The project officially started in March 2012, just prior to Q2 hardware releases.

Parts List:

Case: LIAN LI PC-A71F USB3.0 Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case (Product Link)

Motherboard: ASUS Rampage IV Formula LGA 2011 Intel X79 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard (Product Link)
CPU: Intel Core i7-3960X Extreme Edition Sandy Bridge-E 3.3GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 2011 130W Six-Core Desktop Processor (Product Link)
GPU1: EVGA 03G-P3-1597-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) Classified Ultra Hydro Copper 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card (Product Link)
GPU2: EVGA 03G-P3-1597-AR GeForce GTX 580 (Fermi) Classified Ultra Hydro Copper 3GB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card (Product Link)
GPU3: EVGA 01G-P3-1361-KR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card (Product Link)
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws Z Series 32GB (4 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 2133 (PC3 17000) Desktop Memory (Product Link)

PSU: CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX1200 (CMPSU-1200AX) 1200W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 SLI Certified 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full Modular Active PFC Power Supply (Product Link)

SSD:
2 x SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC128D/AM 2.5″ 128GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (Product Link)

2 x SAMSUNG 830 Series MZ-7PC064B/WW 2.5″ 64GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (Product Link)

HDD:
2 x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive (Product Link)

ODD: LG Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 10X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA 12X Super Multi Blue with 3D Playback & M-DISC Support (Product Link)

Monitors:
1 x Asus VK278Q Black 27″ 1920×1080 2ms Full HD HDMI LED BackLight LCD Monitor w/Webcam (Product Link)

2 x ASUS VE278Q Black 27″ 1920×1080 2ms Full HD HDMI LED Backlight LCD Monitor w/Speakers (Product Link)

We are painting our family room this afternoon, and I’ll be posting up in there by this weeks end. It’s located halfway between our spare (storage) bedroom and the living room. Hopefully I’ve found my sweet spot.

Family Room Before Painting

Back in February of 2012, I began scouring the web for rumors and release dates of the next line of CPU’s and GPU’s. Luckily, as I found, I wouldn’t have to wait very long. Rumors had release dates in March and April, with the longest dates in June. Time to start planning. Little did I know at that time that my planning would be too little, too late.

Welcome St. Patrick’s Day 2012. While most of the western world was getting dressed in green and preparing for a daily binge of alcohol, I was waking up to my daily routine, and finally to play some Battlefield 3. A few rounds into the game, I was getting frustrated with the performance of my machine. Temps for my GPU were topping 100C (I know. I know.). My machine was very choppy while playing, and my right leg was nearly cooked medium-well during the short gaming session. Time to shut down. Time to clean out.

In doing so, I managed to mess up my aging nVidia 260GTX. I don’t know how. I was careful cleaning it. I re-applied TIM before putting it back together. But after re-installation it wouldn’t render screens correctly. I pulled a very old nVidia 9500GT out of one of the kids machines, and got my machine to reboot into Windows. Being a production/gaming machine, I use dual monitors. The 9500GT was having a lot of trouble with two monitors, and response seemed sluggish. Gaming was out of the question, at least anything recent. I unplugged one of the monitors and got a much better response from the card, however I felt like I had lost an eye without the second monitor. It was time to upgrade.

After another week of research, I had decided on the parts needed to build my new computer. Most of the purchase will come from NewEgg, however a few “new” challenges are being taken on with this build which require parts from other vendors.

So, where is volume 1, 2, & 3? Well, I didn’t blog back then, but they were built/purchased in 2000, 2004, & 2008, respectively. 2008 is the one that died on St. Patties Day 2012. The main parts will go to one of the kids, as all that needs replaced is the GPU. A decent nVidia GT is all they need for now, as they don’t play anything GPU intensive.

After a quick review of my previous dreadlock post, I think I’m ready to continue the timeline. So, at eight to nine weeks, I blunted my tips. Looking back, I wish I would have waited another month or two more before doing it. Why? I may have knotted the ends too well. Also, it seems some dreadlocks are losing hair to other locks, and some locks have been coupled with other locks purposefully. WOW! A lot has happened!

When I maintain my locks, I like to separate them and try to work on a lock at a time. If I notice hair from another lock tangling in with the lock I’m working on, I try to pull the hair out intact (without breaking it) to give it back to it’s rightful lock. Loose hairs are rolled, and worked back into the proper lock.

A few of the locks I had were, well, too thin. Especially the ones near my temple, in front of my ears. So, I married those locks with the lock next door, and have a much thicker set of locks coming in near those places.

So, what’s the future of my locks? Well, at the time of this post, I’m trying to leave them alone as much as possible, especially at the roots. I only maintain them for loose hair, keeping them looking good, but I’m not using any tools at the roots. Still palm rolling like mad.

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Wait.

You don’t want me to send them back? You don’t want me to actually confirm that I got the wrong item? Your just going to send me the correct items, on good faith?

AWESOME!

The company in this story is REAL, and in times like these, haven’t forgotten what’s important. Nasco. The have earned my business, and if your ever in the need for school supplies, farm and ranch products, art materials, health care trainers, educational and teacher resources, or senior care items, they should get your business, too.