CmdrTaco's Journal: From Scratch

Years ago I knew every component inside my PC. I knew it because I built it myself. It was a labor of love- carefully researching each component. Installing it myself. This lasted for years. I'd replace one component at a time. The PC was a 486/100, a P120, a P2/200. It had at least 3 video cards. It housed from 8 to 128 megs of RAM. And it lasted me from my senior year of high school, through most of college.

Two things changed my deept personal connection with my computer. The first was my first laptop. It was a Dell, and it was a P166. It was a tiny little guy with a little screen and a tendency to break. But it totally changed my relationship with my computer. Instead of it being the beige box that sat next to my bed, it was a tiny little black thing that could go wherever I went. Around the same time we discovered wireless networking and suddenly The Internet became part of everything we did. Make no mistake that these changes made Slashdot happen... but I still have a hard time believing that it was nearly 5 years ago.

The second change came along a few years later- when Andover was bought by VA Linux Systems, they provided us with machines. Why build a PC when a pre-assembled and tested and ready to rock box can be yours? In fact my VA box, which I've been using since the acquisition is still my primary desktop. Sure, the P3 750 isn't the fastest chip in the world by todays standards, but its got a pair of monitors and xinerama makes it all sing.

So over the last year I've been wanting to build a new machine. A gaming machine. There are just so many PC games calling out to me, from the new Star Wars RPG, to Warcraft III. And while my laptop could run Diablo II and The Sims on its tiny little windows partition, playing these new games is going to require more 3D muscle then I will have on my laptop for a long time.

So I've begun building my new machine. It will be a thing of beauty. An Athlon 2100. A gigantic hard drive. A DVD player. And a nicely tricked out case with windows and some lights. Once again I shall know my components. I shall understand their relationship with each other. And I shall suffer through the endless cycle of driver upgrades and operating system reinstalls necessary to gain admittance to the valhala of PC gaming.

WC3 better be worth it ;)