Skepticum

After having been introduced to PC hardware building some time last year I became very competitive and decided that I have a mind of my own when it comes to hardware (should read as, I think I know better than…).

After my first successful build I realized that things change way fast in the world of technology and I have to keep up.

As the months passed, I became extremely frustrated with iTunes, its greedy and hungry use of PC resources, and its dislike for microsoft software (which I share). iTunes does not play well with other software in XP, and it was eating up my gaming resources. Basically I could not run iTunes and a game at the same time. While playing F.E.A.R one doesn’t need musical ambiance outside of the game, but for some long hours of WOW I needed something other than the ever-repeating WOW music. Yet iTunes was too hungry to allow appropriate running of WOW.

So there was my challenge–surpass Intel Dual Core and find a solution for iTunes and WOW to play together. Just buying a mini-mac to use as a media center was too easy of a solution. So I decided to spend that money instead to rebuild my system.

So I recycled the mobo and replaced most everything else. After careful shopping around I bought my parts and built following: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800, on an ABIT KN8 Ultra mobo, Thermaltake CL-P0257 Blue orb, 2X250gig Samsung Spinpoint 250 Raid 0+1, A-Data 2048MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz (1024×2), XFX GeForce 8800GTS, Antec Truepower Trio 650W, OS XP sp2 +cd/dvd read/write accouterments.

I’m not super happy with the mobo–North bridge fan died after 5 months of use, and ABIT had it “out of stock” (you think more than one KN8 user had this problem… uhm I’m pretty sure most everyone did) so I replaced it with a N bridge heat sink.

I also am very displeased with Microsoft (surprise, surprise), whose buggy software and retarded install requirements (was asking for a floppy drive to update the raid drivers??? who uses floppies these days) make the operating system installation a pain in the ass.

Also the videocard is running hot. Turns out the cooling paste used between the core and cooling units is of the cheapest kind. However, the Thermalake cpu cooling unit, together with the case fans seem to create enough ventilation through the case that the videocard stays relative cool. Before introducing this cpu cooling unit I was considering a water cooling unit for the videocard, which I might have to invest in regardless. For now I’m just observing how things go.

So now I run iTunes on one core of the CPU and WOW on the other and they’re both happy campers and I am even happier.

What did I learn? Building hardware is fun fun fun. It’s like shopping for shoes, only that you end up with smart shoes in the end–they sing, and play movies, and let you geek out. Hardware is piece of cake. It’s like fitting squares in square holes and so on. Specific pieces of hardware go together and you shop for them, link them together, and with some experience you can build good computers. Software? That’s another story and that’s where you can see the true measure of a computer tech. There are compatibility issues, buggy software, patches, add-ons, etc. Microsoft is the king of labyrinthal software (hey I just made up a word–hope you like it!). Apple’s software (at least for Microsoft OS) is starting to become such as well. Not to talk about all the rules and limitations that come with pieces of software such as iTunes.

So in the process I learned to appreciate good hardware, and avoid bad software. I’m becoming a software minimalist of a sorts. I stopped installing all non-essentials and in my case that includes MS Office (replaced with Open Office) and Photoshop (replaced it with GIMP). I also have a better understanding of why the open source and free cultures movement have been so appealing to me. I used to intuitively understand these concepts, however now I also have a practical understanding.

So, hobbies are a good thing (did I just sound like Madden?).

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