Getting My Nerd On (Part 2.1)

A couple of days ago, I was able to sell my old mobile phone (HTC Wildfire) for a fairly good price given it's condition and age. With the funds earned from this, I took out my PC Rig Checklist and took a look at which part I could purchase with the funds that I have. I decided to go with the Power Supply Unit (PSU). I sent out the necessary inquiries to the stores of my choice and was able to get one reserved from the shop I bought my Motherboard from mentioned in Part 2 (http://tomhuang03.blogspot.com/2012/06/getting-my-nerd-on-part-2.html). Now the Power Supply Unit is an important part when building a rig because as the name suggests, this is where you would get the supply of power for all the components of your rig. Simply put, PSU = Power for your machine! But to delve a little deeper, the main function of the Power Supply Unit is to convert the high voltage from the wall outlet into lower voltages that are required by each component of your system. If this voltage conversion is done improperly, it can cause damage to your components and/or system instability. Hence the importance of choosing a PSU that meets the needs of your setup. One of the things to consider are the components that draw the most power, in most cases, it would be the CPU and the GPU. But the PSU generally brings to life the whole system once everything has been put together.

I have selected, I chose the AeroCool Strike X 1100w 80 Plus Gold Modular Power Supply Unit. I will not go into extreme detail about this item but for more information you may refer to the website: http://www.aerocool.com.tw/index.php/products/strike-x/47-strike-x-power/137-strike-x-power-1100w

But rest assured, this PSU has enough juice to power the current setup I have mapped out as well as leave pretty decent headroom for future upgrades and for a price that isn't too shabby either. The main highlights of this product in my opinion are as follows:

(Photo by Thomas Joseph Huang)

1. High Efficiency Rating: (80 Plus Gold)
2. High Reliability: 120,000 hours MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)
3. High capacity power output: 1,100watts
4. Over Current, Over Voltage, Over Wattage, Over Temperature and Short Circuit Protections in place.


Now I know that this is a whole lot of power and you might be thinking, what am I to do with all of this? As mentioned, I like to leave decent headroom for future upgrades as well as future-proofing my rig. I'd like to be overpowered than underpowered, better to be over prepared than caught off guard.


We'll see how well it performs once the rig is completed.


Thank you PCNetmiles (Eton Cyberpod) for the quick and hassle free transaction!

Stay tuned for the continuation of Phase 2 of the Hardware shopping step (Step 2.2)!


For Part 1, check it here: http://tomhuang03.blogspot.com/2012/06/getting-my-nerd-on-part-1.html
For Part 2, check it here: http://tomhuang03.blogspot.com/2012/06/getting-my-nerd-on-part-2.html

Sunday Geek Out

Today, I awoke from a dream that brought me back to my childhood, it was a dream of me sitting in front of an old television set, watching reruns of the Batman and Spider-Man cartoons. As well as browsing through the comic cutouts from the Sunday newspaper that might grandfather used to keep for me. This sparked a thought in me, why not get grab some comic books of the superheros I grew up to? Today, I grabbed a few copies from a nearby comic book store near my house called Comic Odyssey. Lucky for me, their back issues were on sale! 50 bucks (PhP) for any one of the back issue items they had! I went over to the store with 1 thought in mind, look for the 1st Issue items (probably not the correct approach taken by the hardcore comic fanatics, I could be wrong though, please suggest as I am open to proper guidance! :])

(Comic Books, Photo taken by Thomas Joseph C. Huang)

Here's what I got:

1. Ultimate Spider-Man: Warriors: Part 1

2. Ultimate Spider-Man: Issue # 1 (Published August 2009)

3. Web Of Spider-Man Issue # 1

4. Ultimate Spider-Man: Hollywood: Part 1

5. Batman: The Legend Of The Dark Knight: Bad: Part 1

This looks to be the beginning of the revival of a childhood hobby. I'm probably not as hardcore as the comic collecting hobbyist/enthusiasts out there, but I thoroughly enjoy comic books and my childhood superheroes. I guess you can say that my childhood never really left me (most of us will and can admit that theirs have never left either.) and that up to this day, I still am the geeky kid I was about 15 years ago and I'm proud of it! :]

(Spider-Man, photo courtesy of Google)

(Batman, photo courtesy of Google)

Getting My Nerd On (Part 1)

A few weeks ago, my trusty MSI EX 460 laptop was called into Silicon Valley Heaven. It was a sad day. From getting me through some school work, to passing the time, to daily activities, to a 24 hour LAN party with friends, this laptop has been through a lot with me. I suppose you could say it served it's purpose quite well. What added to the sadness is that I now have to resort to using my iPhone 4S (which isn't a bad thing, except for the small screen size) as well the office laptop (an old Dell Latitude D630) at home for my daily activities. This sparked a thought, "Why not go back to the Grade School and High School days? Why not build my own PC rig?" and this led to me "Getting My Nerd On".


Ever since I was about 14 years old, I've always had a fascination with technology, tinkering with it, taking it apart and putting it back or simply taking it apart and appreciating all the details (also because there were times when I couldn't put it back together. -_-).  With that being said, I guess it was only a matter of time before I got back into it. And since I have decided to build my rig from scratch, that childlike excitement got renewed in me. 


And this is where my quest begins.


Step zero. Goal setting. Begin with the end in mind. My goal is to build a mid-performance, mid-budget rig. This may be a subjective category though.


Step one. Due diligence. Researching like a beast. Reading specifications. Reading reviews. Watching reviews. Comparing reviews. Comparing parts. Window shopping. It's a very tedious process, but it is a necessary evil. It could also save you a bunch of money if you look well enough. Because in the technological world, things aren't always what they seem, faster is not always better, more expensive is not always the best. This was the simple advice from Martin, a very good friend of mine who has ample experience in rig building.


The first thing I gathered intelligence for was to find the main organs of the rig. The Central Processing Unit (CPU) and the Motherboard. Finding these is like preparing for marriage, the two need to be compatible or else there will be problems. The first piece I looked for was the CPU and the motherboard. Something I learned recently (courtesy of Martin) was the wattage capacity of the Motherboard (e.g. Processor Thermal Design Power (TDP) is 125w, Motherboard only supports 95w). I had no idea about this and it would have become an issue if I hadn't gotten this tip. This certainly helped me narrow my searches for parts.


This will serve as the first part of the series I will be putting together as I progress through my build.


Stay tuned for the next part when I begin purchasing the hardware!