Jonathan's Blog: One geek's way in the universe

I’ve been planning to build myself a computer since last summer, and I’ve finally got the parts list together. I should get it ordered within a few days, and then it’s build time. My box naming scheme is going to be Nobel Prize winners in Physics, and this one is called planck. Components are as follows:

• CPU: AMD Phenom II X2 550 Black edition 3.1GHz, dual core (I believe our current family PC is something like a 3.2GHz dual core, but it’s a Pentium D, so, yeah.) Actually a quad-core with two cores deactivated, which can sometimes be reactivated. /me rubs hands in glee.
• Motherboard: MSI 770-C45. A fairly basic motherboard, but it’s cheap and the reviews are good.
• Graphics: HIS HD 5770 1GB
• RAM: 2x2GB Crucial DDR3 1600MHz
• PSU: OCZ 500W Mod XStream Pro
• HDD: Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB
• Case: Antec 300
• Cooler: Gelid Tranquillo
• DVD drive: The cheapest DVD-rewriter eBuyer have
• OS: Evil Corporate OS v7 Pro (Aquired for £30 thanks to a student deal and Sean), and Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid
• Peripherals:
  • Monitor: BenQ G2220HD: 22″, 1920×1080 pixels.
  • Speakers: Logitech S220
  • Keyboard: Some cheapo Logitech
  • Mouse: Logitech RX1000 (Mouse and keyboard are both wired – wireless peripherals make no sense.)

Most stuff is from eBuyer, but they don’t have the motherboard or cooler, so they’re coming from Scan. Total cost: £673.13, not including Windoze.

Component and build picspam to come when I get my hands on those lovely lumps of silicon, copper and whatever PCBs are made of.

Edit 2010-06-18: monitor changed from an Acer P225HQ to a BenQ G2220HD based on a good Custom PC review of it that Ben showed me. It’s all of 14p more expensive.

2010-06-20: Parts list given to Dad. He says he’ll try and order on Tuesday.

Edit 2010-06-25: Memory changed to equivalent and graphics card from an ATI 4870 to an ATI 5770 due to eBuyer selling out before Dad got round to ordering. Parts finally ordered.

Reading the GNU Project philosophy essays in your lunchbreak from testing proprietary software.

Microsoft (sorry, Windows in a vain attempt to reduce the risk of anti-trust suits) Internet Explorer 8 has “compatibility mode” (read incompatibility), to “improve the appearance of web pages designed for older browsers”. In other words: now we’ve built a standards-compliant-ish browser, we need a mode that makes it render like its older, non-compliant siblings because every site on the web serves bad code when it sees our user agent. Once again, Microsoft is hoist upon its own petard.

I’ve just been installing Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 (I’ll give it a quick post by the end of the holiday), and was amused by the DRM:

I haven’t tried it, but I suspect that the process of making an installable copy is as simple as ignoring that notice and copying the contents of the CD. You don’t even need the disc in the drive to run it!

Oh, happy days. Now even the £5 Spore Creature Creator requires periodic online checking that you legal copy hasn’t somehow become pirated – although EA have said that they will remove that part from Spore itself (although online activation will still be required). This Penny Arcade on the subject is quite funny.