Riding the Mobius

Ahhhhhhhhh… My protracted post-graduate job search is finally over! After fifteen months of searching in the worst economy in generations, I finally landed a decent job. I don’t mind telling you that it was quite discouraging to be looking for so long, especially considering how hard I worked to make the most of my education. If you’ll indulge a little horn-tooting for a moment, I graduated cum laude from Penn State’s prestigious Schreyer Honors College, finishing with a 3.81 GPA (which would have been better had I known about the possibility of wiping my academic slate clean when I resumed my education, but that’s neither here nor there).

To finally reward myself for my diligence, I decided (with the grudging acquiescence of my lovely fiancée) to build my dream Windows-based PC. My old desktop, which is still going strong, was purchased about five years ago and was starting to show its age… It’s a VPR Matrix FT9150-PE, which I believe was an inexplicably short-lived Best Buy house brand. It’s been running Windows XP flawlessly the entire time, and has been a pleasure to use for years. I feel a little guilty putting it out to pasture, but I needs me some more power these days. I did actually make a few upgrades to this machine over the years, bumping the RAM to 2GB, adding a 512MB GeForce video card, and replacing the power supply (which is the only hardware failure I experienced since I bought it); doing this stuff gave me the urge to design and build my own system from the ground up, which is what I’ve just done. What follows is my best effort to chronicle the construction of my new baby.

I bought everything from the fine people at NewEgg.com, and I couldn’t be happier with the service that I got. Here’s the parts list:

Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case – Retail

Thermaltake TR2 W0176RU 1000W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply – Retail

ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard – Retail

Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601950 – Retail

COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler – Retail

CORSAIR XMS3 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model HX3X12G1333C9 – Retail

Microsoft Windows Vista Business SP1 64-bit for System Builders w/ Tech Guarantee – OEM

Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive – OEM

(2) Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive – OEM

BFG Tech BFGEGTX2852048OCE GeForce GTX 285 2GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card – Retail

LG Black 6X Blu-ray Disc Burner & HD DVD-ROM Drive SATA Model GGW-H20L – OEM

Pioneer Black Blu-Ray Reader and 12X DVD±R DVD Burner SATA Model BDC-2202B – Retail

Logitech G19 Black USB Wired Standard Gaming Keyboard – Retail

As you can see, I bought a lot of stuff. As it turned out, the components came in two batches from two separate warehouses, so of course, I got everything EXCEPT the power supply within three days, so the bulk of it was just sitting there, mocking me with its inability to turn on, for another two or three days. Here are a few shots of all the stuff, minus the tardy power supply:

To save a little money, I generally went with OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) gear where possible. This was a little risky, given that this whole project was a huge experiment for me, and OEM gear usually doesn’t come with documentation, software, or accessories. As it turned out, I didn’t really have any problems, and the few that I did experience were pretty quickly rectified.

So, to begin, I went with the Antec Twelve Hundred Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case because it has a ton of expansion bays, plenty of room for larger gear (more on that later), a great cable management system built into it, and enough cooling fans to keep my entire computer from cooking itself from within. As a bonus, it has blue LEDs throughout and a clear side panel, which just makes it look cool. Here it is before I put anything inside:

I also wanted something that had easily-accessible front-side USB 2.0 ports, since my last desktop has about the worst-positioned ports I’ve ever seen; on the old one (which was designed by Porsche, incidentally) they’re at the bottom of the tower, just around the corner of the front left side, which means you have to crawl on the floor to use them if you have the tower on the ground, as I did. This new case has two USB 2.0 ports at the perfect place, right on the very top of the front panel. It also has convenient headphone and microphone ports front and center, so the design is just what I was looking for.

First, I installed the two Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EADS 1TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drives, which I plan to use primarily for media storage. As a pro DJ and all-around music-lover, I have a TON of music, and I like to back it up at a high quality.

I also installed the Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drive to use for the OS and some of the programs that I use the most. It has a higher RPM than the other drives, so it runs a bit faster.

For the optical drives, I wanted to future-proof, so I got the LG Black 6X Blu-ray Disc Burner & HD DVD-ROM Drive SATA Model GGW-H20L and the Pioneer Black Blu-Ray Reader and 12X DVD±R DVD Burner SATA Model BDC-2202B. Overkill? Yes, probably, but like I said, future-proof. I don’t really think any software is shipping on Blu-ray at the moment, but I expect to see it start happening in the next year or two.

Once I got all the drives seated in their cages, I moved on to the motherboard and CPU, which was really the step that gave me the most anxiety about the whole process… As I mentioned before, I’ve done some PC upgrading here and there, but never did any mucking about with CPUs or motherboards (aside from adding or removing memory and the like), and the CPU was by far the single most expensive component of this whole rig, and I was paranoid that I was going to destroy it with my ignorance. As it turned out, I guess I was lucky and/or skilled enough to get it installed without any trouble, because I’m using it to write this… Here’s the board, the ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard – Retail, and you can kinda see the CPU, the Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601950 – Retail, on the side, but I was too worried to go snapping pics of it while it was exposed. I briefly considered going with the “Extreme” version of this chip, but it was just a sliver below double the price of the one I got, and I didn’t feel the performance boost was enough to justify that kind of price.

The board has some nice features on it, like six memory slots, which I filled with CORSAIR XMS3 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Desktop Memory Model HX3X12G1333C9 – Retail. Again, overkill, perhaps, but I like to be able to have a bunch of crap open at once, and I also don’t like to wait when I can avoid it, so I went a little nuts on the memory. Once the 4GB sticks come out and down to a reasonable price, I may just bump it up to 24GB, simply because I can. The board has power and reset buttons right on it, and some pretty bitchin’ copper heat sinks. It also has space for three SLI-enabled graphics cards, but I can tell you right now that there’s NO WAY I’d get three of the cards that I went with in this thing… The card, the BFG Tech BFGEGTX2852048OCE GeForce GTX 285 2GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card – Retail, is pretty huge, as you can see here:

Speaking of huge, I got a pretty serious CPU cooler, mainly because I just thought it looked really cool. Behold the muscle-car styling of the mighty COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler – Retail, which totally looks like a big-block engine, complete with chrome piping; V8 is an appropriate name. As in some of these other pics, the soda can is there for scale. The thing is freaking HUGE, so much so, in fact, that I wasn’t able to install the optional side-panel fan in my tower because I had less than an inch of clearance between the cooler and the panel, so there was zero chance of a fan fitting in there. Still, the thing looks badass, and the case does a fine job of cooling without adding any fans, so I’m not too broken up about it.

By that point, I pretty much had everything ready to go, but I had to wait another day or two for the power supply to arrive. It gave me time to worry even more that I’d done something wrong and was about to fry several thousand dollars worth of gear. Ah, self-doubt… You failed, because I forged ahead anyway the moment it arrived.

While the CPU installation was the part about which I was most worried, it was connecting all the cables (power and SATA) that was the most annoying. I have big hands, and trying to get them in the case, around corners and through slots, without breaking anything was a bit of a chore. I really tried to keep the cabling as neat as I could, and thanks to the cable management built into the tower, I was able to do a fair job of it. Here’s what it looked like before I started routing power from the Thermaltake TR2 W0176RU 1000W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply – Retail:

This, unfortunately, is the part on which I feel I dropped the ball a bit. Had I done a little more research here, I almost certainly would have gone with a modular power supply to cut down on the unused wiring that is now taking up space at the base of my tower. It’s not a big deal, but I really wanted to make this as clean a build as I could, and a big clump of unused wires is kinda messing with the aesthetic here. Oh well, something to remember when I do this again in a few years…

So, at this point, I was all installed and wired, and it was time for the moment of truth: I connected everything and hit power… Stuff lit up, fans whirred, and… No video was going to my monitor. By all appearances, things looked fine; nothing was on fire, LEDs were glowing, the motherboard looked active, but I wasn’t getting any picture. I was pretty bummed, but was mentally prepared for some hiccups during this project, since it was my first. I did my best to troubleshoot it myself for an entire day, but since I didn’t really have any idea what might be causing the problem, I called my friend Dave, who does IT management for a living. He’s built plenty of systems, and he graciously agreed to take a look and help me out.

I hauled the tower over to his place (which, fully loaded, probably weighs in at around 70 lbs.), and after about a half hour of poking and prodding, we discovered that the motherboard wouldn’t boot up with all the memory installed. After we yanked all but one of the modules, it fired right up and started working flawlessly. I scampered home, installed the OS, then added the rest of the memory without a hitch. In retrospect, it sounds like sort of a n00b mistake, but then again, this was my first build, and this was really the only thing that I did wrong, and it took about ten seconds to fix once we figured it out. (Thanks, Dave!)

As for the OS, I went with Microsoft Windows Vista Business SP1 64-bit for System Builders w/ Tech Guarantee – OEM. While I haven’t been any fan of Windows Vista thus far, I have it on my laptop, and I think it was unfairly maligned, really. It was super-annoying to get it set up, what with all the intrusive protecting-me-from-myself features that are active upon installation, but once I figured out how to disable them, it’s been a pretty solid OS. I still prefer XP over Vista, but I wanted to be current with this new build, and Vista now sells with a free upgrade to Windows 7, so I figured that was the way to go.

I ran Vista for the first few days, but after talking to a bunch of people who were running the Windows 7 beta, I decided to take the leap of faith and give it a go; after all, it was still a new system, so if I had to nuke it back to Vista with a clean install, it wouldn’t be a tragedy. I did the upgrade a few days ago, and it seems to have only caused a problem with some of the ASUS software that came with my motherboard (which I promptly uninstalled), and possibly iTunes, but I think I got that fixed tonight. So far, I like this OS MUCH better than Vista, so give it a try if you’re able to run it.

After running the “Windows Experience Test,” I feel like I’m clocking some decent numbers, though my primary HD seems to be dragging the overall score down, despite it being one of the faster ones out there:

Processor	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 950 @ 3.07GHz	7.0	5.9 Determined by lowest subscore
Memory (RAM)	12.0 GB	7.2
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285	6.5
Gaming graphics	5632 MB Total available graphics memory	6.5
Primary hard disk	101GB Free (279GB Total)	5.9

The reality is that Photoshop loads from a cold start in less than three seconds, and Crysis runs at maximum settings without blinking. Yes, I’m pretty happy with what I’ve accomplished. I haven’t done any overclocking, but I may give that a try in the future. For now, this thing is blazing fast compared to what I’m used to, and I’m more concerned with it lasting a long time than with squeezing out a little more speed.

Almost an afterthought, I decided to replace my venerable Logitech G15 keyboard, which had fallen victim to a spilled soda a few months back. I figured that a kick-ass computer deserved a kick-ass keyboard, so I went with the successor to the G15, the decidedly sexier Logitech G19 Black USB Wired Standard Gaming Keyboard – Retail. It has a color LCD, dual powered USB 2.0 ports, 12 programmable macro keys, and can backlight in any color that my geeky heart desires. My Razer Lachesis mouse has also been upgraded with cat-proof tubing for reasons that should be obvious if you happened to read my older post, “Cats Are Jerks.”

So… It’s finally done. I have christened this beast my “Jedi PC,” since I felt like designing and building my own PC was a bit like a Jedi’s final training step of constructing his own lightsaber. Yes, I know… I’m a HUGE nerd/geek/dork. I’m OK with that.

But you know what? My PC can beat up your PC, so you can suck it!