FusionMods

I wanted to give a quick update. My computers been running excellently since i finished the build. But there was one small thing that I had over-looked. Since all of my drives have been recycled from the last build and then going back and back I still have IDE cdroms, and my primary hard drive is still an IDE drive. While almost all motherboards still come with one IDE controller, not all of them come with two IDE controller. So currently I do not have any CDRoms working, lol. Fortunatly I ordered a PCI expansion card from newegg to give me two extra IDE controllers. These are incredibly cheap, mine cost $15. But read the fine print, some are made to only function as raid controllers, some will only work with hard drives, so make sure you know what you’re getting.

My IDE controller will be arriving tomorrow

well this took much much longer than I had expected. It started with bad parts arriving, continued through setting up a bachelor party and a wedding, but last night, my computer finally got back up and running, and almost all without hitting any snags.

So I think I’ll start off by just posing all the pics in a gallery

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So this build was because of some failed components, but it also presented an excellent opportunity to upgrade at the same time. A lot of this is in my previous post, but I did opt to go for the quad core CPU, which after just a few hours of use, I’m extremly happy with so far.

Out of the box, the motherboard looks great. The size of the onboard coolers is always a small concern since these keep getting larger and larger, but these ones were an average size, and positioned nicely enough that I didn’t feel all that worried.

The first step is installing the CPU, this should be pretty straight forward. The CPU will have two notches in it, allowing it to rest in the cpu socket in only one position. Once in place, simply lock down the cpu.

Now depending on your CPU cooler, it might be easier to install this before mounting the motherboard. My CPU cooler has a back plate that comes with it, so I have to install it first. Most cpu coolers just have push pins, which depending on the placement of the fan(s), can be easy to install after the motherboard is mounted. Here’s a few shots comparing the CPU cooler I’m using and the stock cooler the CPU came with…. there’s no way you’d ever talk me into running a stock cooler, especially after comparing these pics.

Aside from the size of the stock cooler, I’ve also heard that the amount of thermal paste isn’t always enough either, and not having enough thermal paste is like running your car without enough oil.

So installing the CPU cooler, you first need to apply a coating of thermal compound to the CPU. you just need a thin layer. Luckily I had a tube of Arctic silver 5 laying around still. To spread it, I simply just cut a piece of plastic from the container that came with the CPU. Anything will do really as long as it is flat. I’ve used cardboard in the past, extra thick paper, but plastic is probably the best.

Once this is done, all that is left is to mount your motherboard. This is just typically 6 to 9 screws depending on the size of your board. Make sure to connect the power and all the other cables, as well as the graphics card. (I’m not spending too much time on these details because odds are, to install a new motherboard, you took your old one out). The only thing you’ll want to make a note of is that you have all of the case connectors plugged in properly. There’s nothing like turning on your computer for the first time, to realize it wont… because you forgot to plug in that connector.

Once everything is all plugged in you should have a real mess of cables similiar to this…

hopefully yours will look a little bit cleaner, lol.

Here’s a shot of the computer up and running… It’s a pretty great day foro it so far

And now that I think of it, as soon as I get home today, I’ll publish some shots of my full system, hopefully my office can stay this clean for a while.

It’s been a few weeks since my last update and I wanted to make a post on it…

My computer has just recently been re-assembled. The biggest reason this has taken so was is because once I got the parts, either the motherboard (or CPU) were faulty and needed to be sent back

On top of that, just after sending them back, I was in a car accident. I’m actually completly fine, but my truck has been declared wrecked, and without the money, to go to a dealer for a brand new 2009 or 2010 ranger, I’m scavenging the used car market, and all I can say is, cash for clunkers took all the good ones, lol

In addition to that I’m in a wedding this weekend, and while it hasn’t directly taken up too much time, it has kept me pretty occupied with coming up with a speech and what not

Tomorrow I’ll have a nice write up on my new computer build. I’ll also have tons of pics, and instructions for anyone else wanting to upgrade their own PC!! haha so hopefully this longly awaited post will be worth the wait!

If you guys have any requests for things I should cover, let me know, and I’ll be sure to include it in my next post

Well in a very random twist, a week after I did my post on building a computer, mine happened to die, lol.

So this really presents me with the perfect opportunity to show you guys how to assemble a PC. The parts all arrive tomorrow (hopefully), and then I’ll be rebuilding everything!

But today, I’ll run down the components I went with.

For the CPU, Intel Core 2 Quad Q8400 Yorkfield 2.66GHz
This isn’t the most powerful CPU out there, but he’s still a really nice model. I opted for the quad core because I really wanted to see the difference in performance. My last CPU was a Core 2 Duo, 2.4 GHz, so it’s a pretty good level for comparison.

For the motherboard, GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R
This was actually really close between an ASUS board. I’ve used both manufacturers in the past though and I’ve been very happy with each. Both boards have a large number of positive reviews as well. In the end, they were so close in their builds that the deciding factor turned out to be the number of USB ports, lol

Some faster Ram, OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB)
I currently have two slower sticks of 1GB each DDR2 that I might add as well. It’s true that it’ll lower the speeds all around on the ram, but I’m thinking the simple capacity will make up for it comfortably.

I’m also debating on doing some water cooling. I do have a pretty nice CPU cooler, but I’m really wondering how big of a temperature difference I’ll see on a quad core vs my old dual core CPU.

But like I said, the parts arrive tomorrow, then I’ll do a full write up on everything! lots of pictures

I thought this would be something great to talk about after reading an article on the MEN, No Internet No Interest

I’ll avoid digging deep into different stats, and just stick to the stats from the story. The article mentions that 25% of Americans don’t have the internet, and 17% don’t even want to go on the internet. Now I’m a full time web developer, I’ll admit, my life kind of hinges around the internet. But honestly, I do feel I really bennefit from it.

Probably the best use of the internet I have is for information. I just bought a house earlier this year that needed some work. haha and as a web developer, I’m just not as handy as I wish I was, but you can find out how to do anything online, and a lot of the time you can even find videos on how to do anything as well.

The other great thing is online shopping. I’m really as far as you can get fomr a shop-aholic, but I do appreciate the ease here, as well as the option to compare prices and read product reviews. Saving the time and money has been a huge help.

One recent example was, my house needed all new cupboard doors. After checking with Lowes and Home Depot, and hearing them reccomend I just purchase new cabinets since the price of doors will be sooo high, I found a place online that sold cupboard doors at any size, with many styles, for about half the price.

I can understand the point of, “I’ve never had the internet, so I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything”. I can say that about a lot of things. As a child I didn’t see what people liked cable TV for, but now I enjoy the larger program line up and always great signal. I used to not see the point to cell phones, but now I have mine with me just about 24/7.

So while life will still keep moving without the internet I think it’ll move a little smoother with the internet.

This is where every mod starts. Now not all mods are built into a case, some are done in toasters, and microwave, and so on, and some are even fully custom built cases, but the majority are done from older computer cases and even some current ones.

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Links: Toaster1 - Toaster2 - Microwave

If you’re new to modding, but a computer enthousiast, the best route to go is to take an old computer that you have sitting in your attic. Most people have atleast one that has been retired, but since they spent so much on it back in the day, they couldn’t deal with simply throwing it away.

If you don’t have an old computer and want to buy a new case, don’t get one thats a crazy premod. The reason I say this is, windows are common, and easy to put in. Most the time if it comes with cool lightup areas, it’s lighting up their logo. And the last reason is, you’ll be spending a lot more for their premod, and you don’t even get to put any of you’re own ideas into the design.

So if you’re going either route here’s some tips for picking the case, first make sure it’s ATX if you’re digging it out of the attic. lol there’s not much point in modding a computer case if you won’t be able to put anything current into it. Second, ignore the color, thats the easiest problem to solve. Lastly, an all metal case is perfect since it provides a good solid ground to do some work on it.

This is a great started case. It’s under $25, has a nice aluminum body, but i’ll bet it’s still thin enough that you can cut though it like butter. It has 4 bays, and a cool looking front fan vent.

The tools, you’ll want a dremel. I’d reccommend avoiding the battery power dremels just because you won’t get enough work time out of them.

Now to start the modding. Suprisingly, almost anything you’ll even decide to mod a computer with, can be found at your local hardware stores. Places like Ace, Home Depot, and Lowes all have what you’ll need.

The basic ideas are always paint. Come up with a nice color theme. A lot of people will do the outside of the case, but it always looks incredible when you take the time to paint the inside frame of the case as well, just make sure you save this till after you do some cutting.

One of the most common mods is putting a window in your PC. I say this is where you can get creative. Don’t do that borring square cut, etch something in there that’d take some time and make it your own. Also, don’t feel limited to just putting a window on the side, get creative, add a window the your PSU, add a window to the top of your case.

To keep from getting into a post dedicated to a full window modding post, I’ll just show some supplies, ideas and other cases I’ve seen. These all touch on the basic principals.. Painting, lighting, windows, they are all some pretty sweet cases, and I think the perfect way for me to wrap up this post.  

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Here are some of the links from above…

Mesh window with Fan
Air Supreme EvO
Project Celtic Dragon PSU
Monster Rig
Tribal Server
Fire PC

And as a final note, I’d love to see any mods you guys might have done. Also, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate. I’ve been modding for many years now and have maintained an active part in the tech community, so I can likely field any questions you might have.

I hope you guys enjoyed this post!

This is a great article that touches on a number of recent events.

To start things off, Microsofts ad campaign appears to be working. Menioning an independant study, things are looking for for them. I hate to say it, but I think this ad campaign was completly provoked byMac. The funny part is, it probably would have worked except as soon as Bill Gates Stepped down, microsoft started fighting back.

Now about and beyond the ad campaign, it looks like microsoft will be opening up some of their own stores, and conveniently placing them right next to a few apple stores as well. lol, I think this will be comparable to a fast food war. I think this is pretty great though, because when companies comete, we win.

Do I know how to call them or what? In the Microsoft vs Google game I made mention to the fact that it’s likely we’ll be seeing google netbooks powered by ARM processors. And today I see this article popping out, “ARM Cortex + Google Chrome = Your Next Netbook?“. Looks like I was right

So whats this all mean?

Well google will be starting a big larger of a battle than against just microsoft. It’ll be waging ware on software developers and a few hardware developers. All home and work computers run off the same CPU Model as Intel. They may not have an Intel processor, but odds are, they do.

Now the software developers won’t be too big of an issue since ARM has been around for a while, but they’re still pretty late to hit the mainstream game, and all that software you love for your desktop/laptop will need to be redeveloper to run with an ARM processor.

Whats the difference between ARM and Intel? Well ARM has never had the power to process things like windows. Intel has never had the battery life that ARM has. It’s sort of like comparing a ranger to an F-350 (King Ranch Edition of Course). For a netbook, ARM might be an ideal choice, but I think there is still a lot to come from all of this.

This is one area I should probably touch on a lot more. There are many people who are avid computer users, who want more bang for their buck, but don’t know where to start. The lucky part is, it is suprisingly easy. I built my first computer as a 9th grade research project. At the time I have no prior knowledge, but still managed to throw something completly new together.

The first step is setting your price range. from there you can start choosing your components and features. I do want to say, that you’ll have a hard time building your own computer for $300 or whatever walmarts selling them for these days, but honestly, if you’re going to build your own PC, you probably want something a bit better than the bare minimum. After all, how many people take the time to restore something like a Geo Metro?

Ok so a fair price for an intro PC is $800. It’s true, you can get these in stores comfortably, but we’re looking for more bang at a comparable price.

Step 1 – Choose a motherboard and processor. If the processor (CPU) was the brain, the motherboard would be the spine. These two components pretty much make the computer. If you change these, you pretty much have a whole new computer. These are one of the few items that you need to check for compatability.

The easiest way to purchase these is as a combo item. If you can’t find them that way, all you want to check is first, is your motherboard intel or amd, second, you want to get the pin number. For example, my home computer is an Intel Core 2 Duo, LGA 775. This is a few years old, but still runs great.

What to look for in a CPU? Speed. The larger the numbers the better (except for price). I almost never go for the newest model because of price. When I got my Core 2 Dou, it was one model below the Core 2 Dou Extreme. Mine cost about $200, the Extreme cost a lovely $800 total, and I don’t think it would have been justified.

The motherboard is something that is really up to you. Remember this is the nervous system of your computer, so it’s not something you’ll just upgrade every couple months. Features to look for…

• How many USB Ports (internal and external) – Honestly, in the many years I’ve been building computers, I still feel the same, you can never have too many USB ports.
• Types of ports available – This is something to look at now as every manufacturer tries to put his favorite specs into the motherboard. some might have fiber optic  audio ports, some might have HDMI, there are really a lot of options, so make sure you consider some of the different things you might use your computer for so you can make sure you won’t be missing out on some key functionality.
• Number of expansion slots – These just aren’t nearly as used as they used to be with so many things coming integrated now, but it’s still something to pay attention to. If you have a TV Tuner, SCSI card, and three other random cards, your modern computer might be pushing the limits.
• Number of memory slots – Odds are you’ll have 4 slots, but it’s always good to make sure. Unless you’re building something that intentionally won’t take up much space, don’t settle for anything that doesn’t have 4 slots available.
• Maximum Memory – In windows XP 32 bit this didn’t matter much since the limit was 4 GBs, and you never saw the full 4 GB since some of it was reserved for the system. Now with 64 bit operating systems really taking over, i believe the limit starts at 32 GB and just goes up from there. It’s always good to know what your hardware can handle in upgrades, even if you know you’ll never be hitting that.
• Compatible CPUs – This is something I took note of in my last build. Swapping a CPU isn’t as difficult as it sounds, but it is still a big purchase. Knowing I might build on the cheap for my next computer, I selected on that would handle compadible quad core CPUs as a potential upgrade. But keep in mind, this is still iffy. In 2-5 years when you upgrade, if you had planned to do this, they might have just junked that socket type all together, lol.
• Sli/Crossfire support – This is for the gamer in all of us. If you wanna go all out, Go SLi or Crossfire (depending on your preference or budget).

And I won’t go into this too much in this post, but I’d really reccomend getting a seperate CPU cooler. The stock coolers are never very good, and the life that it’ll add to your computer is easily worth the extra $30 or so you’ll spend on it.

Step 2 – Now that we’ve covered the CPU and Motherboard, the next best thing would probably be the graphics card.

This is where you start to really look at the type of computer you want. If you plan to only check email and browse the web, you might as well get a motherboard that handles your graphics. But if you’re looking for some gaming power, I’d reccomend getting a seperate graphics card. Finally, if you want a real lot of graphics power, get two graphics cards and chain them together with SLi or Crossfire, just make sure they support it first

Costs here depend greatly on the route you plan to go. Integrated graphics won’t cost you anything. A single graphics card can cost from $150 to $500, and sdual graphics cards can cost double that!

Step 3 – Now I think it’s time we talked about memory. Ram is probably the cheapest component you can spend on. It’s also the easiest to upgrade in the future, so don’t worry about buying the best, because honestly, prices on ram are getting better every day. I’d reccomend getting about 4gb of ram. You’ll be very well off for just about any PC use you plan to tackle. This will probably cost you around or just over $100 unless you’re deal shopping. If you’re getting a computer just for web browsing, you’d be fine with just 2gb.

Keeping with comparing to parts of the human body, Ram would be like another chunk of the brain. Nothing is stored here, but it helps process your thoughts. There are different types of ram, that do have some speed differences, but for the most part you just have to look at it as, “This is where all my thoughts are kept, while I focus on individual ones, and can’t get to the rest at this moment. In all honesty, these “moments” are only microseconds. But the easiest way to get ram is, start with 2gb, if you feel like you’re computer is sluggish, get another 2.

Additionally, you’ll want to check compatability with your motherboard, don’t worry all these specs will be listed. It will say something like DDR2 or 3.

Step 4 – The hard drive. This is where you get a lot of fun. With the new flow of technology going into hard drives you can land some great deals. Honestly, 500gb is likely more than enough for anyone, but without searching too hard you can commonly find deals for 1TB hard drives around $100.

Odds are you will go with a SATA drive as IDE drives are slowly being phased out. Additionally if you want a bit of a speed boost or added personal security, I’d say go with a RAID setup. This is easy to do, takes nothing to maintain, and and widely supported on almost all motherboards these days. Also, I’ll always reccomend Hardware Raid controllers, software might offer a few extra options, but you’ll lose any speed benefits you might have gained.

Step 5 – The power supply…. This is the most insignifigant component that plays the largest role in a computer. With a proper power supply you’ll never know it even exists, and thats the way you want it. With a poor power supply, you’ll run into all kinds of problems, that could easily cost you your entire setup. The main thing to look at is wattage. You want to supply enough power to everything. The rule of thumb is add up all the wattage and add 10-15% for startup bursts. A safe number in general is, shoot for 400w. You can easily find these things under $50, but I wouldn’t reccomend going much under $50. The reason for that is, you really do get what you pay for when it comes to Power Supplies. This is the sort of thing that if theres a thunder storm, and have a good power supply, you might just lowe your power supply, if you have a poor power supply, you might lose your entire system. I might do a seperate write up on power supplies in general to stress this, but like I said, 400w is a good number to shoot for. I have a 600w, and I paid $75 for it. The best thing you can do, is find a model with a lot of reviews, and a lot of positive marks.

Step – 6 The Case – This is something that I could have brought up any time. All common setups fit an ATX case. Unless you’re building something like an HTPC, you’ll end up with an ATX everything. Whats ATX? it’s just the name of the form factor, or size of the motherboard, expansion cards, ect. Before ATX it was just AT, there’s also things like micro ATX and baby ATX, and all sorts of off shoots that are used with specific purposes, but that would be getting too off track.

Choosing a case really just comes down to what you think looks good. You can spend anything from $10 to $300 on these. The best advice I can give is first, keep in mind, you’ll want some space to work in there. Second, make sure it’ll be ventilated. I run the XClio Wind Tunnel, and I love that case, ThermalTake makes excellent cases, so does AeroCool, but it all comes down to whatever your preference is.

The Final Step – The peripherals. This includes things like your DVD Roms, card readers, temp monitors, I could w4rite many pages on all the options here. but again, this all comes down to preference. One thing to keep in mind, these are all extremly universal. The only thing you’ll want to keep a bit of an eye on is, if you have enough drive bays to fit everything, and if you’ll have enough power connectors to fit everything. and you’ll rarly run out of either.

I think this concludes the components. Over the next couple days I’ll cover in some detail the specifics on a few components, like CPUs, Power Supples, and even the variety of the Peripherials. I’ll also be doing one on cooling. Next week some time I’ll do the write up on assembly and turning it on for the first time

If anyone has anything specific to ask, feel free. If i can’t answer it, I’ll direct you to the people who can.

This is something the tech community has been buzzing about and it is pretty big news. While it may not be the mega clash that soo many people are making it out to be, it is still definitely news worthy.

Whats causing the buzz? Each company is trying to squeeze into the others territory. Suprisingly a lot of people are attacking microsoft for the first move, but while most people mention googles online apps, don’t seem to mention that it was created well over a year ago, offering applications such as word processing, desktop publishing, and spreadsheets. add heirchical database managment, and you have the office suite (no need to mention the outlook alternative right?).

The most recent announcements are google is planning to launch an OS, and microsoft who’s found some real success with it’s search engine Bing! will be launching free online apps along with Office 2010. Unfortunately, I don’t expect google to provide real competition to microsoft with their new OS, I could be wrong, but I’m not expecting anything as powerful as windows.

Google only recently entered the OS game with android, the cell phone OS. While this was a great day towards opening up cell phones, they’re low end, and I wouldn’t be suprised if google launches a netbook OS, that runs on ARM processors. The other issue that I think will hold them back will be software compatability. I don’t care if google invents the cure for cancer in an OS. If i can’t run any software i need to do my job, then why would I use it? There is already windows, linux, and macs to program for, in these economic times, google may not only have to reinvent the wheel, they may have to reinvent the axel, the frame, the motor, and so on, because it’s going to be difficult and timly to get new developers on board with their platform.

Microsoft may actually have it a lot easier to enter googles field. The beautifual thing about websites are they are universal. Any computer, and any platform (more or less) can run them. Microsoft is no stranger to web programming either. With the initial presence of VB.net, asp.net, and even their database software, they already have all the necessary tools to work with.

But really no matter how you’re looking at it, you’re seeming something that happens every day. Competition. No matter how this goes, it should be good for us, the end users in the long run.