New Xi computer
Time for a new computer. Some of the modeling work I’ve done recently has been choking my 3 year old laptop. Not big assemblies, just individual parts with ridiculous surface feature complexity. I know when I lose my train of thought before the model finished rebuilding, its time for an upgrade.
Right now, I have a very heavy Hypersonic laptop w/ 17″ screen, AMD 4800+ dual core proc, 2 GB ram, full size keyboard with number pad, and FX Go 1400 graphics. This is the machine the 2007 Bible was written on. The 90 W power brick is immense. It used to be good enough for RealView in 2007, but no longer. The processor is way out dated. I’ve had bad luck with this supplier. The machine has been back to the mfg, and I’ve had to replace parts out of my pocket. I know other folks who have machines like it, and they also have problems.
This computer is going to get handed down to a less CAD-intense user. It’s still a nice machine. It seems a shame to retire it, but it just can’t keep up with the models SW throws at it, and the graphics system is WAY past its prime.
The small computer sitting on the lap of the “notebookzilla” laptop is my tablet pc, which works great for traveling, and conferences. It is still in the arsenal. I used to have to travel to a customer site and use my own computer on site, so these were times when I had to bring notebookzilla. I needed portability and horsepower. The tablet has a fast processor, and 3 GB ram, but motherboard graphics.
My other machine is a Boxx tower, again an AMD proc, but a single core, XP/Vista dual boot, 3 GB ram, nVidia 3450 graphics which still does RealView. This is still a CAD-capable box, although the processor is showing its age. This one is going to become a backup CAD box, and file server.
Boxx has been a decent company to work with. In the 3.5 years I’ve had this machine, it has only needed a small fan replaced, and they sent that one for free.
Looking back, though, I think they sold me way more machine than I needed. It has tons of capability that I never used, including the SLI mobo and a thousand connectors for stuff I don’t even know what its for.
I’ve done the Dell and HP thing. The HP products I’ve used have been good, but the company is huge an impossible to navigate.
I thought I’d spec a Dell this time, having heard a lot of great things about the T3400s. So I started clicking away on their site. I had a decent computer spec’ed for about $2600. It had everything I needed, but wasn’t too extravagant.
Then just for comparison, I went over to www.xicomputer.com. I’ve heard these guys recommended a lot before, but I’ve never bought anything from them. You say the name like the two letters “X, I”, not like the 
greek letter xi (pronounced “ksi”) . I spec’ed a few computers that ranged from cheap to not cheap. The nice thing is that they have a lot of options. You can even spec your own mother board. They have DDR3 memory available at those high speeds, like 1333 mhz. You can spec 15,000 rpm hard drives and even solid state drives. Wow, what a difference. Never go back to Dell again. They even had a guy who knows his stuff help me spec a computer to run SW and keep the cost reasonable.
Here’s what I wound up with. A very reasonable price for what I hope will be a good performing computer. It would be easy to put together a total scorcher, but you’d pay for it. For about $4k you could get a water cooled, overclocked, RAID 0 SAS, 15000 RPM, 3.45 GHz, 900 Watt beast. That’s about what I paid for my Boxx, and the Box was nowhere near the level that you can take this Xi.
I’ll check back in next week after it gets here and give you the rest of the story.
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Late addition, Charles Culp pointed out that I had mistakenly left the default Vista Home on the list. So I called Xi up this afternoon, and they upgraded me to Vista Business 64 bit for free! Great customer service, guys!
By the way, I did pay for this computer, I’m not getting it for free for saying good stuff in my blog. I did get a bit of a discount, but the discounts are standard and available to people who don’t have blogs.
Wonderful, another guy finds a way to be productive while concentrating on living life. I cruise for months at a time on my boat. I do engineering design in the evening or the heat of the day. When at anchor I have to move around the setee to keep the sun from falling directly on the computer screen. Forget web surfing unless you are in a marina. You just have to settle for more direct interaction with the world. My favorites are walking the beach, snorkeling, fishing and sailing. The worst part of working remotely is telephone hours. I cannot stand waiting for a satphone call. Now I check email once a day and then call back after an email contact.
I have learned a new way to collect sea shells. I am so excited about my next voyage. The trick is to find an octopus house. Octopi alwyas have houses with two doors. They capture mullosks, eat them and deposit beautiful clean shells in front of the house. I plan to deliver mullosks to the octopus, and let him dine. The next day I will reclaim the shells. I wonder if the octopus will get to know me.
I worry about losing customers. Some will not put up with the Idea of my working in paradise. My experience is that the best customers stay and the worst leave. My income diminishes by about 50% while cruising, but life is good.
Working a bit while on vacation is a good start. Continusous vacation with a bit of work is my goal. I have been trapped ashore for more than a year.
Rick
Good story and pictures, Matt.
Like you, I spend a lot of time working on the road and on vacations. To my family, this is normal. Thank goodness, they support me. Some of my favorite locations that I’ve worked from or gotten new work from include Hawaii; talking on my cell phone on the beach, a docked riverboat on the Sacramento river, and the Disney cruise ship.
But, like most self-employed contractors, I worry a lot. I worry when I don’t have work, then I worry when I have work. I stress when I write out those big quarterly checks to the IRS and my insurance company.
Devon