Review: The "Master Chef" Part 1

My crazy Panamaniac greasemonkey weightlifter uncle decided it was due time his soon-to-be-12-year-old son got a computer for himself. New generation huh? Anyway I convinced him that building a computer from scratch would be a better option than getting one from a store or company. The system would later be named the "Master Chef." The simple reasons you should build your own computer versus buy one are as follows:

• You get WAY more power for WAY less price (usually 2x or more).
• The build will be more stable and the hardware is less likely to fail.
• There are many more configuration options without the worry of breaking a warranty.
• The cool factor, it's a computing codpiece.

Sure you don't get tech support, but when was the last time Dell or HP tech support actually helped you? Don't answer that, it was rhetorical, I know the answer to that, it's never because you motherfuckers call me all the fucking time when you can't find the start menu or can't figure out fucking iTunes. It's FUCKING ITUNES!! GOOGLE IT! .......anyway maybe I'll save that rant for another post. So the short is you should always build your own desktop instead of buying a new one. Yea yea so my cousin was getting one and I offered to build it for him. So I hunted for a lil' bit and came up with this list of parts with which I made a public wish list on Newegg Including the rebates it comes to $803.92. without the monitor thats $633.93. Pretty sexy considering if you want to buy a computer with similar specs and video card it'd cost you around $1,750 with a monitor and $1,300 without. The parts simply explained are as follows: A sexy Cooler Master RC-690 case that came with a 550 watt power supply: I chose it for it's good looks, price (at the time it was $99), included power supply, trusted brand, and good reviews. A decent MSI P7N-SLI motherboard: I probably would've gone with this ASUS model instead, but the price was just a little too high. Wasn't a bad decision though, and I'm a fan of the 750 chipset. 4Gig of OCZ Gold RAM: I haven't had much personal experience with OCZ, but the price was right and I wasn't building a computer for myself. I'd heard good things and this was a good time to check it out. An Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 running at 2.53Ghz: This is where I saved my money. Had I more to spend I would've gone with the E8200, which has a 1333mhz FSB and runs at 2.66Ghz, but it was just so much more money. A Western Digital 250Gb Hard Drive: I don't skimp on hard drives, I've bought this drive before for my builds and have always found it to be rock solid stable, whisper quiet, and blazing fast. I buy exlusively Western Digital because thier drives have never ever ever given me a problem as opposed to other companies. An EVGA GeForce 8800GT 512: I spent a little more for the trusted EVGA brand, but thier customer service is outstanding. A friend of mine busted his from stupid overclocking and they replaced it no problem, with free shipping. This thing hauls ass too, about the 3rd fastest card you can get without going SLI, and for $115 after rebate, I couldn't resist. A BenQ G2000WD 20.1 inch widescreen LCD monitor: It was cheap, had good reviews and color depth, and a decent 5ms response time for gaming. Can't go wrong with BenQ either. And finnally a LITE-ON 20x SATA DVD burner: Honestly it was the cheapest SATA DVD Burner on Newegg. The reviews were fine. I Don't have too much experience with burners and ussually just buy the cheapest no-name brand I can find. I've never had a problem with any drive I've bought. This time though, the cheapest drive was a name-brand LITE-ON. So I guess God is telling me it's time to get a name-brand disc drive. That's enough for this time, next time I'll go through the building process and start detailed reviews. As well as rate the system as a whole and compare it to other...things. Till next time. BOO! scared? Are you ready? Are you ready for this? Are you hanging on the edge of your seat?