Building My PC 10 - Deneument

I built this PC nearly one month ago and am happy to report I am extremely happy with the outcome.

Given the original requirements of looks, volume, and speed we excel on all fronts. The Antec case fits beautifully under the desk and you'll only know if it's on if you're sitting right next to it. The only downside there is I have to enter the office to make sure its off, where as before the whir audible from the hallway could answer that question.

Speed-wise the computer feels completely fluid. iTunes, the worst performing application prior to the build, once again responds to our commands. Switching users between Jackie and I takes about 5 seconds which is about the time it takes for us to switch chairs anyway. 

I finally "stress tested" the computer by running Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. (Previously I could only play on the old PC for 5-45 minutes before the computer turned itself off) With the settings on "High" the game runs beautifully. Although my weary RTS patience is a story for another blog.

From here on out I'm going to be a build-my-own kind of geek. I like having the comfort knowing I got the best performance for the price. Plus, if something goes wrong I feel that my familiarity with the parts means I'm freed from any Geek Squads or cross-world Tech Support. 

Here are some final notes:

• The PC transfer functionality that Vista provides to transfer files from an old PC to a new one proved quite useless to me as it quickly hung up on some files (likely due to wonky permission settings I didn't have the patience to look into). I went with just pulling my files across the network or dumping them on the external hard drive (where they should have been in the first place if I wasn't such a lazy bum about backups)
  
• The "Back Up My PC" functionality with Vista proves equally disappointing. I can't seem to tell it exactly what to back up, I can only click vague boxes that say, "Music", "Video" and "Additional Files". The idiot-proof "Back up entire PC" would probably work fine, but I do not yet have a hard drive big enough to handle such a data feast.
• The only DOA part was the Microsoft 2000 Curve keyboard. Then again, for $15 I wasn't exactly going for high end equipment. I returned it to Newegg.com last Monday and by Thursday the new keyboard had arrived. I always felt wary of returning items from online retailers and this effort represented by first attempt. It was quick, painless and from a return-ship on Monday Newegg.com had this new keyboard under my fingers again by Thursday. 

And finally, special thanks to BenM for helping me get Vista up and running!

Sequel, Roll Out!

UPDATE: Looks like the early bird got the worm. I'll repost once I find a link that works.

Well, since this is already online there's really no point in watching the Superbowl anymore...



And yes, I will watch this once a day for the next five months.

Roll here for the rest of the trailers: Dark Horizon's Trailer Summary

I give #2 (the honor, not the excrement) to G.I. Joe, although doesn't that dodge-the-missile-while-flipping move feel suspiciously familiar from Transformers 1?

My Lost Theory

ABC might get mad at this spoiler, but I have to share with you what is most certainly the point of all this time travel. After several "skips" of the "record" we will find out before the close of the season how Daniel Faraday becomes the front man for Weezer!

Building My PC 9 - The Build!

Step 1: Prep

To finish preparing I continued to read the articles and watch the videos I mentioned in an earlier post. I coupled that with the instructions that came with the parts and I had a rough idea of what I would have to do. It's like having instructions that say "right, left, left, right" and "left, right, right, left". Either way you end up going forward again, but hopefully you choose the path with the least number of potholes.

I also enlisted the help of my younger sister-in-law with the build. She'll soon be an engineer of the mechanical persuasion (hey, nobody's perfect), but that's sufficiently geeky to assist. Plus having a set of small hands greatly help plug in the small wires my meaty paws could not.

Step 2: Motherboard and Processor

After unpacking the gear, Trisha and I started with the motherboard and processor. Thanks to a great tip for an experienced PC builder at work, I did this BEFORE putting the motherboard in the case. That's a good thing, too, because while the processor went in easy, the cooler proved more challenging.



Step 3: Inside the Case

The motherboard went into the case, and even with me using the wrong screws it secured nicely! We diligently followed the manuals to install the memory and the video card. For those of you keeping score, my choice of motherboard paid off since the cooler does not interfere with the memory slots.



Step 4: The Test Boot

Per Loyd Case's suggestions we decided to fire up the machine before adding any more parts. How'd it go? Well, press play below and find out!



Step 5: Finished Up

With the renewed gusto resultant of a successful test boot we finished all the pieces and started installing Vista. The rest of the weekend involved me transferring and backing up files from the old PC, watching more progress bars than I ever want to, and a couple other events I'll save for the wrap up.

Building My PC 8 - Delivery!

Within five business days all the PC parts arrived, although the case arrived first since it shipped from north Jersey. Newegg and Tigerdirect both win points for prompt delivery.

Maybe it's the cook in me, but I felt compelled to stack up the pieces, kind of like preparing the ingredients before lighting up the stove. I let these come to room temperature for about 5 days and we started building the following Saturday.

Through Intelligence, there is Stupidity

I respectfully withdraw my previous knocks on Denon. Denon makes great products. Their only problem is that they cannot help but sell those products to stupid people like me.

You see, Denon receivers have a large Standby Button. When I tried pressing the button to turn on the receiver, the receiver did not turn on. Therefore I assumed the receiver broke.

Using my EE skills, I opened up the receiver last night. I tested power to the unit, and then into the unit. I found a line flowing towards the front of the unit. I traced it and noticed it connected to a button. I looked at the front and realized that next to the large Standby button is an On/Off button. I pressed it and the receiver promptly sprung back to life.

Through my intelligence, I realized I am an idiot. At least until I saw this, and then I felt a little bit better about me.

Customer Reviews

Thought of the moment: If you read enough user reviews found on website shopping outlets (Newegg, Amazon) you will never buy any piece of electronic equipment ever again. Yikes!

Lost Hiatus Happenings

As any fine connoisseur of good TV knows, Lost returns on January 21st. This news means two awesome things. For one, Lost is back! The engrossing, thought-provoking, mind-bending, geek-elating, mystery-inducing show returns t entertain us for 16 weeks and answer at least some of the questions left over the hiatus. For two, the hiatus is over!

The magnificence of Lost when it is on the air only magnifies the withdrawal when it is not. This last stretch left us Lostless for 8 months! However, since the show's inception the producers take pity on us by providing inter-season distractions via Alternate Reality Games. This hiatus proved no exception.

The ARG started out with a commercial during last season's finale inviting you to join the NEW Dharma Initiative. Once joining, you received emails inviting you to play different online aptitude tests. The producers learned their lesson least season and concurrently leaked the answers and cheats on other websites. Anyone that used the answers and cheats to ring up inhuman success found out at the end of the series they failed miserably. Well played ARG creators!

Of course, the ultimate aptitude test and selection of the participants for the new Dharma Initiatve would occur at Comic-Con. Coincidentally, each preceding year the Lost Producers (Damon Lindeloff and Carlton Cuse) held a session where they answered questions and then revealed some little nugget to get Lost fans hooked for the coming season. For example, before Season 4 they showed a video of a Dharma tutorial for a station called "The Orchid" that contained bunnies that seemed to disobey traditional space-time expectations (which as you should remember is where we ended up at the end of Season 4).

This Comic-Con proved no exception as you can see in the video below. For those of you spoiler-avoiders out there that want to start the season "clean", I offer you my rationalization for why this video is not a spoiler. I define spoiler as something the producers would not want us to see prior to the airing of an episode. Since this comes straight from the producers, it is, in fact, not a spoiler.



There's a couple of interesting nuggets in the video

• Looks like the final answer on the good doctor's name is Pierre Chang.
• Whoever operates the camera sounds very familiar. Daniel Faraday? Horace Goodspeed? 
• Baby's cryin'! But whose baby? If Charlotte used to be on the island, is it her? If it's Pierre's child could it be Miles Strom? 
• He has a working arm which is not always the case of a Dharma training video. Notice how he talks about the purge and looks down worriedly at his arm. 
• "Time is not of the essence, it is the essence." Considering how the last season ended we're certainly in for some time traveling this season. 

Soon after Comic-Con the ARG pittered out. The website blamed the economy and stated the procuders of the ABC show Lost would take over the site. Since then those that signed up received weekly videos from the producers with nuggets to whet our appetites on the coming season. For example, we can look forward to more Smokey and for those of you with a thing for undead footwear we'll find out why Christian Shephard wore white tennis shoes when he appeared to Jack in Season 1. 

Oh, and it appears a new ARG started up on this website for Ajira Airways. Nothing much to find there except except for some polar bears and a promise for new flights on January 21st...a magical date indeed!

Building My PC 7 - Order Complete

With the machine ordered I moved into wait mode. At this point I've switched from researcher to stalker, as I visit UPS multiple times a day to track the pieces of my PC during their journey across the country. Thus far I experienced very little buyers remorse, or regret of what I purchased. Since I normally languish in the post-purchase quagmire I take this pacificity as a sign my due diligence paid off. 

I thoroughly enjoyed the work thus far as building my own PC proves a wonderfully stressful experience. You might take stressful as a bad word, but in this case it means I felt a tension. The tension resulted from wanting to define the optimal configuration for the given price target. From the moment I quasi-spontaneously decided to begin the project to when I place the order I had trouble breaking away from the computer. The old machine became the gateway to research and investigation. I worked to solve a puzzle, and it spun my brain to the point I had trouble lying in bed after I woke up in the morning. I enjoyed getting into something so passionately, but on the downside I spent the better part of the day withdrawn from society, the wife, and even my trip to the gym was half-hearted. 

Once I placed the order I feel the stress pass and the excitement of assembling my own PC started to build. With the parts en-route so ends part 1 of the Building My PC saga. I've recruited an aspiring engineer to help me with the assembly, so look forward to Part 2 coming soon!

Total S&H: $6.99+$15.87
Tax: $32.26

Total Hardware Cost: $647.02

Part	Product	Price
Case	Antec Sonata III 500	$99.99
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R	$119.99
Video Card	Sapphire Radeon HD 4670 512MB	$79.99
Memory	G.SKILL (2x1GB) F2-8500CL5D-2GBPK	$34.99
Hard Drive	Seagate Barracude 7200RPM 500GB ST3500320AS	$64.99
CPU Fan	Arctic Freezer 7 Pro	$26.99
Keyboard	Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000	$14.99
Processor	Intel e8400	$149.97

Other notes thus far

• Apparently most mail in rebates for motherboards, memory, video cards and other computer components are little more than smoke and mirrors. I read a couple horror stories about manufacturers that just won’t pay it unless you call and complain, some that took over 8 months to deliver, and others that lost the information the buyer sent it. I treated all prices as final and ignored mail-in rebates during the decision making process. 
  
• While reading the postings and articles I think I the overclocking bug bit me. Some user comments indicated they could get the 3GHz processor to nearly 4GHz! I’m still quite risk-averse when it comes to tampering with my computer, but it does sound like a fun endeavor.
  
• Notable “fat” trimmed to stay under $650: 2GB instead of 4GB of RAM saved about $35. 512MB instead of 1GB saved $10 on the video card. I had a sound card, but dropped it to save $25 (I’ve used the motherboard integrated sound all my life, so why stop now). Actually I could have “bumped up” every part in the PC for another $15-$30, but it starts to add up FAST. It's a budget death by a thousand cuts and I manage to avoid the temptation.
  
• Some parts from the old PC I won’t scrap. For example, the mouse and at least one of the DVD ROM drives will migrate over to the new PC. I originally thought about recycling the video card, but AGP Ain’t Gonna Process in the new motherboard. I threw in a new keyboard from MS since the current one is a PS/2 and USB makes the world a better place. Once again, the Newegg narrow-down yielded the MS Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000 at $15.
  

Building My PC 6 - The Central Processor Unit

While early in the build I knew I would have an LGA755 socket, the exact details of the processor eluded me. However, once the rest of the parts fell into place I knew I had to make the final call on CPU. I wanted to see what I could do for $150-$200. I narrowed it down to the e8400 and the q8200. You can see the details of my quandary here. Essentially I could trade 2 faster cores (3GHz) with a larger cache (6M) for 4 slower cores(2.33GHz) with a smaller cache (4M). Also the Core Duo rang up at $150 v the Quad Core at $190.

“Internet research” (aka relearning L33T speak to find out which processor is “ftw”) revealed that the best processor depended on the use. Quad core met the demands of applications like 3D Studio Max or other professional pieces of software designed for multiple cores. For gaming, watching video, and average home use the Core Duo served the best purpose. I found a great set of benchmarks on tomshardware.com (like a desert mirage it disappeared and I cannot find it again though) that compared the e8400 to the q8200 and aside from software that I don’t have the money to buy nor skill to use, the Intel Core Duo e8400 pretty much spanked the q8200 in all categories. Given the $40 lower price the e8400 became a no-brainer.

However, before calling the Quad v. Duo decision a day I also factored in future expandability as I hope to get 4-5 years out of this computer. I wondered if while the Duo performs better now, will the Quad serve us better in the long run as software learns to play better on multiple cores. So, I asked the Internet to look into its crystal ball and ask what will Windows 7 do with quad cores that might sway my decision. I found talk of tweaking what Vista does, but we’re still far from multi-core panacea. Duo will do.

For the processor purchase I went with Tigerdirect as opposed to Newegg through which I ordered all other parts. It saved about $10 bucks and kept me under $650.

Building My PC 5 - Hard Drive and Video Card

The hard drive decision did not offer a challenge. The price range and 7200RPM quickly narrowed it down to a few choices. Around the 60-70 mark I opted for a slightly larger cache. Initially I went with the Western Digital because that’s just how I roll. Later in the day Tomshardware pointed out the Seagate offered a better warranty, increased reliability, and then it showed up $5 cheaper on newegg. Game: blouses, I mean Seagate.

Aside from the processor, the video cards spent the most time jumping in and out of my shopping cart. Long story short, Tomshardware came to the rescue with their monthly roundup of video cards chipsets organized by price range. I went with the $50-$100 range to find the Radeon 4670 chipset recommended. I went with the slightly more expensive 4000 series than the 3000 series because I wanted a little bit more life out of my GPU.

An interesting Tomshardware video card article revealed that SAPPHIRE is ATI’s largest partner and manufactures many of their boards. I took that as enough reason to go with SAPPHIRE brand because frankly after experiencing the overwhelming volume of different video card manufacturers I would have taken my dog’s expert opinion on video card manufacturer. Tomshardware's recommendation came with less slobber. Customer reviews on newegg supported my decision although some warned about a loud fan during video gaming. As long as it is quiet during normal use (surfing/email/iTunes) I can just crank up the volume when playing a game.

Building My PC 4 - The RAM

Choosing memory proved challenging for me. Tomshardware has some recommendations, but only for slower models of RAM. I took the advice on brands, and coupled that with customer reviews on Newegg. Dual channel RAM means I need 2 RAM sticks. I originally saw 2 x 2GB for under 50 bucks.

Sweet, right? Well perusing the reviews uncovered that not all the RAM performed as advertised, and that some users had to slow the ram from 1066 to 800 in order to prevent the system from crashing or worse (who new BSOD still happened?). Given that 2GB should be more than enough for the near future I went with higher quality 2 x 1GB chips. In addition to the Newegg pruning, a user review tipped the boat towards G.SKILL when he stated it worked perfect with his motherboard: the same motherboard I chose.

Building My PC 3 - The Motherboard

Case: Check
Fan: Check

90% of the motherboard decision I attribute to Newegg. My decision is easily recreated given that I wanted to be around $100. To try it yourself select Motherboards->Intel ->LGA 775->Top Sellers->$100-$200. The GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R is at the top with a recent Winner of Customer Choice Award icon. I pinned that down early on, and as I gathered more information I barely wavered. That was a welcome happening considering how I thrashed about on the processor and video card decisions.

Tomshardware recommended the next Gigabyte model down for the $625 gaming rig they built. I took that as a nod towards the Gigabyte brand, but wondered if I should downgrade my choice. As it turns out along the way they encountered a problem where the processor cooler (that I also ordered) prevented them from dropping RAM into 2 slots. The model I chose looks like it has a slightly different layout that should avoid such motherboard calamity.

Building My PC 2 - Case and Cooler or "I listened to Loyd"

In the last post I described what I wanted in the new PC, where I wanted to buy it, and what sources I would use to inform my decision. I started by first choosing the case for an ATX frame, since ATX is really the only option one needs consider for a normal, a.k.a. mid-size, PC.

Loyd Case recommended The Antec Sonata III for low noise, a decent power supply, lots of room for expansion, and based on the pictures it looks attractive enough. I could have gone with a cheaper case, but they usually did not come with power supplies. The Antec Earthwatts 500W power supply packed with the Sonata should provide all the power I need based on customer review experiences. Plus, to buy an equally attractive case and a comparable power supply actually put me over the $100 mark.

The CPU cooler is probably the least-necessary purchase for the rig, but Loyd Case pointed out it’s quieter than the cooler that comes with the Intel chip. There’s something about having a kickass CPU cooler that makes the geek senses tingle. Plus if I do decide to start overclocking I won’t have to purchase any additional equipment.

Now the processor should come next in the decision making process. However, given my price range and bias for Intel I knew that whichever CPU I finally chose would need a LGA 775 socket type. That was the essential spec necessary to move onto the Motherboard choice.

*Update*

Later I discovered an added bonus to the Arctic Freezer 7: it comes with thermal grease already applied. Thermal grease is normally applied between the processer and cooler to promote heat transfer. Without the grease air can get caught between the two components. Air a) is a bad conductor and b) heats up. I thought I would have to go out, buy, and apply my own thermal grease, but listening to wiser geeks paid off!

Building My PC 1 - The Intro

I believe there exists a list of activities a geek must do during his lifetime. Near the top of that list you will find, “Build your own computer.” As that check box remains unchecked to date, I decided to remedy the deficiency during my winter break. Aside from geeky bravado, I also thought this effort would earn me a PC far superior in performance, price, and reliability to anything Dell could cobble together.

The project started as any good engineered project does, with requirements, research, Googling, trade-off comparisons, and more Googling.

Requirements

I actually had only a few requirements. I wanted to come in under $650 shipped. I wanted an 

Intel chipset (reviews and research later reaffirmed my hunch that Intel had the best processors for the buck right now). I wanted a quiet rig that wasn’t an eye-sore (i.e. any setup that glowed bright blue and competed with the vacuum for noisiest household appliance failed to meet requirements). Other than that I figured I’d start to see what’s out there and figure out that vaguest of terms called, “Best Value” along the way.

Sources

I wound up using very few, but what I deemed reliable and comprehensive, sources.

1. Loyd Case (www.extremetech.com) did a series of Build Your Own PC on dl.tv. I watched all his pre-build segments. He offered a lot of sage advice, and it felt like getting coached by one of the really cool senior engineers at work. Key take-aways include the decision for the Antec Sonata III case and the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro cooler.
2. Tomshardware.com had a lot of reviews on “Budget” videocards, memory, hard drives, and processors. This site helped me with the SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 4670 decision thanks to their monthly roundup of video cards organized by price range. They had a useful roundup of 2 x 2GB memory cards that helped me sort through brands even though I ultimately went with 2 x 1GB. They pointed out Seagate Barracude offered the optimal 500GB SATA drive (plus it rang up $5 cheaper than the Western Digital). Finally, I spent a LOT of time tossing back and forth between the Intel Quad Core Q8200 and the Core Duo E8400. More on that later, but tomshardware.com helped me clarify which one best suited my needs.
3. http://www.learnthat.com/computers/learn.asp?id=141&index=14 This site provided a decent, albeit slightly outdated, introduction to assembling your PC. This site helped me figure out steps of the decision making process (1. Processor 2. Motherboard 3. Everything else)
4. Newegg.com provided tens to hundreds of user reviews for just about every piece of equipment I did and did not purchase. 

Procurement

For pricing and ordering I stuck with newegg.com all the way, except for the processor which rang up cheaper on tigerdirect.com. Given the choice between the two sites I’d recommend Newegg  for their superior navigation. To see for yourself, open up both sites. On Tiger click on “CPU” on the left. On Newegg hover over “Computer Hardware” and float down and click on CPU. Note that Tiger just lists everything on one page. It’s comprehensive, but compare that flow to the user interface on Newegg. On Newegg you can start paring down the results quickly and find your optimal chip. Click “Intel” and then click “$100-$200” and you’re down to 8 processors. Click E8400 and Q8200 and you can preview my processor quandary. I used that tree-trimming process over and over again. If Newegg delivers their products quickly and in working condition I’ll be a customer for a long time.

Once I knew what I wanted, what sources would help me make the decision, and where to buy, I proceeded with picking the parts. I'll pick up there in the next post.