Category Archives: Computer - Page 3

Building a Computer 101: Useability

Posted by on March 24, 2008 5 comments

In a bit I will get to the meat of the post, but right now there are updates to the list. Upon further research I’ve learned that the motherboard I choose is not SLI capable. For SLI you need a nvidia northbridge chipset. This means you are looking at a 780i or 790i (recently released). As a different option there is the 9800 GX2 which is recently released and it is a factory made SLI card that works on non SLI motherboards. (I told you research is important.) With the production of the 790i motherboards we will finally have DDR3 and SLI boards. (Prior to now it was one or the other for the most part.) nVidia is starting to roll out their 9000 series cards so look for prices on the 8000 series to begin to drop.

…and now for your regularly scheduled programming:

We have a computer and it’s peripherals. You should have a lot of Driver CDs, perhaps some free games and plenty of ad pamphlets. Software choices are exactly that, a choice. This is where you can truly customize your computer and make it your own. I do not condone piracy. However, I do know that it happens and I will say that the one thing I extremely advise against pirating is your OS. A legal version will make your life easier and aid in keeping you virus free. (Unless you consider windows a virus to begin with.)

Operating System

First things first, choose your OS (operating system). Since my aim with the computer is to play games among other tasks, I will be going the Windows route. Vista will be our choice since it is the “future” and SP1 should be out sometime soon. I’m not an expert on the different flavors of vista, but I would recommend getting one of the top tier packages. It will allow more control over your computer as well as some nice features. (Pure speculation, but if it’s comparable to XP Home and Pro, yea… go bigger.) Pay attention to whether your processor is 64 bit or 32 bit. As you will need to get the appropriate OS type.

My Selection: Windows Vista Ultimate
Price: ~$550

  • I’m a sucker for fancy titles
  • I like as much control as possible

Office Suite/Tools

Right after getting taken to the cleaners purchasing windows, it’s time to find a suite of professional tools. The most basic choice is to pick up a version of Microsoft Office. If you can find one for cheap or you just can’t do without brand name toys, then go ahead and spend more money. I however will go the opensource route.

My Choice: Open Office
Price: Free, but donate for Karma!

  • Free
  • Open Source
  • Saves in condensed xml format (about 30% the size of a MS filetype)
  • Can save to many different file types, so you can still interact with your MS buddies
  • No Bloat

Internet Browser

Without a browser how else would you waste your time? IE will likely be on your system because of the OS install. I suggest getting a better browser that is less susceptible to hacks.

My Choice: Firefox: Everyone should be using Firefox!
Price: More opensource Freeness!

  • So many useful plugins
  • Opensource
  • Free
  • Safer for less experienced users to surf the web (No one can truly protect you from yourself.)
  • Handles CSS properly

E-Mail Client

If you purchased MS Office, then you will have Outlook and it’s a nice program to use for email. However, it is often targeted by hackers because of it’s wide spread use. This is why I suggest using the Mozilla (firefox) email client: Thunderbird.

My Selection: Thunderbird
Price: Free, More opensource

  • Nearly all the same features as Outlook
  • Free
  • Not targeted by hackers
  • Low footprint
  • Doesn’t hog resources

Other

The rest of the programs that you install are all preference. I will list a few here that I have on my computer and a brief description of what they do. If you are interested you can Google them to figure out more or ask me and I’ll do my best to help.

  • Hijackthis: great for figuring out what is running on your computer
  • Superantispyware: Great for removing spyware and other malicious code
  • WinPatrol: Amazing tool for seeing what your computer is doing and what is doing it
  • Hamachi: If you’ve ever had trouble playing WAN/LAN games with your friends, this is a nice program that will set up a virtual LAN for you.
  • Alcohol 120%: Wonderful burning program and tool for utilizing virtual drives (Reads .mds and .mdf)
  • Nero: Great for burning
  • Notepad++: If you code and want an opensource editor that is like Notepad but much better, this is for you.
  • Adobe CS MasterSuite: Graphically inclined, apply within!
  • Audacity: Free editor for MP3s (actually audio editor, not just ID3 tags)

In addition to these great programs, it’s a good idea to upgrade and update all software and BIOS. Also you will likely need to download some video and audio codecs as Windows doesn’t always supply the necessary codecs. A quick google search can net you some positive results. Good luck and good building.

Total Cost: ~$4400

Building a Computer 101: The Supporting Cast

Posted by on March 12, 2008 3 comments

We have a computer! (in theory…sigh.) We can’t see what we are doing, we have no input, we have no Operating System (OS) and if we could get to a desktop and listen to something the sound would be “bleh”.

Cue the supporting cast. This rag tag band of misfits is employed to make your computing experience as resplendent as possible. We will be seeking out the services of a mouse, keyboard, sound card, monitor, 7.1 speakers and head phones.

Mouse:

This better be comfortable. You have a few key decisions to make when choosing a mouse-like input device: wireless vs. wired, trackball vs. laser vs. stationary track ball vs. other, number of buttons, on board memory storage, input type (PS/2 vs. USB), size and weight. To properly make the decision you should know what dominates your computer use. I will be using my mouse for graphics work and gaming. I will want something that is wired, because wireless gains me no advantage and batteries are bad for the environment.

My Selection: Logitech G9 Black 5 Buttons Tilt Wheel USB Wired Laser Gaming Mouse
Price: $75

  • Wired
  • Laser (My Razer trackball is annoying when it picks up dust and etc.)
  • High DPI, meaning high sensitivity
  • On-the-fly adjustable sensitivity
  • Various weights and other cool crap

Keyboard:

The keyboard is your second major input device. You will likely spend an insurmountable amount of time on this thing. Pick something with durability and comfort. (Or keep buying the same old crappy keyboard every time it breaks.) Once again there are a number of features to balance and choose from but the main choice is between wired or wireless. I will be going wired again because I don’t like batteries in something I use a lot.

My Selection: Logitech G11 Silver & Black USB Standard Gaming Keyboard
Price: $60

  • Wired
  • Light up keys at variable illuminations
  • Hot Keys
  • Programmable

Sound Card:

A good sound card is vital in having decent audio quality. On board audio, while sufficient for office type use, will seem lacking when you demand higher quality during gaming or video playback. The quality during manufacturing of the codec as well as the codec itself is extremely important in determining whether or not you rip your ears off. There are a decent number of options when it comes to sound cards. I prefer to take the easy route and go with the tried and tested. I will be picking up a soundblaster x-fi based card. However, if you want to shop around…make sure to look for high sample rates, well reviewed chipsets/codecs and that the card supports the output you want. (2.1, 4.1, 5.1, 7.1, etc.)

<note>My Selection comes with head phones. This is useful if you don’t want to annoy family members. My headset also has a mic, this would be useful for all you WoW types.</note>

My Selection: Creative 53SB000003000 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI Interface Elite Pro Sound Card and HS-900 Headphone Bundle
Price: $150

  • Uses the Soundblaster X-Fi chipset
  • Better ranges than the high end gaming card
  • Supports all of the fancy EAX and 3D sound options for gaming
  • Comes with well reviewed headset
  • Don’t have to buy a separate headset

Monitor:

Choose LCD (new hotness) or CRT (old heaviness). (There are other options like projectors and such.) Choose the size of the screen, while keeping in mind where you will be putting your rig. Make sure it has inputs that coexist with your video card. Look for contrast ratios, resolutions, brightness, refresh rates and power usage. I will be going with a 24″ LCD that can take input from the GeForce.

My Selection: Westinghouse L2410NM Black 24″ 8ms HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor 500 cd/m2 1000:1 Built in Speakers
Price: $410

  • Justin actually has this monitor and he likes it. (I found this monitor before asking what he had.)
  • 24″ and widescreen
  • 1920×1200 resolution (To gain full advantage from the vid card I would need a 30″ widescreen.)
  • Well priced for how well it is reviewed (which is high) and what you get (plenty of features).

Speakers:

A better person to talk to about audio would be John. He knows a heck of a lot more than I do. I will say that you want something with decent wattage per speaker, a good frequency range and a high signal to noise ratio. There is so much preference based decisions in this department. We have the capability to go 7.1, but do we have the space? Some of the 2.1 systems are better designed for use with a computer and have more wattage. (More wattage generally means more sound.) This one is really hard for me to decide on because I feel my current 5.1 from soundblaster is pretty crappy. (I’ve read that the fault could lie with my Audigy 2 card.) I also have a hard time setting up 5.1 because I won’t spend money on unsightly stands. So I’ve picked more of a placeholder set of speakers and hope to converse with more knowledgeable individuals to ascertain a better solution.

My Current Selection: Creative Inspire P7800 90 Watts 7.1 Speaker
Price: $80

  • I know they will work with the Soundcard
  • 7.1 audio for a cheap price
  • Only 90 watts 🙁
  • Where am I going to put all these speakers? I’ll need to build some kind of audio add on to my desk.

Headphones:

All that is true for speakers is the same for headphones. Look for wattage and frequency range. The quality of the components and the type of ear piece is important as well. If you want VOIP make sure to get a headset with a mic or you will be needing to purchase a separate mic. Remember that the human ear is only so capable and unless you are an extreme audiophile, any headset in the $40-$120 should do you just fine.

My Selection: Included with the Soundcard.
Price: See Soundcard.

That is it. Our computer is complete, the final tally from Newegg.com for all of the components is…

$3,716.86

 

 

That is before any shipping and mail in rebates, of which there were many. This is a top of the line brand new, completely functioning (some assembly required) computer with Grade “A” components. The only thing missing is another video card running in SLI which would add about $400 to the price and last you about 7 years. (We also need to go software shopping, next post! ^-^)

Ironically, only days after the first list there has already been announcements of a newer graphics card coming out in the GeForce line. This is why it pays to be informed and have a list. As parts get updated you can decide if they deserve to replace the incumbent part. If not then you can feel good knowing that the price on your current part will drop. When it eventually come time to buy this computer I feel that I will be spending about $3,000 all said and done.

I’d like to hear your thoughts or suggestions on the subject matter. If you have any questions about specific parts or where to get more information, I will do my best to be of service.

Building a Computer 101: The List

Posted by on March 8, 2008 1 comment

So by now you should have a little research done and a decent idea of what you want to build. It’s now time to take that information and go shopping. I personally use Newegg 100% of the time. They have speedy delivery, convenient RMA and an easy to use browser/cart system. Without further ado, let’s get to the parts.

Case:

The case is a very important part of building a computer. While often one of the cheapest components, without it you would essential have a loose collection of electronics sitting on the floor. It is important to get a case big enough to hold everything you want. It is also important to get a case with good air flow. Other factors to consider when selecting a case are: included cooling methods (water, small fans, big fans, etc.), Color, Case Mod Windows (etc.), material, tool less designs and drive bays. There might be a few more but the key factors to remember are: you need space for everything, electronics like to have airflow (be cool) and any lights (case mods) or noise (fans) will make it harder to sleep if it is in a bedroom room.

My Selection: Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case

  • Very Big Tower
  • Well Reviewed
  • Lots of drive slots for hard drives and etc.
  • Good airflow
  • Decent price and construction
  • Lots of external slots, meaning eventually I can have video cards running in SLI or X-Fire

Power Supply:

If you buy an unfit power supply, you will kill your computer. We need a power supply that can provide enough power to all of the components. We also need a power supply that will not degrade at an accelerated rate over its lifetime. A number of issues people have with their computers can be traced back to a failing power supply. Think of it like an internal brown out.

My Selection: Thermaltake W0116RU Complies with ATX 12V 2.2 & EPS 12V version 750W Power Supply 100 – 240 V CE, CB, TUV, FCC, UL, CUL, and BSMI certified

  • 750W of power
  • Great reviews
  • Decent price
  • Supports video card upgrades
  • Quality power output

Mother Board:

There is a reason they call it the motherboard. With out this the child elements would be lost and have no way to talk to each other. A quality motherboard can go a long way to assist in over clocking endeavor, stability and general computer health. Remember that the motherboard is the biggest limiting factor in which processor, memory, hard disks and accessory cards you can use. It’s VITAL to ensure you get a motherboard that has a form factor that matches or is smaller than your case. It is also VITAL that you get a motherboard with the correct slot type for your CPU. That doesn’t just meant Intel vs. AMD vs. Other, but also so that it supports the correct chipset. (This isn’t that hard to figure out, it’s in the description of the product, but it is important to double check.) It is also VITAL to ensure that your Mother Board supports the slot type needed by your hard drives (SCSI, IDE, SATA) and accessory cards (PCI-E, PCI, AGP, etc.) If you haven’t caught on, the Mother Board is important. Have no fear if you buy a modern motherboard and modern other parts, they generally will work in tandem.

My Selection: ASUS P5E3 Deluxe/WiFi-AP LGA 775 Intel X38 ATX Intel Motherboard

  • ASUS is a well respected MoBo manufacturer
  • Has all the slots I could need
  • DDR3 support
  • 45nm CPU support
  • Quad-Core and below support
  • Fast Front Side Bus

CPU :

Behold, the heart of the beast. This is where your machine starts to come alive. The processor is the biggest factor in determining the speed, reliability and overall “1337“ness of your system. This is one aspect you will want to do research on. There are many different release versions of similar processors by the big names to fit every market. Go wild, but remember that your CPU has to fit in your motherboard and have enough power and cooling to stay alive.

My Selection: Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9650 Yorkfield 3.0GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 130W Quad-Core Processor

  • It’s Fast
  • IT’S REALLY FAST!
  • 45 nm processor: less power and more transistors
  • Did I mention it was fast?

RAM or Memory (Random Access Memory):

Ok, so your computer is fast. It will still be like a retarded monkey on crack if it can’t store any of the knowledge it has worked so hard to process. This is where RAM comes into play. When buying RAM it is important to look at clock speeds, CAS and the type of memory. It can be pretty confusing. A simple guide is get DDR3 memory (it’s the newest) and a CAS 9 or lower and a clock speed 1333 or higher.

My Selection: CORSAIR XMS3 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

  • Corsair RAM has worked for me in the past and is well respected
  • 4 GBs of RAM in 2GB sticks (Allowing me to get 4x2GB sometime and utilize MoBO)
  • DDR3 RAM

Hard Drives:

I’m sure most of you are familiar with hard drives. When selecting your own ahrd drives for your custom built system it is important to review a few factors. The RPM of the hard drive, the type of hard drive and the connection it uses to attach to the motherboard. Look for reviews about noise or hard drives tearing themselves apart. The last key element is the size. In today’s world you will likely want 200gb as a minimum. I have 240gb on my current system that is 5 years old and I am starting to wish I had more.

My Selection: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive x4

  • 1280gbs of total storage, giving me lots of raid options.
  • Well reviewed to be quiet
  • SATA connection is fast
  • 7200 is decent speed

DVD/CD ROM Drive:

It’s a DVD/CD burner/reader. Pretty plain and simple. Look for speed (20X) and look for read time, lower is better. Also make note of the connection type. If it uses a connection type that you’ve already exhausted on your MoBo, you will be unhappy.

My Selection: SAMSUNG 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe Black SATA Model SH-S203N – OEM

  • It’s + and – and many many other formats
  • It’s fast and mostly quiet
  • Well reviewed

Video Card:

Do your research! This industry is constantly changing. It just so happens that right now Nvidia is dominating. On board graphics processing is fine for those office types, but we will be buying big and bad.  Purchase with future upgrades in mind. Like my selection is capable of running in SLI. That means if in the future I want to beef up my capabilities, I just throw another card on and instantly get performance increase. (This was not possible until manufacturers and programmers began building for this concept.)

My Selection: EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

  • I want it now.  It’s fast.  It’s glorious.  It dominates the market.
  • DDR3 RAM
  • 768mb of Video RAM
  • SLI capable
  • 2560×1600 max resolution
  • Needs 450W of power  (That’s why we got a big one.)
  • HDTV/S-Vid Out
  • Direct X 10 compatibility
  • PCI-E x16 Interface

There you have it.  That is the computer.  I have left out a soundcard a TV tuner because they are not vital to the computer at this time.  In the next post I will address accessories as well as the soundcard and tunner options.  For now just bask in the glory of the computer that this list represents.

The average retail price: $2874 USD.

Building a Computer 101: Research

Posted by on March 4, 2008 No comments

The Job posts are taking a hiatus.

I’ve been looking at building a computer more and more lately. When the Orange Box was released I was partially enticed as I wanted to play Team Fortress 2 on the PC. (I’m not a big fan of console FPS, but I manage.) Next came the official announcement of the Spore release date. I’ve also been running into issues based on how I first partitioned my drives. I originally only alloted 20gigs to the C drive. I mean come on…if I only install vital components there I should have 10 gigs of buffer space. (I’ve even allocated My Docs to a different drive.) Low and behold, 5 years later and the stupid drive has somehow managed to work its way down to 2gigs to 200mb of free space at any given time. Baring a complete wipe and reinstall, this issue is mighty difficult to fix. (If you know a way around this, I’m all ears.) The last and most recent issue is the fact that my video card is starting to go on the “fritz”. (It’s a technical term.) Since I only have AGP slots to replace the graphics card, my choices are limited. (AGP is now old tech.) All of these combined events lead me to start looking at building a new computer.

Since I’m planing to go through the process, I’d figure that I would share this journey with you. Keep in mind that each edition of this series will occur when it occurs and to be candid, the information that I present during the first couple of posts will likely become outdated by the actual build time and require me to repeat a few steps.

With that said let’s begin:

The first thing you will want to do is figure out your needs.

If you just need a computer for web browsing and word processing, then I suggest you go the laptop route. In that case our journey together ends here. I suggest you give Dell a look or any other well reviewed laptop. As I’ve never purchased a laptop and my “best” laptop is a 386+ (That’s old school folks), I’m not one to ask about laptops.

If however, your needs happen to require a desktop, a high performance desktop ;-), then you and I have something in common. You could be doing video work, photo work, playing games, developing games or anything else that requires a power hogging, heat generating beast of a machine.

If you want to do some research on your own I suggest reading HardOCP. They are an amazing and (presumably) unbiased website that reviews and details all kinds of hardware components. Within the reviews you can find benchmarks, comparisons and a bunch of well presented useful information.

Here are the basic parts you will need to research for your computer:

  • Case (Bigger allows for flexibility)
  • Power Supply
  • Mother Board
  • CPU
  • RAM
  • Hard Drive
  • DVD/CD ROM Drive

And here are the parts that we will want for our computer:

  • Video Card
  • Sound Card? (Some MoBos come with pretty good integrated sound.)
  • Multiple Hard Drives
  • TV Tuner

The list of things that have become antiquated and you probably won’t need:

  • “A” Drive (Floppy Drive)

I think I’ve listed everything that you need to build a fully functional computer. Some optional items you might be interested in are case mods, physics cards, additional cooling or even a different form of cooling (water/refrigeration). Being that my experience is limited to affixing custom fans and heatsinks using thermal paste, I won’t be covering exotic forms of cooling. (Exotic cooling is generally only necessary if you overclock or live on the surface of Mercury.)

You may be wondering why I didn’t list a monitor. Well unlike some giant chains would have you believe, you don’t need one monitor per computer. (You can use one monitor for multiple computers if you have a switch.) The computer is a separate entity from the monitor and will be selected after building the computer. This is an especially good idea because some video cards only have certain types of output or can handle only certain levels of resolution. Your monitor and your video card need to coexist in blissful harmony. Trust me, choose a monitor after you have ordered the parts for your computer.

In the next post I will detail the exact parts that I have selected if I were to build a computer tomorrow. It’s important to know this even if you plan to build many months out. It gets you in the practice of researching and might clue you in to any possible future breakthroughs that you should wait for. More on that tomorrow!