And finally running smoothly! Seriously, six years worth of updates is a lot to manage at once. Still, it's actually really, really nice to finally be rid of all the bloatware and try-me software that originally shipped with this PC-- I was never sure what was really, really safe to uninstall and what wasn't. (I think I'm missing drivers for something, though. The video controls on my keyboard don't seem to affect my DVD drive like they should, which is a minor annoyance. That eject button is handy.)

Also, ouch. I'm sorry to hear about your motherboard! Can you save anything else, like your graphics card or your RAM? Soup up that new computer as soon as it arrives?

Backups: a seven letter word for peace of mind.