The Official "What did you get during the holidays" Topic.

What I got for Christmas:
$150 bucks from my parents
$50 From my Aunt and Uncle
$20 from someone else I don't know
A Shirt
And a Wallet to put the money in :)

What sucked about this ->
Sometime during November, the power went out as I got back home from school. My driving instructor (for my permit, required 6 hours of driving with a teacher for a permit) was already waiting as I got home. I needed to finish my last two hours that day, and I was VERY excited to finish it...
Anyway, I finished it, with mix feelings about how good (or rather BAD) I am at passing people on the highway (I blamed it on my instructor telling me to pass someone going above 80MPH when I was already going ~78MPH on a slight incline). I come home, thankfully the power is back on... but my computer refused to POST.

After unplugging the power and trying to get it to work, it finally did. Damage was done. CPU vCore was not stable (after futher investigation, the capacitors on the board were kinda buldging and one seemed to look like it was leaking). (PSU's Voltage rails reported normal, through the mobo's readings). My Second HDD on this PC died... meaning I was HDD less...

So with the christmas money, I made an unintended upgrade to my PC.

Previous Specs:
Athlon XP Barton 2500+ @ 3200+ (Undervolted @ 1.58v, stock 1.65, capable of 2.5ghz on High end air cooling/low end water. Prime 95 Stable (2.2ghz Undervolted) 12 hours). Benched in 3dmark01SE @ 2.4ghz stable.
nForce 2 Ultra 400 Mobo, 230MHz FSB Capable, Firewire, USB, no SATA
256x2 PC3200 RAM, only pushed it to 460MHz, didn't stress test.
FX5900 flashed to FX5950 Ultra, Benched in one 3dmark01SE test at 560/1000. Throttled on the next benchmark. Stock cooling. (Stock speed 400/850).

Replacement parts that I <3
AMD Opteron 165.
-> Dual Core, 1MB L2 Cache PER CORE, 1.8GHz
ASRock DUAL-SATA2 Board
-> Full AGP 8x/4x
-> One PEG 16x Slot (PCIe 16x)
-> "Futrue CPU Port" Claims to Support M2, but not really a thing I care about. (I would of rather had another PCI slot or PCIe slot)
-> One PCIe 1x Slot, 3 PCI slots (One covered by my FX5900)
Existing 512MB RAM
Existing FX5900.
Price? ~ $360 at Monarch Computers... what a steal...

Problem: I found out that my "Second" HDD was broken AFTER installing my new mobo and CPU. so now Im running on a slow 10GB drive rofl.... and Im broke.

What did you get for your holiday?

a bill for an over-budget car stereo installation

3 days in a bed and breakfast built as a castle with my lovely wife playing what basically amounts to a giant game of clue.

A couple of cheap shirts, a few giftcards and a nice assortment of flavored hot chocolate mixes.

Have the boards become inactive since the last time I visited or do you guys just not get gifts for the holidays? :P

Or do you all share the same psychotic views about how the holidays are meaningless in some sort of fashion (Related to marketing, religion, values... whatever)....?

lessee.. two gift certificates for a commercial truck wash/wax at Blue Beacon, new mp3/xm ready cd player for my truck, a $60.00 gift card for CHROME@#@#@ for my truck, a 12v vacuum cleaner for my truck, a new watch, a wallet, some shirts, a 3million candlepower spotlight, and a vinyl, insulated windbreaker, and windpants

100gb external hard drive (which I made internal, since I was on a 6gb drive), among other things.

nothing, my family thinks of christmas, new year to be nothing more then a commercial inclined idea, and i agree with that.

just had a selfmade dinner with family and friends, was all i needed or wanted.

I am the one who gives stuff, not the one that receives it.

What I got from the Holidays, however:

1. A bunch of nice meals with most of my relatives and some friends, sharing good food, good times and good banter.

2. Lots of days off work, which meant lots of more time to play VO and do other stuff.

3. To piss off some people who stupidly, sincerely believe this time of the year is for celebrating the birth of Jesus.

4. Full battery recharge, so I can meet the upcoming year head on.

5. A nasty cold.

That is all.

1) $80 dollars in cash
2) A promise that my VO sub will be continued..
3) An external firewire hard drive. (Haven't got this yet, but it's on the family's to-do list)
4) A 2006 calendar from my older sister
5) A phone call from my 4-year-old younger sister (commence teh Awws)

socks.

leber wins. New socks rule.

2 tailored shirts to go with my jeans.

6) A four-way USB adapter for my laptop. I'm gonna open it and check it out now. :D

EDIT: Holy flying **** the light on that thing is bright... >.< Works though :D