My current desktop PC has been almost unchanged since March 2008 — at least the CPU, motherboard, RAM and the casing has been like that for the last 4 years. I’m still fairly satisfied with it for most of my PC gaming use and besides, all of my daily chores has moved on to the laptop which I bring with me all the time.
The set-up was already above-average at that time — an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz, 4GB DDR2 800MHz RAM, 320GB Seagate SATA 7200rpm, Inno3D 8600 GTS 256MB DDR3 and a Gigabyte 3D Aurora case.
It has since gotten a few upgrades to additional 1TB of HDD and a Inno3D GTX275.
In the last two years, I’ve gotten a number of PC parts from various sponsors, advertisers and the likes. They were either review units that were eventually given away, raffle prizes, exchange deals for banner ads or plain token of appreciation during Christmas season.
I thought I’d assemble my new gaming rig from all the parts that I have lying around. All I would need is a decent processor and a couple new sticks of DDR3 RAM. I even have a ready PC case I bought from CoolerMaster that’s waiting to be assembled.
My problem though is that some of the items I have around were 2010 to 2011 models and thus, only supports 1st-generation Intel Core i7 processors (these are top notch Asus ROG series motherboards, btw). That means I would have to go for an Intel Core i7-950 or i7-960 to be able to use them.
So that was the plan — get a Core i7-960, an 8GB of RAM and that’s it — I already have the other remaining parts. I thought I’d spend an additional Php16k to Php18k for this set-up although I was willing to go up to Php20k on the budget.
The quest was on to find the target processor and for about a week, I scouted for one in a number of stores in Cyberzone, Greenhills and stand-alone shops.
Next stop — the Setup.
I strongly suggest to go to Gilmore, San Juan. Look for PCHub store, they have discounts if you are a TPC member (free registration).
Here is the link: http://www.tipidpc.com/useritems.php?username=PCHub
do a raffle like the other review sites do
build a massive gaming rig out of all the review parts and raffle it off, or donate proceeds to charity?
Already done that. Donations or charity works are stuff I don’t want to publicize in my blog. I prefer they’d be done in private.