Cold feet?
Sep. 3rd, 2020 10:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
punktigerSo, my birthday was yesterday, and in celebration, I figured that I would get the parts together to build a virtual pinball machine. I mean, I've always wanted a pinball machine since I was a child, but they were very expensive (my family wasn't well-off by ANY means), and overall, there's no room in the house to feasibly put one if I did get one.
Fast-forward 40 some-odd years and I have the means to get a small virtual pinball machine that can play just about any board of my choosing. I have the money virtually in hand to buy all the parts and pieces needed that I don't have on hand. So why haven't I started? Chronic indecision.
I've researched cabinets, monitors, audio amplifiers, and speakers. I've thought about the types of cables necessary to connect all the peripherals and how all this will be powered. I already have the motherboard, power supply, graphics card, and hard drive to (hopefully) run this smoothly. And every time I tell myself to start the purchasing, the fire in my belly goes cold, and I have a hard time justifying it. I mean, this whole thing will cost me around $500 (more or less), and it's the matter of cashing in a few of my bonds to easily cover the cost, and this is something I've wanted for years... but I'm still hesitant.
What's really stopping me is fear. A fear that, even though I've researched pretty much everything about this build, something devastating will go wrong and it'll break my heart. Like, if the graphics card is a bit too tall with the amount of room I have between the motherboard and the play field monitor that might have been alleviated if the monitor was a quarter-inch thinner. Or that the cables will turn into a rat's nest and hamper the airflow/cooling of the components causing catastrophic failure. Or any one of a myriad of little annoyances that could bring the entire project to a screeching (and potentially expensive) halt.
I realize I'm probably overthinking all this and jumping at shadows, but mostly, I'm hoping that I'm doing this for the right reasons. When it all comes together and I'm playing my first few games on it, I know I'll feel so much better. Getting there is the hard part.
Fast-forward 40 some-odd years and I have the means to get a small virtual pinball machine that can play just about any board of my choosing. I have the money virtually in hand to buy all the parts and pieces needed that I don't have on hand. So why haven't I started? Chronic indecision.
I've researched cabinets, monitors, audio amplifiers, and speakers. I've thought about the types of cables necessary to connect all the peripherals and how all this will be powered. I already have the motherboard, power supply, graphics card, and hard drive to (hopefully) run this smoothly. And every time I tell myself to start the purchasing, the fire in my belly goes cold, and I have a hard time justifying it. I mean, this whole thing will cost me around $500 (more or less), and it's the matter of cashing in a few of my bonds to easily cover the cost, and this is something I've wanted for years... but I'm still hesitant.
What's really stopping me is fear. A fear that, even though I've researched pretty much everything about this build, something devastating will go wrong and it'll break my heart. Like, if the graphics card is a bit too tall with the amount of room I have between the motherboard and the play field monitor that might have been alleviated if the monitor was a quarter-inch thinner. Or that the cables will turn into a rat's nest and hamper the airflow/cooling of the components causing catastrophic failure. Or any one of a myriad of little annoyances that could bring the entire project to a screeching (and potentially expensive) halt.
I realize I'm probably overthinking all this and jumping at shadows, but mostly, I'm hoping that I'm doing this for the right reasons. When it all comes together and I'm playing my first few games on it, I know I'll feel so much better. Getting there is the hard part.
