September 3rd, 2008 · No Comment
It has been at least 3 years since my last PC build. My rule of thumb is to build a new PC with at least twice the capacity at the same price. A lot has changed in 3 years so it’s pretty easy to find new parts with at least 2x the power. From my shopping list, I received the parts from NewEgg, and various other stores:
- CPU: Intel E7200 Core2 Duo 2.53 Ghz Socket 775 1066 Mhz FSB
- Motherboard: Asus P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 -2 PCIe 16x with 8x Bridge
- Memory: 4 Gigs (2×2) Patriot DDR2-1066
- Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 500 Gb 7200 RPM 32mb Cache SATA
- Video Card: Powercolor ATI Radeon HD4850 Crossfire
- CD/DVD Drive: LG 20X DVD/CD Burner SATA
- Case: Antec Three Hundred
- Power Supply: Cooler Master 750W-80Plus Crossfire Ready
The difficulty, of course, is to find bargains for the new parts. In order to stay a little ahead of the technology curve, I have to spend a little bit more on parts like the video card, power supply, motherboard, and memory. In my setup, the standard is set with the ATI HD4850 video card. The Crossfire capable card enables me to gain more speed by piggybacking another of the same card to boost performance. To have dual cards, I need a half decent motherboard, like the Asus P5Q Pro, with two 16x PCIe slots. The potential bottleneck is the 8x bridge between the two PCIe slots, but tests revealed the speed gained is quite good - almost comparable to X38 and X48 boards. In addition, the HD4850 has high power requirement (at least 325W), and dual cards setup needs another 150W. This is where the behemoth 750W power supply comes in.
The choice for a Core2 Duo, instead of a Quad, is more towards pricing. The Intel Q6600 is $190 vs. the E7200 $120. A $70 difference for a questionable performance increase (in most applications) is not worth it. I may end up trying to overclock the E7200 to 3.0 Ghz to increase performance.
Another potential upgrade is the memory. The board has room for another 4Gb (2×2) of RAM. I’ll get some more when the prices for PC8500 memory go down below $50. It’s currently hovering around $100.
Also, with hard drive prices falling down so fast, there’ll be a chance to upgrade to terabytes of disk space. So it looks like for the next 3 years or so, I’ll have plenty of opportunity to tweak this new build.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Posted in Geek · Stuff
September 1st, 2008 · 3 Comments
One of the nice things about having my own DVD library is the ability to watch a movie at a moment’s notice. Yesterday, I had a conversation with my 3-year old daughter, when she mentioned she’s too small to drive a car. It reminded me of the movie Stuart Little, where the image that popped in my mind was the little mouse driving a red Dragster. I took the movie off the shelf and played it for her. She instantly loved it. I have forgotten how charming the movie really is. The story was full of love and care. It’s a great family movie. It’s also fun to see an animated talking mouse and cat, blended right into the scenes. The movie has a pretty good set of cast with Michael J. Fox as the voice of Stuart Little. There’s also one of my favorite actor, Hugh Laurie, and Geena Davis as Mr. and Mrs. Little.
I went through the DVD features with my daughter. With the book style read-along, she attentively listened to Michael J. Fox read the words. Then, there was the Central Park Adventure Game, where my daughter answered a series of multiple choice questions. She actually answered most of them correctly! Plus, she enjoyed the dancing and singing in the music videos.
The DVD version that I have is the “Widescreen Collector’s Edition”. There is a newer version called “Deluxe Edition”, which is the studio’s way of saying “Buy another copy because we included more extra features.” Indeed, the deluxe version included additional featurettes, and deleted scenes. Currently, Amazon sells the new version for $8, so it’s a bargain.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Posted in Motion Picture · Parenting
Has anyone ever thought of decorating his (or her) room with a Star Wars theme? I certainly have. When I was a kid, I used to have Star Wars action figures lined up on the shelf near my bed. Then over the study table, I would stack the Star Wars electronic and board games.
The other day, I just received a Pottery Barn Kids catalog by mail. They are bringing back the Star Wars’ nostalgia with their own line of decorations. They have bed sheets, pillow covers, and blankets with Star Wars images. I know this stuff is designed for kids, but I can’t help imagining my room decorated like that. From the catalog, what interest me the most are the Galaxy LED Art and the Luke Skywalker poster. This stuff is not cheap, but Pottery Barn has a knack for good design. Plus, the memories will last for a long time.
Kids these days, they’re so lucky and spoiled!
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted in Geek · Motion Picture · Stuff
I have been collecting DVD movies since 1997 when the format first came out. I was one of those early adopters who bought a US$450 DVD player and discs that cost $21 each. The difference in video/audio quality, compared to VHS and Laserdisc, was very noticeable. It wasn’t a difficult choice to take the plunge. The only caveat, back then, was the lack of titles available on the market. The movie studios were slow to re-release their titles on DVD.
Fast forward to 2008, I now have over 400 discs. My DVD list is online (Warning: the images from the list may take a long time to download with slow internet connection), thanks to a program called Libra that lets me scan the UPC code using a Webcam, and populate its internal database automatically. I had a similar list in a MySQL database back in 2002, but I lost that. I’m planning to code a new PHP based site and migrate this Libra list to MySQL again. A customized site with search capability will also help me search my database while I’m out DVD shopping - usually at Walmart and Fry’s in the $5 bargain bins. It should help minimize buying dupes.
Additionally, I always wanted to do movie reviews on this site. I’ll need to painstakingly review all of my movies and enter them into the new database. I’ve already started reviewing on Facebook’s Flixster application. They’re not extensive reviews, just quick fire ones. I’ll need to find the time to get started on these projects!
I’ve also started my HD-DVD collection, what’s left of the format in the market. What’s nice about my HD-DVD player is that it’s a very capable upconverting DVD player. Watching DVD movies at 1080i resolution is a very nice bonus. I definitely see a difference in picture quality. If I didn’t have the HD-DVD player, I would consider getting the recently announced Toshiba XDE “special” upconverting hardware. I’m just not ready to sink in big dollars to Bluray player and discs, yet.
So, here’s hoping for DVD’s longevity. I look forward to keep on expanding my DVD collection.
Photo Credit: Elijapa
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted in Motion Picture · Stuff
We went to PF Chang and Islands last week. The days were sunny and cool, when we talked about:
- Beijing Olympics
- Vacation plans and destinations. Co-worker explored the mid-west. I plan on visiting Seattle and Vancouver.
- Irvine housing market. Time to buy when median home prices dropped as much as 34% since last year. Or wait until ARM foreclosures hit in early 2009.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Posted in Lunch Bits · Stuff · World
It has been at least 3 years since my last PC build. My rule of thumb is to build a new PC with at least twice the capacity at the same price. A lot has changed in 3 years so it’s pretty easy to find new parts with at least 2x the power. From my shopping list, I received the parts from NewEgg, and various other stores:
