Gav's World

My Desktop PC [kirk] (the reboot)

As I've said before, all of my computers are named after Star Trek characters, so may I present ... "kirk" ... the 'reboot' (as in the latest series of films have rebooted James T Kirk and co.) as previously my desktop PC was "picard" ... the 'next generation' of my desktop PC - as the very first one was called "kirk" (obviously)!

Now I know that "kirk" isn't quite bleeding edge technology, however ... it's fast enough for the stuff I do like surfing the web / writing websites / checking my e-mail / manipulating photos, playing Minecraft or Steam and the likes. That said though, it's not a slow machine either (especially after its latest upgrade)... currently with a 64 bit, 8 core (16 thread) AMD Ryzen 7 Zen3 SMP processor, loads of DDR4 and a solid state file system - sorry, did I make you think that this was an underspecified machine? I thought you knew me better by now! ;-)

I currently have "kirk" primarily running the 64 bit version of Xubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat). It boots up very quickly and things just work! Note that unlike other 64 bit "operating systems" ... all of the applications are also 64 bit! Well, apart from the likes of Steam, but there are 32-bit libraries to fully support it!

"What does this mean?" I hear you ask. Well unlike folk that buy PCs pre-installed with Windows on them (you pay for the privilege you know), my entire operating system and all applications are completely free! In a year's time my computer will boot up in exactly the same time that it boots up just now - or in fact ... it may even boot up a bit quicker!

In case you're wondering why I'm ranting ... I'm sick to the back teeth of re-installing Windows for folk. Main reason for re-installs is the [lack of] speed that their relatively new computer runs at after a year or so of use and all of the junk that's managed to get onto them! ... and ... breath ...

However, that said... unfortunately, this PC also has Windows as a boot option. The latest upgrade was really only because the hardware wasnt compatible with Windows 11. There's going to be a lot of PC hardware scrapped because of its restrictions!

Anyway, the nitty gritty that I know you're desperate to know (and the upgrade history that you didn't even know you wanted to know):

Current Specifications:

Case:	Fractal Design Focus G, Black
Power Supply:	Corsair VS650 (650W low noise, 12cm fan)
Motherboard:	Asus Prime A520M-K (With additional discrete Trusted Platform Module)
Processor:	AMD Ryzen 7 5700X (3.4GHz; 4.6GHz boost)
CPU Heat-sink:	Coolmaster MasterLiquide Lite 120
RAM:	Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GiB (2x16GiB) DDR4 Kit CMK32GX4M2Z3600C18 (32GiBytes total, 18-22-22-42 timings)
Graphics Card:	MSI GTX 1050 Ti 4GT LP (nVidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 4GiByte DDR5)
Storage:	Western Digital Black SN750 (500GByte NVMe SSD root file-system) Samsung 870 EVO (1TByte SATA additional file-system)
Optical Drives:	Asus DRW-24D5MT DVD burner with M-Disc support LiteOn iHOS104 BD-ROM
KVM Switch:	Belkin F1DN104Cea (Secure 4-port DVI-I, USB2.0, audio & CAC)
(KVM) Monitor:	DELL P2418D (24inch 16:9, 2560x1440 IPS panel)
(KVM) Speakers:	Creative GigaWorks T40 Series II
(KVM) Keyboard:	Logitech Cordless Desktop Comfort
(KVM) Mouse:	Logitech MX Master
Bluetooth:	Generic CSR 4.0 Low Energy
Headphones:	Sennheiser HD 4.50BTNC (Bluetooth, noise-cancelling) Sennheiser Momentum 4 (Bluetooth, noise-cancelling)
Webcam:	Logitech C525
Battery Backup UPS:	Eaton Ellipse ECO (800VA) [slaved from the server]

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[ Page last updated Sat 19th Apr 2025 | viewed 3244 times ]