A couple of months ago, I built a computer on speculation, figuring to use it to make a couple of needed extra bucks. This was before the contract jobs were coming at a steady pace, when I thought we might need the extra scratch. It's a solid computer, Athlon 4400+ processor, 1GB RAM (that's what came with the package; I will upgrade later), 2-160GB Seagate SATA hard drives, and a DVD burner with lightscribe. I put it all together for $300 ($350 before rebates, but those are in now, so I can mark down the post-rebate price).

I was pleased to discover that the extra money wouldn't be necessary, and so I was able to hold onto the machine (although I'm looking at selling my old one; we are computer-rich at the moment). I was initially going to make it an XP machine, and loaded, but did not activate the O/S.

This past week, I decided that I wanted to hold onto my XP key, and load the machine with Vista Ultimate (being a student, I get it for next to nothing). I've been working with Vista for awhile and am familiar with the ins and outs, and besides, this is a machine that can more than handle it. So I gave in to the power of the dark side and loaded it with Vista (whose number one best feature is...CHESS!)

I was pleased to see an experience score of 3.0. Only the (onboard) graphics is dogging the score; otherwise it would be a 4.5. I'm thinking of pulling my video card from my Optiplex GX260 (the onboard still works, so it would be cool) to see what the experience score is with a *new* video card.

Now, this only gives me something to play with until my HH cd gets here (I have a partition set aside and ready for it when it comes), but the computer is running smoothly most of the time (I do need to up the memory). I just...feel so dirty right now...

...But I have my chess game!