First time building a computer

A few months ago I built a computer! It was my first time building one, and I'm very happy with how it turned out. I bought the processor from microcenter.com and everything else from newegg.com. The whole process wasn't too difficult and I ended up with a great system for about $1,000. (I already had a monitor and keyboard.) I learned how to build it from a community site on Reddit called Build a PC . If you have ever wanted to build a PC by yourself, you should check it out. 

Here is the parts list of my build: (It doesn't have a top-of-the-line video card, but the 560ti does fine for the games I've played on it. I also HIGHLY recommend installing a SSD. With the solid state drive my computer boots up and is completely ready to use in 10 to 15 seconds.)

Case Corsair 500R Carbide Series - $105

PSU: Corsair TXV2 750W - $70

Motherboard: ASRock Extreme3 Gen3 - $121

CPU: Intel i5 3750K - $196

SSD: OCZ Agility 90GB - $115

HDD: 1TB Samsung Spinpoint 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s - $90

RAM: G.Skill 8GB Sniper RAM - $40

Video Card: EVGA 560ti 1GB - $230

Mouse: Razer DeathAdder - $50

Before pictures.

I got this Corsair TX 750 when it was on sale at newegg.com. A 750 watt is overkill for this system, but at least it should last a long time.

I like this case because it has a lot of room inside to move stuff around.

Great motherboard for a great price. I recommend ASRock.

The SSD. It only has 90GB so I have Win7 on it, and a few programs.

This little guy caused me some grief in the process. This is the BIOS chip for the motherboard. I bought the processor after I bought the motherboard, and the BIOS had to be updated to support the gen3 i5 processor that I bought. So I was caught in a Catch-22. I couldn't boot up until the BIOS was updated, and I coudn't update the BIOS without being able to boot up the computer! Luckily ASRock has good customer service. I just mailed in the BIOS chip and they updated it and mailed it back. Lesson learned: Always buy your processor and motherboard at the same time to ensure they will be compatible!

All done! I haven't had any issues with it so far and I like that I can upgrade it easily because I know all of the parts that went into it. Add me on Steam: halcon15 and please post a comment. - Dallas

Where am I?

How's it going?

While I have not written much on this blog, I am proud of the fact that I own the name dallashawks.com.

DallasHawks.com used to be taken. The website was for a junior league ice hockey team in Texas named the "Dallas Ice Hawks". I also found out that there is/was a basketball team in Dallas called the Hawks. I sent an email a few years ago to the coach of the Dallas Hawks basketball team requesting a jersey. I explained that I thought it would be cool to have a jersey that happened to have my first and last name printed on it. He returned my email saying that it could happen, but unfortunately I never heard from him again and I don't know if the team still exists today.

Well, that's it for now. I'm not much of a blogger I know, but you can follow me on Twitter or something. Peace.

Ideas for the future of dallashawks.com

• A plain vanilla blog about my life with lots of pictures.
• A collection of travel pictures and stories.
• Celebrity page where you can find where to purchase my latest book or rap album.
• Self-absorbed semi-profound website full of life advice.
• Parody of a blog full of false stories.
• Chili's coupons
• . . other?

Android tablet (Xoom) first impression

"I love this. My mom would hate this."

The Motorola Xoom running on Google Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" is amazing! I have used iOS a lot more than Android and I have found that I really like how much you can customize this tablet. However, I think the less technically inclined are better off with an iPad.

I love this.
The Xoom. As the title of this post shows I have had very little time using this tablet. My first impression is very positive. I like the android operating system. The interface of the home screen with custom widgets is great. No more am I confined to the iPad interface of uh . . rearranging the app logos? Creating little folders of app logos?? With Android I have instant access to information from many sources. It feels like a personal data center displaying all of the input that I am interested in. Multiple email inboxes, my Facebook news feed, my Twitter feed, my RSS feeds are all right there. It is great to have all of that information in one spot. I also like how open the tablet feels compared to the iPad. Do you want to change your default browser to one that you downloaded? Go ahead. Never have I had so much control over my tablet, but maybe you don't want that.

My mom would hate this.
The iPad 2 is great for the less tech savvy. While using the Xoom (tweaking settings, changing the interface) I kept thinking of how confusing it could be for some people. I think that the interface would be overwhelming and it would be harder to get to apps and all the content on the tablet. The iPad is simple. I could see my mom for example picking up an iPad and being able to browse the web, email, and listen to music without any problems. I know somebody at my office who got an iPad and now she barely touches her android phone! She is scared of it! She loves the iPad for email and web browsing. Keep that in mind if you are looking to buy a tablet.

Do you need a tablet at all?
No.
That is my honest opinion.
They are too expensive for what they do and completely unnecessary because you have a laptop and a smart phone already right?

What do you think of tablets? Comment below.