My new PC has been up and running for a bit. Time to finally hit it with a bottle of champagne and call it stable. One of donttellmetheending’s first blog posts was the creation of my last Desktop, “Building a new PC”:
It seems fitting to follow-up with a similar update for this new machine.  I’ve been waiting for DDR4 ram to make the jump into a new PC, and while it does not offer the performance boost over DDR3 that I had hoped for, it’s not a bad box. Here are “Martin’s” specs:
http://i.gizmodo.com/5075525/why-you-should-buy-a-refurbished-laptop
Which is exactly what I did when I bought my “new” Dell XT. When built new, this machine would have cost $2200, but was available for around $800-$900. With a 20% off coupon, shipping, tax, it came out to about $671.
I was planning on picking up a netbook and a Wacom tablet. Then Ted told me about this deal, which I bit on. So far, it seems like a great compromise. Throwing on the Windows 7 beta was also a great idea, as was buying Crayon Physics Deluxe.
Found the parts. When I flick the switch will it live?
I’ll think of a name for it over the next few days. My current desktop, ely4sm, is from June ’03, invoiced back in January of 2003. I just dug up the paperwork to double check that. That’s older than I thought. Of course, it was a beast when I bought it, costing over $3000. I worked the whole summer of Senior Year to get the extra $1k to buy my alienware (which lasted one year before they had to cough up a full refund…but that’s another story. With the refund I bought my current desktop). Anyway, this sucker, in its entirety, is still expensive but only a fraction of that: only costing roughly $1300. That’s including a custom heatsink (which I never did get on ely4sm).
Anyway, go check out the final build: https://www.donttellmetheending.com/2008/01/16/building-a-new-pc/
When the parts arrive, I’ll have to put it together. I hope it turns on.