Time to Build a New PC

The time has come! Every few years, I build out a new PC to stay somewhat current and this time I just decided to go crazy. Why hold back? As I began my vacation I needed to burn a little stress and relax. What better way than to build a dream-machine!

Over the years, I have built many of my own PC’s. I started with technology that would not be recognizable by today’s standards. My first build was a venerable PC XT (8088), then came the AT 286, 386, 486, Pentium, and Core systems. It has been a few years since I have gotten my hands dirty, assembling all the cables, using the thermal paste, and avoiding bending the pins, so I opted to select the parts and have the base build done by the pro’s. Yeah, it is cheating a little bit, but I know my limitations. I would likely screw something up and take all night to figure it out.

I spent 2 hours shopping for just the right parts are my local Fry’s electronic superstore. By the end, I had a cart full of everything I wanted. I purchased it and dropped it all off with the service staff right at closing.

Here are some of the highlights:

Intel Core i7-7700
Corsair Vengeance LED 32GB of DDR4 3000 memory (with room for another 32 GB if I so choose later)
ASUS RX 580 STRIX 8GB GDDR5 video card, ready for overclocking
ASUS TUF Z270 Mark 2 motherboard
Samsung 500GB 850Evo SSD for a super-fast OS boot drive and a trusty WD 3TB desktop drive for data storage
Thermaltake Toughpower 750W gold certified power supply
Corsair Hydro H100i dual fan water cooling system
ASUS dual band wireless card with remote antenna
CyberPower 1500va battery backup, to keep everything safe
LG 34-inch ultrawide main monitor, with two Dell 27 inch supporting monitors (one left, one right)

It only took less than a day for the base build to be assembled and I picked the system up just after lunch. I setup the necessary (yes, 3 monitors are necessary!) monitors, and power backup. It came to life in an instant and I felt like a proud parent. I then installed the OS, drivers, software, and configured exactly the way I wanted it.

It now takes the top spot in all my PC’s. It is not replacing any of the others, just augmenting the systems I already have at home. My fiancé wonders why I must have so many PC’s, laptops, and tablets in the house. I simply can’t explain it. But the inner geek in me is firm, I do.

Please welcome my latest system. (ignore the lack of cable management – I will get to it eventually…in about a year or two)

Who else out there gets giddy when building a new system? …please tell me I am not alone on this.

Interested in more? Follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter (@Matt_Rosenquist), Information Security Strategy, and Golos.