[ This article concerns a paid campaign currently running on the site. ]

I’ll preempt any negative comments right off the bat: I know there aren’t enough pics and that the ones I do have suck. But I’m no artist/photographer, nor do I play one on TV. For now, the pictures I’m including after the jump represent my modest attempt at capturing the “rush” of unboxing parts for the Home Office PC I’m building as part of the Symantec campaign (previous coverage). Later in the series, I’ll have better ones (heck, even a video or two), but for now, this is it.

To be fair, there isn’t all that much excitement in this particular unboxing. It’s not like it’s a new MacBook, or anything that’s been delicately or ornately packaged. They’re PC parts. Yay.

Still, there’s the pic above, and four more after the jump. After all that, you have a link to the article with a little commentary.

[ Unboxing Article ]

[ This article concerns a paid campaign currently running on the site. ]

By David Ponce

Alright, so this Home Office PC (which I talked about last week) is coming a little bit closer to reality. I appreciated your help and would have loved to take your advice guys… but being from the windswept glacial regions of the North (Canada), NewEgg was not an option for me. I went with TigerDirect, and below is my shopping list.

One Acer X223WBD 22″ Widescreen LCD Monitor – 5ms, 2500:1, (WSXGA+) 1680×1050, DVI, Black

XFX GeForce 8200 Motherboard CPU Bundle – AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Processor 2.40GHz Retail

Two Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1000GB Hard Drives – 7200RPM, 32MB, Serial ATA-300, OEM

OCZ SLI-Ready Dual Channel 4096MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz Memory (2×2048MB)

Power Up Black 336 ATX Mid-Tower Case with Front USB, Audio Ports and 450-Watt Power Supply

Ultra X-Wind Aluminum Socket K8/AM2 CPU Cooling Fan

HP DVD1070i 20X SATA Multiformat DVD Writer – With Lightscribe Retail

Brother MFC Printer

SATA Cables

To find out how much I paid for each item and to understand why I picked some elements rather than others, hit the link at the bottom of this article.

Also, you might notice there’s no keyboard, mouse or webcam. I could have bought these right away, but I’ll wait for the mail-in rebates. I got my own for now.

[ My Home Office PC Shopping List ]

By David Ponce

[ This article concerns a paid campaign currently running on the site. ]

So here’s the deal. Symantec’s been working on Norton. They know many people find it a slow resource hog and sometimes annoying. They’re trying to change that perception (and the product itself, from what I hear). As part of this process, they’re asking four Federated Media Authors to build PCs, test them and document the process. While there was an HTPC and a gaming PC to build… I was not so lucky. I got the Home Office PC. But that’s ok, Home Officing can be exciting… right?

They’re giving us a $1,000 budget, and free rein on just how we do this. They’re not asking us to say anything nice about Norton. Heck, if it’s still slow, I’ll be the first to say it. But before I get there, I have to build this PC. And this is where you guys can maybe help.

Pasted below is a passage of the first article in the series. (The whole thing is here.) Since there’s no PC yet, this article is about the setup I’ve got now, and the direction I’m planning to take with the new one.

Now, you have to understand that I’m 27. While I enjoy getting work done, I’m not one to poo poo a good game of UT4 now and then. So not only is this PC good enough for Home Offic-ing, it happens to have a couple of components that could be considered extravagant for the more restrained home office worker. Like the Ultra case with see-through side panel. Or the XFX GeForce 8600GT video card with two DVI outputs. Or the 4GB of RAM. Or the massive 700W power supply. Or even the 1.5TB of storage over four hard drives. Oh, and the 250GB WD MyBook extrnal drive sitting on top. Heck, even the Acer 22-inch LCD could be considered a bit of overkill for the typical home office.

Where do you come in? Well, heck, what would you want in a Home Office PC? I want suggestions, guys. Ideas.

[ Old Vs. New PC ]