My Hobby – Building Computers

Around the year 2000 I started into the world of building computers. At that time it wasn’t because it was something I was interested in but much more simple. I purchased a Gateway computer for around $1500 and about 3 months later I wanted to upgrade the memory in it. Because it was a smaller pc the memory had to come from Gateway. When I called they stated, “well that’s the old model we don’t make that anymore and we don’t have any more memory for it.” After cooling off I decided I was going to learn how to build them myself. At first it was basic. I searched the internet and printed off some directions on how to build a computer. Once I started doing it I caught on really quick. The problem is that to someone with mechanical ability it can also be challenging when you try to push a computer as far as it will go.

I won’t take you on the trip of every PC I built but at one time I was using Prometeia cooling. If you don’t know what this is the basics are that a computer processor can run faster than it is registered to run by a process called “overclocking”. What this means is that you can speed up the processor to a faster speed as long as you can control the heat, have the correct RAM “memory” timings and have the power needed to do all of that. When you speed up a processor you can continue to do so until you cause the Processor to overheat. I tried to always keep mine below 53C. What Prometeia cooling did was it actually brough the temperatures of the processor which typically runs around 28C – 53C to -25C. This allowed you to maximize your output from the processor. Here is a picture of the Prometeia cooler I used.

Basically a Targeted Freezer

While this is a great hobby to get into with technology going out of date as quickly as you buy it this hobby can also be very expensive. So lately I do a rebuild every few years and hand my other PC’s down to the wife and kids. So now it is time for another upgrade and while much of what I am going to is now MAC there will always be a monster windows PC in the house. Here are the specs on the new build:

Processor – AMD FX 8150 – Currently at 4.0 GHZ
Motherboard – ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2
Memory – Corsair Dominator – DDR3 1600 8GB
Graphics – (2) XFX Radeon HD 7770 (older cards upgrade later)
Cooling – Corsair H80 Liquid Cooler
Hard Drives – Boot – Intel 335 Series 180 GB Storage – (2) WD Black 1TB
Case – Corsair Carbide Series Air 540
Power Supply – Thermaltake 600W
Operating System – Windows 7 Professional X64

Overall so far the new system is lightning fast. I use the SSD for programs that I want fast response from. All other media, programs and such are stored on the slower storage drives. I think the case is awesome. It seperates my cables to one side of the pc so I can maximize the cooling on the other side. Overall everything has been flawless and that is rare. There is always something on a new build that doesn’t go as planned but this one has been perfect.

So this is one of my hobbies I hope I kept it simple enough for everyone to understand. There is much more to it but had I written it you may not have made it to this line in my blog.