"Michael Cash" <mikecash@sunfield.ne.jp> wrote in message
news:b07ckvggm6rgaajvjsadsvhplkjiv655sr@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 22 Aug 2003 06:52:59 +0900, "Ed" <gwbush@whitehouse.gov>
> belched the alphabet and kept on going with:
>
> >Seems like prices have changed since I last thought about assembling my
own
> >computer. Of course, I was pricing the individual components in Japan so
> >that might have made a difference.
>
> I thought about it today, and since I got 10% of the price back as
> shopping points from Yamada Denki, where I purchased all the parts,
> that 103,000 to get the parts comparable to the computer in the
> advertisement Bryan posted (89,000) drops to 92,700. If I had chosen
> the slower HDD and the 256mb RAM instead of 512 (like the one in the
> ad), then I would have come out ever-so-slightly cheaper by building
> it myself.
> >
> >Maybe my next computer will be a frankenputer.
>
> Go for it, dude. There's nothing particularly hard about it. I was
> surprised to learn that there is standardization among the
> motherboards. So all I had to do was make sure to get an ATX case to
> hold my ATX board, and everything matched up just fine. I was even
> more surprised to find that the motherboard package contained
> easy-to-understand instructions (in several languages) on how to go
> about the whole process. All the screws for mounting it were included,
> as were all the cables for hooking up the drives. Hooking up the wires
> from the power supply was pretty much a no-brainer as well. It had
> instructions on all that too. There was one 6-wire connector left over
> which gave me some concern, but a little googling soon revealed that
> it is an auxiliary and I didn't need it on my system. So, like my
> weiner, it just sort of dangles there unnoticed and unused.

Well, my 500mhz is still putzing away as if it were completely unaware that
it's hopelessly obsolete and doomed to spend an eternity waiting at the
sodai gomi pile for some hapless gaigin who might wish to adopt it. I'm
hoping that it'll explode so my wife won't have anything to say when I tell
her that I need a new computer.

You know what I really want? I want a laptop. With a decent laptop, I could
set up a wireless system so I can log onto the internet anywhere in the
house (such as the master bedroom which has an air conditioner in it). The
problem is that those things are twice the price of a regular computer. The
new wide screen laptops are priced as if Japan was still in a bubble
economy.