In need of help to be able to write

First of all, let me explain why I'm asking for money instead of paying for it myself. I'm asking for donations because I live in a country which has literally the lowest average salary in the whole European Union (ironically food and other items cost the same as in other countries or more). We also have an extremely high unemployment rate, which is over 20%. That, of course, makes a difficult task to find a job around here, especially when you are a student. Students literally fight in competitions for jobs like a cashier at a supermarket. A job at McDonald's is considered a great job around here, and there is even bigger competitions going on for that.

I do understand that this might appear a bit selfish, and in fact it is - I'm asking you to fund me for a computer upgrade. However I'm not going to buy a new computer and forget that it was possible only because I've received donations from generous people. Instead, I'm going to give back to the community, not by funding other projects, but by writing. I know it's a different way of "giving back", but that's all I can do at the moment, and I'm always trying to do my best when I'm writing an article. It doesn't matter if it's a news item, a review or a screenshots gallery, I always think if I've done my best at that very moment before clicking "Publish".

I post on my site because I love video games and I love writing, which is why I've decided to create a site not long ago. At the time I've launched the site, my PC was able to run most of the newly released games with a decent graphics quality and FPS (since I've a small monitor). However my computer started failing soon after. The first thing to go was my 19" LCD monitor, so I had to start using a 15" CRT monitor instead, which was thrown away by a family friend. Soon after that, my hard drive stopped working. Luckily I have a really good friend from another country, who has offered to send me his old 200GB hard drive. Unfortunately though, it is really slow compared to the modern HDDs. Then followed my headphones, which luckily were still in warranty. Shortly after my power supply unit blew up. I had to use an old PSU from my previous computer. The power supply is around 10 years old and I'm taking a risk by even using it, however I don't have a choice. Sadly, the fan of this PSU is failing already, so there's a potential overheating problem, especially with the summer coming. Finally, adding salt to the injury, my mouse started failing as well. The left mouse button was either double-clicking or not working at all. Now I am using an older mouse.

While all of this was going on, another problem was building up. My video card started to heat up to extremely high temperatures, even in a cold room (15-18C, since it's winter at the moment). When I'm not playing any games, my video card stays at around 93C, when it should stay at 40-50C instead. That is bad enough, but it gets even worse when I'm playing a graphics-intensive game. My VGA reaches 108C in less than 5 minutes, then I have to minimize the game and wait for a couple minutes for my video card to cool down, just so I could play the game for another few minutes. It heats up despite the fact that the fan of my graphics card is working on 100% efficiency, emitting an irritating sound of over 60 dB.

All these experiences are really frustrating, especially the situation with my video card. After all, it prevents me from being able to write reviews for a lot of games, especially the latest titles, which are the highest priority for every game journalist. I even have a number of games that I was asked to review and given by the PRs, but now I cannot write the reviews because the games run on 10-20 FPS on low graphics settings, or even more frequently my VGA simply overheats and I have to minimize the game every 5 minutes. It is very hard to enjoy any game that doesn't run how it should (on 50-60FPS). Nonetheless the constant need of minimization prevents me from getting immersed to the game, and when you combine this with poor graphics, it is almost impossible to rate a game or write an in-depth review for it...

I've set the goal for $1500 because in Eastern Europe the hardware prices are significantly higher than in the USA. It is so because we have to pay a few hundred dollars (around 1/3 of this sum) to the post office, thanks to the enormous shipping prices. I'm asking for $1500 for a mid-high-end hardware parts: a processor, a motherboard, memory modules, a hard drive, a video card and a power supply. I do not expect the goal to get surpassed (and to be honest, I don't even expect to get many donations in the first place), however if it will get surpassed, I will use the extra money to buy a new monitor and/or a professional and unique website design.

Extra note: If you want to contact me for whatever reason (find out more about me, my site, my computer or just say hi), you can do that at this page.