Hi, I'm the Space Quest Historian, and my computer is old. As in, ooooold. It's at least 13 years old, maybe even more. It was a hand-me-down from my brother, and I'm not sure how long he had it before me. And, as such, it's starting to show its age in a number of ways.

How old? Well, these are my current specs:

Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3570 [email redacted]Hz 3.80 GHz

Installed RAM: 8.00 GB

Storage: 466 GB SSD WDC WDS500G2B0A-00SM50, 238 GB SSD Samsung SSD 850 PRO 256GB, 233 GB SSD Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250GB

Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (6 GB)*

OS: Windows 10 (cannot upgrade to Win11)

* I'm not replacing this one because it's about the only thing in my machine that's fairly solid.

My main concern is that, at some point, it will fail entirely due to one or more components simply having a catastrophic meltdown from which there is no recovery. That would be disastrous in a number of ways. I wouldn't be able to create my videos, make any music, do any livestreams, or play Minecraft with my son.

I have already begun the costly journey of upgrading my computer (new power supply already in hand), but the computer is so old that I will have to replace the motherboard and CPU as well. Those aren't cheap, and that is why I'm asking for your help.

My friend Changis from the SQH Discord has helpfully guided me towards some components that, in his expert opinion, should last me for quite some time in the future. In the interest of full transparency, here is what I'm hoping to acquire with the help of this fundraiser (Changis' comments in italics; click the "link" to see the product page where I'll be purchasing it from):

Total price: DKK 2,513 — or $389.71 in freedom football field dollars — or 10,253,164.54 Vietnamese dong... heh... dong.

Now, those prices may fluctuate somewhat by the time I get around to purchasing them, but I am, of course, fully prepared to put my own money into this endeavor as well, so that's why I've set the bar at an even 2,500. I don't expect that goal to be reached, but any amount will help towards... getting SQH a new computer for Christmas.

Hey, hang on a moment...

"Why are you resorting to GoFundMe to buy yourself a new computer? Don't you make enough from YouTube and Patreon?" you may reasonably ask.

Well, the short answer is no. But the long answer is that my earnings from YouTube and Patreon are already going towards this endeavor — whatever is left after making ends meet in my day-to-day life. For reasons I won't bother you with here, there usually isn't a lot left over at the end of the month for "frivolous expenses."

That said, if you're already a supporter on my Patreon, you are already indirectly funding this campaign. And thank you very much for your support.

Again, I don't expect this campaign to shoot all the way to the end goal, but any bit will help tremendously and speed things up before... well, before something bad might happen. Not bad as in we'll have to send 90's Bruce Willis off with a bunch of explosives to deal with it; just bad for me, really.

Anyway, that's it. That's my spiel. If you want to chuck in some dosh, that would be great, and thank you very much. If not, I totally understand. November and especially December are shitty months to do fundraisers in and you probably have your own problems to deal with and ends to meet, so don't sweat it. Have a merry Christmas in any case and I'll see you around the chronostream. Bye!