REVIEW: A Dream PC

Me: “It’s here.”

Terence: “I want to congratulate you but all I can think of is ‘screw you’.”

Grace: “Yay! Pictures!”

Matt: “Photos please and do review it!”

As mentioned in the title, this will be a review of a custom PC currently taking up much of the desk in my  computer room. I received this computer as a birthday present from my dad and to a lesser extent, Terence, for he advised me A LOT on the specs of this rig. So let’s start with that.



The specifications:

Processor: Intel Core i7-3770
Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-M
RAM: 8GB 1600MHz DDR3
SSD: Intel 520 Series 120GB
HDD: Seagate 500GB SATA
Graphics Card: Asus (NVIDIA) GeForce GTX 660 (2GB)
Power Supply: Xigmatek Tauro 600W
Casing: Xigmatek Asgard 381

Other stuff includes a 21” Samsung LED HD monitor, a DVD writer, wireless keyboard and mouse, webcam and headphones.

Now let me clarify something, this computer isn’t 100% a birthday present for me. It just happens that my old PC couldn't boot into Windows (Vista), meaning that it was basically useless for my siblings. As such, the thought of buying a new computer that had been floating among my family for a while finally came into
fruition. After deciding on the specs with Terence, I waited till my dad was home for the Chinese New Year celebrations to get those specs up for actual building. And since my birthday is close to CNY, it was delivered to my humble home on my 17th.

Okay, as you can probably judge from the specs, this is a monster of a build, and believe me, it is. But no, I didn’t build it. The helpful guys at Ezone, a computer shop near my place, did. See, that’s the difference for us Malaysians when it comes to building custom PCs. We don’t walk into an IT superstore, purchase the parts and then go home to build it ourselves. We let the store handle it for us, including warranties and whatnot. But the former method is possible, except it might get a little complicated when the PC malfunctions. It gets even more so if we order the parts online. So we’re better off leaving it in the hands of the experts, in exchange for not gaining building experience. Thus originally while planning this build, I kept
referring to a price list from an IT store given to me by a friend, Matt. When I was done planning I showed it to my dad, but he didn’t want to order the parts from that store. It was quite far away and we didn’t know anyone there. He suggested to go to Ezone, which was very close by. On top of that he even knew the shop owner, so we got to have some discounts!

On that fateful day I received this rig, after clearing out space and setting up all the cables, I pushed THE button on the top of the case. A blue LED lights up and flickers. The monitor lights up, showing some BIOS screens. *blink* *blink* *whoosh* The Windows Live TIles fly smoothly across the bright 1080p display. I am speechless. Never before have I seen full HD monitors. Mind = blown. This, is unlike anything I’ve seen on a PC. I click the Desktop tile. Wow. Those are a nice pair of daisies. I am in love! Okay, wait, my eyes are hurting. Too bright. *messes around* Okay, much better. Now, what do I have here? Ooh, there’s Firefox and Chrome! Thanks, guys! Hmm, Kingsoft Office. Must be open source. Okay then. WinRAR. Yay! PPStream? Ugh. Off you go. Those guys at Ezone certainly got the basics covered. Now for my stuff. I turn to look at my external hard drive. *grin*

Few days in, and I can’t get enough of Tibbers. I kinda feel sorry toward Annie. Oops, you don’t know what I’m talking about. My apologies. I forgot to mention, I’ve decided to name both my computers. The older one, which currently runs on Linux Mint and Ubuntu (both are distributions of Linux), is called Annie. The spanking new beast is called Tibbers. Why do I call them so? Just ask me. But I digress. Back to the point.

Tibbers. Is. Fast. Mind-blowingly fast. It felt as if it could finish the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. I’m serious! All because of a simple SSD. My mind is blown. Terence, my man, I cannot thank you enough. Now, on to games. The first game I launched was Tomb Raider: Underworld. My reaction was: “I’ve never

seen Lara so pretty before!” And after ogling at her for a while, then did I start to notice the environment, even more detailed than she is. *drool* That is a beast of a graphics card in Tibbers, I’m telling ya. I have yet to run Crysis 3 and Bioshock Infinite on Tibbers, along with many other games I have now. Full HD and my graphics card blow my mind once again.

To wrap up, Tibbers is a wonderful computer. Not to mention powerful. I am beyond satisfied, beyond excited and beyond thankful for this birthday present. Thanks a lot to my dad and my best friend! Now if you’ll excuse me I have to pick up the pieces of my mind on the floor. Having it blown up thrice is quite messy.

Words by Gregory Goh.

Editor: I have it blown on a daily basis. You get used to it.