Go ahead, I'll start.

I am the super proud parent of a computer i built myself (with some help from my brother)

I picked the components by hand, and i find myself still adding onto it's, already massive capacity.

The Specs:

CPU: Intel Pentium D 3.34GHZ Dual Core LGA 775

Why: I chose this instead of some of the Core 2 Duo options out there for 2 reasons. I liked the high operating frequency since i do a lot of gaming, and secondly, i will admit, it was cheaper at the time. This was upgraded from the original Intel Celeron D 3.3ghz Dual Core.

MOBO: I started out with a 775 Dual VSTA board, but after trying to rig a power supply, i blew out some of the circuits, and had to replace it with an NForce 570 SLIT-A. This gave me options with 4 DDR2 memory slots (total capable of 16gb) SATA II, gb lan, and a host of other features my board lacked, so it would have been replaced sooner or later (sooner because i blew up the old one lowl)

Why: As i said, i blew out my old one, and it came with better options than my old one.

RAM: I had to give up my old DDR ram for some newer DDR2, before i had 2x512mb sticks of DDR, and switched to 2 sticks of 1gb DDR2 ram. I have another 2gb stick on the way.

Why: I need a ton of ram since i run quite a few background programs, and i play online games quite a bit. 4gb may seem a bit much, but i assure you, i will use every last bit.

HDD: So far i have 2x250 GB SATA Hard drives. I also have another 500gb coming since i have almost completely run out of storage space

Why: Coming close to a terrabyte of information is kinda scary when looking at a home desktop, but i have a lot of movies, games, and whatnot, so i need all the space i can get. HD's are getting much cheaper, so its getting more common to store more data.

Optical Storage: I have 1 CD-R, CD-RW drive, and also a DVD-R,RW Lightscribe drive

Why: I burn a lot of movies, and it was pretty cheap, and also came with lightscribe (which i never actually used yet, lowl) Also burn a lot of applications to CD's.

Audio: Realtek HD Audio

Why: Came with the mobo

GPU: EVGA GeForce 7950 GT KO Superclocked w/ 512mb DDR2 Ram

Why: This is why i had to boost my power supply, and ended up frying my mobo. I play a lot of high end games, and though this isn't quite as good as the 8000 series, it has a lot to offer as it is factory over clocked.

PSU: Vortec 650 W

Why: MORE POWER!! I added so many new components all at once, my old one couldn't take it (i think it was 450W)

Cooling: Good old, standard fans. I started off with a liquid cooling system, but for some reason it never worked properly. My computer would often overheat, and shut down. I removed it and replaced it with the stock fan and heatsink that came with the CPU, and that fixed it. I also have 4 90mm fans, 1 in back, 2 in the side, and one up top, along with a 120mm fan in the front, not to mention the fans on the CPU, Hard-drive cooling rack, and GPU.

Why: Fans work well enough, i don't do any over-clocking, so my computer temp stays pretty stable.

OS: Windows XP Home SP3

Why: While i could change to Vista (which was not out when i began construction, though it is vista compatible) I play a lot of games, and vista requires too many resources, and has for too many bugs for me to be able to rely on it.

All in all, it works pretty well, though i still have some bugs from time to time. It plays games very well, and everyday applications, and web-browsing are ultra fast due to cable internet, and an upgrade to CAT6 cable.

If you are interested, here are some links to some photos i took. They aren't the best cuz i took them with my phone, lowl. If u have any questions let me know, other wise, brag away!


http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g7.../Photo0023.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g7.../Photo0021.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g7.../Photo0019.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g7.../Photo0018.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g7.../Photo0017.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g7.../Photo0013.jpg
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g7.../Photo0012.jpg