The £250 Challenge: the victor speaks

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

So, the votes have been counted, analysed and re-counted, and the results are in: my cobbled-together self-build PC has won the £250 Challenge.

I spent the entirety of the building and voting period enthusiastically claiming that a self-built PC was the only one worth choosing thanks to its mix of decent components and effervescent, charming personality.

In practice, though, that meant that my PC ran Ubuntu and the beta version of Windows 7 rather than a proper, paid-for OS, had cables trailing around the case and a decent selection of ports and sockets on the front that didn’t actually work.

And then there was the case, which looked like the next Transformers movie if Michael Bay’s budget was reduced to nothing and sounded like a vacuum cleaner echoing around the Grand Canyon.

But, when stacked up against the competition, the Warrior 250PCWGFS fought valiantly and earned more votes than anyone else.

(more…)