New StereojawaproFri 17/02/2006 09:18 PM
This is well and truly the most expensive month of my life. As well as my new computer, I am putting a CD player and new speakers in my car. At the moment I have a good tape deck, but the speakers are lousy, and when Dad and I tried to fix them, we found it really confusing and illogical, so we are getting a pro to install the new speakers, and decided it’d be worth getting a CD player while I was at it. The CD player and speakers combo was on special, a really good special too – 40% off. So I got that. Now I just need to wait a week until the Car Audio place can fit me in to install them.
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Not another early morning...jawaproThu 16/02/2006 09:18 PM
I am tired of getting up at 4 in the morning to work... Tomorrow will be the 3rd day in a row.
Ah well - it´ll pay for me to put a new stereo in my car at least.
On the way down the Midlands yesterday morning, it was really foggy - and I almost ran into an air-conditioning unit that was lying smashed up in the center of the road. It was in the middle of the road, so you´d only hit it if you werent on your side of the road. A while later I passed a truck towing a couple of worker´s cabins things like you see at road works and things, and one had a big hole in the back where the air-con unit had come from. I think I waved and pointed and tried to get his attention, but I was on a time-scheduale and didnt stop to tell him.
Note: The photo is of the same piece of road where the air-con unit was, but it was taken the next day, so the air con unit has been removed - also, it´s a different truck. Also, there was a lot less fog this time.
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Jadesfire has arrived!!!jawaproMon 06/02/2006 09:18 PM
Hey - it´s here, it´s here, it´s here....
I called into the computer shop, and they found a 200G IDE, so I bought the computer! I came home and was really looking forward to putting it together.
Ok - I knew I couldnt do it completely, as I am waiting on a small (6G) harddrive to go in the old PC along with the new 200G drive. (The 6G will have windows on it, so it can be reinstalled without interfering with the data drive). And I still need to replace the graphics card in the old PC.
So for now, I was planning to put all the new componants in the new box, and run it alongside the old one for a while, to play some games and things.
The first part was fairly easy, although it was the part that had worried me. Plugging all the little connections into the motherboard...
But then the problems started. The DVD drive (which I had borrowed from the old pc) didnt read CDs properly once windows was up. It´d let me install windows using it, but not once windows was running. So I had to install a CD-drive to do that. But then I realised my dvd drive wouldnt read DVDs either. I went to bed without having been able to fix this problem, which made me quite upset. In the morning I experimented with nicking the IDE cable from the old PC and using it as the 2nd IDE cable in this one (I had been using an older 40-pin cable), and that made it work, so I had to get a new IDE cable for the old PC...
But at least it works now.
And my hdd was a worry too. When I installed windows, it said it only had 130G!!!! And I paid for a 200G!!! I was really quite mad about that. But when I did some research, it turns out you cant format a drive to be bigger than 130G unless you are running XP with at least service pack 1 (which I wasnt, having only just installed it). I havent tried it yet, as I´ll wait untill I put it in the old PC (which is becomming the server) but I hope it works.
But having gotten it working, I thought I´d try it out - and it´s very nice to use. Windows is extrememly responsive - much better than my old one (but that may have to do with the lack of programs I have installed too).
Games look and play a LOT better. Need for Speed: Most Wanted looks great.
Farcry isnt quite as good as I had hoped, there are strange boxes surrounding the plants under the water - not sure why.
But all in all I am really happy now. I have to get a few parts for the old box, and then set them both up properly. Not to mention finding homes for the boxes everything came in.
This is the most money I´ve ever spent on one thing...
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Project Mara MKIIjawaproSun 05/02/2006 09:18 PM
This post is for anyone who is interested in what I am getting for my new computer. It´s still not going to be a BEAST, but it´ll be a lot faster than my current one, and I have to be under budget.
My current system is:
Name: JadesFire
CPU: AMD 1600
RAM: 512mb
Graphics: Geforce 3 Ti 200
HDD: 1x40G 1x80G
My current server is:
Name: MARA
CPU: Pentium II something
RAM: 96mb
HDD: 4G
Graphics: onboard
The New System will replace the current Jadesfire, and the current Jadesfire will replace the current Mara. Confused?
I dont know what will happen to the current Mara...
But just to be confusing, the current Jadesfire will be modified before it becomes the new Mara. First it gets a new Harddrive, a 200G one. The 2 drives that are currently in it will be moved accross to the new System. Also, the Geforce 3 will be replaced with another card that has a working TV-out setup. The Geforce 3 is supposed to, but I cant get it working.
Ok - on to the new Jadesfire, this is the exciting part.
The case is a fairly plain ANTEC case, similar to the picture below, only black not silver.
Name: Jadesfire MKII
CPU: AMD 3200+
RAM: 1G (2x512mb)
HDD: 1x40G 1x80G
Graphics: Nvidia 6600GT
After walking all over town, and the internet, this is the best system I can get for the price. Hopefully it´ll keep me happy for a few years. It had better do, seeing as how I am spending more money on it then I´ve spent on anything except my car...
So now I´m just waiting for the computer shop (Tasmanian Principle Computers) to get the harddrive in. I am buying a 200G IDE drive instead of SATA, because it´s going in the old PC not the new one.
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Weekend ReportjawaproSun 05/02/2006 09:18 PM
G´day again.
I went down to my cousin´s 18th birthday party for the weekend. I gave him a Pentium III computer. I made sure it could play a few decent games and things - so hopefully he´ll like it.
On another front, Project Mara MKII is proceeding. I have actually ordered the PC, I´m just waiting for a few parts to arrive at the computer shop.
On the way down the Midlands we noticed a pretty cool sight. Someone has gone to the trouble of making a replica of Stonehenge out of large square bales of hay! I took some photos, and we werent the only ones, another car pulled up to take photos while we were there.
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