Everything has arrived for the new computer I'm building. The components arrived in two packages... these pieces are the PC case, power supply, CPU, fanless cooler, motherboard, memory, two hard drives and video card.

My initial reaction on hefting each piece has been "wow is this heavy" or "boy is this big" (the fanless cooler is gargantuan... initially I wasn't sure if it would fit in the case but now I don't think it will be a problem).

What pushed me to build a new computer? About a month ago my hard drive kicked the bucket, taking with it my personal files, which I had not backed up in about 16 months. Rather than just buying a new hard drive, I decided to completely overhaul my system (of course I'll be backing up my files very regularly after learning my hard lesson).

The parts I decided to get are all pretty bleeding edge. The machine will be very overclockable, though I plan on running a conservative profile initially. I'm also upgrading to Vista, a move which I have to confess I'm nervous about.

I'll be posting my progress regularly.