Building a Computer:
In the summer of 2016 I wanted to put together a new computer to replace my aging laptop. I used this opportunity as a chance to familiarize myself with the internals, of which I had very little prior knowledge.
Overall, the project was successful, and, though I spent far more time researching and selecting parts, putting it together was daunting and tedious.
Some things that I would change if I were to this again:
- Use a Micro-ATX motherboard instead of the full ATX motherboard I used. The only advantage of a full ATX board is having more PCI-E slots and I am only using one.
- Step down the motherboard quality. The motherboard has many features that I do not use; a lower quality board would suffice for my purposes.
- Step down the power supply unit. The system’s power draw is low enough that the 850W power supply could easily be replaced with something along the lines of a 600W power supply at a higher efficiency rating. Also using a fully modular power supply could have helped prevent the rat’s nest of wires you can see in the picture.
- Step down the mid tower to a micro-ATX tower to go along with the smaller motherboard.
- Install a custom CPU cooler. The stock Intel cooler is loud and only does a sufficient job of cooling the processor.
You can see a picture of the computer below.
Motorcycle Road Trip to Niagara Falls:
In the fall of 2016, some of the riders of Penn State planned a road trip from Behrend to Niagara Falls. Though it was cold and dark we did eventually make it. You can see a before ride picture below. My bike is the black Ninja, third from the left.
