Building my first modern rig.

1)      I have been planning to assemble myself a powerful desktop. Only recently, I found the chance to do so. So, 2 weeks ago, I went online and investigate a desktop setup that can be considered a beast, yet affordable.
After 3 days of sleepless nights identifying the best combination of hardwares, I finally made my purchase at newegg.

2)      ...ジャジャン！！ A week later, these came to my door. =D 5 boxes in total. 1 contains a monitor and 1 contains the tower casing. But I don't really care about those two.

It is the other 3 that I have been waiting for.
Upon unboxing, I get these: MORE BOXES!! but definitely more colourful.

Highlights: *drumrollllll*

CPU: Intel i5 2500K
(CPU type: LGA 1155)

GPU: XFX HD Radeon 6870 CrossFireX ready.

SSD: Crucial M4 64GB (SATAIII)

and the rest,
Motherboard: ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 (for LGA1155)
Heatsink: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus (supports LGA 1155)
Hard disk: Hitachi Desktar 1TB (SATAIII)
RAM: G.Skill 4GBx2 DDR3 1600
PSU: PC Power and Cooling Silencer MK III 500W
Optic Drive: Asus DVD Burner (SATA)
Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech MK120 Bundle

As for the OS, we installed 64bit Windows 7 Professional with free key provided by the University service (thanks to Ammar for the heads up, I wonder why I didn't get any email about that).

3)      Assembling the desktop takes about 8 hours of menpower from me and my housemates (thanks to Ammar again, Hafiz, Cimi, and the occasional words of encouragement from the others XD).
The final result is....
SATISFYING =D.

4)     A few things that catch my attention:
-My new desktop can boot up in under 30 seconds. Woot2! Well, without any antivirus though. I wonder how well will it do if I install one.
-In the Windows 7 Windows Experience Index, the slowest component is the CPU and RAM with rating of 7.5. I was expecting the hard disk to be the slowest, but the opposite happened, the hard disk maxed to 7.9. o.O..... is this the power of SSD?
-The desktop is surprisingly quiet, even with 2 chassis fan, 1 CPU fan, 2 GPU fan, and 1 PSU fan. Two friends of mine who went to my room after the assembly thought that I connect the big monitor to my laptop instead, and didn't realize a big desktop house is there.

5)     The verdict. This purchase is satisfying. I believe the specs could last for at least another 3 years before the rig become less-supported. The only thing that I have to think now is... how to ship it to Malaysia later. -.-" I can only think of contenna courrier for now. Well, I'll save that thought for later =D.

My newly renovated workstation. Really, I plan to work with it, no kidding.

p/s: I actually made a mistake in choosing the PSU because 500W is not enough to do multi-GPU (aka AMD CrossFireX or nVidia SLi). Heh, typical kind of mistake if you only have yourself to consult with. As the result of this, I will have to buy a new PSU if I want to do CrossFireX in the future.

In the meantime however, a run through Skyrim and Assassins Creed Brotherhood in High Setting 1080p prove that I may not even need it. They are able to maintain steady rate of frame per second between 50 to 60 with not very common drop to 40 fps. Meh, I guess I can live with that.

Another day of winter: First day of class

Now it is 6.25am in the morning.
I suppose to wake up at 7am, but somehow I slept too early yesterday, and end up waking up a couple of hours ago -.-".

I will have the first class of the term at 8am, Math 300. Math in the morning, isn't that great? Fwa ha ha ha ha.
I hope that this term will be even better than the last.

Okay, I want to take a 30 minutes nap.

zZZZ

Another day of winter: New Year 2012

^^. Happy New Year 2012 everyone.

     For most part of the world, the day is already in 2012. This day marks the next revolution of earth orbiting the sun. Some say that it is insignificant, while some say that it is important. I say that today is a rare enough event for everyone to notice.

     Just like every other new years, I've been thinking on what shall be my resolution for the next 365 days.
But WAIT. Before that... what happened to 2011's resolutions??
-.-" While I didn't put it into words on this blog, I believe it was something about... getting better grades in my academic terms. Well, thanks Nizam of 2011. I guess you did a good job. One thing that I succeed was I was finally able to have good sleep the night before exams. No more being an all-nighters. ^^

     So, now, it is MY TURN, Nizam of 2012. What kind of paths shall I face for the next 12 months? What choices shall build up dilemmas for the next 12 months? What are the things that I could do the best as a 22 years old teen for the next 12 months? What level of misery that I can expect for the next 12 months? What can I do today that may help me for the next 12 months?

     I think last year, I was a little bit misbehaved. There's a lot of area I could have improved on, particularly in performing daily prayers. Then, while my time management showed some improvement, I still depend a lot on last minute pressure to finish the job. Whereas for daily consumption, I concluded that coffee & coke is bad for exams. MILO is by far the best!

     Therefore, I believe what I need for next year is to practice one-time-FOCUS aka giving dedications. FOCUS when I am studying. FOCUS when doing prayers. FOCUS when playing games. FOCUS when doing team projects. FOCUS when I am cooking. FOCUS in doing assignments. This is my resolution for 2012. I believe everyone would agree that 'focus' is a word with many good connotations.

=D

p/s: I bought a desktop!! ^^