With lots of enthusiasm from me, instead of Sonny, he finally owns his own Gamer PC.
Since we promised him that he could upgrade from his Acer Pentium4 PC to a Gamer PC when he became first in class in his final exams in Secondary 1, he has been nagging Wifey to let him buy his dream PC during the school holidays in December 2008.
After much reminders from Sonny, we set forth in search for that Gamer PC directly at Sim Lim Square - the PC haven for all gadget-geeks in Singapore. Yes, I am a gadget-geek, Sonny is too, looks like it.
We hunted right from the 6th storey and all the way down to the ground floor and up again.
With the info of what is the best and latest hardware to D.I.Y. a Gamer PC, we finally came to a shop on the 6th floor with the right offer. That was after comparing the prices with the same configurations that Sonny wanted.
We came to TradePac with the cheapest deal at S$1,590.00. There, we also learned about the different categories of Power Supplies and DDR RAMs as true-blue geeks should know.
With only the last action to take... to say "we'll take it!" Wifey was able to dissuade Sonny... and myself, to wait and think about it further at home.
Disappointed Sonny... and me, we got home and rechecked and recalculated all the items and prices from all the various shops again from the flyers that we collected there. TradePac came up tops again and made us decide to go with it for the purchase on our next trip.
The next trip proved to be 3 months later... after months of whining and nagging between Sonny and Wifey. As for me, I had a relax state of mind after rewarding Sonny with S$500.00 for doing a brilliant job on his finals.
During the one-week March school holidays, Sonny was nominated by his school to go for numerous activities and competitions.Him, being busy going back to school and other places for the trainings and other computer-related preparations, his holidays proved to be an extramural endeavor instead, but he liked it. So that is good.
With the most of the activities recognized as being computer-related, Wifey finally gave in to Sonny to have his dream Gamer PC to own, that would double as his tool for his related school projects.
Sonny had saved up over a thousand dollars for the hardware over the months. So, combining it with my monetary reward, he is looking at the latest, and fastest souped-up PC that rivals Acer's Predator... well, in the processing department, that is.
Acer's Predator looks awesomely alien, nothing can beat the looks, anytime soon!
Just for my own records, the following lists his Gamer PC configuration:
- Motherboard - Asus P5Q Deluxe (SLI x3)
- Processor - Intel Core2 Quad Q9650
- Graphics - NVidia Q9800 GXT Plus
- RAM - Kingston DDR2 Hyper-X 4GB
- Harddisk - Hitachi SATA 500GB
- Player - Samsung DVD Writer 22x 2-Layer
- Casing - NVidia Cooler Master 650
- Power - Real Power 550W
Sonny is using back the following items from the old PC:
- Windows XP Professional OS
- Samsung 26 Inch TV Monitor
- Microsoft Wireless Keyboard and Mouse
"Look, Ayah!" Sonny quipped with excitement, " No lagging whatsoever!"
I have to admit, the colors are brilliant and yes, the CPU is running at less than 30% capacity with the intense graphics from the online SPORE game."Keep up with your good scores at school." I reminded Sonny, "See how things fall nicely into place when you balance your studies and play, right?"
He nodded, while his eyes were glued to the brilliant colors on the screen and the green, alien-like light emanated from his latest NVidia tower.
"Thanks Ayah!" Sonny's face was as brilliant as his Gamer PC.
Another happiest weekend of his life for sure!
I have often wondered, are your dollars the same value as American dollars? Judging by the price of the computer, I'm thinking possibly yes.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that you make Sonny keep his grades up in order to get his prizes.
Hello Donna,
ReplyDeleteThe exchange rate is about 1.5 times that of the US currency. So in USD we'd forked out about US$1,061.00 for the Gamer PC.
The cheapest we could find for the latest that can have about 5 years lifespan before something significantly newer, either hardware or software wise comes about for another upgrade.
Sonny's a good son. Smart, filial and responsible. We are blessed to have him. Very much attributed to the way Wifey nurtures him.
Study hard, play hard too. We need is balance in life. That's what makes it worth living.
Hope you have a great weekend with Cliff.
I remember the good old days when I used to bribe my son with an ice cream cone. He is now older and smarter, and wants bigger and better things. hehehehehee
ReplyDeleteI'm glad he saved and got the one he wanted. Looks very cool.
I do believe in bribes, nothing like em :-).
ReplyDeleteThat kind of happiness in exchange for good grades seems extremely fair to me, since obviously Sonny can handle it.
Happiest weekends of his life, I'm hoping he'll have too many to count.~Mary
Congratulations sonny for being first in your exams in your class. That is a milestone for sure.
ReplyDeleteAnd to you his parent's for this nice reward.
I am sure he is pleased and hopefully enjoying it.
Yes Sim Lim Square and IT mall fun places to shop.
Boys will be boys huh? I doubt I'll ever truly be able to understand boys with the hi tech toys.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, Sonny sounds like a very smart, dedicated, wellmannered kid and I'm sure he deserved to be spoiled in love and pampered with stuff, since u have done a great job showing him the true value of life :)
Much love to you all bro!