The 3d printing saga comes to an end

After about a year or so that we purchased a 3d printer, it was still going nowhere fast, despite numerous improvements. But the final replacement part had arrived.

Even more 3d printing adventures

Introduction

With the enhancements done last time, the printer was now working acceptably. However, "acceptable" levels of accuracy are note enough when printing, let's say, miniatures!

More 3d printing adventures

Introduction

It looks like by the time we finish all the games where I wanted to use this, it will be done.

Building a 3D printer (part 2)

Introduction

The adventures continue (still no end in sight).

Building a 3D printer (part 1)

Introduction

After some misadventures with 3D printed miniatures, a group of friends decided that we need a 3D printer. I joined in. Suffice to say, things got way more complicated than we expected.

Assembling a PC (part 2)

Time to carry on, although not much more assembling needs to happen.

First and foremost: the power cable

I was looking for a 6-pin PCI-E power connector. Or adapter. Or 6-pin MOLEX adapter. Whatever, it looks like this:

You plug two HDD-power connectors into the 4-pin sockets, and plug the 6-pin socket into the graphics card. Boom! Power.

The bad news is that I don't have any more 4-pin power connectors, so there is no way to install an optical drive right now. Oh well.

Wireless capabilities

I first thought of installing a wireless network card; but of course, the graphics card is so huge that it would not fit. I then researched an external wireless adapter; sure enough, there are some USB-based adapters out there. It's just tough to find a good one, with good enough signal reception, and one that does not just break after a couple months of usage. So for now, I'm OK with a LAN cable stretched across the house.

Sound

I already have headphones; they're comfortable and whatnot. However, I frequently listed to audio books while doing chores around the house, as well as when painting and assembling miniatures. I don't do all of that in front of the computer. Previously, I just moved my laptop around the house; however, that is no longer an option.

Option a. Wireless headphones

I went ahead and bought this: http://sumvision.com/product/akuma/akuma.html

It's actually a pretty sweet deal. All reviewers agree that it's a great product in its price range. 

I can only add that it seems uncomfortable when putting it on at first, but I got used to it pretty fast. I don't even notice it any longer; I can walk around the house, do stuff, or even sleep, with this thing on.

A second thing to add is that its wireless capabilities are great. I can walk around with only minor disturbances from time to time, and it gets across multiple rooms. Sadly, it does not work if I'm out in the kitchen painting. I'm guessing that the intervening bathroom and the multiple tiled walls are to blame. Nevertheless, I'm happy with my purchase.

Option b. Speakers

Now I would have been happy with a simple set of desktop speakers and be done with this, but wifey needs her movies (and I have to admit, watching them on a huge monitor is great - why not enhance the experience with quality sound?), so we decided on something bigger.

My first line of research went into 5.1 surround sound systems. It's already hard enough to find a good one; the market is flooded with products, and reviews are sparse. Fortunately, we have a friend who knows his sound systems. I quickly found out that quality costs a lot (just look at JBL, Altec Lansing or Harman Kardon). Moreover, these things are designed for home cinemas and smart tvs. They don't interact well with a PC, unless you have a dedicated soundboard.

My second line of research went into so called "gaming surround sound systems". Simply put, these are 5.1 systems designed for PCs. The advantage over the other kind of sound systems is the simple 3.5 audio jack input. So I went for this: http://www.logitech.com/en-ca/product/speaker-system-z906 So far, I haven't used it much. Right now, my computer is right next to the couch, and there's no way I can create a surround-setup for the speakers. I'll relocate it to the opposite corner of the room soon, and then we'll be able to watch movies comfortably from the couch. I can say that those few times that I did try out the speakers, they sounded great, and the bass is nice, too.

Epilogue

As any fan knows, a PC is never complete. You can always buy a new accessory, or improve an existing component. I may do so in the future; for now, I'm quite happy with what I've assembled. 

Happy gaming!

Assembling a PC (part 1)

Not at all miniature-related, but it is gaming-related (sort of) and DIY (sort of), so here goes: I decided to custom build a low-budget gaming PC.

Components ordered

• CPU: http://ark.intel.com/products/78955/Intel-Celeron-Processor-G1820-2M-Cache-2_70-GHz
• motherboard: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/B85ME/
• RAM: Kingston 8GB, DDR3, 1333MHz
• chassis: Delux MV419 450W
• graphics card: https://www.asus.com/Graphics-Cards/STRIXR7370DC2OC4GD5GAMING/
• SSD: http://www.kingston.com/en/ssd/v#sv300s3 240GB
• HDD: http://toshiba.semicon-storage.com/us/product/storage-products/client-hdd/dt01acaxxx.html 500GB

You can see the monitor, too; but it's not relevant. Yet.

Reasoning

It's been around 5 years since I bought my Asus X55SV laptop. Back then, I needed a laptop for university-related activities; and I thought, hey, let's buy something that can actually be used for gaming also. And it was quite the nuclear reactor, thanks to the included GeForce 9500. I remember running Crysis and Assassin's Creed right after they came out. Of course, it did not prove a good long-term investment. It soon needed a RAM upgrade (to 3 GB), and I also experienced a bad case of burned-out graphics card (the replacement costed about 30% of the total price of the laptop). I then learned to always use a cooling pad.
So the laptop aged nicely, and it's still capable of running most games. The first one that I couldn't run was Crysis 2; then there was FarCry 3, Witcher 2 and so on. But it's still running StarCarft 2 and Diablo 3 at full details with no issues. Well, it was running, until the HDD went bad. It just simply stopped working one day; probably due to bad sectors. No idea. I will not invest any more money into this laptop. Time to move on.
For my new PC, I wanted something to run most of today's games. In the same time, I'm not willing to sell a kidney to get a high-end graphics card. I picked something from the middle of the benchmark list. Moving on.
For most components, I went for the cheapest. I took the the cheapest chassis with a 450W power source; and I found a good one, with two additional cooler slots for later, if needed. I bought the cheapest 8GB RAM chips, and a cheap 2-core 2.7GHz processor. I don't intend to do any intensive computing to require more; and as far as I know, games mostly use the graphics card. Moving on.
For the motherboard, I chose the cheapest one that satisfied my requirements: support for everything above, support for 32GB RAM and 4 RAM slots (for later, if needed). I got another good one here; it has 2 cooler power slots, 6 SATA slots and so on.
For storage, I bought a cheap SSD and a cheap HDD for a couple of reasons. I experienced working with SSDs at work; and the speed-up is worth every penny. On the other hand, you don't need a very large SSD. To be honest, my laptop had a 250 GB HDD and it was enough for whatever I used actively. I also have an external HDD, but it's only about 10% filled (another bad investment). So the plan is to use the SSD for the OS and installed applications; and use the HDD for media and other stuff, where the speed-up isn't relevant.

Step by step assembly

credit: 9gag

Well, at least in theory. I opened up all the manuals before doing anything for instructions. The thing you're looking for here is the motherboard manual. That actually lists the steps of assembly; you can go from there, component by component. Whenever you're stuck or unclear, search youtube for a tutorial. There's loads of  them, such as this one which I've found relevant and useful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ9QHOHhGCg

 Step 1. Installing the motherboard

Screw in the little legs, put in the motherboard (guided by the holes for screws), then screw them in.

I was in no way prepared for having to wrestle with this piece of hardware. I had to use brute physical force to push it into its place.Your best bet would be pushing it into its approximate place, fix a screw in a corner; then fixing a screw in the opposite corner. Then just go in whichever direction you want, alternating opposite corners for as long as possible.

Step 2. CPU

This one was easy. Just follow instructions.

 Step 3. HDD & SSD

Mount them close to the SATA connectors. Put the RAM chips in in the same go.

Step 4. Notice missing screw in motherboard

Yeah, I missed one. And since it needs its little leg under the board, it can't be mounted with the motherboard in place. So I had to unmount it, put the leg in its place, and re-mount it.

Yay.

Step 5. Back to the storage devices

With these new SATA connectors, the days of setting jumpers on HDDs are gone. What a relief! Just plug everything in.

Step 6. Graphics card

Mount it in the PCI-E slot. Or at least I would have, but it didn't fit due to the HDD. I unmounted and remounted everything several times until I managed to fit everything in the right place.

Step 7. Get frustrated

Everything above was done in a single evening after work. I was getting tired (and frustrated, and sleepy), so I just cut the assembling off right here.

Not the best state to leave the living room in, but at this point, whatever.

Step 8. Get back into the game

Another day, a fresh start. I continued with plugging in all the extra cables into the motherboard; this means the front panel connectors (USB, audio, power switch, reset switch), and all the power cables. Everything looks ready to go. Time to connect the monitor and confirm that it works.

Step 9. Get frustrated... again

See that metallic "lip" there, right above the graphics card's connectors? The connectors actually don't fit because of it.

Step 10. Try to get the monitor working with the PC

The monitor came with a single cable: DVI-to-mini-DVI. It wasn't working with the graphics card, or the integrated graphics card. Some quick googling pointed me towards problems with certain (most?) adapter cables, so I went out to the nearest hardware store and bought an HDMI cable. It wasn't working either; but at least it proved that the cable itself and the monitor were good, as I once again quit the assembly process and went ahead to watch a movie with my wife on our new 24" monitor. I somehow got into a different hardware store the day after, where I bought an HDMI-to-VGA cable to try out; it obviously did not work either.

Step 11. Try desperately to get the monitor working with the PC

I was very close to just taking the whole thing to a PC repair shop. I just gave myself one last shot. Following a guide found thanks to Google, I started removing components. With the PC almost empty on the inside (again), I connected the monitor to the integrated graphics card again. HDMI - nothing. HDMI/VGA - nothing. DVI/miniDVI - working! Yea!
I have no idea what's up with that.
Anyway, further investigation showed that the graphics card has an additional power connector; but there was no cable included, and the chassis doesn't have an appropriate outlet. So it had no way to work anyway.

Recap. I have everything installed into the chassis, except the graphics card. I can boot up the PC and get into the BIOS (which is awesome by the way, nowhere near the old BIOS-es I'm used to).

Step 12. Install Windows

With no optical drive, the solution is simple: use a USB bootable stick. Except that I got an error message related to the CD/DVD device driver when installing. By all the Gods of Chaos, this is getting frustrating.
Solution. In true Windows fashion, pull it out and plug it back in.

Step 13. Install applications

A usable browser. A free antivirus. A good media player. A free image viewer. The list goes on.

Step 13. Realize that more components are needed

So for starters, an optical drive. Then wireless capability, because I don't want to have a huge cable across half the house. Speakers, since we only have laptops at the moment. And last but not least, a power cable for the graphics card.

To be continued...