Archive for category Computers
Projects this weekend
Posted by J.D. in Computers, Daily Updates, Household, Remodeling on February 22nd, 2010
This was a wonderful weekend at home. I worked on some fun projects and did some “business” work. Samantha played with some new toys (stroller, etc.) and cooked some delicious delights. Also, before the weekend got here, we had a lot of fun going out to eat with my mom and dad to celebrate my dad’s birthday! Even before that, we had a great Valentine’s day (which I still need to post an entry about…)
But now back to the weekend, here’s a sampling of the projects:
Favorite homebrew computers: 1997-2010
Posted by J.D. in Building, Computers, Daily Updates, Work on January 31st, 2010
Some people enjoy building hot rods, or building model airplanes. I enjoy building computers.
The first PC I built was in 1997, I was a sophomore in HS. I can still remember researching all the parts, using a computer in the HS science classroom (I didn’t have internet at home at that time). Tom’s Hardware and Anandtech were my primary sources of motherboard and CPU reviews. Those two sites helped me immensely in choosing the best components for my “first build”.
Since that time I’ve built around 35-40 computers. Some for friends, some for family, a lot for clients and a lot for myself (for business use and personal use). Some of the machines are rather forgettable, but there are others I’ll always remember 
.
So, here are some of my favorites spanning from 1997 to 2010:
3.1GHz Quad Core System on the Cheap: $200
Posted by J.D. in Building, Computers, Daily Updates on January 31st, 2010
The need for cheap speed!
Yesterday I read a nice little article over at Anandtech about unlocking the extra two cores in AMD Phenom II X2 555 CPUs. This lets you take a dual core CPU and turn it into a quad core CPU*.
*The extra two cores aren’t guaranteed to unlock and be 100% reliable, but it’s easy to stress test and see if your particular CPU can handle it. Reading other people’s experiences it looks like the success rate is 70%+ which is good enough for me to give it a shot. Worst case I’m left with a nice dual core system that could still be overclocked even if it couldn’t be unlocked.
I’ve been wanting to build a nice little system when I return from Hawaii, but I didn’t want to spend much money on it. This build looked perfect so I decided to bite the bullet!
CPU: X2 550 $90.99
I couldn’t find the X2 555 anywhere so I went with the AMD Phenom II X2 550 from NewEgg. That CPU is one step down from the 555, so a 3.1GHz CPU instead of 3.2GHz. The cooling fan was a bundle special on NewEgg, ending up only being $4.99
Memory: DDR2 $0 (already owned this)
I’m using spare DDR2 RAM that I already have at home. I should have at least 4GB and maybe even 8GB.
Motherboard: ASRock for $69.99
This was the toughest choice. I wanted cheap, reliable, and compact. I think I found all three . The ASRock A785GMH/128M. It supports a wide variety of AMD CPUs: AM3/AM2+/AM2 AMD 785G, has HDMI out (with audio passed through I believe), and is a nice small Micro ATX format.
It was a tough choice between integrated graphics or discrete (add on) graphics. I decided to get a board with integrated b/c it would cut costs and I can always disable it if I need more power. The built in HD 4200 graphics are actually decent enough for modern 3D games at lower resolutions: Sims 3, World of Warcraft (WoW) [29.4 FPS at 1280x1024 Source: AMD PDF], Left 4 Dead, etc. You can find some more gaming benchmarks here. I don’t do much hardcore gaming so this should do just fine for now .
Storage: SSD $0 (already owned this)
I’ll be putting a spare 80GB X-25M SSD in this machine, it should scream!
Case: ASUS TM-211 $25 (300 watt power supply included)
ASUS TM-211
I used some spare “eBay bucks” to get a case and power supply for $25. I would have liked to add a nice super-efficient power supply, but for now this one will do (and there’s a chance I already have a spare high efficiency PS at home). Plus I’ll be running it off of solar energy so there won’t be any adverse environmental effects if it sucks a little extra juice.
Total cost: $198.52
The total (including case) should be about $198.53. Of course I’m using RAM and a storage device that I already had. If you didn’t have those on hand then you could probably get RAM & HD for $50-$100 bucks. So you’re looking at $250-$300, still not bad for a pretty darn fast system!
Order Date: 2010.01.29
Order Summary
| Qty | Product Description | Price | |
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| Shipped from TN, USA | |||
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| Subtotal | $165.97 | ||
| Tax | $0.00 | ||
| UPS Ground | $7.56 | ||
| Order Total | $173.53 | ||
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