When Nick from California called us to build him a custom computer for his beta test account on  World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria we were eager to help.

Nick’s request was simple:  Build the best computer possible for under $1700.

Nick, an avid Apple Fan, has been gaming with his iMac for years, but wanted a change.   We setup a consultation and we made a checklist of parts needed for his build.    We came up with a beautiful Windows 7 and Intel i7 build that would last him for many more years of gaming.   We decided to try out the new XION cases. The new Xion Cases (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811208046) were extremely high quality and I would recommend as a great gaming computer case with all the necessary wiring organization, really nice fan control, as well as a nice USB 3.0 front panel and plenty of cooling.

Here are a few pictures and if you’re in the market for one, how you can get ahold of us, learn how the process works, and how you can have one of these masterpieces shipped to your door.

If you are further interested in having us build out a machine for you or your business check out Gallery of builds on our facebook page or contact us for a quote.

Check out how the whole Logistics Custom Computer Build process works, or feel free to send us an email with any questions.

What’s inside the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria Custom Computer

• Intel i7 3770K (3rd Generation) 3.5ghz
• Artic Freezer pro v2 cpu cooler (never saw the cpu go over 35C under load)
• Asus Sabertooth Z77 board
• EVGA GTX 570 HD 2.5GB
• Corsair 16gb ddr3
• Corsair 120gb
• 600w Corsair Gaming PSU
• LG DVD-RW
• Xion Gaming Series 980 Case.

I asked my wife if I could have one of these but she said no, again.

The case looks great and is very well designed.

Check out how the whole Logistics Custom Computer Build process works, or feel free to send us an email with any questions.

We had the chance to build several Custom Diablo 3 PC’s over the past few weeks, however this one stood out in both cost and performance.  The customer is an employee that works for Marvel on the Iron Man 3 project, and when he came to us – his vision was an over the top computer that would be completely compatible with World of Warcraft and Diablo 3 that specifically would run at the highest frame rates possible on his 30″ HD flatscreen.  We did just that for him.   Having to custom order several parts due to supply issues…..Most specifically the CPU and GTX 680 graphics cards; we we’re able to construct the best computer I have ever had the liberty of using.  It kind of deserved it’s own blog post so here are a few pictures and if you’re in the market for one, how you can get ahold of us, learn how the process works, and how you can have one of these masterpieces shipped to your door.

If you are further interested in having us build out a machine for you or your business check out Gallery of builds on our facebook page or contact us for a quote.

Check out how the whole Logistics Custom Computer Build process works, or feel free to send us an email with any questions.

What’s inside the Diablo 3 Dream Machine Custom Computer

• Intel 6 core – i7 Extreme 3.3ghz
• Thermaltake Frio LGA2011 cpu cooler (never saw the cpu go over 30C)
• Asus Sabertooth X79 board
• EVGA (2) GTX 680′s 2GB in SLI
• Corsair 32gb ddr3
• Corsair 120gb x 3 RAID 5 SSD
• 1500w silverstone PSU
• LG BD-RW
• LG DVDRW
• Rosewill Thor Case v2.

I asked my wife if I could have one but she said no.

Without any tweaking and latest drivers we were able to pull a 16400 score on 3dmark11 performance benchmarks………….

With tweaking and overclocking, i’m sure 20,000 would be an achievable goal.

Check out how the whole Logistics Custom Computer Build process works, or feel free to send us an email with any questions.

What temperature does your CPU run at? Do you know what the normal operating temperature of your processor is?  Most people don’t.  How do you know your machine is overheating?  Most times these issues are difficult to troubleshoot because there is no error.  If your PC’s BIOS has a hardware monitor you can check it there,and laptops generally get extremely hot to the touch around the exhaust & CPU area.  If your machine doesn’t have any way of monitoring the temperature, it can be even more of a challenge to locate the heating problem.

While heating issues are more common in custom built machines, they also can occur in pre-built units (Dell, HP, Acer etc) and often happen with older laptops.  The most common issue with custom built machines is thermal paste not being applied correctly, same with laptops, although laptops can also accumulate a lot of dust in the fan/exhaust area causing it to heat up and reboot or turn off.

Here is a list of things to check if you notice your machine is overheating.

1. Check the thermal paste application.
   Thermal paste, especially cheap stuff turns chalky over time, if you are experience overheating, this would be the first thing to check.  Find yourself some nice silver compound (we recommend arctic silver www.arcticsilver.com) and apply a THIN coat on your processor and reseat the heatsink.
2. Is your fan pushing enough air and supplying enough cooling to your processor?
   Most stock fans today do not supply enough cooling to the processor causing it to overheat –  aftermarket fans can be purchased to remedy the issue and often are inexpensive (15$-50$ for a decent after market upgrade)
3. Dust & Air Restriction
   This can be a major factor with your PC or laptop.  Check for those nasty thick clumps of dust around exhaust ports or the heatsink itself.  You might be blocking a way for the heat to escape causing the machine to cook itself.  Find yourself either a can of c02 to blow the dust out, or we often use a wet/dry vac with an exhaust port that blows the dust out.
4. Room Temperature
   Obviously if youre browsing the web inside of a boiler room, youre not going to be browsing for long.  If the temperature of your room is over 85 or 90 degrees, you might want to think about relocating your computer.  The machine won’t be able to cool itself if the air around it is hotter than itself.

Temporary Fixes for an Overheating PC

1. Take the side of the case off – this allows the machine to breath better and effectively reduces the overall temperature of the unit.
2. Get a fan or air conditioner and have it blow in the side of the case (with the side of the case off)
3. Purchase additional case fans – Some PC’s come with none of these, the air just sits inside the case without any actual flow – a case fan will move the air around – this will increase air flow inside the unit – reducing the overall temperature of this unit.

We get on average, 5 people a week who drop off their laptop or desktop in our shop because of overheating issues.  Following these tips in most cases will fix your overheating computer, but if you are still in need of help or unsure what to do – give us a call at 860-942-8522.  Logistics has experience resolving the most complicated overheating issues with laptops and desktops.  We even accept mail in orders.

Thanks for reading, if this article helped you in anyway, leave a comment – we love feedback.

With gas prices rising every day people are looking for more and more ways to save on gas.  Here are some tips to help your car get better fuel mileage and for you to save money at the gas pump.

Your car’s maintenance is important.

1. Start by removing unnecessary junk from your trunk.  Excess weight causes the car to use more fuel.

2. Make sure to keep your ties inflated and a well tuned engine will burn less gas.  routine maintenance and regular tuneups will keep your car going.

3. When purchasing gas make sure to buy the lowest grade appropriate for your car.  There is no sense to pay more for a higher octane if your car does not need it.  So check the owner’s manual and save some money.

4. Also don’t use your credit or debit card at the gas stations as they charge extra for the service fee.  The more gas you put in wont always stay in.  Trying to constantly top off the gas tank will make the gas seep out.

5. Driving has a lot to do with fuel economy.  Fast acceleration burns extra fuel and also hurts the transmission.  Drive the speed limit.  Most speed limits in Connecticut are 55-65 MPH.  Driving at 55 MPH can save you two miles to the gallon than driving at 65 MPH.

6. In the cold New England winter long warm-ups are also not necessary.  They just waste gas and your car only needs one minute to get ready to drive.

7. More importantly car-pooling and the use of public transportation.  Why make two or three cars take the same trip when you can fit into one car?

8. Some last good habits are to make sure your gas tank is on securely as gas can easily evaporate from the tank.  Make your next car a fuel efficient car.

9. Now that the cold winter is over be smart with air conditioning in city driving and open your windows but on the highway its better to close the windows and use the air conditioning.

10. Lastly remove those snow tires with the better weather.

Don’t wait for gas prices to go down, follow these good habits and your costs will go down!

WordPress is one of our favorite CMS’s on the market.  With it’s ability to customize, user friendlyness, huge plugin market, and SEO friendliness, it makes it a very dynamic and powerful CMS website for your potential Connecticut web design clients.

Recently we had to opportunity to build CG Real Estate‘s website.  For this project I chose the Agentpress Child Theme and incorporated a new IDX.  IDX Broker is the plugin of choice.  There is nothing better on the market for that IDX currently that I have found.  And while it can be a little pricey per month than what most Agents are used to – you get what you pay for.  Automatic MLS synchronization meaning NO MORE MANUAL MLS ENTRIES, saving the agents tons of time.  A beautiful backend, tons of CSS customization, WordPress integration, round robin lead generation and lots more.

Incorporating the IDX Broker plugin and all of its features took a bit of time, as you need to mold it specifically to your WordPress installation and creating custom DNS links wasn’t too painful either.  Thankfully IDX Broker’s support documention was pretty well written and they even have special instructions for those using Agentpress.  IDX Broker Phone Support was also very helpful the 3 times I called for some specific tech questions about their software.

The Agentpress Theme also has a huge support community making it easy to fix some bugs out of the box without having to search through mounds of code for hours.

If you are debating using AgentPress or even contemplating which IDX to incorporate, look no further.  IDXBroker and AgentPress are a dream combination.

With that said, the client CG Real Estate seems to be very pleased with their new website, and we are pretty happy with how it came out too.

If you are seeking a Connecticut Web Designer, check out our portfolio at www.logisticsct.com or give us a call 860-942-8522 for a free website analysis and quote.

If you’ve ever encountered the HP Wireless Orange Light of Doom you already know how annoying it can be.  For those of you who don’t know what the HP Orange light is:  Basically the internal wireless card in the machine stops working and no longer shows up in Windows Device Manager and the machine appears to no longer have a wireless card.  

Most people junk their machines, or add a USB wireless card, as the cost for a new motherboard can be around 400$+ from HP – You can get a decent laptop for around $400, sooooo.

There are countless forum posts online about the issue, and different methods on how people got theirs to work again.  One of the most successful ones that i’ve seen work is the CPU stress test here: http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic130484.html others have replaced the wireless card – but most people still have the issue again after a few days or even hours.

After countless HP’s coming into my shop with the orange light issue and trying all the methods people suggest online – I decided to play with one that was traded in.

I tried the CPU stress test (see link above) and it appeared to work.  Windows detected the wireless card, but within 20 minutes of the laptop cooling, the light went orange again.  I opened the laptop and started to check the wireless card connection when I saw a few issues.

The actual wireless connectors appeared to have some black junk and specs along the copper connectors.  I cleaned them at first with a fine flat head screw driver, scrapping off the junk on the contacts for a better connection.

You can probably use anything else as long as it is fine enough to scrape the copper connectors on the motherboard contacts.  Followed it up with an alcohol swab to the connectors as well.

*IMPORTANT* Another thing I had to do on a couple of the machines – is when inserting the wireless card back into the machine, you need to press the card so it almost gets shoved at an angle and then tighten the screw down to hold it in position.  This is only proves that the actual copper connectors are what’s going wrong and not the actual board, at least with the machines I’ve worked on here.

And…..

While I can’t attest for every single HP with an orange light – I’ve been successful now with 3 out of 3 HP laptops with this issue,  the contacts always appear to be dirty.  I think the CPU stress test is just heating the copper and raising them for a better connection – and when it cools down they go back into position – this is just a guess but can’t say for sure.  I guess I need more HP laptops to test this out withot prove it, so if you live near North Windham, CT and are having this issue- stop over at Logistics and we will try it out on your laptop.

I hope this article helps you out,  this has saved a few customers costly repairs at our shop here.  Let me know if this works for you, we would love some comments.

1. Not One, but TWO, Cameras

This is a killer differentiator. The PlayBook has a 3-megapixel user-facing camera and a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera. The main camera can also shoot 1080p HD video. The iPad has no cameras at all. RIM wins this one hands down.

2. Standardized Ports

The PlayBook comes with both microHDMI and microUSB ports. That means users have a wider choice when it comes to sharing content from the PlayBook with other devices. The HDMI port, in particular, sets the PlayBook ahead of the iPad, which is limited to Apple’s 30-pin proprietary connector.

3. Enterprise Security Story

According to Research In Motion, the BlackBerry PlayBook supports all the enterprise security and policy enforcement controls that can be applied to all existing BlackBerries. That’s vital. If the QNX-based tablet shipped with a brand new OS that wasn’t backward compatible with BlackBerry Enterprise Server, it might be D.O.A. in the enterprise. Instead, RIM did the smart thing and made sure it is as easily controlled as are its BlackBerries.

4. Smaller Form Factor

The PlayBook has a 7-inch display with a 16:9 aspect ratio. Similar to the Samsung Galaxy Tab, it is small enough to be carried around in a (large) pocket. The iPad’s 9.7-inch display makes in unpocketable. Size does matter, and sometimes not in the way you might think. The PlayBook is smaller and easier to transport than the iPad, plain and simple.

5. Dual-Core, Baby!

The PlayBook has a 1GHz dual-core processor with multi-symmetric processing. The iPad has a single core 1GHz processor. We haven’t seen any benchmarks yet, but two cores is twice as good, right? RIM claims the PlayBook is the “Fastest. Tablet. Ever.” We’ll have to see just how fast it is once it is available for sale.

Source: Information Week

Our custom gaming tower builds are back: Build yours today. All machines come with a free 1 year warranty.

Minerva is built with the following concepts in mind: Quality, Speed and Value.  This machine is equipped with only the best parts including: Asus, Mushkin, EVGA, LG and Western Digital

This system comes with a standard 1 year limited warranty.

http://www.logisticsct.com/shop/Custom%20Computers/miverva-custom-pc

The OOMA Voip device offers unlimited US calling for a one time charge of around $250.

For a great review and cost break down check out http://garyandwendy.com/wordpress/2010/08/08/detailed-review-of-ooma-plus-the-pros-cons/

My only complaint was the instructions for the average user are a bit difficult if you are running any sort of router on your home network.  Below are some settings that may assist others with setting up their Ooma box.

Pros:

Good call quality.
Getting rid of my cable company’s $40 a month phone bill.  (you still have to pay federal taxes etc which comes to around 3.50$ per month)
Once setup, it seems very reliable.

Cons:
Phone support is worthless, so you’ll have to dig through forum posts to get specific answers to some things.
Basic DSL may not be fast enough for you (a steady 384 upsteam is best at minimum)
Ooma’s “Plug and go” instructions don’t necessarily work for everyone

Other than that it appears to be a really good alternative to switching from your phone or cable company.

Here’s what we did to get the device working with our Linksys Router (different routers may vary slightly in setup):

1. Plug a network cable (supplied from Ooma) from computer or laptops network jack into the Ooma’s “Home Network” Jack.

2. Renew your PC’s IP address or reboot it. The Ooma will serve a 172 to the computer if done correctly.

3.  Navigate the PC with Internet Explorer (Google Chrome didn’t work – didn’t try Firefox) to http://setup.ooma.com

4. The Ooma Setup setup page will be displayed

5. Navigate to the Advanced Screen and mirror these settings (click image to enlarge):

6.  Update/Save Settings and reboot your Ooma device and now wait for the PC to reaquire an IP from Ooma- then navigate Internet Explorer to your Ooma setup again address http://setup.ooma.com or 192.168.2.1 if that doesn’t work.

7.  Navigate to the Network Page in the Ooma Setup and mirror these settings to match your Routers DHCP range (settings may vary depending on your router)

(We used Free public DNS Servers 4.2.2.* because our cable company’s is truly terrible)

6. Disconnect the PC and hook your Ooma  back into the Router and switch network cable from the Home Network Port to the Internet Port.

7.  Reboot your Ooma device wait about 5 minutes for it to sync with Ooma servers and you should be all set.  The center light will turn Blue and you can make phone calls for free.

Leave a comment if this worked out for you, or if you have any suggestions for an improved method.