So, I built a new computer over the weekend with my dad. Okay, really, I just watched him build it while I was googling all kinds of questions on my iPad trying to figure things out. I was very disappointed in the MSI NVIDIA GTX 580 manual not having very clear instructions. The manual literally said “connect cables” nothing more then that!
I’ve been doing a lot of research. I was originally planning on getting a computer from a place called Digital Storm. But, my dad, whom purchased my computer was swamped with work. The Thailand floods hit and Digital Storm downgraded their computers a bit due to this. The components were still okay and mostly top of the line but the price was $2000 for the ODE Level 2 which I wanted. But, I’m Californian so that adds a slapped on $200 tax and a $65 shipping fee. I really liked their warranty.
So, my dad suggested we try making my own. So, I’ve done a lot of research. I went to NewEgg but their shopping cart freaked me out and screamed I had to buy warranties and their legalese terms scared me a bit. My shopping cart came up at $2,164. So, I tried TigerDirect and my shopping cart came out the same. However, TigerDirect had cheaper shipping, the next day shipping was cheaper then NewEgg’s 2 day shipping. Reddit was an amazing help and a person there called TrippyVersion.
But, we live about two hours away from Burbank. So Fry’s Electronics came into mind. Me, my dad, and my little brother love that store! It is a great store if you know what you want and it’s really fun to look at shiny toys. But, sales reps are usually busy as that store is. But, I knew what I wanted. I called, and can you believe this… they had no i7s in stock, the case I wanted not in stock, all the GTX 570 and GTX 580s were not in stock, Corsair’s coolers were not in stock, brand name ram wasn’t in stock. They basically had harddrives and i5s and the GTX 460s in stocks. I looked at the other Fry’s in Oxnard, they were the same.
So, I had to look around. I found a bit further then Burbank, closer to Santa Ana in the city of Tustin, California was a store called Micro Center. Their i7 2600k was forty dollars cheaper then NewEgg/TigerDirect and it was a sealed box. Everything else however had similar prices. So, we went there. To our surprise because we bought an Asus motherboard we got an additional $70 off. We got $30 off on another item. The case I wanted was in stock. Everything was in stock. We ended up spending $1,982.32. Cheaper then the competitors with tax!
I present you the stats of my new computer:
Sadly, hard drives were still costly. So, the largest thing about my system is the fact that my hard drive is not solid state. I went with SATA. Eventually, I’ll get a solid state, but that’s not extremely important to me right now. When I do get one, I’ll figure out how to make it a primary drive then. For now, I want fun. I was extremely pleased with my Windows Experience Index scores, temperatures, and the graphics in World of Warcraft.
Damn. I made so many typos while typing this. You know new keyboards suck right?! Well, learning them that is! I ended up getting the Microsoft Digital Media Keyboard 3000. I love it. If you look at the last two photos in the slider above, you’ll see why!
Isn’t that awesome?! My CTRL button has a star on it. It looks like an asterisk but has a hollow center. On other keys such as A there is the symbol and the word “All”‘ on X is symbol and “Cut”; on the B is “Bold” etc. All the common Microsoft shortcuts! And at the top the F1 to F12 keys still exist, but instead of reading F1 flat out, it is the symbol of what the key does with the small number “F1″ under it. They all work awesomely. The top row, mail, home, messenger, etc all work perfectly. I have folume buttons, quick launch access. Zooms, everything looks fantastic. What’s kind of cool, but, gonna take some getting used to are the F keys as well. A few had their functions changed, but, there is a lock key to do legacy things like refresh (F5) instead of save. But I like the undo, redo buttons, and the quick functions!
So far, I’m pleased with everything. I am retiring my laptop now and using this thing as my new primary. I named it Avalon. Teehee.
So, this is what I did with my weekend. What did you do with yours?
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