Random.org's random number generator has smiled upon Stephanie Estby of Oregon, AKA Props. Angel on Steam. She's been picked as the winner of this dazzling $3,700 Black Ops Hailstorm Edition PC from Digital Storm and a magical Steam code that unlocks every existing Valve game , plus every Valve game Valve will ever release . Congratulations Steph!
This great PC couldn't have gone to a more worthy gamer. “I've been a PC gamer since before PC games had graphics,” Steph says. “I've been gaming on PC since Zork, way back in the DOS computing days, and I remember how amazed I was when I could play Dig Dug on my Franklin Ace. Playing video games is my number-one hobby, and I'm fully planning on gaming until I die. I think it'll be awesome to someday be able to say 'you just got your butt kicked by a granny' followed by an aged cackle.”
She's not kidding: her Steam stats show 108 hours of in-game time in the past two weeks, with the main culprits being Just Cause 2 and Team Fortress 2. Her lifetime TF2 play time? A staggering 1,803.4 hours!
This liquid-cooled, six-core 3.2GHz Core i7-970 CPU, 12GB RAM, and GeForce GTX 590 (with 120GB Corsair Series 3 SSD and 2TB hard drive) will replace her aging 2.6GHz Phenom II X4, 4GB RAM, Radeon HD 4890 and 500GB hard drive. “I remember using PC Gamer to help spec it out, and it's been a great machine up until lately,” Steph recalls. “It's had to endure thousands of hours of gaming and, as a result, it's definitely approaching the end of its days. A number of my USB ports have been going out and I think my graphics card has been, too.”
Somehow she's also managed to work in some studying time, and is coming out of school and into a tough job market that would've made a new PC tough to come by. “I've been on Pell Grants and student loans for the last few years, so I have quite the tuition bill racked up,” she says. “I'll be still paying down my loans for a good while as opposed to computer shopping. Now I don't have to worry about my computer dying for a good while! :)”
