New Series: Building your own Custom PC. The $600 Gaming PC

Building Your Own Low-Cost Computer

So how do you know which parts to pick? There are large numbers of websites that offer reviews of parts, so getting information about the various parts is not hard.  But with so many different parts available, there are two keys two picking the right parts for your new computer.  First, you need to know how you plan to use the computer.  Are you a gamer?  Will you mostly be surfing the web and sending email?  Are you using the computer for your business endeavors?  Writing papers for school?  Someone building the computer for gaming will want to look at different parts than someone using their computer for writing papers or surfing the web.  Second, you need to decide how much you want to spend.  There are parts for every price point, so you need to decide how much you want to spend before you go shopping.  Even with these two issues decided, picking parts is still not an easy decision.  That is why I am starting a new series on building your own PC.  Each week, I will take a look at the parts I recommend for building a specific type of PC.  Today, I am going to focus on building a full HD, 1080p gaming machine.  With each post, remember one very important thing.  These are only suggestions.  Because let's be honest, one of the really fun things about building your own PC is picking out the parts.

Low-Cost Full HD (1080p resolution) Gaming Computer for less than $599

Price: $586.36 (Price does not include mouse, keyboard, speakers or monitor.  It does take into account shipping and all available rebates.  It also include the cost of the Windows operating system) and can change at anytime.

Today, 1080p monitors are the least-expensive and most common monitors on the market.  My goal with this build was to create a system that will play games well on these standard 1080p monitors.  This build is about the cheapest gaming computer I would recommend building for playing games on a single HD monitor.

Recommended Case

When picking any part for your PC, you have to weigh the trade-offs. Since this is going to be a budget gaming computer, price is going to be a big driver. While you do not want to spend a lot on the case, you will want to avoid getting the cheapest case possible. Trust me, I have gone that route and it will drive you crazy.  Cheap cases are flimsy, nothing fits right and are full of sharp edges that will actually draw blood if you are not careful.  After trying to build a system in a super cheap case, you will never want to build a computer again. Stick to a good brand when looking at a case and remember you will have to live with it for a while.  One feature I really want in a case is support for both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 on the front of the case.  That led me to this case from Cougar. 

Case: Cougar Spike MicroATX Mini Tower Case  ($24.99 @ Newegg) 

Pros: Price, USB 3.0 front ports and room for large video cards.

Cons: Lack of cable management, only one USB 3.0 front port, one USB 2.0 front port, limited CPU cooler clearance, no CPU cutout on the motherboard tray, and looks.

Comments: Cougar makes good, low-cost cases and this one is a great value for the price. The thing is that I just do not like the looks of the case it is a bit too flashy for my tastes.  Also, the case lacks space behind the motherboard tray for cable management aka hiding your cables.  So why did I pick this case?  For the simple reason that none of the cons in anyway prevents you from building a good low cost gaming machine.

Recommended CPU

Thanks to the CPU war between Intel and AMD, even low-cost CPUs have gotten very powerful.  Plus most games are going to be GPU bound, so a less expensive CPU can provide good performance.  AMD really is the way to go for the low-end and frankly it is still a very fast CPU. The very idea that a 4 core 3.4 GHz cpu for around $80.00 is just amazing.  

CPU: AMD Athlon II X4 750K 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($80.98 @ Newegg) 

Pros: 3.4 Ghz, 4 cores, unlocked, uses socket FM2 and only $81 with shipping.

Cons: It is not an APU. Not the fastest CPU you can get. Runs a little hot.

Comments: I have been an AMD CPU fan for a long time. This CPU offers a lot of value. The fact that it is unlocked means that you can easily over-clock the CPU and run it faster than the speeds AMD lists on the box.  The other plus is that this CPU uses socket FM2, which means that when the next generation of APUs launches this year you will have the option of upgrading your system by updating the CPU.  Not being an APU means that you must have a video card.  The extra heat means that you will use more power and your computer will run hotter and probably louder.

Recommended CPU Cooler

Your CPU may or may not come with a heat sink and fan.  If it comes with it, the one thing you can be sure of is that it will not be great.  If you are not going to over-clock, the stock cooler will work but it will also be loud. I went with Hyper TX3 from Cooler Master. The TX3 make less noise and does a much better job cooling the CPU than a stock cooler for a low price.  The Hyper 212 Evo is an even better cooler, but it is too big to fit this case comfortably. 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper TX3 54.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($19.99 @ Amazon) 

Pros: Price, size, and it is better than the stock cooler.

Cons: Not the highest performance cooler available.

Comments:  This cooler is a good, small cooler from a good company.

Recommended Motherboard

What mother board you use will depend on these requirements.

1. The type of CPU you are going to use.
   This motherboard supports FM2 and FM2+ CPUs and APUs 
2. The number of expansion slots needed.
   You will not need more than one video card when gaming at 1080p and beyond so one slot is good enough. 
3. Availability of USB 3.0 ports.
   USB 3.0 offers a huge increase in speed over USB 2.0.  That really does not matter for things like keyboards and mice, but you will really like the speed increase for external hard drives, flash drives, and memory card readers.
4. The number of Memory slots available.
   Two slots means you can add up to 16 GB of memory which should be enough for most gaming use. 
5. Price.
   This is a budget build so price is important.

One other factor is quality.  Asus is a well known company with a long history of making quality motherboards.
 

Motherboard: Asus A55BM-A/USB3 Micro ATX FM2+ Motherboard  ($68.99 @ Mac Mall) 

Pros: Socket FM2+, lots of SATA, and ASUS's build quality.

Cons: Only 2 memory slots. Does not support 7.1 sound.
Comment: The next generation of APUs from AMD will use socket FM2+, so you have an upgrade path.  You only have two slots for memory but this a low-end gaming machine.  Asus has a long history of making good motherboards, which makes this motherboard a good choice.  You can find cheaper motherboards but you will have to settle for socket FM2 and not FM2+ and may not get USB 3.0 support.

Recommended Memory

When you are looking at memory you are looking at how much and how fast.  I went for 8 GB of ram for this build which may be a luxury. I have not found any game that requires more than 4 GB of memory.  A few games are now recommending 4 GB of RAM, so 8 GB should be a good amount for now.  Modern CPUs use multiple memory channels.  What that means is that they will run faster if you use two sticks of memory.  For that reason I went with two 4GB of ram for the best compromise between speed, size, and cost.  Finally go with memory from a good, well known company.

Memory: Kingston 8 GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1333 Memory  ($59.99 @ Mac Mall) 

Pros: Good, inexpensive, memory.

Cons: Not the fastest memory you can buy.
Comments: It is good reliable RAM. It just works and is a good value.  You can buy faster ram but the increase in speed is usually not worth the cost at this price point.  You could save a little money by only installing 4 GB of RAM.

Update

The price for this ram has almost doubled since I wrote this.
right now I would suggest this ram from Crucial 8GB kit

Recommended Mass Storage

At this price point, a solid state drive is just not an option.  You could go with a smaller hard drive, but 1TB drives are cheap and give you a lot of space to store your games.  If you want to improve this computer, adding a solid state drive for your games and operating system would give you the best bang for your buck.

Storage: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($59.98 @ OutletPC) 

Pros: 1 TB for $60.
Cons: It is not an SSD and it will not be the most power efficient drive you can get. 

Comments:  This is a hard drive so there really is not much to say.  Find a drive that is the size and price you want.  You may want to spend a few dollars more and get a green drive or spend less and get a smaller drive.

Recommended Graphics Card   

This is a gaming computer and the graphics card will in large part drive performance in games.  Today there are two companies that dominate the graphics card industry, AMD and nVidia.  Both companies make great GPUs.  They both have a number of GPUs at a number of price points.  You can spend a thousand dollars on a graphics card and even use two, three, or four graphics cards.  If you are only going to use one 1080p monitor for gaming, there is no need to go to such extremes and costs. The GTX 650ti Boost will give you a really good experience at 1080p for a good price. AMD also makes good graphics cards but I went for nVidia for this build because the new Steam OS only runs on nVidia cards right now.  Graphics cards from nVidia tend to run a little cooler and a little quieter which is always a plus. 

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost 1GB Video Card  ($114.98 @ SuperBiiz)

Pros: Very good performance at 1080p.  Not loud.  Good support for Linux and SteamOS
Cons:  None in this application.

Comments: nVidia makes great GPUs and this card is a great value.  It is the most expensive part in this build, but that should be expected in a computer that is optimized for gaming.

Recommended Power Supply

Do not cheap out on your power supply. A bad power supply can destroy other parts of your computer.  The keys to choosing a good power supply are will it supply enough power and is it from a good company. The 80 plus bronze efficiency means that this power supply has been tested and does not waste power. So this power supply is powerful enough for this build, is from Corsair which is a good company with a good reputation, and is 80 plus efficient. 

Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($23.98 @ Newegg) 

Pros: Great price, Bronze 80+ efficient. 

Cons: It is a basic power supply, lacks modular cables and is only 430 watts.

Comments: People often cheap out on the power supply and that is usually not a good choice. Corsair is a well respected brand and this power supply should be a good choice for this build. The video card recommends a 450 watt power supply, however this build only draws 339 watts. You have a 100 watt margin with this power supply. As long as you do not go crazy over clocking this computer, it should provide years of service.

Recommended Optical Drive

A lot of people do not use optical drives in their systems.  The problem is that unless you have some way to make a USB Windows install disk and/or you like to buy games on DVD instead of downloading them from Steam, having a DVD drive makes your life easier.  If you have an old optical drive from an older system you can put it in and save a few bucks.  Or you could buy a Blu-ray drive and have the option to watch your Blu-rays.

Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer  ($16.98 @ OutletPC) 

Recommended Operating System

I am not a fan of Windows 8, but Windows 8.1 is a big improvement over Windows 8 and if you want to be able to play the widest variety of games, you will need to use Windows.  The only bad thing is the cost.  Windows is now more expensive than the motherboard.  SteamOS, Ubuntu, and LinuxMint are options for those that are brave. Your selection of games will also be much smaller but the price is free. 

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8 (OEM) (32-bit)  ($89.98 @ OutletPC) 

Conclusion

For about the price of an Xbox One you can have a real PC that will play the latest and greatest video games at HD resolution. If the idea of building your own PC seems scary, don't worry.  It is not hard and YouTube has lots of tutorials like this from CNet.

Some sites that can help you pick the right parts for your own custom PC are 

• Tomshardware
• Anandtech
• PCPerspective
• MaximumPC

It has been way too long.

To everyone that has ever read my blog I must say that I am sorry. I just have not felt myself. I started many posts that where very ambitious and never finished them.  I will try to post something every week from now on.

The Osborn Effect and the Death of Nokia.

The Executive
The Destroyer of Companies

Legend has it that this rather innocent looking computer destroyed one of the pioneering microcomputer companies.

In 1981 Adam Osborne introduced the first successful portable computer called the Osborne 1. While it was about as portable as a portable sewing machine it was relatively cheap, powerful, and came with a lot of software. In fact it came with so much software that if you had bought the software yourself it would have cost almost as much as the computer.
The Osborne was a huge success and Adam Osborne wasn't done. He created a new computer to replace the One called the Executive. It would address many of the short comings of the Osborne. The problem was that it was not ready for sale yet. This left customers with a choice, buy the old machine or wait for the new and improved Executive. Many decided to wait other decided to buy a new computer called the Kaypro 2

The big sunny lie, why solar and wind can not replace oil.

Solar and Wind will not significantly decrease America's use of oil and to say or imply that it will is just untrue.

This image is at best a mistake and at worse pure spin.

Yes I said it and it is true, alternative energy will not signinficantly decrease America's dependence on oil. Solar, Wind, Geothermal, Nuclear and Hydro are already being used produce electricity.  However, electrical power does not replace oil for most uses. You can not practically make pastic, fertilizer, or power ships, and aircraft with electricity. 

Some cars can be replaced by electric cars, but the costs are still very high for the batteries and the range is short. Electric car adoption is not being limited by the cost of electricity, or the availability of electricity, so the availability of alternative energy has zero effect on the adoption rate. For more people to buy and use electric cars the price has to come down, charging speeds must be massively improved and range tripled.  However if you can afford a second car for commuting an electric car can make a lot of sense. They payback time will be very long but the Nissan Leaf is a good choice and the new Chevy Volt offers the best of both words so do take a look at them. The problem is that even if we had a major break through in battery tech it will take years to get a large percentage of current cars replaced with EVs.  I left out trains because trains can be electrified and really probably should be but they are not big user of oil. There are just not that many of them and by ton mile are very efficient.

But wait.  Oil is used to make electricity, so we can decrease our oil dependency by using solar for that right? Well yes some oil is used to make electricity, but do you have any idea how much of our electricity in the US comes from oil?

1. 50%
2. 35%
3. 20%
4. 10%
5. <1%

Even 10% must add up to a lot of oil, except it isn't 10%.

Less than 1% of all electricity in the US comes from oil.

Please notice that the US already gets several times the amount of electrical power from renewables than from oil which is great. I want to see that increase and coal start to decrease. 

So oil is used to make less than one percent of all electrical power in the US. That cannot be an insignificant amount of oil. 

Well yes, it really is.  It is less than 1.4% of all the oil used in the US and that amount is dropping. Oil is right now one of the most expensive ways to make electricity.  Coal, nuclear, wind, hydro-electric, natural gas, and solar are all cheaper. Except for a few places where ease of transportation is the biggest factor like in remote villages of Alaska and the state of Hawaii oil is on the way out. Yes, Hawaii should replace it's oil fired plants with solar, wind and geothermal. They are working on it. Remote villages in Alaska are a not well suited to solar or wind.


Another interesting fact is that most of the oil burned to make electricity is residual fuel oil.

Resdiual fuel oil is what is left after all the other liquide fuels are removed. It really is the dregs at the bottom of the barrel. For more info just read this link.

So should we keep developing alternative energy even if it doesn't replace oil?

YES!

Solar, Wind, Nuclear, and Geothermal replace Coal which is a good thing.

Coal is a huge contributor to green houses gases, strip mining damages the land, and even not counting green house gases is not as clean as solar, wind, nuclear, natural gas, and even oil. I am not anti solar and wind, I am pro truth. Yes support alternative energy, but don't support it with a lie. Back in the 70s when we had the first oil crisis, the US did get almost 20% of it's electrical power from oil.  But that was then and today the amount is tiny and decreasing, so maybe people are still living in the past, I don't know, but today alternative energy replaces coal but it will not stop oil spills, decrease the price at the pump, or decrease our dependance on foreign oil. 


Now if you want to do that and an electric car is not an option, might I suggest you look at trading in that big old car or old VW beetle for an new car like the Ford Fiesta? With all the safety improvements like anti-lock brakes, airbags, and electronic stability controls you will actually be safer than you are in your big safe car and will get milage of almost 40 MPG highway.

Support alternative energy but don't support a lie.

Cutting green house gases and reducing the use of coal is reason enough to support solar and wind as well as, in my opinion, nuclear.  However connecting solar and wind development with preventing oil spills, dependance on foreign oil, and or the price of gas at the pumps is just fiction. Look up the data for yourself and you will see the facts. Don't take my word for it when you can do the research for yourself.

How to recover files when Windows will not boot.

Yesterday, some friends called me with a problem. They had an old laptop that would not boot. It would power up but they couldn't get into Windows. Now the big problem was that they had a lot of pictures of their grandchildren on the laptop and no backups. I asked them to drop it off at my office and I would see what I could do.

Once I had the laptop, I tried to get it to boot. It started to go into Windows but would then throw up a blue screen. I tried rebooting in safe mode but still no luck. The laptop was one that their daughter bought used. They were going to replace the computer and all that mattered was getting the pictures off.

What I did was download a copy of Mint Linux. Most Linux distributions boot into what is called a live CD so just about any of them will work. I selected Mint because it has gotten a lot of good reviews and I wanted to try it out. It worked really well and automatically mounted the Windows hard drive and USB drives. I have to say that it may have been over kill for this task, but I was impressed by how easy it was to use.

Once I downloaded the ISO file, I burned it to a CD and then put that CD into the laptop and booted it.  Once booted, I had a really easy to use desktop.

 I then clicked the icon called Computer.

 Then I clicked on the hard drive.

Once I found the files they wanted, I just copied them to a flash drive. If you have network access you could email them, upload them to Dropbox, or copied them to a shared folder on the network.

When I was done, I burned an extra copy of the files to a CD and returned the laptop, the CD, and the flash drive to my friends. I did take the time to show them how to boot into the Linux live disk to get any other files off that they might need.

Over all I was really impressed by Mint. In the short time I worked with it Mint was super easy to use and did the job as needed. I am going to have to download a full ISO and play with it some more, but it looks like a really good replacement for Windows for some people.

For the less technical folks, here is some additional information you may find helpful.

What is an ISO file?
An ISO file is an image of a CD or DVD. You can recreate an exact copy of a DVD or CD from an IS0 file. You can tell and ISO file because it will end in ".iso".

How do I make a CD or DVD from an ISO file?
Well on the Mac or Linux it is tends to be pretty simple as both systems have the ability built in. Lifehacker has a step by step guide for the Mac here. On Linux it will depend on the distro you are using, but if you Google it, you will find the instructions. For Windows XP or Vista, you will need to get a program. My favorite is called ISO Recorder and you can find it at the link provided. It is free and I find it very easy to use. You just put a CD or DVD into your burner and right click on the the ISO file and select the write to disk option. ISO recorder does not seem to handle DVDs under Windows XP but most live Linux disks are available as a CD. Not to mention that it takes a lot less time to download a CD than a DVD. Windows 7 can write an ISO to a disk with no added software by following these instructions.
You must have a drive that can make CDs or DVDs but those are pretty much standard on most computers.

What is wrong with Google Navigation

My wife and I went to Texas for Thanksgiving.  We used Google Navigation on the trip and we found a lot that was good and bad with the navigation.
First thing is the routing. One of the funniest things that happened on the trip involves Google Navigation, a PT Cruiser with out of state plates, and Whataburger.  My wife is from Texas and loves Whataburger's chicken strips and gravy. The sad truth is that there are no Whataburgers in south Florida and they closed all the Whataburgers in central Florida a few years ago. So as we got near Tallahassee Florida my wife put Whataburger into our Google Nav and we started on our quest for chicken strips and gravy. 
As we left the interstate we got behind a PT Cruiser with out of state plates. Now a car with out of state plates is not unusual in Florida but what happened next was just odd. As we came got closer to a major intersection Google Nav told us to turn right. Well what do you know the PT Cruiser in front of us turns right also. Well we are now in a residential area and following right behind the PT Cruiser. Now the PT Cruiser turns left and Google Nav tells us to also turn left.  It seems that for some reason Google Nav took us on this detour just to avoid the light! As we get to the major road the PT Cruiser turns right and Google Nav tells us to turn right as well. My wife and I had to wonder if the people in the PT Cruiser where also using Google Nav!  I have to wonder if the people in the PT Cruiser where thinking "why is that red Mazda following us?"
This was the least annoying of the side trips that Google Nav would take us on. One of them involved a number of secondary roads in northern Mississippi and then just to add to joy of the trip it navigated us past entrance to the hotel and back on to then interstate on-ramp. 
So besides the routing what would I like to see Google Navigation add or change?

1. A way to add a stop in the middle of a trip. It would be nice to say find the nearest Walgreens, CVS, McDonalds, or what ever to your trip. 
2. A fill up reminder. Have a way to set a range say for our car 300 miles and when you get near that the Navigation offers to find you the nearest gas stations.
3. Directional search. If you are looking for a restaurant the ones behind you are probably of no interest. 
4. Quick searches. This is less of a problem for us since my wife or I worked the searches while the other one drove, but a nice big button that would find you gas, food, or lodging.
5. A way to customize your favorites. My wife and I always stay at LaQuinta because we are almost always traveling with our dogs.  We prefer Sonic, Whataburger and Raising Canes for fast food on the road because frankly we like them better than McDonalds and so on. So it would be great to have a button that would find the next of those restaurants on our route or the next LaQuinta.

My dream Google Nav would find me the cheapest gas starting when I have driven 300 miles.  Allow me to say that we want to stop for lunch around x and at that time have it start to look for a restaurant from a list of my favorites or at a price level. And allow me to set a time when I want to stop for the night and have it search for a hotel from a list of my favorites or from a price level and that has a vacancy. What would be even better is if it would allow me to reserve a room with a touch of a buttion on my cell phone, maybe using Google wallet.

Okay Google, Nokia/Microsoft, TomTom, Garmin, and or Apple. This is my dream navigation system for long trips. Add in options for routing like favor interstates and scenic routes and you will have a killer long distance navigation app.

My tech predictions for 2012

     This is the time of year when every tech blogger, podcaster, analyst, and pundit makes their predictions for the coming year. Well I have been involved in the technology industry for over two decades and I figure that it might be fun to see just how well I can do.

1. 2012 will be the year of Amazon. Amazon will keep expanding their video streaming, their musc service, and hardware. We will see a 10" tablet and possibly an improved 7" Kindle Fire. What we will not see is an Amazon phone. I just do not see Amazon getting into the phone business.
2. We will see an iPad 3. This is a no brainer as Apple pretty much comes out with a new iPad every year. This iPad will have a retina display, a quad core cpu, and an improved camera. It will also be a CDMA and GSM world device, and of course be thinner and lighter. It will also sell like hot cakes.
3. Apple will produce a TV and a new TV box. The new Apple TV will offer apps as well as Netflix streaming and Hulu, 
4. Apple will expand their video offerings.
5. Sprint will try and buy TMobile. If they pull it off Sprint will start migrating to GSM and LTE and away from CDMA. Sprint will not want to run multiple networks any longer than is absolutely necessary. WiMax will fade fast and the LTE roll out will be sped up.
6. AMDs Fusion APU line will become more popular as consumers and manufactures start to care more about graphics performance and less about raw cpu power.
7. Automotive tech will explode. All cars will come with tech packages and will be a huge selling point.
8. Google will start competing in the automotive tech sector.
9. More people will cut the cord. Cable companies will see more and more people drop cable and go over the air and over the internet for their shows.
10. We will see more patent lawsuits.
11. We will see the first mainstream "TV" show produced and distributed only on the internet.
12. Advertisers will finally embrace Internet podcasts and streaming shows as an alternative to traditional television.
13. Voice recognition and natural language interfaces will become the hot new thing.
14. RIM will keep losing customers and will do nothing to stop it.
15. Windows Phone 7 will continue to fizzle and take Nokia with it.
16. Low end digital cameras sales are going to plummet. Cell phone cameras will replace not just point and shoot cameras but low end digital video cameras as well.
17. Even entry level digital SLRs' video will reach professional quality.
18. Electric cars sales will remain at token levels.
19. Windows 8 will not be a sales succes. PC users will see no need to upgrade from Windows 7. Arm based windows tablets will not sell well because of a lack fo applications. X86 based tablets will not sell well because of cost, battery life, and a lack of tablet centric applications. 
20. Microsoft will get a new CEO.
21. Android tablets will get better but Apple's supply chain will keep them from undercutting the iPad on price.
22. iPhone 5. Finally LTE and an even faster GPU for mobile gaming.
23. A new iPod touch using the A5 CPU will ship and become the mobile gaming device
24. The Wii U will flop.
25. Nintendo 3DS sales will plumet as gamers move to the iPod touch in even greater numbers. 
26. We will find more Earth like planets but will not find any technologically advanced cultures.
27. We will find more evidence for life on Mars.
28. Space X will fly a manned mission.

     Well those are my predictions for the coming year in technology. As far as culture and politics, I have only one political prediction. This election is going to be ugly. I just hope that I am wrong on my political prediction.

Happy New Year