Lightning hit my computer

[Steve C.]

Brand new system not even 2 weeks old. Prior to the lighting strike the closest strike we heard was miles away, then all of a sudden BOOM!! It climbed down the pine tree in the front yard then jumped over to the dormer on the second floor less than 20' above where I was sitting at the time. I looked out front right after it hit and saw debris landing in the front yard from the damaged dormer (see pic).

The lightning did not completely destroy the system but I am replacing it anyway since insurance is covering it. After a ton of research, some of which was done on this site, I have decided to go with a Puget Systems rig.


Motherboard: Asus P8Z68-V Pro
CPU: Intel Core i5 2500K QUAD CORE 3.3GHz 95W
Ram: Kingston 8GB DDR3-1333 (2x4GB)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580 1536MB
Networking: Asus USB-N13 Wireless 802.11b/g/n USB Adapter
Hard Drive: Intel 510 120GB SATA 6 Gb/s 2.5inch SSD
CD / DVD: Asus 24x DVD-RW Lightscribe SATA (black)
Power Supply: Antec TruePower New Series 650W Power Supply
CPU Cooling Scythe Katana 3 CPU Cooler

OS: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit OEM SP1

Here is my favorite part:
Services Warranty: Lifetime Labor and Tech Support, 1 Year Parts

They do their tech support in house so when you call you talk to someone who's primary language is English and they will likely not be reading from a script.

The system cost is a little over 2k. Not a great "deal" but all the people I talked to are extremely knowledgeable and helpful, including tech support. I wanted to talk to one of their tech guys to see if they really knew their stuff and they definitely do.

[perryh]

If it was my decision I would up the power supply to 1000 watts for future SLI. also get Win 7 pro 64 bit, it has Vista and XP backward compatibility. Other than that looks good. I'm not sure if the core i5 are any better than i7 but I think i7 is better.

[Steve C.]

It's been my experience that CA is more video intensive than it is processor intensive, so I spent big on the video card. I opted for the i5 to save a few bucks over the i7. The difference is probably negligible. I won't likely go SLI any time soon. If I do I will get a bigger PSU then.

[IRISH]

Steve,

I had them build my machine as well and can state emphatically that I won't buy another "name brand" again. This thing is rock solid. The couple of times that I have had to call them for issues they took care of it remotely and, surprise surprise, it turned out to be my mess-ups. They even build laptops.

[Curtis Johnson]

Steve:

Is your SS drive the only one you are installing. I use my SS drive for applications and a WD for my data.

I think you'll be very pleased with your system. Your video card is several clicks better than the one I went with. I did go with Win7Pro 64 bit. Other than that, your system is comparable to the one they built for me. Did you go liquid cooled? Whose case did you decide to go with?

[Steve C.]

Steve:

Is your SS drive the only one you are installing. I use my SS drive for applications and a WD for my data.

I think you'll be very pleased with your system. Your video card is several clicks better than the one I went with. I did go with Win7Pro 64 bit. Other than that, your system is comparable to the one they built for me. Did you go liquid cooled? Whose case did you decide to go with?

Curtis,

I run very few applications other than CA, so yes the SS is the only drive for now. I am having them pre-wire for 2 additional drives in case I need them later. Right now with a boat load of old files on my existing system I am only using 61GB of hard drive. I plan on keeping this system free of old files unless I need them. I went with an air cooled system and the Lancool PC-K7B case. By the way, a couple of your posts were helpful in my research. Thanks for turning me on to Puget, they really seem to have it together.

[Steve C.]

I just read your system specs Curtis, mine are very similar. Are you still pretty satisfied with your system?

[Curtis Johnson]

Steve:

I see I never did respond to your question way back when. Guess I'd better give you an answer.

I am planning to upgrade my RAM (8GB > 16GB) and my SSD (80GB > 256GB). I sure wish I had picked a larger SSD initially but my budget was tight so, thinking I could get by with the 80GB's, that is what I stayed with ... but now I am running pretty full and I know I will need more soon. I can run Chief OK with 8GB's RAM if I don't have too much running. I'm not looking forward to having to transfer everything over but hopefully that will go OK when I get around to the upgrade. I am also thinking about adding a portable HD for backups.

How's your system been running for you? Any complaints? Did you add any extra data drives?

[Steve C.]

Curtis,

Just saw your reply. Talk about revival...LOL!

Anyway, I've been fairly pleased with my system, it's been a little jerky lately but tolerable. I actually bought a juiced-up Puget laptop not long after that post. It turned out to have a bad screen and it took me almost 6 weeks to get it back. That really left a sour taste in my mouth regarding customer support. The laptop runs fine now however. I'm actually considering an iMac purchase once I see how the native mac version of CA runs on my wife's macbook pro. The iMac has a great system set up now with an upgrade option to an i7 quad core 3.5 ghz, an SSD hard drive (I'll stay away from fusion drive until they are a little more proven) and an Nvidia 780 video card w/4gb. If I go that route I will order it with 8GB of ram because they want $600 more for 32GB when I can purchase 32GB myself for $300. The 27" iMac RAM can be upgraded and still maintain it's warranty.

I'll keep you updated

[William H Lynch]

Sometimes protection is useless. My brother had a lightning strike that went trough the roof and directly hit his computer, back feed through and destroyed everything . There is a big hole in the ceiling and the computer is mush and everything connected to it... It destroyed everything electronic in his house, his audio visual system, TV, vintage electronic organ, everything, most of the wires in his house were melted to scrap... It was unbelievable... One room over and the lightening would have hit him square in the head, I guess luck was one his side....