Should have my new computer soon...

December was one heck of a month. I did my Windows Vista presentation at school on the 7th of December, brought my home gaming system in for it and everything. The system was getting a bit old but it still ran decent, it had a Pentium 4 3.00GHz CPU, 1.5GB of DDR PC2700 SDRAM, 250GB PATA hard drive, and a Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro Advantage 256MB Graphics Card.

So, I get to the end of the last presentation of the day. I open up a Windows Explorer window and notice that Windows Aero was horribly slow, it was almost like watching a slide show. At the end of the whole thing I decided to restart the machine to see if I could get it running normally again and much to my surprise it wouldn't boot. I had been having a cold-boot issue with Windows Vista ever since I had upgraded the processor but other than that the system ran fine and it didn't happen with Windows XP. After some diagnostic tests I thought it was a bad power supply, so I ran out and bought a 500W power supply for in the system. But that didn't fix it. So I took the entire system apart, cleaned everything, put it all back together and double triple checked everything, thought I had it fixed. And then the STOP errors started.

After spending 3 hours reformatting and reinstalling Windows Vista, I decided to reinstall Windows XP. After spending a few hours getting everything set back up, the system restarted on its own and then Windows Error Reporting told me that "Windows had recovered from a serious error". My first thought was "Oh ****, something is seriously wrong." Little did I know in a few hours I'd confirm that theory, horribly.

I ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool and it found absolutely no errors. So I started the system back up and after 10 minutes it bug-checked (aka "STOP error" or the infamous "blue screen of death") again. I grabbed memtest86+ off the Internet (great tool) and ran it. I was a bit tired so I went and laid down for a few hours, figured I'd let memtest do its thing. I wake up, walk back to my computer and see a whole boatload of memory errors. According to memtest86, it was 17 minutes into the test and had found 3072 errors. One error would have been enough to make me upset. Holy shit! (At this point, my jaw basically hits the floor in shock).

The system board itself (ASUS P4S800, original version) has many issues - including an annoying memory bandwidth limitation which would only allow me to use 1.5GB of RAM at PC2700. If I wanted to go with 2GB, I had to use 2 sticks of 1GB PC2100 or 1 stick of 1GB PC3200 and 2 sticks of 512MB PC2100, which really defeats the purpose because of the slower speed. And I couldn't work with only 1GB of RAM, and 512MB PC2700 isn't too easy to find around here anymore, and I wasn't going to hunt all over the internet for used parts. I've had bad luck with used parts, coincidentally half of that computer was built from used parts and every computer I've owned for the last 5 years was basically built from used or cheap parts - what can you do when you're on a tight budget?

I had to make a decision - spend $500 on a new motherboard and then a dual channel memory kit to go along with it which would only get me a year or so out of the system (Socket 478 system with AGP graphics, it's starting to age); or I could get a new system that would last me at least 3 years. I chose the latter, partially because I didn't want to waste $500 on new parts and then wind up building a new system a year and a half down the road, and partially because, just for once, I wanted to have a decent computer, something that I could truely enjoy every aspect of -- computers and technology are my life.

After much debating and checking out prices, my original plan was to custom build a system with the following specifications:

• Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 Motherboard
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 processor
• 2GB DDR2 800 SDRAM (2x1GB Dual Channel Memory Kit)
• 250GB SATA2 Hard Drive
• Antec P180 Case
• 550W Seasonic Power Supply
• NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB Graphics Card

... but, I hit a snag in the plan -- there was no way I would be able to afford the system up-front and I need a decent computer for school next semester. Fortunately, my father and I both receive the Dell Home and Office newsletters in our inboxes and he called from work and asked me if I had gotten mine. After a few days of debating, arguing, and trying to figure some things out, I managed to get my dream system, although I still have to pay it off on monthly payments at least I'll have something to work with now, instead of waiting until August.

Now, I've usually built my systems or had them custom built elsewhere simply because that's "the way I roll", so to speak. I've never been a huge fan of name brand systems (Packard Bell, Gateway, etc), and usually swear against them. So the idea of going with a Dell for my main system was a bit insane foreign to me. I told the system builder half of me to shut up and be happy.

I've had some good luck with Dell, for instance I have two Dell monitors (1707FP UltraSharp 17" LCD) and another 17" (which is just Dell's regular offering that ships with some Dimension systems, can't remember the model number) and neither one of them have a single dead pixel or problem. Absolutely love them. I have two Dell Dimensions, an older 3000 and an E310, which I'm using right now. I've also owned a Dell Latitude C620 and a Dell Inspiron, both of which worked great. On the other hand, I've had a damn near horrible experience with the Dell OptiPlex GX620's at school, lets see... STOP errors, application hangs, random crashes... those things are just horrible, although it may all be caused by the fact that we use Novell for some stupid reason instead of a proper Windows Server based authentication system and Active Directory and/or Group Policy.

Now, for those of you who know me, you know what I put my computer through. For those of you who don't know me, let me just give you a brief summary - a lot of website and graphics design work, gaming, word processing, programming, you name it. I consider myself to be a power user. So, when I looked for a computer to fit my needs as best as possble while still being affordable, we chose Dell. I didn't go for the Dimension or OptiPlex lines and I didn't go with an Inspiron (although I would have if I was looking for a laptop). No. I went straight for the big kahuna.

The Dell XPS 700 Special Edition Formula Red - with some insane specifications to boot. Now, I know the Dell XPS 710 is out, but it is only available with a Quad Core processor, and while that's not a bad thing, I won't take full advantage of it and would rather get my moneys worth out of some other system components.

Without further ado, here are the specifications:

• Special Edition Formula Red Chassis with a 1 KILOWATT Power Supply (can anybody say "overkill"?)
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 processor
• 4 GB of DDR2 SDRAM
• 320 GB SATA2 Hard Drive (I'll add in another one later if I need more space)
• NVIDIA GeForce 7950 GX2 1GB Graphics Card ("SLI on a stick"...)
• Ageia PhysX Accelerator Card (it was free, why not?)
• Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic (I already own one of these, absolutely love it, selling it though - anyone want it? It's in great condition, very well looked after)
• Genuine Windows XP Professional with re-installation CD

Pretty nuts, right? It only cost me $3,400 before taxes. And it should last me a few years without having to upgrade it much, which is a plus. It should be here either this week or early next week, I'm calling Dell today to find out what the shipping status of it is (their online Order Status page tells me it's shipped... but that doesn't tell me a whole lot). I'm hoping I can get a tracking number or something for it, as I have to be here to sign for it when it arrives as well.

I'll be sure to take lots of pictures, that's for sure.