Content Editing PC

Building a PC for content editing!

After my 1300 miles road trip I came home with a bit more than 400Gbs of data.  All of that date came from my iPhone Xs Max, my GoPro Hero 5 and my Canon T2i.  Pictures, videos, time-lapses, voice recordings, you mane it.  I took my laptop with me during my adventure to download the content daily to free the memory cards and to better short the content.  Once at home, I started to transfer those 400 GBs to my main PC to then back it up to my FREENAS (Home Server) but I ran into three major issues....

It was the first PC I built.  It happened back in 2009 when I was still in school and had a PC support side gig.  Some day I'll share that story.  The PC was build for gaming needs to ensure it could handled my photography hobby, multitasking, school labs and whatever.  At the time, this motherboard and processor (both Intel) were top of the line and very expensive.  I just realized it lasted 10 years, not bad at all.

The three issues I had last week with this PC were:

1. My 2Tbs Photography hard drive had only 300Gbs available
2. Windows 8 wasn't able to run 4K videos anymore
3. When editing RAW large pictures from my Canon in Photoshop, the PC was simply shooting down.

With a mix feelings between my wallet and my geek side, I order new parts to build a new one.  With pictures and videos getting better in quality from pretty much any device, therefore bigger in size, I realized I needed a beast. 

So I ordered the following:

Building Gotham!

• ASRock Motherboard (Z390M PRO4)
• WD BLACK SN750 500GB NVMe Internal Gaming SSD
• Intel Core i7-9700K Desktop Processor 8 Cores
• Corsair LPX 32GB DRAM 3000MHz C15 Memory Kit for DDR4 Systems
• MSI Gaming GeForce GTX 1650 128-Bit HDMI/DP 4GB GDRR5
• Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo CPU Cooler
• EVGA 550 B3, 80+ Bronze 550W, Fully Modular
• Seagate IronWolf Pro 10TB NAS Internal Hard Drive HDD – 3.5 Inch SATA 6Gb/s 7200 RPM

Introducing The Beast!

With all those awesome parts at home, I had to call a good friend that loves putting PCs together, having a beer with me and talk about life.  Scott came and we did magic! Well, mostly him, I was the helper and bartender!  See the time-lapse video below of the building process!

PC is robust enough now, I have plenty of room for data and my desk now looks sexy!

How do I Get Ready!

Getting ready for 1300 Miles Road Trip

I promised myself to go on a road trip this summer between Arizona and Utah after the Overland Expo West.  After all, I need to put to the test the new improvements done to my 4Runner.  Most of the route will be highway roads with occasional detours; a few reasons force my trip to be that way.  The first one and main one:  I have a tight schedule, I'm leaving Wednesday, July 3rd after my regular job at 5pm and I have to be back in Tucson on Sunday, July 7th to be at my desk on Monday at 8am.  The second one:  I have never done a road trip alone in The States since I moved in.  Therefore, I choose to be conservative.  The third one:  The loop route is a bit aggressive but in my mind, it doesn't make sense to do a back and forth plan.  The last one:  I know this will be my last trip with the current set of tires.  In fact, part of me feels that I'm pushing it.  Fingers crossed! 

This will be a quick blog as my intention is to share what I did and how I did it.  I don't pretend to school you, I simply want to share with you the way I do things.  I guess we will all learn from them.

Back in April while I was in Costa Rica,  Mark Tetreau with Kalaber Creations, Inc took my 4Runner (Tico) to work on some modifications.  The biggest and main one was the OEM back bumper replacement with a RPMFAB  one (not longer in business).  Mark was told that no winch was compatible with the bumper, and he with the classic move said "Hold my Beer".  He customized the bumper to fit a  Warn 9.5 XP-S Winch and a Hi-Lift.  

Mark was able to modify the bumper, install the 2 arms, the winch, and hi-lift and painted during my 2 weeks absent.  However, he ran out of time and did not feed the winch rope.  Below is a video of the way I did it  I learned a lot, by doing it alone and I'm proud of myself for completing the task.

What's in the box?

Warn Industries, one of my main sponsors sent me a box with stuff before my trip.  Let's unbox it in this video.

 

Another box to open!  This tool have safe me in the past 2 years during the Overland Expo West.  My brother in law owns one and every year at the expo, I have to borrow his.  So I decided to buy one before my trip.  This is just in case, I hope I don't have to use it.

A couple of days after I bought the XP-3 Micro Start and unbox it, my destiny had a nice surprise for me and Tico.  On a Friday after work (a week before my trip) Tico wouldn't start.  I had my new XP-3 at home charging and I had to kick myself for that one.  Anyway, a co-worker jumped me and I made it home.  On Saturday when I was ready to leave my place Tico wouldn't start again.  At this point, I checked the battery's purchase receipt and guess what?; It was still under warranty.  All I needed to do was to survive until Monday to go where I bought it to have them replace it.  Meanwhile, I had to have the XP-3 with me at all times and charged.  See the below video of a real life test.  Needless to say, it was worth every single penny I paid for it.

Monday Morning getting the old battery replaced.

Other not documented preparation tasks performed:

• Oil change
• Tire pressure checked.  Yes, including spare one.
• Lights checked
• Fluids checked
• Cabin and Air Filter changed
• Tools reviewed and tested
• Car washed. Because, you know... 

Overland Expo West 2019

A time to see good friends .... and make some business!

During the last few years, I have been heavily involved with Kalaber Creations and Ural Motorcycles to bring the lovely Russian sidecar motorcycles to the Overland Expo West. The ones we all love to see around and steals you a smile.  Well, this year wasn't the exception, however, the difference this year were all the modifications I have made to my Tico (4Runner) during the last year. A detailed post will be dedicated to this topic.

This is Mark Tetreau, owner of Kalaber Creations, Inc.  Mark is the Ural dealer that brings the bikes to the expo in partnership with Ural HQ.  He also manufactures off-road accessories for the soviet bikes.  If you go to the Expo, you have seen him goofing around in one of his Urals, I'm sure.

Before I my Trip to Costa Rica in April of this year, I finally sucked it up and got my motorcycle endorsement.  Mark got me a nice surprise as "congrats"; a label with the Costa Rican flag and my nick name (Tico)  on the Ural's front fender.

This is Valerie, she was representing Urals and Kalaber Creations at the "cool ride" contest.  She was one of the 8 finalists out of hundreds of pictures submitted.  The contest is hosted and managed by Overland Expo and it takes place online for voting and then in downtown Flagstaff with a parade of the final 8.

Funny story.  My brother from another mother; Pablo with ADV Magazine got evicted from where he sat up camp.  So, I came over to the rescue with one of our Urals and started the move of his stuff to our camp area.  Good times!

A deserved refreshment after a dusty and windy day.  That's all!

Our booth/camp.  We ended up with more than 20 Urals in there.  Some owned by customers, by Kalaber Creations and Ural HQ.  It was crazy!  I don't remember seeing that many colors, models and modified Urals in one spot before!  

The "Girls Ride".  A tradition started by Carla King (absent this year) as the bike rider and Kalaber Creations as the bike provide it.  The girls ride consist on Carla riding around the expo, picking up woman to ride on the bike with her.  Every year the amount of girls on it increases by one.  This year, the final count was 20 passing the 2018 record of 19.  Good job Alison for filling in for Carla!

Cuban Beans; by Pablo.  This is another tradition created over the years at the expo.  Pablo's famous Cuban beans.  They are truly Cuban, in fact, the recipe is from Pablo's mom!  The process is long, is almost like a ritual, it takes about 5 hours to have them done.  The wait is definitely worth it.  Best part is, I get to hangout with Pablo, listening old school salsa music and drinking beer.  Or coke while I'm working. :)

This year, Mark built a food/drinks station using a Ural frame (no engine on it) and an old Chinese sidecar.  The sidecar was heavily modify to fit a medium size grill and it's propane tank, a cooler with cold drinks and two OXX coffee makers.  On Saturday, those burgers and hot dogs sold very quickly. (they were free)  They were delicious!

I also had the opportunity to show off my culinary skills (almost none).  Mexican chorizo and eggs for breakfast. The best part of Sunday's breakfast is that you are encouraged to share your food with anybody.  A great opportunity to meet cool people.

A selfie with the most iconic Ural on every Overland Expo West; the camo one with the OX.20XX sign on the front fender.  You might have seen it on many videos and pictures all over the internet.  This bike has been designated to Anthony Sicola, an OX staff member for many years now.  If you ever see it, don't miss the opportunity to get a selfie with it!

Ok so, I was sleeping in my car.  I was camping in there alone, so no big deal.  However, we got a bit of snow after midnight on Sunday.  It was cold sleeping in there despite my two cloth layers, sleeping bag (rated for 30 degrees) and couple of blankets.  It was all good!

 

This video shows the drastic change of weather I experienced while driving from the expo in Flagstaff, AZ, to Tucson, AZ.

Whether you go to the Overland Expo for fun, business or shopping, one thing is for sure, you will meet cool people and want to come back again.  I cannot wait until OXW20!

Overland Expo is Pura Vida!