My Tween Techie

For the past 3 months my son has been obsessed with upgrading his computer. I have heard daily how his current computer’s “frame rate” just wasn’t fast enough to play Microsoft Flight Simulator X Deluxe at its key “max” settings or how his video card just was too old. He has even gone as far as taking components from his sisters’ computers (ooh, they were not happy) in an effort to make his faster.

He has saved his money, offered to do chores daily, and has offered to forgo any birthday presents in order to get new components for his computer. Every day he is checking the Internet for good deals, and every other word out of his mouth has to do with computers. Yikes!

The other evening my husband’s nerves were wearing thin and he asked my son to check if there were any computer shows in the area and maybe they would go to one and pick up the parts he needed to built his ultimate gaming system from scratch. Imagine my son’s delight when he found there was one the next day near by! He was in heaven.  The two of them went off to the show and bought a new case, motherboard, memory, video card and all the bits and pieces they needed to make TechBoy happy. All in all they did well, too. The whole shebang cost less than $500.

For the time being they have set up shop on my kitchen table – you know to give it a good testing. The Saitek X52 Flight Control System was the first accessory added and so far, they are both very happy about the performance.

It is just amazing to me that an 11 year old boy can figure out how to build and maximize something this complicated, but can’t remember to turn in his homework (even though it is done) and put his shoes in the same spot every day!