Author Archives: Joseph Southan

About Joseph Southan

Full stack software engineer. Follow me on Twitter @JoeSouthan.

SouthanUK has moved!

Hi everyone!

If you’re reading this then everything has gone well and SouthanUK is in it’s new home.

If you’re wondering where the theme went, I’ve had a few problems with it so its really going to have to be rewritten. So I’m back on the good old default theme; Twenty Eleven, for now.

That’s that for the moment, expect some more updates soon!

-Joe

My New PC

Hey guys it’s been a while since I posted and thought it would be a great chance to tell you about my new PC that I built. Bare in mind, I did build this some time ago.

 

So what’s in the box then?

Case

Sharkoon T9

Side view

The case I chose, after much deliberation, was the Sharkoon T9 Black. It’s got support for USB3 and filtered intakes to stop all that dust.

CPU

Never straying from my roots, I went with an Intel 2600K. With that I also went with a Cooler Master TX3 for some after-market cooling action. Some Arctic 5 seals the deal. Now, I’ve found that my temperatures are a bit on the high side and it could be to do with the thermal paste application, however, Arctic say that it takes some time for it to “cure,” so I’m going to wait and see.

 

Graphics

Asus 560Ti

Asus 560 Ti

Now you can go on for ages looking at different cards and such, but as I was on a budget, the Asus nVidia GTX 560Ti DirectCUII was my choice. It’s got a great “after market” cooler on it and barely goes over 50°C. Very happy.

 

Mobo

Mobo of choice was the Asus P8Z68-V/GEN3 Motherboard. Supports DDR3 RAM, Crossfire/SLI and has a Bluetooth module. Went with a Z68 because it straddles the line between Sandybridge and IvyBridge, so I could upgrade if I really needed to, unlikely though.

 

PSU

Now I went through 3 different power supplies here. The first two were; Cooler Master 400W and a Corsair 600W CXV2. I sent the first back because I’d underestimated the power requirements and the second because of really bad coil whine from it. I eventually settled on a Seasonic M12II-620 which is fully modular which helps with the amount of clutter in the case. No problems since.

 

RAM

Nothing too fancy here, just 8GB (4GB*2) of Corsair Vengeance RAM.

 

Storage

I was able to salvage 2 of my old HDDs from my old PC, a 1TB and a 500GB. However, I felt the need for speed. Oh I did. A Sandisk 128GB SSD satisfied that need and, yes, SSDs are worth every penny.

 

Fans

Now this isn’t the most fancy of computer parts, but hey, airflow matters. I originally had the stock fans that came with the case, however, after some months, the sound of them sounded like a plane about to take off. So, today, I swapped them out for some Noctua NF-F12s. Nice and quiet now.

 

So there we have it, my new computer. Now I built this back last August after some intense decorating and I’ve only just written this up. Must say, I’m very happy with how it’s working.

Catch you later!