New Computer!

I briefly mentioned my new computer in the last post and I thought I’d make a post about it, as it’s awesome (as all new computers are).

The specs:

GPU: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 550Ti OC 1GB
CPU: Intel core i5 2500K
CPU cooler: Zalman CNPS-9900NT
Motherboard: MSI P67A-C45 REV B3
Ram: Corsair 4GB (2x2048MB) CL9 1600Mhz XMS
Harddrive: 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ
PSU: FSP Aurum 400W 80+ Gold
Displays: 2 x Dell U2211H ultrasharp 21,5“ widescreen
Keyboard: Das Keyboard - Ultimate Model S Silent
DVD burner: Samsung DVD±R/RW/RAM
Case: Fractal Design Define R3, Black

The look

I wanted the computer to be fast and silent and I had to have two screens. I had a budget of 12,000 SEK and almost managed it too.

The screens I chose are two fairly large widescreen IPL screens, very solid, but they quickly ate up about a third of my budget… In hindsight it was a good investment, they’re absolutely wonderful!

The processor was fairly straightforward to choose - the i5 2500K is a beast for it’s price. I don’t really need 8GB ram, I think I’ve used 2GB max before so I just stuck with 4 this time. The motherboard is nothing special but I don’t need it to be either.

I’ve got about 4TB of storage laying around here so I don’t need any more really, but I chose a relatively fast and silent 1TB disk. I’d love to get a SSD but I couldn’t squeeze that into the budget.

Although you can say you don’t need a DVD reader/burner in this era of usb sticks it’s still nice to have, especially since I’ve got a few installation disks I’d like to use. A small fee that saves time I’d say. Floppies are dead for me though.

I also wanted it to be quiet and according to some who probably knows better than me by far the biggest noise source is the stock CPU silencer - so I threw down one which looked good. In hindsight it works great too.

The case looks good and it was also solid, no qualms there. But the one big issue I had was the graphics card, oh how hard it was! I wanted something silent, something from Nvidia (Ati drivers used to suck on linux, but maybe not anymore), something that’s reasonably powerful and also cheap. Not a bad combination I say! I think I chose something reasonably good - the fan is very silent, it’s a good chipset and it wasn’t all too expensive. However I haven’t gotten any games to work with it on linux but that’s probably a configuration issue, annoying anyway.

Keyboard, Das Keyboard

The keyboard, oh the keyboard! I got it in my head that I had to have a mechanical keyboard, they’re supposed to be a lot better than the “regular” ones. And oh yeah it’s absolutely wonderful, it’s a joy to type in and I’m already irking when I have to go back typing on another keyboard. But it is a tad too load according to Veronica, and it was oh so expensive.

My workspace!

Overall I’m very happy and I don’t think I would’ve done anything different if I were to buy it today, except maybe try an Ati card, some say the drivers aren’t bad at all anymore.

Finally some more pictures: