Someday I want a real gaming rig

I'm working on a post about Mirror's Edge: Catalyst, it's gonna be kind of long.  (I'll have a table of contents and internal hyperlinks to aid in navigation.)  I'll probably actually do two so I can have one be spoiler free for people who like that and another be exclusively about spoilery spoiler stuff I left out of the main post.

I'm also experimenting with custom settings so I can find the least cruddy graphics I can have without the game being bogged down in lagity lag lag lag.

This computer, primary computer, is good.  There's only so much you can squeeze into a laptop, and I didn't get it that long ago when previous primary's warranty gave me the store credit with which to buy it.  In fact, if I'm reading things right it's actually just one ram upgrade away from more-or-less top of the line.

If anyone remembers back that far, when I got the first in the string of new primary computers the idea was getting something top of the line so that when it, like the then just failed primary, was passed warranty and held together by hope, faith, and work I'd done with a drill press, machine screws, nuts, and a hacksaw it would still be an acceptable bottom of the line computer.

Obviously that hasn't happened.  Part of it is that top of the line computers seem prone to having "do not resuscitate" orders placed upon them so what should be easy fixes end up with, "Here's a store credit for a new computer of equal value."  Part of that is that my family exudes a yet to be understood energy force that reacts with electronics the way being left outside, with all waterproofing and insulation removed, in a major, major, off the charts major, torrential downpour electrical storm would.

Anyway.  As a gaming laptop goes, I'm pretty well there already.

Games are not made for laptops.

A real gaming rig is so far out of my price range that . . . analogies fail.  Divide by cheese error.

If I had the money to get one I'd be trying to choose between wiping out most of my debt or starting up a small business.

They are beyond me as owning a donkey is beyond me.

But someday, in that magical land where I'm not in debt up to my eyeballs and I can burn lots of money on shit I very much do not need, I'd like a rig where I could play a game, crank all of the graphics options up to eleven, and it would run smooth and true.

Random wishful thinking.