My roommate is an Apple fan and I fully understand why. Apple products are excellent. Great engineering, programming, and design go into each one. However, they're ludicrously expensive.
He recently made fun of me for being a fan of AMD processors. I said I'm a fan because, well, they're usually $100 cheaper than the Intel equivalent. I'd much rather spend that $100 on a good graphics card, power supply, case or whatever.
So as a challenge to myself, I'm going to build a computer that is equivalent to (or better than) the iMac.
Now in order to do this, I'm going to take a standard iMac build. So, let's say one that's only $1199 (21") instead of the more expensive one. Here are the specs on the cheapest one (without adding anything):
- 2.5GHz quad-core i5 with 6MB L3 cache
- 4GB 1333MHz DDR3
- 500 GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive
- AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics card with 512 MB GDDR5
- HD Webcam and microphone
- Speakers
- 4 USB ports, FireWire 900 port, gigabit ethernet
- (I'm excluding thunderbolt port, that's an apple exclusive as far as I know).
- SDXC card slot
- 8x SuperDrive (DvD+-RW)
- Wireless keyboard and mouse
- Wifi and Bluetooth
- 21" monitor
Out of everything here, I think the peripherals are going to be what drives up the price of the build (webcam, mic, keyboard, etc). I'll try my best to match all of them, but it may be too difficult. If I can't, I'll make up for it in hardware.
Alright, let's get started. First, the motherboard.
Since we're going to be using an i5, it'll have to be an Intel motherboard. This makes finding a cheap, good board harder because, well, Intel isn't cheap. But let's look.
The processor we're using needs a LGA 1155 socket. Here is one I found by Asus:
i5 2.5GHz Quad Core | Cost: $200
Asus Sabertooth P67 | Cost: $219
It has 8 USB 2.0 ports and 2 USB 3.0 ports. I figured more USB ports would make up for the lack of a FireWire port. I know, not the same, but it's just a port. You can buy an expension card.
Unfortunately, I'm at work and can't review the supported memory list, so I'll be picking memory blindly. I'll check later when I'm off work (read: I probably won't check later). So without looking at a supported memory list, it's an easy decision.
G.Skill Ripjaws Series 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz
Cost: $36.99
Excellent. RAM, Processor, and Memory done. All for under $500. So far so good. Now for the graphics card. I'm going to go with a brand I know makes good cards:
GIGABYTE Radeon HD 6750 1GB GDDR5 GV-R6750C-1GI
Cost: $119.99
I could not find a Radeon HD 6750 that only had 512MB memory, so I went with 1GB. All of the Radeons in that series on newegg had 1GB. So better graphics! Next, let's tackle the hard drive, power supply, DVD drive, and monitor.
Western Digital Caviar Blue 500GB 7200 RPM | Cost: $49.99
Hard drives are easy. WD is a good brand. Let's move on.
I don't know the wattage of the power supply on an iMac, so I'm going to go with a 550W power supply. Should be good enough for everything we need.
Antec BP550 Plus | Cost: $79.99
So far, we're at roughly $700. We're only missing a Case, Monitor, DVD drive, and the peripherals. I feel like peripherals may put me close to the price or over. Hopefully they won't.
HANNspree by Hanns-G HF225DPB 21.5" Monitor w/ Speakers
Cost: $119.99
That cost may be a sale price. But this is newegg, more than half of these parts may be on sale when you would normally buy them, so whatever. All of the monitors I saw had a "was: $$$" thing, so let's just stick with it.
Antec Three Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
Cost: $59.95
I figure a case that matches the power supply is better and can reduce hassel.
Asus 24x DVD Burner | Cost: $20.99
DVD Burners are cheap and most are the same speed. I'm not entirely sure if this is faster than the iMac one or not, so I'm just going to assume they are the same for now. I'll look into it later (read: After work).
So far, we're at somewhere around $900. So in all honesty, I don't think you'll save much by building your own. You can, and from the looks of things you'll save about $100. I say this because I still haven't added Wifi, keyboard and mouse, and webcam and microphone. Since we're so close to the end price, I'm going to stop here. Most of what needs to be added will be under $100 total, depending on quality.
The most expensive parts of this build are the Intel components. If you were to use AMD components, You'd save another $200, and could get a bit more power. I have a Phenom II Quad core 3.2GHz (overclocks to ~3.8GHz) processor that cost $119. I could have definitely gone cheaper on the motherboard, but I find that cheap motherboards fail more often.
So in all, you'll be safer going with an iMac. Less hassel, and if money isn't an issue. But where's the fun in that?
You will probably never see me in an Apple Store. I even own an iPod Touch and I'll still probably never set foot in one (unless it breaks, then maybe). I'm not against Apple products. They make good stuff, I just prefer having more control over what I'm getting and when I can do with it. My systems usually have Linux on them too (Unless I need it for gaming, then it's dual-booted with Windows 7). I'm also completely unfamiliar with Mac OS. So that's another preference.
I'll edit this post for corrections later.
That was fun. Hope you enjoyed the peak into the iMac as much as I have.
~Rob
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Monday, August 8, 2011
Be Afraid
Over the past few months there has been a lot of talk about hackers. Mainly hacker groups like Lulz Security and Anonymous. So I figured I'd throw in my thoughts on whole thing.
As a college student currently studying computer science, one of the many areas of the discipline that intrigue me the most is Cyber Security. Breaking into a computer or preventing a break in is like solving a puzzle. I love puzzles.
The media exploded when the hackers announced themselves and began taking personal information and assaulting websites. I read a lot of CNN articles that went over the threat of hacking and what the two groups were doing. I laughed at a few articles that seemed to overestimate the groups.
One of the main "hacks" that got a lot of people up-in-arms was the "hacking" of the CIA website. I didn't see this as a hack, as the quotes suggest. XKCD said this the best in one of his recent comics.
EDIT: Sorry, the picture is a bit messed up. I'll fix it after work. Here is the actual link: xkcd: CIA
The basically sums up what I read when reading those articles. The few articles that actually got to me where the ones about the Sony hacks and any of the other hacks that rewarded information about the company. Information is invaluable in cyber security. Some hackers and social engineers (professional term for some) are so good at their job that all they need to do is become facebook friends with you. From that point on, your computer and your accounts can become compromised. Now, I'm not saying that Facebook is a backdoor into your computer. I'm saying Facebook is a backdoor into your head. Everyone keeps a tons of information about themselves on Facebook, which one can derive passwords and usernames from. Especially if you leave an email address.
Most people use the same password and username for everything. All someone needs to do is setup some forum for some topic that you might be interested in (Information most likely found on your facebook). Then create some fake users. Populate some posts. Make it look convincing. Then link it to you ("Hey, check this shit out. You like this, right?"), and have you sign up. Once you do, you're done. They have one username and one password you probably use for everything. They also have an email address if they ask for it, which they can then log into because most people use the password they gave to this fake forum on their email account aswell.
Long-winded story short: Don't use the same password over and over again.
... Where was I?
Anyway, these hacker groups received a lot of attention. Needed attention. Not for themselves. They needed the attention to show people that there are ways of getting your personal information if you're not careful. Just becasue a service says it is secure doesn't mean it actually is. Just because there is a lock on your front door, doesn't mean it's safe.
Now, for something good. How to make your browsing safer. If you use Chrome or Firefox (If you use IE... Don't), there are a lot of extensions out there that can help make you more secure. A few I can think of include:
These are great. NoScript basically stops scripts from running on your computer. It'll let you know it has, then you can choose to allow them or not. Ghostery also blocks scripts as well as other hidden web bugs, prevents malware, ads, etc. I linked to Ghostery's homepage. They explain it better. HTTPS Everywhere is exactly what its title suggests. It forces your browser to use HTTPS, which is HTTP but secure. It doesn't ALWAYS force it, but where it can it does (Such as with Wikipedia, Google, and other popular sites).
If you notice in the address bar when you browse some sites will read "http://blahblah.." while sites like gmail will read "https://mail.google.com/". This shows a secure connection to gmail, so it's way more secure when sending a username or password to it. Try not to use sites that require a username/password but only use "http." There a some sites that don't do this and should, but you have to use it and it can't be avoided. Oh well. Just be careful.
Another thing you can do, and this is if you are pretty good at computers already and have an understanding of Linux and SSH. You also need a Linux home server, a router (you should have this), and some form of dynamic DNS (Like no-ip.org).
SSH Everything
This lets you route all of your internet traffic through your home server via SSH tunneling. Even if you're at some hotel in the middle of nowhere. This is more secure in that it allows your server to see your traffic, and allows for encryption along the tunnels. I don't fully understand this yet, and won't until sometime in the fall. So if you have questions about it, save them for September.
So for those who want to know why I've posted this: Be afraid. You may think all this hacker stuff is blown out of proportion. It isn't. Everyone should be aware of this kind of thing, and everyone should have some knowledge of what to look out for. Learn to pick a lock. Teach people how to. This will show how easily a lock can be broken into and that just having a lock on your front door doesn't make it safe. The same can be said for just about anything in computers.
That's it for now. Maybe I'll post again by the end of the month. I may also revise this. I'm at work and can't do a lot of research on the topic. I may add or remove some stuff. We'll see.
~Rob
As a college student currently studying computer science, one of the many areas of the discipline that intrigue me the most is Cyber Security. Breaking into a computer or preventing a break in is like solving a puzzle. I love puzzles.
The media exploded when the hackers announced themselves and began taking personal information and assaulting websites. I read a lot of CNN articles that went over the threat of hacking and what the two groups were doing. I laughed at a few articles that seemed to overestimate the groups.
One of the main "hacks" that got a lot of people up-in-arms was the "hacking" of the CIA website. I didn't see this as a hack, as the quotes suggest. XKCD said this the best in one of his recent comics.
EDIT: Sorry, the picture is a bit messed up. I'll fix it after work. Here is the actual link: xkcd: CIA
The basically sums up what I read when reading those articles. The few articles that actually got to me where the ones about the Sony hacks and any of the other hacks that rewarded information about the company. Information is invaluable in cyber security. Some hackers and social engineers (professional term for some) are so good at their job that all they need to do is become facebook friends with you. From that point on, your computer and your accounts can become compromised. Now, I'm not saying that Facebook is a backdoor into your computer. I'm saying Facebook is a backdoor into your head. Everyone keeps a tons of information about themselves on Facebook, which one can derive passwords and usernames from. Especially if you leave an email address.
Most people use the same password and username for everything. All someone needs to do is setup some forum for some topic that you might be interested in (Information most likely found on your facebook). Then create some fake users. Populate some posts. Make it look convincing. Then link it to you ("Hey, check this shit out. You like this, right?"), and have you sign up. Once you do, you're done. They have one username and one password you probably use for everything. They also have an email address if they ask for it, which they can then log into because most people use the password they gave to this fake forum on their email account aswell.
Long-winded story short: Don't use the same password over and over again.
... Where was I?
Anyway, these hacker groups received a lot of attention. Needed attention. Not for themselves. They needed the attention to show people that there are ways of getting your personal information if you're not careful. Just becasue a service says it is secure doesn't mean it actually is. Just because there is a lock on your front door, doesn't mean it's safe.
Now, for something good. How to make your browsing safer. If you use Chrome or Firefox (If you use IE... Don't), there are a lot of extensions out there that can help make you more secure. A few I can think of include:
- NoScript
- Ghostery
- HTTPS Everywhere
These are great. NoScript basically stops scripts from running on your computer. It'll let you know it has, then you can choose to allow them or not. Ghostery also blocks scripts as well as other hidden web bugs, prevents malware, ads, etc. I linked to Ghostery's homepage. They explain it better. HTTPS Everywhere is exactly what its title suggests. It forces your browser to use HTTPS, which is HTTP but secure. It doesn't ALWAYS force it, but where it can it does (Such as with Wikipedia, Google, and other popular sites).
If you notice in the address bar when you browse some sites will read "http://blahblah.." while sites like gmail will read "https://mail.google.com/". This shows a secure connection to gmail, so it's way more secure when sending a username or password to it. Try not to use sites that require a username/password but only use "http." There a some sites that don't do this and should, but you have to use it and it can't be avoided. Oh well. Just be careful.
Another thing you can do, and this is if you are pretty good at computers already and have an understanding of Linux and SSH. You also need a Linux home server, a router (you should have this), and some form of dynamic DNS (Like no-ip.org).
SSH Everything
This lets you route all of your internet traffic through your home server via SSH tunneling. Even if you're at some hotel in the middle of nowhere. This is more secure in that it allows your server to see your traffic, and allows for encryption along the tunnels. I don't fully understand this yet, and won't until sometime in the fall. So if you have questions about it, save them for September.
So for those who want to know why I've posted this: Be afraid. You may think all this hacker stuff is blown out of proportion. It isn't. Everyone should be aware of this kind of thing, and everyone should have some knowledge of what to look out for. Learn to pick a lock. Teach people how to. This will show how easily a lock can be broken into and that just having a lock on your front door doesn't make it safe. The same can be said for just about anything in computers.
That's it for now. Maybe I'll post again by the end of the month. I may also revise this. I'm at work and can't do a lot of research on the topic. I may add or remove some stuff. We'll see.
~Rob
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