My Productivity Central
Overview:
This post is mainly designed to encourage those who might be looking to build a fairly high end computer, but have never done it themselves. I believe that buying a computer these days is one of the best ways you can invest in yourself and buy a real asset (Thanks Guy Kawasaki: Rich Dad, Poor Dad). For those of you who hesitate, it’s not TOO difficult to build your own computer, although troubleshooting can be a pain if something goes wrong and you do need to invest some time to ensure you buy compatible hardware that meets your needs. I survived a hard drive that was dead on arrival (Seagate ST 3640323AS) and burning multiple bad copies of an OS image. To get you jump started on a system, take a look below. Note the basic components you need and your approximate budget, then get to it! Enough said.
The System:
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD3R LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard
RAM: G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Triple Channel Kit Desktop Memory
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Hard Drive
CD/DVD Drive: Sony Optiarc Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive
Video Card: SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16
Power Supply: CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI
Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Professional 64-bit; it’s fine if you have enough RAM! Thanks to Microsoft MSDNAA for UF Engineers!
EDIMAX EW-7728In 32bit PCI Wireless 802.11n Draft 2.0 PCI Card
LINKSKEY LKA-CR15B 19-in-1 USB 2.0 Black Card Reader/Writer
IOGEAR PCI to 5 Ports USB2.0 Card
You might notice that’s a total of 14 USB ports. Look for a serious webcam system coming soon! Does this officially make me a nerd/geek? I’m not sure; but I do know I’m enjoying the process of learning how to do new things (like scraping the internet for real-time stock quotes with Python: TRY IT! CODE HERE)! I’m convinced knowing how to operate computers/the web/large data sets to find trends and make decisions is going to be a major theme of the rest of my life. This new computer is the vehicle that is going to take me there.
Thanks to my dad for loaning me a few parts after he redid his office recently (a free monitor, keyboard, mouse and case helps)!
The Life Examined 
May 20, 2009 at 10:03 pm |
No Windows 7?
June 2, 2009 at 12:37 pm |
I tried to install the Beta, but it didn’t work out-I think I just had a bad ISO. I figure I’ll just install some basic programs, then reformat when Window’s 7 comes out.