Mid-Life Crysis and Greetings (long.....winded) - Overclock.net

Scriptorum · 02-01-08

I've been a lurking guest for a while and I guess it's time to say hello. I've been building or rebuilding my PCs on and off for 20 years, starting with that hot new rig the 80286 with ONE MEG of ram. That's right baby, I put my TSRs above the 640k address space! You can't stop me, I'm a mad man!

This 286 transmogrified into a 386 and the 486 over the years. And then one day I shifted career tracks and actually had money! Woo. Time to waste it! I surprised both the sales rep and myself when I pulled the four grand trigger on a Falcon Northwest in 1997. Over the next seven years every component in that machine was swapped out two or three times.

This Kafkaesque transformation abated as I entered the "finding myself" phase,

which paid little, and in the end, all I found was "da broke." When I returned to gainful employment, I noticed the Falconstein was an unstable relic. With car travel on the horizon, I elected to move to laptops, getting a Dell XPS m170, which is the machine I'm still on almost three years later. This was a great machine, but it's got no upgrade path, suffers from whooping cough and dermititis (which I partially cured with a replacement keyboard), and it spits emphasemically when running at native resolution on Team Fortress 2.

So I was eyeing the new Dells. After thinking long and hard, I felt I could move back to a desktop and keep this 12 pound laptop for the occassional "humping an anchor through security". First I look at the 720 desktop, then the 720 H2Cs, and I start to feel that itch. I mean, what happened to me? At one time in my life I picked out and installed everything that was in my machine. I had a quadruple boot, for crying out loud, and now I'm looking at the monitor yelling, "SATA?! What the hell happened to regular IDE?! Have I been living under a rock? Damn you, Dell laptop, you have drained my intelligence and made me lethargic!" It was then it really hit me: "Holy crap, I'm almost 40!"

Thus began my Mid-Life Crysis. I tried to appease this urge by customizing machines at boutique websites like Digital Storm and AVADirect, but all that did was make me think more and more about the parts and how they go together. I began to have flashbacks. Ooo, the feel of anti-static wrap. The snap of a card seating properly. Mmm. The sound of a 20 meg hard drive shorting out as I jiggled the cables while it was still on. Uh, well not that one. Soon enough I faced the fact that this will be no impulse purchase, no instant gratification. I have to build an uber rig.

I'm entering new territory. I've never overclocked, nor watercooled, but I intend to do so now. I may even mod the case a little. Also, did someone mention gaudy lights and UV coolant? I will use this machine for work and play, so stability is a concern, but I'll keep this laptop up to date just in case. I'm going to spend an obscene amount of money, triple boot XP, Vista 64 and Ubuntu, and reconnect with my inner nerd. Not the regular kind, I need to get in touch with the original, the one who hid his computer magazines in a special compartment of his backpack to prevent discovery by bullies who might put him in a cramper-than-usual closet or through the basketball net.

Yeah, that guy. I may even put Raptors in RAID 0, not because it's a good idea, but because I've never done it before. MTBF / 2, you do not scare me!

In short, I am going to go to one of those animosity-generating places where awful values are born, headlined by the dual SLI 8800 Ultra. You're right, I know you're right, I can't tell you how many times in my life I've argued about the price/performance ratio, and finding that sweet spot on the curve where you maximize your value. But I want it! And I will OC it. At the end of this rainbow is a very sour pot of gold, a playable very high Crysis at 1920x1200 ... maybe. This is a fairly arbitrary goal, with a game noted not for gameplay but for being purdy. Speaking of arbitrary, I'm not into benchmarking competitions, I'm really not, but I can't explain the saliva generated when I think of 20,000 at 3dmark06. Why not Triple SLI, then? Even my inner child can't fail to choke and stutter at the steepness of the curve there. And those 30" monitors are -- so -- huge.

I've gone over my parts spec so many times I may need to leave it alone for a few days and let it sit. Maybe I should take a week to clean out the garage and prepare a workspace for bleeding loops and other fun stuffs I recently learned about. Since I live in Atlanta, I will probably not be doing much in terms of overclocking initially, at least the first heat wave hits. I'd rather have realistic ambients to work with. I'll post the spec once it stops changing, with hopes that you will wish me well on my merry way, tell me to wait for the D9Es, and/or remind me I'm an idiot to spend a bucket of cash on a computer instead of a mutual fund.

I hope you found this introduction entertaining, and if not, you may rise now from your power nap. Or keep on napping.

pioneerisloud · 02-01-08

All I gotta say is I can't wait to see your work man! There's no problem building the highest end machine known to man...just so long as you can afford it and it makes you happy, that's all that matters.

Emmanuel · 02-01-08

Welcome! You seem to be very experienced already! I didn't grew up around your PCs, I grew up around the Pentium II up until the Core 2 Quad!

mrtn400 · 02-01-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scriptorum

It was then it really hit me: "Holy crap, I'm almost 40!"

Another great saying for my signature, thank you!

Also I hope you like it here.

It really hit me: "Holy crap, I'm almost 15!"

(Eh, six more months)

Run N. Gun · 02-01-08

Welcome to OCN, Scripto! We're glad to have you here.

I believe you'll find this to be a mature group of helpful, fun loving folks that are a lot of fun to be around. Trust me, you're not the old faht on this board, in fact, you'd be a whippersnapper to some.

BTW - I started writing assembler and CLI code for the 68000 chip way back when...and it evolved a couple of years later into the AMIGA.

slytown · 02-01-08

Welcome. Don't hesitate to ask questions or write essays for us.

gymenii · 02-01-08

IBM PC 8088 w/ Dual 5.25 floppies and a mono green screen. Those were the days!
Welcome!

dragosmp · 02-01-08

Hey, welcome. Nice intro, I had a real goo time reading it as such monologues are rare on OCN. Enjoy the ride, and from my part those performance/$ discussions have a point only when one is limited in his or hers budget

Cheers!

Stephen Chan · 02-01-08

Nice rant! One day when I have the money I want to try building an all out water-cooled overclocked mass of overpriced PCB.

Syrillian · 02-01-08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scriptorum

In short, I am going to go to one of those animosity-generating places where awful values are born, headlined by the dual SLI 8800 Ultra. You're right, I know you're right, I can't tell you how many times in my life I've argued about the price/performance ratio, and finding that sweet spot on the curve where you maximize your value.

Greetings.

Nice introduction.

Hmmm.... "value", funny word that one, and an odd notion... not one that ought to appear in the same sentence as the phrase "mid-life crysis".

You have come to the right place if you wish to shed the last vestiges of your sanity.

Me thinks that I shall enjoy your madness.

02-01-08	#6 (permalink)
slytown Intel Overclocker Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Cedar Falls, IA Posts: 1,165 Rep: 66 Unique Rep: 60 Folding Team Rank: 1165 Hardware Reviews: 3 Trader Rating: 3	Welcome. Don't hesitate to ask questions or write essays for us. __________________ My Gallery Join Iowa Overclockers! Robilar's Asus P5N32E-SLi guide. OCN Trance/Techno/Dance Club - We love drum machines.

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Mid-Life Crysis and Greetings (long.....winded)

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