Building a Rig

Hey Fellas

Its been a while that I updated any stuff on my blog. Actually I was having troubles with my laptop that used to die but I could not accept. Every time it will go off, I would get a CPR (repair/refurbish) and it will run again for few months.

To start with my long story, I actually own(ed) a HP DV9734tx laptop. This was in February - 2008. 

Some quick specifications:

1. 17" (16:10 Aspect Ratio) 1440 x 900 WXGA
2. Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 (2.1 GHz, 3M Cache)
3. Intel 965OM Chipset
4. 3 GB DDR2 RAM 667Mhz
5. 500 GB HDD (250X2 SATA) 5400 RPM
6. Nvidia GeForce 8600M GS 512MB
7. LightScribe DVD R/W
8. Wireless, Ethernet, Bluetooth
9. Remote Control, Finger Print
10. Altec Lansing Audio

To be honest, I was a novice with specs at that time (Just went for a Large Screen, Processor and GPU).

Though the stuff I chose was the best in the market (and costly too). I was very happy with the machine I bought and I would spend hours and hours of my life on it (mostly playing online games with my buddies).

Then came October - 2010 when my laptop crashed for the first time.

Symptoms:

I just switched it on, the windows Vista (Home Prem.) login screen came up and I started seeing colored lines on display. These lines grew in count (the ones that you see if the RAM is faulty). So I rebooted the laptop, and it never came up.

Some lessons learnt:

• Assume a laptops life is 3 Years.
• Never use a laptop on Bed/Pillow where the Heat sink cannot exhaust hot air.
• Read a lot of reviews before buying an electronic product.

To shorten the story, I got it repaired for the first time, the shopkeeper told me that the mobo has to be replaced, so I spent about 1/6 of the actual cost of laptop.

The laptop worked for 2-4 Months (shop covered the repair warranty for 1 Month).

Then when it dies 2nd time the other guy told me it was GPU issue and it cost me about 5K.

Now I started researching and found about faulty product line (HP DV9000 series) and pending law suit.

The problem was in the Mobo design. The GPU and CPU sit next to each other with practically no

heat isolation. And to top that, they share same heat sink. So my heated CPU was frying up the GPU.

Anyways, it was too late to understand this, so I got it repaired a 3rd time before losing faith in it,

This time I used a Belkin Heat Sink dock. But the GPU was destined to failed.

In 2012 when it failed for the last time, I gave up the affection I had. Having spent over 90K on this piece of ever-dying hardware killed me. Thats when I decided to get a desktop. Instead I decided to build myself one so that I can rest assured that all components that I chose aren't faulty.

I also learnt that its better to chose wisely, as I do not want to run into another sad investment.

Here is what my configuration looks like:

• Intel 3rd Gen Core i5 3550
• AsRock z77 Extreme4
• Corsair Vengeance 1600 - 4GBX2
• Seagate Barracuda ST2000DM001 - 2TB 7200.14 RPM 6Gb/s SATA 3.0
• Cooler Master Thunder 500W
• Cooler Master Elite370 Cabinet
• ASUS E-Green DVD R/W
• 2 X Cooler Master 1200mm Fans
• Samsung S20B300 20" LED (16:9)
• Altec Lansing 2.1
• APC back UPS 1100V (650W)
• 250 GB X 2 SATA 5400RPM (from my laptop)

All the stuff cost me around 55K (+ expenses of travelling).

I did not choose the K series processors as I know I am not going to Over Clock (and kill my PC).

I chose an AsRock mobo (over ASUS) just to have latest features in an affordable price.

I got a UPS back up in this era because the country I live in still has power outages.

Overall, it was a great period of about 1 Month over which I got all the components and built (with seagate HDD failing, and replacement taking about 2 Weeks) the machine. Feels great to work on a PC I have built down to each screw and bolt.