The parts for my PC arrived today.

I haven’t built a PC from scratch since my 2006 PC. Four years seems like a long time in the PC world, but assembling a PC is remained fundamentally unchanged. However, be that as it may, I did learn a few things which I’d like to point out and share some other thoughts during the assembly of this 2010 PC.

Pathetic Documentation

The Antec Mini P180 case and the Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus both had terrible documentation. I spent a lot of time installing the motherboard and CPU cooler thanks to the sketchy documentation. The basic info was there, but it wasn’t particularly clear.

Cable Management

The Antec Mini P180 is the most versatile case I’ve ever used with regards to cable management and just organization in general. They’ve thought of nearly everything for this case. Many places to tie down cables and tuck them away from view and disrupt air flow.

Unfortunately, the Antec EarthWatts PSU I purchased did not have the appropriate 8 pin PCI Express power cable length which means it’s one of two cables actually running across the  motherboard. I’ll need to buy an extension cable for the 8 pin PCI-E power cable and the CPU fan power cable if I want to run it via the back.

I’ve also moved from twist ties to zip ties for this build. Zip ties are awesome!

No Optical Drive

We don’t need floppy drives anymore, but what about optical drives? Ever since I used my Dell Mini 9, I don’t even see the need for one. If I need to use an optical drive, I’ll just use the one in one of my other computers.

Cool & Quiet For Realsies

I’ve always wanted a cool and quiet running computer and I think I’ve finally achieved with this build. I’m only installing Windows 7 at the moment, but I can’t hear the damn thing at all. Large fans running at low speeds does wonders.

Poor Assumptions

I discovered that not all motherboard manufacturers have the same RAM installation methods. I’m used to installing two sticks of dual channel RAM on the A slots of an AB-AB layout. Gigabyte wanted me to install them on the B slots. Which lead to some head scratching.

Tough To Troubleshoot Blind

The Antec case didn’t come with a speaker for POST beeps and the motherboard’s “Phase LEDs” were just for show. Thus, I was essentially blind to what the PC was complaining about when I initially booted up with the wrong RAM configuration.

I noticed that my CPU fan wasn’t spinning, so I plugged it into the case fan power connector and it spun up.

“Was it a bad connector?”

Restarted the computer and it still didn’t POST. Eventually, I retraced my steps and documentation and noticed that I had the wrong RAM configuration. After fixing that little problem, the PC finally showed the gaudy Gigabyte boot screen image. It also turned out that the CPU fan power connector was faulty. The fan simply doesn’t start spinning if the RAM wasn’t configured properly. I’m guessing the CPU wasn’t even fed power in that case.

MicroATX Is Small, But Not Impossible

You need a lot of patience to work with MicroATX. I have experience with Shuttle PCs so I knew what I was getting into, but I know that not everyone has the patience to play with this form factor. There isn’t much room which means a specific order in which to install things. If you mess up, you’ll have to take everything out again or hope you have very slender fingers.

Random Tidbits

• The smallest fan in the computer is a 92 mm fan on the PowerColor Radeon HD 5770 PCS+
• The largest fan is the 20 mm exhaust on top of the case
• It turns out the PowerColor Radeon HD 5770 PCS+ is the video card to get if you’re working with this case; the PCB is 1 inch shorter than the reference design.
• I chose the white case because it was the cheaper option
• I could not fit the Creative Xtrememusic Xi-Fi due to lack of space; it would have blocked the video card’s intake fan

Update: PC Cyber canceled my order. No new PC for me.

This may seem out of the blue after I’ve denounced my intentions of getting a new PC any time soon. But drastic sales is a great motivator.

The Intel Core i5 750 went on sale for $150 (~$60 off). At that price? I couldn’t delay the purchase. I purchased it along with a case, motherboard and power supply. For the curious, I’m going to lay out some component details and the reasoning behind each choice.

Processor: Intel Core i5 750 – $149.77
Info/Review(s): AnandTech & TechReport

A quad-core Intel CPU running at 2.67 GHz for $150 cannot be beat. It was already one of the most attractive quad-cores at $210, but the $60 price cut makes it an absolute steal. Great price/performance/power consumption ratio!

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3 – $119.77
Info/Review(s): Gigabyte, HardOCP

It performs well, it sports the latest Intel chipset, it has decent overclocking potential and it has USB 3.0. What more can you want? A low price? It’s got that too. It’s my first Gigabyte board. Hopefully, it won’t disappoint me.

Case: Antec Mini P180 – $97.77
Info/Review(s): Antec & SilentPC

Silence, style and cooling performance under $100? That’s what this case supposedly has and I look forward to it. It has two optional 120 mm fans which I may or may not use depending on how hot things get.

Power Supply: Antec EarthWatts EA 650 – $79.99
Info/Review(s): Antec

It’s quiet, efficient and affordable. Three qualities I look for. I also hear that it’s reliable and knowing Antec, I don’t doubt it.

Those are the confirmed parts. The video card will be a AMD Radeon HD 5770, but I’m still looking for the right one. The same goes for the RAM. I know it’ll be 4 GB DDR3, but I’m still looking.

As for cooling? I’m looking for quiet and efficient operation, so I’ll most likely look for an after market CPU cooler as well.

Hard drive will most likely be my 36 GB Raptor as an OS drive and possibly another 150 GB Raptor as the secondary. Or perhaps a Western Digital Caviar Black 1 TB? I don’t need Terabyte hard drives for storage — I have NAS for that.  Needless to say, I still need to ponder this one over.

I didn’t think I’d be buying my new PC so quickly, but all it took was an enticing CPU sale to spur me into a purchasing frenzy. After it’s all said and done, I’m hoping this rig will cost less than $800. So far the running total is $505.45.

I’ll post updates on this build next week, so stay tuned.

Having purchased Torchlight and looking ahead towards Mass Effect 2, I began contemplating building my PC once again.

The last time I thought this over, I was looking for a Micro ATX PC for the sake of downsizing, but now I want this PC to be small enough for the home theater set up. I want to turn this PC into a console if it needs to be; playing PC games with the Xbox 360 controller if I can. The Antec Mini P180 can still achieve this sitting beside the HDTV; that’s not a problem. The problem, as always, is the amount I wish to spend on a video card.

• Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-P55M-UD2 (~$114)
• Processor: Intel Core i5 750 2.66 GHz (~$220)
• Video Card: AMD/ATI Radeon HD 5850 (~$320)
• Case: Antec Mini P180 in White (~$90)
• PSU: Antec EarthWatts 650W (~$90)
• Memory: 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 (~$100)
• Hard Drive: 500GB – 1TB SATA HDD (~$60 – $100)
• Optical Drive: Most likely none

The Radeon HD 5850 costs approximately $320. That’s more than a console and while the video card can mop the floor with this generation’s console, from a purely entertainment standpoint, I cannot justify that price. I do have a solution to this problem though. I either wait for price drops or I settle for a AMD/ATI Radeon HD 5770 which I can get for about $175.

Decisions. Decisions.

What is it that I wish to play though? Mass Effect 2? It’s coming to the Xbox 360 as well and by the time I’m finished with that there’s a whole lot of other games coming out to consoles. Was this all for nothing then? Nah. If I keep going through this exercise enough times, I’ll eventually find enough reasons to pull the trigger. But for now, I will go play Torchlight. If only more games ran on older hardware like this game.

With the release of the Intel Core i5 & i7 (Lynnfields) and AMD/ATI’s Radeon HD 5870 video cards, it’s now time to plan my next rig. Not all the pieces are in place though. I’m still waiting on how well the Radeon HD 5850 performs along with its Canadian price tag. Nevertheless, I do have an idea of what I want my next rig will be.

It will be smaller, quieter and faster.

(more…)

AnandTech and TechReport reviews for the new Intel Core i5 and Core i7 are out now!

I was kinda bummed by the lack of HyperThreading for Core i5, but after reading these reviews, it’s not enough of a deterrent to warrant the price difference. What would I do with 8 threads?

Take a look at this:

That $88 price difference enables 4 virtual threads, additional overclocking headroom and higher stock clockspeed. Do I want it? I wouldn’t mind it, but I like the idea of on-die PCI-E controller on the Core i5 and the attractive price tag of just under $200 USD.

These new processors are making my wait for a new computer a little tougher. However, I think I can hold out until the new video cards are unveiled in the coming months. That way it could be a completely new PC from top to bottom.

Announcements

• Bionic Commando: Rearmed PSN Trophy Patch Coming (via PlayStation.Blog)
  • Trophy Support
  • New “Normal” difficulty setting with the following changes:
    • When you die, you respawn at the last solid ground or checkpoint
    • Albatross B level removed
    • Added ability to reel out the cable when hanging or swinging to its full length
    • If the player swings into a wall, they will no longer disconnect and be thrown away from the wall. Instead, they will keep connected and reel in
    • Unlimited lives
  • Super Joe Machine Gun bug fix:
    • When upgraded, the weapon also becomes more powerful in addition to the larger clip
    • Fixed for all difficulty levels.

Technology

• Intel’s Confusing Naming Scheme Revealed? (via AnandTech)
  • Core i5, Corei3 and Core i7
  • Most confusing part is the fact that there will be Core i7 for both LGA-1156 (new) and LGA-1366 (current)
  • Core 2 Duo & Core 2 Quad naming scheme disappearing along with Centrino

Miscellaneous

• “New Xbox 360″ for 2010 “Confirmed” By Steve Ballmer (via TGDaily)
  • Confirmed at “The Executive’s Club of Chicago” while discussing “the role of innovation in changing economic times.”
  • Most likely “slim” Xbox 360 with Project Natal camera bundled

New Xbox 360 with Project Natal in 2010? Not surprised.

This was actually written on Monday, but withheld due to E3 fun

For all intents and purposes, my next computer will be Intel’s mainstream native quad core processor: Lynnfield. Core i7 CPUs are cutting edge and nice, but they’re also incredibly pricey when you consider the platform components (Triple Channel DDR3 & motherboard). So it’s all about Lynnfield.

AnandTech took a sneak peak at a very early chip sample of Intel’s upcoming processor and the take away from the article is: Turbo mode.

I’m not sure how I missed this, but since the Core i7, Intel’s processors can dynamically overclock individual cores to match the processor’s load. For example, if you have a single threaded application which doesn’t need all four cores running, the processor will dynamically overclock one core to boost performance.

(more…)