tomorrow i will run faster...

In the past, I’ve decided on a specific computer hardware configuration and then purchased a custom systems with exactly that setup. In July, I chose and shopped for each piece separately and put things together myself. Here are the components I chose, taking me a total of 3 hours to physically assemble:

• Case: Antec 902
• Processor: Intel Core i7-930
• Cooling: Corsair H50 self-contained water cooling
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R
• Memory: Crucial Ballistix 6GB (3x2GB in triple channel) DDR3 1600
• Boot Drive: Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ (1TB, 7200 RPM, 32MB Cache)
• GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 (1GB DDR5)
• PSU: Corsair 750TX
• Data Drive, Optical Drive, and Card Reader: scavenged from unused computers at home.

I have the system overclocked from the stock 2.8 GHz to 3.8 GHz. It’s stable and smooth, and the H50 provides plenty of cooling, even when the processor is at 80-90% load. I installed the H50′s cooling fan backward on purpose. This means that the radiator for the cooling sits on the back exhaust of the case, and not on a back intake. I based this off of an article at Tom’s Hardware which suggested that preserving overall airflow of the case is more important than getting cool ambient air for the processor’s radiator. I find that both processor and Northbridge temperatures do not exceed 65C, which is 15-20C below their suggested limits. I am also very pleased with the H50′s noise performance, since I can hardly hear it. The 902 is also a very quiet case in general, unless all the fans are turned up to high.

All in all, this build is a success! I did it for $400 under the “custom configuration” style websites, a full $550 under the Dell equivalent, with a better case to boot. As an added bonus, I now feel fearless about putting my own components together. If you are considering making such a step, just know that pieces these days don’t fit together the wrong way (for the most part) so it’s hard to “put it together wrong” and that your actual assembly process will probably take you twice as long as you think it will. Email me if you want tips or ideas. Otherwise, I think Tom’s Hardware and AnandTech are great for ideas. Check out MicroCenter for your processor (I saved $99 by going to this “brick and mortar” store) and investigate Bing Cashback for your online purchases.

Unrelatedly, I heard an interesting discussion on the Nature Podcast about an experiment that calls into question something called the “testosterone folk hypothesis.” Most people associate testosterone with aggressive, antisocial, and egoistic behaviors. However, researchers found that testosterone actually resulted in people being more fair in negotiations when blinded to the drug they had received. Here is the fascinating, yet somewhat unsurprising part: those people that were told that they had been given testosterone behaved less fairly and more aggressively in negotiations. Essentially, the prejudice about testosterone influenced people in the opposite way of the actual hormone! Read the full paper free, here, courtesy of Nature.

On July 11, my lovely friends Jonathan and Lida just had a beautiful baby girl named Eva Ann. She’s the first baby that I’ve actually known since the beginning, and despite her predilection for emptying her bowels when I hold her, I am fascinated by her.

Lastly, (since I am wary of counting chickens or bragging), I will add that my first academic paper has been submitted. It is called Predicting criticality and dynamic range in complex networks: effects of topology. You can read the preprint abstract here, or download the preprint PDF here from the arXiv. My collaborators were Juan G. Restrepo, my advisor, and Woodrow L. Shew, a physics-trained neuroscientist with the National Institute of Mental health, a part of the NIH. I am really excited about this submission, and will post any news about it here.