Whistling About Chickens
A couple weekends ago, I assembled a new computer for myself. The one I had been running was only a couple years old, but it was a bare-bones deal from TigerDirect that I got for $500 just to be functionally capable of playing UT3 when it came out*. It came in a tall, ugly, unwieldy case that has one of those stupid doors on the front which needs to remain open all the time so you can stick flash drives in it and eject the optical drive tray; a pointless encumbrance that looks tacky when taken off, and is functionally annoying when on. Needless to say, I never got comfortable with that machine in the way I like to; there is something rewarding about knowing that a machine is what it is because of the parts you personally chose for it.
A little after I got it back in 2007, I promised myself that some day, when I had the money, I could go out and buy myself a new computer that fit me. And I guess that time came late last year when I started ordering parts. Here’s what I ended up with:
CPU: AMD Phenom x4 9750 2.4GHz – NewEgg had a sale. I figured that a quad-core processor for $80 isn’t a bad deal, even if it doesn’t come with a heatsink/fan.
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H – Matched all my other parts, and included an integrated gigabit NIC (are any integrated NICs NOT gigabit these days?) Also got brownie points for having an HDMI, eSATA, and Firewire port which I’ll probably never use, but will be pleased to know I could if I wanted to.
Memory: 4x 2GB Crucial DDR2 800 – I dig Crucial for hosting their insanely useful Memory Advisor. I went with this particular memory stick because it ended up being a relatively cheap 8GB of RAM.
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar 1TB – It feels good to finally break the terabyte storage barrier. I’ve needed this for a while, actually, so I can better organize the placement and storage on my WD Passports, which act as backup drives (320GB and 500GB).
Optical Drive: LG 22x DVD-RW w/Lightscribe – Generic. Nothing special here.
Case: Cooler Master Elite 334 nVidia Edition – I never realized how many cases were either hideously malformed, had doors on the front, or incredibly boring before I went shopping around for one. I liked the look of this one, and saved myself something like $30 by ordering it from Amazon instead of NewEgg. Got free shipping, too, which is where buying a case usually really hurts.
Monitor: Asus MS238H 23″ 2ms Widescreen LCD – I broke down and purchased a new monitor for I think the first time in my life. I’ve really fallen in love with this monitor, though the ring stand base makes me nervous sometimes.
Keyboard: Lite-On SK-1688U/B – Finding a good keyboard is hard these days, too; I like a big backspace key, stands that actually angle the keyboard up a significant length, and an otherwise clean setup (no multimedia keys or whatever). I ordered three of these, and I’m really, really happy with the results. **
Operating System: Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala, 64-bit – running XP inside of VirtualBox. I intend to install a Windows 7 VM at some point and see if its worth bothering with.
The mouse and power supply were taken from the old PC, while the heatsink/fan was some fancy-ass Zalman deal that I bought from Computer Renaissance. It came in like 20 pieces and had no instructions, so I ended up spending about an hour with it before realizing that most of the parts were there for other socket types. Embarrassing, but I guess I learned something.
Also, I did get a PCI-express video card of some kind for nice graphics, but for the life of me I can’t remember what it was. You can see how much I care about gaming on this machine (it runs all my Compiz settings just fine – thats all I really care about).
Eventually, I’ll purchase and install a card-reader/floppy combo drive (oddly enough, the motherboard I got features a floppy drive channel). I always think my case looks empty if there isn’t a slot to insert some kind of media hanging around smack-dab in the middle of it’s front.
I spent the whole weekend installing software, migrating data, and tweaking settings…and I actually enjoyed doing so. Some notes on this process:
- Running Windows in a strictly virtual environment is kind of an experiment for me, but so far I haven’t had any major issues aside from being unable to do full-screen YouTube videos inside of it.
- Installing UT2004 on Ubuntu was of course needlessly difficult, but I found my salvation in this guide. The only thing left is getting audio to work smoothly in it. And maybe installing UT:GOTY as well.
- I really like how Ubuntu has incorporated nice themes, wallpaper, screensavers, etc. into their OS. I’ve mentioned it before, but the “cool” factor is important in any software experience, and the Ubuntu people have done a good job in this regard.
- Compiz, as always, made the experience that much more engaging. I found a great animated skydome that still makes me giddy to see in action.
There is a certain joy in exploring new hardware and software that is difficult to appreciate if you’ve never been in that position before. Trying to get disparate things to work together and then actually succeeding in doing so is an immensely rewarding experience – the kind where you walk away knowing not only that you’ve picked up some new skills, but also had a lot of fun doing it.
*This turned out to be a fool’s errand, given that I ended up playing UT3 maybe three times before not caring anymore
**As a side note, prior to ordering these I’d been using an old grey PS/2 eMachines keyboard that was cracked from me slamming it repeatedly against a desk in anger. The weakened plastic and uneven feet caused it to bounce a little bit every time I typed on it.
