The $10,000 PC Goes To...

Brendan Duda is the lucky winner of our 10th Anniversary $10,000 PC. Congratulations !

The lucky winner of the $10,000 Tom’s Hardware Guide Tenth Anniversary computer is Brendan Duda, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering at Santa Clara University. Hailing from Carmel, California, Brendan has been tinkering with computers for several years and is considered to be the resident geek at his fraternity house.

"When there is computer trouble, people try to grab me and I’ve fixed a computer or two," said Brendan.

Three and a half years ago, Brendan built his own system and through constant upgrades turned it into a respectable machine. It currently sports an Athlon XP 3200+ processor, 1 GB of RAM and a GeForce 6800GT video card. He recently added a 400 GB SATA drive, which may have pushed his power requirements over what his 320 W power supply could handle.

"I was thinking about upgrading the power supply because my system was crashing a lot after I added the drive, but now I don’t have to," said Brendan.

Brendan plans on installing all of his favorite games like Counterstrike, Battlefield 2 and FEAR onto his new computer. "I’m going to lock my door for a few days of gaming," says Brendan. He even wants to shock some of his fraternity brothers by skipping out on bar hopping.

After graduation, Brendan wants to pursue a career in aerospace, but he might as well go for an MBA. In true entrepreneurial spirit, he is thinking about renting out time on the new computer and said, "Maybe I’ll charge a few dollars for people to play... it works because they could help me guard the computer."

We’re sure that Brendan’s old Athlon XP will be out of service soon.

Related Links :
It’s Time To Welcome Tom’s $10,000 PC !
slide show on the $10,000 PC

Winners of the Weekly Competitions

Tom’s 10th Anniversary celebration ran for 26 weeks, with 81 weekly prizes. This is a list of all confirmed winners :

Competition Week : April 3, 2006

Prize : VIA Notebook
Bobby Strong, Stockbridge, GA

Competition Week : April 10, 2006

Prize : VIA Notebook
James Stewart, Middletown, PA

Competition Week : April 24, 2006

Prize : Crucial Memory Combo
Mark Sworab, Houston, TX

Competition Week : May 1, 2006

Prize : VIA Notebook
Lance Spotted Elk, Great Falls, MT

Competition Week : May 8, 2006

Prize : Crucial Memory Combo
Mario Goncalves, Carteret, NJ

Competition Week : May 15, 2006

Prize : Thecus N1050
Jake Noyd, St. Joseph, MO
Keith Stebler, Pittsburgh, PA

Prize : Silverstone TJ07 Case
Sek Won Kong, Arlington, MA

Competition Week : May 22, 2006

Prize : VIA Notebook
Mike Messina, Honolulu, HI

Prize : Crucial Memory Combo
Barbara Fowler, Cape Coral, FL

Competition Week : May 29, 2006

Prize : Flexiglow Game Pad
Jacob Frietsch, Whitehall, MI

Competition Week : June 5, 2006

Prize : VIA Notebook
Rory Siwik, Salt Lake City, UT
Jim Gerchman, Ft. Collins, CO
Mark Thompson, St. Mary, GA

Prize : Flexiglow Cyber Snipa Mouse Pad
Mona Winberly, Santa Fe, NM

Competition Week : June 12, 2006

Prize : Flexiglow X Raider Mouse Pad
Suzanne Butler, Mesa, AZ

Prize : Thecus N1050
Alan Chew, Fountain Valley, CA

Competition Week : June 19, 2006

Prize : VIA Notebook
Neal Webb, Evansville, IN

Prize : Flexiglow FX Game Pad
Mark Kauppila, Costesville, PA

Competition Week : June 26, 2006

Prize : Patriot PDC21G8000+BLK
Ben Kaeb, Ames, IA
Daniel Hartley, Raleigh, NC

Prize : Flexiglow X Raider Mouse
Kyle Fox, Laramie, WY

Prize : Silverstone LC18 Touchscreen Case
Joel Snyder, Wallingford, CT

Competition Week : July 3, 2006

Prize : Thermaltake Armor Jr. Case
John Jarvis, Naples, FL
Dan LaLone, Glen Allen, VA

Prize : Biostar Graphics Card
Dwight Goodman, Des Moines, IA

Competition Week : July 10, 2006

Prize : VIA Notebook
Michael Shamgochian, Petersham, MA

Prize : Eureka Case
Richard Aronson, Pleasanton, CA
Axel Anderson, Scholfield, WI

Competition Week : July 17, 2006

Prize : Thermaltake Aguila Case
David Mee, Parker, CO
Matthew Kelm, Stillwater, MN

Prize : Patriot PDC1G3200 and PEF1G133SD
Chris Dillard, Springfield, MO

Prize : Biostar Graphics Card
Abdiel Gonzalez, Austin, TX

Competition Week : July 24, 2006

Prize : Thermaltake Matrix VX
Nancy Miller, Grand Junction, CO
Michael Johanek, Gambrills, MD

Prize : Thecus N1050
Terry Traylor, Glenside, PA
Rich Beischer, Sommerville, NJ

Competition Week : July 31, 2006

Prize : ECS KN3 SL12 Extreme
Michael Britain, Everton, MO
Hoyt Doyle, Connestoga, PA
Austin Wyrick, Knoxville, TN

Competition Week : August 7, 2006

Prize : Warner Brothers DVDs
William Curtis, Seattle, WA

Prize : Gigabyte Intel Motherboard
Casey Law, Seattle, WA

Prize : Zalman HD160 Case
Joe McGee, Carol Stream, IL

Competition Week : August 14, 2006

Prize : Zalman HD135 Case
James Hamada, Old Bridge, NJ

Prize : Gigabyte VGA Card
Casandra Mercado, Fairbanks, AK

Competition Week : August 21, 2006

Prize : ECS KA3 MVP Extreme
Gillian Popenuck, Auburn, AL
Glenn Roberts, Grapefine, TX

Prize : Patriot Combo Prize
Edgar Torres, Gloucester Point, VA

Prize : Zalman FC-ZE1
Tom Dickerson, Olathe, KS

Competition Week : August 28, 2006

Prize : VIA Notebook
Aaron Pulicano, Wappingers Falls, NY

Prize : Gigabyte Motherboard
David Bertolo, Scottsdale, AZ
Jason Shank, York, PA

Competition Week : September 4, 2006

Prize : ECS KN5 SL12
Miguel Cosme, Downey, CA

Prize : Patriot Combo Prize
Dalena McGee, Austin, TX

Competition Week : September 11, 2006

Prize : San Digital External RAID Subsystem
Brian Kaczmarek, Jefferson, MA

Prize : Gigabyte Intel Server
Don Wyatt, Bryant, AR
Jeffery Gordon, Houston, TX

Competition Week : September 18, 2006

Prize : Thecus N1050
Mark Cowley, Phoenix, AZ

Prize : ECS KA3 MVP Extreme
Dale McCan, Corrales, NM
Marc Virgilio, Erial, NJ
Dustin Carr, Aurora, IL

Prize : Patriot Memory PDC21G8000+XBLK
John Darrow, Denver, CO

Competition Week : September 25, 2006

Prize : VIA Notebook
Nathan Catlin, Gonzales, LA

Prize : Gigabyte Motherboard
Craig Durland, Crovallis, OR
Robert Olejarski, Waco, TX