Building a new computer

So, I have been commissioned to build a new PC. My brother's friend is back from a 2 year haitus from the world and he needs a PC to do video editing. He gave me a budget of $2000 and told me to go buck wild. Well, not exactly buck wild, but he asked me to build a machine that I would want to have. So, for the next few days, I am going to document the building process of the machine.

We'll start with an list of parts. I ordered everything off http://www.newegg.com. NewEgg is, hands down, the best online retailer of computer parts. Fast, cheap shipping, excellent customer service, top notch hardware. You can view the wishlist I put together for the computer HERE. The CPU and motherboard came today. If you were too lazy to click the above link to see what they were, I'm gonna tell and show you.

CPU

I ordered a brand spanking new Athlon 64 X2. That's right ladies and gents, this is one of those splendiferous dual core processors we've all heard so very much about. The AMD is clocked at 2.2 GHZ, but it's a 4200+, which means in AMD terms this baby performs like a P4 running at 4.2 GHZ.

/me wipes the sweat from his brow

It's hot in California. Oh, and check out the behemoth heat sink below...




That is, by far, the largest and coolest stock cooling device I have seen bundled with a CPU. And look, it's even got heat pipe technology. AMD sure has come a loooong way.

Motherboard

Now, to back up this incredible brain powering the entire computer you need a fantastic motherboard. Quite literally, you can have the best and greatest individual components making up the different parts of the computer, but if you skimp on the motherboard you are gonna pay for it. The motherboard connects all of the parts together. I mean ALL of them. And a bad motherboard can do things like fry your nice expensive components to a crisp. So, ALWAYS spend extra money on the board, you will not regret it.

This board is chock full of the latest and greatest features. SATA2, PCI Express, something like 10 USB2 ports, Firewire B, Dual Channel DDR 400, Dual gigabit LAN, and 8 channel audio. Now, the one downside is currently, there is not an official supported BIOS for this board that supports the A64 X2. I managed to find a beta BIOS, but I am a little weary to try it. It shouldn't be too long before an official supported BIOS is out... I hope. ***Edit: Well, that was quick. Official BIOS is out.***




I'll update again when the rest of the parts arrive.

Our new dog

This is Chester. He is 100% Pomeranian, 75% fluff, 1% annoying, and 3 pounds soaking wet.

So, about a month ago Ashley was jonesing for a puppy. One day over AIM she just kept saying "puppy" over and over again, like she had invented a new language. Puppy, puppy puppy puppy-pup-pup puppy. Also, Puppy. I took the hint, she found one she wanted, and we drove out 30 minutes down to South Sacramento to a private breeder and purchased our dog. Incidentally, the family we bought him from was Vietnamese as well, so our dog is Vietnamese. Chester is so adorable, even the über macho man Tony exclaimed he was the cutest dog he had ever seen.

I am amazed at how smart he is. Already, after not even one month, he is about 75% housebroken and going in a litterbox. We've taught him to sit, lie down, stand up and balance on his hind legs for a short time, and we are working on shaking paws. We are crate training him and have confined him to a small area in out living room, probably will be there for another month or so until he is 100% housebroken. Then we just gotta stop him from chewing on things... but that should come after the teething stage has gone.

Attention Dog Guardians

Thought this picture was funny. Oh yeah, I have a dog now. More on that later.