To a geek such as I, getting a new computer somehow feels like a rite of
\npassage. Out with the old; in with the new. Time to move on to better things.<\/p>\n
It also yields more than its share of nostalgia, reminding me of those times where hard drives were in expressed in terms of megabytes and a floppy disk was actually useful. The first PC I actually owned (actually co-owned with my wife, before she was my wife) was a Packard Bell 436 SX 33. 33 mhz of blazing power, coupled with an almost 150 mb hard drive and a fresh version of Windows 3.1. Plug in the hampster and watch it go. I’m sure it was a stud in its time but now, almost 10 years later, the average bank clock is probably more powerful.<\/p>\n
The new PC on the block will be my fourth and, like its forebearers, it will
\nbe quite a step up indeed. It doesn’t actually exist yet, but all the parts
\nbut the case sit next to me at the moment. I merely await the shell to
\nhouse all of this. Here’s the break down of its components.
\nBe forewarned, only the geek may apply.<\/p>\n
Case: CA305 ATX Case Tower<\/a> Motherboard: EP-8K5A3+<\/a> CPU: AMD<\/a> ATHLON XP 2100+ Memory: Crucial Micron 512MB PC2100 DDR RAM DVD-Rom: Hard Drive: Video Card: Radeon 8500<\/a> Sound Card: SoundBlaster Live<\/a> Monitors: Two 19”, one Speakers: Klipsch Pro Media 4.1<\/a> That which was left behind: Yamaha 6x CD burner, Iomega Zip drive I expect the general speed of my computer to change pretty drastically. That’s it (if you aren’t a techie and are still with me, wake up; I’m about To a geek such as I, getting a new computer somehow feels like a rite of passage. Out with the old; in with the new. Time to move on to better things. It also yields more than its share of nostalgia, reminding me of those times where hard drives were in expressed in terms of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/plan.thewoottons.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI went a just a little wild on this one. Cool cut out side panel, stylish
\nduds, and a neon light highlight the package. It should be great to show
\noff to my geek friends. Those who not so inclined to gawk at cords
\nwill wonder why I’d even want to see inside in the first place. I think they
\nmiss the point.<\/p>\n
\nThe mother board is one place where I splurged just a bit. Take
\na more
\ngeneric<\/a>
\nEpox board and add a couple of cool little extras like
\n6 channel audio, a built in network card, and 6 USB ports. All of the
\nadditions should save me some work, allowing me leave my soundcard,
\nnetwork card, and USB hub in my old computer.
\nIt also comes with a cool little RAID controller, which I’ll probably never use,
\nbut I can always hope that it keeps the ants away.<\/p>\n
\nBeefy enough and its fits right into the sweet spot of the price vs performance
\nchart (where the latest and greatest is much<\/i> more expensive than the next, normally small, step down). According to
\nTom’s<\/a>
\nbenchmarks, the little bugger
\ncompares<\/a>
\nfavorably with the latest Pentium 4 processors, settling in somewhere
\nbetween a 2.1 GHz and 2.4 GHz Pentium 4.
\nThat little note is important to me because the processor itself runs at a
\nmere 1.733 Ghz and I promised myself that my next CPU would have a
\n“2” in front it. Mission accomplished, at least in theory (and in
\nAMD<\/a>‘s marketing).<\/p>\n
\nSpeedy ram and good chunk of it. It’s not the fastest you can buy or the fastest
\nthat my motherboard supports but it’ll do fine, particularly since I don’t
\nplan on making it cry from overclocking (promises, promises).<\/p>\n
\nPIONEER INTERNAL 16X DVD-ROM<\/a>
\nI’ve been waiting to purchase one of these for quite a while. Since I
\ncame in almost $200 under my planned purchase price (thanks Chris),
\nI found a way to fit it in for a very reasonable price. Now I can finally see
\nwhat I’ve been missing on the
\nShrek<\/a>
\nDVD and paint by numbers
\nusing the extras from lastest Disney movie (mom will be so proud).<\/p>\n
\n
\nWestern Digital Special Edition 7200 rpm 120 GB<\/a>
\nWow. That’s a lot of space; a whole lot of space. The mind boggles at
\nthe possibilities that fill the void. Take 10 gb away because I’m going
\nto partition it off and place
\nRed Hat<\/a>
\non it. The rest will be filled
\nwith the usual assortment of games, mp3s, pictures, and games.
\nI plan on picking up a digital video camera sometime before the child
\npops out and I’d guess my future video sessions will fill some of the
\nroom in as well. I’ve said this before (and was wrong) and I’ll say it
\nagain (and be wrong again) but I just can’t imagine filling all that space.
\nGiven my history, that leaves it about 6 months.<\/p>\n
\nThis is one of the few components I plan on bringing over from my current
\nPC. It’s no longer the fastest thing on the block (actually, it never was),
\nbut it holds its own, even under the stress of today’s latest games.
\nThe new PC should enhance its performance, as the CPU will finally be
\nable to keep up with the number crunching of the card.
\nBesides, my use of its built in dual monitor support is one of the coolest talking
\npoints of my current PC. I’d hate to lose that.<\/p>\n
\nThe sound card is still a bit up in the air. At the moment, I plan on leaving
\nit behind. However, if I’m not happy with the sound on the motherboard,
\nI will quickly bring the Live card over. After all, something sweet
\nneeds to power my rather expensive speakers<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nViewSonic<\/a>,
\nthe other from Dell<\/a>
\n38” of radiation. Ahh. Who needs the sun?<\/p>\n
\nThe best PC speakers money can buy, or at least they were until
\nthese<\/a> came out. There’s something wrong when your PC speakers sound better than
\nthose attached to your home stereo.<\/p>\n
\nI’ve decided to leave both my CD burner and Zip drive on my current,
\nand quite capable computer. Given that everything is networked together
\nthere really isn’t a good reason to saddle the new PC with either. Now
\nI can burn CDs while I play games and save the IDE slot that the Zip
\ndrive would claim for something else. Sounds like a good deal with me.<\/p>\n
\nIt’s not just the CPU. The speed of the bus, the speed of the memory,
\nand the fact that the new motherboard, unlike the old, actually supports
\nATA 133, giving the hard drive an extra boost, are all contributing factors.
\nIn fact, I have some homework to do to make sure my current configuration
\nis benchmarked so I properly compare the present with the near future.<\/p>\n
\nto end this thing). It’s time to move onto bigger and faster things.
\nIt’ll be a blast to be at least near the bleeding edge for a bit. Too bad
\nit only lasts about a month. Then it will just be another slow PC hanging
\non the coattails of the next big thing. Such is the life of a hardware geek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"