I can hear the whining already. “I know how to identify a counterfeit capacitor!” “I have a rainbow motherboard jumpers!” “I worked for Packard Bell!” Doesn't matter. If you haven't built your own computer then you can't wear the Hardware Geek Merit Badge. No lame excuses, if you want it, you know the drill. Build your own box.
A nice alternative would be the Laptop/Notebook Toting Freak Merit Badge. Which is easy to get, you just need to take your portable computer with you everywhere like a security blanket. I got that one while lugging my 8 pound Linux running (at the time) laptop into a Krystals deep in rural Tennessee. I wanted to use the wireless to check my email for test scores, which I did, while getting weird looks from just about everyone, seems they had not seen a Compiz desktop before.
Back to the first topic though, there is just something about researching parts, finding the best price/performance ratio your budget can handle and putting it all together. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. There will be blood, sometimes sweat, possibly tears, and more than likely some sort of thermal paste, but there is a certain pride when the machine comes together and POST.
Or does not, as my most recent experience has been. It wasn't a new system, but an upgrade, and sometimes while all indications say this CPU works on your current motherboard, reality disagrees.
The specification sheets say it is compatible, the BIOS version agrees. Technical Support tells me it should, fails to pay any attention to the information that I have already sent them, and asks me to down grade my BIOS. It ended with a rather large fail, but that rather hot running CPU from my Wife's computer has been replaced. So, it's not all bad, it's just one of the many steps in getting the badge.
