Mid-Range Work Station
Yay! Thank you Wirelessgeek for being my first member/person who commented. I really appreciate it 
I’m excited! Glad I can help ya out. If you wanna subscribe, go straight ahead. Either way, I’m very thankful
Anyways, Wirelessgeek, thanks for the wireless card thought. I personally am going wireless myself, as I don’t have a Gigabit port in my room(unfortunately…). What kind of wireless card(a/b/g/n) you need depends on two key factors: the current Internet you have(like cable, etc.) and your router. If you have, say, cable(like me!), you should go w/ any of the a/b/g/n EXCEPT FOR n. N will make no large difference unless you have the Internet connection type to work w/(let’s just say… T1 Xp). So, if you have cable and down, even if you did have a faster connection, is the g. I use it in mine, runs smoothly from Internet site to site, runs my online games smoothly, and best of all, it is relatively cheap(my card was 29.99 dollars). The card I would suggest, is definitely the one I use, the AirLink 802.11g. I have one in the machine I’m using right now, and the one I don’t use anymore. In both machines, it works like a charm; easy setup, and installing drivers is very simple. So, the point: w/ any connection up to cable, go w/ an a/b/g Wireless card. If you have anything faster(which is expensive… but fast :D), go w/ the n.
Now, to the mid-range build. When I say mid-range, I mean like the vicinity of 1000~1400 dollars. In a work-station computer, you don’t have many components that is expensive. What you should mainly look for is rock-solid stability, and some speed. So, here is the build:
CPU: Intel Core2Duo E6750. Absolutely awesome CPU, very fast right out of the box. If you ever want to Overclock(which I will explain later), this is your CPU. ~$185
Motherboard: Gigabyte X38 DDR2 Motherboard. EXCELLENT motherboard, rock-solid, plenty of SATA ports for all of your hard drive needs, extra PCIe slot if you ever need it(if you do some hardcore graphics/game designing, this may come in handy), and also overclockable. Basically, one of the best X38 motherboards I’ve ever put my hands on ~$215
RAM: Crucial Ballistix 2×1GB DDR2 800, Patriot Extreme 2×1GB DDR2800, or Corsair Dominator 2×1GB DDR2 800. In this one, I put in three options, because we now have more room in our budget. The last option, the Dominator, is excellent RAM. They will all work very well if you plan to just stick the RAM in the motherboard and leave them be, but if you want to overclock, I HIGHLY suggest the Corsair Dominator. Crucial: ~$67 Patriot: ~$65 Dominator: ~$95
PSU: PC Power and Cooling 610W PSU. This PSU is great; 610W, which is more than enough, stable, solid, all you ever want from a PSU. This monster will pretty much power anything you throw at it, and w/ the extra watts remaining in your work station, you can pop in another hard drive, CPU, or any other component w/ no problems whatsoever. ~$130
GPU: HIS Radeon HD 3870. Ok, in this mid-range, I’m going to make a small assumption: you might need multiple monitors to do multiple functions at the same time. Have 2 monitors is a big advantage if you need to do many things at the same time, basically multi-tasking. 2 monitors will allow you to open more windows at the same time, so you can work more efficiently. The 3870 will give excellent performance here, and it will take anything you throw at it… occaisional minigames when you want to take a break 
~$200
Case: Antec 900 Mid-Tower Case. Now, this case is thought by many to be a purely-gaming case. However, I see potential in using this case as a work-station case. When I went to Fry’s to check out this case, the fan settings was on low-mid, and I didn’t think it was loud at all. And I don’t think there’s much need to put the fan settings up any higher. This case comes w/ 2 120mm fans in the front, 1 120mm fan in the back, and a HUGE 200mm fan up top. Now, that’s what I call some awesome air-cooling right there. There are also 2 additional places you can put 120mm fans(1 on the side-panel, and one on one of the hard-drive cages), so if you need more air-cooling power, this is your case. ~$125
Hard Drive: Same as the post before. Since you have a slightly-larger budget, you can get a bigger hard drive, like a 500GB, 750GB, or even a 1TB drive if you need it. Personally, if you were to pick out 1 of the three, I’d pick the 750GB because in benchmarks, the 750GB drive seems to perform slightly better than the other 2. Again, I’d suggest Seagate Barracuda because of their warranty.
Optical drive: Samsung 20x CD/DVD burner SATA. Same one as the low-budget, since there aren’t that many differences between more faster drives to justify the cost difference. This’ll serve you very well. ~$32
Optional: Wireless Card: AirlLink 802.11g. Great card, works right out of the box, and it’s fairly cheap(props to WirelessGeek for this idea). ~$32
Now, that’s about a total of ~$985. Now, this’ll give you enough room to get a mouse, keyboard, monitor, and other peripherals, if needed. Eventually, if you need it, you can go w/ a second monitor.
Well that’s it for now. Next time: Such thing as a “High-End Work-Station”? And more to come on this site: Links to the cheapest, yet reputable retailers for products in the Low- and Mid-range Work-Station to help you save money! See you all later!
~| Icarus
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Low Budget Work Computer Build
Hey guys, Icarus again! Sorry I couldn’t post this yesterday… I had a lotta homework to get done ~.~
Anyways, on to the core of this post.
Let me reiterate my last post. What we want in a work-related computer is stability, processing power, and multitasking(in order from highest priority to lowest). So I based this build on those 3 key factors.
So, when I say “Low Budget”, I mean in the Sub $1000. Like, anywhere from 600~1000 dollars. So, here’s the build I thought out:
CPU: Intel Core2Duo E4500 Processor; just an awesome processor to work w/, rock-solid stability, and gives you 2 cores to work with, giving you as much processing power you need. ~ $124
Motherboard: Gigabyte P35 DS3L Motherboard; this motherboard also gives us rock-solid performance, and it has all the things necessary for a nice work-station computer. Enough SATA ports for hard drives, 1 PCIe slot, other PCI slots, and that such. All the things we need on one motherboard. ~ $100
RAM(Memory): Crucial Ballistix 2×1GB DDR2 800 RAM, Patriot eXtreme 2×1GB DDR2 800 RAM, or Corsair XMS2 2×1GB DDR2 800 RAM. They will all give you more than enough power to open many programs at the same time, w/ many windows. This will allow you to work smoothly, even w/ programs running in the background. ~ $69
PSU: Corsair 450W PSU. Very stable, nice wattage, great # of AMPs; All you need and more for a stable computer. This will give more than enough juice to power all of your computer components in this build. ~$75
GPU: EVGA 8600GT; this card is not for the gaming computer, but for a work-station computer like this one, it will provide more than enough graphics power. Graphics power isn’t that important in a normal work-station computer like this one, but if you want to run multiple monitors to have more windows open at the same time, this’ll do the job well. ~ $130
Case: CoolerMaster RC-690 Mid-tower case. If you’re working, you want silence so you can work efficiently right? Well, this case is VERY quiet. And if you ever want to add more fans to cool down your computer from a hard couple hours of running many programs at the same time, it’ll do the job very well. ~ $80
Hard Drive: Well… depends on what kind of work you do. But if you do work that requires a lot of hard drive space, I’d suggest a 500GB or even a 750GB hard drive. If not, go w/ a simple 320GB or even 250GB Hard drive. I’d recommend Seagate Barracuda hard drives because of their warranty.
Optical Drive: Samsung Black 20X CD/DVD Burner Optical Drive. Fairly cheap, and has good reputation. In my opinion, all of these optical drives perform as well as any other, so if you have a brand preference, go for it. Just make sure that it’s the SATA model, or else you’re going to have to deal with thick PATA cables.
So… there you go, a low-budget work-station. That comes out to be around 740 dollars. That’ll give you enough money to get you a mouse, keyboard, and a monitor, if necessary.
And there’s one more thing you can do to make your computer even faster and still as stable w/o spending money: Overclocking. But that’ll come later
See you all later! Next time: A mid-budget work station build!
Icarus
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First Step to your Dream Computer
Well, Icarus here again. I want to talk more about budgets and computers. Now, more specifically.
So, in a budget computer, you have a certain money limit you can spend on the whole computer. So here comes the killer question: Where do I spend the bulk of my money on? What will make the most difference to me?
Well, here’s the answer to that important question: it DEPENDS on what you’re going to use your dream computer on. In this post, I will talk about a typical workstation computer for purposes linked to work.
So, what’s the most important “power” on a computer you want for a computer mainly used at work? Well, in my opinion, it’s processing power, coming from the CPU. Let’s say you’re an electrical engineer, who runs many tests on circuit boards and other hardware all at the same time, all on the same computer. Say you run the tests w/ many programs, Excel, Word, Powerpoint, and other programs used in that field. In all of these programs, you need a lot of processing power to run all of these programs without errors. Now, RAM also has to do w/ this, but w/o the processing power, you won’t be able to run all of those programs.
In the next post, I will make for you my work-station computer build, starting at the low-budget machine. See you later!
Icarus
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Computers vs Money
Hey guys, it’s Icarus again.
So, I’ve been going on different computer forums, and every single day I see at least one post, saying something like “$1500 budget. Need help with Build”. So I go in the thread, type out my opinions and personal experiences, some suggestions, and wallah, I try to help them.
Now, what kinda bugs me is when there’s a thread that says something w/ an outrageous budget, like “$5000 Budget. Need Build suggestions”. So, I go in there, and they have all of these super-expensive computer parts, just beyond high-end, to the point where it’s a completely enthusiast machine.
If you know anything about computers, how to build them, and how to select parts, you know that some things are out of your reach. But just going all out on a computer seems somewhat absurd to me. For example, say you have an Intel Q6600 machine w/ an 8800GT, a P35 motherboard, 2GB of DDR2 800 RAM, a case, optical drive, HDD, PSU, and a 22″ monitor. Now, I would be really happy w/ that; overall, it will give some very nice performance. Comes out to a total of, say 1200 dollars.
Now, compare that to a $3000 dollar machine equipped w/ Intel QX6800, an nVidia 790i motherboard, 2 9800GX2’s in SLI(when it becomes possible), 2GB of DDR3 RAM, a Cosmos S 1100 case, water cooling, a 1KW PSU, and a 24″ monitor. Will you see much of a difference? Maybe in numbers, but maybe not quite in physical performance. Sure, you have a larger monitor, more graphics power, and I guess more of everything. But does that really justify the cost difference of $1800? Sure, you can play all the games at max settings, you can multi-task a lot, and all that good stuff. But in my opinion, there isn’t that much physical performance difference that’ll justify the ridiculous cost difference between the solid and enthusiast machine. You can have the bragging right of having the largest 3D Mark score in your group of friends, but you’ll be the one w/ all the extras you don’t need. I don’t think it’s much of “what you want” issue anymore, now it’s the issue of “what you need”.
Wow, got that all out of my system. I feel much better Well, see you later!
Icarus
What’s in store for this site: MANY hardware reviews to come, game reviews, and much more. Stay tuned!
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Hey Everyone!
Hey guys! I’m going to be using my pen-name/gamer username Icarus.
Anyways, a little about my life to start with. I’m still in school, hoping to shoot for an engineering and music performance degree, which are two of my life’s passions. I love music as much as I love electronics and computer hardware. I spend my time doing work for my classes, and this will be here as my hobby and my passion.
In these blog posts, I will mainly be talking about computer hardware components, which I believe I am knowledgable about. I hope, with these blog posts and hardware reviews, that I can lead computer newcomers in the right direction to create their dream custom computers, as many have helped me do the same thing in other computer forums. I will also post links to bargains that might save you some money here and there.
Well, that’s about it for now. For my next blog post, I will talk about an issue concerning computers and their budgets that has been bothering me for the past few weeks.
Icarus
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