atxgeek, the next generation

While I still prefer to build up my "main" personal PC piece-by-piece, I've come to enjoy a certain freedom in using reliable off-the-shelf systems around the rest of the house. A few years ago I determined that a $120 off-lease Dell Optiplex small form factor desktop PC made a much better HTPC (home theater PC) than similarly-priced "media box" devices...

Spring forward to a couple of weeks ago when I replaced the old Optiplex Pentium 4 HTPC on our main TV with an off-lease Optiplex Core 2 Duo box. My only modifications were to swap the 7200RPM drive for a relatively inexpensive $100 solid state drive and upgrade Vista to Windows 7. I was careful to mimic the configuration of the old system as much as possible and was rewarded for my efforts: my wife uses the system daily but didn't notice the switch despite the new system's blazing speed.

A few days after swapping in the new system, I was opening a web browser while my 5 year old happened to be standing behind me. I didn't realize he was watching until the browser window opened and he cried out "Wow, daddy - that was FAST!"

I'm so proud of him.