Who is Profound?

I originally intended to hold out for my ‘dream’ PSU‘ but Newegg posted a wicked deal on a comparable PSU that I had to take. Did I make the right choice taking the deal now instead of being inconvenienced for another couple months?

Okay, so maybe the Antec TruePower New TP-750 Blue  is being given away. It came from a high of 190+ and has crept down to 119. They have taken an additional U$20 off (Discount ends July 29, comment if you want the code) with free shipping. They do not want to keep it at all!

I have my fingers crossed that this one will last me a long time. I cannot afford this type of downtime on my super-duper system.  I also hope it will work extremely well with a 790fx motherboard.

I am not sure what respectable person would call themselves a blogger if they haven’t blogged since December 30, 2008. I am truly sorry- to the three people who visit my blog.

–

That said my PC Holly died early in 2009. My initial diagnosis was that the motherboard died due to the known power issues in my bedroom. I thought that JPS had done some surge that caused my motherboard to become unresponsive. They aren’t the most reliable energy company in the world.

In response to that crisis I bought a new motherboard (go Newegg!) and also a new and improved UPS. You know me people- I am going to go for the highest.

So let us round up the costs so far- U$189 for the motherboard plus U$26.50 to get it to my door. Then factor in J$22,000 for the UPS (approx. U$246) for the UPS.

I have a crush on Melody Nakai (NSFW) so I decided to rename my machine Melody. The time between the motherboard dying and me being restored was approximately 28 days. I use that time because that is how much time Blizzard gave me for the outage.

Guess what people. The new motherboard is dead! Same issue as the first one! I don’t know what else to blame except the power supply. All forums and blogs point to the PSU being the culprit. I am praying to the heavens that the actual motherboard isn’t dead. If it is, I will need to replace that and the PSU.

So let us quantify what it will cost me in the worst case scenario:

New PSU (You know I have to go the the illest!)

New Motherboard (I wouldn’t change this motherboard for anything)

New Graphics Card (About time I upgraded from the 8500gt)

A year ago I purchased some components for my PC. They were pretty good then but we all know about Moore’s Law. 

I have assembled the following Christmas list that may take me into Valentines Day as well. The aim is to get my PC to tomorrow’s standards. I hope I don’t have to replace any more parts for the next two years.

1) New Processor. I want the AMD X2 64 6000+ because it is the best processor for my motherboard. Compared to my 2.3GHZ it promises to give a noticeable kick in speed and power. I don’t trust stock cooling but Zalman always receives radical reviews as the coolest cooler ever for both CPU and VGA. Don’t buy the processor without the cooler.

2) New Graphics. GIGABYTE Radeon HD 4870 1GB.  My current Nvidia 8500GT is dated. I can’t even play SimCity Societies on high without considerable lag. Reviewers claim that this card is at the cutting edge. It should be good for the next year or so. I need a graphics card that will be ready for Starcraft 2.

3) Blu-Ray player. I currently have two DVD Burners in my rig but I am willing to give one away to get a Blu-Ray player. HD is the way to go. LG seems to have the best product offering at this time.

4) Second monitor, first HD. I want a second monitor to watch High Def movies and TV on as well as play Xbox and anything else I can think of. Acer makes the most affordable monitors. When I bought my 19″ years ago it was the IT. 22 happens to be the new 19 while 24 is the new 22. I now want the 24. Try this one on for size. It has HDMI inputs and supports Vesa Wall Mounting. I want this versatile wall mount so that I can pull forward and tilt.

5) TV Tuner. I think it is time to watch Flow’s Digital Cable in my bedroom. No more fighting over the rights to the television in the main room, especially since I pay the bills. I plan to root out the main cable and run it to my room. If the main room wants to watch TV they need to rent a Cable Box. I do not yet know if this set is Flow Compatible but research suggests it is a strong maybe.

These items have a combined cost of U$1214.94 on Newegg.com. Newegg is normally the most affordable tech store on the web so I trust these prices. However, feel free to show competing prices. The chief issue I have with Newegg is that they do not take my foreign credit card. Amazon.com does, as well as a number of other major online stores. If I could get these same parts and prices from Amazon then it wouldn’t be a wish list but a wish fulfilled.

You can view the list here and add to cart at the same time

I love my PC. My PC loves me. We will be together happily. I love my bmobile too. Me and my bmobile- there is nothing quite like us.

Holly West has the following specs:

- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Processor (2.3GHz)

- 4GB Corsair XMS DDR2 PC6400 RAM

- Nvidia Geforce 8500 GT Video Card

- (2) Samsung SATA 20X DVD-/+R Drives

- 500GB SATA Western Digital Hard Drive

-DFI Infinity NForce 570 AM2 Motherboard

Can you tell that I am quite pleased? I finally have a PC that plays all current games on high. I need a proper UPS and a 22″ HDCP compatible monitor- but I am so happy right now.

Picture Gallery

Close up.

Open the fly.

Cordless desktop?

Vista Ultimate? Did I mention they rated me at 5?

Also showing- the Gold Curve.

So the time has not yet been fulfilled for me to put together my new girl friend. She requires a decent amount of capital to be perfect and I am spending the overtime needed to make her into the most amazing diva of all time.

Her name is Holly West. If you know who Holly West is then you can’t judge me- you are just as bad.

Here are some pre-case and pre-PSU pics of my new girl. The perfect woman isn’t born…

I have almost everything I need but somehow some personal issue arises to prolong my very important project.

I was about to buy my snazzy new PC case when a great sense of responsibility dawned on me. I found out that I needed to fix my roof. We have been having some shady weather lately and I didn’t want to have to set pans and sheets ever again. Sheets stink… and pans are annoying. Thankfully, 20k later, I don’t have to worry about that. It feels good to spend one something tangible and long lasting.

If I had spent that money on going out and having fun (like last month) then maybe the effect wouldn’t have been as lasting. It is the decision between spending money relaxing or spending money on something that can be seen as opposed to only remembered.

Just to update you here are the items I have:

Mother Board
Processor
Graphics Card
RAM (2GB)

Therefore I only need the PC Case to get started. I figure I am going to get Vista and SATA Hard Drive and call it quits after that. Why should I stick to XP when this PC can more than handle Vista Ultimate Edition (fully legit).