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Ever loved a game so much you would be willing to do anything to play it? The game that I am talking to you about is of course League of Legends. Well it all started with a laptop that my uncle bought me about 4 years ago. This steaming pile of cr.. I mean Compaq was the first computer that I could call my own. I only used it for simple things like surfing the web and playing low powered games. Years went by, while new games were releasing for the PC. I decided upgraded the operating system to Window 7 because Vista is horrible and made my laptop overheat and run slow.

Everyone I knew was talking about this game called League of Legends. The game looked intriguing so I downloaded the game. Playing it made me want to break my computer because I never played a Massive Online Battle Arena before. I uninstalled it because I thought it was horrible, because I was terrible at the game. About a year later near the end of Season one, Ken told me about League of Legends and how a friend he knows wanted to play with him, thinking that I would like it again I decided to download it once more. I learned more about it and this time played with friends and absolutely loved it. I was actually capable of killing people in the game. Although the game was amazing, my laptop was whispering kill me in my ear.

At first the Compaq was able to run the game with no problems at about thirty frames per second. Eventually it started overheating, dropping my frame rate to about five frames per second about every minute or so. I boosted my computer's performance to the point where it looked like Windows 98 and stabilized my frame rate to twenty-five FPS. The strategy worked fine for a while, but my computer continued to overheat. After about every game I stuck my laptop in the freezer so it would cool down for the next match.

The computer sometimes ran it without any frame rate drops for weeks straight. But eventually, it grew weak and wasn't even going higher than fifteen frames-per-second. I was a bit surprised that this contraption didn't burst into flames. Eventually I snapped and had enough. I really wanted to lean my passion for gaming towards PC, but this Compaq, which was the horrors that haunt me was limiting me. So I told my friends that I decided to build a gaming computer.

The computer took about two months to buy all the parts and put together. Every piece was good except one huge delay. The first try, I grabbed all the computer parts and took it to my friend Matt's house. He put everything together, but the computer was malfunctioning, and it took about an hour or two later for him realize that he forgot to plug in the four pin connector to the motherboard. We went for another go but now the computer decided to turn off and on its own. I called Ken, who happened to be with Art and Amanda who offered their assistance and decided to come over. Art was looked through every part, replacing parts to see what wasn't working. It was narrowed down to two pieces of hardware: Either the motherboard was too old, or the power supply was defective. Not to mention the fact that the motherboard was salvaged off of an old HP computer.

I assumed that the power supply was defective so I returned that. A week later I bought a new one at Fry's Electronics. I also looked at the motherboards they had in stock. Their supply of the motherboard I was looking for was limited in models, but they had them in stock. The only problem was that I was short on cash so I had to wait another week if the old HP motherboard didn't work. Ken re-hooked everything back together that day and guess what, it did the exact same thing. So, I gave back the motherboard and decided to get a new one.

 

I was looking through Amazon and, there she was, the most amazing motherboard I had ever laid my eyes upon. It was on sale for $185 which was 62% off. I didn't have enough money but Ken offered to purchase it for me and later pay him back. He was calling his mother to send his card information until I noticed something. Something that made me weep and cry like a little girl the entire day. The mother board was $450! I was outraged by the sale ending five minutes after adding it to the cart! I seriously considered throwing my laptop out the window, I was so angry. I wasn't making it look obvious, but I looked up and saw Ken step aside offering me access to the window. I couldn't help but laugh thinking about how he read my mind.

Eventually about yet another week later, I called the Fry's and asked them to see if they had the motherboard I wanted. Just my luck, the sales associate told me they were sold out. I mean, how often to people buy ASUS X58 Saber tooth Motherboards with LGA 1366 and DDR3 Memory! But I was partially in luck the Fry's about ten miles further away had some in stock. Also get ready to read this last sentence fast... So Matt came over, I picked up Ken and snagged that motherboard, went home and decided to write this article on behalf of my celebration on my new computer. Now my freezer has room for some ice cream.

2 Comments for this post.
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Now aren't you glad you fought your way through all that? It is the struggle that makes the victory worth while. You should be thankful your computer didn't demand a sacrifice of blood - mine often do.


[fraggadier] @ 2:37:42 AM May 21, 2012
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YES, this was totally worth it. But that expensive motherboard that was cheap was a HUGE let down. Also, thank you so much for your help.


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