My new computer is reaching the final ordering stages. By the end of next week almost all the parts will be ordered. Estimated assembly time is 2 weeks working for 8-10hours each day. This computer has been in planing for a few years. It was originally set to be built when the first dual core cpus came out. Budget cuts stopped construction after the first $1000 was already spent. Luckily those parts were not components and some were sold off.

Two years ago planning for attempt two got serious and a 10 month market analysis was launched. The purpose of this analysis was to determine the optimum time for the construction of the SBII. The reason for this is to select a time where technology in key sectors has reached the longest road blocks possible before the next pinnacle can be reached. Over one year ago it was decided that Fall 2008 would be the time that the computer would be built. With more accurate outlooks Winter 2008 was set as the final build time.

This system will retire my SB 1.7 which was built to play HL2 and act as a test model for dummy features of the SB2 such as water cooling. This model was also made to be able to act as a file server for up to 15 years after being retired.

The Silver Bullet II is the predecessor to the Silver Bullet I. The SB1 was built in Spring 01 and featured the very first gen Pentium 4 processor along with Rambus ram. It was one of a few computers to have over 512mb of ram and had the fastest ram in the world along with the fastest gpu, the Geforce 3. It was sited in the largest full tower case that was made at the time. This case like almost all at the time was beige but was stripped and painted with automotive grade silver. This was one of the first high level painted cases in the world. (possibly the first) The Silver Bullet I cost in access of $7000 when everything was said and done. (cooling budget amounted to around $100)

The Silver Bullet II like the sb1 is built to be one of the most high preforming computers in the world. Unlike some extreme systems that sacrifice stability with insane cooling measures in order to set world records this system aims to be the top performer and still maintain easy operation, customability, and upgradeability. Unlike the original Silver Bullet the SB2 will use water cooling and will have a much larger cooling/other budget. Luckily decreases in pricing over the last 8 years has led to the ability to split the budget 50/50 and still be less than the original SB1's cost. Designed to spare virtually no expense the SB2 is the pinnacle of current conventional computer technology. The only thing that can truly be done to improve performance beyond this system would be to start doubling up, that is adding more gpus/ram and upgrading the cooling system to one that would create condensation problems.

Much can be learned about existing technology and even the direction of future technology though the construction and design of such a system. As you could probably guess constructing a system of such scope and risk means that building anything else is much easier by comparison.

For those of you that do not know much about the inner workings of computers or who have thought about building a new system or about water cooling this is the build of a life time! During construction I will be taking hundreds of pics and will be writing a bunch of articles on the main website.

Prepare yourself, and get ready to experience the very edge of modern computing technology with the Silver Bullet II. I hope that though the articles that I plan to write you will all learn a great deal about computers and existing technology. (I also hope it will rain money to help fund this...) But most of all I hope that you will be inspired to create your own costume rigs that you can proudly use each day or at the very least gain an apprication for the beauty of hand built systems.

If you would like to experience the Silver Bullet II musically listen to Swan Lake Scene by Tchaikovsky.