PC Update

Last year I assembled a PC from parts. Here's an update.

First, I've been very happy with it. Some notes about it are:

• I neglected to mention in my original post that I had trouble getting it to start when I first assembled it. The motherboard has no speaker, and I heard no beeps to indicate what the trouble was (power supply cables not seated properly). I wound up ordering a speaker and I'm glad to have it because now the beep on startup is reassuring.
• I added 16GB RAM so now I have the full 32GB on board. Lightroom, Photoshop, and VMs are all memory-hungry and I can say that I have never noticed the system even approaching full memory usage.
• Hyper-V works, but I find it awkward to use, with clumsy interfaces. And it's difficult to use external storage. To be fair, it has worked reliably, but I've had to work around some of its limited features. I regularly use Windows XP, Windows 10, and Linux VMs, sometimes running simultaneously.
• Windows 10 has been rock solid.
• I decided to avoid Seagate disks from now on. I've had two disks fail in the last year (not in this new machine) and both were Seagate models.

When I first assembled it, I used a 150GB disk that I had lying around as the Windows disk, i.e. C:. I knew I'd need to replace it before much time passed because it's old (but infrequently used). I've come to really rely on the machine now and I fear this disk is a weak link.

I did some research on my options for replacement. First, I didn't want to reinstall Windows, and I found several tools that do cloning. I settled on a tool from Acronis, mainly because it has good reviews and there's a free version available to users of Western Digital disks. I attached a spare disk, did a test clone, and decided that this was the way to go.

I want some reliability with this machine. Then I pondered the idea of doing disk mirroring of my C: disk. I have the room in the case and even a couple of spare disks, but I kept looking for options. I've avoided solid state disks so far because of the cost per GB. But the cost has come way down, and I found a nicely-priced 240GB model from Samsung. It has good reviews, is bigger than the disk it would replace, and it has no moving parts so it should last a while.

And that's why I'm writing this. I bought the SSD, cloned my original system disk onto it, disconnected the original disk from power and data (this is my recovery option in case the SSD or the cloning process failed), and when I restarted the machine, it booted from the SSD as if there had been no change.

Next time I open the case I'll remove that old 150GB HDD. Maybe I'll replace it with an HDD with higher capacity. I know the SSD can fail just like an HDD, but with no moving parts in the SSD I'm hoping for high reliability, especially given the fact that I'm not installing much software and no data (I put data on other disks). The only recurring writes I'm expecting are OS updates and paging, and of course I have so much RAM that even paging should be rare.

Also, the new disk is pretty small, smaller than a smart phone, and very light. Presuming it lasts, I'm sold on SSDs. They're still too expensive for high capacity, but for an OS disk, I like it.

I Assembled a PC from Parts

I've been working as a computer professional for more than 20 years, and until recently I had never assembled a PC. I've installed disk drives, RAM, and expansion cards. I even replaced a motherboard once, complete with a CPU swap. But I always bought my PCs fully-assembled. When it became clear that the PC that I'm using to write this no longer met my needs, I perused the Dell site, and quickly concluded that I was unhappy with my options. So I researched PC assembly. I discovered lots of proud builders' Youtube videos showing their creations. Blogs abound with pictures and descriptions. I decided I could do this.

I went to http://www.pcpartpicker.com and started playing with potential builds. The site makes it dirt simple to make sure that the parts are compatible. I settled on the motherboard and CPU, and then the rest just sort of fell into place:

• Asus Z97-A motherboard, capable of supporting up to 32GB of RAM, LGA1150 socket.
• Intel Core i7-4790K processor, 4 cores, 8 threads.
• 16 GB of DDR3 RAM, which I intend to expand to the full 32GB later.
• CoolerMaster 650 Watt power supply.
• Corsair full tower case. I wanted a lot of room in the case. This one has room for 10 full-size drives plus more room for SSDs. With 3 built-in fans, screens and easy-to-clean filters, it had everything I needed except for a speaker.

I had several hard disks lying around that I had been using for backup storage, so I installed all five of them. I'm not bothering with an on-board DVD drive. I'm using a portable USB DVD drive for the rare situations when I need it. And because I'm not overclocking I think I can get by with the stock fans; no water cooling needed.

It took a while to order all the parts (I promised my wife to spread the costs over several months). Then I took my time assembling everything. It took a few tries to get everything assembled and seated properly, but it was sweet when it started up for the first time.

I have access to free Windows 10, so I tried it and I think I'll stick with it. I was prepared to go with Hyper-V as the OS, or Linux, but this will do nicely. Now I have 20,000+ photos in my Lightroom catalog to move over...