Tag: toys

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It’s about time…

…for another computer upgrade (that title, complete with “…”, is for you, Kai…). I’ve had my Shuttle motherboard running since late-Sophomore year when I started running Linux and Windows on separate systems…and I maxed out the processor to an Athlon XP 1900+ early in my Junior year… So yeah, essentially, I’ve been using the same hardware (with minor upgrades/replacements) for about 5 years. That’s an eternity in computer time, so I’m ready for an upgrade. Recently, I’ve noticed the system slowing down with every reformat and I’ve had yet another Maxtor hard drive go out, so I’m ready to make the jump.

Here are the specs I’ve been looking at, using Mwave‘s pricing for a barebones system:

  • Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Manchester) — $297.00
  • MSI K8N NEO4-F — $73.50
  • 1 GB DDR400 RAM (dual-channel 512 MB) — $83.00
  • NEC 16x DVD+/-RW — $38.90
  • Black Apex SQ-328 case (350W PS) — $41.00
  • Seagate 160 GB SATA 7200 RPM hard drive — $69.00
  • Gigabyte GeForce 7300GT PCIe 128 MB — $63.00

Total cost for the specs listed above comes out to a grand total of $665.40 using Mwave’s pricing and as of May 15, 2006. I’m assuming that the price will come down overall by the time I can buy this thing sometime mid- to late-summer. The processor, especially, should drop in price by the time I can afford this…and things like the motherboard, hard drive and video card probably will change. Honestly, I don’t really need much so far as video cards go, but I’d like to have something cheap yet capable for whatever I want to do with it in the coming years. I’d really like to get 2 GB of RAM in there running dual-channel ’cause I think the 64-bit dual core system would really like to use it, but that’ll depend on RAM prices… I’ll also have to figure out Linux drivers. This is an nForce4 chipset and I think it’s support is somewhat limited under Linux…

Anyway…suggestions? While I like Ubuntu a lot, I’d probably try Gentoo again initially so I’m sure that the 64-bit and dual core shenanigans are being used to their full potential, just to see how blazing fast I can run it…may switch back eventually…who knows…

Posted on

It's about time…

…for another computer upgrade (that title, complete with “…”, is for you, Kai…). I’ve had my Shuttle motherboard running since late-Sophomore year when I started running Linux and Windows on separate systems…and I maxed out the processor to an Athlon XP 1900+ early in my Junior year… So yeah, essentially, I’ve been using the same hardware (with minor upgrades/replacements) for about 5 years. That’s an eternity in computer time, so I’m ready for an upgrade. Recently, I’ve noticed the system slowing down with every reformat and I’ve had yet another Maxtor hard drive go out, so I’m ready to make the jump.

Here are the specs I’ve been looking at, using Mwave‘s pricing for a barebones system:

  • Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Manchester) — $297.00
  • MSI K8N NEO4-F — $73.50
  • 1 GB DDR400 RAM (dual-channel 512 MB) — $83.00
  • NEC 16x DVD+/-RW — $38.90
  • Black Apex SQ-328 case (350W PS) — $41.00
  • Seagate 160 GB SATA 7200 RPM hard drive — $69.00
  • Gigabyte GeForce 7300GT PCIe 128 MB — $63.00

Total cost for the specs listed above comes out to a grand total of $665.40 using Mwave’s pricing and as of May 15, 2006. I’m assuming that the price will come down overall by the time I can buy this thing sometime mid- to late-summer. The processor, especially, should drop in price by the time I can afford this…and things like the motherboard, hard drive and video card probably will change. Honestly, I don’t really need much so far as video cards go, but I’d like to have something cheap yet capable for whatever I want to do with it in the coming years. I’d really like to get 2 GB of RAM in there running dual-channel ’cause I think the 64-bit dual core system would really like to use it, but that’ll depend on RAM prices… I’ll also have to figure out Linux drivers. This is an nForce4 chipset and I think it’s support is somewhat limited under Linux…

Anyway…suggestions? While I like Ubuntu a lot, I’d probably try Gentoo again initially so I’m sure that the 64-bit and dual core shenanigans are being used to their full potential, just to see how blazing fast I can run it…may switch back eventually…who knows…

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Joining the 21st Century…

So, Brooke and I made the switch from basic (i.e. not digital) cable last week to DISH network. We’re getting a few less channels (about 65 channels total…) than we did, but we have their DVR service for $10 less per month, without having to pay for equipment or set-up.

So far, the service is pretty damned good. I’ve only noticed one time when the reception wavered a bit (watching “SVU” last night…), but it wasn’t that detrimental to my viewing experience. The DVR itself will record up to two things at once and has a 100 hour limit to what it can store, so we’ve got every show we regularly watch during the week programmed. Actually, we have it specifically set to only record new episodes, rather than all of them.

Overall, it’s pretty cool. Nice to not have to record everything to VCR…that, and I can now pause “The Daily Show” when I take a shower and come back to it when I’m ready…w00t! 😛

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Craziness…

So yeah, do you remember hearing about crazy fools fighting at Wal-Marts at 5:00 am on Nov. 26th? Well, Brooke and I joined in the fun… We saw that Wal-Mart had a cheap-o laptop for sale at just under $500 in the ad on Thanksgiving day…didn’t think much of it… Well, then I went by Slickdeals.net and saw that the deal was actually $378…which is insane for a laptop that has a decent AMD processor in it, a burner and wireless networking… Brooke is getting to the point where she needs a different computer (since her HP is 5 years old and a 1 GHz desktop will only do so much with WinXP installed…), so we decided to make the attempt…

Well, we got there at 4:50 am…and the parking lot was pretty full. We walked inside and everyone was back at the electronics department in a line…like…40-50 people in each of two lines. One line was for the laptop…the other was for a $50 GameBoy Advance… We come to find out that they only had 18 of the laptops. We didn’t get one. We were back in bed and sleeping by 5:30… 😛

Anyway, the weekend overall was pretty good. Got to visit with both sides of the family and got to see friends in Columbia, so that was really good…hadn’t seen Jeff or Jason in about a year (not my fault… :-P), so good times were had.

Now, I just have to get back in the “finish this semester before your head explodes” mentality…

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Sega Dreamcast: TNG

The Slashdot crowd will have already seen this, but it’s kinda freaky to look down this list, even for the non-geeks.

This website at 1UP.com describes 23 similarities between the launch of the Xbox360 and the Sega Dreamcast (remember that?!)…it continues on to describe 10 reasons why the 360 won’t fail as the Dreamcast did…but still…it’s kinda funny to look at…

…as you read this, just keep in mind that PS3 will still win out overall…but I’m pulling for my underdog Nintendo to the (bitter?) end… 😉