Thursday, March 20, 2014

New Computer

Since I'm starting from scratch, I decided to build a new computer for this station.  According to the 6000 specs a core 2 duo was the least processor I could choose.  I have been a fan of Shuttle computers for years and wanted something small and quiet.  Here is the chassis I chose:







A Shuttle DS 61 v1.1   

It's a tiny quiet box with rave reviews.  It is designed to run signage and as such is more commercial grade than consumer grade in its construction.  The computer has 2 x 1gb Ethernet ports, 4 USB 2 ports, 2 USB 3 ports, audio I/O 2 video ports (HDMI and DVI) and a pair of serial ports.  The chassis is designed for Intel LGA 1155 sandy and ivy processors up to 65w including Ivy Celeron, i3. It can handle up to 16gb DDR3 ram, and has 1 mini PCIe slot.  It comes configured for a 2.5 inch drive.  I was looking on ebay and found this computer configured with a 2.6 ghz Celeron G1610 Ivy processor, 8gb ram, 160g HD, Windows 8.1 and a mini PCIe wifi card.  Everything I need to get into deep trouble!

I'm not sure if this processor is going to have enough horse power to run SmartSDR on 2 monitors but from the reviews I have read its worth a shot.  If not I'll upgrade to a i-3 dual core 65w processor with the 4000 graphics engine.  I also have a 256mb SATA 3 SSD on the way.  I have another 8gb of ram to add also totaling 16gb.  The box is in the mail and I expect to see it in the flesh on Monday.  Maybe by Tue the new computer will be upgraded and ready for business.  I hope the reported experience will give the reader some idea of how much computer is needed.   I haven't built a new computer in years so I'm looking forward to seeing how well this thing performs.  More to follow....