It’s finally done! The “Max Builds a PC series” wraps up with the build process from start to finish. I had a lot of fun throughout this entire series starting with debating and choosing the parts with all of you all the way to the time I spent in the studio putting it all together. My only regret is that I have to give this 5.9 rated PC away rather than keeping it for myself……… Oh yes, you read that right: this got a 5.9 rating from Windows Vista’s experience rating system!
So to recap what we've accomplished, here are the old posts and decisions we have made:
· The Case: Antec 182B
· The CPU: Intel QX9650
· The Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X38T-DQ6 (rev 1.1 if I can) ***this was out of stock so I went with the Asus P5E
· The RAM: Corsair 2 Gigs ***Since the Motherboard was a DDR2 based system, I decided to go with Kingston 4GB instead of just 2
· The Hard Disks: Western Digital Raptor and Backup Drive
· The Graphics Card: ATi 3870 series
· The Optical Drives: A draw… I decided to go with a DVD burner, no HD or BluRay
· The Input Devices: Logitech MX Revolution and Microsoft Reclusa
· Monitor: HP w2207
This thing is no joke... it's wicked fast. I mean, it's the fastest personal desktop I have EVER used. Windows Vista is SNAPPY, programs load INSTANTLY, and this monitor makes it all look so VIBRANT. I even loaded Premiere to see how fast video encoding was, and wow am I sorry to give this thing up. So now that you're all sufficiently excited after over a month of planning, it's time to announce the winner of this Channel 8 powerhouse!
And the winner is.......... drumrollllllllll................................ 
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In addition to the PC, I have loaded it with a few games like Age of Empires III and Gears of War (PC). But of course, I also included the Expression Suite, Visual Studio 2008 Pro, and some other goodies.
As an added bonus, I threw in a second prize since you guys were so awesome... it's a black Zune 8 and it goes to 
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Again thanks to everyone who participated in the discussion, it was very impressive to see the facts and research you guys put together and I look forward to our next series. In fact, I already have decided to do a new series VERY soon, so stay tuned!