Well, my Xbox purchase turned around and bit me in the butt. I was playing Forza and Oblivion pretty hard and it was getting a lot of use. I came home one day, hit the power button to get a 'cannot read disc' error. WTF? I tried it again, then popped out the Oblivion disc to find a circular mark scratched into it. I can only assume the 360 did it, seeing as the disc played the night before and had yet to be removed. So, off to Walmart, game and 360 in hand.

Some of you may remember that I got a $50 shopping card free with the premium system, which I used to buy Oblivion. At the return desk, I was telling them I just wanted them swapped... so the CSM refunds all the money (even the shopping card) into cash. $390 in hand I head to electronics. They're out of Premium 360 packages, so I call another Walmart to find their out as well and won't have them for a few days (I can get a discount at Walmart due to family, so I didn't want to go somewhere else.)

I left the store, money in hand with a devious plan: to build a PC. I had been planning to do it anyway, with the $50 gift card being the Xbox's purchasing incentive. Now with it biting the hand that fed it and Oblivion having a crap-load of mods available, I ventured back to a budget gaming system.

Anyway, here's what is headed my way:

AMD Athlon64x2 4600+
Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H (AMD 690G)
2x 1gb Mushkin DDR2 800 Ram
WD 160gb SATA HDD
HIS Hightech Radeon HD 2600XT 512mb (Crossfire)

All for $400. I still need a PSU upgrade, but it's not too big a deal at the moment unless I got Crossfire or overclock. The board also has Crossfire capabilities, though the second card runs in 4x (not 16x) mode. I'm tempted to buy another 2600xt and try it, then upgrade motherboard and cpu later on. We'll see.

Right now I've ripped my old Antec tower apart and I'm painting it a dark blue. I've also cut the side panel for a plexiglass window and bought a 'plasma' style light to go in it. It should look nice if nothing else. I also have plans for obtaining a 19" or 22" widescreen LCD, haven't decided which.

Cliff: Xbox ate the disc, I returned it and bought parts for a new gaming system.

wow ... i wish i was smart enough to build a new pc ... i really like the 360's though

I really partial to user mods and mouse and keyboard controls. I really despise controllers.

Building a PC is simple. It's like working on a car but easier. Everything has its place, you just plug wires and parts into slots and they only fit one way. No big deal.

but what about programing everything ??

All you do is slap in a Windows installation disc after you boot it up the first time and that does its thing.

Afterwards, just install the drivers for the parts in your system, much like you would if you installed new components.

No real 'programming' involved. You only run into issues if you get fancy with disc partitioning, RAID arrays, or other OSes.

wow ... that was way way over my head hahah

Back in the mid-late 80's I had a room mate that had a Tandy computer. You had to manually enter the program for what ever you wanted to do. He had a book of programs that was a good 3 inches thick. It took us a good day and a half to enter the program to play Black-jack and once you entered the program you would lose it all if the computer was turned off or lost power, which happened several times. Talk about getting pissed off when you nearly had the program completely entered and we'd lose power due to a thunderstorm.
I had another buddy that worked at a computer electronics store (Altex) and one day he brought over all the components to build his own computer. We put that together and he had a flight simulator installed on it. We quickly pushed the Tandy aside.

One time, a long time ago, someone said that computers were going to be so small that they would eventually weigh about a ton.

You know those Christmas cards that you open up and they play Christmas music? The entire WWII fleet had less computer power than one of those cards.

Computers have come a long way.

Wow I really hope that doesn't happen to my 360. My brothers and I just got one for Christmas and we've been playing it a lot lately (COD4 FTW!) so you've kinda got me scared now RooK. BTW, how long did you have it before it ate the disc?

Did you have it sitting vertically?

I've only heard of it scratching discs when you set it vertically, which is a bad way to have it anyway, since it blocks one of the major venting outlets. I bet if you had put it back down horizontally, it would have been fine.

I wouldn't worry about it, 98. Unless you have yours sitting the same way.

Ummm no of course I don't... I mean who would actually do something that stupid? Everyone knows it blocks one of the outlets, not to mention it could scratch a disc!

<-- Runs to 360 and gently sets it down horizontally

It's also good to set it on top of something smaller than it is, to dissipate the heat. And don't worry about it falling off, it's actually surprisingly well-balanced. I guess everything centers in the middle of it, because I tried to tip mine over when it was sitting on something really small, and I couldn't get it to go without really shoving it. Mine's on two stacks of CD cases, one at each end.

Fabricated single person furniture ftw.

I think computer threads are the fastest replies thread starters, along with new members (females) they can get lengthy quickly! LOL

What sites do you computer nerds get all your useful info?
I've seen this stuff used in sentences without typos!!!
My comp was custom built for my needs about two years ago. I do quite a bit of stuff, usually video editing (no game playing) and reading up on that stuff gets me lost.
I just don't think I have the time to cling to cars and computers at the same time (well I have time, just not the will power).

When I was younger, under 15, I would play video games all the time. Now with a modded XBOX, it only comes out during the holidays when friends and family come over and I still resist to play.

your computer was built by dell im assuming and guess what its not built for your needs its built for the person taking your order to get more money every part they "helped" you pick added more money to their pocket. (used to work for Dell) as for the 360 the ring of scratches is due to user error Everytime not the 360 it happens when the 360 is either vertical with no support or it is moved (bumped) while running. oh and the best place for PC parts is Newegg.com 4 GB of ram for under $100 im also getting a 19" wide screen for under $200.

Yep, I ran the Xbox vertical. However, seeing as it was designed to run that way, how can it be user error? Shouldn't it be a design flaw? There was no way I bumped it.

Jeremy, Newegg has a killer deal on an Acer 22" LCD for $228 and free shipping. I'm really considering buying it.

It is a design flaw, but a well-known and well-documented one that really only seems to happen with the older ones, or refurbished/used ones. It's easy to avoid, and there really was nothing "wrong" with it; you could have kept it.

I'm surprised they refunded you all the money and the gift card, since Microsoft's problems aren't Walmart's problems.