LET YOUR FINGERS DO THE WALKING

This is a continuation of my recent posts about a seriously-fast PC build for desktop use. Read March, April, and May first.

DIGITAL DOWNLOAD

I’ve installed enough big programs over the WEB in the last month that it has proven to be “the only way to go”.

This will sound like “old hat”, because I’ve been saying this for years, but with multiple examples, it has been proven true by recent experience.

High speed Internet is the only way to go. A decent router and WI-FI connection makes streaming media and fast downloads a very practical thing. Purchasing software by digital delivery (download) has replaced CDs and DVDs for software distribution.

Let me give you an example. There is a video game package called Battlefield 4 (premium edition). It is a 35 GB download (a full Blu-ray disk size). It took me approximately an hour to download. I couldn’t have driven to a video game store (if they exist) and brought home the Blu-ray home in an hour. Then would be the install time on top of that. So the time involved is much less with digital download.

It was a snap to download Microsoft Office 2016. (It’s about DVD size.)

I like Acronis so I got the 2015 version, to work with Windows (Pro) 10.

I have had a Seagate backup external drive for years, but have never used it at USB3.0 speed. It did a full system backup (44GB) in about five minutes (wow).

As a generality, I’ve saved a lot of gas in the last month. This is a step in the direction of moving data around by wire or air instead of moving around a body to carry data on a physical medium (DVD).

Some of my most recent work was done as a telecommuter. In this case, the money saved on gas and the considerable improvement in home-made breakfast and better-than-‘Bucks home brewed coffee is a tangible improvement in quality-of-life. The music or background entertainment is better, too. We used to call it “sneakernet” back in 1995 (faster to walk a floppy disk to the other location than to transmit it over a modem).

I was doing some design work on a pathetic work laptop with only a weak WI-FI connection, but it worked. Doing something similar with a REAL computer and good WI-FI connection is obviously better.

TELECOMMUTING

I mention this because many people might consider full-time or part-time work from home, and I’m telling you “Have at it!” I know a couple people who work part or full time from home and get along fine without the daily meetings and commutes.

The specter of the geek living in the basement with a big screen is not just a common joke on prime-time TV.
It’s actually a workable alternative to rush-hour commuting. No kidding.

I’m starting to like Hawaiian shirts and shorts these days.

The new machine went together without incident and is basically the same as earlier described. The parts arrived in 2 to 3 days, thanks to New Egg Premier membership and Amazon Prime membership making the shipping fast and “free”. The additional costs are absorbed by the free fast shipping. It’s maybe a wash, but fast and no-hassle are worth it.

I had a little trouble with the logistics of installing the “I/O shield” (shiny metal plate) into the back of the Corsair 200r case, but that’s just my fumble-fingers. And maybe putting in the eight screws to hold the Asus motherboard in place (and supply a ground). A magnetized screwdriver with a relatively long shaft in the #1 Philips size is almost necessary. I had to guess on how to connect the case front panel power switch because it shares power and ground with the front light. The placement of the mechanical connectors for the CPU cooler were not intuitive and the drawing (without words) were obtuse, taking a little head-scratching. But the build was basically a piece of cake.

The biggest concern I had was how to install Windows 10 Pro from a USB stick and with only a WI-FI connection. It turns out to be easy because booting from USB is a snap these days, by just selecting it. The ASUS WI-FI card at $60 has proven to be heaven-sent, fast and automatic install for Windows 10 (would have been a pain otherwise). Windows 10 just asked for my WI-FI password and it worked without incident. I used my Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse and the tiny USB adapter “remembered” its earlier pairing with these two devices and they “just worked”.

I later added an AZIO gaming keyboard and also mouse, which I both love. I got a keyboard with lighted mechanical keys (similar to Cherry Red switches) which considerably improve my touch typing skills over membrane style keys. The wired USB mouse has no lag, which really annoys me about a wireless mouse. Both of these are simpler devices, not requiring special drivers to run on Windows 10. The keyboard uses the standard built-in “gaming keyboard” Windows 10 driver, which adds special function keys for browser and a knob for controlling audio volume. So, with a little fore-planning, everything “just worked”.

Windows 10 has too much built-in spyware for my liking (way too much). I consulted a few Youtube tutorials and — this is important— installed Spybot Anti-Beacon. This allows you to disable dozens of built-in tattle-tale features in Windows 10. My phone is connected to the world and I treat it that way, but I prefer to be left alone for my personal property, like books in progress.

Windows 10 is fast and  a piece of cake to learn. We’re talking about a ten second boot with the SSD. Speaking of the Samsung 850 500GB Solid State Drive, it is worth the $150 price. Samsung has a download of the latest version of their Magician software which triples the speed of Samsung 850 or 950 SSDs for a single drive (typically your boot drive). It’s a Windows app that is single drive manager to take advantage of the drive’s architecture. Well worth it.

I’m pleasantly surprised at the improved WI-FI connection from the two 8 inch antennas sticking out of the back of the case. Netflix and HBOgo have just a beautiful display. Sharp, full-screen and flawless. Game of Thrones and House of Cards are a visual pleasure to see and listen to. The HD audio on the motherboard is a slight upgrade from the standard and well worth it. Needless to say, the top of the line video from the MSI GTX970 is a pleasure to view. Graphics processors are so improved over a handful of years ago. I would imagine even the built-in HD530 video would be ok for simple 1080p streaming. I’m talking about the intigrated video on the latest processors, but I don’t begrudge the overkill, even when not working the display hard with gaming animation or something like Photoshop.

So I did this because I like to put my time and attention into the gory details of the mainstream consumer technology. I don’t recommend it if you don’t have that kind of interest or time. There is a “bang for-the-buck” element, but it could easily not be “worth it” if you screw up on a few things or don’t have the time or interest. For me, this was an entirely successful adventure without a misstep. Your results may vary…..

I’m getting closer to building a new desktop computer. It will seem like a normal gaming computer but is technically not one because I seldom play computer games. I’m leaning heavily on the gaming community because they’ve come to a rapid consensus on proven methods.

GRAPHICS

My choice of graphics cards is at the GTX970 level. This is by Nvidia. An equal card might be a Radeon 390. I’m going with the 970 because there is more information on it available. The next level up, the 980 costs about twice as much and inferior to two 970’s paralleled in, what’s called “SLI”. I doubt the need will arise but I can upgrade to that if it happens.

CPU

My choice of CPU’s is a little more overkill than I might need for gaming, the i7-6700k. It has additional features not used in gaming, like virtualization and encryption and things that make video encoding go more quickly.  For strictly gaming, an i5-6600k would save $120 and be almost as good. Processors with more than four cores are overkill for gaming because none of the games uses more than four cores. Also you have to overclock the i5 to its limits to match the i7 with just a modest overclock.

WI-FI ac

For the past several months I’ve been using WI-FI to talk to my lowly laptop and TV and I plan to continue with an upgrade to an “ac” standard router soon to handle the ever-increasing loads on the system. This necessitates a motherboard with a built-in “ac” antenna or adding a $60 one.

POWER SUPPLY

Power supplies for these parts shouldn’t dip below 500 watts and with SLI, 650 watts, like the Corsair CX750M, which has modular cables for the optional distribution to later-added GPUs. The extra cables wait in the box and don’t clutter up the air flow inside the computer case. This is a popular one and competes well in price.

CASE

I’m torn between the Rosewill R5 and the Corsair 200r cases. Either will accommodate a liquid CPU cooler, should I ever want to upgrade to that. I’ve chosen the Corsair because it is more conservative in appearance. The R5 has lights glowing through the front grill. It also has an older front panel case header with an E-SATA connector, which I wouldn’t have anything to connect to. The 200R has a couple USB 3.0 connectors (like the R5) and the usual microphone and stereo headphone jacks (like the R5). I may purchase an additional front panel pair of USB 3.0 connectors (two more are available from the motherboard) if I need them. There are a couple USB 2.0 plugs on the back, and a handful available for the front,if I would ever want them (not likely).

The motherboard is a Maximus viii Ranger, which is in the stratosphere for most gaming builds. I could have spent $40-$60 less, but would be limited a few years from now. It has, additional to the four USB connectors mentioned on the back, a USB 3.1 (ultraspeed) and a USB3.1 with a (reversible)  C connector. These are the latest USB spec and accommodate faster speeds and higher current.

MOTHERBOARD

The board accommodates two PCIE 3.0 card slots that can work in 8X8 channels, for the fastest type (of reasonably-priced) SLI arrangement of dual GPUs, should I ever feel like going to that.

It is the lowest in the upper “Republic of Gaming” series (ROG), which adds some extra overclocking features for people who like to fiddle with getting that last extra 2% out of the CPU and memory speeds. A simple overclock will give an extra 5% to the speed and the last few % after that take some tweaking and depend more on cooling and timing issues.

That’s the beauty of the z170 (sixth generation) Skylake series. It easily gives a stable overclock at a relatively low heat load. Because success is so easy, it is more of a common thing. The old pros don’t see the need for automatic software for overclocking and the new generation of overclockers pay a few extra bucks and “push a button” to get a well-balanced speed-up. In either case, overclocking provides a possible extra 8% in speed and is nothing to sneeze at.