[OT] Building my dream computer >:)

[shadowlight]

The Rest of the Stuff

To top everything off, I decided to go ahead and get a 3.5:" floppy drive (I know they're extinct, but I need one just in case).

I also decided to get a mulifunction card reader. It sits in a 5.25" bay and reads Compact Flash and Secure Digital cards. I've got both kids of cards for my PDA and my video camera, so the reader will just make my life a little easier.

I also chose a MS Optical Mouse / Keyboard Bundle (OEM) and the OEM WinXP.

 

[shadowlight]

Case!!

So the big question: What Case?

There's a ton of really cool cases out there at all different price points, with all kids of different features. I read a lot of reviews (I particularly liked the ones on www.tomshardware.com) and decided to go with the Chenbro Xpider (Gaming Bomb).

First of all I (and my wife) really like how it looks:

It's got front & rear fans (though 'll probably have to cut a hole in the top for an additional fan if I decide to overclock), front USB & firewire ports, and its an inexpensive sturdy case with good cooling.

I decided to buy a separate power supply because the installed ones only go up to 350W and I wanted a 400W PS for the power hungry ATi card and the DVD drives.

I went with an Antec PS because it's a name-brand supply with great reviews. It's got dual fans and it's very quiet:

 

[shadowlight]

Color Matching

One more note:

Because the case is black, I made sure that all of my drives and accessories had black faceplates.

 

[shadowlight]

Where to buy?

Initially I was using pricewatch.com to find the cheapest price on everything. But when I went to start ordering I checked out reviews of some of the online stores and found that (unsurprisingly) most were pretty shady (bad service, bad parts, multiple months to fulfill orders, etc.)

Also, when I was doing the price comparisons, I found that www.newegg.com was always among the least expensive. So I decided to just go with the company I trusted (which was always one of the least expensive anyway).

So, last Wednesday night (actually it was after midnight, so Thursday morning) I placed my $1600 order with www.newegg.com

They have a great feature on their website where they show you what's going on with your order before it's shipped (being picked in the warehouse, etc.)

So, naturally I've been glued to the website for any news of shipping.

Well, Thursday evening, both pieces of my order were already at the FedEx sorting center (all but my processor are being shipped from NJ while the processor is coming from CA).

I just checked my FedEx tracking numbers and everything arrived at my local FedEx center this morning at 4 AM and they left (hopefully for delivery) at 8:44 this morning!!

Will I get all my parts today?! The anticipation is KILLING me!!!

 

[Greyhawk_DM]

Behold the ATi AiW Radeon 9800 Pro!!
[snipped image]


Again... drooooooooool.....

I quote that drooooool

 

[Psionicist]

Considered vapochill?

 

[shadowlight]

Considered vapochill?

Vapochill is definitely cool (no pun intended), but pretty pricey. I think if I were going to pay that much for a cooling system, I'd just buy a processor with a higher clock speed.

 

[shadowlight]

I quote that drooooool

Totally!!

But I'm still waiting! I'm guessing the cheap FedEx shipping method I chose doesn' pay for weekend delivery. So I'm guessing it will be here tomorrow!!

 

[thatdarncat]

Hmmm

You're in detroit? .... My dad's in windsor on business right now... Don't mind that noise downstairs tonight, that'll just be my dad picking up some parts for me

Now the hard part will be getting it away from my dad and keeping it out of Seri's hands

 

[shadowlight]

Well, Everything came yesterday!! Two thumbs up to Newegg.com's order fulfillment speed!

I broke everything out of the boxes last night and put everything together (I took pictures along the way, and as soon as I'm finished installing all the software, I'll post my assembly process). I was up until 2 getting WinXP installed, so I'll have to finish tonight!