Life Blog 05/12/2011 – Thinking of Building a Computer

I am thinking of building a computer from scratch. I don’t know if I am actually going to do that because it would cost quite a bit. I want to build a computer because I want to have all my DVDs stored digitally. It is really annoying having to take a DVD out of a case every time I want to watch a film or an episode of Family Guy. And I would have to put the DVD back after watching it so I don’t forget where the DVD is. I would also want to run virtual machines on the computer so I would need to buy a quad core processor. I would also want the computer to have Wi-Fi because I don’t think I could be bothered with Ethernet cables, especially considering that the wireless router in my house is down stairs and my bedroom is on the top floor. The cost of the whole build would be around £700-800 which  I just don’t have.

Another option would be to buy a Western Digital My Book Live which is essentially a hard drive that connects to the wireless router through an Ethernet cable. I would get the 3TB drive which would cost £205 from Amazon. That would be a better option and then I would be able to save a bit of money to upgrade my old Dell computer by giving it a 128GB SSD, an Intel Core 2 Quad processor as that’s all that can fit into the socket of the motherboard on that old Dell, 4-8GB RAM and Windows 7 because while I hate Windows, there are some things that just cannot be done in Ubuntu or Mac OS X. I only know how to program in Visual Basic and I’m thinking of creating Click OS 2.0 which would be essentially the same as Click OS 1.0, but it would end the Windows Explorer process which runs the classic Windows user interface to make Click OS a true user interface replacement. Without Microsoft Windows, I wouldn’t even have an Explorer process that needs ending.

One problem with buying network storage that connects directly to the router is that I would have to import DVDs over Wi-Fi and it would take forever, especially with my router which only does 802.11g. Another problem would be a problem with getting my Blu-Ray movies imported as the only machine I own with a Blu-Ray drive is a PlayStation 3. However, there are solutions to those problems. When I am importing all my DVDs, I can take my Mac downstairs to transfer the movies to the network storage through an Ethernet cable and if I really wanted to import the 5 Blu-Ray movies I own, I could get a USB Blu-Ray drive from Amazon. Another problem that would automatically go away is that when my mum wants to watch one of my DVDs, she walks into my bedroom and takes one out without asking me first and when I want to watch it myself, I have to try to get rid of those scratches first. I also have to clean that bit of jam off. Why the hell does my mum have jam in her bedroom?! While my mum should really ask me first before nicking my DVDs from my bedroom and while she did break a pair of Skullcandy headphones that I got for my birthday by forgetting they were mine, not hers, my mum is the second most annoying person in existence and it is almost completely impossible to reason with her and she says she will give me money for Christmas to buy a pair of Dr. Dre Beats or something and when I have all my DVDs digitally stored, my mum nicking my DVDs will no longer be a problem at all. I might even be able to show her how to watch her favourite movies on her netbook from the network storage. I could also show her how to connect her netbook to her TV and help her ditch DVDs too. She will have to eventually.

While I think that other idea is great, I would be doing upgrades to my old Dell and eventually, it would probably cost the same as building a new computer. However, setting up network storage which would plug directly into the router does sound easier than building a computer and then figuring out how to turn it into a server.

Posted on Monday 19th December 2011 - Leave a comment