Upgrade Itch - Zacate On My Mind (Part II)

Okay, after giving it some thought I've decided to come up with a more budget-friendly edition of my first proposal. I'm still going with Mini-ITX though, but this build won't cost as much as the first one. Let's get to it.

Apex MI-008 ITX Case - Granted this case is bigger than the Antec ISK-100. And it does have a bigger internal power supply. In ITX terms 250 watts is overkill. But it does cost cheaper. The Apex MI-008 is two-thirds the cost of the ISK-100. When you consider that it can accommodate a desktop-sized internal hard drive and DVD drive, the savings increment up. With the added wiggle room, you can also add a PCI Express card. Well, assuming it's got a low enough passive heatsink. So going with the Apex MI-008 does add up the savings when you consider the bottom line.

Asrock E350M1/USB3 - Asrock has been around for a few years and is known to geeks as Asus' budget brand. If you want bang for the buck, Asrock is the way to go. You do have to wait around for Asus to introduce new features in its flagship brand before it trickles down to Asrock motherboards, but the wait isn't all that long. Give props to stiff competition. Features trickle down in 3-5 months after a mid to high-end board is released by Asus. So going back to the Asrock E350M1/USB3, it features the same trio of new tech I'm looking for in an upgrade: DDR3, SATA 6 GB/s and USB 3.0. It has solid capacitors, just like the Gigabyte GA-E350N-USB3.  It also features Xfast USB, a technology that's supposed to increase the speed of both USB 2.0 and 3.0. You can connect your displays using the onboard VGA, DVI and HDMI. An eSATA port is thrown in there for good measure as well. This is prime kit for the money, folks.

4GB DDR3 Kingston HyperX - As with my first build, I am going with Kingston. This time around, I would have a little more to spend after choosing a cheaper Mini-ITX case. HyperX is Kingston's premium line. In  recent years, this line of premium products has expanded to meet every budget. So much so that they now have the Blu (entry-level), Genesis (mid), T1 (extreme enthusiast), LoVo (premium, low-voltage) and the H20 (extreme gaming). I'm picking the Blu with slim heat spreaders and better-than-average performance over most budget RAM. It goes perfectly with the small case.

2 TB Seagate Barracuda XT - Seagate has been my preference for drives ever since I started building. I can only talk of my personal experience when  I say that I never had one fail on me. So I trust this brand more than the other brands I've tried. They weren't joking about the Hitachi 'Deathstar', let me tell you. I've had 2 Maxtors fail on me as well. I haven't tried WD yet, so I'll just say I'm keeping an open mind about them. For storage though, you really need to go with at least half of the largest available in the market. I filled up my current 500GB 7200.11 in just a little over a year. Yes, I know the reviews say the 7200.11 is a clunker that breaks down easily, but I've had one  for 2 years and it's still working. 500 GB is a bit constricted, especially if you are a data pack rat like me. I'm actually just barely getting by, deleting files by the folder when I reach a critical point. So yeah, if you plan on using your drive for a couple of years at least, you need a 2 TB drive.

24X LiteOn DVD Writer - It's LiteOn, it's cheap, it's fast and it's a brand I trust. I've said it once, I'll say it again. This is definitely a bang-for-the-buck drive for your basic burning needs. Plus, this particuar LiteOn model has Labeltag, a burning features that burns a label on the write side of the disk. Well, it does look like a gimmick, I admit. But I would prefer this over having Lightscribe because with Lightscribe you conditon can only use specific media that costs more than your usual blank DVD's. Lightsribed labels also fade in certain storage conditions, like using the wrong disc sleeves. With Labeltag, I can use my favorite Taiyo Yuden's without hesitation.

Upgrade Itch - Zacate On My Mind

When you're the kind of person who builds your own computers, you tend to get a little itchy when new technology gets announced. You get an upgrade itch every so often. Well, I've got it again. I've had my desktop now for close to 2 years and a lot has changed in the last 18 months. One of the most glaring would be AMD's entry into the ITX market with the Fusion platform. They're desktop and notebook products with graphics integrated onto the processor itself, what AMD calls APU's, have been nicknamed Zacate.

I've been looking around at prices and I've decided to mock up a few set-ups that will possibly go into my next build. Here are the parts that I would go with on a small-footprint-energy-efficient build:

Antec ISK-100 - A true Mini-ITX case for the footprint conscious. This is trully small. It measures in at 248 mm (H) x 108 mm (W) x 212 mm (D). It's side about as wide and as high as an outstretched hand. To fit everything in, some sacrifices had to be made. It does fit 2 hard drives, but it will only take 2.5" laptop hard drives. It does not have a power supply in the traditional desktop sense either. Inside the case is a small power board that distributes power to the devices inside. What gives it power is an external AC Adapter, much more common on laptops than in desktops. The AC Adapter is only 90 watts, so that gives you an idea of how energy efficient the parts you choose should be.

Gigabyte GA-E350N-USB3 - This board has all the new goodies. It's got USB 3.0, SATA 6 GB/s ports and DDR3. The integrated graphics also support DX11. Having VGA, DVI and HDMI also give you flexibility when it comes to displays. It's built for durability too. Most Gigabyte boards these days have an extra layer of copper in the board to make them more sturdy in constant use. They also come with 'solid' capacitors that are more heat resistant and don't leak like electrolytic capacitors. All in all a great board packed with features and built to last.

4 GB (2 x 2 GB) Kingston DDR3 ValueRAM - I chose this in particular because I have been using Kingston RAM for more than 6 years now. I have never had any problems with them. Another great thing about certain  ValueRAM models is their size. The one pictured left are low-profile and if you're working with a case as tiny as the Antec ISK-100, every millimeter counts.


320 GB Seagate Momentus - I've always used Seagate, starting with the 1st computer I built. I will continue to do so, since they are the only manufacture ballsy enough to guarantee their products for 5 years. Anyway, since laptop drives are definitely more money per gigabyte of storage, I opted for the current smallest capacity. It would be more practical from cost perspective to get a small-capacity laptop drive to fit the case and a large-capacity external USB drive to store your stuff. And with USB 3.0, the file transfer speeds will not matter so much because it will be fast enough not to bore you from waiting.

2 TB WD My Book Essential (USB 3.0) Drive - When it comes to friends and external hard drives, most of mine recommend Western Digital drives. You may ask why 2 TB? My rule of thumb for hardware has always been to get a hard drive that is half of the current largest capacity. This wiggle room allows me to buy a drive and use it for at least 2 years without feeling the pinch. It has worked for me for years. 2 TB may be a little over half the current 3TB king of the hill, but with the large files these days thos extra GB's will come in handy. Especially when you decide to use your digital camera's 12 mega-pixels full on. You do need to store those memories somewhere.

LiteOn External Optical Drive - I've been using LiteOn for as long as I can remember building PC's. I've only had 1 drive die on me after 2 years, but that was because I really abused it. I would burn 15-20 DVD's for friends in a single sitting. Then again, in hindsight, with that abuse I'm surprised it lasted 2 years. Lesson learned for me. I don't abuse my drives that much anymore. But again, it's a brand I trust. And they don't cost as much as the other major brands. Oh, and a little trivia. LiteOn makes drives for Sony, so if you've got a Sony DVD drive, chances are it was made by LiteOn.