Ener’s VW computer project update at i live in science land

Ener’s VW computer project update

well, my XP box must know i am working on getting parts for a new pc because it has started acting up more regularly. so much so that i made a extra backup of all my work files to an external hard drive last night (in addition to my automatic rebit backups)

i figure it’s not a good thing when you hit the power switch and the LEDs go on but you don’t hear the HD spin up!

unplugging it a couple times eventually got it going. since i have no idea why it isn’t booting normally i decided to not use any existing parts for the new build. this does add unbudgeted costs of about $250 but luckily my biggest fan chipped in and took care of that (see, two years of building stuff paid off! let’s see that comes out to about 25 cents an hour! w00t!) =p

even though i accelerated the purchase of the parts (i ordered the last ones last night) i was still able to take advantage of some mail-in rebates, promo pricing, and free shipping offers over the last three weeks

cpu: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz
cpu cooler: Xigmatek LOKI SD963
motherboard: Asus Maximus IV Gene-Z/GEN3
memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
OS disk: Corsair Force Series GT 120GB Solid State
data disk: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB
video card: EVGA GeForce GTX 550 Ti 2GB
optical drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST
power supply: Corsair 650W HX
case: Corsair 400R

total: $924.99 plus a Newegg Hot Deal 4-pack of case fans for $11 (8 case fans total! but no cool built-in LED lights – 14 year olds will make fun of me at LAN parties) =D

this beats the $1,408 to have a similar pc put together by CyberPowerPC (a respected company) but . . . don’t count the pixels until it fires up! =)

below is the benchmarking done by PCPartPicker which lets you play around with components to see what makes the most sense in the balance of cost and performance. it’s no hardcore gaming machine but it should be adequate to toss prims around (plus it should consume half the power of my XP box) =)

okay, now to figure out how to mount the operating system iso image onto a dvd . . .

click to see the complete benchmark results

are you looking at trying PCPartPicker? wanna copy my build as a base? here it is

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article series – Ener builds a PC:

taking the PC building plunge (using PCPartPicker to spec it out)
Ener’s VW computer project update (preliminary components selected)
PC rebates for do-it-yourselfers (saving money!)
PC build project – nite 01 (all the parts are in!)
PC build project – day 02 (learn to love the mobo manual)
PC build project – moment of truth (will it roar to life or spark and die)
PC build project – odds and ends (sound foam and wifi card)
PC build project – retrospect (stacking the odds for success)
Ener Hax’s 2012 OpenSim Computer (final part list, prices, rebates)

written by Ener Hax

August 9th, 2012 at 6:35 pm

posted in OpenSim

tagged with pcpartpicker

What, no beer cooler?

Sarge Misfit

9 Aug 12 at 6:50 pm

oh please ! don’t be so silly – am am using an external one to take advantage of USB3.0 – it should chill the beer faster!

gaze upon this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000XYN5RS/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_3?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B000EDJJMI&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=00SDT4S3RST4DPASGB0Y

Ener Hax

9 Aug 12 at 7:17 pm

ooooooooooooooooo

One at a time though … I wonder if they give a discount on 24 :-D

Went looking for something a bit bigger *grins*
http://hacknmod.com/hack/build-a-fridge-in-your-pc/

and this one just simply looks soooo cool! :-D
http://geeks.thedailywh.at/2012/01/27/battlefield-3-beer-fridge-case-mod-of-the-day/?from=recMap3

9 Aug 12 at 8:23 pm

Keep us posted on your PC build. Sounds very exciting and also…

Pics or it didn’t happen :P

Eros Deus

10 Aug 12 at 2:53 am

it’s not built yet and i should get most parts next week and will do some photos =)

that pc is awesome Sarge, i love the blue lights and the can compartment is really funny! =D

10 Aug 12 at 10:32 am

I still would go for a bit more powerful source!
Don’t forget to have also a ups to prevent energy failures or spikes to damage it!

ZZ Bottom

10 Aug 12 at 11:24 am

Ener,

I use http://infrarecorder.org/ to burn ISO files to discs.

I’ve tried a bunch and that one seems the be both the most reliable and easy to use.

Techplex Engineer

10 Aug 12 at 12:18 pm

hey thanks Techplex! i was trying “Free ISO Burner” today but it failed two times about 25% of the way into it (and wasted two CDs)

thanks on the link too, i’ll snag it right now =)

good tip ZZ and i originally had a 350 watt psu! but an UPS is an excellent idea – i have not used one for the last year and have been very lucky – but this machine for sure needs one. thanks for mentioning it because it was totally off my radar!

10 Aug 12 at 2:29 pm

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