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Sorry I haven't been online much lately. I've been busy building a NEW COMPUTER! rofl

First, here's a look at my old system, which I built in Jan 2005, with original purchase prices, which I will be donating to my sister (all parts were new retail boxed parts unless otherwise noted, and all prices are in United States dollars. All prices include shipping unless otherwise noted):


CPU - Athlon XP 2500+ - $96.00 - I chose this chip because it was the slowest (and therefore cheapest) Athlon XP available with a 333MHz FSB.

Mobo - Biostar M7NCG-400 - $61.00 - I originally wanted the original M7NCG since I didn't need the 400MHz FSB support, and because it sported the more sophisticated MCP-T southbridge, but unfortunately it had been discontinued for this model. The 400 was still the next best thing, so I stuck with it.

RAM - Kingmax SuperRam kit-of-2 256MB (512MB) DDR-433 (PC-3500) CAS latency 2.5 - $74.51 - Athlon XPs perform best with RAM synched with the FSB, so my RAM was underclocked to 333MHz.

HD - WD 80GB 8MB cache 7200RPM Caviar PATA HDD (WD800JB) - $49.99 - I actually bought this about a year prior to building this system for a different project that eventually didn't work out, so it went into this machine.

Optical - Lite-On 16X DVD+-RW SOHW-1633S, DL - $56.00 - Lite-On makes good, cheap drives.

Floppy - an OEM floppy drive from my family's old Compaq Presario 5900T that died a few years back. It's ugly in the black case, but it works.

PSU - PC Power & Cooling Silencer S31ATX 310W - $54.00 - The power supply is one of the most failure-prone compnents in a PC, so it pays to get a high-quality unit. PCP&C is often called "the Mercedes Benz of power supplies", and for good reason. It's PSUs are among the best on the market. The Silencer line is their line of quiet, inexpensive PSUs. I chose the 310w unit since it delivered more power than I needed at a price I could afford.

Case - Athenatech A301BS.450 A301BS - $74.81 - Very handsome case. Features a removable mobo tray! Not as good as my new one though. wink

Monitor - Samsung SyncMaster730B - $249.99 - An excellent 17-incher fullscreen monitor for it's day. I'm giving this to another family member, and will be giving that person's old 17-inch CRT to my sister.

OS - Windows XP Pro - $249.99 - I quote the Ferengi Rule of Aquisition #141: Only fools pay retail. ^_^

Mouse/Keyboard - an OEM PS/2 mouse/keyboard from my family's old Compaq computer that died.

Total cost: $1023.15. The final cost was really around $1300, including shipping and parts that went into my new machine (see below) and some other stuff I included in the final tally.

This system has served me well for the last several years. However, I've been wanting to get better quality out of my videos, as in, 640x480 resolution @ 30fps w deinterlacing. I tried a variety of video editing programs with lockups, slowdowns, and other instabilities before I realized that this system was just too old and too slow for high-quality video rendering. And thus was born my new system!

Here is my new system:

CPU - AMD Phenom 9150E - $89.99 - I chose this chip because it was the slowest (and therefore cheapest) Phenom available, and also for it's low TDP of 65W. I actually would have preferred a tri-core Phenom II due to it's generally lower TDP and better performance, but unfortunately there weren't any mATX Phenom II boards that I liked. EDIT 9-8-09: I just realized that my mobo supports AM3, which means I could have gone with the cooler and more powerful Phenom II chip, and with DDR2-1066. stare Oh well. Either configuration is going to have to be jetissoned for scrap in another three years anyways, so what does it matter? rolleyes

Mobo - BIOSTAR TA790GX XE - $84.99 - This actually isn't the first mobo I bought. The first one was the elegantly-named rolleyes JetWay JXBLUEN78V-LF. That board was a poorly-designed mobo that I eventually returned (thanks to Neweggs awesome return policies) in favor of the Biostar. I'm using the integrated video and sound on this board. This is one mofo mobo. ninja

RAM - PNY Optima 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5300) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model MD4096KD2-667 - $45.99 - DDR2-800 and DDR2-1066 wouldn't give any extra performance with my mobo and CPU, so I stuck with this inexpensive memory. I'm aware that my 32-bit OS won't recognize more than 3GB or so of RAM, but the rest of the memory can still be accessed by applications.

HD - Seagate ST310005N1A1AS-RK 1TB 32MB Cache 7200RPM SATA HDD - $139.99 - More storage than I know what to do with! rofl Great performance to boot.

Optical - LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray Burner SATA Model DH-4B1S-08 - $179.99 - A great Blu-Ray drive at a great price. Now if only Blu-Ray disc prices would go down. rolleyes

TV Tuner - WinTV PVR150 - $49.99 - My TV tuner card. The majority of my YouTube videos were made with this. This one is actually being recycled from my old machine, but I'm including the price in this one. I may someday upgrade to an HD model, but for now, I'll stick with this one.

PSU - PC Power & Cooling Silencer 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply 370W - $39.99 (sale!) - My mobo's manual says it requires a 350W PSU just to run, so I'm wondering if I should have bought a more powerful unit. I'm assuming that's with a 125W TDP CPU, though, so hopefully my quaint Phenom 9150E's low power requirements will give this PSU some breathing room.

Network card - Linksys Wireless-G PCI (I forget the exact model number)(EDIT 8-30-09: It's a WMP54G) - $19.99 - I HATE wireless. evil I hope to have an Ethernet line hard-wired up to my room when I switch ISPs sometime soon. This one is being recycled from my old machine.

Case - COOLER MASTER Centurion 541 RC-541-SKN1 - $49.99 - Great case! I chose this one for the good cooling, and too many other reasons to list. My only beefs against it is that the interior isn't painted (thought I wouldn't expect it to be in a case this cheap), there's no case window, there's no removable mobo tray (a godsend in a case this small), and there's no front-mounted eSATA.

Monitor - LG M237WD-PM Black 23" 5ms (GTG) HDMI Widescreen HD LCD Monitor - Retail - $299.99 - OMG THIS THING IS AWESOME! ninja I chose it for the built-in HD tuner, so it doubles as an HDTV, and because it has almost every kind of input known to man. I tried hooking my N64 to it, but I couldn't stand the lag (common to many HDTVs). As a monitor, it won't display my desktop in true HD, a problem with many HDTVs, so I have to use the next lowest resolution. It's barely noticeable though.

Speakers - Labtec Pulse 424 - $49.99 - A great sounding 2.1 stereo speaker system. Labtec usually makes cheapo speakers, but these are frequently praised as a noteworthy exception. These puppies blow my sister's $150+ 5-piece shelf system out of the water. I'm eventually going to upgrade to a 7.1 surround sound system and give these ones to the person getting my old system.

OS - Windows XP Pro - $0.00 - Re-used from my old system. Microsoft's license for Windows allows it to be installed on two systems, as long as there's no chance of them running simultaneously (not that they would know if I was doing that). If Windows 7 turns out to be as good as the beta testers say it is, I might upgrade to that. I probably won't do a fresh install, as my current install is working fine and I don't feel like spending the time on it. EDIT 9-15-09: I've recently been informed that one cannot upgrade from WinXP to Win7, so there goes that idea. rolleyes Maybe I'll wait another few years until I build yet another system before I upgrade my OS.

Cooling - 2x VANTEC SF8025L 80mm, COOLER MASTER R4-S2S-12AK-GP 120mm, OEM Socket 7 fan - Since my room gets fairly hot, and since this system is going to run hotter than my old system, cooling is important too me. But so is noise, or the lack therof. My case has room for a 120mm intake fan, and a pair of 80mm exhaust fans, so I filled all three locations with these fans. I stuck the Socket 7 fan on the northbridge heatsink. Even though there are twice as many fans in this system as my old one, it's not really any louder.

Floppy - BYTECC Black 1.44MB BT-145 - $7.99 - So what if floppys have been obsolete for a decade. Every once or twice a year, you'll be glad you have one.

Card reader - Silverstone FP34-B USB 2.0 Card Reader - $39.99 - Your Wii uses SD cards, your buddy's camera uses SmartMedia, your phone uses xD cards, your camera takes Compact Flash, and everything you have from Sony demands Memory Stick. So what do you do? You get one of these! I bought this for the various memory card options, HD audio support, and front-mounted USB2 ports. Sadly, there's no eSATA.

Thermal paste - Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (OEM) $8.95 - Since I had to replace my mobo, I needed some new thermal grease. So I chose this.

Thermal cleaner - Arctic Silver ACN-60ML (OEM) - $5.99 - I used these with a cloth to remove the old thermal paste on my CPU and heatsink, and to purify the surface of the CPU and heatsink.

Mouse/Keyboard - Microsoft ZG7-00025 - $24.99 - I bought two of these, one for myself and one for my mom. My mom's old pair will go to my sister, and my old Compaq pair will be recycled.

Newegg Shipping - Approx $150 - I didn't want UPS beating on my expensive computer equipment, so I shipped FedEx. As always your prices may vary.


Total cost - A hair over $1300, not including the OS and speakers that I'm reusing.

Sometime around Christmas, enough time to test the system for long-term stability, I will be leaving reviews for these items on Newegg (assuming that they'll still be offered by then). I won't use my usual Treklink256 username, but if you know me at all, you'll know my reviews when you see them. wink

The build itself went mostly without a hitch. First I put my old system and new case downstairs on my workbench and took the cases off. Here is a picture of the two cases, side by side. The new system I built is on the left, and the old one I'm donating is on the right. The new one only has the optical drive installed at this point. The HD cage is removed in the new case.

Second picture. The new 370W PSU is installed.

Third picture. The motherboard, memory modules, floppy/flash card reader and case fans are installed. I like to route as many cables as I can under the motherboard to help keep the inside of the system looking nice and tidy. Unfortunately there isn't much room to do that in this case, so the only ones I could conceal are the front panel headers and a SATA cable for the hard drive. Legend has it that nobody in the history of computing has plugged in all their front panel connectors correctly on the first try. Fortunately, my system booted on the first try, because I'm just that good. razz

Fourth picture. The CPU is installed and the CPU/HSF cleaned and purified. A BB-sized dab of thermal paste is present in the middle of the CPU die. A little glob is all you need.

Fifth picture. The CPU HSF is installed.

Sixth picture. ITS AAAALLLLIIIIVVVVEEEE!!!! gonk Yes, the system is turned on and running. Note the hard drive cage is reinstalled. The PCI cards aren't reinstalled at this point, and I don't have the old Socket 7 cooler on the northbridge heatsink (the copper heatsink to the right of the CPU), but pretty much everything else is installed and ready to go.

Building a new computer can be a lot of fun. But perhaps the least fun part of building a new system is reinstalling Windows along with all your applications and migrating your data. Conventional wisdom says that you should always do a fresh install of Windows, reinstall all your programs, and migrate all your data whenever you do a mobo-level upgrade. Last time I built my old system, it took me two weeks to get everything up and running and fine-tuned to the point where I could say it was finished. Fortunately, there's an easier way. It basically involves uninstalling all your hardware drivers (and thus making the Windows install platform-agnostic), moving the data to the new drive, then installing drivers for the new hardware. It's supposed to be fairly hit-or-miss, but the whole process was actually a lot easier than I expected. The entire process is too complex to discuss here, but if you're interested in reading more, check here for more details.

Now that my computer is ready to go, I did a little stress testing. twisted Stress-testing shows how well a new system will hold up under the heaviest of workloads, and it's better to do it when you first build a system than when it's already built and you're working on an important project. My test, a real-world test, was to run folding@home, and CPU burn-in, while doing video editing and compiling in the background (more on video editing in a future journal entry), and a little web surfing, all for a total of about five hours. CPU utilization across all four cores was a pretty constant 50-75% or so. This was done in my bedroom, with an amient room temprature of around 80-degrees F (26.6-degrees C). Unbelievably, the CPU temprature never rose above 105-degrees F (40-degrees C) or so, which is quite cool by computing standards. The mainboard temperature in both cases was a few degrees cooler.

I may edit this post in the future with other stuff I might have forgotten.

With this new system, I can now work on completing my ultimate plans for world domination! ninja