In which I succumb to geek temptation, and another PC is assembled

It has been a year since I built an Atom PC for Junior, as has been documented in this blog for posterity. In that year, his reactions went from being ecstatic at having a computer of his own, to discreetly letting me know that he knew several members of molluscan class Gastropoda that were fleeter of foot.¹

Yes, I know, it was rather naive of me to presume that Master Hatter would be as dismissive of the genre of computer games as I, and therefore able to manage with a reasonably powered PC lacking in graphics of the muscular variety.

The simplest solution to the problem would have been to get a low power graphics card (GeForce 8 series perhaps), and soup up the said Atom PC. But geek cravings have to be satisfied, and I decided to give him a bit of performance headroom by going for a slightly more powerful machine.

Without further ado, these were the specs I picked for a (relatively) inexpensive low-end gaming machine.

• Core i3 340 (dual core + HT, 2.93Ghz)
• Intel DH55TC motherboard
• 4GB dual channel PC-1333 DDR3
• Nvidia GeForce 9500GT 1GB Graphics Card
• 500GB HDD, DVD-RW

So off to SP Road, it was to buy stuff. My rather ambitious budget was to keep the total below Rs. 20K, but I ended up paying Rs 21.5K including taxes.

The attendant at the shop rather helpfully pushed me to a "service centre" that would assemble everything for free, and throw in "free software" and I went along on a whim, mostly out of sheer curiosity. The "service centre" turned out to be a rather seedy and cramped joint close to SP Road, where computers and people jostled for space. People seemed to be walking in and out a lot, which meant the folks at the shop knew their stuff, or did they? As expected, "Free software" turned out to be pirated Windows 7 ("Rs. 350 only") which I rejected. The promised "lightning" assembly didn't go well either, with the "ladka" assembling taking offence when I objected to his putting both DIMMs in the same channel on the motherboard (which would "work", but not be good for performance - that's the point of dual channel RAM).

Chalega sir, ham yehi karte hain.

Chalega zaroor bhai, magar daudega nahin - nikalke wapas karo

So it was back to plan A, the parts were repacked, and handed back to me, and they were duly assembled by yours truly the same evening.

Here're the CPU, Motherboard and Graphics card in their packaging:

Motherboard, with CPU and DRAM (note, 1 DIMM in each channel!) installed:

CPU fan installed:

One of the "legs" of the fan wasn't fitted properly the first time round, and I had a couple of thermal trips. Redoing the fan installation solved that problem, for the present at least.

Graphics Card:

Motherboard installed in cabinet:

Graphics card and HDD installed, all connections made, ready for test.

Skipping over a few details of software installation ...

We have liftoff! Another Mephistopheles-free Ubuntu PC:

The monitor, keyboard and mouse were reused (my own bit of Montalvo that lives on!).

One decision I regret is skimping on the cabinet. After having seen the so-so cooling performance of the low-mid end one that I did buy, I would most definitely recommend going for something with better cooling.

And the Atom PC? I have something in mind for it, but that's a story for another day.

¹The nitpicky reader may object that members of molluscan class Gastropoda rarely possess feet, which I must admit is literally true but may be ignored in view of the exigencies of metaphor. At the same time PCs are similarly lacking in limbs of locomotion, so that must count for something as well.