How about a post without any glitches, bugs or patches?!

I was tasked with buying components for my 13 year-old grandson so that he and I could build a computer. This was his Christmas present, so Mom and Dad paid and Grandma shopped. I was given a $1,000 budget and shopped at the Egg like mad over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend. After Grandpa and Grandma threw in $100 towards the build, I was able to come in at only $80 over budget and that's only because of the insane prices of HDDs right now.

Core i7 2600
Gigabyte Z68 UD3P
8 GB Gskill RAM
Asus GTX 560 Ti
Cooler Master Silent Pro 800 Watt 80+ Gold power supply
Cooler Master RC 692 case
OCZ Agility 3 SSD, 60 GB
Seagate HDD, 1 TB
ASUS DVD multi

I also scored two free game downloads, Batman Arkham City with the video card and Battlefield 3 with the CPU.

I asked his mom what he had to open up on Christmas morning and she said a new pair of jeans and some new socks. I teased her that she was the meanest mom ever! But she said the 13 year-old attitude was starting to present itself, so she didn't feel so bad! I set it up out here and when they came out for their annual Christmas Pizza, he walked in and the look on his face was one of pure shock. All he could get out was, "Oh. My. God. Are you kidding me? Oh. My. God."

We built it Monday and when it was all together I asked him if he wanted to do the honors and push the button the first time. When we had lights and fans and the motherboard splash screen, that deserved a big old high five! Of course, we ended up with headaches with enabling Intel Smart Response Technology (ISRT) on the board - drives dropping out and finally, the dreaded boot looping. But Grandma is nothing, if not determined. I was up until midnight and finally got everything working and the boot loops stopped. I took it in Tuesday and we fired it up. I have quite possibly the happiest grandson on the planet right now! Plus, he learned a lot. Plus, we had fun. Life is good!

Computer Christmas Fun

Wow, Grandma, what a great story!

I'd take that over jeans and socks any old day of the week!

Would you like to adopt a new, albeit somewhat older, but decidedly less mature Grandson?

Looks like a nice build Drac

Yes, Drac, could you adopt me too? I'm just as immature as Inland! In fact, my best friend tells me I think like a teenager (her actual words!)

Looks like a super computer that will play the latest games. What kind of games does the grandson play - adventure? action? action/adventure?

Very nice !

Drac,

What an awesome gift for your grandson. I'm positive that the experience alone will be meaningful to him for all his life.
Thank you for sharing the story, I love it!

Thanks, everyone. I agree that the experience was probably worth at least as much as the computer itself!

Cruise, he plays FPS games and is blown away by his new Battlefield 3.

"Would you like to adopt a new, albeit somewhat older, but decidedly less mature Grandson? "
And maybe a Grandaughter of a similar ilk ????

Brilliant stuff, Draclvr !!

My, but my adopted family is growing by leaps and bounds!

Definitely better than jeans and socks.

But, I bring Chickens

And I bring my comic books!
Thanks for adopting us, Drac! Consider us your Long-distance, Online Grandchildren!

But I already have chickens, Inland! As long as they get along with my chickens, they are welcome!

Well done Drac! You make it sound so easy to build!

WOW I wish I had a grandma like you!! but then again she would be in her 100s

I'm not allowed to have chickens where I live.

Just ask Drac to adopt you, Monbron - Inland and I started off asking thus, and AFAIK, Drac is including us as her growing, extended family, although it's long-distance, & online!

So it looks like we'll all her new online grandkids!



We used to have chickens years and years (40 years ago) at our old house on Bettis Road, but here where we live now I don't think we're allowed to keep chickens. Except these $5 fully roasted chickens that're ready to eat from the grocery store, that is. Or pigeons.

Oh, drat! Inland or Jenny, it just clicked in my brain that I used the "insert image" option and I don't think we're supposed to do that here. Should I change it to a link?

Now that you mention it, it might be better to change it to a link.
I think your picture is larger than the allowed size.

The picture looks really nice though.
Great Christmas present -- especially along with the time spent together with your Grandson assembling the computer. It's a "Dream Christmas present" for most grandkids. I'd have loved it at his age.

I'm jealous of you living in a rural area where you can have animals like chickens and horses -- and have the space to grow vegetables. We're not allowed "livestock" or large pets like horses where I live. Not that I could manage a horse if I had one.

I'll definitely change it... don't know what I was thinking! Probably forgot which forum I was posting at.

Yeah, I wouldn't have it any other way - I've just never been a "city girl." I'm not a big egg eater, but everyone says once you eat a fresh farm egg, you'll never go back to store eggs. And as a friend who gets eggs from us says, "Plus, your chickens are HAPPY chickens."

That's why I do volunteer work at the Rescue Ranch once or twice a week. I can get my horse fix, but don't have to maintain fences or buy hay in the winter and support the local horse vet!

That's a nice system Drac. For a moment, I thought that was a picture of my system. At least the tower case.

Well done, grandma. Oh, and I agree about those eggs. None better than eggs from chickens that have free reign of the farm.

Yeah, I really like that Cooler Master case, Homer6. And I was able to score it for a mere $50! It's as solid and well-built as my Antec 900, but with much better cable management options. My step-son finally got to get his hands on the new computer last night. He was just as blown away by it as the grandson. They showed me the graphics on Battlefield 3 and all I can say is wow!

Watch out, Drac. Your stepson is going to want you to build one for him too.