After years of moaning and groaning about my computer, I finally put my foot down and bought computer parts. And, as luck would have it, I missed the PC fair in Kuching. Instead, where was I? Drooling over computer parts in Low Yatt Plaza in KL.

Honestly, when Jerome and Art told me that it's cheaper in KL, I was still a bit skeptical. I don't trust based only on someone's word. I prefer to see for myself. (Let's not even go into the paranormal)

Anyway, I did a quick survey here before I went to KL just so that I can get a rough idea of the price range. When I did get to Low Yatt, I was floored. The first shop I went to had almost the same prices as we get here; just slightly cheaper. Then I remembered one particular shop mentioned at hardwarezone. So I went there and grabbed their price list. Their prices are unbelievable! I even went to the shop itself and grilled the guy about his prices. And I did what Jerome advised me to do. I asked the guy questions about all the parts I needed. From the motherboard to the RAM to the graphics card and the hard disk. We were fine until we got to the graphics card. He asked if I was gaming or desktop publishing. I told him I could desktop publish from my laptop so he grabbed the gaming card for me. At first, I didn't even want to consider buying a hard disk. Then he calculated what I did pick out and I discovered that I had more than enough for a new hard disk. Then he made it worst. He said if I added the RAM, he could pass it off as buying a whole computer and get me a bargain on the RAM and the rest of the components.

So I said okay. I was already satisfied with what I had. All I asked was if I can play Neverwinter Nights 2 and Splinter Cell and he replied I could play WoW if I wanted to. Haha! All in all, I paid RM1670 for a Western Digital 320 Gb hard disk (he said he won't use Maxtor and besides, they might be shutting down? I'm not so sure now), a AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor, nVidia's GeForce 7600 GT graphics card, Corsair 1 Gb RAM and abit KN9 SLI. It's probably not the best by some standards but I'm quite satisfied with it all. It should last me quite a while and, as long as I can play my Sims2, Splinter Cell and Neverwinter Nights 2, I'm happy.

I asked the guy if they would all fit together and he gave everything a sweeping glance. He said they definitely will unless the person putting them together gets it wrong. Then he asked if I chose all the parts on my own. I said I had some help (thanks Jerome, Nick and Art! Although I couldn't afford the 8800. Haha!) but only for the graphics card. The rest are my own error.

So that was my weekend. After that, I barely had enough money to buy books but I managed to go manga mad in Kinokuniya. My sole purpose to go to KL was to buy computer parts and I did. And, along the tech track, I met up with my friends. One of them works in NTV/8TV/TV9 and the other writes tech reviews for the New Straits Times. The wife writes the reviews and she laughed at me for going tech mad. We talked about how cheap Vista is and she said she'll wait a year or two. She reviewed it and was not too impressed just yet. Same thing the guy at Low Yatt told me. If only I can convey all this to my mom...