“Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”
– Benjamin Franklin

I’ve never been very good with science. Ever since I was a kid I detested it, even though I was a complete math nerd. I believe that it was almost 10 years ago that I had a friend build a computer for me, and at that time I was dead-set on the idea that I would never be able to do something like that. Incidentally, “never” came several days ago when I not-only purchased, but also put together and constructed my brand new desktop computer.

It was definitely quite the task to undertake (for me), but the payoff has been great as I don’t believe I’ll be needing a new computer for years to come. And even if that wasn’t the case, I could just upgrade certain parts in the oncoming years. Don’t let any of what I’m saying fool you; however, as I most certainly struggled in the process. A task that was expected to supposedly take 1-4 hours (min and max), took me much, much longer. Despite the fact that I utilized online resources such as Newegg’s Youtube video that described the proper steps necessary to assemble the computer, I was completely lost at times. I believe the thing that could have used the most amount of clarity on, was a definitive explanation of what “standoffs” are/were. Now that I know what they are, the word describes itself, but before I figured that out I nearly drove myself insane during the process. So much so, that not-only did I fail to properly install them, I built the computer up to the end, only to have it “bug out” and power itself on and off. Yeah, I panicked…

Regardless of the frustrations from this project, I managed to construct an amazing system in the end, with a graphics card that will hopefully save me money (perhaps), in the long run. The specs for my computer, for anyone that’s interested, are as follows:

Monitor: 27″ Asus MX279H
CPU: Intel Core i7 3770K (3.4Ghz)
GPU: XFX AMD Radeon HD 7870
HDD: Western Digital 1TB + 120GB SSD
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77
Memory: Kingston HyperX 8GB (1600Mhz)
Power Supply: Corsair 650w
Optical: Pioneer BD/DVD/CD Burner
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium (Windows 8 doesn’t appeal to me)

While I was building this system, I told myself that I probably would never consider doing this ever again, but perhaps the end result justifies the means. Interestingly enough, I don’t find myself being any more (but quite possibly, a lot less) interested in computer science after this experience. Ha! Go figure.