Christmas At A Geeks House
Blog Archive Repost
Christmas at a geeks house.
Published 03 January 08 02:51 PM | RjBass Edit
Well kids, I'm back from my long holiday vacation and I'm finally writing my first new blog post in weeks. I know I have some other topics that I need to get back to, but over the vacation I came up with the idea for this post.
Christmas came and went this year just like it normally does. My boys, ages 9 and nearly 12 made out their Christmas list starting back in October and on December 25th they were finally allowed to see what they got. Opening their presents I started thinking "this is not your typical kids Christmas". You see, my boys, like me, are geeks. They have both built their own computers and are really into various computer hardware aspects. So unlike many kids who often put allot of toys on their lists, my kids had computer components on theirs.
When the present opening started, they both got some of the normal things that kids get, like new clothes from family members, some board games, candy etc... One cool thing that they got but didn't actually ask for was an XBox 360. Eventually they made their way to the Christmas presents that they put on their actual list. Here is what that was.
Faster AMD dual core processors (they had the X2 3800+ and they received the X2 4800+)
3gb of DDR2 800 Memory (to max out their Windows 32bit operating systems, and they each received 3gb of Corsair XMS 2 gaming memory).
Better video cards (they have Radeon X800 Series cards and they received Radeon HD2900 Series cards).
New computer cases (they wanted full tower cases with side panel windows and they both got one of the Aspire X-Navigator cases)
To go along with all that they also received 750 watt Rosewill power supplies to feed those HD2900 series video cards. When trying to pick out video cards I tried to push them to the newer Radeon 3000 series cards but unfortunately they both saw the 2900 series card with another gaming rig I built for a customer and after seeing that, it was what they had to have. That actually worked out ok though as the 256mb 2900 series cards have come way down in price making it better on the personal finances. Besides, with the games they play, they won't even use the 2900 series cards to their fullest potential, so it all worked out just fine.
While I sat there watching them open up their presents with looks of amazement on their faces, I couldn't help but wonder what most young boys their age were opening. Surely not many of them were jumping up and down after receiving a new Radeon HD 2900 graphics card or Athon X2 4800+ processor. When I was young it was GIJoe and He-Man action figures that got me going.
Some people have asked me if I spent to much on them for Christmas. And while yes the presents they received tend to be much higher then that of an average toy for a young boy, I think the return will be well worth it. Hopefully if they keep their grades up and continue to flourish in school, they will be able to get into good collages and be able to continue down this road I have set them on.
My fiance thinks the three of us are nuts, getting this excited over computer parts. I got excited because I get the hand me downs. I get their old X800 graphics cards, X2 3800+ processors, 500 watt power supplies, etc... This means I get to build some killer secondary machines for my home. In fact I have already begun doing that as the computer I am on right now is built out of a combination of their old parts with a couple of new parts.
Ideally I would have loved to have built a couple Core 2 Duo machines, but since used AMD parts are in stock, that's what I will be using. And while I know that the AMD processors are not as good as their Intel counterparts, they still don't suck, and that is just fine with me.
I hope you all had a good holiday season as well. Look for my blogging to get back on track here soon. I have a couple series that I need to continue on and a few other ideas for some post as well. Stay tuned.