New Computer Build

I finally broke down and sold my old computer and built a new one. You can see my old setup here

I purchased the parts for my new computer from my favorite retailer, Newegg.com. They’ve always got great prices and you can usually save an addition $50-75 by looking for sales and combo deals. Here’s what I ended up with:

CPU: Intel i7 2600K  @ 3.4GHz
I would have loved to get one of the new Sandy Bridge E chips, but couldn’t justify the $600 price tag. Not to worry, this will meet all my needs – passmark rates it as 3 times better than my previous chip – Intel QX6700 @ 2.66GHz.

CPU Cooler: Zalman CSPS9700 LED 110mm
I’ve used Zalman coolers on half a dozen builds now and have yet to be disappointed. They’re quiet, push plenty of air, have simple fan controller, and look cool to boot.

Motherboard: ASUS P8z68-V Pro/Gen3
I followed MaximumPC’s recommendation on this one. It’s got SATA 3.0, USB 3.0, and the better Z68 chipset. Everything I need.

RAM: 8GB (2x4GB) G.Skill Ripjaw DDR3 1600
When G.Skill first showed up in a big way on the RAM market I was skeptical. They hadn’t proven themselves yet. Well, they have certainly done that now, racking up thousands of positive reviews on newegg. I found the cheapest, best reviewed DDR3 1600 RAM I could. Obviously it isn’t the fastest stuff out there, but that’s fine.  I paid $35 with a promo code for it. Can’t beat that.

GPU: HIS IceQ Radeon HD 6950
On my previous build I’d bought Nvidia’s 8800GTX, the top of the line in mid-2007. This time I was on a little tighter budget and the 6950 was scoring only a little below cards twice it’s price on passmark. It’s 3 times more powerful than my 8800GTX  and it blows me away. This particular model also has 2GB of memory. My 8800 was having a tough time with Battlefield 3 (just meeting the minimum system requirements) while the 6950 makes the game look absolutely gorgeous. I feel sorry for all the Xbox 360 and PS3 owners who don’t get to play the game this way.

PSU: Thermaltake 750W Modular
Corsair power supplies seem to have emerged as being one of the premium power supply manufacturers since my last build. However, at $89 the price of this Thermaltake PSU is hard to beet.

HDD: An old 500GB Samsung drive I had laying around. I’d like to upgrade to an OCZ Vertex 3 SSD drive sometime in the next 6 months.

Optical Drive: ASUS DVD Burner
I hardly ever use my DVD drive anymore so I found this one for those rare occasions.

Case: NZXT Phantom
I bought this case about a year ago, soon after it had been released as a temporary case. My wife likes it and one day it will be used for her computer, but for now it means I didn’t have to buy a case It’s not quite as nice as my old Antec 1200 – doesn’t allow E-ATX boards, the fans are a little cheaper. It does have better cable management options though.

All in all I am very satisfied with this new build which cost less than a grand and has triple the power of my old system.

GTA V Release Trailer

This morning I remembered that it was 2nd of November and thus the GTA V trailer would be coming out. So I hopped over to Rockstar’s website only 5 minutes before the trailer went live. If you have scene it you can find it here:  http://www.rockstargames.com/

So how about that trailer? My initial reaction was that it was a mix between San Andres and IV. I say that only because the location looks very SA while it retains the serious tone of IV – a good thing since it now has no hope of competing in the arcade style craziness that is dominated by Saints Row.

Let’s take a detailed look at the trailer and see what it’s all about.
It appears that we’re back in LA – a bit of a disappointment I admit. It had been rumored that this game would take place in LA, but I had hoped that those rumors would be proven wrong. After being in Los Santos in SA I was hoping for a change of scenery. I admit, it will be nice to be in a city that has a little more sun than Liberty City, but couldn’t we pick someplace new? I know it will be vastly different – simply compare III to IV and it’s easy to see how things can change. I’ll be interested to see if they pull anything from Midnight Club:LA, supposedly the most accurate representation of LA ever in a video game. Next time, how about we go to a different country or someplace like Seattle, Washington DC, St Louis, or Hawaii? Where would you set the next GTA?

Moving on, we see elements that have appeared in other games – people running on the boardwalk, jet skis, and mountains! The fact that there is mountains gives me the impression that we’ll a bigger more open map like in SA. The return of jets of all sorts also points to this.  After the mountains we see what looks to be a BWM convertible putting the top down. I hope there are more cool details like this!

I have to wonder if the guys the cops are chasing at 1:06 is your character from SA.

Then we see a brief freeway seen where we pass a sign. It appears that this time they are calling LA, Los Puerta. Maybe I’m off base here as I’m a little surprised that they would change the name. We also see that there is a “Little Seoul” part of town. Who wants to bet we’ll be taking part in some gang violence this time around?

Cars. There looks to be a good combo of BMW, Audi, Jeep, Land Rover, and other knock offs – both new and old. My dream has always been for Rockstar to take the car customization they have in Midnight Club and chuck it into body shops in GTA. Think body shops from SA only more expansive.

Things I’m most excited for:
Jets,  18 Wheelers, and dogs – see opening scene. Lots of other stuff too, but these are things that differ from IV. I didn’t see any, but I really hope they bring back bicycles – it’s California after all.

Minecraft Review

There’s a fairly good chance that you’ve heard of a little indie game called Minecraft. It has developed quite a following in the last couple years…and the full version hasn’t even been released. You can read about how many people play and the history of the game elsewhere. The important points are that it is produced by a company by the name of Mojang which was founded by a guy, Notch. You check out his tumblr here. Also, minecraft’s website here. There is no set objective or missions. You can do whatever you want.

I first heard about the game almost a year ago. I had started reading PC Gamer and they so happened to be doing a piece on the game. It was a multi-part piece that storied the adventures of one person in Minecraft. I loved the journal like entries and waited eagerly each week for the next installment. When the series finally ended I knew what I had to do. I bought it. It was still in Alpha I think, meaning things were being updated all the time and there were plenty of glitches – some good, some bad. I was on winter break at the time and I thoroughly enjoyed exploring the blocky worlds that are your home in Minecraft. I was fascinated by all that you could do. Mine, farm, explore, hunt, battle monsters, build anything, and more.

The best way I can describe Minecraft is Lego’s for adults. You have all the blocks you need and you can combine blocks to make anything you want. The possibilities for building are almost limitless.

Doing a quick search on youtube reveals a plethora of absurd objects, recreations, and monuments built by Minecraft players. How about a to scale model of the Enterprise from Star Trek? I’m a big Stargate fan and just the other day I saw that someone had created a mod that allowed you to build working Stargates. There have also been a plethora of game trailers, first missions, etc., that have been recreated in the wonderful world of Minecraft.

Minecraft can help you learn about yourself, too. I play with a group of people from school and I’ve noticed that all I really want to do is create cool things that will give people all the resources you need. The game is set to be released at version 2.0. The most recent update was 1.8 – dubbed “The Adventure Update.” It added a plethora of elements that encourage the player to move out from their base and explore the world – both above ground and below (it’s called Minecraft for a reason). One aspect added in 1.8 was the need to eat. In order to stay in tip-top health you must eat regularly. So, following my desire to give people all that they need I have built a terraced farm into a mountain that grows wheat, watermelon, sugarcane, cacti, mushrooms, and trees. You can farm other materials, but not in the traditional sense when you think of crops.

My Farm - watermelon, wheat, and some sugarcane on the left

So what does this tell me about me. I think it means that I like to be an enabler. I like to have the cards that allow others to do great things. I like it when people come to me looking for information. I believe one core values analysis referred to as being a banker. I like bringing everything together.

There’s a lot still to be done on Minecraft, but it is an amazing game. I look forward to seeing all the features that are released with 2.0 and I encourage you to buy a copy when the full version is released.

Have you played Minecraft? Leave your experience in the comments.

Current Setup

Here’s what I’m working with at the moment. When I built it there wasn’t much that could beat it. Sadly, I have reached the point of being the minimum system requirements. I am hoping for an upgrade this spring with Intel’s new processor.

Case: Antec 1200
I love this case. It is plenty big and has space for extra fans. It will work for future builds, though upgrading cases can be fun.

MoBo: MSI P6N Diamond
I originally bought this board because it had a great built in sound card. Well, it’s alright – it’s caused a fair bit of trouble. Unfortunately I get the feeling it’s causing problems – BSOD. I think it’s on the way out.

CPU: Intel QX6700
I actually started with the E6700 (the regular dual core version of this). This has been a great processor, I overclocked it a bit for a while, but my board isn’t setup as well I would have hoped for ocing.

CPU Cooler: Zalman 110mm Blue LED cooler
A fantastic cooler overall. Once upon a time mine got a little bent on transport and started making a terrible sound. Nothing a little elbow grease can’t fix…mostly.

HDD:  2 x WD 74GB Raptors in RAID 0
These were wicked when I first got them – though a royal pain to setup. Scrounging up a floppy drive to install drivers for XP was aweful. Now they pail in comparison to Solid State Drives.

Storage: WD 2TB Black, WD 750GB Black
I’ve had both of these drives for quite some time now. Both are still working great. The 2TB is the more recent and I must say is almost faster than my raptors in RAID 0. I know new raptors are faster than mine, but I don’t think it’s worth it to get raptors these days. Nothing bad to say about these storage drives.

RAM: 6GB Crucial Ballistix DDR2 800
Hmmm…Both good and bad here. This RAM is very quick and I have loved that about it. It’s why I got it. Over time I’ve added more and changed the 1GB sticks to 2GB. I’ve had a couple die on me, but was able to work with Crucial’s customer service to get them replaced. A good experience. I would buy Crucial again.

GPU: EVGA 8800GTX
A great card. Top end when I bought it – just before the 8800 Ultra came out. My first one died, but was able to get another for cheap.

DVD: Samsung 18x LiteScribe Burners
It does what it’s supposed to.

Monitors: 2 x Samsung 226BW 22″ 2ms
These were $330 a pop when I got them. There are much better offerings now. At this point the light bleed is pretty terrible and the colors have never been spot on, but they give me enough real estate to get the job done. For my next build I’ll be going with 24 or 26s I think. TN panels would be nice, but I don’t think the funds will be available for that kind of investment.

Keyboard: Logitch Illuniated Keyboard
I saw this and fell in love almost instantly. I waited and watched for a deal to come up on one and then pounced. It’s almost perfect…just needs to be wireless. Well guess what they came out with later…a wireless version. Still working and I still love it after a year plus.

Mouse: Logitech G700
I got this to replace my G7 wireless moues which was fantastic until it turned spastic after 4 years. It has 13 buttons and I use almost all of them on a regular basis. The four buttons on the side are especially useful. One nice thing is that it use a single AA battery. I think I need to replace mine as it is wearing out, but that’s cheap.

Speakers: Logitech G15
They don’t make these anymore, but they’ve been great since I can plug my xbox into them also.

My bikes

I’ve been riding a long time and love being able to get outside and go wherever I want using my own two legs. I’ve done both road and mountain riding – you’ll see my bikes below. Regardless of the changes in our climate, more people need to get out and ride. It is a freeing, beautiful thing to do that offers great exercise.

I present my 2007 Specialized Stumpjumper Marathon Carbon. My wife jokes that if both she and the bike were being thrown off a cliff I would have to take a second and think before choosing which one to save. It’s my first bike with tubeless tires, which seem to work great. The lower pressure works wonders on rock and root filled terrain. I’ve had to give ‘em some sealant, but other than that they work great! The stock tires have worked great in mud back in Seattle, but the mud in St Louis was just nasty. Unfortunately I don’t have it with me at the moment, but left back in Seattle. I hope to be reunited soon

This is my current road bike. It’s a 2000(?) Lemond Buenos Aires that my dad originally bought. He hardly road it and so a while back I traded the parts to a Cannondale Caad 5 frame that I bought off eBay for 300 (fork included). It had minor paint damage around the cable guides, but other than that it was a pretty sweet frame. Sadly I outgrew the frame and put a lovely crack in the fork last year. Now the Lemond fits me great, albeit being heavier – steal vs aluminum. It’s equipped with 105 all the way around. It’s seen better days as I’ve given it plenty of ware. This summer I, with my brother’s help, I switched the components back to the Lemond from my Cannondale and replaced cables, housings, breaks, chain, etc. It could probably use a new cassette, but that’ll have to wait.

PC vs Mac

I’m not gonna lie, I think Apple does a lot of stuff really well. Their simplistic design is great and their operating systems seem to work reasonably well. They even have sweet little silver stores littered throughout malls everywhere. Since they design the entire computer they are able to provide some top notch service – is it top notch?

In case you couldn’t tell, I’m a PC guy. I love building computers – especially ones that are bigger than necessary. Macs may have some swanky design, but I love the individuality of PCs. If you go to newegg (my favorite site for computer parts) you will find hundreds of different options for computer cases. Of course, not all of them will meet the needs of a particular build, but there is still a plethora of options with an even greater number of features. Do I want 4 USB slots in the front or is 2 with a hard drive slot a better fit for my needs? With an Apple product you get what they want to give you. Two USB ports is not enough on the front of your mac tower? Too bad.

To me this is the story of Apple. You get what they want to give you, not the other way around. It’s terribly frustrating.

Last year I won an iPad 2 from my school. No, I never would have paid $500 for one. Sadly, this means that I have to install iTunes. Fine. The obnoxious part when iTunes also want Bonjour, Quicktime, Apple Software Update, Apple Mobile Device Support, Apple Application Support, and more. More on my iPad 2 another time.

The Genius Bar. It’s a great idea with great people working there. I’ve never met one that was exceptionally mean or anything. My experience comes from going with my wife who has a four year old macbook. First, the good – now that her computer is older they seem to be exceptionally nice to her. Apparently no repair they do on it it will cost her more than $100. This seems to exclude batteries – possibly because they are easy to resell. So, no more than $100 for any repair. That’s cool. Also the last two times we’ve taken it in they’ve given her brand new fascia and keyboard. Often they give her free labor and/or parts for other things they’re doing. I think they’re trying to get people to make their next computer a mac. Great. I’m happy for all the mac users that love it. I really am. People should like their computing experience. Also, maybe it will convince more developers to develop programs for Macs and PCs. The problem is that as far as I can tell Apple stores can’t keep up with the demand.

In order to get in to get your computer or other device serviced you have to make an appointment online. Ok, that’s a good system. Once you get to the store and check in you realize that there are a couple of people in front of you and you end up waiting half an hour past your appointed time. What’s up with that? Perhaps this is another reason they give you free stuff?

How about price? Now I’m a straight up hardware guy so I’m a little biased. Woohoo, I get apple software – that oh, by the way makes me do it the way Apple wants me to. On a strictly hardware basis there is no comparison between Mac hardware and PC hardware when it comes to price. Even if you argue that they break less I would bet that the repair costs still wouldn’t make up the difference. Now, I don’t buy that Macs break less. They’re made by the same companies over in Taiwan that the PC manufacturers use. The price for Apple products goes beyond the computer itself. Apple makes you pay a premium if you want to buy any peripherals, cables, adapters, etc. I’m sorry if I’m on a bit of a rant, but it blows my mind that Apple can get away with it.

Here’s what I like about PCs: You can make them yourself or have someone else make them – there are dozens of options for manufacturers. You can always get the cutting edge hardware. Sometimes you may have to switch manufacturers because one hasn’t upgraded their product line yet, but it’s always an option. There is a phenomenal amount of software available. Games. The only decent Mac gaming is thanks to Steam and Blizzard, but it remains extremely limited. It is easy to modify  and add or switch out components, making it easier to upgrade.

Overall, Macs do a great job at what they do. Mostly my beef with them is that they cost too much, are very inflexible, and force you to do things the Apple way. I prefer the freedom and price of a PC that allows me to build cool setups. One day I hope to build a computer within a desk and/or with all the components mounted on a wall.

Back in the saddle

Back to the blog. I originally created this blog as a project for a design class in college. We didn’t do more than post a couple things and I quickly forgot about it. I would check on it every few months, but nothing changed.

Fast forward three years and here I am in the big city, Chicago, looking for work in an ad agency. Being out of school…and unemployed I have a little more time on my hands. What better way is there to support all the other social networking that I’m doing than to blog a little. In order to give myself a bigger web presence I’ve created an about.me page. It links to all the other things that I do on the web. I recently created a graphics portfolio online using a site by the name of carbonmade. It’s pretty cool, but I was deeply saddened when I found that the premium version of carbonmade has less design options than the free version of about.me. O well.

Anyways, it should be interesting to see how frequently I post. Likely topics are bikes, computer stuff, computer games, ultimate, design, and whatever else I might be up to.

The North Face Zip-In Compatible

I recently purchased a TNF Mountain Light Jacket and love it. TNF has an interesting sizing in that I am a M at 6’0″ and 175lbs. It works, but it means that there isn’t a lot of extra room under it for extra layers. This means that my Nuptse Down Jacket doesn’t fit under which is alright. Anyways, I’ve been looking around and haven’t been able to find a good list of what TNF makes that can zip in so I contacted them and they gave me this list:

obviously these are all mens…it also isn’t totally complete because my down jacket isn’t in there, but I think it is pretty good. Name followed by material…

M – Redpoint Jacket
Prima Loft

M – Eminent
TKA200 Series Fleece

M – Khumbu Jacket
TKA300 Series Fleece

M – Pumori
PolarTEC 200 Series Fleece

M – Khumbu Vest
TKA300 Series Fleece

M – Denali Vest
300 Series Fleece w/DWR

M – Denali Hoodie
300 Series Fleece w/DWR

M – Denali Jacket
300 Series Fleece w/DWR