say mom/dad/ect ect bought/gave/made it for said new character.

as to case price it is an agreed on price as it is just the case it really can't cost that much. At most 250 nuyen.

[Chaemera]

One of the books has a list (Unwired I think) for makeing new parts YES it takes months to do EVEN years but then again your starting character is not a new born or even say mom/dad/ect ect bought/gave/made it for said new character.

as to case price it is an agreed on price as it is just the case it really can't cost that much. At most 250 nuyen.

I've looked, in every book I have, and the only table I find is on page 228 of SR4A and it specifically lists Processor, Sim Module and Wireless Radio, with a caveat in the text that the processor and wireless radio are upgrade modules:

You can also use it to build your own hardware upgrades; use the Building Hardware Table...

Please, if you can't provide at least a page number and book, don't state that something is RAW. Acknowledge that you're relying on memory and be prepared to be challenged on the claim.

If you can't find a price for your case, and you can't show where it says that "upgrade response + upgrade signal + case = commlink", you don't have much ground to claim that this is the methodology for building a commlink from scratch.

The only method I have found is to use the rules presented on page 138, "Using Technical Skills to Build and Repair", along with the explanation of the Hardware skill on page 127. Those two sections are perfectly clear that you need to have (or develop) schematics for your desired product, which means that you need to have plans for a final-product commlink (Erika Elite, for example) and base components as determined by the GM.