I got a new computer using Steem - Thank you!

For those of you who followed me for a while now, you know that one of the main goals I had in 2017 was to buy a computer. I decided that when the year started and I did my best to achieve that goal using the Photoshop skills I acquired in the past.

In June I stumbled upon a video made by @jerrybanfield where he talked about this amazing website, how you can make money by publishing content and the value of Steem going up. I had no idea what Steem was or how cryptocurrencies worked at the time (and I still don't know a lot) but since I was in need of some money I decided to try it.

I got on this website, I made in account and in a few days it got approved. Then I started publishing all kind of things, trying to share some of the information I learned in the past about self development, working and being productive.

Now, at the beginning of 2018, after publishing over 300 articles and after spending God knows how many days on the internal market of Steemit, I can finally write this article on my new computer.

For that, I want to thank you!

After so much work and after so much stress, I am finally able to work on a machine that offers me a bunch of possibilities and doesn't limit me when it comes to what I can use and what I can learn.

I'll talk about it a little bit and I'll also show you what my old PC was like (specs and how it worked in general), but before that, here are a few pictures of what my new system looks like:

Also, here's an image with the inside of my old computer (just for comparison):

Dusty, I know!

It's probably not the best looking computer you'll see, but for me it is, mainly because I only saw something like this on the Internet, on all the videos I was watching about how to build computer and how to choose your parts.

For those of you interested in what's inside, here are the specs + a few things I purchased aside:

CPU: Ryzen 7 1700 running at 3.0GHz (with the stock cooler)
Motherboard: Gigabyte AB-350 Gaming-3
Memory: Corsair Vengeance Red LED 16GB DDR4 3000MHz CL15 Dual Channel Kit
Storage: One Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SATA-III 2.5 inch SSD and one WD Blue 1TB SATA-III 7200 RPM 64MB HDD
Video Card: MSI GeForce GTX 1080 GAMING X 8GB DDR5X 256-bit
Case: Fractal Design Define S
Power Supply: Corsair CX650, 80+ Bronze, 650W
Monitor: LED AOC Gaming G2770PF 27 inch 1ms Black-Red FreeSync 144Hz
Mouse Pad: A4Tech X7-300MP Game Mouse Pad
Mouse: Gaming Logitech PRO Gaming
Operating System: Windows 10
Headset: HyperX Cloud II 7.1 Red

Besides all that I got, for free, two games: Destiny 2 for purchasing the GTX video card and Quake Champions for purchasing the Ryzen 1700 CPU.

For me, this computer is a beast. I never had anything as good as this and I'm so damn proud of it. I saved money for around four months to buy it and it's finally here. It's even harder for me to believe I built it myself without breaking anything (I have no memory of installing the CPU - I was THAT nervous!).

Now, here are the specs of the old PC I had (more or less):

CPU: I don't know the model but it was an Intel Dual Core running at 2.0 GHz with the stock cooler that sounded more or less like a broken plane
Motherboard: RC415T-AM
Memory: 2GB of RAM DDR2 (that's all I know)
Storage: It came with a 350 GB HDD from Seagate but I changed it when it failed after 10 years of usage with a 500GB HDD from Toshiba
Video Card: It came with a 64MB ATI Radeon Xpress 200 series integrated card and I later changed it with a 512 MB ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 (in 2012 i think)
Case: I had absolutely no idea
Power Supply: Again, no idea, but it was bad
Monitor: HANNS.G HU196D - max resolution 1280x1024 60Hz and a 19'' diagonal size

For those of you who don't know a lot about computers, I can say that the difference between them is HUGE. The new system is 10 times better and it's able to run everything with no problem.

For example, if I wanted to open two things at the same time on the old computer, like.. let's say the League of Legends client (which is not hard to run for a decent computer) and my browser, one of them would've taken at least a minute to load. If I wanted to use Photoshop to work on something I had to keep everything at a pretty small resolution (around 1920x1080 or 3000x2000 max) in order to work without everything crashing. Saving high resolution images in Photoshop took around 30 to 60 seconds, and once I had too many items in my projects, everything was starting to work really slow.

I'm not even gonna talk about better software like Premiere Pro, After Effects or anything 3D related, and I will not mention games mainly because the only good (and fairly new) game I could play on that machine was League of Legends with everything on Very Low at around 50 FPS in the first 15 minutes of the game and bellow 40 after 15 - 20 minutes.

But now? Everything is different. Photoshop opens instantly, I can literally use any software I want without the system holding me back and I can play any game I want with over 60 FPS without having to bring down any setting. That, for me, it's crazy. Plus, I can watch videos in more than 360p without my computer lagging which is also amazing!

I had the computer for around 5 days and I still can't believe everything can run so fast and smooth.

And all this is because of you! I was able to buy this computer because you were here to read and upvote my articles, because you were here to motivate me to keep working and because you made sure I received all the rewards I needed to finally make one of my dreams true.

I cannot thank you enough for helping me buy this amazing machine and I guess all I can do is to keep creating content for you. I'm no longer limited by my system's specifications and hopefully I'll be able to work on better projects that involve a lot more work.

Now all I need is a new desk, long enough to support a secondary monitor I'll buy in the future + my computer, and then I can start working towards bigger goals, which is scary but exciting.

I thank you once again for helping me achieve my goal and for allowing me to have such amazing computer. You're all awesome!