Televsion Revelation - OTA HDTV

When we were planning our move to North Carolina, Louise, my wife, and I made the conscious decision to NOT get cable TV. This was mainly due to two items 1) first - we have a tendency to watch quite a bit of television when we have it and 2) a high cable bill (even if you take out the Internet access and digital phone from the bundle) due to movie packages.

We have been getting our TV shows via the internet but recently we purchased two small HD TVs for my wife’s new system to use as monitors. This use of these TVs has not worked out well – thus one of them was moved to the older computer in our bedroom so my wife could still have two monitors on her new system. This led me to have a sudden insight – digital TV was supposed to be available over the AIR (OTA) thus overcoming the cable bill! So I did some research and found out through this site:

           http://www.tvfool.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=1

That I should be able to get most broadcast stations that I would want with a passive antenna.

So $16 or so dollars later – were are now using a Phillips SDV2210/27 passive antenna to pull in HDTV and we get the main broadcast channels from Charlotte in nice crystal clear HD. YEAH! Here is picture of the Antenna box:

Huge Pen Drive for a Very Small Price

I woke up this morning to an email from my neice Patti, who was asking about a Pen drive brand and if it was good or not. The second item I noted was that she was getting an absolutely fantastic price on this device via ebay which brings up its own question that I will address in a moment - on to the Brand question.


The brand of a pen drive is an interesting question and probably varies greatly by who you ask. Many probably just say get the cheapest - but this is not always an appropriate answer. Personally prefer different brands depending on the situation - so here is my break down:

• High Security needs (think FIPS 140-2): Definitely IronKey - a bit pricey but there is no better drive IMHO when it comes to a secured drive. Built in encryption and a kill feature if someone messes with it physically or failed the password 10 times. See more at https://www.ironkey.com/personal
• Regular use - Typically I prefer Kingston or SAN DISK for regular needs but may also venture into the PNY brand evey once in a while. Currently my main pen drive is a 32GB Kingston Data Traveller.

So my second question is - where do you buy Tech like this from? I have never really considered ebay as a source for electronics but this in this particular case I might - since the price is 10.8% of what it would cost at newegg for the same drive! What an interesting dilemma.

 

So I suggested to my niece that she do a little investigation on the seller and if she did order to get a second on and I would reimburse her. Hey a deal is a deal and considering that Louise (my wife) and I just had a bad data event with one of our laptops - this might be a great backup solution for the next system.

So what are your thoughts?

Session 4 - Graphics Card and Sound Card Installation

Today's Session was focused on the installation of the graphics and sound cards. Below are both cards and the associated documentation and fun stuff included with the XFX ATI Radeon HD 5970 Black Edition Graphics card.

The image below is of both the Graphics card and Sound card installed into the case:

This Graphics card is huge at just over 12 inches long and as such I had to remove the fane shround to get it to fit into the case. The picture below is a close up view of the minimal clearance between the fan and the card:

So the next step is to get all of the power and data cables connected and then the first power on (AKA smoke) test will be ready to occur.

Assembly Session 2 and 3

OK - I have been working on the system off and on for the last week. Below are the picutres from last Sunday and One from today that show the motherboard and it componenets and the CPU with cooler and fans installed.

Above: Motherboard Box

Above: Power Genie, DLED Display, X-FI Sound Card and Motherboard (underneath).

Above: All the stuff in the motherboard box.

Above: MSI Eclispe SLI Motherboard

Above: Motherboard With CPU Installed

Above: Xigmatek Thor's Hammer Cooler with 2x Antec 120mm fans for CPU Cooling.

Next Comes the Graphics Card and Sound Card!

First Assembly Session

I have begun assembling my new system and I took quite a few pictures both before  and during this sessoion so this entry will be mostly a pictoral of my first session, in which I installed the Power Supply, card reader, optical drives and the hard drive. So here goes the picture show.

All of the parts before assembly.

The Box for the case was nearly 30 inches tall!!!

The Drives, card reader, RAM OS and Graphics Card!

Motherboad, CPU, CPU Cooler and Power Supply.

The Case being unboxed!

The Unboxed Case - Its big for a "mid-tower".

Top views (with and without cover).

Case Interior

Power Supply Components - the bag on the left for cables. The PSU is in the felt bag. Parts bag and Ac Cable - Fancy packaging.

Front views of what has been assembled so far.

Finally the PSU in its mounted position. The case has a 3 way securing system for the PSU - the screws, velcro strap and a mounting bracket!.

Overall I am pleased so far. Tomorrow begins the motherboard installation.

Parts Have Arrived

Well the ordering is done and the parts have arrived. Next Step is to inventory and build the system. There have been two updates to the design - so the final as ordered system now is as follows:

Component	Qty
12GB DDR3-1333 - 3 sticks of Crucial CT51264BA1339 RAM (4GB each)	1
Silverstone Raven RV02-BW Case	1
Xigmatek Thor's Hammer CPU Cooling Fan	1
ATI Radeon HD 5970 Video Card - XFX Black Edition	1
Flash Media Reader/Writer - Rosewill RCR-IM5001	1
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit	1
Corsair HX850 Power Supply	1
MSI Eclipse SLI	1
Blue Ray Burner - Plextor PX-B940SA	1
Intel Core i7-920 CPU	1
Hard Drive (1 TB) - Western Digital Caviar Black	1
DVD+/-R/RW Dual Layer Drive - Samsung SH-223C	1

So my original cost estimate for this system was $3026.58 (does not include shipping) and my final actual cost before shipping and rebates is $2877.87 (a savings of $148.71). Shipping added 44.36 to this. I have one rebate to process which will lower the cost by $10.00 thus my final cost will be $2912.23 for a delta savings of $114.35 from the original build cost estimate. Now the fun begins - building it and documenting it all here.

New System Design

My darling wife (you may know her poetic Louise Blog)  and  have been discussing the merritts of building/buying a new desktop computer system for the house. Through much discussion and possible uses we have decided to jump to the top (or very near the top anyway) of the technology pile so that we have very few, if any limitations on what the machine can do. I have come up with the following design for the new system:

Component	Qty
12GB DDR3-1333	1
Silverstone Raven RV02-BW Case	1
Xigmatek Thor's Hammer CPU Cooling Fan	1
ATI Radeon HD 5870 Video Card	1
Flash Media Reader/Writer	1
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit	1
Coolermast Thermal Fusion CPU thermal compund	1
In-Win Commander IRP-COM850 Power Supply	1
MSI Eclipse SLI	1
Blue Ray Burner	1
Intel Core i7-920 CPU	1
Hard Drive (1 TB)	1
DVD+/-R/RW Dual Layer Drive	1

So my question is what do you all think? Comments and alternative ideas are welcome.