Many of you know that I’ve been in the means of purchasing and building a new computer, and have been asking what the status of it is. Here’s a status log using pics.

September 12th, 2008, 1:30pm

The computer parts arrive at my house after Jumu’ah, as excited as I am, I had to leave to MI for a Ramadan weekend with my family and in-laws there within an hour of the parts’ arrival. After I came back, assembly began.

September 18th, 2008

This is a pic of Waasiq, my wife, and me watching it incomplete in my basement. My wife’s the Emperor because she actually owns a jilbab that looks like his cloak. Major component building has begun with help from a close friend and brother, Afroz Asad.

At this point, there were some critical events going on. The computer was being built, and I needed some major help with it. So after Afroz helped me, he went for i’tikaf on the 21st night, and I still needed help. So I took it to a friend’s iftar party where tons of guys were invited, meaning I’d definitely find a solid group of techy bros to help out. They helped verify I installed everything, and I was good to go. Or so I thought.

I brought it home and it didn’t work. I tried everything. Re-doing the installation, reading the manuals, the works. I took it over to Afroz’s and we found out that the video card I ordered, the EVGA GeForce 8600GT GPU, was dead on arrival. Bummer!!!

I was down about it, but at the same time losing focus on Ramadan. It was the last 10 nights, and I needed to get it together. So I took the example of our dear brother, Afroz, and decided to ditch building this thing for going to the masjid more during the last 10 nights. Plus the whole “this isn’t working” thing, I felt, was like a sign from Allah to ignore the Death Star until Eid.

Octotber 2nd, 2008

Afroz IMs me on Gmail Chat “whats the status?” I don’t respond. Too busy putting together the final parts and pieces. I sent the video card back to NewEgg and picked up a 9500GT with a rebate making it the same price. Finally install that in, hook up the monitor from DVI to VGA via a converter, and before I close up the case I run the machine to see if it works.

Octotber 3rd, 2008

SUCCESS!! Now I know what Emperor Palpatine must’ve felt like when he said, “now WITNESS the firepower of this fully armed and operational BATTLE STATION!!!” to Luke in front of Vader. Boy do I feel cool!

October 8th, 2008

The Death Star is now complete and ready to be used for the Empire, I mean, the Ummah. Alhumdulillah! It looks like this only there’s a black DVD-burner in the top 5.25 bay. Here’re the specs:

• Antec Three Hundred Case
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
• ASUS P5Q-E Intel P45 ATX Motherboard
• CORSAIR XMS2 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 RAM
• Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
• EVGA GeForce 9500GT GPU
• Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650W Power Supply
• Samsung Black 22X DVD+R
• Microsoft Basic Optical Wheel Mouse

Cost

I think at the end, this computer cost me around $770 total. That’s not including a $300 Chase gift card I got during my wedding that was applied to the purchase. So let’s say it’s $770. I would like to say that the specs I got from this machine would have been a lot more had they come from Dell or something. Maybe like $1200 or so. So hopefully I saved at least $400 to $500 by going this route. Plus the experience I now have in building a computer, totally worth it. I knew a bit here and there, but now I know my computer inside-out, literally.

Thoughts On The Parts

I chose each part based on recommendations from close brothers who were very helpful. The motherboard is solid, easy to install. The processor is a Quad Core, which everyone talked about overclocking. But dude, I’m upgrading from a Pentium 4 to a Quad Core 2, that’s like 20 overclocks already! The RAM, made sure to pick one with low “latency” thanks to my cousin Saudu Bhaiya, and easy to install as usual. The GeForce 9500GT is sweet, has two DVI outputs and an S-video out, have yet to try it on a TV with component cables. The 1 terabyte hard drive is INSANE, gonna be so ideal for editing videos iA. And the power supply is a beast, more than adequate power. Oh, and the case is sick! Nice and clean, no crazy Alien looking neon lighting. Just clean and simple, and keeps everything nice and cool.

My happiest acquisition is the Microsoft Basic Optical Wheel Mouse. I used to have one of these for my old computer and LOVED it. So simple, so basic, and now it comes in black. Nice!

Which Operating System, XP or Vista???

I had to decide whether or not to go Vista. Everyone said to go with XP Pro, and so did my own thoughts, but Vista really isn’t all that bad. My dad got a Dell Vostro laptop back in February which came with Vista Home Basic, it’s pretty nice! I ended up getting a copy of Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 2, and when I installed it, I kinda almost regretted not getting Vista. But the features of Vista that I liked, which was just basically the thumbnail feature in Explorer and its new look, were not to die for. I heard Vista continuously uses unneeded amounts of memory, so I decided against it.

But what about the cool Vista look? Not a problem. To make consolation, I installed the Royale Noir theme for XP, giving it a slight Vista-esque look. I even managed to find a set of Aero mouse cursors from Vista for use with XP. As Milhouse once said about his new cup-and-ball, “Pretty neat, huh?” Click the pic.

Performance

The Death Star is FAST. Ya Allah, it’s just awesome. I notice some slight hiccups, I’m guessing due to OS limitations or something. But I can’t get over how fast it is. Adobe Photoshop CS3 used to take at least 120 seconds to load up. Now, it literally takes 10 seconds. No kidding, I timed it. And that’s Photoshop using what it claims is “55%” of what it can use from my memory. I loaded up Adobe Premiere CS3 and that also ran like Usain Bolt on a good day, lightning quick. No more super long load times and choppy video previews for me! Alhumdulillah. We’ll see how quick rendering videos will be on this machine, inshaAllah.

Special Thanks

To all of you who helped me out with this, jazakAllahu khairan and many many thanks. Afroz with taking time out of his schedule, Saudu Bhaiya for consulting me on RAM and video cards, Ahsan on processors (while walking to a train), Bilal for offering a video card for free, and Bilal, Zashrafi, Jawwad, and Fahad for looking at my installation and suggesting parts. InshaAllah I plan to pump out some Islamic audio and video from the Death Star, and I pray that you are given lots of reward for all those who listen and watch them and benefit! Also many thanks to my wife who got me the Antec case and put up with the many days and nights of spending time building this thing instead of with her.

I leave you with this. It’s very Family Guy/Simpsons esque humor, and if you think you’re hearing Stewie, you are. It’s Seth McFarlane.