new HDTV: 52″: Sharp Aquos LCD (model LC-52D62U LC-C5262u) (1920×1080 / 1080p) (~$2,350) (plus $10 DVI-to-HDMI cable)
new computer: Case: Thermaltake Black Full Tower w/blue LEDs ($140 after $10 rebate)
new computer: Power Supply: OCZ GameXStream 600W ($110) DIED ~3.5 YEARS LATER – replaced with Corsair CMPSU-750TX 750W
new computer: Motherboard: Abit IP35 Pro ($200) DIED ~3.5 YEARS LATER – replaced with ASRock P43DE3
new computer: CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz ($195)
new computer: RAM: 2G: OCZ DDR2 800MHz PC6400 Dual Channel (2 1G sticks) ($77.50 after $40 rebate) – HALF DIED 2 YEARS LATER – one unit failed (melted off heat sink), 2nd most unnecessarily difficult RMA process ever – ~3.5 years later replaced with Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) 240-pin DDR3 SDRAM 1600mHz (PC3 12800) CMZ8GX3M2A1600C
new computer: video card: ATI Radeon x1650 x1950 Pro ($134 $218 ) (advice: pay for the 2900HD!)
new computer: Harddrive: 750G Seagate, 5yr warranty ($210)
TOTAL (so far): $3,480.50 …….. (Computer only: $1,120.50) – but also, in 201105, another $275 for replacing failed parts (new harddrives over the years, of course, are not counted)
….. Read on for pictures.
The case… button on top opens up to headphone/mic/firewire/usb ports. Notice the top vent. Eleven 5-inch drive bays (and 6 3-inch) . Except they call it 10; the one at the very bottom is actually a drawer for your spare screws and such. You can see it here.
Notice the drawer. The two vertical front flaps open up (kinda pointless, but neat), so you don’t see the full 5-inch width of the 5-inch bays unless you do this.
six freakin’ SATA connectors, 2 ethernets
I’ve not yet personally owned ram that needed it’s own cooling system…
5 year warranty * 750G = 3.75T-years
ME BUILDING THE COMPUTER — CLICK ANY PICTURE TO OPEN UP THE FLICKR PAGE, WHICH WILL EXPLAIN WHAT EVERYTHING IS, WHAT IS GOING ON, WHERE TO BUY IT, WHY I DID WHAT I DID, ETC:
Claire's blog 
October 4, 2007 at 1:50 PM
I’m going to build the computer this weekend!
October 5, 2007 at 3:07 PM
Doood! I need to upgradez my comp, where is teh lootz?
October 5, 2007 at 3:53 PM
Eli, each item is actually a link to where I bought it. Of course, retailers are infamous for changing their links…
October 8, 2007 at 4:40 PM
Fuck, TV delivered was:
LC-C5262U ..instead of:
LC-52D62U.
That’s 2 HDMI inputs instead of 3. Now I was pretty specific on the model number when I told Carolyn to buy it, and Costco’s invoice doesn’t say the model number, and the original webpage it was purchased from was taken down, so did Costco screw us, or did Carolyn mess up?
October 8, 2007 at 4:41 PM
So if anyone can tell me the difference, I’d like to know.
October 8, 2007 at 4:47 PM
“HTSS-TR
Advanced Member
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Irvine, CA
Posts: 565
Costco exclusive model number LCC-5262U is the same as LC-52D62U that is available everywhere.”
I hope he’s right. I could have sworn I was going to get 3 HDMI inputs, NOT 2. But perhaps I just forgot.
October 8, 2007 at 5:56 PM
Those last three comments were by Clint at my computer. :)
And, by the way, I checked the original link of the model he wanted, and it’s only 2 HDMI inputs. So, whew.
October 8, 2007 at 5:59 PM
Yea, Whew! Having that TV model # posted on my corkboard at work, looking at it every day, I became very panicked when the box said something else! Very panicked indeed.
October 12, 2007 at 9:55 PM
i want 1080p damnit. work, damnit, work. the box only says 1080i? wtf? it worked the other night, i swaer
October 18, 2007 at 6:21 PM
That monitor is ungodly awesome. We’ve had one for playing with in the Aging Aircraft Department, and a coworker was complaining about not having dual monitors, so they plugged that bad boy to his system. Sweeeeeet… You’re gonna love it.
October 18, 2007 at 6:23 PM
I do love it!
Except for not getting ANY progressive video to fill the screen, so I’m stuck in interlaced until I troubleshoot the problem.
October 21, 2007 at 9:04 PM
Yay! 1080p achieved with PowerStrip!
Windows and ATI control panels claim it is 30Hz, while PowerStrip claims it is at 60Hz. Video fills whole screen, and, more importantly, my TV says 1080p. (I sort of consider it to be the final authority of itself… Is that bad?)
October 21, 2007 at 11:06 PM
It’s probably 1080p. Congratulations on getting that fixed. :) It’s probably still 30Hz regardless of what powerstrip says. My guess would be 30 Hz frame rate, 60 Hz refresh rate.
October 22, 2007 at 8:09 AM
Congrats!
How does it look when you drag a window with a bunch of text in it across the screen? It is still readable as you drag it? If so, that’s definitely ‘P’ and not ‘I’.
It could be like Chriggy said (30 Hz frame rate), but at least it fills the screen and has less blurry motion (I’m assuming).
Now how do games work with Powerstrip? If you go into a game and set it to 1920×1080, will it revert back to ‘I’? Either way, I want to see some 52″ 1920×1080 gaming next time I come over. :)
October 23, 2007 at 10:06 AM
@#14(Gauge): Haven’t tried dragging it yet. I booted back into 2K and haven’t done powerstrip for 2K yet. I’m nurturing both new OS installs in parallel until I decide which to go with (but am overall more annoyed at XP, but they are about 99.9% the same right now, the only way I can even tell the difference is by looking at the style of the “My Computer” icon.)
@#13(Chriggy):
I tend to think it’s actually at 60Hz, for a few reasons. First off, whenever I set (in control panel) to 30Hz, the TV would always switch from p back to i. And whenever I set (in control panel) to 60Hz, the TV would switch from i back to p. The only problem was p wouldn’t fill the screen; it was overscanned. These advanced timings put me into p mode without the overscan, which is exactly how they were described by the person who posted them.
Also, powerstrip is clearly controlling the video card, as it made it do things the card’s own software couldn’t do (i.e. 1080p and have it fill up the whole screen).
Finally, if you look at the screenshot:
Vertical scan-rate: 60Hz
Horizontal scan-rate: 67.5Hz
Of course, if I change control panel / ATI control panel (yes, I now have 3 ways to control my card: control panel, ATI control panel [‘catalyst’], and PowerStrip) to 60Hz, it gets all wonky, but I believe that is because control panel could never do it right in the first place. Powerstrip definitely needs to stay loaded.
(Plus, it can remember icon locations over different resolutions, so your icons don’t get messed up whenever you switch!)
Though I have to say, I’ve never heard of some of that terminology before… “Back porch”, “front porch”..? Do you work with these terms ever? Just curious.
The screenshot: http://www.acm.vt.edu/~clint/download/imagedump/1920x1080p-sharp_aquos-lc-c5262u-ati_radeon_x1950_pro-powerstrip_advanced_timing_settings.png
October 23, 2007 at 2:10 PM
I never doubted the refresh rate was 60Hz. Just the frame rate. You know, that we’ll just show every frame twice thing? FYI, the horizontal scan rate is not 67.5 Hz. It’s 67.5 kHz.
And yes, I am familiar with the front porch, back porch terms. It has to do with the fact, that usually not all lines are displayed. Which is why NTSC for instance, is really 525 lines, but only 480 are displayed. The extra lines generally contain info such as closed captioning.
But to summarize, it’s basically how many blank lines/pixels are before and after the vertical/horizontal sync signal. And it’s generally device dependent.
October 27, 2007 at 1:43 PM
Oh, and to answer your question Gauge, yes, the text is a lot more readable in p than i, when dragging.
June 25, 2008 at 12:16 PM
Just got 2 more gigs of RAM:
OCZ Reaper 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz (2x1024MB) (O261-8078 ) (pt# OCZ2RPR8002GK)
Now my stability has gone to hell, with spontaneous reboots. Especially when watching 1080p movies. I’ve had 6 in about as many days. Not happy. Going to have to open up trouble tickets, support, maybe RMA. Whatever time having more RAM may have saved me by speeding up my computer, cumulatively, over the life of my computer, I will lose in earning the postage on an RMA.
June 26, 2008 at 10:31 AM
DDR2 voltage = 1.800
Here is some other info I wrote down, in case it helps:
CPU VTT 1.2V voltage = 1.20V
MCH 1.25V voltage = 1.25V
ICH 1.05V voltage = 1.05V
ICHIO 1.5V voltage = 1.50V
DDR2 reference voltage = 0%
CPU GTL REF 0 & 2 = 67%
CPU GTL REF 1 & 3 = 67%
I could also use some DRAM timings. Though last time I tried setting these, I had to clear my CMOS. Twice. So far I have only been able to boot to windows when all these are set to autodetect:
tCL
tRCD
tRP
tRAS
tRFC
tWR
tWTR
tRRP
tRTR
command rate
I also have set:
PCIe compliancy mode = v1.0a
PEG Force XI = Disabled
INIT Display First = PCI slot
I have a trouble ticket (Ticket ID: 28712) with OCZ hardware support, but they take a good 48 hrs to respond, and time is a tickin’ vs my deadline to return the RAM. Especially with me going out of town, surgery, and other things being on my mind.
Starting to regret buying this RAM.
June 26, 2008 at 12:51 PM
Please be advised that a comment has been added to your trouble ticket:
——————————————————-
Trouble Ticket ID: 28712
Description: OCZ2RPR8002GK
Comment By: Jamie2 Star
——————————————————-
Comment: well there is your problem James. the voltage on this ram need to be manually set to 2.1 Volts.
1.8v will create these random crashes.
change the voltage to 2.1v and you should be all set.
-jamie .s
——————————————————-
Would have been nice if there was ANY indication of this fact in the packaging!
June 27, 2008 at 7:55 AM
Hey Clint and Carolyn – just some words of encouragement. It sounds like you are coming along great with the system – keep at it, the light at the end of the tunnel is a great reward, and knowing you did it yourself is even better.
March 13, 2014 at 7:08 PM
here are the stats on my cpu upgrade last year:
ORIGINAL: Intel Core2 Duo E6750 2.66gHz dual core = 1727 benchmark = $195 in 2007/10
NEW: Intel Xeon X3360 2.83gHz quad-core = 4163 benchmark = $123 in 2013/02
March 13, 2014 at 7:10 PM
(computation-wise, my dollars went 3.8X farther 5.5 years later.., neat)