Posts Tagged ‘new computer’

Build Your Own Computer

Monday, October 13th, 2008

Well, today was the day I built my own computer for the very first time. ^_^ Lets just say, for all the times my blood-pressure soared, it went off without a hitch. Right now, I’m preparing to install Windows XP on it and am about 75% of the way through partitioning and formatting my new hard drive.

As you know from my previous posts, I made a list of the parts I would need a couple weeks ago and placed my order. My goal was a really nice, but not state-of-the-art gaming and graphic arts machine. Basically, I needed it a little more powerful than the standard computer you can buy from the store, but without the several thousand dollar price tag.

So, my case came today. Cue me prancing out to the street in my pajamas to grab this HUGE box from the UPS guy. (Who has actually been really nice about huge box a week thing.) After lunch and doing a little more homework I set to work. (more…)

The Death of a System

Thursday, October 2nd, 2008

I got an internship with Second Life, working on an experiment for one of the professors at my college.

While I’m seriously geeked over the prospect of an internship in an MMO, my time over the past few days in Second Life has taken my video card to the brink of death. Yesterday, it bled over into World of Warcraft when my minimap and pet were turned into pixels for several minutes after I logged in. I really didn’t think there would be a problem because at first glance Second Life has similar system reqs to WoW.

So, I had two options: A.) Burn the money on a new video card or B.) Get a new computer.

Lets see…Buy a new video card when: The current video card is dying, the heat sink on the north bridge spontaneously fell off so I probably have heat damage (which is probably half the reason for the graphics problems), and now the hard drive has been clicking intermittently. Yeah, new computer it is.

Not happy with the factory-built systems I have been finding, I decided it was high time to build my own. So, $830 later, I have parts coming from Newegg.

Here’s the specs/parts:

And finally, since I’ll have access to XP Pro once I can get back to my programming classes, I ordered an OEM version of XP Home to tide me over.

So, in roughly three days, the poor UPS guy should be planning my homicide. *laughs* (He seems to be deathly afraid of Luna!)

Whoa machine!

Thursday, August 25th, 2005

Nothing like a new machine to remind you how crappy your old one is/was. Yep, we finally got our new machine. $614 dollars later we have a clearance model Compaq. (Funny thing, I seem to remember declaring I was never going to purchase a Compaq ever again!) XD

  • 512 MB Ram
  • 200G Hard drive
  • AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3300+ running at 1.81 GHz
  • Windows XP Home
  • 9-in-1 Cardreader
  • CD/RW and DVD-ROM

It’s nice, though it’s loaded with crap we’re still trying to delete. Most of my J-Rock and MP3 collection is still trapped on my old machine, with no real way other than e-mail or transferring via my domain (bandwidth = ouch!). I never realized how clunky my old machine was and how slow it had gotten until I began working with this new machine.

Just finally got myself registered for classes; the college sat on some issues long enough that the classes I wanted to take were full. lol Now I somehow have to come up with an extra $200 next semester to pay for my extra software. XD I should be happy/grateful this is all I have to be worried about! I mean, really, this means I get to play with Dreamweaver and Flash sooner than I expected. Though I really wanted to purchase some upgrades to this beast to push it up over the 1G limit for RAM and save the extra software purchases for later.

Anyroad, I have most of my software transfered. (Including my Chrono Trigger sounds / Mouse pointers. lol My system just seems naked without them.) I forgot to transfer my diabetes logs over, so I have that to do yet. I think I’m going to price Flash sticks so maybe I can transfer my MP3s and the rest of my junk over; and then maybe back up my Homework once that’s done. It’s a thought.

I’m going to try to make the blog rounds today before the next round of homework begins coming due. *glomps* Sorry I’ve been so disconnected.