New Computer (first try)

Happy Birthday, Brad!

Last week my hard drive died. I think it happened the first day I was sick. Lauren came up and told me that my computer was making a clicking sound. That’s the sound of a dead hard drive. Everything was backed up, so I didn’t worry about it, but I started thinking about maybe putting together a new computer.

I looked back at my account history and the last time I’d built a new computer was in 2009. So my current computer was 6 years old. That’s pretty good service from a computer. I had upgraded the RAM since then, but I think that was it.

I spent most of a day figuring our what parts to buy. I don’t really keep up on that stuff. It changes every few months, and I only build a new computer every few years, so it’s better to figure it out every few years than to just know stuff.

Last time I put together a computer I spent more than I normally do on the case and the power supply, so I’m going to use those again. That’s actually about $100 worth of parts. DVD drives haven’t changed any since 2009, so I’m using that over again too. Everything else will be new.

It turns out that new everything else costs $525 dollars. I found some websites with good advice, good reviews, good comparisons and good deals. I think I’m getting a $665 computer for my $525.

I put all of the pieces together today, but when I tried to install Windows 7 it told me that my product key was wrong. I don’t know what it means. I read the product key off the box. Oh well. I’ve got another one at school that I can use. But I can’t do that until Monday. So for now I’ve got a $785 dollar paper weight. If you’re interested in the nitty-gritty details, you can read about the new computer here.