The first PC I ever owned was one I built back in 2006. It was decent at the time, even for what the pros called an entry level set up. Eventually I upgraded it as far as it could go to a 3.4 Ghz Pentium D dual-core processor (Luckily the D101ggc motherboard supported it), a couple of gigs of ram and a decent video card for the time. I kept this setup for a few years until I gutted it, rebuilding the tower from the ground up.

Then, a couple of years later, it just died, and since that day in 2011, I haven't bothered building PCs. The old Dell i was using until recently was decent, although I had to replace the power supply a few times because the bearings always seem to go bad after about 2 years. In fact, I had to replace the power supply in January. Then....the video card went bad this month, and since it's difficult to find a card that can boot through legacy BIOS, I decided a new computer was the way to go.

I spent the last few weeks looking at new computers that were reasonably priced and ended up going with this one. It's an interesting little box to say the least, though things like its laptop-style optical drive and lack of upgrade potential are annoying. Still, a maximum ram capacity of 32 gigs (12 current) isn't anything to scoff at.

It also has an m.2 port that can accommodate a solid-state drive. That'll be something worth trying out later.

For now, though, I think it'll be just fine.