GENERALMELCHETT3: July 2018: The Core i7 (Coffee Lake) Update
A small modification to the configuration: a new motherboard and CPU. Now we have 6 Cores, 12 Threads.
| Item | Configuration | Pricing | Comments |
| CPU | Intel Core i7 8700K Hex-core (Coffee Lake) 3.2GHz | $449.00 | While this is slower core than previous, the result seems speedier |
| Motherboard | ASUS RoG STRIX Z370-G LGA1151-2 | $269.00 |
GENERALMELCHETT3: January 2017: The Core i7 (Kaby Lake) Update
After a second tour of 4 years at the front, and 2 years in retirement, it is time for GENERALMELCHETT2 to receive some internal surgery. The new Intel Kaby Lake, 14nm ‘seventh generation’ Cores; and especially the 4 core/8 thread Core i7 7700K (unlocked, ready for overclocking)
The pricing below also provides a good example of improvement in technology vs. pricing over the last 6 years. And I tracked different replacement configurations through the years.
| Item | Configuration | Pricing | Comments |
| CPU | Intel Core i7 7700K 4.2Ghz 14nm (Kaby Lake) | $499.00 | |
| CPU Cooler | Corsair Hydro Series H80i v2 120mm | $135.00 | |
| Motherboard | ASUS TUF Sabertooth Z270 Mark 2 LGA 1151/DDR4 | $359.00 | |
| Memory | Corsair Vengeance 64GB (4x 16GB) 3000MHz | $699.00 | $10.92/Gb for DDR4 compared with $18.90/Gb for DDR3 compared with $82.50/Gb in late 2007! |
| Video Card | Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 Mini ITX OC 6GB | $369.00 | |
| Hard Disk | Samsung 960 EVO 500GB M.2 NVMe SSD | $329.00 | |
| Power, case, monitors | Same as below | ||
GENERALMELCHETT2: January 2011: The Core i7 Update
After 38 months of faithful service at the front, it is time for GENERALMELCHETT to receive some internal surgery. The new Intel Sandy Bridge, 32nm ‘second generation’ Cores; and especially the 4 core/8 thread Core i7 2600 looked the correct price/performance. I am glad I have waited over 3 years to update the GENERAL. An excellent investment, it has been rock solid and stable from day 1.
The pricing below also provides a good example of improvement in technology vs. pricing over the last 3 years. And I tracked different replacement configurations through the years. Massive.
| Item | Configuration | Pricing | Comments |
| CPU | Intel Core i7 2600 3.4Ghz (Sandy Bridge) | $369.30 | 40% speed improvement on Q9300, for about 10% less price! |
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-P67-UD5 SATA3/USB3/DDR3 | $321.90 | |
| Memory | G.Skill 16Gb DDR3 9-9-9-24-2N 1600MHz | $301.90 | $18.90/Gb for DDR3 compared with $82.50/Gb in late 2007! |
| Preexisting Items | |||
| Video Card | ATI Radeon HD 5700 | ||
| Hard Disk | Western Digital Green 1Tb SATA Drive | ||
| Power, case, monitors | Same as below | ||
GENERALMELCHETT1: >November 2007: The Original General
General Melchett, as played by Stephen Fry in Blackadder Goes Forth is the code name of my new work-at-home PC. Just for fun, the two internal drives are called CorporalPunishment and PrivatePlane. Both are names of episodes from series 4. My laptop is called Captain Darling, and various external things (including my Zune: Baldrick. Small yet thick) have Blackadder names. So, onto GeneralMelchett. Here is the current thinking of the configuration, subject to change.
| Item | Configuration | Pricing | Comments |
| CPU | CP-Q6600X38COMBO | $856.90 | Grab most latest motherboard, memory and wait for more choice in the CPU front later in 2008 CPU is the Q6600 at 2.4GHz. Overclockable. |
| CPU, Update 21st April 2008 | Q9300 | $412.00 | The Q6600 is a beautiful processor. But warm! The Q9300 is the equivalent in the new 45nm processor series: so I upgraded. The ambient temperature around the General is amazing! Performance in video compression is about 4% better. 2.5Ghz of pure fun! |
| Motherboard | MB-GA-X38-DQ6 | (included above) 1600MHz Front-side-bus-able | |
| CPU/MB Fans | AL-CNPS9700LED (Zallman) and AL-FAN-SMARTCOOL120 | $135.19 | Fan on CPU is best for a flat configuration, but as this is a vertical mount motherboard: going for a better fan combination to push back to front. Initial processor temperature above 55degC, which is too much. |
| Memory | AL-TWIN2X2048-5400C4 | $121.00 | 1 x DDR2 Kits; additional to 1 x kit included in combo above. |
| Memory Update 7th December 2007 | $660.00 | 1 x Geil 8Gb RAM. Shhh! Don’t tell anyone. Need the extra ooomph so I can get the rating higher than 5.6 | |
| Boot HD | HD-WD1500ADFD | $305.00 | 10,000 RPM Raptor, 150Gb beastie |
| Boot HD Update 2nd June 2008 | WD3000GLFS | $379.00 | 10,000 RPM Velociraptor, 300Gb |
| Second HD | AL-HD501LJ | $341.00 | 500Gb SATA Samsung 7200 RPM. In Gigabyte SATA2 Mirror RAID configuration |
| DVD | Simple SATA DVD-RW Drive | $74.80 | Not quite ready for HD yet in our house |
| Video Card Update 7th December | Inno3D NVidia 8800GT 512Mb DDR3 RAM | $462.00 | Arrgh! Liam stole the 8800GT for Crysis. Time to purchase another |
| Screen | Dell 22″ LCD x 2 | $897.60 | 22″ LCD. Plan B is a 19″ Apple LCD monitor |
| Case | Lian-Li black anodised 210 x 381 x 490mm | $181.50 | Whatever fits all this stuff; needs to be Midi-tower to fit into area. 230mm (w) x 430mm (h) |
| Power Supply | Corsair 620w modular | $176.00 | 620w quiet, and the extra cables for modular installation made life very easy. Lots of head room there, too |
| Keyboard/Mouse | Microsoft Entertainment Wireless 8000 | $379.50 | So excellent in the lounge on the Media Centre. Just gotta have another one. A bit of luxury, but since you spend so much time on the keyboard, it is important you love it. |
| Extra Inputs | Silverstone Card Reader for 3.5″ slot | $69.30 | SD, CF, MSPro card reader for various pieces of silicon memory in the house. This nifty device also presents audio and firewire to the front of the case |
| Network | No Cat6 in the GeekCave, so it’s Wireless. A normal 802.11g. Draft-N is still Draft. Billion support for full N is the litmus test for me to adopt N. Dual 1Gb Ethernet on motherboard | ||
| OS | Vista Ultimate x64 (OEM) | $275.00 | My first x64 OS, so driver fun abounds. Timing is good, as others have worn the pain of early adopters |
Build-out, during Vista x64 install: 
5.6? 5.6 for memory. Need to get some more out of it! 
Presently, the memory is letting the side down from 5.9’s (perfect scores). Overclocking research continues! The CPU can probably multiply up, and the Core Voltage can also be “upped”; but the 5-5-5-18 memory seems to be the bottleneck? CPU with stock fan runs the processor CPU cores at around 40degC