OK, so an update:
I went into the store last week with my price estimate print-out and purchased the components except for the motherboard, which they were sold out of due to their 4th of July sale. So, I had a bunch of shiny boxes sitting in the middle of my living room for a week. (They make good end tables btw.)
Anyway, the store finally got the motherboard in stock and I spent all yesterday drinking and assembling the computer (in that order). The learning curve was pretty steep as it’s been about 5 years since I built my last computer from scratch. Let this be a lesson to people who consider buying one of these pre-built rigs (like Dell) just because they are inexpensive. If you don’t keep up on the tech you’ll get left behind.
A few observations:
Regarding manuals: My case came with an extensive manual, 42 pages covering 7 languages and my power supply came with a similar manual. WTF (#1)!? I never got manuals for these items before beyond a single page that basically said: “If you read this sentence and kill yourself with this product we aren’t liable.”
Regarding the CPU: I picked up the quad core i7 3.4 GHz monster and the box is pretty big (4.5"x3"x3") and relatively heavy. It’s also got this really shiny metallic-looking sticker that I can view through a little plastic window. So, I’m feeling all good about myself and I open the box and it turns out the little metallic-looking sticker is the CPU and the entire box is taken up with a massive fan/heat-sink combo. AHH! WTF (#2)!?
Regarding stickers: Right now the outside of my computer has so many stickers it looks like a bong. Seriously, one for the CPU, TWO for the motherboard (one informing me that it’s “rev 3.0” whatever that means.), and even one for my power supply (the power supply also came with a cloth bag complete with drawstring in case I want to bring it on vacation).
And this is where my first criticism ever of nVidia comes in: WHERE IS MY ****ING STICKER NVIDIA!?!? I spent 30 minutes paging through the manual, checking the cd driver sleeve, and rooting through the box. No sticker. WTF (#3)!?
I eventually got the whole thing put together but it was pretty late by then so I decided to call it a night. My next step is to install the OS and do a 24-hour burn-in so I may be off the forums for awhile but I’ll post back here with hardware details and performance comparisons in Brink vs. my old rig.
-JJ
