Trevor,

     I am a super power user and to buy something pre-built that would=20
satisfy my needs is not possible from the general builders such as Dell=20
or Apple. Yes, there are some companies out there that could build=20
something to meet those needs but it would be 3 or 4 times what I am=20
going to have in this system when I am finished.

     In actually it isn't as bad as you might think. I replaced the CRT=20
with a LCD monitor. That is a large savings. The two PS' are 80% or=20
higher in efficiency and they are PF corrected. The MB is more than=20
twice as efficient as the Tyan MB that was in my XP machine. The i7s use=20
half the power even though they have a total of 6 times as many cores as=20
the Opetron 280s that were in the XP machine. The Crucial DDR4 ram is=20
about twice as efficient as my old Crucial DDR ram and there is 4 times=20
more memory. My new HDDs run on about 1/4 the power of the old drives=20
that I am replacing. Yes, there is a pump and there are more fans but=20
all of that is only drawing about 30 watts. This is about what one of my=20
new HDDs pulls.

     Right now I could run all of this off either the 850 or the 750 PS.=20
Of course when I add the GeForce GTX 860 graphics cards that will add=20
about an additional 500 watts to the mix. This is more than everything=20
else combined. I am going to add 10 more HDDs and that is another 300=20
Watts. And then there is the PCIe expansion system and the PCIe cards=20
which will add another 100 watts to the mix. This is no big deal during=20
the Winter and fortunately our summers are pretty short here. In Las=20
Vegas which is where I grew up it would be a different story.

     Spider was owned by my ex-wife's Grandson but he didn't want her=20
anymore and it was either I take her or she go to the animal shelter.=20
Stripes was a rescue cat that I adopted when she was six weeks old. She=20
was born during thunderstorm season and now she suffers from PTSD.=20
Spider sleeps right through thunderstorms unless there is a strike that=20
is very close by. When I first got Stripes she would run and hide before=20
I could hear the thunder. She has gotten better over the years but any=20
strike at a mile away or closer will send her into hiding.

     Stripes likes to run off with my heat shrink tubing. When I finally=20
find it it will have all of these small holes in it. Ever try to use=20
heat shrink with a bunch of holes in it? Not good. Besides it looks=20
awful. Yes, she will also chew on wiring. She has been out growing that.=20
Spider is very laid back and easy going. The two cats are not related so=20
they tolerate each other and no more. No serious battles but an=20
occasional chase scene. I love them and they are mostly well behaved.=20
They behave better than the kids that live in the building.

Thanks,
rich!

On 5/1/2016 2:55 AM, Trevor wrote:
> Richard Pope wrote:
>>        I can understand why that would appeal to people. It has a
>> warranty, you take it home, plug it in, turn it on, and you are ready to
>> go. If something goes wrong you only have one company to deal with.
> I used to build my own PCs starting back in 1984, but since 2007 I've
> bought Apple Mac Minis for FreeBSD and OS X (with Windows virtual
> machines). The last was a quad core i7 in 2012 and my concession to DIY
> was to add an 256GB SSD and upgrade the RAM to 16GB. Not quite in your
> league!
>
> Mac Minis are quiet, take up little room and are power misers in
> comparison to that monster, power hungry, supercomputer beast of yours!
>
> PS I also have a couple of cats, Rubble (5 years, abandoned at a
> building site) and Zed (6 months, abandoned on the waste ground across
> the road), that like to get involved in projects too, especially ones
> involving wiring :)

--=20
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