Chipmaster's Christmas came early:

Ok, I've just had the best day of my life it seems. I got accepted to my top college (RPI) with a $60,000 scholarship, and I'm definitely going there, I took this smoking (as in hot) chick from work out, and I just got a very very expensive computer (well, not a complete computer) that I would value at at least over $500 if not over 1K for $32.50. Since this topic is on the computer, I'll only go into detail about the last one, sufficing to say that I'm overjoyed about the events that have transpired in the last 24 hours, and well, I'm speechless.

On to the comp. I got it from an eccentric friend, who's father had attempted to build the computer, but failed to get it to work. Apparently, he was annoyed to the point where he just wanted the computer out of his life and told his son (my friend) to try to sell it to one of his friends for $12.50. I was first on his list because apparently, I'm the resident nerd. I couldn't believe the offer, but went straight to his house none-the-less. The computer was legit, and he only wanted another $20 on top of what his dad wanted, so he could "milk it." Honestly, the computer was worth more than that to me, but I'll take what I can get, right?

He didn't tell me any of the specs of this thing, but the case alone is worth more than I paid for the entire thing. After looking through it, here's what I got from him. I'm not sure of the models of anything yet, and I might need some help determining this as it's not readily apparent:

*Motherboard. I'm not sure of the brand, but it says PT88OPro-A7 Combo on it.

*Processor. I'm not sure of the brand. The fan on it says intel. Could I have scored a core duo?!?

*Two Sticks of Corsair ram. They are each 512mb, making 1 gig of ram total. There are two of them, and the mobo allows for two more.

*Some sort of card in a PCI slot. I believe it's a sound card judging from the outputs it has in the back.

*Some sort of disk drive. Is it dvd, cd, dvd r, cd r; I have no idea...yet

*A SATA harddrive. I have no idea how much space this thing's got.

*Power Supply. Looks very professional. Again, I have no idea the model of this either.

*Coolant system. Really good lucking. I have no idea what the brand is.

*Awesome case. Way better than my current case.

*Power cables SATA cables IDE cables

I wanted to get this topic up ASAP, so I haven't taken it apart yet or given it thorough analysis. I did take some pictures (to prove I'm not full of shit). Here they are.












What do you guys think? Did I get ripped off? lol

Here's my current list of things to buy for this computer:

*Monitor
*Graphics Card
*Keyboard

Also, I have extra supplies around my house which I may use which include:

*Power cord
*DVDRom Drive
*Floppy Drive
*CDR Drive
*Assorted IDE Cables
*Mice
*Harddrives
*Ethernet Cards
*Graphics Card (really old crappy one, but may be good for getting it set up before I get a better one)
*Mobo (sentimental value and the pursuit of knowledge is the only reason this relic remains in my house)
*Printer card (it has the serial port as an output and it plugs into a PCI slot)

Anything blatantly obvious that I'm missing. Before I get specific suggestions about what to buy, I want to better understand the parts I have. If this requires better pictures or the disassembly of the computer just inform me. I'm going to devote all of my free time to building this thing in the coming days. I'm so excited!

yay chip! I have a friend at RPI and a couple friends living in Rensellaer, I might have to visit when I take my college tour there.

Most awesome. We actually don't live that far away from each other (what with you living in Vermont, and me in Massachusetts). I definitely forsee us meeting at some point. Heck, we should get Kerm to come up, too. I will be in the same state as him!

Little known is it elf is a 42 year old man that sits naked at his computer talking to little boys on the internet.

I kid i kid.

hehe mutually timed skiiing trip (not this year given the weather)....

I was also planning on touring CU to visit Kerm.


@Pseudo: so your sister says....now that would go over real well with campus authorities....

Could we merge the reply topic with this one please?

only Kerm can (and with DB manipulation).

You look really creepy in the last pic

Really? I could have sworn that there were merge utilities in the Admin controls in the forum that I'm a mod in. Dang.

@Harq:

Cool PC. I got mine last year to build, but it's staying here for my family anyways when I leave for college (RPI as well), so I'll end up building another for there for desktop use. (The new laptops are to have Vista on them )

On RPI: I got accepted as well. I assume you got the $60k from the Medal award as well?

Yea, I'm not 100% sure of what I'm going to do about computers at RPI. I might get a laptop, I might do there laptop program, I might even cart this pc up there.

Sure did. That's what sealed the deal for me. It will be awesome having a fellow calculator programmer there. Should I expect to see you at accepted students night?

I think you have to get their laptops, but if you buy it, it's yours to do what you will with it. If I can, I'll upgrade to XP first thing after scrounging for the software. I'll be at the accepted student's night.

wow, that is cool that you two will be headin to the same school. Would be even more ironic if you two were roommates.

As to the XP software, I would check with your school. The local colleges are selling XP Pro SP2 for less than $20.00... I have to through a friend that works there, since I am not a student...

actually, I believe you can choose your room mate, so they could be together.

Actually, my local college that I was taking classes at allowed me to get XP with SP2 for free. I also got Visio, OneNote, Virtual PC, and Project Pro for free from them .

2 calculator geeks in one place.... what will happen?

I thought it was optional, but highly recommended.

Cool. I'll make sure to look for you there and I'll bring my camera so we can post some pics of the first cemetech calculator get together thing. /me remembers the old plans of a calculator convention...what ever happened to those?