It’s Christmas season and I decided to give myself some tech presents.
Read on to find out more!
When I buy a desktop, I expect it to be able to last me for about 4 years. My desktop is almost 2 years old and so I decided to give it a little upgrade.
Ikonik EN2 chassis
I built this desktop myself using an Ikonik EN2 casing. For $70, this thing is the most value -for-money chassis you can buy. Everything inside feels really high-quality. The only minor imperfection I found with it is that the HDD case is back-loading instead of side-loading in most high-end chassis like CM 690.
Back-loading HDD cage
Actually, the purpose of the picture above is to show off my new toy at the top of the cage. Introducing the Crucial M4 128GB SSD.
Crucial M4 128GB SSD
Given the proliferation of SSDs on the market, I did a lot of research before buying this. Crucial doesn’t use the Sandforce controllers, which are fast but pretty unstable. And because I will be running this on a SATA2 port, speed isn’t that important to me. Above-all Crucial offers a 3-year warranty on their SSD. This is important because unlike HDD, SSD are pretty crazy. Another cool fact is that the above-mentioned SSD is manufactured in Singapore.
Given how crazy it is, I decided against importing it from the US for a 30% discount as returning it for warranty will be a major hassle.
Now, I have installed it into the system and followed Tweaktown’s SSD guide. The results are blazingly fast! When I cold-boot it, I get into the Windows 7 login screen even before the Windows splash screen has finished its animation.
You know how the mantra is always to buy more RAM? Forget about it. For $300, this is absolutely the best upgrade in terms of user experience.
Since I was in the mood, I decided to treat my ears a little better by upgrading the sound on my desktop as well. I have been using the onboard soundcard since I got this desktop and while I have no complaints about it, it cannot really power a really powerful headphone.
Now, I am no headphone geek. But I know that every headphone has its own impedance rating and decent ones have high numbers, which the onboard chip is not able to drive. So before I buy a new headphone, I first bought myself a Asus Xonar DG.
Asus Xonar DG soundcard
Asus has been making waves in the soundcard department for some time now. This is the low-end of their Xonar series, but it comes with a dedicated headphone amp and raving reviews online. It costs about $70 in Singapore but I bought it off Amazon for USD27. (It actually came with USD10 rebate but I can’t claim it since I am not a US resident.)
The last item I bought was of course, the headphones. I bought a pair of Sennheiser HD 558, which is an refresh of their wildly successful HD 555. To be honest, I am no audiophile. But even I can tell the difference in sound quality.
Sennheiser HD 558
Furthermore, I can only wear my previous headphones for up to an hour before I start to feel uncomfortable. Because these cans are big enough to totally cover my ears, I have started to use them semi-permanently when I am on the desktop.
That’s all, folks. I shall leave you with 2 more pictures of my shiny PC.
Hyper 212 CPU cooler
Side view (pretty decent cable management?)
liyong