{"id":234,"date":"2009-03-06T22:43:02","date_gmt":"2009-03-07T05:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tungsai.com\/blog\/?p=234"},"modified":"2009-03-06T22:43:02","modified_gmt":"2009-03-07T05:43:02","slug":"new-pc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tungsai.com\/blog\/?p=234","title":{"rendered":"New PC"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have completed the months-long project of building a Home Theatre\/Gaming “Living Room” computer. I will catalogue the parts & total cost, and show you the components I researched for this project.<\/p>\n

I took my time, shopping around, but ultimately as so often, virtually everything except the Air Mouse, TV, and Video Card were purchased from NewEgg<\/a>. If you have never heard of NewEgg, then you must have been living in a cave somewhere in Antartica, because it is *THE* only web site to buy computer equipment. Period. They are king of the online shopping, and nothing else even comes close.<\/p>\n

Now that I’m done touting NewEgg, let’s have a look at the final product:<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
$70<\/font><\/td>\n <\/td>\nENERMAX Chakra ECA3052B Black SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case – Retail<\/a> (N82E16811124114)<\/p>\n

It has one HUGE 250 millimeter (25 centimeters) fan on the side. The huge fan is very quiet, yet moves a lot of air. It has a facade for the CD=ROM drive. <\/p>\n

This case had a new feature I was not familar with regarding the installation of the hard drives & DVD drive. It does not use screws to hold them in. It uses a tightening system; hmm, hard to describe. You insert the drive, then slide a plastic slider. when you slide it all the way, then it clamps down on the drive and then the drive cannot move. It works quite well.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

$90 after rebate<\/font><\/td>\n <\/td>\nCORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V \/ EPS12V SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply – Retail<\/a> (N82E16817139006)<\/p>\n

It’s a good thing I didn’t go with my original choice in power supplies. I was going to get an el-cheapo 450 watt unit, but when I was going through my wish list with Dad, he started thinking about giving me the video card, and then <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

$46<\/td>\n <\/td>\nZALMAN CNPS 9500 AM2 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan\/Heatsink – Retail<\/a> (N82E16835118004)<\/p>\n

This is the first time I’ve ever bought an after-market CPU fan. This, and the power supply, made me feel like a money-burning consumer more than anything, but I must admit that it does its job quite well. Very well. I was afraid it might not fit in the case, but according to the reviews for the case, almost everything fit.<\/p>\n

Installing it was a bit of a pain. Installing this thing was probably the most difficult part of the build. Read the photo gallery album for the details on the build.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

$53<\/td>\n <\/td>\nG.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK – Retail<\/a> (N82E16820231166)<\/p>\n

Yeah, yeah, 4 gigs. I wanted 8, but… I found out that ONLY Vista 64-bit (Or possibly Windows 7) can utilize more than 4gb of RAM. This is not the fastest RAM that is out there now; but around the time I was pricing out the system, it was in the top end. Hell, it’s still pretty damn good.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

$11 for two<\/td>\n <\/td>\nENERMAX UC-8EB 80mm Case Fan – Retail<\/a> (N82E16811999199)<\/p>\n

THESE PUPPIES ROCK!! Out of all the devices I put together for this computer, THESE cheap-ass case fans were the biggest delightful surprise. WHISPER QUIET. I mean, you cannot even HEAR them. As far as airflow, they’re not the super-gusty mega-blowing super fans. But that’s why I bought the Enermax case with the giant fan! BUY THESE. Buy five of them, and replace every fan in your system with one of these. You will be amazed.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

$150<\/td>\n <\/td>\nAMD Phenom 9750 2.4GHz Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor Model HD9750XAGHBOX – Retail<\/a> (N82E16819103250)<\/p>\n

QUAD CORE BABY!!! FOUR 64-bit processors.<\/p>\n

For some reason, this unit is no longer sold. I’m sure you can probably get a better one for cheaper by now. CPU prices drop faster than acid at a dead show.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

$139<\/td>\n <\/td>\nGIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-DS4H AM2+\/AM2 AMD 790GX HDMI ATX AMD Motherboard – Retail<\/a> (N82E16813128352)<\/p>\n

It’s a motherboard. I originally purchased this mobo primarily because it has HDMI Out. However, I ended up receiving a very nice gift in the video card that is now installed in the HTPC. I did not expect this machine to become a gaming machine, but my dad gave me such an awesome vid card, that it catapulted this up into the higher-end machine range.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

$95<\/td>\n <\/td>\nSAMSUNG HD103UI 1TB 5400 RPM SATA 3.0Gb\/s Hard Drive – OEM<\/a> (N82E16822152135)<\/p>\n

This Terabyte hard drive was purchased not for its speed, but for its low power consumption (meaning less heat), and quietness. Higher RPM drives are louder. I happened to grab this while it was on sale, a couple months before I bought the rest of the items.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

$20<\/td>\n <\/td>\nAZiO AWU254 USB 2.0 802.11g 54Mbps Wireless Pen Adapter – Retail<\/a> (N82E16833340004)<\/p>\n

This is essentially the network card for the machine. Since it’s in the living room, I didn’t want to run a wire through the apartment… hence, wireless. Also grabbed while on sale.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

$35<\/td>\n <\/td>\n\n
Gyration GyroTransport Air Mouse with 512MB USB Drive<\/a><\/h5>\n

This was not purchased from NewEgg. It was purchased from woot.com<\/a>. It is an “Air Mouse”. It is like a Wii controller: You hold it in your hand, and it actually picks up the movement of your hand and translates that to mouse movement. VERY NIFTY!!! Perfect for a Home Theatre PC setup, eh?<\/p>\n

Woot.com only sells stuff for one day, but you find great bargains. Good luck finding this at the same price I paid!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

$85<\/td>\n\"vista\"<\/a> <\/td>\nLet’s not forget the Operating System! I bought Windows Vista Ultimate from the Illinois University stores, who give an employee discount.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Total:<\/td>\n <\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
$794<\/font><\/td>\n <\/td>\nThere ya go. Note that this does NOT include the hand-me-down video card I received; however I think that card would sell for about 200 right now. It is because of that card that I am able to run GTA IV, the most resource-hog-heavy game I have ever encountered hands down.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Now for the real-life photos of the equipment, after I received it. NOTE: You can click on the pictures to see the full version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
 \"IMG_4088\"<\/a> <\/td>\nHere’s a close-up of the top front of the case. It’s got audio, 2 usb, an external SATA, and power\/reset buttons on the top.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"IMG_4093\"<\/a> <\/td>\nHere’s a nice inside-view of that monster 250mm case fan. It’s reversible via a switch. I actually have it blowing into the computer. This, plus the Zalman CPU cooling fan, keep the inside real cool.<\/p>\n

TOTAL NUMBER OF FANS = 6<\/p>\n

3 case fans
1 cpu fan
1 Power Supply fan
1 vid card fan<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\"IMG_4131\"<\/a> <\/td>\nThe motherboard is stylin’ with all the different colored stuff and the big “GIGABYTE” logo on the big heat sink. <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"IMG_4139\"<\/a><\/td>\nHere’s the CPU fan, after the CPU has been installed and the fan put on top of it. This was probably the hardest part. I knew I’d have to attach the fan before inserting the mobo into the case.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"IMG_4142\"<\/a> <\/td>\nAn extreme close-up view of how the heat sink fits on top of the CPU.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"IMG_4145\"<\/a> <\/td>\nHere we have the power supply snugly installed into the case.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"IMG_4149\"<\/a> <\/td>\nAnd here we have the motherboard installed as well. See the plastic sliders for the drives I was telling you about? Click on the picture to zoom in & you can see perhaps what I mean.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"IMG_4152\"<\/a> <\/td>\nsuper-awesome mega-quiet fan in the front…<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"IMG_4153\"<\/a> <\/td>\n…And one in the back!<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
 <\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

That’s pretty much it. the thing has performed quite well so far, knock on wood. Media Center crashes every once in a while, but I blame crappy OS programming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have completed the months-long project of building a Home Theatre\/Gaming “Living Room” computer. I will catalogue the parts & total cost, and show you the components I researched for this project. I took my time, shopping around, but ultimately as so often, virtually everything except the Air Mouse, TV, and Video Card were purchased… Continue reading New PC<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tungsai.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tungsai.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tungsai.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tungsai.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tungsai.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tungsai.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/234\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tungsai.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tungsai.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tungsai.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}