Constant Random Change

For some odd reason, I missed this little gem in last year’s Notable CD-R King Items.

It’s a 64GB solid-state drive for only PhP 5,800.

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Here are some of the follow-up questions my friend asked me after posting the previous two posts.

Why not go for SLI or Crossfire?

For those unfamiliar with the terms, Scalable Link Interface (SLI) and Crossfire are terms used by nVidia and ATI (now AMD), respectively, to call their method of allowing two or more video cards of the same to work on the same graphics rendering tasks at the same time. This should theoretically allow the computer to produce twice/thrice/etc the frames per second (fps) for games or other graphics-heavy programs.

In practice, however, the performance gains provided by both configurations are unpredictable. The performance might double in some applications, while the performance difference might be negligible on other applications.

Another downside to using SLI/Crossfire is that not all motherboards can support them. For example, none of the motherboards that I chose in the previous two posts support SLI, but all support Crossfire. If you’re planning to build an SLI-ready or a Crossfire-ready PC, you will have to make sure that the motherboard supports it.

The increase in the power requirement of your system from using multiple (energy guzzling) video cards might also require you to upgrade your PSU. You can go to this site to check if your (brand-name) PSU can provide enough power to your planned SLI/Crossfire system.

Speaking of PSUs, manuals usually ask the system builder to connect each video card to a dedicated line from the PSU to avoid overloading the line. You must make sure that the PSU has enough lines for your card as some PSUs only have one line for the 6-pin PCI-Express connectors.

There are cases where SLI and Crossfire make sense, though. One obvious scenario would be getting the absolute highest performance from the cards in the market. No single card would be a match to a system two or more of the most powerful video cards in the market working together in SLI/Crossfire.

Of course that scenario would only be applicable to the most hardcore of system builders. For the average enthusiast builder, SLI and Crossfire provides a way to beat the market sometimes. Recall what I said about the cards I chose being in a sweet spot:

…go any cheaper than the HD 4850 and you’ll get a large decrease in performance, but going for even a slightly more powerful card will give you a large increase in price.

Depending on the state of video card retail prices, there are times where SLI or Crossfire configurations would provide the same (or better) performance compared to their more expensive counterparts. This is currently the case for Radeon HD 4850 / 4870 and GeForce GTX 260 (that is, if you can find stores that sell those cards at those prices).

Another possible practical scenario takes advantage of the fact that prices always go down as new hardware gets introduced in the market. A system builder can therefore settle with just one video card first and just buy the second video card when the price goes down. This would allow him to “upgrade” his computer without having to buy a new (and more expensive) single video card.

Any incompatibilities should I watch out for when choosing parts?

First would probably be the motherboard. Some of the older motherboards do not support newer processors even though the processor sockets are compatible. There’s also the IDE ports: because of SATA, most of the newer motherboards do not carry more than one IDE socket so if you plan to carry over more than two IDE hard drives or IDE DVD-RW drives from your old PC, you’ll have to make sure that the motherboard you choose has two IDE sockets.

Another would be the PSU. As I mentioned above, you’ll have to make sure that the PSU has enough compatible connectors with your planned parts. It should also be able to provide enough power for your entire system.

Finally, there’s also the PC case. I’m sure you won’t make the mistake of buying a “micro-ATX” case when your motherboard is clearly labeled as “ATX“, but even the most well-informed computer user might not realize that some high-end video cards don’t fit in smaller cases.

I’m planning to buy this in December…

Don’t.

By December the lists I provided will already be obsolete. Who knows whether nVidia would release a new chipset that would quickly dominate the sweet-spot in the video card market? Who knows if AMD would release far better processors than Intel’s proposed i5 line? Would SSD (Solid State Drive) prices go down low enough to make the average consumer buy one instead of the traditional magnetic platter based hard disk drives?

Nobody knows the answers to these questions. Because of this, you will have to re-conduct research on parts on December.

Fortunately, most of the rules of thumb I mentioned will still work by then. For example, focusing on the video card will still be applicable by December given that the speed of improvements in graphics card chips is faster than in CPU chips.

For additional information, some sites like Tom’s Hardware provide system builder guides and buying guides giving readers details on how to choose parts based on the current state of the market. You can also go to vendor neutral sites like TipidPC where you can ask members for suggestions on parts.

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And that’s it for this post. I’ll post another one if my friend asks more questions.

As promised, here’s the risky way of building a gaming system. For this part, I’ll be building gaming systems using parts available from PC Express and PC Hub.

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A former co-worker/student/underling texted me out of nowhere late this afternoon. At first I thought he was going to inform me that one of my programs blew up and I’ll have to go to the office to fix it. Fortunately it wasn’t the case (on the contrary, he informed me that my program was bug free all this time… riiiiight) and he was just asking for suggestions on building a gaming PC with PhP 50k.

I’m bored so what the hell. Here’s my take on building a system with that budget.

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This first post will be partida*: I won’t be using parts from PCO, PC Hub or PC Express. Instead, I’ll be using parts from VillMan Computers. Their parts are more expensive and they have a narrower range of products, but as Lex mentioned, their customer support is better.

Think of this post as the safe approach in building the gaming PC.

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Everyone has their own CD-R King horror stories: the long lines, the unfriendly attendants, and crappy items that go boom after a week. But with so many items in their catalog, there’s got to be some hidden gems in there.

So to round out my series on the ZyXEL router hidden among the hundreds of CD-R King merchandise, I’ll be pointing out other items that I consider to be notable in their catalog.

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Aside from PSUs another source of confusion for normal consumers buying PCs is the graphics card. For normal desktop use, any cheap graphics card will do as long as the card fits in the motherboard (AGP or PCIe) and monitor (VGA or DVI-I or both). For gaming however, the graphics card spells the difference between smooth and choppy gameplay.

When I try to explain in the past how to buy graphics cards, I’d mention the naming scheme used by both nVidia and ATI/AMD: the final 3 digits determine the intended market of the card (e.g. an nVida 8200 will be for entry level machines while an 8800 will be for gaming) while the rest of the numbers determine the generation of the card (e.g. an ATI HD4850 is 5 generations higher than an ATI 9800). While simple, I find that this is still confusing to many.

So for this post, I’ll just point you to Tom’s Hardware’s Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart.

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I’m sleepy so I’m going to make this short.

Ever wonder why some popular books are missing from the Personal MBA list? For example, both Built to Last and Rich Dad, Poor Dad are international bestsellers and yet they aren’t included in the list.

I don’t really know the exact process on how they choose books in Personal MBA, but I can see why those two types of books aren’t on the list.

Built to Last, In Search of Excellence, Good to Great, and practically every Toyota, Google, Starbucks, or [Insert big company or CEO here] book has been ripped apart by The Halo Effect. While the latter does not really turn all of those books into paperweights, it prevents you from having delusions that reading and following those books alone will turn your company around. (In some cases, THE does turn those books into paperweights, but I think you get the point. )

Robert Kiyosaki’s books, on the other hand, have been criticized by financial experts ever since Rich Dad, Poor Dad was released. Probably the most popular criticisms of RDPD in the Internet is John T. Reed’s criticism. I dare you not to be disillusioned about the book after reading that site.

As for other books, I think I can safely assume that they either have better alternatives already on the list or the book is still haven’t caught the attention of the PMBA community yet. Either way, if a book is missing on the list, it doesn’t doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not useful. Continuing with the disclaimers, I won’t claim the list as infallible (I see a couple of books that aren’t applicable to our country).

In the end, whether or not you decide to follow the list when buying books, always read the books you buy with both an open and a skeptical mind.

In this day and age, computer stores are everywhere. If you are serious about computers, however, you will know that most of these stores have very high mark-ups (especially the ones in malls) and usually carry old or low-end (“mainstream”) stuff.

This post will cover where I get the “good stuff” in Metro Manila.

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You’re reading this blog post so I assume that you’re online (there’s a very low chance that this will be published in a local publication, but I’m not betting on it ). Being online, your first stop should always be TipidPC.com.

Even if you’re wary of buying second hand stuff from people you don’t know, TipidPC is still a valuable resource. It’s practically the only place you could find people in our country selling hard to find computer parts. There are also stores which post their prices there in real time, giving you an idea of the “correct” retail prices of computer parts. You could also get opinions from forum members on parts — they’ll even tell you where to find that part for less.

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As for “traditional” computer stores, there are only a few computer stores worth going to.

Every enthusiast will tell you about (in)famous store PC Options at Gilmore. Don’t listen when other stores say they have “the lowest prices”; other than TipidPC, PCO has the lowest prices for parts, hands down. And these are not just your mainstream parts, they carry high-end enthusiast parts too.

There is one catch, though. PCO is infamous for its inefficient system of handling customers. I’ve never bought something from PCO without waiting at least an hour to get it. So before buying something from PCO, ask yourself: “Is waiting for 2 hours for a P500 discount worth it?”

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On the opposite end of the inefficiency spectrum is PC Express. They’re not as cheap as PCO, but their stores are pretty efficient with multiple ordering booths and chairs for customers waiting for their orders to be processed. They also have a lot more branches than PCO, which is good for those who live far away from Gilmore.

Another good thing about PCX is their price list is available online in the front page of their website. There are two types of price lists, the SRP and the Promo price list. You use the latter if you’re paying by cash; they give a discount considering credit card fraud is widespread around here.

The only problem IMO with PCX is that they don’t carry a lot of enthusiast level parts. For cool stuff, you’ll have to go to PCO or the next store in this list.

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Somewhere in between PCO and PCX is PCHub. They’re cheaper than PCX but not as cheap as PCO. They’re not as efficient with dealing with customers as PCX but they’re not as inefficient as PCO either.

Like PCX, they have an online price list in TipidPC. They’re actually better than PCX in this department because their list is updated in real time, whereas in PCX you have to call to verify the price or if they have stocks available in a certain branch.

Like PCO, they carry high end stuff in their stores. They’re also better in this department because they carry enthusiast coolers like Arctic Cooling and Thermalright and “gamer” peripherals from Razer.

IMO, PCHub is the best store to go to in Gilmore, followed by PCX. Only go to PCO on off-peak hours/days or if you really need to save a couple of hundred pesos.

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The problem with the three stores above is that most of their wares are hidden in their store room. That’s ok for internal parts, but for external peripherals, looks matter.

Here’s where Octagon and CD-R King steps in.

Octagon is not a store that I would normally recommend to people. Their markups are just too high. For example, the monitor I bought last month, a Samsung T220, costs 17k in their stores. PCHub sells it for a lot less.

However, Octagon’s open supermarket-style setup showcases their products for all to see. You could easily compare how keyboards and mice with each other in this setup.

They also carry some rare stuff in their shelves. I bought my Japanese-made mouse pad for optical mice in Octagon (I’d love to get a Razer one from PCHub, but seriously, 1-2k for a mouse pad is just too much).

As for CD-R King, everyone knows it’s good for only two things: writable media and cheap (disposable) gadgets. What people don’t know is that they also carry rare parts like RAM sinks and thermal compounds.

Enthusiasts should consider going to the CD-R King site to look for rare stuff if searching TipidPC turns up nothing. I myself use a USB KVM from CD-R King, a part that you could not find in any other store locally.

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So there you have it, the best places to buy computer parts in Metro Manila. Honorable mentions go to PC Corner and RSun, both of which have competitive prices and online price lists.