Sean Kearney: Sitecore and Stuff

In my last post I wrote what I planned on building for my home developer rig.

A few changes were made.

* I went with an extra hard drive and I will run RAID 0.

* I measured the compartment in my desk where I planned on putting my case and lo and behold it was too small for the Antec case I Picked out. I had to settle on a smaller box, which will probably mean more noise, but no option here.

* I went with an nVidia card as opposed to an ATI card. Too many people I talked to had problems with them.

* Swapped out the PSU for one that is supposed to be quiter.

Here is the system I ordered. If UPS stays on track I will be having a Friday geek night!

Qty.	Image	Product Description
1		COOLER MASTER Gladiator 600 RC-600-KKN1-GP Black SECC Body ; Mesh Front bezel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail Model #:RC-600-KKN1-GP Item #:N82E16811119206
1		ASUS P6T Deluxe V2 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail Model #:P6T Deluxe V2 Item #:N82E16813131365
1		ZOTAC ZT-98GEY3P-FSR GeForce 9800 GT 1GB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail Model #:ZT-98GEY3P-FSR Item #:N82E16814500079
1		COOLER MASTER RS-700-AMBA-D3 700W ATX12V V2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply - Retail Model #:RS-700-AMBA-D3 Item #:N82E16817171037
1		Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 - Retail Model #:BX80601920 Item #:N82E16819115202
1		CORSAIR XMS3 12GB (6 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model HX3X12G1600C9 G - Retail Model #:HX3X12G1600C9 G Item #:N82E16820145235
1		CORSAIR Flash Voyager 16GB Flash Drive (USB 2.0 Portable) Model CMFUSB2.0-16GB - Retail Model #:CMFUSB2.0-16GB Item #:N82E16820233042
1		SABRENT CRW-UINB 68-in-1 USB 2.0 Internal Card Reader w/ USB 2.0 Port supports SDHC/VISTA - Retail Model #:CRW-UINB Item #:N82E16820300608
2		Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLFS 300GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM Model #:WD3000HLFS Item #:N82E16822136322
1		ASUS VK266H Black 25.5" 2ms(GTG) HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail Model #:VK266H Item #:N82E16824236046
1		Sony Optiarc 24X DVD/CD Rewritable Drive Black SATA Model AD-7240S-0B - OEM Model #:AD-7240S-0B Item #:N82E16827118030
1		COOLER MASTER V8 RR-UV8-XBU1-GP 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail Model #:RR-UV8-XBU1-GP Item #:N82E16835103055

In honor of Windows 7, and my increasing frustration with my 4 year old DELL computer, I figured I would pony up and build myself a nice developer rig. Even though it is my home computer my typical usage is work related; Visual Studio(s), SQL Server, IIS, Virtual Machines, etc... My wife's typical usage is email and web browsing. We are not gamers at all; not even solitaire! The most graphic intense application I use would be Google Earth.

I was initially thinking RAID 0 15K rpm SAS drives with the new ASUS MB, but that bumped my cost up way too much. Plus, the performance benefit of RAID 0 doesn't outway the issue of losing one drive loses all data factor. So I decided to go with a single 300GB 10K RPM SATA drive. I don't need much in the way of disk space since all music, video, doc's, etc... are sitting on a file server (that needs to be upgraded).

The last PC I made was about 7 years ago. It was a beast of a machine with Dual SCSI CD drives and a DVD drive. Does one really need more than one optical drive these days? I don't remember the last time I needed to duplicate a disc.

Here is what my initial thoughts are. Starred rows are the upgraded components that I am not sure are worth it for my usage. This doesn't include monitors, which I desperately need, but will be holding off on.

Any comments would be appreciated. I want to get this project rolling ASAP!

This isn't an iPhone review blog post. There have been hundreds in the last hour since it was announced. 

Wow. It has been about 16 months since the I first wrote about the iPhone coming out; I still don't have one. I've read the reviews, played with it, and liked it, but as I wrote, I wasn't going to spend $400+ on a phone. For $199 (maybe cheaper with a 2 year contract) I'll take two please. For $200 you get a fully capable web browser, pocket GPS, email, camera, yada, yada, yada, and, oh yea. a phone too!

July 11th I  will finally get rid of my Razr!

I am running a Linksys NSLU2 with the uNSLUng firmware with TwonkyVision Media Server installed.  Attached to my NSLU is a standard external 300GB USB drive that holds my MP3s, movies, pictures, etc... On the home theater side of the equation I have the D-Link DSM-520.

I must say, the setup is pretty simple and, in theory, it should be all I need. No PC needs to be on, I just need to leave my NAS device on and I should be able to fire up my DSM-520 and listen to my music. The problem is that the DSM can't find the uPNP media server unless it is freshly restarted. Once I start the DSM and then restart the NSLU I am good to go, but it is a bit of an annoyance to say the least.

Looking farther down the road... what happens when my USB drive takes a dump? I need to start looking at RAID'ed NAS devices to make sure I don't loose the pictures from my honeymoon! At this point, is it worth getting simply a NAS device? If I am going to be running a RAID NAS device, with a uPNP media server that costs close to $1000 is it worth it?

This new Windows Home Server is looking like a pretty good solution. Granted, everyone is hyped up over all the cool stuff coming out of CES 2007, but it still looks cool! If they can price this in the $500 range it will surely be a contender for me.

I skimmed the Steve Jobs Keynote from Engadget and I must say... that iPhone does look nice! lol.

I love gadgets. What computer programmer doesn't? The only thing is that I spent $400 on a phone (Nokia 8860)  back in 2000 and I swore I would never shell out hundreds of dollars for a phone again. I currently have a Motorola Razr, which I purchased for $100, and have been happy with it for the last 16 months. I also have been a pretty happy iPod user for the last 16 months. Now, this iPhone seems to be more than just a phone. If it plays music as well as an iPod, handles calls as well as my Razr, and can do everything my PDA (that I never use) can do, then why shouldn't I get it! The thing is running OS X and should be very impressive!

One big downside to the iPhone will be the increase in my rate plan. I am only paying $50/month for my Cingular service since I have a basic plan with little SMS/MMS usage. If you have an real computer built into your phone, with full Internet capabilities, you NEED to get broadband on your phone. Cha-Ching. My cell phone bill just doubled.

I can't wait to see reviews of this phone in the spring. The last two iTunes enabled phones had less that stellar reviews, but this one looks real good!