the magic smoke got out

Five years seems like a short time for many things, but not for computers. While many of us have computers older than five years of age, it’s generally acknowledged that five years old is about the lifespan of a well-used machine. My home computer reached five years and had the equivalent of a stroke; a core electrolytic capacitor in the power filtering section of the motherboard popped.

Unfortunately, it means I was also left with a box of out-of-date parts – power supply, CPU, video card – even the DVD burner. I realized it was time to gut the beast and start over.

There were several “user scenarios” to be met in the parts selection – photo editing, sound editing, video editing (sensing a pattern here?); these were the activities that would stress the machine. Simple activities, such as surfing the Internet or writing email, could be accomplished with a surplus machine. However, the media editing scenarios demanded more oomph.

Careful examination showed that the video editing software, Sony Vegas, would put the machine under the greatest strain. Since Vegas relies upon the CPU for most of its processing, and is multi-threaded, I went for a chip that has been doing well in such challenges when tested by trustworthy organizations; I settled on the Intel i5 Quad 750. Vegas will use all four cores – as do some of the other applications I use, including my Nikon photo editing package.

After selecting the CPU, the other components fell into place – 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 1 TB Western Digital drive with 64MB cache, 5750 ATI video card with 1G RAM, 650 watt Corsair modular power supply, a SATA-based DVD DL burner, and they are all hosted by a Gigabyte motherboard that includes SATA3 and USB3. The operating system? Windows 7 x64 Ultimate.

Assembling the beast took little more than an hour, including the time to carefully route and bind all of the cables to insure good air flow and easy maintenance.  I decided to use the stock cooler for a couple of reasons – first, it’s the warranted cooling solution, second, I’m not overclocking the CPU, and third, I was too impatient to get a new bracket to fit one of my old coolers.

So, what’s cool about the result? It is mighty quick. I’m very pleased with the performance; particularly when editing media. This machine goes into sleep mode quickly, then restarts in two seconds; literally, two seconds and it’s ready. Playing a DVD uses single digit CPU cycles. Heavy audio processing (Stereo Tool) results in single digit CPU cycles. Windows 7 pre-fetch means that Outlook 2010 loads in two seconds.

I’ve reattached my audio chain to the input. It’s my overkill method for Skype connections. A Shure SM 87, preamp via an old Mackie mixer (VLZ preamps), ancient dbx 163x Over Easy compressor, to a BeachTek XLR adapter. It probably doesn’t sound much different from the average setup, but it’s fun to play with. The video duties are handled by a Microsoft LifeCam Cinema – very clear image. By the way, the little blue doo-dad on top of the compressor is a badge reader so that I can VPN into work. The gray box beneath is my USB memory card reader.

So, that’s the rundown of the refit. Still using the same keyboard, monitor, mouse, and DLink gigabit switch, but there’s no denying it’s a whole new machine.