Over the weekend, besides processing photos from two weddings, I also was busy getting other stuff done as well as getting a new old PC built for a good friend. Like I said earlier, I've never owned a pre-built PC since I was 17 and probably will continue to do so even though Dell's tempting me but I figure a custom built Media Center is still going to kick-ass. Anyways, I decided to stick with XP for this build cos I didn't have an extra Vista license lying around but also to "try" ATI's (AMD actually) Radeon 3450 which has great reviews for its price/performance. As it turns out, it didn't like my Dell 2405FPW on the DVI port and only partially liked it on the analog VGA port. Worse, it didn't like the E207WFP either and the only monitor it liked was the 2007FPW. Enough of that kind of crap. I drove out and got it swapped for an NVidia 8500GT. I've not encountered a video card that doesn't POST on DVI before so for now, I'm sticking with anything NVidia. The Radeons can go to hell for all I care. Simply unacceptable.

After that little fiasco, the build proceeded so quickly, I mean Windows XP SP2, applications, patches (over 107 critical patches shows how old XP is!) and all that complete in just 2.5 hours

You can't have enough of RAM so, likewise, you can't get enough of cores!

Well, yesterday I headed down to LY Plaza to my favorite IT retailer for a bunch of parts. I was aiming to wait till end September to get this upgrade but an unexpected disaster happened. Anyways, so, here goes upgrade phase one. Phase two is smaller and is not so obvious. If you noticed I have two Intel Core 2 CPU boxes in the photo. The one below is a Quad-core CPU which will be going into my main workstation but not exactly so soon. Why wait? I've two weddings to process so that takes priority and I need to stabilize the other workstation first. Choice of parts is nothing extraordinary. Just reliable parts to get the job done. After all, tech refresh is every 18 months anyway

Bunch of new parts ready to be assembled!

New architectural marvel or just a simple heat sink?

64-bit Vista install...

Normally, I'd never ever buy a fully built PC for myself (or wife) from anybody - HP, Acer, Apple, Dell, you know. This is probably the second PC I can consider getting other than this HP TouchSmart model that looks quite snazzy. The XPS One doesn't count because it's not available in Malaysia yet. What's not to like? Price is one thing but why can't Dell Malaysia remove all the useless stuff (monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse) because I've got better and sell just the unit? Secondly, it maxes out at 4Gb RAM. Come on, this is 2008, we need 6Gb and 8Gb! Anyways, pricewise, it gets pretty high (I spec'ed mine up to RM4,968 with a 2.5Ghz CPU) so again, I have to pass on it. However, it looks like Dell's waking up a bit and PC manufacturers are begin to make snazzier boxes. The new Latitude E-Series looks good

I always wonder why it's so difficult for PC manufacturers to design simplicity. I guess because you have too many accountants? Or is it too many people and there's a design committee? Well, here's one notebook that's functional, yet packs a punch design-wise. Unfortunately, it's not the price of a Nike Air! Mac Book Air!.

Of course this clock happens to be a Wireless-N (108MBps) router and access point is a bonus!

On my Storage Server I have: 200Gb x 2 (mirrored onto a 500Gb), 320Gb x 2. A grand total of 400 + 320 = 720Gb! It's at 40% capacity right now but should grow a bit after October 6... On my main PC, it's getting quite full on my 250Gb.

My goodness. Time is really flying and soon it'll be October 6th! Anyways, been busy setting up the infrastructure for the new home. Well, overall, the connection is quite simple. A two-layer router and SPI/IPS firewall ought to keep things safe and sound. Front-line is a Belkin Wireless-G router with basic NAT firewall and routing. The cool thing about this router is the guest access option which allows me to create two WPA keys, one for my network, another for guests. The guest key only allows internet access so overall, pretty cool. Finally, the second layer router is a Cisco Systems 4-port VPN router with packet inspector (SPI) and Intrusion Prevention system (IPS) providing access to my inner network (Green zone). The good thing about this little Cisco box is its ability to have dual-WAN ports - quite useful when you need reliable network connectivity (or higher-speed since it allows load-balancing on two links). Internally, I'll be relying on a Gigabit switch providing jumbo packet support (essential for large photo and imaging work) and 1000mbps speed! Woohoo! Now let's see how long TM takes to get me my basic phone and broadband links!