New Computer 2009

Well, despite my being poor and unemployed, I decided it was finally time to upgrade Moria, my old Dell XPS from almost 6 years ago. It's been a good machine, and it marked my first and only departure from the world of building-your-own-frankenbox that I've enjoyed ever since I gave up on my Amiga and entered the PeeCee market.

First, what I'm upgrading FROM:

In February of 2004, my Dell XPS (Gen 2) came with:

• 3.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4 (with hyper-threading)
• 1G (2x512M) 400MHz DDR2 memory
• ATI Radeon 9800 PRO
• 120G SATA hard disk
• 8x DVD burner
• 12x DVD drive
• 3.5" Floppy
• Windows XP Professional

That beast, which was almost top-of-the-line at the time, cost me $2500, but worked right out of the box and (with the exception of graphics cards), hasn't caused me much trouble over the last 5 and a half years.

Of course, I've had to replace parts that failed, and upgraded a few things. It now has 3G of RAM, a Radeon x1950 (It had an Nvidia 6800, but that died), a new 500G SATA2 drive, and a new 16x dual layer DVD burner.

Since I'm poor, I couldn't afford the level of performance I wanted from a pre-built this time, and after begging and borrowing and cashing in on holiday/birthday money and a few other things, I came up with a budget of $1000 to spend on a new machine. Part of my justification for it is the idea that I might be able to write iPhone apps, if I had a new CPU (OSX won't run on my old P4). I also justified it by realizing that I spend even MORE time sitting in front of it now than I did when I was properly employed. If I'm going to debters prison, I may as well enjoy my freedom as much as I can first, eh?

So, here's the new beastie:

• ($60) COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 RC-590-KKN1-GP Black SECC / ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
  
• ($120) CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply
• ($127) GIGABYTE GA-MA790XT-UD4P AM3 DDR3 AMD 790X ATX AMD Motherboard
• ($120) AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 95W Triple-Core Black Processor Model HDZ720WFGIBOX
• ($70) Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory with LEDs Model BL2KIT25664TA1336
• ($188) EVGA 896-P3-1257-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
• ($27) SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223B
• 4 x ($65) Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive
• ($140) CyberPower CP1350AVRLCD 1350 VA 810 Watts UPS

Not a bleeding edge system, but it should be respectable for a few years. The whole thing clocks in around $1200. Probably closer to $1300 by the time you add in shipping and some extra fans I got to fill in the empty fan slots in the case. Slightly over budget, but then you'll notice I added a UPS, which my old system didn't come with.

Those of you actually reading this far may have noticed I have four (4) hard drives listed. That's not a typo! I originally intended to get 3 drives and set them up in a RAID 5 array, but after doing some research, I decided a RAID 10 setup of slightly smaller drives would be better. I was right!

After doing some MORE research, I discovered the best setup I could hope for. The 4 drives are configured as 2 logical disks by the onboard RAID controller. The first 160G of each drive is sliced off as a RAID 10 array, yielding very good performance and full safety in case a single drive fails. This first container yields 320G of space, and should prove more than adequate for the operating system, normal applicatons, and "My Documents".

The remaineder of the drives is configured as a RAID 0 container, which yields a whopping 1.8T of space, striped over 4 disks which also yields some fairly impressive transfer rates. Yes, if a disk fails, that whole stripe is toast, but the majority of stuff on it will end up being games or media, which is easily replaced by redownloading it, or which can be re-ripped from the original media source (or restored from backup if it WAS downloaded).

The CPU overclocks quite nicely to 3.2GHz on the stock cooler, and that's where I plan to run it. If it starts feeling slow next year when GTA5 or EQ3 or whatever comes out, I can always buy a good aftermarket cooler and clock it to 3.5GHz, or even (assuming I'm employed or otherwise making money) buy a new CPU.

I will probably buy another 4G of RAM when I get the chance. I expect 4G to be enough for now, but I know by next year I'll want to have more. If I start programming in .NET, I might want it sooner. :)

Also, for the first time *EVER*, I plan to pay real money for a Microsoft OS.

...

I want that to sink in, since people who know me will be checking to see if I'm really me at this point. Windows 7 will be the first OS I buy from Redmond, and that's because it's the first one I've felt confident about. Having run the RC version for a few months, it feels fast and stable, much like XP after 3 service packs, and it seems to make sense. Things are laid out more logically than XP, and much more sensibly than Vista. DX11 will be required in a few years, and there are already several games that look meh under DX9, but quite amazing under DX10.

I'll try to provide some pictures in the not too distant future. It's been sitting on my test bench for a week, and now it's time to clean off my desk and tweak the wiring a bit, so I can get it hooked up and ready for action. I shall be installing Windows 7 RC, 64-bit on it, and just enough to get my gaming/browsing going, since I'll be needing to redo it again in a month or so when the full version becomes available... unless someone wants to buy me a technet subscription?