Pod Upgrade

My obsolete 128MB GeForce 6800 finally died.  I remember buying it when the GeForce 6 series cards were still hot new toys, only to find that I didn't have a power supply to properly run it.  The 6800 sat on my shelf of spare parts until I finally upgraded the power supply, and I replaced both components at once.  By that time, of course, nVidia was well into the GeForce 7 series, and on the verge of the next generation.

In light of this issue, I've decided to upgrade my obsolete hardware.  My gear is all well past its prime, and some of it was purchased at a time when I was taking a break from games altogether, so it was never too great at handling EVE anyway.  I need my computer for work as well as games, however, so the overhaul is entirely justified.

With a recent disbursement of excess education funds from scholarships and grants, I had planned to pay off my taxes, but the computer keeps me eating and living indoors, so losing functionality is truly catastrophic for me.  The IRS will have to wait until next semester to get their payoff, and I'm sure they won't mind tacking on more interest and penalties in the meantime; I presume the Treasury Department will print more money to cover Uncle Sam's appetite for pork, anyway.

Anyhow, my pod overhaul includes a new motherboard, quad core CPU, 8GB memory, and a 500GB SATA drive to replace my old 80GB IDE drive.  I'm switching to a widescreen LCD monitor, so I can finally give back the monitor my company loaned me when my last one died (I don't even work for them anymore!  They're so awesome!).  The new graphics will be powered by a 1GB GeForce GTS 250, as I simply couldn't justify the cost of the latest GTX.  With new speakers and headset to replace my sound equipment that suffers from wiring problems, EVE may finally have sound, too!  I'll also replace the power supply to ensure everything has enough juice to run smoothly.

Perhaps with a shiny new pod, powered by a shiny new operating system (switching to Windows 7), I might be able to see a bit more of what EVE has to offer.