Resentment, betrayal and heartbreak

Technology should have freed man from the burdens of life.
Instead, it imprisoned him.

Another system failure, another inconvenience. This time is was the Mainboard. The onboard audio to be specific. Two visits to the service center and problem NOT solved. It was really frustrating to learn that the "1st year 1-for-1 replacement" refers to refurbished sets of questionable quality. Imagine a pool of RMA circuit boards: "Here just throw yours back into the pile. We'll (randomly) pick another piece for you. If you're lucky it won't have the same problem. If you ain't satisfied, we can try again."

This is the final straw, have made up my mind to make that costly technology leap. To go ahead with the Migration Plan 2 years sooner than I intended.

The last decade spent with DIY systems has been an interesting ride full of thrills and spills. But that stage is over. 长痛不如短痛 Its time to move on.

FUN:
- Shopping trip in Sim Lim Center for components
- Watching your new system boot up sucessfully
- Savings from assembling your own desktop
- 'Arms race' with buddies to see who has the most powerful machines
- Overclocking to bring out more 'bang for buck'
- Learning from each mistake
- Troubleshooting and solving the problem

NOT FUN:
- Accepting for a fact that system may fail anytime.
- Windows blue screen of death that occurs ever so often
- Snifting carefully and praying not to detect the smell of burnt plastic everytime the computer crashes.
- Another tiresome trip to XYZ repair center.
- Machines that never boot properly*
- Forking out money every now and then for replacements.
- Cheap brands that turns out to be incompatible.
- Reliable (more expensive) brands that still fail.
- Troubleshooting and unable to solve the problem.
- Not knowing when any of the above will happen again.

Have done my homework and decided to invest in a Macbook. Reviews (online and personal) were good and consistent. It seems an Apple machine fits well with my criteria**

*I once had a setup that will only boot if I reached into the casing and wiggle the videocard at a certain angle, 2 seconds after I hear the first beep.

**easy servicing, low failure rate, portability, good battery life.