The "Next Level" Workstation

And so it begins...... the project to upgrade my "Blackbird" workstation. It's current configuration of Intel Z77 chipset powered by an i7-3770 of the "Ivy Bridge" generaton has just about run it's course as a front-line workstation.

My decision is to move away from the "enthusiast" route toward the true workstation hardware.  Which means choosing a processor from the Xeon line instead of the consumer oriented "Core" line. These CPUs pretty much can't be overclocked, which is something I don't engage in anyway. Of course, there are other features as well, after weighing the pluses and minus, I decided a high core count and low cost was the way to go leading me to a Xeon E5-2630L which is a low powered (55w) chip with 8 cores on board! I decided that even at a slow 1.8Ghz clock speed would be fine for 16 hyper-threaded cores. For what I do, and it's $85 cost, this would be a great LGA-2011-3 starting point.

 Of course, there's always a "fly in the ointment" in one way or another. Right now, it's the cost of DDR4 memory. So, I'm going to start with 16Gb. I know...... woe is me!!! Well, it is a downgrade for me since I'm running with 32Gb right now. I'll get 16Gb more at some point in the next year which will get me halfway to the 64Gb capacity. I can live with that. Other bugs?

 

Well..... there is this little thing..... I bought a board that was inexpensive because it has some bent pins. So, yeah.... I have got a tedious little task in front of me to get them all straightened. It isn't a trivial task, but I've done it before.

A fun weekend to look forward to, but after that....... Blackbird Mk II flies again!

The $50 Gaming PC Upgrade for My Son

A few of you might recognize my son's gaming machine. It was built around an ASRock H67 Mini-ITX LGA-1155 board which began life with a Sandy Bridge i5 CPU. It's nVidia GTX 650 got upgraded to a GTX 750ti last year. With an Intel 160Gb SSD paired with a Samsung 500Gb drive for mass storage. Over the 2 to 3 years of it's life, it's been a pretty nice machine and my son has been very happy with it. 

 

Let's be clear here: my son isn't playing heavy duty first person shooter games like Metro Last Light, or Skyrim! He's more of a Minecraft kid....

In the last year or so, he has gotten more into Steam so there is a bit of a progression. 

Although, his current favorite (Subnautica) isn't particularly challenging for the hardware either. However, me being me..... I'm always keeping an eye out for upgrades, and in my world, $50 is around the price of an "impulse buy" that doesn't require a lot of planning.

It all started with this; the EVGA GeForce GTX 750 Ti.. I saw it on the local Craigslist for $65, offered $50 and it went into his computer knowing full-well that he didn't need it.

Then came this.....the famous "Igloo" case, or the Carbide 380t by Corsair which is it's actual name. I've always wanted to get this case and do something fun in it ever since I first saw it. However, it's a little pricey and damn hard to find. A few months after the 750ti, I saw this on CL for $50 (firm), so I gave the guy his money and it sat in the corner of my office with no particular job for most of a year. It came without screws, fans or anything else, but what self-respecting builder doesn't have tons of that stuff sitting around. 

About a month after that, I found this; an ASRock H110M-ITX/ac for..... you guessed it..... $50 on Craigslist...... The board was practically "new in the box" and now I had my first Skylake/Kabylake, DDR4 motherboard. I knew it was going into the 380t case, but had no idea what I was building it for....

To finish up with the theme here, I picked up an LGA1151 Intel Pentium G4400 for $50 on eBay. So, I'm up to $200 total, $50 at a time spread out over roughly a year. Admittedly, by this time, I knew what I was going to do with this machine which is why I went cheap on the Pentium vs. a more expensive Core i3/i5. Obviously, this thing was heading toward it's destiny of becoming my son's "new" gaming PC. Given the kind of games he plays at the moment, this CPU wouldn't be a problem.

At this point, my $50 theme breaks down, but hey; I did pretty good up till now, right!?! You're probably aware that DDR4 is pricey right now, and I'm kind of a "RAM guy". I refuse to use cheap and/or what I consider an inadequate amount. So, here are the issues:

• In the current computing world, 8Gb is pretty much the de-facto standard
• DDR4 is expensive- roughly $150 for 16Gb in 8Gb module pairs
• Mini-ITX boards routinely have 2 sockets for memory
• Individual 8Gb modules run $70 or more 

Which leaves me with the following scenario: Buy 1 stick of 8Gb at around $70 per,..... or buy a pair of 4Gb modules at around the same outlay, then at some point in the future when I want to upgrade, having to pull out what I have, to put in more. You can imagine what I ended up doing, right? I bit the bullet and bought a pair of Crucial Ballistix Tactical for $108. More than what I wanted to spend, but not terrible in the big pciture, as you'll see.

The last thing I needed to buy was a power supply. I found one of those Newegg sales that also had a "mail-in rebate". It was $37 on sale and the rebate will be $20 more, so yeah.... it's $17 dollars! That's more like it! Not fancy, but solid and will provide plenty enough power for anything that might go into this case, now or in the future. So, that's it. That's all I bought. There's more things that go into a computer, right?

Of course there is. It needed storage and some fans, along with a few cables. It got the 600Gb Intel 3500 from my workstation (it getting a rebuild soon, shhhhhh), the 2.5", 500Gb Samsung mechanical drive that was in his old machine for "mass storage", and a pair of NZXT FN V2, 140mm case fans that was left over from previoius projects. Of course, these didn't cost anything. These fans are so quiet, that my son commented on it. You might also be wondering if I have upgrades planned.

 

If pushed, I'd say that, over the life of this machine, at some point, it'll probably get the above upgrades. More powerful GPUs such as a GTX x60, x70, or a "10 Series" card appear on Craigslist inexpensively all the time, so that will most likely happen first. During it's mid-cycle time-frame, it'll probably get an Intel Core i5 along with a water cooler; not because it needs it, but because, he'll think it's "cool"! At this point, I've spent $325 spread out over a year to year and a half. I just sold his old machine (with the 750ti replaced with a 650, and 160Gb Intel SSD replaced with a 500Gb mechanical HDD) for $350, so I'm upgrade with a net $25 gain!

The "Nighthawk" and Airgun DIY Nirvana

Sitting down at the post office right now is the Walther "Nighthawk" by Umarex. It's undoubtedly a cool and interesting product, but my story related to it is kind of interesting as well. So stay tuned.... 

As you're aware few months ago when I started becoming interested in airguns, the Nighthawk was actually one of the first ones that I found on eBay. As you can imagine, I was hooked, right from the beginning. But for a variety of reasons, I decided against spending the $140 or so that it was bidding at on eBay and went with a brand new Walther PPQ (again, by Umarex). I've certainly not regretted that decision and the PPQ has been an accurate, solid, fun gun. 

Despite, subsequently picking up a wide variety of airguns long, short, more advanced as well as less advanced, I've never gotten the Nighthawk out of my head.

Let's examine it more closely and I'll describe what I ended up doing:

The "Nighthawk" as a product actually began back when Crosman had the Walther licensing and created several products copied from the"real steel" guns of that German manufacturer. These included the PPK, the P38, as well as the P99, a variant of which that was adapted to become the "Nighthawk". I know this because I now own one marked "Crosman"!

What's the story? After I let that first one go on eBay, I kept an eye out for them and found one about a month ago. Unfortunately it didn't have all the parts that make the Nighthawk, the "Nighthawk"......just the gun. But I it was cheap..... $26. Just the "magazine" which holds the CO2 cartridge cost more than that, so it was a good deal. The version that Crosman/Umarex uses as the basis is the CPSport, which is essentially a double-action only version of the more sophisticated (and more expensive), CP99 (which I'll get to later). What makes this airgun so interesting? First, it's barrel is threaded to take a screw-on "device". There's a "Tactical" version that has a compensator/muzzle-brake, or in this case, a faux suppressor. I guess you can call it a muzzle-brake if you'd prefer since there are holes all over it, but if those holes are covered and the space filled loosely, it would in fact function as a suppressor. Although the vast majority of modern pistols whether air or gun-powder driven have a accessory rail today, this one has a cage style mount attached to that rail which then gives it four rails, one of which is a long one above the the slide on which is mounted a "red-dot" optical sight. It also comes with a rail mounted flashlight which has a momentary switch.

So yeah, when fully loaded, this thing look like something from Star Wars Very Han Solo-esque.....  "Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid."

But, up until today, I didn't have one...... a factory constructed one that is...... 

So I set out to make my own. One that was better than the official version..... the Frugal Propellerhead way! Here's what I did. 

1. I bought a CP99. The most sophisticated version which had single-action trigger ability. It was $60, plus $10 shipping.
2. I found and bought a cage style mount that came from a Crosman C11. It was $15 after shipping and came with a rail-mount laser aiming device that now lives on the PPQ.
3. I tracked down a company in England that made an adapter which had a 1/2" x 28 thread for the CP99 which allows me to mount a "device" on the muzzle of the gun. It was about $20 in dollars after shipping.
4. I found a TruGlo red-dot optical laser sight which a local pawn shop was happy to sell me at $20 "out-the-door" (this means, tax included).
5. On Wednesday, a $30 device came from Wisconsin. It's solid and can't be an actual suppressor, but it looks every bit like one.

So, for $155, I made my own "Nighthawk", although, in fact, it was less since part of the $15 was for a laser sight that didn't end up being part of it and it's a better package period, since the gun is the more sophisticated SA model. 

So, despite the fact that the "Nighthawk" is out of production, it can be recreated with, patience, determination and a bit of luck.It should be a fun weekend comparing the actual thing against my home-built version. Labor Day couldn't have come at a better time!

Father-Son (and family) Bonding Via Airgun

As much as I'd have loved to have had this with my son, it wasn't/isn't destined to be. He isn't particularly land-sport oriented (although he's quite good in the water), and as someone who's been a professional coach most of my life....I'm a little too intense to do that with my own son. 

So, our father-son bonding time has come by way of the "air-gun". As I discussed in my last post, our neighborhood squirrels led to the purchase of a pellet/bb pistol....the Umarex licensed Walther PPQ....and it turned out that my son absolutely loves to shoot it. Well...as it turns out....loves to shoot period! Who'd-a-thunk-it! A teenage boy loves to shoot things.....

 It turned out that I was right....and wrong. The PPQ is a fine shooting little gun, but I'm not really comfortable with it's accuracy and power (mostly power) as related to squirrels. On top of that, I got really interested in airguns. My wife would use the word obsessed, but I think she's over stating my new little hobby. It could be worse: I could have gotten into Harleys! Although I must say that she might have a bit of a point....as we shall see....

 

.....so anyway.....I got interested in airguns and also the various Walther P99/CP99/CPSport replica. As it turns out, there are a variety of them that range from "Airsoft" to BB only, to BB/Pellet, to Pellet only to the truly weird and interesting.....

"Nighthawk"... I guess, it's the gun you'd use if people put out "contracts" on squirrels!

 

Which apparently is "out-of-production". Yeah....you guys know that's like waving a red flag in front of my face! Before I get into the Nighthawk, I'll discuss why my wife rolls her eyes and talks about my "arsenal". First I tracked down the highest spec'd version of the P99 which as depicted above is the military green variant. It is (like the 9mm firing) P99 is "double-action" as well as "single-action" complete with the functioning decocker on the slide. It's very accurate, but pellet only. They were made in Germany, mostly of metal and feels every bit like that description. It's also somewhat more accurate than the PPQ. Don't know if it's the feel, the single-action trigger, legendary Germany workmanship or what. It just is. Then came the Airsoft P99....why? Ahhh.....because it was like $12 after shipping so I picked it up. No....I have ZERO thoughts of becoming one of those Airsoft "warriors" running around in the woods shooting each other. The version I'm really interested in is the Nighthawk. 

As you can see, there are quite a few interesting parts to it. The basis of it was an in-between model of the Umarex CP99 otherwise called the CPSport which is just like my other CP99 except there's no single-action feature (I know: weird for the concept). As you can see, other than the case, it comes with a Picatinny/Weaver rail mount, electronic Red-dot sight, and a pressure-switch activated "tactical flashlight. Oh, there's also a mock suppressor. 

And now, through the magic of eBay; I've picked up all the versions. I got the green DA/SA CP99 for $75 which is half what they normally cost, albeit that it didn't come with the original case, spare backstrap, and spare magazine. Then yesterday, I picked up the Nighthawk for roughly $27, although again; it's missing parts, but chasing down the parts and assembly my own will be part of the fun. 

 

In the meantime, I found these. What are "they"? It replicates a category of gun called a personal defense weapon (PDW) and the subcategory of pistol conversion kits. The above is the airgun version called the Umarex TAC Converter (more on this later).

In the real steel/polymer world they look like this; most famously by a company called CAA (spin-off of the Israeli armaments world) RONI, which are typically made to work with the various Glocks since those guys are now the ubiquitous side-arm of the world. Jumping back up to the Umarex version above, it comes with the parts to convert several of their airguns to mount in it and to be used as a shoulder-fired weapon. As you can see, it comes with the commonly seen Picatinny rails allowing it to mount stuff and the muzzle has a 1/2" by 28 thread suppressor attachment point as well (which is depicted in the images). As you've probably surmised; I bought one. I actually bought it for my son since it comes with a smooth-bore gun that allow him to shoot cheap BBs till his heart content at the target box I built..... yes, I build a target box.....

Then came this.... the Bear River Sportsman 900

Then this.... the Black Ops Sniper. My version of the story-line isn't going well is it? Anyway.... I was in a pawnshop..... when I saw the Sportsman pump rifle on the wall. They wanted $25 for it. I didn't even bargain. It's a pump-action, .177 pellet/BB gun that will allow my son to go out and shoot without having to burn up CO2 cartridges. He can pump it anywhere from 2-3 times all the way up to 10 depending on what (and how far) he wants to shoot. It came with a little scope, but it wears an inexpensive Daisy red-dot sight now (another story). Then, not too long thereafter, I saw an ad for the Black Ops Sniper that you see depicted below. It's what's called a "break-barrel" spring-piston design. The pump gun will do 600-800 feet per second with a pellet. The Sniper will do 1000-1200 feet per second....... yeah. It's a lot of firepower (in airgun terms) and it was a steal at $80. It comes complete with bipod and scope as you see it, although I've already installed a much nicer 3-9x scope that was picked up at another (you guessed it) pawn shop for $20 "out-the-door". The squirrels haven't got a chance!

Although our family isn't exactly this yet, we seem to have come up with something new to do as a group. I do mean we, since I've gotten my wife to shoot the pistol and hit some cans, plus now my daughter is campaigning to have her own BB gun as well! I don't know if this is going to send some of my reader running since I've revealed myself as part of a "lunatic fringe element of society", but it is a part of us these days and I'll take the trade-off if it means that my kids are likely to do something other than have there noses stuck in an electronic device all day.