I’ve had a couple of positive buying/services experiences recently, and wanted to write about them briefly.
I recently replaced my main computer. I wanted something which would work well for day to day development but also for the occasional gaming I manage to do. I spend a lot of time in my office as I work from home, so it’s important to have something powerful but quiet as well. Also as an added complication I’d recently purchased a SSD which I wanted to drop into the build.
I did a bit of shopping around PC retailers in Auckland and had a bit of a hard time finding anyone who seemed interested or willing to put in a bit of extra effort and to customise something for me. While I realised that I wasn’t exactly spending a fortune, when you drop $4-5k on a new rig you kind of want to feel like your business is at least somewhat valued. Anyway at this point I happened to wander into Compulink where I saw the machine Aaron (owner) was building for himself. Getting a look at the build quality and the neatness of the cabling I was pretty much sold on the spot, and Aaron was happy to put up with all my customisations and a few stupid questions to boot. All in all the system hauls ass and I’m very happy with it.
Oh, you’d like specs? If you insist: i930 watercooled and overclocked to 4.1ghz, 12gb of triple channel RAM, Nvidia GTX480, Intel X2 SSD for the main drive, 1TB SATA3 drive for data, Silverstone full tower case with three huge but quiet fans with variable speeds – Windows experience index reports mostly 7.9s, but a couple of 7.6 ratings brings the final figure down slightly.
I’ve also just had some cabling work done in the house/office. We’re moving some rooms around (to try and improve the work/life balance which gets threatened when you work from home – but that’s another story altogether), and I took this as an opportunity to get some proper CAT6 throughout the place. There’s a couple of spots in the house which were serviced only by wireless, and some networking gear which I wanted to consolidate down into the server room (well, cupboard). A friend put me onto Ben @ Cable Systems and I can’t recommend him highly enough if you’re in need of some cabling on any scale. His work is incredibly tidy and carries a great level of attention to detail.
I realise that not everyone gets excited by things such as having multiple CAT6 outlets in every room, and having properly mounted patch panels with neatly run cabling, however I am one of those people – and if you are too and you like in the Auckland area then give Ben a call.
Disclaimer: neither Compulink nor Cable Systems have given me anything for writing about their businesses – in both instances I’m just a happy customer wanting to spread the word – thanks!
Link: Compulink
Link: Cable Systems – The Total Electrical Company
Tags: NZ, Gadgets