Jamie Balfour's Computing interest

This section is more about my technology than it is about me.

About my interest in computing

Since about the age of 7, I have always had an interest in computers and technology. We got our first family Windows 95 system in 1997 when I was six - a Tiny desktop featuring a Pentium II with a 3GB hard drive and 64MB of RAM.

At the age of 7, I got my first computer, a 600MHz Pentium III and boy was it fast. It started up in about 30 seconds running Windows 98. It also had a dedicated 4MB graphics card (unbranded).

From age 7, I decided I wanted to go into teaching. At first this was primary school teaching. In secondary school I changed this slightly when I decided I wanted to become a secondary school History teacher. This did not last long and I suddenly wanted to become a secondary school teacher in IT/Computing as I discovered my talent.

People were coming to me with problems they had with computers and my nickname Binary Balfour came about.

By third year of school, not only my friends knew me as Binary Balfour as teachers occasionally referred to me as just 'binary'. Teachers were also often asking me to help them with IT problems and so on.

The technology

The following are the specifications of my desktop PCs (all custom built):

The Red Revolution
The Zebra X2
The Zebra
The Platypus

The Red Revolution (2019)
Motherboard	Gigabyte X470 AORUS Gaming 7 motherboard
CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 2700 3.2GHz @ 4.3GHz
RAM	16GB Corsair Vengence DDR4 RAM @ 3000MHz
Case	Corsair 780T Black case
PSU	Corsair HX850i PSU (from July 2019) Corsair HX850 PSU
Primary drive	Corsair Force MP510 NVMe SSD
Secondary drives	1x Samsung EVO 840 250GB SSD using SATA 6Gbps 2x Western Digital 2TB Green hard disk drives 1x Western Digital 3TB Green hard disk drive
GPU	Sapphire AMD Radeon 5700X
OS	Windows 10 Pro x64
Primary display	Dell U3421WE 21:9 monitor (from December 2020) Dell U2518H InfinityEdge monitor
Speakers	Dell U3421WE monitor built-in speakers Logitech Z333 speakers
Headphones	Gigabyte AORUS H5 Gaming headset
Mouse	Logitech G500 gaming mouse
Keyboard	Logitech G910 gaming keyboard

The Zebra X2 (2013)
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-Z87-UD3H motherboard
CPU	Intel Core i7 4770K 3.5GHz CPU @ 3.5GHz
RAM	8GB Corsair Vengence DDR3 RAM @ 1333MHz
Case	Corsair 600T Special Edition
PSU	Corsair HX850 PSU
Primary drive	Samsung EVO 840 250GB SSD using SATA 6Gbps
Secondary drives	1x Western Digital Green 1TB hard disk drive 1x Hitachi DeskStar 1TB hard disk drive 2x Western Digital Green 2TB hard disk drives
GPU	XFX AMD Radeon 7950 DD Ghost
OS	Windows 8.1 Professional with Media Center x64
Primary display	Dell U2518h professional IPS monitor (from March 2018) Dell UZ2315h multimedia IPS monitor (from April 2015) Dell S2340T touch screen IPS monitor
Speakers	Dell S2340T built-in speakers, Logitech Z200 speakers
Headphones	Marley headphones
Mouse	Logitech G500 gaming mouse
Keyboard	Logitech G510 gaming keyboard

The Zebra (2011)
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-Z68X-UD3 motherboard
CPU	Intel Core i7 2600K 3.5GHz CPU @ 3.4GHz
RAM	8GB Corsair Vengence DDR3 RAM @ 1333MHz
Case	Corsair 600T Special Edition
PSU	Corsair HX850 PSU
Primary drive	OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD using SATA 3Gbps
Secondary drives	1x Western Digital Green 1TB hard disk drive 1x Hitachi DeskStar 1TB hard disk drive 2x Western Digital Green 2TB hard disk drives
GPU	XFX AMD Radeon 7950 DD Ghost (from November 2012) XFX AMD Radeon 5670 x2
OS	Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Primary display	Asus PA238Q LED backlit IPS display using DisplayPort
Speakers	Corsair SP2100 speakers
Headphones	Marley headphones
Mouse	Logitech G500 gaming mouse
Keyboard	Logitech G510 gaming keyboard

The Platypus (2009)
Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3 motherboard
CPU	Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 2.83GHz @ 3.2GHz
RAM	4GB OCZ Platinum DDR2 RAM @ 1066MHz
Case	Lian-Li PC60-Plus B case
PSU	Corsair HX850 PSU
Primary drive	OCZ Vertex 2 120GB SSD using SATA 3Gbps
Secondary drives	1x Western Digital Green 1TB hard disk drive 1x Hitachi DeskStar 1TB hard disk drive 1x Western Digital Green 2TB hard disk drive
GPU	XFX AMD Radeon 5670
OS	Windows XP x32 and Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Primary display	Dell P2310h professional LCD monitor
Speakers	Labtec Arena 685 speakers
Headphones	Philips SHC5100 Wireless headphones
Mouse	Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 v3 Mouse
Keyboard	Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 v3 Keyboard

More

MacBook Pro: CPU | Integrated GPU

Everything Apple

I experienced my first Apple product, the iPod Shuffle I won in a competition at school. In June 2009 I got myself an iPhone 3GS, a phone I loved and hated at the same time. Later in that year, I tried to convince my mother not to get an iMac and to get an all-in-one PC instead. She totally went against my advice and got one. That iMac was the Mac that introduced me to Apple properly.

After a few months of playing about with it I admitted to really enjoying it, but was not turned to Apple at that point. I traded my iPhone in a got a Windows Phone 7 based phone because I had previously being using Windows Mobile 6. In December 2010, I decided to use some of my savings along side my mother to purchase an iPad, mainly as I was in hospital at the time and therefore wanted my mother having something to do whilst she was visiting me and staying there over night. We pretty much went halfers on a 16GB 3G iPad 1st generation. My aunt had one before and she brought it to me in October 2010 when I went into hospital where I was originally very skeptical of it. In about March 2010, I sold my half of the iPad back to my mother because she wanted to own the whole iPad.

In September 2011, I finally decided to make the change from my PC to Mac. I ordered the first Mac, a MacBook Pro 13" Late 2011 (Thunderbolt version) and I have never looked back since. I'm very much in love with OS X and there's nothing anyone can say to sway me away. I don't mind paying a premium for something that works. As a temporary solution to my jealousy of my brother's iPhone and being stuck with a rubbish Windows Phone, I got an iPod Touch 4th Generation. After 16 of 24 months with the Windows Phone I got rid of it, thank goodness. I then got an iPhone 5 16GB and a 4G contract in October 2012. In February 2014 I bought my own iPad Air 32GB 4G. This time I am happy to say, I will be kept it, until it was replaced by an iPad Pro in 2020.

I then got a new MacBook and this time went for the top model available in 2014, a 2013 Retina display model and then a new iPhone 6 64GB as well as a Mac mini to top off 2014.

Then in 2018, I got myself an iPhone XS before getting my first Apple Watch (a Series 3 then replaced a few days later with a Series 5) in October 2019. Then in August 2020 I got an iPad Pro to replace my iPad Air, a pair of AirPods Pro in October 2020, a new MacBook Pro with an Apple M1 chip in November 2020 and a new iPhone 12 in December 2020.