I began with the basic necessities first: the ThermalTake tower case and Antec Power Supply. I liked the ATX case with plenty of room for the motherboard and hard drive cages. The power supply is a good (orange) looking 750W with extra 6-pin plugs for Crossfire capable video cards.

Next, oddly enough, when I began the research about 5 months ago, I thought it was a good idea to buy the Kingston HyperX RAM because there was a rebate promotion at Newegg. Then RAM prices dropped dramatically, by almost half!  For sure, a painful lesson learned here. [Updated: Photo]

In the last 2 weeks, the shopping went into high gear, with the indication there were more online sale after Black Friday/Cyber Monday.  It was the time to start buying the ASUS P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 motherboard.

In order to test the motherboard, I had to make a quick decision to buy the CPU.  During my research, I was originally going with lower end AMD Phenom II X6.  But I read an awful lot of negative reviews on the AMD. There are many glowing reviews on the Intel i7 2600-K. I decided I needed to spend the money on a much better chip.  The CPU is the brain of the operation, so it needed to be the best one.  The Intel happens to be good at overclocking without requiring much power and producing heat. Additionally, I also got the Cooler Master 212+ CPU cooler, with a large heat sink and fan, to cool it off.

Next, I had to get the video card.  This was an interesting decision that I had to make. The choices were high-end Radeon 69XX series, the recently discounted Radeon 68XX series, or go with new territory of Nvidia GTX series.  I also had to decide on getting a card with 1G or 2G RAM.  Since my 23″ monitor only has 1920×1200 resolution, I thought the 1G RAM version is sufficient.  Anyway, I decided to get the discounted ASUS EAH6850.  My strategy here is to get another one so I can link them in a Crossfire configuration, at a later day when prices have gone down.  I need to watch the prices regularly because if the supply is gone, availability will be scarce and prices won’t come down. It’s a lesson I learned from the last build with Radeon 4850.

Finally, I couldn’t resist the temptation to try out the latest craze: Solid State Drives.  It promises faster boot up time and operation. Reviews only said to stay away from first generation SSDs, so I ended up buying the more recent OCZ Vertex 3 90GB drive. I knew it’s going to be a big improvement over hard drives.  Also, in the future, I may be able to use this as a cache for RAID hard drives².

Part of this exercise is to discover the advantages UEFI “BIOS”.  Microsoft touted Windows 8 to take advantage of UEFI to secure the boot process.  It can also (possibly) speed up power-on bootup, as shown in their video.  Right now, I haven’t explored this possibility since there’s no Windows 8 public beta, at least not until February 2012.

The ASUS’s UEFI is quite beautiful.

I always overclock my CPUs.  With the new motherboards and CPUs, this has become an easy exercise.  I overclocked the i7 2600K from 3.4 GHz to 4.6, with relative ease. This P8Z68 motherboard made it painless: just change the multiplier and set everything else on Auto. It’s so easy, my Grandma can do it.

Of course, with overclocking, I’ll need a good cooling system.  Putting in the massive CPU cooler was not the only thing I needed for my overclocking adventures. I had to make sure the case has good air flow.  So I made sure there are three 120mm fans blowing in from the front.  I also sealed any holes on the sides and the top of the case.  Now, when the computer is on, it’s pretty noisy – even when I close the cabinet door, where I stored the PC. I’ll need to tweak the chassis fan speeds to make it more quiet.  It’s going to be a balancing act between better cooling and lower decibels.

But for now, I can get the CPU cores to operate around 70°C under full load³ at 4.6 GHz.  Later, I’ll go search for that holy grail of 5.0 GHz.

Here was my shopping list.  The only thing left to do is putting in another Radeon HD68XX based card for CrossFireX configuration.  I can definitely wait for the price to go down a little more.  Otherwise, I’m pretty much done with this setup.

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

PC Build 2011

1. I still used rebates and looked for discounts, whenever I can, as the first rule of thumb.
2. Using Intel’s SRT software.
3. Using prime95

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1. PC Build 2008: Part 1
2. PC Build 2008: Part 2
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Day 1

Thankful for a cool sunny weather so I could take my daily walk in comfort. I do power walks almost every day for about 15 minutes.  I should be doing 30 minutes, but 15 seems to be good enough for me. Even in that seemingly short time, I can work up a sweat, especially during warm days. So during cool days, I can return at the end without being drenched in sweat.

Day 2

Thankful of the OC fire fighters. Santa Ana winds were at it again and dry weather caused brush fires around here. I’m glad the fire fighters are always on alert and ready for it now.

Day 3

Thankful for co-operative co-workers.  In a company where every one works together as a team, stress is not an issue.  I was glad I could have at least one day of it at work.

Day 4

Thankful for the rain.  I would hate to have more brush fires, so a good amount of rain was needed!

Day 5

Thankful for my Indonesian friends.  I’m very much a Canadian/American, but I can’t forget my roots.  Because of my wife, I now have many Indonesian friends!

Day 6

Thankful for reliable transportation.  In California, a car is the only reliable transportation and I have two working and safe ones.

Day 7

Thankful for free software. A lot of generous people out there. My PC, iPhone, and Android tablet have many useful ones like Google Maps, Google Earth, Kindle reader (with free books!), etc.! [Update: Coincidently, Lifehacker has an article on 50 Free Apps We're Most Thankful For.]

Day 8

Thankful for a hot shower. November is cold season – both temperature and the health-issue kind.  A nice hot shower brought relieve!

Day 9

Thankful for 3G Data Connection. I love Pandora Radio.  I listen to it every day during my commute.  The 3G data on my iPhone made that possible.

Day 10

Thankful for my thankless job.  I’m a sysadmin. I’m expected to work late and work often. I work behind the scenes, so I don’t get the glory. It’s a stressful job that gets little or no appreciation.  But in this economy, I’m glad I have a job that I still love doing.

Day 11

Thankful for the men and women in the armed forces who are keeping this world free and secure.  Veteran’s (or Remembrance) Day is by far the most important day in November.  To our military personnel, thank you for your service!

Day 12

Thankful for my spiritual leaders: Pastor Rick Warren, John, and Elizabeth.  These folks lead by example on how to be a good and faithful Christian. Excellent mentors!

Day 13

Thankful for God’s healing and friends’ prayers.  My family’s been suffering the cold & coughs. With prayers, we’re healing and recovering nicely.

Day 14

Thankful for clean sheets.  Nothing feels better than clean, bouncy, and soft bedding sheets.  Feels like heaven!

Day 15

Thankful for cheap DVD-Rs.  I’ve got a ton of kids and vacation videos. The cheap discs let me experiment with authoring techniques and archive my hard drives, on a regular basis – without hurting my wallet.

Day 16

Thankful for an uneventful day. Sometimes, things just work out without a glitch. Everyone’s happy as they can be. I always count these blessings!

Day 17

Thankful they FINALLY opened an extra lane for turning right on Northbound Imperial Highway, making my commute home much easier. This used to be one lane and always always cause a backup all the way past the Highway 91 overpass.  For years, I drove this road and got stuck for 10 minutes.  Now, turning right on La Palma is fast, resulting in less congestion. It’s ABOUT TIME!

Day 18

Thankful for coupons.  I always appreciate free or deeply discounted stuff.  Especially stuff that I need, like food, or a new computer!

Day 19

Thankful for all of the warm birthday greetings from family and friends. Everyone left a message via Facebook, email, phone calls, and in-person. I’m touched everyone remembers. These are the people that matter in my life!

Day 20

Thankful I’m sharing the joys of Christmas together with my family. We’ve put up the Christmas tree and decorated it.  My 6-year old was so excited about it. Got the Christmas music going in the background.  It’s too bad it wasn’t snowing – but at least it was raining.  The tree turned out beautiful!

 Day 21

Thankful for free shipping.  I just love Internet stores with free shipping. They make everything so affordable – and convenient.  Now if they could all get rid of the State taxes…

Day 22

Thankful I got my Ultrabook!  I got my Toshiba ultra-thin and light notebook computer and enjoy being super-productive with it.  Not to mention it’s kinder on my back since it’s so much lighter than my other 5-pounder Notebooks!

Day 23

Thankful I could beat the holiday traffic.  The commute to work was easy, but the traffic after 4:30PM was brutal!  Good thing I got out early from work at 3PM, so I managed to miss the pile up.

Day 24

Thankful for my wife and child – for being there when I need them!  My family is wonderful!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Twenty-Four Days of Thanksgiving

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So far my biggest gripe is the fan noise. It’s the only moving part in the box that I’m unable to turn it off since the laptop runs cool most of the time. I have other minor ones like the sticky feel of the keyboard and the lack of choice in chassis color.

All in all, it’s a solid performer. I’ve owned many laptops before¹, and I can say, with all honesty, I’m impressed with the Z835.

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[View with PicLens]

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Portégé Z835 – My Latest Lightweight Productivity Machine

1. Since 1993

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Earlier this year, Netflix customers were in a rage when they found out Netflix raised their streaming+DVD service fees up by 60%.  Many have fled the service altogether.  Many commented they were disgusted by the move. In short, everyone was not happy.  Most didn’t understand why, neither.

Today, Netflix customers (including myself) have received another news from the CEO saying they’ve screwed up and offered an explain why. While reading, I said to myself, “Oh good, maybe they’ll bring back the free lunch.” Instead, Netflix decided to spin off their DVD subscription business to a new one called Qwikster.

I immediately raised an eyebrow and said, “HUH?!”  I’m sure the others did the same. Maybe it was the shock of the name “Qwikster”, or the fact t Netflix hasn’t really fixed anything to make their customers happier.

But then I remembered a few things. I remembered Netflix put their priority on streaming.  I remembered the content providers have a new revenue source in the streaming media.¹ The future is in streaming:  It’s convenient and quick.

So obviously: Netflix is trying to kill off the DVD business!

My thoughts were confirmed from this article on The Atlantic.  Mailing DVDs is not a sustainable business model. It’s great for customers, but costly for Netflix.  DVD itself is old tech, some of us have already graduated to Blu-ray for HD 1080p content.  Mailing out Blu-ray discs will prove to be a more expensive iteration.

In so many words, reading between the lines, I believe Netflix is saying DVD is dead!  Time to move on. I just wish Netflix make it a qwik death.

UPDATE: GigaOm offered a good explanation why this split was necessary: reduced subscribers means lower content licensing cost. It makes sense. Unfortunately, people are really leaving both services, which I’m sure not what Netflix intended.

Photo Credit: Kill Taupe

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

DVD is Dead! Netflix Says So!

1. Additionally, they tried to make everyone pay for playing movies on my iPhone or Tablet.

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• Getting kids involved in a team sport, like soccer.  I’m worried about the time commitment, but we generally agreed it’s essential for a child’s development.
• Creating a team web page. Facebook Page is more popular now. However, not everyone is on Facebook – especially the older folks.
• College investment.  Is it worth it to have higher education degree and entry level job is less than $60k?  It may just pay off in the long run.
• More IT jobs are available.  We’re not sure why this is happening, but recruiters are having a hard time finding qualified people in IT.
• Finding jobs in China. With the bad economy in USA, more people are moving to China. Standard of living is rising in China.
• Costco’s American Express has a cash-back limit on gas.  Apparently, the limit is $3000 per year – then it switches to 1% instead of 3%.

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Lunch Bits – Edition 42

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The latest announcement by Netflix to raise prices doesn’t surprise me.  It sucks that we, the consumers, have to foot the bill because it costs a great deal of money to acquire content from the movie/television studios. The motion picture business is a cutthroat and greedy market.

At the end of the day, Netflix needs to make more profit to keep the investors¹ happy. Let’s hope Netflix doesn’t lose too many customers that may force them to cut costs – mainly in content.

Despite of this, I’ll continue to use Netflix. I’m just a fan and loyal customer. Now, I have to determine if I need to rent DVDs from them. Maybe the $1 Redbox rental once or twice a month will be sufficient. If not, then I’ll just bite the bullet and contribute more to Netflix’ coffers.

Photo Credit: Kill Taupe

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

It Sucks Netflix Is Raising Prices

1. By the way, I’m not a Netflix shareholder.

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Nobody wears a watch any more.
Nobody wears a tie either.
Nobody shops at a bookstore.

It’s about Marketing to Nobody. Essentially, he’s saying there’s a growing number of people changing their habits and preferences, yet companies out there still trying to cater the same old crowd, hoping they would do the same old things.

I haven’t worn a tie to work since 1994.  I haven’t worn a watch since junior high¹.  I haven’t bought a book from a bookstore in 8 years, thanks to Amazon.

I can add more to this list of things I  haven’t done in a long time:

• I don’t watch live TV.
• I don’t go to the movie theaters.
• I don’t buy a brand-name desktop PC.
• I don’t drink coffee.
• I don’t wear jewelry.
• (Update) I don’t go to the library.

I’m willing to try anything new and different.  So, who’s going to cater a nobody like me?

Photo Credit: helloiamtwo

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

I’m A Nobody

1. Back in the 80′s

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But, I digressed…

The thought of spending doesn’t stop at the latest electronics gadget. I want to go to Disneyland, and going to end up spending more there.  We want to take a boat cruise and spend a lot more there.  Heck, I even want to get a new car since I’m not happy with the performance of this Civic! (Read: Mid-Life crisis!)

Then there’s the obligatory Mother’s Day, Daughter’s Birthday, and my oh-so-favorite, Father’s Day gifts!

When will this spending end?  There’s only one way to curb this and it’s to come up with a budget.  I don’t have a bottomless pit of a bank account and I live on my bi-weekly paychecks.

This is why I still don’t have a DSLR camera.  I still don’t have a new TV. I still don’t buy into Blu-Ray and “upgrade” my DVD libraries. I still don’t buy new movies.

Instead, what I’m doing is cutting down on my eating out.  I’ve started to eat healthy and cut down big meals (especially dinner). I’ve cut the cord by using HDTV antenna and Netflix/Hulu. I’ve cut my phone bills from $25 to $4/month by using Ooma Vo-IP.

Now I’m left with things I do need to spend.  I still can’t telecommute and have to pay extra for gas since it’s at a ridiculous price of $4+/gallon¹. I need to upgrade my desktop computer because I do more video editing.  And let’s not forget the stuff I need to fix around the house (and garden).

Thinking out loud here. Either way, I don’t think I’ll ever stop spending money.

Photo Credit: lms0814

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

Need to Spend

1. Like in 2008.

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For me, I’ve since upgraded to 6 Mbps AT&T, but only lasted for a few months.  Now, I’ve dropped their DSL in favor of Time Warner Cable’s Roadrunner broadband for three reasons:

1. Cost.  Roadrunner is running a promotional $30/month.
2. Speed. The standard one has bandwidth upto 10 Mbps download and 1 Mbps upload¹.
3. True Unlimited. AT&T will start to cap and charge additional fees for over-the-limit use (aka overage). Cable modem does not have overages².

The biggest reason is obviously these stupid overages. They are a step backwards for internet commerce and productivity.  Bandwidth caps will stifle innovation. I don’t understand why AT&T has to do this since 98% of their customers are not bandwidth hogs. Maybe they got the numbers wrong. I don’t use that much bandwidth, and certainly don’t want to start thinking about my bandwidth use.

Anyway, I’m still hopeful to see the ultra high-speed broadband in my neck of the woods.  Cheap, or even free, bandwidth will be the dream. I sure hope Google can set the standard and lead it all the way.

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

More Broadband Options, Please!

1. Versus AT&T’s upto 6 Mbps download and 0.5 Mbps upload
2. At least not yet

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But not today.  Everything went up!

I wonder what drove the prices up?  Is it Christmas shopping season already?  Whatever it is, I have “Delayed Buyer Remorse”, watching my Printer selection went up from $70 to $108!

Ah well, I waited this long, I might as well keep waiting.

Photo Credit: raga

This article was posted on Rudy Amid's Blog:

I Snooze I Lose

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