As many of our readers know from my DIY desk overkill, structured wiring obsession, pencent for whole house audio, DIY Server Rack, frequent Star Wars references, and typical demeanor, I like to fancy myself a nerd's nerd. I freely admit and appreciate this nerdliness about myself and have no qualms about truly embracing the title. I'm more at home behind the keyboard and a monitor working on websites than I ever am while working on the house (though the house is more of a relaxing hobby). So about two weeks ago when I restarted my computer only to have it hang at the bios screen, I was rather annoyed, a little worried I might lose some files, but also a bit excited by the possibility of getting a new computer. I'm fortunate in that my computer skills allow me to approach such a situation with a bit more calm and understanding than the person who is at the mercy of Geek Squad. I feel for everyone who ever has to call them.

My old computer, a Shuttle xPC, has been a wonderful PC for the last four years. If you're not familiar with the brand Shuttle, the primary thing they are known for are these small form factor computers that take up far less space than a traditional tower.

I bought this style of computer primarily because it was a "small form factor" PC and would take up less space in our new office desk I had been building. In addition to it's miniature size, I was also able to configure it in a adequately powerful setup without breaking the bank, and I knew it would do what I needed it to do for some time.

Sadly, over the past several months I was starting to see its issues and age. The PC was older and slower than I wanted it to be, was starting to struggle to keep up on normal tasks, and had been spontaneously rebooting more frequently than I wanted it to. Add to these problems that this little computer ran extremely hot, so even the desk fans I had installed weren't adequately cooling it and I had to keep the left cabinet desk door cracked at all times to keep it from overheating. It was not an ideal situation (and Wendy always hated that the door had to stay open).

The failure to boot (which actually turned out to be a motherboard hard drive controller failure) was simply the last straw that made me decide to get a new computer.

In the past four years since I built my old PC, I've been slowly converting myself to Mac guy. It is strange since I've been Windows/PC since i really got into computers in 1994 (though I did own an Apple IIe as my very first computer in the 1980s). My Mac conversion all started with my iPhone 3G, which turned into the 3GS...4...and now, the 4S (the S stands for "super awesome").

When my HP netbook's motherboard went bad last year, I replaced it with an 11" MacBook Air. At just over two pounds, I take that thing with me almost everywhere i go.