Pic Spocket

The beast is breathing.. or actually it would be more accurate to say that it is spitting fireballs - it is so fast

But let’s back up a bit. I’ve been wanting to change my home desktop computers for over 2 years now. The Dell Precision 360, a Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz I had was simply painfully slow in general and even more so when dealing with handling and editing large photos such as generated by our 50D Canon Camera (each picture file RAW is ~15 Mb). It started to be sluggish even browsing flash-heavy websites such as TrainingPeaks and Garmin Connect. While we have a bunch of desktop and laptop computers at home (I lost count), I have actually never purchased a new desktop computer before. I always either bought used machines on Ebay coming from lease returns or bought old computers from Corinne’s workplace. I bought 3 Dell computers like that, and they worked for years without issues other than they become outdated.

In the last few months, I kept an eye out for PC deals but never found what I was looking for at the price I wanted. Since I had good luck with used Dell computers in recent years, I was looking at them but I was never happy with the component selection they offered or the price. If I was to purchase my first new PC, I wanted the thing to be really fast and “future proofed” for a long time with good components in general. I wanted also to have space for upgrades such as free memory and card slots.

Early on, I made the decision to go with an Intel core i7 860 processor for the best value for price versus performance. I always go with Intel processors. But I simply could not find what I wanted with Dell. It always ended up too expensive, and the latest technology (such as USB3.0) was not available with their offerings. Also, if I wanted 8 GB of RAM, they were doing it with 4 bars of 2 GB, filling all the available slots preventing any future upgrade.

Then I got the idea to build my own PC. While I have played with basic hardware in the past (add memory, replace hard drives or video cards), building a PC from scratch seemed like a daunting idea. But I thought it can’t be really complex. The advantage is that you can obviously select each individual component of your PC to meet your needs and budget. The trick is to do your research well to make sure you select the right parts for compatibility. So after a bit of reseach, I ordered all the parts I needed from newegg.ca. Few days later, a bunch of boxes arrived home. Nice puzzle!

I ended up going overbudget (what a surprise… I always do regardless of the project!) but I did a careful selection of the components based on what was important for me. I could have built a cheaper version for sure and still have a decent machine.

It turns out that the assembly process was really simple when you have the right components. In no time, I had a booting computer and I was installing Windows 7 on it. 

Main Hard Drive: This is where I went over budget at the last minute. Actually, I had received all the components when I decided to add and order a Solid State Drive (SSD). A SSD is a hard drive with no moving parts. It’s is basically just a bunch of memory chips. Since there are no moving parts, access time is ridiculously quick. It increases MS Windows responsiveness by a huge amount. The effect is so clear that people have reported that replacing their Hard Drives on older PC and laptops by a SSD unit simply brought them back to life. I am quick on the mouse and I hate waiting for computers to react so I just had to get one of these if I wanted the ultimate experience in responsiveness.

The SSD drives used to be REALLY expensive, but now they are more affordabe. Don’t get me wrong: they are still far from being cheap. While you can get a decently fast 1.5 TB (1500 MB) traidtional hard drive for under $100, I paid over $230 for a 80 GB SSD. So I use that drive to hold Windows and program files for performance, and I use the traditional drive for holding all my documents.

Windows 7 has a special feature called “Windows Experience Index” that rates your components by performance. At this time, my primary SSD drives rates at 7.8 out of a maximum of 7.9.

Motherboard: The ASUS p7p55D-E Pro features the new USB 3.0 connectivity and the new generation of SATA 3 hard drive controllers (higher speed). Both these features were missing in the DELL offerings at the time I looked. I have not seen USB3.0 devices out yet, but I’ll be ready! Also, there’s a lot of options in the BIOS for overclocking. This allows me to run my processor at the speed of higher priced processors or more.

The only inconvenient with this board is the time it takes to pass the POST (Power On Self Test) when you first power up: it seems like it takes ~20 seconds before anything happens. Overall, I am not too bothered by it since I leave my computer ON all the time and use the ’sleep’ mode.

Case: The HAF-922 is a monster. It’s actually bigger than I thought it would be. Here is is against my Dell Precision 360 machine it replaces.

It’s got plenty of front ports for connectivity, a lot of aeration and fans. The front fan has a red led in it. While I did not care for it, it does look mean when it’s running.

One of the very nice features is the cable management. All the extra cables ae stashed behind the right panel rather than being in the main component area. Here is the mess behind the cable management area:

But here is the comparison between the main component area of my Dell Precision 360 (mess on top) and the new PC build (below). A clean component area also helps a lot with cooling.

Graphic Card: I went with decent but cheap solution. I do not play games on the computer, so no need for a 300-400$ graphic card. Editing large size photos does not need a powerful graphic adapter. My computer is always running 24/7, so I went with a fanless card to have a quieter computer.

Processor Cooler:The Intel Core i7 processor came with the factory Intel cooler, but I decided to install an aftermarket unit to keep the processor as cool as possible. The Zalmann CNPS9900ALED had very good reviews, so I ordered one. What a surprise when I opened the box. The cooler is ridiculously big and fills the component area pretty well as seen in the previous pictures. I am glad the case I selected had plenty of space. The unit has a blue led, that looks pretty cool too when running.

I have made a test loading all 8 threads of the processor at 100% CPU for 10 minutes and the processor temperature never went above 50 deg C (which is quite low) and that’s with the cooler in “quiet” mode(limited speed). Awesome!

Windows 7 Pro 64 bits: So far, I am pretty happy with this operating system. The transition from XP is really not bad and I did not have too many software compatibility issues yet. The computer is so fast that I can now use the “sleep” function when I do not use the computer (it only takes seconds to recover) so as a bonus, my setup will be more power efficient compared to my previous machine running 24/7.

Here is the layout of the components in the case:

I re-used my keyboard and main monitor from my previous setup, but I did replace my second monitor with a newer widescreen unit. I have been working with Dual Monitors at home for a few years now, and when you are used to it, there are no going back. I have recently did the same thing at work and most of my colleagues were so amazed at the possibilities, they all bought a second screen as well hehe! Imagine.. you can have 2 documents side-by-side, or Photoshop opened with the picture to edit on the screen on the left and all of the tool windows opened in the secondary screen, etc.

Another addition is the dual monitor stand I got on Amazon for quite cheap: it cleared up a lot of desk space and evened out the 2 monitors nicely. I made a few custom desktop wall papers out of pictures I took in the recent years, and Windows 7 rotates them automatically every 30 minutes. Here is the setup with 3 different backgrounds (Hawaii, DTW airport, bridge of Avignon):

I have been using the computer for a few weeks now and I love it. It’s the most responsive computer I have ever used. Just for fun, here is a time comparison of various tasks between my previous PC and my new one:

It is clear from that picture that it’s much more pleasant to work on the new PC. When it was time to select a network name for the new PC, I had to choose something reflecting how fast it is. I named it ‘Crowie’ - Craig Alexander’s nick name : the fastest long distance triathlete of recent years.

Bigger versions of the pictures (1000 pixels wide) in the album below:

New core i7 PC

This entry was posted on Monday, September 6th, 2010 at 9:04 am and is filed under Computing, Our news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.