Tech Updates @ The Pizzy

For the first time since 2007, I decided it was time to upgrade my computer processor, and everything else in the box along with it.

Six years to the day, on July 4th, 2013 I performed open-case surgery on my primary gaming computer, aka [[Neo]], and on my media-server-turned-gaming-PC that my wife has used, aka [[Oracle]], and migrated the internals of [[Neo]] into [[Oracle]] and bought all new parts for [[Neo]].

For [[Neo]], I picked up:

• 1 x CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3
• 1 x Intel Core i5-3470 Ivy Bridge 3.2GHz
• 1 x ASUS P8H77-V LE LGA 1155 Intel H77
• 1 x OCZ Fatal1ty 750W Modular Gaming 80Plus Bronze Power Supply
• 1 x EVGA SuperClocked GeForce GTX 660 2GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0
• and a Free copy of Metro: Last Light with the purchase of my graphics card

Now I’m running 64-bit Windows 8 Pro with 16GB of RAM (I wanted the full 32GB that the board can support, but at $145 for just the 16GB, I figured I’d wait).

[[Oracle]] got all the stuff I recently rebuilt [[Neo]] with when the mobo caught fire due to cat hair near a heatsync, so those parts are still in pretty good shape.

The reason for the upgrade was that [[Oracle]]’s components were from my gaming rig of 2005 (or earlier) and contained an Intel Pentium 4HT @ 3.0GHz, among other things of the era. This made for a poor gaming experience for my wife, in addition to a perpetual whirring sound made by an unidentified fan in the system.

After I changed out the parts to the gaming rigs, I took [[Oracle]]’s old parts and rebuilt them using my friend @jermlac‘s computer case for [m3rlin].

Once complete, the name of the new computer will be [[Trinity]] and will serve as a media center in the bedroom so we can watch our shows without Justin.TV’s incessant commercial interruptions. It’ll also be my first blue-light computer ([[Oracle]] is red, and [[Neo]] is green).

In other news, I have enjoyed my Pebble watch since I received it earlier this year. It has changed the way I handle phone notifications, especially in places like the office, around the house, or at the movie theater. I no longer have to worry about taking out the phone, or having it on me to make sure I don’t miss an important call or txt msg…and it’s nice having the ability to further screen calls from unknown numbers without having to pick up the phone itself.

I have funded other projects as well, the most useful of which (aside from the Pebble) that I have already received is a backpack with a rechargeable battery inside from TYLT. The battery has 1 x USB input, and 3 x USB outputs: 1 for iPad and 2 for Phone-type voltage. It was super helpful on my recent trip to Alabama. I simply had to plug in the backpack and then plug in my devices inside the backpack and they all charged right there overnight. It also serves as my laptop bag, and an emergency power supply for my mobile devices.

I am still waiting on a couple more funded projects: the Plant Link from Oso Technologies and the Smart Cargo for iPad from Dotan Saguy.

The Plant Link will help me keep track on the hydration levels of certain plants I have in the house and in the garden I will eventually build, which has traditionally been the hardest thing for me to keep up with.

The Smart Cargo for iPad is a case that magnetically afixes itself to the Smart Cover from Apple, and fits neatly inside the triangluar rolled-state of the iPad case to hold a couple accessories/cables.

If you’ve backed and received any of these products, let me know what you think about them in the comments section below.

I have not done any coding lately outside of work. I spend a good part of my day at work, thinking of creative solutions to display our data concepts, and that leaves very little creative energy for outside of work – not to mention we have switched to MongoDB as our database, and all my outstanding web projects are done in MySQL…making the switch back and forth between them is mentally taxing.