Getting back into the project after a rest. I’ve begun building the Acosta Bridge. This has been not quite an easy task, as trying to figure out it’s dimensions is pretty much guess work. I’ll have  to use other structures as references to help. It’s also interesting to fit the JTA Skyway down the middle.

We’ve looked at a few pro’s and con’s to building a system and buying off-the-shelf, and we’ve decided to build. Okay, the next step is what do you want the system to do? What programs do you want to run on it? Do you need any specific hardware, like a video capture card that has it’s own requirements, scanner, printer? Make a list and keep it handy. These are some of the questions you need to ask yourself before buying the first component. Once those are answered the rest of the process will unfold itself.

Where do you begin?
Your target budget (unless you have an unlimited budget). Decide on a maximum dollar amount you will spend and that will answer all your questions. Whatever dollar amount you choose—you can spend exactly that. The key will be to do your research. For this example we will use a budget of $400 (excluding shipping). This kind of a budget won’t get you the fastest or best quality system, but it will show you that you can get some decent quality components and have an economic system.

Where Do You Purchase Components From?
I will always suggest Newegg.com. They are a reputable online retailer, I’ve purchased several times from them and so have many others. Newegg also has some of the best prices around. I can usually order from Newegg for cheaper than what I can buy local, including shipping.

Since we’re purchasing our components from Newegg I’ll also give this advice; as a general rule stay away from the Combo Deals. The Combo Deals usually have something that’s decent combined with something that’s not so much.

As we continue this series we’ll walk through the entire process of  choosing and purchasing components on Newegg.

Before you can purchase an item on Newegg you’ll have to make an account. Don’t fret, there are some nice benefits to having a Newegg account like Order History and Saved Wish Lists to refer back to later.

The Wish List feature is how we’re going to build our shopping list. It’s not permanent, nor is it anything we’re committed to. What it does is show the list of parts we’re looking at and show us a total for the list.

In the next part we’ll begin looking at individual components and how to select them to fit your budget.

After taking a break for a bit I’m winding back up into the swing of things. Some of the placements for the buildings are a bit off, but that will get fixed as I get the roads in. Stay tuned…

Since I began building custom PCs I’ve begun to pay more attention to what a computer’s specs mean to others. In short, not much.

In this series I’ll discuss some things I’ve learned for selecting components and building your own system. It’s not difficult. There are just things you need to pay attention to and be aware of as you make your purchase list. There are tons of resources of information on this subject. If you don’t agree with me on something, please feel free to leave a constructive comment that can help others and I’ll be glad to post it. If you leave a negative or degrading comment, no one will ever see it because I’ll mark it as spam and you’ll just have wasted time that could have been used getting some headshots in CS:S.

The typical computer user doesn’t require that much as far as power and peripherals are concerned because they don’t require much in the realm of the software they wish to run. Say one day you start learning some new application and you find your current system unable to effectively run it. You need a new computer and you’re faced with two options: buy off the shelf, or build your own.

Each has it’s own list of pro’s and con’s, and I’ll try to outline a few:

Now let’s take a look at building your own system:

*Quality of components you build with are dependent upon you.

Buying Off the Shelf: Warranty
These systems come with a year warranty, and for an additional fee, can usually be extended to 3 years. Sounds great but that can take your $700 computer up to $1,000 with no immediate benefit to you. What can happen is if a component failed it could potentially cost about the same to replace it as the warranty you purchased. Additionally with technology changing so fast after a year your system will be out of date anyway and may not justify the cost of repair. This will depend on how much you need an upgrade.

Buying Off the Shelf: Quality of Parts
Computer manufacturers like Dell and HP make their money by installing the lowest cost components that meet their specifications into their systems. When building a system you get to custom pick where to spend money and where to save.

Buying Off the Shelf: Pre-Installed Software
This is a real performance killer, especially during the computer’s startup. All these applications that you never use still eat up system resources and are factory installed. Not everyone is up to speed on system optimization so these performance killers often just live there eating resources.

Buying Off the Shelf: Case Airflow
Heat is the enemy of computers. So are electrical surges and lighting, but generally you will run into heat more than those issues. Airflow is a big item to consider. As the components in your system generate heat, fans inside cases are used to carry that heat away. Many times off the shelf systems do not really have adequate airflow and which could potentially cause sudden system shutdowns with no apparent explanation. The downside to fans are they produce noise, but having no airflow and an overheated computer isn’t helpful either.

Buying Off the Shelf: Cost of Non-Warranty Repairs
As I mentioned earlier, getting your system repaired (i.e. actually replacing failed hardware) can be more money than it’s worth depending on the age of your system. Many items in a computer can simply be removed with a screwdriver, and replacing a component with one of better quality can be cheaper and work better for you.

All these items carry weight and should be considered. You may find that building a system is not right for you, but now you know and hopefully doing some research on building has given you knowledge about the system you’re going to buy. In part two we’ll look at where to select parts for your new system.

Having moved my computer into its new home I must say that it’s quite an impressive looking piece of hardware.

With increased looks, I need to have the insides to match. I had taken my CPU back to stock clock settings as I had run into some issues in the past. With higher speeds we also have higher heat, so I also decided to update some additional cooling for my system: the Northbridge. For this I picked up the Vantec Iceberq VGA and Chipset Cooling Kit (CCB-A1C). The kit is very economical and was pretty easy to install onto my Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 motherboard.

Here we have the motherboard removed from the case and lying on a work surface. The motherboard is on the anti-static bag it came it (I keep it for reasons such as this), and then on a clean towel. The cooling kit comes with thermal grease… but we’re just going to stay with Arctic Silver 5. My CPU and GPU are both cooled with AS5 and now so will the Northbridge.

The stock heatsink that comes on the GA-MA770-DS3. This will be removed and stored for later use. I don’t typically throw many items like this away, just in case. The Vantec cooling kit is a new product to me and just in case it were to not provide adequate results, I could always reinstall the original heatsink.

On the backside of the stock heatsink we find the plastic push pins holding it in place. I’ve read several comments online where folks have had difficulty removing these pins and wind up destroying them. I found a pretty effective method that I’ll share with you.

This is the tool I used to remove the plastic push pins. What I did was very carefully use them to compress the flared ends of the pins, then gingerly push the pins back through the board. I did this by compressing the pin, then raising the tool slightly above the board, compress, then push through. I slowly repeated this process until the pin came through, intact and in one piece, ready to be used again.

Here we can actually see the patient: the AMD 770 Northbridge. After applied just a smidge of AS5, we then grab the spring-loaded push pins that came with the Vantec cooling kit and use them to secure the new cooler. Gigabyte conveniently included a Northbridge fan jack right near the cooler so we didn’t even need the included 3-pin to 4-pin power adapter.

With additional cooling potential came an additional Northbridge boost. I have been running my 2.2GHz Phenom OC’d to 2.6GHz with HyperTransport Link and Northbridge running at 1800MHz. After installing the cooler I kicked them both up to 2127MHz. So far so good. I’ll do continued testing and hopefully this will hold up solid. Increasing the HT Link and NB cut my system boot time in half, while also increasing my render speed.