abestic9

Hello Internet, it’s been a while. A few updates from yours truly.

Life has been a quick one lately, I’m currently sitting in front of my 9 month old laptop (which I will detail after the break) in New Zealand, working as an RFID technician. It’s been a ride over the past 10 months, but I’ll let that be the subject of my conversations. In short, my life is taking some serious transitions into the technology industry, and the next few years are going to be interesting. Anyways, on with the post.

Chesto has released his first EP today, “Pardon My French“. After having freshly listened to this set, I am very pleased with the groove. He has delivered signature sounds with a house flavor. This is Chesto like you’ve never heard before, his previous work comes to life in new form and brings some great samples along for the ride. You may notice some familiar tunes and vocals in here (I’ll let you be the judge of these classical tracks), and it is united with his taste in electronic and dance. These beats will certainly get your body moving and I am excited to hear where these tracks end up over the next few months.

Sun Go Down was my favorite overall, providing a good build and moving drops. This is work from the heart. I want to hear some remixes of this beat, it sounds really flexible.

One quirk I noticed was the stutter effects, a few were noted out of place but overall they add an interesting (albeit, catchy) twist to the tracks. I would rather have them in there than not, however, and they bring the sound to life in their own right. Overall an excellent release that leaves you wanting another track followed by another!

In other news, I have been getting some new hardware across the board. A few of my new toys:

A new mouse, the Razer Lachesis. I purchased this to replace my previous mouse which was fraying at the USB plug (to my own fault, I travel constantly and my cords take a beating). This new mouse has an increased DPI and height over the Diamondback 3G, and a few improvements. I find it to be a better mouse overall. There are two RGB-customizible LEDs which are more a gimmick than a feature but it is cool nonetheless.

Headphones – Sennheiser PC360 headset & microphone. I find these extremely comfortable and a dramatic upgrade from my Logitechs which were failing in a few departments. The microphone is very high quality, and more importantly the sound is amazing. Excellent frequency response and I can wear these things for hours on end with no comfort issues.

External sound card – the Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro. This is an excellent piece of hardware for people who want a high quality, low latency mobile sound card. This will not dwarf PCI cards, but it is a perfect companion to my laptop. I get better sound than I would with on-board, and it provides an additional interface if I need to mix, dub or loop back. It provides all the audio connectivity I need (both digital and analog) and fits neatly in the side pocket of my backpack.

Hard drive dock. I have been contemplating getting another external hard drive, but I came to the epiphany that I should only need to buy SATA hard drives to enjoy additional storage, so I bought a Sharkoon SATA+IDE drive dock. This dock has USB & eSATA connectivity (I use the eSATA more due to its speed and ability to run from my laptop’s speedy SATA controller), and my brother uses it as much as I do.

Cisco/Linksys E4200 wireless router. I have been wanting gigabit ethernet connectivity for some time, and I decided to get the best. This little guy is running DD-WRT and manages a network of about 10 devices at the moment, and hasn’t missed a beat since I purchased it. I have had a lot of fun configuring it to work with different modems, and I have a nice setup running at the moment. Orcon has provided us with a “Genius” (ADSL2+ modem and VoIP gateway), which is currently functioning as a 4 port switch, of which one of the ports is connected to the E4200. Everything that connects to the network receives the same VLAN. The E4200 functions as a DHCP, DNS and VPN server, as well as a firewall and wireless access point. Well worth the price.

A laptop. The Sager NP8170. A high-end laptop has been on my list for a while and 9 months ago I got one. The main reason I went for performance over price this time around is past experience. My first laptop (a Toshiba Satellite) was meant solely for school work (which it did quite well). Gaming on it was not really an option, as it used on-board graphics. My next notebook (Asus M51Sn) was a good upgrade and had a great balance of performance and price, but lacked any considerable grunt. I have yet to see my current laptop run slowly (and believe me I have tried). She sports an Intel Sandy Bridge chipset and two SATA3 drive bays. A few specs:

• CPU: Intel Core i7-2630QM (2.00 GHz, 2.90 GHz max, 4 cores, 8 threads, 6 MB cache)
• RAM: Corsair, 8 GB, DDR3-1333, Dual Channel
• HDD: Western Digital Scorpio Black, 750 GB, 7200 RPM, 16 MB cache
• GFX: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M, 192 cores, 1.5 GB GDDR5
• LCD: 1920×1080 LED screen

If you’re looking for low, mid or high end performance, the Sandy Bridge architecture covers all bases and you will not be disappointed by its price-vs-performance. DDR3 has given me a good increase in overall responsiveness and the NVIDIA graphics card lets me throw some pretty demanding games at it.

I also purchased an LEDLCD monitor from a friend of mine, a 1080p AOC – it’s not of much interest as most monitors these days do the same job.

That sums up what I feel like writing right now, I will be posting more over the next while as I have a lot to share. Happy surfing!