My Buys for My New Computer.

Higher clock speeds. Overclocking. Newer graphics-heavy games. Intensive simulations. These are combing to create a big problem. Heat. Now you might be wondering where I am going with this. Computer electronics generates heat. Enough heat to destroy itself. Most of the time it isn't a problem.With some of the newer computer games and applications, using advanced cooling technology and software becomes necessary. Multiple fans, extended heat sinks, adding extra heats sinks, specialized water cooling as well as making sure the cabling isn't interfering with the airflow are now the norm in high end graphics and gaming computers. All of the above was taken into consideration when buying my computer parts.

The first buy. The case. My selection is the Corsair Graphite 600T Mesh Mid Tower.

It is larger than most mid-towers. I features a lockable panel with latches to allow easy access to the goodies inside.  So that heat is not much of a problem, in the front and at the top are two 200 mm fans.  It has an open mesh panel with the ability to add four fans to increase airflow to the Graphic Processing Units and memory cores. List $159.99. Amazon $142.62. Newegg $149.99.

This has six drive bays for internal hard drives and four bays for external disc drives. It has eight expansion slots. In this picture, it doesn't show it, but three of the internal hard drive bays can be relocated to allow longer graphics cards. Or, you can add another three bay section to add three more hard drives for a total of nine hard drives. The drive bay trays are easily removed. The bays for external disc drives feature a lock switch which allows you to securely fasten optical drives without screws.

The 600T case has this feature which helps immensely with cable installation. Not only does it help to keep it clean and neat, but it puts the cables out of the airflow. Airflow cooling is the big bugaboo in Personal Computers. Graphics Processor Units and CPU produce a prodigious amount of heat which destroy electronics in the long run. This case is a big step in correcting that problem.

This is an example of a decent installation. Notice the power cables going out and then coming back in. It is also neat and clean. This one has a CPU liquid cooler with a radiator.

This is a CPU cooler. Corsair H60. It works with any computer and a 120 mm fan. When you hear of liquid cooled computers, this is the item that makes it liquid cooled. This particular model comes with one fan. A second fan can be installed. Retail $79.99. Amazon $63.24. Newegg $69.99. It is necessary to make sure both fans direct the air out. If one isn't set up correctly, air won't cool the CPU.

i7 2600K is a Sandy Bridge CPU with 1155 socket. It has  turbo-boost and hyper-thread technology. The above item is designed to keep this CPU safely cooled down. Retail $329.00. Amazon $315.00. Newegg $329.00. It is designed with overclocking in mind. Overclocking is where you change how many instructions the computer performs per second. Increasing it means overclocking. Increasing the computer power of the computer. It also means more heat.

This is the Corsair Vengeance Dual Inline Memory Module. DIMM for short. This dimm is CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B kit. It is a 16 gigabyte dual channel memory kit. Double Data Rate type 3. Or alternatively, 16GB DDR3 DIMM. Notice the fins coming out of the top of this memory card. Memory does heat up and again it needs an extended heat sink. I have included a cheaper version of the same thing from a different manufacturer for comparison. Retail $129.99. Amazon $89.99. Newegg $89.99. There are actually 4 dimms in this kit.

Next Up. More Buys for My New Computer.

Monitors LCD vs LED What's the diff?

Guess what? LED refers to what backlight is used to light up the LCD. LCD refers to Liquid Crystal Diode. LED refers to Light Emitting Diode.  Liquid Crystal Diodes don't emit any light. LED's do. Florescent lighting was the main way of backlighting LCD's. Now, it is being superseded by LED's .It is kind of a misnomer, misdirection, misadvertising or marketing strategy. Whatever you want to call it. When you see a monitor or TV called LED TV, it still is a LCD with LEDs used for lighting the LCD.

This is the Hewlett Packard L2105tm touch screen monitor. Speakers are included but you can over-ride them.  $299.99 List, $279.99 Newegg, $260.99 Amazon. LED.

This is the Samsung B2430H Monitor. It doesn't have speakers. Nor is it touch screen. So $331.00 List, $ $209.99 Newegg, $209.99 Amazon. LCD.

As I said before, LCD is the actual screen. What lights it up are the LED's or Florescent light bulbs. Oh, and plasma screens? Well, hehehe, the light in a Florescent tube is referred to as PLASMA. It again is a misnomer, misdirection, misadvertising or marketing strategy. I know, I know. It kinda takes the fun out of it, but still......

Next up: My buys for my new computer. With prices, pictures and everything!