Some assembly required

Can we build it? Yes we can!

The Mac Mini desktop computer, posted without further comment.

I'd like to see you try to run Crysis 3 on max settings on that thing though

I installed everything yesterday evening and so far I'm very impressed with the performance!
From fully powered-down to POST-ing to Windows 7 desktop takes like no-time at all when booting from the SSD.
I will definitely be tinkering with some of the settings, though. Get every last little bit of oomph out of this thing

Greg Charles wrote:The Mac Mini desktop computer, posted without further comment.

When I was a kid, my dad used to order things from Heathkit. One in particular that I remember was a multi-meter.

Now, I am sure there were multimeters on the market at the time. They were probably priced similarly. They probably worked better. But much of the fun and enjoyment was in assembling, wiring, and soldering it ourselves (he let me help).

Back in the 60s and 70s, Heathkits were very popular. They were a little better and a little cheaper than commercial stuff. Mostly because the kit builder provided the labor. Now, of course, most of that labor is done by pick-n-place machines and reflow ovens, so there is no labor to save. The Heathkit 25" TVs were especially popular in the early 70s, as they included all the setup and calibration tools in the basic kit. So while they were not clearly superior from an engineering view, they were all hand optimized, and the pictures were much better than typical factory TVs.

Jelle Klap wrote:I'd like to see you try to run Crysis 3 on max settings on that thing though

Wow, I had to look that up on WikiPedia and the writeup sounded like a mix between Tom Clancy and Leo Tolstoy. What a complicated back story! Forgive my ignorance here, but if you want to play games, isn't it better to buy a game console?

Yeah, I've got a PS3, and I am definitely getting the PS4 when it comes out. I don't discriminate against good gaming hardware - PC or console.