OUCH.. the computer building bug bit me!

[HAL9000]

Well, it's been about 7 years I've been running my old machine.. I figure for giggles, time to retire it and build a new machine. Talked to my wife and she let me go nuts, this one should last a while. It's probably everything I DON'T need.. but I want to have some fun... and I got some really good discounts on a few parts through work... only the DVD didn't show up today to allow me to start loading the OS.. but it's assembled and test fired... specs as follows;

Asus P5Q motherboard
Intel Q9559 Quad core processor 2.83Ghz 12MB cache
Corsair TX650 Watt power suplly
Corsair XMS2 Dominator PC2-8500 1066 4GB Memory kit
LG 6x Blu-Ray writer
4x 500GB Seagate 7200RPM 32MB cache RAID 5 (I know, I know, can be a pain, but I'm going to play remember????.. and people hated WinME, but it worked great for me!)
ATI All-In-Wonder High Definition 256MB (I like my All-in-Wonders k?)
Antec Three Hundred case
finally, I actually bought a floppy drive, but forgot to order the 5.25" bay adapter.. oops.. it can go in later.
Vista Premium 64 bit.

I will reuse my trusty Microsoft Internet keyboard that is due for another disassembly and cleaning and my Logitech MX510 mouse and my Viewsonic 22" LCD display.

[TwoRails]

Looks pretty good, HAL. Haven't kept up with Blu-Ray burners, though... As far as a 5.25 bay adapter goes, the local mom-n-pop stores around here have them for about $4USD... that'd give you the "instant gratification" of getting one quickly :) -- anywho, nice build!

[HAL9000]

I'm not too worried about the adapter, ya, I can pick that up anywhere... can't say I know a lot about the Blu-Ray writers either, but I couldn't refuse the price to try it out... oh, I never put in my final total ...$1496.31 taxes in, free shipping.

[TwoRails]

And not a bad price, either! I didn't do the conversion, but I've probably got the rough equivalent in my recent upgrade if I include the new case and stuff I already had staged for a build (less a Blu-Ray burner). I bet your hair got blown back, eh!?!

[juppy]

Looks good, Dave. I have to agree with TR, I thought for sure the price was going to be quite a bit higher than that. Granted, that's without buying a monitor, but still....

[HAL9000]

Well, I did the conversion... 1,296.17 USD

[shadowpr]

Nice build.

[Panama Red]

Well, I did the conversion... 1,296.17 USD

Nice, powerful machine, Dave. You can do about anything with that one. It's interesting to look at today's prices and performance compared to older machines. I remember moving to this house 10 years ago and making sure we allocated funds to buy a new Gateway system out of the proceeds of the old house. I spent $2100 for what was then the fastest cpu they had (faster ones came out 2 weeks later!), a 500MHz PIII slot 1. It had a dvd rom, cd-rw, 17" crt, decent vid card, and sound. That price inluded a Visioneer parallel scanner and Epson printer. That machine was running 98se with 256Mb of ram and I was happy as a clam!:D

[Jester]

I like the case. Its like the 900 only not fancy and gamerish. Nice build.

[HAL9000]

Well... I wasn't going to wait for my Blu-Ray writer to get this thing fired up... I pulled one of the DVD drives from my old machine and started loading... this thing ROCKS!!.. and I haven't even turned all the unnecessary crap in Vista off yet.. or tweaking in the BIOS... I want to make an image of my drive setup before I BIOS tweak though.. just in case I take down the RAID :p.

Now I just have to take a look at cashing in my spirit award points at work and get a nice LCD TV to connect to the All-in-Wonder... right now, I have enough to get a 32"... but I'm hoping to have a few more points come my way to get me to a free 40" :D

[Masaki 7-11]

Congratulations on your new build. How is the All-in-Wonder working? I heard that it is using the HD3650 chip, kind of weird since ATI used to use their best chipsets for the AIWs.

[TwoRails]

Which AIW did you get? (I like them, too!) I *heard* way back when vista came out that ATI wasn't going to make them anymore... I guess they changed their mind? (which would be nice :))

[HAL9000]

I don't have it connected to cable yet... I want to get a few more things loaded and transferred to this machine.. a long road ahead because the old machine has a lot of stuff on it... well, relative to the drive space in it.

[David M]

Dave, I think you will be happy with Vista 64.

[HAL9000]

Me too... I figured if I was going this far for this machine.. I might as well have the 64 bit OS too.

[SonicVanguard]

Well... I wasn't going to wait for my Blu-Ray writer to get this thing fired up... I pulled one of the DVD drives from my old machine and started loading... this thing ROCKS!!.. and I haven't even turned all the unnecessary crap in Vista off yet.. or tweaking in the BIOS... I want to make an image of my drive setup before I BIOS tweak though.. just in case I take down the RAID :p.

Now I just have to take a look at cashing in my spirit award points at work and get a nice LCD TV to connect to the All-in-Wonder... right now, I have enough to get a 32"... but I'm hoping to have a few more points come my way to get me to a free 40" :D
If you think you're rocks you should sit down with my dual quad core I built. :D

It is nice to splurge on yourself every now and then with a tech upgrade. Glad the build's to your expectations.

[HAL9000]

I can only imagine your system... I remember you talking about that one...

As such with great timing, just when I wanted to sit down and see about doing some data transfers, the power supply in the old one crapped...I just got it up and running now. The 12v 4pin connect just wasn't putting out enough anymore and wouldn't allow it to fire up.... so over to the store where I used to work and picked up a cheap, but good quality power supply.. it only has to run long enough to do the data transfer, nuke and pave, then sell.

[HAL9000]

So I tried the "Easy Transfer" to transfer files from the old machine to the new.... I don't know how well it went for other people, but don't waste your time with it... it was horrible.. it was faster to pull the drives over to the new machine and drag and drop.

[doubledragon5]

That is a great build Dave, and enjoy yourself. Some day I hope to build a new system, but for now this one will have to do. I did install a XFX 9800 GTX+ and I'm satisfied on how it plays my games..

[HAL9000]

Out of curiosity... I just priced out at Newegg to see how my discounts through work through the distributors compared... totally crushed their price (Sorry Newegg)... $1,541.84USD, my price at the time was $1496.31CDN or $1,296.17USD

[TwoRails]

"Crush" sure is the right word for that spread!! That's no chump change!