mba?

About a month ago my neighbor Harry casually remarked, "My son needs a computer for high school. What do you think of this one?" He then shared an advertisement from a local office supply store. Harry has grown to trust me for the majority of his computer maintenance – in exchange he does yard-work for me. It’s a great symbiotic relationship that I wistfully envision as how neighbors lived before electronics became our best friends.

After reviewing the advertisement I commented, “It’s not a bad deal Harry, but I could build you a far better machine for the same price.” I believe he was initially skeptical, but took a step of faith; we ordered the necessary parts later that day.

Since this was going to be Asher’s computer, Harry and I agreed that Asher should participate in the birthing process. Within hours, we had assembled the individual parts – routing wires, mounting the motherboard, hard drive, DVD burner, and other associate parts. We ordered the parts from New Egg, and even though they made a mistake in shipping (very rare for them), I must continue to sing their praises for fair prices and quick delivery.

The power supply came a couple days later, as did a memory card reader for Asher’s camera. In scant minutes we had the box ready for its first use. I decided to try the 64-bit version of the Windows 7 beta as his operating system; it’s been rock-solid stable and very quick.

The verdict: A speedy, solid machine with more than double the performance of the store close-out machine at nearly the same price. Asher is thrilled with the machine, as is Harry.

Oh, and the reference to “MBA”? Asher and Harry gave me a “Master Builder Award.” It’s a pretty cool certificate lauding my abilities to build computers; it makes me smile.