Here she is, in all her glowy blue LED glory. She's not done yet--I have to solder LEDs into the new fans and install the cathodes, and I'm still playing with the fan controller, but she's running on a brand-new copy of XP I had to go get at Best Buy (sorry, Newegg, but to me, "next day" means the next day, not freaking Monday) since the copy I had was Dell OEM and knew it was on a good motherboard. Let that be an OEM warning to the rest of you--it might seem like an unbeatable deal at the time, but if you change your hardware, poof, it's gone.

All the parts gathered together. First time that kitchen island's been this clean!

The Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3R, because it has 8 SATA slots, 8 USB ports (I am a USB whore, I tell you), and will run the 800mhz RAM I got on a great sale.

The Sacred Chip. The Intel E8400, 45nm, C2D in all its little silicon glory. It's love, really.

The Tuniq Tower heatsink, aka Guardian of the Sacred Chip. This thing actually abuts the 25 cm fan in the side of my case, but it closes, so I figure it's perfect.

The Guardian in action. Turns out I am exceedingly fond of blue glowy things.

The mobo with chip in the tower, ready for its closeup, Mr. DeMille.

The cool chromed sleeving I picked up at Fry's in San Jose, where my old PC will find a new life with my good buddy Dave, who introduced me to Fry's. There's still a big mess of cables in there, so if I'd let the two sets of tower cables fly free, it would be far worse. It's all about the airflow. And pretty.

The Sacred Chip is joined by the GeForce 8600GTS and Soundblaster XFi Extreme Gamer. So happy together.

There she is--up and running and updating and installing and boy is my desk an unholy mess. Don't look at it. Keep your eyes on the prize. Or you'll burn your retinas.

The Xbox would be jealous, except I play Mass Effect while software is installing, so the kids get equal time. For now. I'll play with the fan controller during the Superbowl because I can't play on it then. Until then, if you'll kindly excuse me, I now have to go play 11 PC games I couldn't on my previous rig. Later.

So my new Intel E8400 45nm 3.00Ghz Core 2 Duo finally arrived yesterday. [For those of you just joining our previously scheduled custom PC already in progress, I started this in October and have been waiting until January for the new chips.] Yes, I have baby pictures, and as soon as I get them out of the camera, I'll share. So I spent the entire evening (after UPS got there 3 hours later than usual) sleeving cabling and smearing thermal paste and popping cards into slots. I'd have sleeved the tower cables sooner, but depending on where they had to go on the mobo, I didn't want to have to undo them! Luckily, the cables from the tower all fit into two chromed sleeves, so it looks cool. The fan wires...got electrical tape. It looks like the fancy heatshrink that I apparently forgot to order but thought I had (the only mishap, by the bye) and does the job, so it's fine. Purists will shriek, but I am getting carpal tunnel from clicking on tracking at UPS.

I have upgraded parts before, and re-pasted my chips to clean the heatsink, so it wasn't entirely alien territory, and it was a great deal of fun, especially using all brand-new parts that I picked myself (so long, Dell, we hardly knew ye). I went with the Nvidia 8600GTS because it was significantly cheaper than the new 8800GT, and I figured, do I really, really need all that, or do I just really want it? Worst case, next year I get a SLI mobo and another 8600. Or upgrade. But between that and the chip, because the E8500 3.16Ghz was going to be $100 more than the E8400, I saved a bundle, because why bother when I can overclock it if I want more power? So I'm feeling pretty pleased with myself at present.

The most time-consuming part, actually, turned out to be hooking the various connectors and cables to all the right places on the motherboard. Luckily, Gigabyte's user manual explains it pretty well. The USB ports on the case are the only ones without seemingly correct connectors, so I have to do some research on those. And I need to sort out the cabling, which at present is ugly. I started on the fan controller, but that I'll finish tonight, then maybe start testing, and be up and running tomorrow so I can install games and play all weekend! Except during the Superbowl, of course.

It's not quite operational, but I'm hopeful for tomorrow evening, if all goes well and I get to the point I can move the hard drive into this machine. That's usually a big if, so we'll see! Then all I'll have to do, at my leisure, since I haven't had time in the past three months, is pretty it up. I still have to solder LEDs into the good fans I got so I can ditch the stock fans, and arrange my cathodes, but I'll worry about lighting effects later. Right now, I just want to play! Keep your fingers crossed that I did everything right so it will work without blowing out anything.

As requested by my good buddy Dreski83, I took passable pics of my Commander Shepard from Mass Effect. Her name is Carter, and she's an earthborn, sole-survivor soldier. Her hair is brown, but it looks reddish in the picture. She likes long walks on green beaches, meal rations by starlight, and assault rifles. I haven't gotten very far; I started it whilst housesitting two dogs and a 67" HD TV. I got stuck at the first big firefight on Eden Prime. Well, not "stuck" so much as "killed repeatedly." I almost made it through once, but ran out of time right before the last objective, which I could see from where I was desperately running for it. I officially hate timed missions. I ran out of weekend, but tomorrow I return to Eden Prime to kick some Geth butt. Really. I mean it this time. I do like the game, and the RPG elements that let you define your character. I like the equipment upgrade system (once I got the hang of it) and the very informational codex. The tutorial, however, is for crap. So I'm still stumbling around in the dark trying to figure out which button does what, how to use the various powers, etc. I'm sure I'll get killed a few more times, but I am nothing if not persistent. I'm still debating which skills to level up first.

So there she is, Miss Normandy 2183. Ok, Dreski, I showed you mine!

Since I refuse to make new year's resolutions on the basis that nobody ever sticks to these perennial cliches, and because I loathe cliches, my 2008 to do list (way easier and more straightforward than resolutions) is about finishing games. Yes, I have other big-life stuff I need to do on a different list (like reapply for a passport because mine is 20 years old, and rollover my state retirement from the last job into a real IRA, but notaries are such a pain in the tuckus and the market will suck until the moron in chief is out), but this is Gamespot, so who cares about retirement right now.

Unless it will give me more time for gaming, because with this list, I'm going to need it. I often wonder how some of the folks around here do it, playing all these games, beating them, reviewing them, and then I realize that they are good at them, and I suck, so it takes me way longer. Luckily, 2008 is a leap year, so we all get an extra day to play.

Games I Will Finish Just As Soon As Football Season Is Over, Because I Have My Priorities

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Once I discovered this game, I played obsessively for weeks. My Dunmer, Amygdala, is now the head of the Fighters', Mages', and Thieves' Guilds and the Dark Brotherhood. She has a full set of glass armor and has closed a dozen Oblivion gates. Most of her skills are in the 80s, one a master. She has a bunch of houses, so much gold I couldn't ever find a way to spend it all. I have yet to really embark on the master quest because I've been doing side quests and skilling up (but not always leveling up until I can't train anymore)...and I don't want to finish the game because then it'll be over. I have to suck it up and get on with it. If I can remember how to play it.

Assassin's Creed Actually played this faithfully until interrupted by my vacation. Now I just need time to focus on the Robert mission. I started to get a little OCD to find all those ridiculous flags, so the break at least cured me of that. Honestly, they are silly, but I am determined to milk the full experience out of every game...unless it is annoying. The rest of the game is very cool, however, and I am looking forward to the next two installments.

SWAT 4 Started this months ago. Twice. Can't wait to shoot a drug dealer. Guess I'll have to run the training mission a third time so I can remember how to play it.

Far Cry Finally picked up a copy, finally started it, and got distracted by the 437 games released in Q4. I'll be back. If I can remember the keyboard scheme.

TimeShift I don't care what the reviews said. I am a sucker for the time travel schtick. I'll just have to start over so I can relearn the controls.

Games I Was Smart Enough To Acquire Through Various Means But Didn't Have Time To Play
(or, Why I Need To Win the Lottery So I Can Retire and Play Games All Day)

Mass Effect Dear lord do I want to play this game. As soon as I finish AC, this one hits the top of the 360 queue. I even (help me, I have a problem) got the t-shirt. Luckily, it is too cold to wear a t-shirt to game in, even inside, so I will narrowly avoid that particular starship to nerd infamy.

The Witcher; Crysis; Bioshock And as soon as %$*@&%# Intel releases the Wolfdale series (rumored street date 20 January) so I can finish building my gaming PC, I will be ABLE to play them. Finally. But I'll be damned if I'm switching (note I did not say "upgrading") to Vista.

Shadow of the Colossus; God of War; Gladius When everyone in the room at Gamestop, including the staff, nod in approval and envy, you know you picked up a good one. And with a coupon.

Dreamfall; Jeanne D'Arc I am not actually stalking Kevin Van Ord, but I generally believe him.

2008 Releases I Simply Must Have Or I Will Surely Perish, Backlogged Until 2009

God of War: Chains of Olympus Do I really have to explain why an insane, tattooed demigod, with fire chains built into his arms, tearing a vengeful swath toward redemption, is cool?

The Sims Castaway Stories It has monkeys. Monkeys are funny.

Fallout 3 And it better come out this year. And it better not suck. And they better add groin shots and Harold.

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty Yes, it's World War II-inspired, yes, it has Nazis, and yes, it's a shooter, but it's in the 50s, alternative, with prototype ray guns and an Everyman protag, not some impossibly muscled bodybuilder supersoldier.

Spore If, of course, they hit the third target date.

Wet Guns. Swords. Leather. Hotness. It's perfect. I'm easy. So sue me.

Infinite Undiscovery The title is cool enough that if they pull it off, I want it. Even if it is a JRPG that I won't understand. (Frankly, I don't think you're supposed to.)

Far Cry 2 After I finish the first one. When was the last time you played a game set in Africa? Elephants do not suck.

Dead Island Zombies. Duh. And it's from Poland. This game better not suck.

Iron Man Hopefully won't follow in his cousin Spidey's gaming missteps, because he looks very, very, cool, so I hope it doesn't suck.

Sabotage, Saboteur I like blowing up crap.

Now, if the Writer's Guild will kindly continue to respectfully disagree for just a smidge longer (six months ought to do it) so I can finish watching the TV I've recorded while gaming, so I can clear off the DVR and get back to gaming, I'd sure appreciate it, because then I may complete my stunning metamorphosis into a lazy, preoccupied, acquisitive, completely self-indulgent entertainment whore.

I was trying desperately to finish Assassin's Creed before I left town to visit my folks, but what with all the packing, cleaning, and emergency furnace installation (what did I get for Christmas? A new furnace. Whoopee), I ran out of time. And I'll be away from my precious 360 for two and a half weeks, so I'll probably forget the controls while I'm gone, too. But when I get home, I finally will get to start Mass Effect and continue The Witcher (which is so awesome, and Polish!, that I'm giving my brother a copy, too--the unexpurgated Euro version) and God of War, which I am definitely looking forward to. So those are my New Year's gaming resolutions. The non-gaming resolutions are to buy out the other half of the house from the former other half and, of course, the perennial fit-back-into-my-pants-so-I-don't-have-to-buy-new-ones resolution. Happy Winter-Een-Mas, everyone!

In other randomness, I got GTA Liberty City today (rather like Mafia, so far; even blew the hood on the car) for PSP, so I'm having anti-hero gaming ideas. There are so many shooters, tactical shooters, military shooters, military strategy, military history, and every facet of World War II games, that really, why not try pulling a GTA on this genre? Mix in a little Splinter Cell, and we could have a stealth action game called AWOL, where you have to sneak around and get home without killing your own troops (punching and Vulcan nerve pinches are allowed...in self-defense), or a Concientious Objector RPG, wherein you negotiate to try to stop a war, instead of fighting one. Would certainly be a challenge! And a change from the hideously usual. FTA. Though that won't stop me from playing Crysis, you understand.

Anybody else made up games nobody would never make?

I have played Assassin's Creed obssessively and virtually non-stop since I finally got to open and start it. You never know how many friends you truly have...until they want to hang out with you the day you get a brand-new game. Ah well. Y'all will be pleased to hear I had priorities and hung out with the friends. They had free wine. I even resented the time it took to cook the traditional sauerkraut for Thanksgiving (my family's Polish, and they'll haunt me if there's no kraut with the bird). But I did it all, and finally on Thursday night got to crack open the much anticipated action adventure (which I actually do prefer on consoles).

Assassin's Creed really is all it was cracked up to be and then some. I cannot begin to comprehend the programming and imagination and artistry that goes into any game, let alone one of this magnitude. This thing is so expansive, interactive, and just flat-out gorgeous that it makes Oblivion look like The Bard's Tale. Honestly, I haven't been this absorbed in a (console) game since Ocarina of Time. Even Oblivion Fever pales mildly in comparison. I've met chicken guards who run away after you kill all their buddies, seen bird crap on rooftops, and watched a horse step around rocks. The only (incredibly minor) disappointment I have is that you can't climb the cliffs and palm trees. Or swim.Apparently, assassins cannot swim; they drown in 3 feet of water instantaneously. Guess he didn't click his heels three times.

This game may well elicit from me a full-fledged review; I've actually been taking notes, when I notice my PC is on and remember to divert my attention to jot something down. The best part about this game? I can play it. I'm not too uncoordinated to play it. Except when I got a time trial on the second try...and accidentally assassinated an innocent bystander by hitting the wrong button whilst trying to find the informer. Other than that, I'm pretty damn well pleased with my own performance on this one. So much so that Crysis came in the mail today, and I figured I'd just install it when I get home next week. Yes, I actually picked the wristblade over the sacred nanosuit that I preordered in August. My hands have cramped in the shape of a controller, and Friday night I actually fell asleep in my office chair with the controller in my hands. The screaming guards woke me up. First time they were useful for anything but throwing off a building. (I am way too into this. Live doesn't even have a theme pack up. What up with that?)

The week-long withdrawal will, of course, be correspondingly ugly. I'm driving down to my best friend's place in LA for Thanksgiving for a week, and I'm not taking the 360 (but I am taking the dog). I need to recover from early onset carpal tunnel. Besides, we're going to see my Ravens play in San Diego the Sunday after, so an assassin character might not be the best frame of mind for me to be in once I get there! At least I know it won't snow.

In keeping with tradition, I'm thankful for my buds here at GS who get me and my gaming obsession when nobody else around me does! So Happy Thanksgiving to all my favorite turkeys. (If you're not from the US, we apologize for the sudden world shortage of mashed potatoes. They're with me.) I'd say see you next week, but when I get home I'm picking up my preorder for Mass Effect. More like "see you in February."

So last night I ordered a 22" LCD to go with my new PC-in-progress. It was on sale, and I figure I should get accustomed to using and programming a widescreen before aggravating myself with it on top of a new mobo, BIOS, reformat, etc. I got an Acer 22" 5ms DVI that's black and silver, so it'll look nice with the two-tone keyboard and the silver tower. I really don't think I could tell the difference between 2ms and 5ms, except in the $50-$100 difference, so I picked the less spendy one.

Speaking of sale, they also had a special on the Creative X-Fi Xtreme sound card, and after some recent games blipped on sound, I decided the Audigy wasn't going to cut it in the new one. The Tabula Rasa (beta) cutscenes sounded like crap and faded in and out to the point I missed the whole briefing and couldn't tell what I was supposed to do. So I have audio and visual; I just need video, but I think I'll see how the new, cheaper 8800GT pans out before I commit myself. Also, I want to let some interest accrue!

In related news, I picked up a couple of the Silverstone FM121 120mm case fans to replace the stock LED fans, which are apparently notoriously unreliable, and the Silverstones move more air. Thanks to my personal computing hero, SSJBen, for evangelising those fans! I plan to spray them silver to blend in with the case and solder on blue LEDs to make the case look good like the stock fans. Actually, I'm beginning to think Coco Chanel was right--next time I think about putting another light in this case, I should take one or two away! I did resist the LED cannon and the 5-LED lazer, so maybe I'm okay. Three cathode tubes isn't too much, right, if one of them is small?

Performance-PCs had the Tuniq Tower on sale for $20 cheaper than my beloved Newegg, ditto the very sexy Zalman MFC2 fan controller (it only does 4, but I think I'll be okay if one fan just runs) and the OCZ memory cooler, which can't hurt and will likely help. Plus, it's a sneaky way of getting more fans in there. I am a serious case fan 'ho. I also finally got around to getting the little stuff, like another 92mm fan, SATA cables (in pretty blue UV), and some cathodes, so now I just need the mobo and CPU themselves. And a soldering iron.

Last weekend I sprayed my CD drive silver to match the case, and today it's getting clear coat (another grateful nod to SSJBen). I think it turned out rather well.

Again, many thanks go out to the helpful crew over at the Custom-Built PC Union for all their tutorials, photos, advice, and info. And most of all, to my grandmother, who left me the money to build this little dreamboat. Her birthday would be tomorrow, so I thought I'd make some progress this weekend.

One small component for PC, one giant leap for me. I'm beginning to build a new PC. I can't play Bioshock smoothly or get Quake IV to install on this one, so of course I have to build a new one, right? I have the case, a Thermaltake Armor in silver, with a great big honking 25cm fan in the side window (yes, a window, so I can see in and drool over all the parts without getting them wet and shorting out the whole dang thing). I have a power supply, 4GB of RAM from a fantastic deal on Crucial DDR2 800 PC6400 rebranded for LANfest (thanks to RayvnAzn for the link and info), supplies limited, but for $99USD for 2GB with a $25 rebate? Couldn't leave it, and if Vista ever gets it together, I'll need it for the OS upgrade. Right now, I'm sticking with XP. I already have 2 hard drives, so all I need now is the motherboard, CPU, Tuniq Tower heatsink, and LightScribe CD/DVD-R drive. Intel is releasing new chips in January, so I'm waiting. Not real patiently, either. Damn you, Intel. Can't you move them to November with the high end?

I'm going to upgrade the stock fans and get a silica gel dampener for the PSU (and pray it fits; I think it will). I also need a 6-fan controller, which pretty much means Zantec, although I'd prefer an LCD to the knobs, but we'll see. This case is so big and roomy, with great airflow, that I can put both HDs in it and get the one out of the enclosure it currently is in. And it's pretty. I am so tired of fugly black boxy cases. Between the dog, the desert, and the carpet, mine has to live on top of the desk...right next to my head. I currently have an upgraded and mildy modded Dell 4700 in a plain, ugly micro case. I deserve something pretty and quieter if it's to reside in view.

Ooh, I need a new, sleek, silver keyboard to match. I have a laser mouse, the object of my first blog, but the Dell keyboard's going away with the current machine, so I have to pick up a matching one. Thank heavens for PC modders and their willingness to share information, particularly the awesome folks over at The Custom-Built PC Union, who helped me pick out a motherboard, which I'll get with the chip for warranty. The chip will come with stock fan and heatsink, but I'm worried about the mobo's warranty. And they might come out with a new one. I'm so paranoid about that.

Speaking of which, Nvidia is rumoured to be releasing a G9x series shortly, so I'm keeping my current GeForce 7300 instead of jumping on an 8800, plus it'll save some cash for the stuff I don't have, like the chip. And maybe an LCD widescreen monitor, though I'm keeping my 17" CRT for dual-screen work.

So until I have this rig up and running, I have my 360, Mass Effect and Assassin's Creed inbound, and football season, even though my beloved Ravens are...floundering. (Smadiso1, I can hear you laughing, but it's okay--tell your dad we're even now!)

Here they are, Beauty and the Beast. January, hurry up! And here's hoping I don't break anything, erase my backups, or electrocute myself. If I can get past the BIOS, I'll be fine. And if anyone has advice on fans, fan controllers, soundproofing, LCD monitors, sexy keyboards, or opinion on quad vs. dual core, do let me know.

vs.

Wouldn't YOU upgrade?