New Computer

Good morning,

For those who don't know me, my name is Wilton Marranzini. I am a Senior Systems Engineer and Team Lead for a managed service provider. This is my first blog posting. The reason for this blog is to track life events and projects I am working on outside of the social networking websites out there. Never was a big fan of the  online social networking life style. It doesn't provide much functionality on expressing creativity like a blog does. 

This weekend I started thinking about computers and the way I am managing them. At the moment I feel enslaved with the way I am using gadgets. So lets first start with the computers, screens and internet devices I own and the purpose for them. 

Mobile Devices:

1. BlackBerry Bold (Provided by work)
2. Dell Latitude E6400 (Provided by work)
3. Asus Eee mini laptop (For vacations, cheap, and durable)
4. Droid X (My wife's cellphone, pretty cool)

Home Devices:

1. PS3 (Game console which I don't use much, blueray rocks.)
2. P4 PC (5 year old PC which I still use when I don't want to power on the laptop)
3. P3 PC (In the closet collecting dust)
4. 2x 17 inch monitors (connected to the P4 PC)
5. 37'' LG LCD (Bed room TV)
6. 42'' Sony LCD (Living room TV, Includes home theater sound system in the living room.)
7. Printer/Copier/Scanner (collecting dust)
8. Linksys wireless router (Internet)

I think that about sums it up.

Looking at all these pieces I realize that they are all disconnected and disorganized. At the OS level, my Desktop P4 PC running windows is a mess, to slow to even start organizing files and creating a proper structure. On my work laptop I run Linux and have enough horse power to maneuver easily. So I began my organization on my laptop first. I reorganized and structured all my files and bookmarks. Now is easy to find things. Formed a procedure to follow and help keep everything in its place. Whats next?

I started thinking that my desktop PC will be useless in a year or 2 for the type of task I am doing. So for the purpose of having speed, I decided that my PC4 computer and 1 of the 17'' monitors will be given away as a gift. I will also include the printer collecting dust with my old keyboard and mouse. The decision was easy, now I am forced to buy a new Desktop PC. 

Started looking at vendors such as HP, DELL, IBM and the prices were very appealing. However, looking back at my college days where my first computer was put together from a collection of parts. So I decided to also look at the hybrid PCs for comparison. Proceed to generate a list of the things I would like on a new PC in an order of priority.

1. CPU: The processor is the most important part on a PC. It is the component that is doing all the mathematical calculations to make everything possible.  Decided to go with one of Intel's latest processor,
   Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950
2. MOTHERBOARD: Now that I had my processor, I need a compatible mother board.  Many to choose from, the EVGA seemed nice and I also liked the EVGA video card. So decide to go with this one.
    EVGA X58 FTW3 132-GT-E768-KR LGA 1366 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard
3.  MEMORY: This is another very important component as all programs running on your operating system really use this as their loaded storage. Memory has gotten very cheap over the years. I remember a 512MB stick use to cost $60. I can now get 6GB of much faster memory for a fraction of the price in comparison. G.SKILL PI Series 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL7T-6GBPI
4. HARD DRIVE: The next piece is your harddrive storage. We have different categories here. IDE, SATA, HDD, SSD, SCSI. All range in different prices. When thinking about storage, this is where you save all your data. So durability has to be kept in mind. IDE,SATA, SCSI, HDD are electromechanical devices containing spinning disks and movable read/write heads. Like anyone that owns a car knows. Where ever there are movable parts their is a short life span to it. SCSI and HDD are the faster of the spinning disks category. The new Hard Drive technology is SSD ("Solid State Drives"), most of you actually own a harddrive like this one. It is in all of your iPODs. This is why you can drop your ipod and in most cases your data will remain intact. "A solid-state drive (SSD) is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data." So no moving parts. Now SSDs are VERY expensive. The average computer these days will come with at least 100GB of local storage. an 100GB SSD cost over $200 and is not giving me much space. So made the decision to buy 80GB Intel SSD for running the Operating Systems and other applications that require the agility and availability to always keep the system running smooth. However, I have over 100GB of personal data such as videos, photos, documents, and projects that have been collecting over the years. So need separate less expensive storage device to keep and share this information across all my electronically gadgets. For this I decided to go with the Seagate GoFlex Media Center solution:
   Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Black TV HD Media Player (Only) STAJ100
   Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 500GB Black External Hard Drive STAA500105
   Seagate STAM2000100 2TB GoFlex Home Network Storage System
   Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex Black Net Media Sharing Device STAK100
   This gives me a lot of flexibility in the way we share our data around the house electronic devices. The goal will be to Organize all photos, videos, and documents in an easy accessible centralized location. This also provides the ability of easily detaching the 500GB external drive and take it on the go.
5. VIDEO CARD: Video card = picture quality, specially if you are a gamer. I don't play much games but I can see I will at some point with this computer. So purchased the Video card that goes well with the motherboard and has a decent amount of memory.  EVGA 01G-P3-1467-AR GeForce GTX 465 (Fermi) Superclocked 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video ...
6. SOUND CARD: Next was the sound card, Creative has been around for a while. So when with one of their sound cards. Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium HD Sound Card
7. COMPUTER CASE: Now at last we can pick the case. When picking a case you have to ensure it is compatible with the mother board. You should take air flow into account. Computer performance is highly impacted by heat.
   COOLER MASTER HAF 932 Blue RC-932-KKN3-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case
8. COOLING SYSTEM: While thinking about heating, started researching cooling solutions. found a liquid cooling solution at a good price.
   CoolIT SYSTEMS ECO-R120 Advanced Liquid Cooling (ALC).
9. DISC DRIVE: Also added to the cart DVD +RW drive. A new keyboard and mouse. A needed power supply.
    LG DVD±RW SuperMulti Drive Black SATA Model GH22NS50B
   zowie ZOWIE EC1 Black Black 1 x Wheel USB Wired Mouse
   Antec TruePower New TP-750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V V2.3 / EPS12V V2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE ...
10. MONITOR: A nice monitor was also on my list. Didn't want to go with dual monitor again. Decide a 27'' HD with tv Tuner will do the job. LG M2762D-PM Glossy Black 27" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor with TV Tuner
11. Then there were the sound speakers, canon copier/printer/scanner/fax, Webcam, and a few free games.
    Microsoft LifeCam Cinema
    LG M2762D-PM Glossy Black 27" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor with TV Tuner
    Logitech LS21 7 Watts RMS (FTC) 2.1 Stereo Speaker System - Black
    Canon PIXMA MG8120 4504B002 ESAT Approx. 12.5 ipm 9600 x 2400 dpi Wireless InkJet MFC / All-In-One Color Printer
    
    Free Games:
    CAPCOM Gift - Lost Planet 2
    NVIDIA Free Mafia 2 Game Coupon
    

That completes my wish list for my new PC. Managed to convince my Wife on the purchase. The convincing tactic was Christmas gift, data sharing/organization, functionality, speed, and we can give an old computer as a gift. Not to mentioned almost $200 on mail rebates (I hope I remember to mail them). I also promised we will build the PC together as a couple project for her learning about computer hardware. Sounds like fun.

I will post back once I receive the computer parts. In the mean time I have to figure out how I will make sure the PS3 device will also have access to the share data for displaying. I believe I have to install Linux on the PS3 and configure everything. Will start a different thread for the PS3 project this week.

Right now it is 7:15AM and I am going to sleep. Good night New York City and all the people I love!