Is the desktop dead ?

In recent years I have seen almost everybody buy laptops. People have kind of lost track of what it is to have a desktop and the power it brings to the table(no pun intended). With people spending as much as 55~60K on laptops with crappy CPU's and GPU's and virtually no possibility for any meaningful expansion, I wonder if they are making the right choice. This post is a must read for those people planning to buy new machines over the summer.

So is the desktop dead ? NO NO NO not in your wildest dreams. In 60k you could buy a desktop that can easily outperform the best laptops money can buy for the next 5 years. So what do we put into this PC ? And what does it have to do ? Simple. You need to be able to watch movies, play games and be microsoft proof :O. Here is what I'm putting in.

1. Processor : Intel Core 2 Quad Q6700@ 2.6 GHz : Rs.9,000
2. CPU Cooler : OCZ Vanquisher + Arctic Silver(5gms) : Rs.1,500
3. Motherboard : MSI P6N-SLI-V2 : Rs.5,500
4. Graphics : Nvidia GTX 275(palit): Rs.1,7000
5. Memory : 2x2GB OCZ Gold : Rs.3,000
6. HDD : 2xSeagate 500GB Raid-0 : Rs.6,000
7. Cabinet : Zebronics Antibiotic : Rs.2,150
8. SMPS : CoolerMaster RP 600 : Rs.3,450
9. Optical drive : DVD writer : Rs.1,200
10. KB+Mouse:Cordless Logitech/M$ : Rs.1,500
11. Monitor : Samsung 2233sw - 22" 1080p : Rs.10,000

Grand Total : Rs.60,300 (All these prices are current prices in CTC, Secunderabad)

Some of the stuff put in looks really weird. Let me explain everything.

1. Processor and the 2. Cooler : This desktop is being built for both multimedia and gaming. While a higher clocked dual core will most likely be slightly better at gaming, a quad core would decimate it in any sort of multimedia apps. For those wondering what arctic silver is, it's a cooling compound - that shiny paste you find on the back of the CPU cooler. Arctic silver is damn effective. My laptop's CPU was getting really hot. I had idle temperatures of around 61'C. I purchased a 3 gram AS pack and opened my laptop up and put it on. Now the idle temperature is 36'C. Awesome!! So a OCZ cooler and Arctic Silver will easily allow you to overclock the processor to about 3.2 GHz. I think that's as far as you can go on air based cooling. @ 3.2GHz you can pretty much remove any significant CPU bottlenecks.

3. Motherboard : Why an SLI board and that too such an old one ? Well this board is the best bang for the buck. Intel boards with the same features are just as expensive. I went for this board as it has a better RAID controller and an extra PCIe slot . And I have something special planned for this slot. Stick in a low end card like a GeForce 8600 and use it for PhysX or CUDA :)

4. Graphics : The GTX 275 is about 6% slower then the GTX 285 and costs a good 7K less. Plus the power consumption is about 40% lower. The 275 beats all the cards in the same price range i.e. the GTX260 and the Radeon4890 by quite some distance. This pick was a no brainer.

5. Memory : You really don't need more then 4 Gigs of memory for anything. OCZ modules are a bit expensive but they have lifetime warranty and if you are interested, can be easy to overclock!

6. HDD : I used two HDD's instead of one, so that I could set them up in raid-0. The effective throughput is at least 60% higher. So if you get 70 MB/s transfer rates with one disk, a Raid-0 configuration would give you about 110 MB/s. It means significantly lower load times, and faster seeking in those high def videos that masked-menace downloads :). If you share a lot of data in DC++, your HDD's will experience lesser wear and tear as well.

7. Cabinet : With a GTX275 and CPU cooling you need to have a large and well ventilated cabinet. The zebronics antibiotic has 3 large fans, a temperature display and loads of front ports. Plus did I mention it's got custom lighting and it's transparent :O

8. SMPS : Most people never buy an SMPS seperately. But his desktop needs one. A GTX275, Overclocked quad core, SLI motherboard, and 2 HDDS need a lot of power. Coolermaster's SMPS' are awesome and 600W insures you against all future GPU/SLI upgrades

9. Optical drive : Buy whatever you want. It's all the same shit.

10. KB+mouse : You could buy a cheaper option but I like using cordless stuff.

11. Monitor : This was a no brainer. The Samsung 2233SW is a 22 inch full HD (1920x1080) monitor. DCR 15000:1 and response time of 5ms. And it looks really really nice. It's a steal at it's price.

I am missing a speaker set :( I could save Rs.600 by buying ordinary RAM Modules, Save about Rs.500 by buying a 1TB instead of 2x500 GB, save about Rs.700 by buying a cheaper KB/Mouse combo, and about Rs.1500 by using a cheap local SMPS. That's about Rs.3300, enough to get you a creative 5.1 system. In my opinion - Buy the speakers later. It's not worth making any of those sacrifices. Thats pretty much it. In 60K you get a machine that

# Plays all present days games @ Full settings @ 1920x1080 >60 FPS (except crysis@35fps)
# Watch Full HD movies on a 22inch screen
# Has expansion space to put in another GFX card/4GB RAM/4 more HDD's
# And puts the current best machine in CVIT to shame (This is the best part :P)

So do you you still want to spend 60,000 on a laptop that's going to be a useless old piece of plastic, incapable of running anything other then PAC-man in 2.5 years time ??

PS. Desktop Prices fall @ 1% every month. By the time you get back from your holidays, this same system would cost 57,500. You could get yourself speakers with the extra cash :)

Why the three political fronts can kiss my vote goodbye

I read an interesting post by Sukesh about who he would vote for and why. I have thought about writing a post about the same for quite some time but somehow it didn't come along.

I will not vote for the Congress(UPA) because
I hate their minority appeasement crap. India is a country with a majority Hindu population. I think India should learn to live with it. There are minorities all over the world, but nowhere is there such a hue and cry as their is in India about them. We talk so much about minorities and caste and stuff like that, that even if a person wants to forget that he is a minority or from a lower caste ,every election year the likes of the Congress and the BSP go out of the way to remind people that they are downtrodden and neglected even if they aren't. The congress has announced loads of scholarships for minorities and backward castes. Why should a upper class person not be eligible for them? Poverty is the same for everybody: Hindu or Muslim, upper class or backward class. Clearly our present government seems to have forgotten that. Also the UPA government has perhaps done irreversible damage to the IIT/IIM system by opening the floodgates to all sorts of undeserving people. Plus the way the new IIT's have been setup and are functioning has to be a scandal. Pulling shit like this pisses me off to the core.

I will not vote for the BJP(NDA) because
Whenever and wherever the BJP comes to power we are suddenly faced with morons like the ones that vandalised a pub in Mangalore and attacked women. I have no idea what divine right, the BJP and it's more hardcore right wing elements feel they have, to be the custodians of Indian Culture. We have had such incidents all over India where couples in a park were attacked and every year we are bored to death by the antics of these so called "Standard bearers of Indian Culture" on valentines day. I wonder where Indian culture allows mobs to beat up women and young couples. I wish that these people were sent some more pink chaddis every year. Honestly these antics of the BJP's more orthodox parts scare the living hell out of me and is perhaps the only reason why most people do not vote for the BJP. Educated young India doesn't care about Ram-Raj. They want jobs and housing and health care and education. Not temples.

I will not vote for the left(the third Front) because
I am personally really scared of communists. Worldwide communists have this policy of "you are either with us or against us". Commies will argue otherwise but history will tell you that once the communists have got control of a country they never let go. They then set out to mercilessly kill any opposition. Stalin's Russia, Mao's China, Kim Jong Il's North Korea and Castro's Cuba(the official line is Socialism) are all fine examples.In India 30 years of communist rule in West Bengal has reduced a state once the Jewel of India to underdeveloped, corrupt state where a company cannot setup shop without being hassled by the goonda like trade unions. The situation in Bengal is so bad that unless you are a proper CPI(M) cadre member you can virtually kiss any sort of government employment goodbye. The shit in that state runs much deeper and is a topic for a book. Their anti-West, anti-Globalisation stances are at times just for the sake of it. Their behaviour on the nuclear deal was also rather immature. The bottom line: I don't want to pay any taxes to a communist regime.

And while I am at it, I would like to drop a line for the Honorable member of Parliament from Hyderabad Mr. Asaduddin Owaisi from the Majlis-e-Ittihaddul Muslimeen(MIM) whose offices are a stones throw away from my house. During the Post nuclear deal trust vote Owaisi sahab said that he would vote for the UPA govt. as he would vote for the party that best helped the uplift of Muslims. Well Mr.Owaisi I thought that you would vote for the Govt. that would best help in the uplift of your constituency at the very least. Seeing as that you don't care about the Non-Muslims around even in your constituency, you can kiss my vote goodbye too.

Will I vote for the Lok Satta or the TDP or even an Independent ? Well the answer is an emphatic NO. I tried 4 times to get a Voter ID made. Alas all those attempts failed. I have no voter ID and have no mention in the Electoral rolls. Whats more interesting is that my parents names too have vanished from the electoral rolls. Looks like the Election commission of India has decided for me that my vote really doesn't matter. I wish I could find those bickering Election Commissioners and give them the walloping they deserve for leaving me and perhaps many more lakhs of legitimate voters our of the rolls.

Too much spare time!

Inspiron 1705e, shot on location at Zenwalker's room by Gaganpreet. All laptops appearing here were older then one year and were out of warranty at the time of filming.

The one with the horrible mails

I was reading this today and was left with a really big WTF look on my face. I then thought of putting up some awesome(er) mails to remind the alumni what they are missing out on :P

Mail 1

Sub:[Students] Reg:Kriya in yoga tomorrow morning

blah blah blah ...

But tomorrow, sir is going to teach new technique in yoga that is "kriya"
means cleaning of abdomen and stomach by drinking a bucket of water.

It will be, first driking of water as much as you can and doing some yog
and leaving the water out and again drinkng water like that the cycle will
be repeted till white water comes out of us. it will be nice experience.

blah blah blah ...

Mail 2

Sub: True Freedom

Too long to post here. Yet another one of those "Huh!! you talking to me ....WTF are you talking about, please don't put me through this, no stop ......noooooooooooo" reaction evoking mails

Mail 3

Sub: NOT IMPORTANT

Dear BTP PROJECT STUDENTS ( e.g. Arpit Jain )

Today, we have faculty meeting from 3 PM onwards.

Thus I will be in the LTRC conference room from

3 PM to atleast 4.30 PM.

YOU CAN LEAVE THE BTP REPORTS IN MY
MAIL BOX ON THE GROUND FLOOR

I am on LEAVE TOMORROW i.e. 5th March.

WIth Regards,
XXXXXXXXXX

I had to have one mail from XXXXXXXXX. He has been in scorching form this sem. And yes Arpit was indeed a fine example for many days after that mail :)

Mail 4

The background- 2 people were "exchanging ideas" on a SE assignment, and copied their drafts from a IM window. Unfortunately they also copied their chat by mistake and uploaded it. Their transgression was made public to the batch in a mail by the TA. Original post by BullzY
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sub: A submission
From: The perennial Software Engg. TA

Mx. X: thr
Mr. X is busy.
Mr. X: ?
Mr. Y: haan
Mr. X: abe idhar aaja ek assnmnt mil gaya hai
Mr. Y: abey ek assnmnt hai mere paas dede wo
Mr. X: usko edit kar dete hain jaldi
Mr. Y: mix kar doonga manish: tym ni bacha
Mr. Y: abey mixing aasaan hai rather editing
Mr. X: thik

well, mr. X and Mr. Y tried to act smart. But forgot that last minute work
makes us more prone to errors + makes us answer questions that we never
asked.

Now, Mr. X and Mr. Y, you know who you are and we also know who you are.
So both are requested to meet me asap before we decide to give a F grade.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

and when the TA sent the mail, the TA forgot to remove the attachment that X and Y had originally sent them, consequently revealing the identities of X and Y. Well... we do learn from our TA's don't we :O

PS.1 This post was inspired by sarika's last 2 posts with some awesome mails!! Way to go BullzY
PS2. Naming posts like friends episodes in completely legal.