Justin Germino Ramblings

Honestly I have never bought a computer fully assembled from a company before.  All of my previous computers have been hand built and custom assembled by myself piece by piece from the case, motherboard, CPU, RAM and video card.

The problem is I also spent various hours resolving all sorts of problems from heat distribution, buggy hardware and little inconsistencies that occur when you build your own system.  Combine this with the fact that I want my latest system to have a liquid cooling system which is more complicated and I just don’t feel like building my next system.

To me paying a little extra money to have a system built and shipped fully intact and working is a better option.  My time is limited and I want to get off the ground running as quickly as possible.

So, I know I want my new system to be built around the X58 architecture with USB 3.0, to have an Intel Core i-7 960 and at least 8GB of DDR3 RAM.  I want at least an NVidia GeForce 560ti though want a 570 if I can get one and I want to find everything I am looking for at around the $1300 – $1500 price point.

The only two places Cyberpower.com and iBuypower.com (which appear to be the same company) offer this combination with liquid CPU cooling for the price I am looking for.  The problem is that both companies are HIGHLY advertised in virtually every computer magazine from PC Magazine, PC Gamer, Maximum PC…etc and I did some research and see various negative comments on various forums and such for both companies.

I can’t believe these companies would be as popular and bringing in the funding to advertise as much if they were "SO BAD" so I am figuring maybe 1% of the people or less who bought systems were very dissatisfied since we know that complainers tend to be more vocal and leave comments than satisfied customers.  No news is good news sort of thing.

So I have been polling on Twitter and Facebook and nobody has actually responded if they ever bought a PC or have any feedback or recommendations from these companies.  So I am curious to know if anyone has some PC manufacturer recommendations.  Note that you can’t get a gaming rig from Dell, HP…etc without paying big money and they don’t even offer "box" systems with the configurations I need here.

I really wanted a system that runs quieter and cooler than my very noisy current system which heats my legs like a furnace under my desk, but just don’t know who to buy from.

This is the custom PC I spec’d out from CyberPower for a total of $1474

Case: Xion Predator 970 Gaming Series Mid Tower Case w/ 2 External Removable HDD Bays [-5]

Internal USB Extension Module: None

Neon Light Upgrade: None

Extra Case Fan Upgrade: Default case fans

Noise Reduction Technology: Sound Absorbing Foam on Side, Top And Bottom panels [+29]

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-960 3.20 GHz 8M Intel Smart Cache LGA1366

Venom Boost Fast And Efficient Factory Overclocking: No Overclocking

Cooling Fan: Asetek 510LC Liquid Cooling System 120MM Radiator & Fan (Enhanced Cooling Performance + Extreme Silent at 20dBA) (Single Standard 120MM Fan)

Motherboard: * (3-Way SLI Support) Asus P6X58D-E Intel X58 Chipset SLI/CrossFireX Mainboard Triple-Channel DDR3/1600 SATA-III RAID w/ 7.1Audio,GbLAN,IEEE1394a,USB3.0,SATA-III,RAID,3 Gen2 PCIe, 1 PCIe X1 & 2 PCI [+32]

Memory: 12GB (2GBx6) DDR3/1600MHz Triple Channel Memory Module [+84] (Corsair or Major Brand)

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 1.2GB 16X PCIe Video Card (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)

Video Card 2: None

Video Card 3: None

Dedicated PHYSX Card: None

Multiple Video Card Settings: Non-SLI/Non-CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors

Power Supply Upgrade: 800 Watts – XtremeGear Gaming Power Supply – Quad SLI Ready

Hard Drive: 40GB Corsair Force 40 Gaming MLC Solid State Disk [+51] (Single Hard Drive)

Data Hard Drive: 1TB SATA-III 6.0Gb/s 32MB Cache 7200RPM HDD [+68] (Single Hard Drive)

Hard Drive Cooling Fan: None

External Hard Drive (USB3.0/2.0/eSATA): None

USB Flash Drive: None

Optical Drive: 24X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)

Optical Drive 2: None

Sound: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO

3D Vision Glasses: None

LCD Monitor: None

2nd Monitor: None

3rd Monitor: None

Speakers: None

Network: Onboard Gigabit LAN Network

Network Switch: None

Keyboard: Xtreme Gear (Black Color) Multimedia/Internet USB Keyboard

Mouse: XtremeGear Optical USB 3 Buttons Gaming Mouse

Mouse Pad: None

Gaming Gear: None

Extra Thermal Display: None

Wireless 802.11B/G Network Card: None

External Wireless Network Card: None

Wireless 802.11 B/G/N Access Point: None

Bluetooth: None

Flash Media Reader/Writer: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer (BLACK COLOR)

Video Camera: None

Headset: None

Printer: None

Cable: None

Power Protection: None

Surge Protector: None

IEEE1394 Card: None

USB Port: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports

Operating System: None – FORMAT HARD DRIVE ONLY

Media Center Remote Control & TV Tuner: None

Office Suite: None

Games: None

Ultra Care Option: None

Service: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Rush Service: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS

Does anyone have any recommendations?

-Justin Germino

Happy Independence day to everyone, today also happens to be my 12th wedding Anniversary as my wife and I were married at the Phoenix Zoo back in July 4th 1999.

We are on our Italy cruise right now, and today’s stop is in Sicily where we will do a walking tour of Mt. Etna. 

Though we won’t see any bubbling lava (likely) and nature’s fireworks on our tour we should be having a great time.

As someone who used to set off fireworks as a kid in NY, remember to keep safe and fireworks are no joke for kids.  Arizona recently legalized fireworks on 4th of July which was a stupid move for a state that is in a bad drought and has had some of the worst wild fires ever. 

I wouldn’t recommend using any fireworks in Arizona even if it is legal, there are ways to enjoy and celebrate without risking burning a hand, building or starting a wildfire.  If you do decide to use fireworks, then makes sure it is on concrete and there is no chance of catching on nearby foliage.  Make sure to keep children clear and be very careful.

Man, you know I didn’t really think of such things until I became a father of two boys.  Now I am acting like some sort of parent, go figure.

-Justin Germino

A long time ago, I used to buy Ostrich Sticks from Hi-Health, the pepper kind and really really enjoyed them.  I haven’t been able to find them in any store locally in Casa Grande and finally searched Amazon.com years later.

Ostrich jerky is actually extremely lean and packs a lot of protein in an 80 calorie jerky stick.  At 14 grams of protein, 0 saturated fat and virtually 0 carbohydrates this is a perfect snack.  Pair with some fruit or vegetables and it is a really good meal replacement too for a lunch.

Now Ostrich sticks do taste different from beef or even turkey jerky and they are slightly moist rather than completely dry and hard to tear apart.  This is what I actually like about them though.  The flavor is more like chicken but I actually prefer Ostrich sticks and the pepper flavored ones are my favorite by far.

Now, they do have some beef in them so they aren’t beef free, but is Ostrich and Beef combination.  I actually didn’t know that originally and thought they were 100% ostrich.  I have had ostrich burgers before at Fuddruckers too and really like the flavor as well.

[az_easel item=”B00099ZGFG”]

-Justin Germino

One thing I find amusing when camping up in the hills is seeing all of the trading post signs, yet trading posts don’t actually do any trading, exchanging or bartering and are merely shops where you can buy supplies, sundries or other items that you need while camping or staying up in the woods.

Why do they still call them trading posts then if you can’t actually trade anything but cash or a swipe of the credit card for items?  I think the term trading post is a misleading one at this point and in this age where bartering is a thing of the past, except for Internet swapping websites and such which promote trade specifically.  One for one item swaps are best between people as when you go to most stores that offer trade credit or exchange you get such a small fraction of value you often have to trade 4 or 5 items just to get one new one or 2 used ones.  Take doing any swaps at a place like Gamestop for example.

-Justin Germino

Yes, I meant Rome instead of roam.  My vacation to Italy starts tomorrow and my kids grandma will be moving into our house to take care of them while my wife and I spend a much needed 12 day excursion to Rome, Italy.  Though we spend 2 days in Rome itself, we are actually enjoying a cruise that departs from Rome and travels to Sicily, Greece and Turkey before returning to Rome.

This will be the first time either of us have ever visited Europe and we are hoping the experience is magical.  I actually cannot believe my wife was able to fit all her outfits in two checked suitcases and a carry on.  I swear I thought I would have to conjure up a portable hole or a few bags of holding (D&D jokes for the RPG’rs) for this one.

Meanwhile, I will be taking lots of photo’s, some video and will hope to put together a few posts detailing our journey when we arrive home.

Note, normally I don’t condone declaring we are going out on vacation but for all would be burglars out there who may know where I live.  My house will not be empty, people are moving into it while I am gone.

Thank you,

-Justin Germino

This bird had been taunting me for weeks and has frequented our community for at least a few months.  There are a pair of roadrunners that I always see in the very early morning or evening hours running up and down the street but my camera was never handy.

My wife finally pointed out he was in our yard, and I grabbed my camera with telephoto lens.  As I opened the front door he started running and I was just able to snap off a few shots with 2 of the 4 being too blurry to post.

This bird is fast on foot, seriously fast and hard to shoot and track with a zoom lens.

He paused only briefly in the street as if to smirk at me after realizing I took his picture.

-Justin Germino

So my son was using my email account too often to sign up for free to play games online and I got sick of all the spam so set him up with his own custom email address hosted at one of my blog sites.  This private email is his personal "free game sign up" email that he can use only to sign up for games but he doesn’t do email communication at 7 yet.  So no thunderbird or means to check his email, if something requires activation or a click then I will open the email and follow through with any final activations.

Lately my son has been wanting to play Wizards 101 and the commercials spewed all over Cartoon Network and other cable channels I am sure absorbed many kids.  I didn’t like AdventureQuest so much but MonkeyQuest was fun and let him join that one.  Roboblocks is getting popular and he also plays that with his friend down the street.

Rather than buying console games I see most kids getting into Free to Play games because they simply don’t have money to purchase games and do have "TIME" to spend building up characters in games so they can kind of offset needing in game purchases to get big items quickly.

It does however mean that a kid like my own son who has a short attention span for games filled up his 240GB hard drive to where he has less than 1.6GB free from all his various free game and game demo downloads.  I mean some demo versions of games from STEAM are 4GB in size for a single game demo.

Meanwhile, both my boys already want iPad 2’s for Christmas and I am going to go broke with my kid’s gadget requests at some point.  Good thing kids can become online entrepreneurs at a young age because the moment my kid turns 10 I am welcoming him to the world of blogging and affiliate marketing so he can make his own money to buy his latest gadget wants.

-Justin Germino

Captain America coming out in a few weeks and this is the last Avengers movie about the single team members before the Avengers movie actually comes out in theaters.

I can’t believe Hugo Weaving (LoTR, Matrix) plays The Red Skull, this actor has his hands in so many franchises and I couldn’t recognize him at all behind the make-up.

Do you think Captain America will be as entertaining as Thor, Iron Man or the Incredible Hulk? 

How will it fare against Green Lantern which came out just a few weeks prior?

Here is the preview:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J3HfllvXWE[/youtube]

-Justin Germino

We used to have a really awesome pool table years ago that we sold when we thought we were moving to California.  This pool table had red felt top, was solid and we bought a top board to turn it into a ping pong table.  My kids were babies at the time but now that I have a seven year old and a four year old I know they would have enjoyed hitting the balls around.

There are so many great luxury pool tables to choose from when looking at pool table sites like Liberty Games which sells everything from refurbished pool tables, reconditioned pool tables to American style pool tables.

I even saw an all steel pool table which is something I had never seen before.

But with kids if I were to get another pool table I might consider the 6′ Strikeworth Multi Game Table, which though it is only 6′ has air hockey and table tennis to increase usability with my boys.

I really do miss my pool table and sometimes consider getting one for our front room again in the future.  I do recall my only problem is that other than my wife and I occasionally playing or me practicing by myself I didn’t have company over often enough to play it more than a few times per month.

Here was my old pool table by the way:

-Justin Germino

Earlier in the week I was a featured blogger of the week over at e-Junkie blog where they interviewed me and I shared my history and experience with blogging to the site’s readers.

I was very open and honest around my blogging mistakes and advice I gave to anyone thinking of starting a blog.  I also shared some of my best blogging memories and several of them were around adding staff members to my site and building a sense of community around dragonblogger.com.

Read my interview with e-Junkie and share your thoughts.

For those looking for a little more information about Dragon Blogger and various interviews with Justin Germino you can find all this on my Dragon Blogger Press page where I link to all site reviews and interviews I have done.  So far I have had 8 site reviews and given 7 interviews over the past 3 years.

-Justin Germino