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A Rainy but Unforgettable Weekend in Napa & Healdsburg

Published by Lucas on February 6, 2025

(A Story of Wine, Food, and a Guy Named Silver Steve)

Day 1: Arrival in San Francisco and the Journey to Wine Country

Flying into San Francisco International Airport (SFO), we picked up our rental—a sleek BMW 5 Series from Sixt. At just $200 total for our entire trip, it was a steal, and as a BMW enthusiast, I couldn’t have been happier. There are some KILLER roads in the area with seemingly too high of speed limits 🙂 Sixt consistently offers a top-notch experience, especially for luxury vehicles. It’s the only place I like to rent from.

Exploring Fisherman’s Wharf

We made a pit stop at Fisherman’s Wharf to see the famous sea lions. Arriving around 11 AM on a Thursday, the area was pleasantly uncrowded, though a school group was present, providing an impromptu educational experience about the sea lions’ post-earthquake migration to the wharf. The sea lions were loud, entertaining, frankly hilarious, and surprisingly, not too smelly.

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge

Our next adventure was driving across the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. Despite the heavy fog that morning, the bridge’s grandeur was undeniable. While many hail it as a marvel, to me, it was a beautiful yet functional piece of infrastructure. In other words, “it’s a bridge“.

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Lunch in Sausalito

Continuing our journey, we drove through the quaint town of Sausalito. With its charming, colorful hillside houses, Sausalito offered a serene contrast to the bustling city. We decided to have lunch at The Trident, a waterfront restaurant with ties to San Francisco’s renowned Buena Vista Café. Opting for the clam chowder bread bowl and their famous Irish coffee, the meal was satisfying, earning a solid 6/10 in my book. The view from our table, overlooking the bay and Alcatraz, added a special touch to the experience.

Afternoon Wine Tastings

Post-lunch, we embarked on our first wine tastings. Our initial stop was Domaine Carneros, established in 1987 by Champagne Taittinger. The estate, modeled after Taittinger’s Château de la Marquetterie in France, is undeniably beautiful. However, the experience felt a bit commercial, and the sparkling wines, while decent, didn’t particularly stand out.

Next, we visited Cakebread Cellars, a winery with a rich history dating back to 1973. Founded by Jack and Dolores Cakebread, the winery has been a pioneer in Napa Valley’s transformation into a premier wine region, a true “anchor of the valley”. The tour was engaging, and I was particularly intrigued by their use of concrete egg fermenters—a unique approach I’d not encountered before. Although we didn’t purchase any wine at the time, a decision I later regretted, the experience was memorable. We will be ordering online.

Arrival in Healdsburg

As evening approached, we made our way to Healdsburg and checked into the Hilton Lodge. Being loyal Hilton members, we utilized our points for the stay. The hotel exuded luxury, featuring a fireplace and a soaking tub in our room. Despite the cold and rainy weather deterring us from using the balcony, the amenities provided a cozy retreat. The only drawback was the shower’s compact size, which proved a bit challenging for someone of my stature, but even for my tiny wife it was a struggle.

Dinner at Bravas de Tapas

For dinner, we chose Bravas de Tapas, a Spanish restaurant known for its inventive take on classic dishes. The ambiance was cozy, and the food was delightful. Standout dishes included the long-cooked pork cheeks with salsa verde, creamy chicken croquetas, and Dungeness crab-stuffed piquillo peppers. While the paella was a bit underwhelming—lacking the desired crispy rice crust and flavor depth—the overall experience was commendable, earning an 7/10. Sharing multiple small plates is our preferred dining style, and Bravas delivered beautifully.

After an eventful day, we returned to the hotel to rest, eager for the wine adventures awaiting us the next day.

Day 2: The Ultimate Wine Tour with Silver Steve

Why you need a guy like Steve

If you’re visiting Napa and think you can just wing it, let me stop you right there. Gone are the days of rolling up to a winery, casually strolling in, and asking for a tasting. Now, it’s all reservation-only, and the best spots book up weeks in advance. Enter Silver Steve from Silver Service Tours—the undisputed MVP of our trip. I can’t stress this enough.

We found Steve through a mutual friend, Brad Alvord, and let me tell you—this guy is a legend. A retired pro with an encyclopedic knowledge of wine country, Steve handled everything: planning, reservations, logistics, and keeping us comfortable in his custom-built Mercedes adventure van or Land Rover Defender if you prefer (waters, umbrellas, Kleenex—he had it all). And most interesting of all? No GPS. This man knew every winding road, every shortcut, every winery owner.

Steve even made impromptu changes on the fly to the itinerary based on the current weather conditions and was very thoughtful about it. That’s how good he is, and you as a tourist can’t pull that off.

Trust me—you don’t want to drive yourself in Napa, especially if you’re doing it right. We had a full-day lineup, and there was no way we were attempting it on our own.

Morning Coffee – Plank Coffee, Healdsburg

Before diving into wine, I needed coffee.

I stopped at Plank Coffee, a small local café in Healdsburg known for its organic, small-batch roasts. Coffee was solid—no complaints there. The food, however, was all vegan. Nothing against vegan food, but when you’re about to spend the day drinking big, bold Napa reds, you kinda want eggs, bacon, and something substantial.

So, we grabbed breakfast sandwiches from the hotel instead and hit the road.

Stop #1: Schramsberg – Deep in the Caves of Bubbles

We kicked off the day with something unique—Schramsberg Vineyards, one of the oldest and most legendary sparkling wine producers in California. Established in 1862, their wines have even been served at the White House for over 50 years. If you think Napa is all about Cab, this place will change your mind.

But the real star here? The caves.

And when I say caves, I don’t mean a cute little tasting room with some dim lighting. I mean miles of hand-dug tunnels from the 1800s, lined floor-to-ceiling with free-stacked bottles, some of which were 80 deep. The walls were covered in a natural lichen that acts as the oxygen filtration system—no HVAC needed. The whole place felt like something out of Transylvania.

We walked through real candlelit corridors that I assume act as a simple “canary in a coal mine” (like if those go out, there’s no oxygen, so you might want to leave), learning about méthode traditionnelle—the painstaking Champagne-style process they use to make their sparkling wines. The craziest part? They still hand-turn every bottle (thousands of them) one by one to keep the yeast sediment moving.

Tasting-wise, we loved everything. We joined the club on the spot. 9/10 experience.

Lunch at V. Sattui – A Nostalgic Italian Picnic

For lunch, Steve had a few ideas, but I pulled an audible and requested V. Sattui, a spot I remembered loving 20 years ago. They’re known for their Italian market filled with fresh sandwiches, cheeses, and an assortment of wine-friendly snacks.

Unfortunately, construction had other plans.

The once-great market had been relocated to a temporary trailer, and the hot food was coming from a food truck. Combine that with the cold, rainy weather, and the usual vineyard picnic vibe was pretty much nonexistent.

Still, we made the best of it. We grabbed a bottle of Gamay Rouge, a semi-sweet, cranberry-forward wine that I loved 20 years ago. This time? Tastes change. It was a little too sweet for my palate now, but still enjoyable, especially for lunch in the midst of tasting all big bold stuff all day.

Rating? 7/10 for nostalgia. Had the weather and construction been different, it probably would’ve been an 8.

Stop #2: Fisher Vineyards – The Hidden Gem of the Trip

You ever have that moment on a trip when you realize this is the place you’ll be talking about forever? That was Fisher Vineyards for us.

This small, family-run winery completely stole the show. Unlike some of the bigger, commercial places, Fisher is tiny—just 28 employees do EVERYTHING. No outside contractors, no mass production, just a team that lives and breathes wine.

We were welcomed by Erik, our host, who had a stunning private setup right in the middle of the fermenters and presses. It felt like a VIP experience from the jump. The wines? Absolutely insane. We tasted through their lineup, talking in-depth about their old-world winemaking approach while sitting inside the heart of their production facility.

Erik noticed my BMW hat and we immediately hit it off, swapping car stories for half an hour. By the end of the tasting, we were exchanging numbers like old friends. I’m working on getting him to come to Ohio to offer wine tastings at our country club.

Not surprisingly, we joined the wine club. 10/10—must visit.

Stop #3: Chateau Montelena – A Piece of Napa History

Our last stop of the day was Chateau Montelena, one of the most iconic wineries in Napa. If you’ve seen Bottle Shock, you know its legendary backstory—this is the winery that put Napa Valley on the map by winning the Judgment of Paris in 1976, a moment that stunned the wine world and proved that California could compete with France.

The estate itself is stunning, with a beautiful stone chateau and serene lake, making it one of the more picturesque wineries we visited. However, the tasting experience was a bit different from what we had grown to love over the trip. Instead of the intimate, sit-down tastings we had at Fisher and Schramsberg, this was more structured—a classic bar-style tasting with a group. For first-time visitors to Napa, it’s a fantastic introduction, but for those who love deep-dive, conversation-driven tastings, it felt a bit less personal.

That said, we had a cool unexpected bonus. When we mentioned our connection to Chateau Montelena through our St. Damien’s Hospital fundraiser (where former owner Judy Barrett generously donates wine for our auction), their head of hospitality, Mark, came out to personally greet us. He even took us on a private tour of the fermentation room and shared some behind-the-scenes history of the winery. That extra touch made the visit really special for us.

And of course, we still left with six bottles, so it’s safe to say the wine spoke for itself.

Would we return? Probably not, simply because we now know that we prefer the smaller, more personal winery experiences. But for anyone looking to check off a historic bucket-list winery, Chateau Montelena is a must-see and I am glad we did it.

Dinner: Dry Creek Kitchen – Fancy, but Maybe Too Fancy

After a long day of tasting and eating, we were running on fumes. But we had a reservation at Charlie Palmer’s Dry Creek Kitchen, one of Healdsburg’s finer dining spots. White tablecloths, top-tier service, serious wine list. As a matter of fact we were so tired we were woken up by Matt and Lindsey at 7:30, and our reservations where for 7:30… So we went into hyperdrive and got there at 7:45 and they were happy to honor our reservation still.

Lindsey loved her halibut. Matt and I split a 32-ounce, 28-day dry-aged ribeye. It was good but not mind-blowing. The tableside beef tartar was exceptional however. Maybe we were just too full from the day’s indulgences, but we realized we actually preferred the more laid-back, small-plates approach.

Would I go back? Probably not, but not for any negative reason—just personal preference at that time.

Final Thoughts on Day 2

Silver Steve is the man. If you’re going to Napa, hire him.
Fisher Vineyards was the GOAT—don’t miss it.
Schramsberg’s caves were straight-up magical.
Chateau Montelena? Cool history.
Dry Creek Kitchen? Fancy, well-executed, but we were too stuffed to truly enjoy it.

After 12 hours of wine, food, and exploring, we were toast. Back to the Hilton Lodge for some much-needed sleep before another big day.

Day 3: A Spa Reset and an Unexpected Dinner Hit

After two full days of wine tasting, eating, and exploring, we needed a break. A day to reset, recover, and recharge before diving back into more tastings.

Enter Solage Spa.

A Morning at Solage Spa – Ultimate Recovery Mode

We booked massages for all and the girls booked facials at Solage, Auberge Resorts Collection—one of the premier spa destinations in Napa Valley. There were two major spa options in the area, and while Solage was expensive ($1,100 for just Sarah and me), the other one was even more. So, Solage it was.

The best part? Booking a spa service gives you full-day access to their spa facilities, and they are pretty great. So, we made sure to take advantage.

But first, breakfast.

We arrived two hours early and grabbed breakfast at Solbar, their on-site restaurant. As expected, the menu was very California—think avocado toast, Dungeness crab benedict, smoothies, and blood orange mimosas. Everything was good, but also very overpriced, but such is life in California. Let’s just say we weren’t blown away, but we weren’t mad about it either. It’s possible there was some hangovers in our presence.

After breakfast, it was spa time.

Two massive 104°F hot tubs – One saltwater, one mineral
A magnesium soak – Sounds fancy, but in reality, it was cold (ambient temperature, aka took some getting used to in the rain)
Sauna & steam room – A nice warm-up before the main event
A sub-50-degree cold plunge – Because why not?

Now, let’s talk about the cold plunge.

I did it twice. The second time, I held for two minutes. It was brutal, but also kind of awesome. There’s a moment when you have to mentally disconnect from reality to fight the urge to jump out. And as much as it sucked in the moment, I felt absolutely incredible afterward.

Then came the massages.

My therapist asked if the pressure was okay, and I said yes. That was a mistake, but that’s on me, make sure to communicate and not be a tough guy. I was sore for hours afterward. But hey, no pain, no gain. Everyone else thoroughly enjoyed theirs.

While the girls got their facials, Matt and I spent an hour in the hot tubs, drinking French 75s and soaking in the cold rain. It was exactly what we needed after 48 hours of heavy drinking and eating.

An Afternoon Nap & A Laid-Back Snack in Healdsburg at the hotel

After the spa, we headed back to the hotel for some much-needed rest. We had a snack of our Boudin sourdough from San Francisco, plus some cheese and charcuterie we had picked up from a local market earlier in the trip. Then, we crashed for a nap before dinner.

Dinner at Barndiva – Eclectic, Artsy, and Worth the Visit

For dinner, we chose Barndiva, a spot known for being as much an art gallery as it is a restaurant.

The vibe? Very eclectic.

Coat racks were made from old cobbler shoe molds
Walls were covered in hand-drawn art
It felt like a funky Parisian bistro mixed with a speakeasy

But the real highlight? The drinks.

Their bar setup looked straight out of a Prohibition-era speakeasy, with dim lighting, walls of illuminated bottles, and bartenders in aprons making some of the best cocktails we had on the trip.

Food-wise, the menu was all over the place—in a good way.

Matt had Tikka Masala (Indian-inspired)
Lindsey had a Jucy Lucy burger (Minnesota-style stuffed burger)
Sarah had a Mediterranean-style crispy chicken with chimichurri
I had sunchoke soup to start, followed by handmade clam pasta

Everything was good. It was a little bit of everything but somehow worked.

Drinks? Outstanding.
Food? Solid.
Would we go back? Absolutely. 8/10.

Final Thoughts on Day 3

This was the reset day we needed after two full days of wine tasting.

Solage Spa was expensive but worth it. The hot tubs, cold plunge, and sauna were a game-changer.
The cold plunge was absolutely brutal—but also kind of amazing.
Barndiva was a cool, unique dining experience. Definitely worth checking out.

Day 4: One Last Round of Wine & the Perfect Final Stop

“The best trips aren’t just about the places you go, but the stories you bring back—and we left Napa with plenty of both.” – Me, feeling whimsical

Morning Coffee – Black Oak Coffee Roasters, Healdsburg

For our final morning in Healdsburg, we grabbed coffee and breakfast at Black Oak Coffee Roasters, a local favorite known for its small-batch roasting and award-winning beans.

The coffee was fantastic, but the food was just as impressive. We had:

Breakfast burritos – Hearty, well-balanced, and exactly what we needed before another day of wine.
Chia seed overnight oats with strudel – A perfect mix of healthy and indulgent. Obviously, the girls chose this…

It was a great way to start our last day before heading out for more tastings.

Stop #1: Croix Estate – A Cozy Fireside Tasting

Our first stop was Croix Estate, a small-production, high-end winery specializing in Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. This was another home run for the “small, boutique winery” category.

We stepped off the van and were immediately greeted with a glass of Chardonnay—a smooth, crisp start to the day.

But the best part? The setting.

Instead of a traditional tasting room, we were led inside their estate home, where we had a private tasting by the fireplace. The whole experience was incredibly relaxed and intimate.

The wine? Fantastic.
The host? Amazing.
Lindsey joined the wine club, so you know it was good.

A perfect way to start the day.

Stop #2: Lunch at Diavola – Pizza & a Thank You to Steve

For lunch, we went to Diavola Pizzeria & Salumeria, a wood-fired pizza spot in Geyserville. It was exactly what we needed—casual, delicious, and satisfying.

Since Steve had been such a legend throughout our trip (and his pricing is flat-rate with gratuity included), we invited him to eat with us. It was a small way to say thanks for everything, and he really appreciated it, and we really enjoyed his company.

We had a charcuterie board with blood sausage
Tried three different pizzas
Everything was excellent

Stop #3: Lambert Bridge – A Beautiful, But Mixed Experience

Steve had high expectations for Lambert Bridge, thinking it would be a perfect fit for us, and home of his personal favorite wine in the valley (which we sadly were not able to try). And while it had a lot going for it, it didn’t completely hit for us.

First, the setting was beautiful—a rustic, cozy winery surrounded by towering trees, with a barrel-lined tasting room and gorgeous chandeliers.

But compared to our other tastings, it felt a little less personal. There were other groups tasting at the same time, which made it a bit distracting compared to the private, intimate experiences we had been enjoying.

That said, it was far from a bad experience, and we still found some wines we really liked:

Sauvignon Blanc
Cuvee Blanc
Cabernet Sauvignon

We ended up joining the club, but more as a strategic move—they waived the substantial tasting fee if we did, so we figured we’d stock up for a year and then move on.

Would we return? Probably not, but it was still a nice stop.

Stop #4: Robert Young Estate – The Perfect Final Stop

Steve couldn’t have picked a better place to end the trip.

Robert Young Estate is another small, family-run winery, and it ended up being one of our absolute favorites—second only to Fisher.

We had a private tasting by their fireplace (which, fun fact, is exactly the one featured on their website). The wines were incredible—so much so that, yes, we joined another wine club.

Even with the winter fog and barren vines, the view was stunning, and I can only imagine how breathtaking it must be in peak season.

Would I go back? Without question.

Final Dinner Plans? Changed.

We had originally planned to have our final dinner at Valette, one of Healdsburg’s most highly-rated restaurants.

But after four days of tastings, big meals, and nonstop activities, we made the right call to just stay in:

Ordered pizza in
Ate our leftover snacks from the market
Fully embraced a chill night before heading home

It was exactly what we needed.

Final Thoughts on Day 4 & The Trip Overall

After four days in Napa & Healdsburg, we learned a few things:

Silver Steve is the GOAT. If you’re visiting wine country, hire him.
We love small, family-run wineries. Fisher, Robert Young, Croix, and Schramsberg were the highlights.
We prefer intimate tastings over large, commercial setups.
Lambert Bridge and Chateau Montelena weren’t bad, just not quite our style.
Healdsburg is the perfect place to stay and eat.

Would we do it again? Absolutely. In fact, Steve already has curated in his mind after getting to know us six more wineries in mind for our next visit.

Until next time, Napa. 🍷

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What is your favorite Technical Interview Question?

Published by Lucas on January 29, 2009

I want to start a meme.

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, “In summary, CodeMash 2009, the Hands of Fate“, that I attended a session called “Turning the Ship”, hosted by Dave Donaldson. Recently Dave posted about the Art of Interviewing, and that post had a follow up post by Michael C. Neel. As Michael mentions in the first line of his article, I am also guessing that interviewing may be wandering around in your mind somewhere, so I think this is pertinent.

I once had an interviewer ask me to “Define a class”. This was directly after I had explained how I used some design patterns to elegantly solve various problems in real world situations. I was actually stunned, and ever since then, I have always wondered what that interviewer was looking for in an answer. Was the book answer of “its a code representation of an object that encapsulates certain behavior, oh and it’s stored on the heap…yada yada yada”, enough? Do you want your doctor to be able to define the medical technology he will be using in your operation? or tell you about his experience with it, and why it works so well?

In the “Turning the Ship” session Dave had us play a little game. He divided us into groups and had us come up with 2 interview questions that related to “agile”. I want to broaden that case a little bit but remain in the technical realm and ask you, “What is your favorite technical interview question?”, and more importantly, “What are you looking for in an answer to that question?”.

Dave and Michael agree (as do I) that the best interview questions are conversations. So, how do you start that conversation? How do you steer that conversation into getting/hearing what you are looking for? This could be a technical question or a non technical question. I am just curious of what you are looking for and how you try to find it.

If you are not in the position of interviewing candidates, then tell me about a question that someone asked you as an interviewee that you found interesting.

I will start:

“What blogs do you read?”

I know it is simple, but that is my favorite technical interview question, and it sounds kinda corny, but you can gather a lot of information from it. I consider it the new age version of “tell me that last book you read”. Quite frankly, I am looking for the candidate to tell me some name of blogs that I read as well. If you are reading Martin Fowler, Hanselman, Ford, McConnell, Atwood, etc, then we can probably move the conversation to patterns, or embracing new ideas, writing elegant code, stepping out of your comfort zone and learning something new, but most importantly, we have something in common that relates to the position.

The other great thing about this question is that there is no wrong answer, so its a good first question to pose. Even if the candidate says that have never read a blog, I can suggest some to them and see how they react. Are they quickly grabbing their pen? Are they looking at me with a blank stare? Do they have a passion for the craft? Then I can ask myself, “based on that answer, where do I go from here?”. It’s like the Choose Your Own Adventure book of interviewing 🙂

Michael’s post states you need to ignore personality. I think that can not be farther from the truth. I think that you have to find a sense that you can work with the person, no matter how high their technical skill may be. One way to find that out may be to break you down (read Find the Breaking Point in Dave’s post), and see how you react to the pressure. What good is having a member of your team who happens to be an absolute expert if no one wants to talk to him because he is an asshole??? What good is a member of your team that is going to flip his lid when he is asked too many questions that he can’t answer? I am much more interested in smart people that can learn well together, find answers together, and get along. That makes a fountain for new ideas and encourages collaboration when everyone is comfortable conversing with eachother. I am not saying that you need to be asking them about their family and their interests outside of work, but you do need to find out if you are capable of having a common respect for one another.

So, that is it, I am going to tag Andy Craze with these questions. I respect his opinions and to be honest, me being new to this blog thing, he is the only one I feel comfortable “tagging”. But please, feel free to pass this along, or answer it yourself, I’d love to know your thoughts.

P.S. – I know what Dave’s answer to this question is, however I wont say it in case he wants to keep it up his sleeve, but it’s good. Quite frankly, if an employer didn’t ask me this question, I would sure ask them, it works both ways, hopefully Dave will leave a comment 🙂

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The Belated Post on The Building of my Super Rig aka I Finally Did It

Published by Lucas on January 18, 2009

Inspired by Scott Hanselman’s post on his new computer that he built via Jeff Atwood (I can’t even tell you how many times I have clicked this link), I finally decided to build myself a nice computer. As it seems, I like to make all of my big purchases when my wife is out of town (firearm, foosball table, etc.). Wait. Before I get yelled at, I want to say that she very well knew of these plans, but the timing was the same. I have been saving up for a new computer and slowly buying pieces parts when they were on sale since I read Hanselman’s post (I know, that was a LONG time ago). My wife went on a medical mission to Kenya for 3 weeks in December (she’s a pediatrician), and I couldn’t think of a better time for this project (laughs menacingly). Besides, what better day than Black Friday to place an order on NewEgg?

Prior to this I was on a Pentium III 550 MHz from my sophomore year in college with 386 MEGS of ram and a 40 GB hard drive. It drove me absolutely crazy that my wife had a better computer than me (I cooked her computer last year, smoke bellowing one day and had to get her an “emergency” Dell), let alone the fact that it took me 20 minutes to check my email. So, if I was going to do it, I was going to do it BIG.

I am really kicking myself for not documenting the entire process. Since this was the first computer I have ever built, I guess I was too excited to just get it together. The fact that I lost 20 pounds over the course of building this PC will tell you that I hardly ate or slept throughout (I haven’t even eaten dinner tonight, and all I am doing it writing about it), so yeah, excited is an understatement. That should also give you an idea of how long it took me, more on that later….

I will start off with the parts:

COOLER MASTER COSMOS 1000 RC-1000-KSN1-GP Black/ Silver Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case – Retail

I can’t even begin to explain how big this thing is. It DWARFS my old POS Dell. Quite frankly though, it had to be for the stuff I was putting into it. I managed to get this over a year ago when Cooler Master was offering an unheard of 90 dollar mail in rebate. I tried to buy the things that I knew wouldn’t go out of date in a week early, and when on sale.

Here is a picture of the front of the case. The door is reversible, but it was perfect for me the way it came. It has tool-less bays and six hard drive bays at the bottom.

This picture might give you some insight to the Cosmos’ size. In the left hand side of the picture lies the stripped down “forgotten” computer.

MSI X58 Eclipse SLI LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard – Retail

When I was first inspired to do this, I talked about this at-the-time imaginary computer so much, that my friends and colleagues started to get mad at me. My wish list went through so many revisions via research and the opinions of others (if there is one thing nerds have, its an opinion on hardware). When I had completed my final draft, and was about to click SUBMIT ORDER, I decided to put forth one last effort by twittering my specs and seeing if I am doing some catastrophically wrong. Within minutes of that post Charlie Sears wrote me to ask why I wasn’t going with the new Core i7 chips that had just come out that day.

Back to the drawing board I went. At the time, there were only a few motherboards to choose from that supported the LGA 1366 chip, so I chose this one. I had equal opinions of “Don’t buy MSI” to “Don’t buy anything but MSI”, the price was right and it had all of the features that I wanted (i.e. triple SLI, or rather, room for triple SLI).

This part of the build became somewhat of an engineering project for me. For whatever reason, when I seated the board onto the brass spacer screws, it wasn’t flat, so the front of my PCI cards would stick in, and the backs would not. I ended up going to Home Depot, picking up some brass washers, and building a 3 tier system that angled the board uphill from left to right. Everything met the back of the computer flush that way, and my cards all went in properly.

2 x MSI N260GTX-T2D896 OC GeForce GTX 260 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card – Retail

Yeah, 2 of these bad boys. I have been addicted to 2 monitors since I figured out that you could do it. I have been known to scrounge together old CRT’s and a crappy video card just have another workspace. Once again influenced by Jeff Atwood’s post, before I built this computer, I was DEAD SET on getting three. The only way I could do that was to get 2 of these BRICKS. When I took them out of the box I almost passed out, they are huge, check that, ENORMOUS. I brought one to work with me one day and passed it around like I had earned a badge of honor. I’m not a computer builder, so I had never seen anything like it. My goal was to hook up 3 monitors, and then find some way to configure it to be able to run 2 in SLI at the flip of a switch. NVidia’s beta driver’s (they might be released now) did just that, although Mr. Atwood was right, I haven’t once wanted to go into SLI and be relegated back to 2 monitors)

KWORLD PlusTV HD PCI 120 ATSC 120 PCI Interface – Retail

Eh, what can I say, I just wanted to be able to watch TV from my desk, nothing big here.

Antec TPQ-850 850W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Power Supply – Retail

This one was a real nail biter for me. With all of this stuff, how much power am I going to need? There are plenty of calculators out there, but I couldn’t find one that really pin pointed everything that I was going to be buying. I ended up going with this one because I know Antec is a decent name, and it was on sale. The one thing that I do like about it is the modular cabling. I don’t have another built computer to compare it to, but it was pretty nice to be able to just plug in where necessary. My case is already a MESS of wires, so I cant imagine what it would look like if I didn’t have that.

So far, according to my power usage through Zalman fan controller, I’m not even coming close to touching the maximum power of this thing. I would say that gives me room to grow, but unfortunately, due mostly to the the 2 video cards needing 4 total power plugs, I have used up all the slots.

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor Model BX80601920 – Retail

Like I said earlier, I dropped the idea of going with the LGA 775 Q9550 at the last second and went with this comparably priced version of the i7. The little research I did told me that the LGA 1366 was going to replace the 775 socket, and this was the 45 NM technology as well. So far, I’m extraordinarily happy with it. Pushing the chip into the mobo however did make me cringe quite a bit.

Patriot Xporter XT 4GB Flash Drive (USB2.0 Portable) Model PEF4GUSB – Retail

This one is rated for Vista’s ReadyBoost, and it can’t hurt to have this kind of portable space for the price.

2 x G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL7D-4GBPI – Retail

Picking a new motherboard to support the chip I had chosen allowed me to upgrade from the DDR2 800 that I had on my first draft. That being said, I also decided to go with 8 GB’s of it and run it in 3 channel mode. Since I was going to run Vista 64 bit Ultimate, I could utilize it all. I also have room for 2 more sticks so I can continue to tinker in the future.

Western Digital VelociRaptor WD1500HLFS 150GB 10000 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (bare drive) – OEM

I listened to Atwood again on this one. My only regret here is that I wish I had purchased the 300 GB version. My intention here was to keep operating system, visual studio, and all other applications on this drive, and keep any other data on the SpinPoint drives below. That is exactly what I did, and I have 52 GB free now.

3 x SAMSUNG SpinPoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive – OEM

My idea was to have the Raptor boot drive with all of my applications, and have these in a RAID 5 to store everything else on, including data that the applications on the Raptor referenced, like my local emails and stuff. That way I would have 2 GB of space, and some form of backup with the parity drive. Unfortunately 1 of these 3 drives I was unable to format, and I didn’t realize there was a problem until it kept blue screening every time I tried to set up the RAID array. I am currently in the RMA process with Samsung, and so far that is going way better than I was expecting.

When you read the reviews on NewEgg, you get the overwhelming feeling that buying parts individually and building your own computer is CRAZY. It seems like everyone has had a bad experience with every kind of computer peripheral. The way I see it, I bought a large number of individual parts and only had one that was bad, it wasn’t a showstopper, and hopefully they are taking care of it.

3 x Acer H213H bmid Black 21.5″ 5ms HDMI Widescreen 16:9 LCD Monitor – Retail

With the price of flat screens being so low, I just had to do it. Not only that, I went with the near 22″ HD 1080p wide screen variety. I feel like I am in a cockpit every time I sit down at my desk. YES, I do use them ALL. Right now I am writing this post in the middle, email on the right, and web on the left. Is it overkill? probably. It it unbelievably awesome to be able to utilize all this space? absolutely.

Do yourself a favor and buy a copy of Ultramon, it is the best multi monitor program out there, and I couldn’t live without it.

Scythe KAMA BAY SCKB-1000BK 120mm 120mm Fan for 5.25″ System Cooling – Retail

One of the negative things I read about the Cosmos case was that it didn’t have very good cooling of the hard drives. Yes, you can take one of the directional fans at the bottom of the case and turn it towards the hard drives, but I decided to solve this problem differently.

By putting this bay fan in the bottom bay and blowing the air down, and turning the bottom case fan away from the hard drives, I was able to create circular air flow that went straight out towards the Cosmos’ 3 exhaust fans.

2 x Scythe DFS123812-3000 “ULTRA KAZE” 120 x 38 mm Case Fan – Retail

I got 2 of these mammoth fans just in case. I ended up replacing the bottom fan mentioned below and the rear exhaust fan with these puppies. They push SO much air that the dangling wires behind my box are constantly swaying in the wind. Due, to the size of the case and (I think) my fan layout, it’s noticeably cooler inside my case when you put your hand in there.

2 x Samsung 20X DVD Burners with Lightscribe

Gotta have DVD burners these days. I am not one to watch too much media on my PC, but these monitors are nicer than any television in my house. So far, I haven’t utilized Lightscribe yet, and they have been primarily used compiling my wife’s Kenya pictures.

Hercules Deluxe Optical Glass USB WebCam – Retail

Part of the motivation for building this computer was that my buddy would buy me Warcraft and I can join his guild (not really, but that is what I tell him). When we play, we communicate with Skype, which is an awesome program, btw. We don’t use the video feature, but what I liked about this was the built in microphone. Its an entry level webcam, so the picture is OK, but I primarily use it for the mic. It also allowed me to take a picture of myself.

ZALMAN MFC2 Multi Fan Controller – Retail

If I am going to have all of these fans, I am going to need something to control their speed, and therefore their CFM, etc. Eh, not really. This is one of my only regrets in this build. Aesthetically, this thing is awesome. 4 digital displays, RPM control of each one, and a power consumption module that plugs in between the wall and your power supply. Yes it’s cool. No, I am not finding it that useful. If anything it is somewhat of a hindrance because since the motherboard isn’t controlling the fan speeds, when I put it to sleep or hibernate, the fans still kick like I am using the CPU at 100%. This has led me to turn it off when I am not using it. It boots pretty fast, and it’s better for the environment and my power bill.

Rosewill RCR-102 52-in-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader – Retail

When my wife and I were filling out our Flexible Benefits plan for this year, I finally heard the words, “Well, what if we try to have a baby in 2009?”. So, since a digital camera also comes with that, this was an easy and cheap add on preparing for the future.

Thermaltake V1 Max-Performance CPU Cooler with Massive 110mm Blue LED Full-Range Variable Speed Fan CL-P0401 – Retail

I actually have the aluminum one, not the copper. Originally, I was dead set on this one, the first cooler in a long time to dethrone the V1 in stress tests, plus, it has that cool engine theme that appealed to me. When I went to buy it, I got some interesting points from the salesman. The cooler master one weighs 867 grams, and the aluminum V1 (only beaten by the Cooler Master by 1 degree) weighs half that. He was afraid that the heavy one might eventually warp my board, and quite frankly, I need this to last me a while. Whether he was right or wrong, the V1 was cheaper, and you don’t have a salesperson working on commission try to talk you into the cheaper one all that often, so I went with it.

Triple Monitor Mounts

How many times can I manage to link to Atwood’s computer building antics? One more.

I went from setting my computer up like this:

to this:

My father in law sells office furniture, and one day he came over to see my rig and said, “I have a surprise for you”. These mounts not only raised my monitors up to a Swordfish level, but gave me a surprising amount of room and customization for my oversized mouse pad, speakers, Zune, GPS, cell phone, etc. You can see from my pictures there is a lot going on there.

This particular model has an extra set of extension arms that allowed the 3-22 inch monitors to be joined together.

Regrets:

I don’t have many, but I can’t say that everything is perfect.

Loud. I mean CRAZY loud. Should I have been expecting this with 7 fans including the ones built into the video cards, 2 of which I replaced with 3000 RPM monsters? Yeah, I guess. It isn’t so much when I am sitting at the computer, I kinda like the white noise. It is when I am away from the computer that it bothers me. When you walk into my basement you wonder if there is a helicopter down there that I didn’t tell anyone about. But, I’m OK with it since it keeps so cool in there, and I know that has something to do with the longevity of the parts. Plus, like I said earlier, I turn it off when I am not using it now.
Heavy. When I got this computer, I thought, “Hey, that case has 2 huge handles, I will be able to take it to a LAN party or something”. Uh, no. Just for kicks before I wired it in I threw it on my scale and it tipped 75 pounds. This computer is going no where. Oh well, that is what a laptop is for anyway.
HUGE. When I was in college at Miami my dad bought a bunk bed from the local university, took the bottom bunk out, built a desk, and left the bed on top. So, my bed served double duty as my place of sleep (when I wasn’t on the couch) and my work place. It was a great idea because it saved so much space in my smallish fraternity house room. That being said, my workspace on my desk is larger than a single bed, and it had to be to fit this.

Overclocking

Not yet. But I really want to. I need to re-seat my cooler sometime. After running Prime95 for a few hours, my CPU temps plateau-ed in the high 70’s. Since the 45 NM technology is supposed to be cooler, and I have one of the best CPU coolers on the market, I was expecting better. Since I had to take the mobo in and out of the case about 100 times (due to the leveling issue I had), I’m sure that my cooler isn’t seated very well. If I ever get to it, there will be a follow up post on the results.

Bottom Line:

Like Hanselman says, I don’t have to wait for things anymore. I want my computer to think faster than I can, that is the whole point of them anyway, right? Things open as soon as I click on them, and that is quite liberating coming from 5 minutes just to open Outlook. I can compile DasBlog’s ALL solution in 9 seconds. I can compile DNN 4.9.1 in less than that!

So many people have asked me, “Are you a gamer?” and “Why do you need that much computer? are you trying to hack into the Pentagon?” My canned response has become “Dude, I lend the Pentagon my spare cycles…” But I kid. The truth is, I am a gamer on my Xbox. However, since I got this computer, I haven’t turned on my Xbox (My gamertag is BIMMERPHILE, add me as a friend, I will be back eventually). Much to the chagrin of all my buddies I talked into getting Rock Band 2 for Xmas so we can play online, I got started playing Warcraft, but I don’t want to talk about that 😉

This computer has allowed me to do some of the things I have always wanted to do. I can play around with the VM’s of the newest stuff that Microsoft releases, I can install the copy of VS2008 I got at the launch rather than just look at it, I can have this blog to better reach out to the community and improve my career.

And besides, I have just ALWAYS wanted to build my own computer, and I remained patient and saved up for it. So far I have had the good fortune of this particular one being a fantastic experience. So, to all the computer building virgins, I encourage you to give it a try. Read the manuals, read the instructions, and make a project out of it. It took me about 2 weeks of coming home from work and putting it together, let alone the hours of research and decision making on the parts.

For me, it was all about the experience, and now I get to reap the benefits as well 🙂

P.S. Phew, if you read all of this, thanks!

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Why your Twitter picture is important…

Published by Lucas on January 13, 2009

Last week, as I sat in the conference center at the Kalahari with bloodshot eyes, double fisting Monster Energy drinks, anxiously awaiting the start of CodeMash while I forced down some bacon and eggs to get me going, I realized something: I “know” all these people.

I looked around the room and said to myself “hey, there is Corey Haines, Alan Barber, and there is Jay Harris and Leon Gersing“, and I did that pretty much that entire day. Something was different this year, and it was that I recognized people.

A friend of mine told me a story where he went up to Jim Holmes to register and he said, “Don’t I know you from somewhere?”. My buddy immediately made a huge smile and leaned over the counter to get a little closer to him and said, “Does this look familiar?”. You see, Ryan Lattimer’s twitter picture is a close up of his face he had taken at work, and when he did that, Jim got his joke and immediately recognized it was from Twitter.

I follow nearly 700 people, and I use Tweetdeck groups to help separate the blazing feed of posts from everyone in my list to my friends and certain keywords I am looking for. If I happen to see something on the “All Friends” ticker, then I’m just lucky. But there is something to be said about seeing those faces over and over again.

Now, back to my story about why your Twitter picture is important. I have been twittering back and forth with Charlie Sears (of notorious CodeMash Rock Band fame) about some homebrewing techniques for the past few months, and I knew he was going to be at CodeMash. I had never met the dude, but when I saw the faux-hawk I knew it was him, well, because of his Twitter picture. When I finally went up to say hello, he told me he didn’t know how to find me because the only way we knew eachother was from Twitter…..and my Twitter logo is a picture of my car 🙁

Those of you that do actually know me (not in the Twitter sense), know that I am pretty obsessed with my car, and it has always been kinda like my online persona. I never really wanted to have my ugly mug all over the Internet. That is great and all, but I realized it has limited me because there is no way that anyone could have been sitting in that conference and recognizing me if I hadn’t previously met them. I’m no celebrity, but knowing someone’s face was an immediate ice breaker to go up and talk to them. You may even know a little bit about them beforehand, but at the very least you already know their name.

So, all of this being said, I have decided to take a crappy picture of myself with my webcam and change my Twitter picture, as well as my LinkedIn picture, Gravatar, etc.

My “online persona” is now actually ME. (if you want to see or talk about my car, I’d be happy to oblige upon request)

So, we have a year left until CodeMash v2.0.1.0. and you may have way less than that before your next conference. This is my challenge to you: If you are one of those XBox avatars/Car Pics/Random pictures of your kitty on Twitter (or anywhere else online for that matter), try using a picture of yourself and we will all “know” eachother before we have ever met.

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Obligatory "Hello World" Post

Published by Lucas on January 10, 2009

Alright, I have been saying that I am going to do this for a long time. After getting re-energized at CodeMash 2009, I have decided to give it a try.

By no means am I an expert, and by no means do I expect to be good at this right away. But, I do consider myself a constant learner, so any feedback and opinions are welcome.

So, this site has been up for a few months now, but I haven’t done anything with it. My colleagues have been asking me, “You haven’t event put a “Hello World” post up yet?”

More on what this blog is going to be to come.

And its done, my first blog post ever!

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