Computer upgrade

In April I started seriously concidering upgrading my computer. The parts that needs upgrading are the motherboard, cpu and ram. So a big and costly affair. Along with that I'll also be getting an aftermarked cooler for a quieter computer and overclocking capabilities, as I'll probably be trying that out. Aswell as a new case with more modern features, such as better cable management, left turned harddrive bays ect. Also it will probably be time for my yearly new harddrive. As I said I started thinking about it in April but soon decided to wait untill after the summer, as I won't be using it when at parents place for summer and such, and hopefully prices will fall a bit.

So this is what I'm looking at, at the moment:

• Case: Coolermaster CM 690 II Advanced
• Motherboard: ASUS Crosshair IV Formula
• CPU: Phenom II X4 955 or 965
• RAM: 2x2 gb Crucial BallistX
• Cooler: Zalman CNPS 9900 MAX (unreleased)

The CM 690 II case is the only one with the features and structure that I want, and also looks good, while still leaving room for case modding as I'll be trying out. Therefore the color of the parts is also playing a factor when choosing them, ofcourse as long as it doesn't comprimise quality. The motherboard is a pretty expensive one and maybe a bit overkill, but I'm choosing it because of the nice color scheme, built in X-Fi soundcard, nice auto overclocking features and it has the newest chipset and futureproofed with stuff like USB 3 and SATA 3 ect. Was looking at the Zalman CNPS 9900 NT at first because of the nice look and color fitting my color scheme, and ofcourse good reviews, then saw a new version was comming which seems to fix the few bad things mentioned about it in reviews. The 965 CPU was in April when I started looking the best AMD on the marked, and still an affordable price (later the 6 core has been released, but it's still pretty expensive). However some say the 955 is pretty much as good, especially when overclocking, so might aswell save the 200DKK. The Crucial RAM is getting good reviews and still close to the cheapest ones. Was going for 8gb at first, but a Tom's Hardware article about RAM requirements made me change my mind to 4gb. More is only really needed if using multiple big applications like photoshop at once, which is quite rare for me, and can always upgrade later ofcourse.

Still might change some ofcourse if pricing changes, but I think this is very close to what I'll be getting. Might get the case and start casemodding while at my parents place for summer so I can use my fathers tools and such. The rest will probably be in August, September or when I have the money (so 2014).

Sunday night nostalgia

Saturday afternoon I suddenly heard a big BANG! and all the power in my apartment was gone. After turning on the relay again I realised it was my computer that had burned out. After telling about it on #ranks aph0 said he was max sure it was the PSU that had burned out.

After reading some reviews I decided on a Corsair HX520W, to replace the old, in the hope that on other parts had burned out with it. I found a local store that had it so I could get it from there already monday.

This all leads to what I really wanted to say. As I couldn't use my stationary computer with all my mp3's I used my laptop, and at one point heard some songs from youtube. I ended up hearing/seeing a lot of more or less nostalgic songs, and made a playlist of them.

To get back to the PSU, I got the new one monday, put it in, and it worked \o/.

Two XP reinstalls later..

In my eternal pursuit to reduce the noise level from my computer I ordered two sets of Harddisc stabilizer things along with a MicroSD card I needed. I bought a new soundcard aswell while I was at it, a Sound Blaster X-Fi Extreme Audio for PCI-express, but that's a whole different story. Tuesday I recieved it and opened up my computer to put it into use. That went without much trouble, except from getting one of the harddrives out of the old boxes I had them in to prevent noise aswell. I replaced these since they were ugly and caused the harddrive to become too hot.

As I booted up the computer again I got a System boot error, which I gotten before so I knew it had probably something to do with the cables not being attached properly. (I learned later that day it's because which SATA connector you attach them to on the motherboard decides which is master and slave.) When I switched them around I got another error however, some .dll file in windows missing. I tried getting the .dll from my fathers computer, but that didn't help, so I had to do an XP reinstall. Last time I did so I'd made a small partition for windows, so I didn't have much files to backup, which I did by attaching the harddrive to my dads computer.

Some nabness in windows installation caused some some trouble when XP was back up. It had made another drive than the windows drive C: and system drive. So the boot information and such were not on the windows drive. But it worked fine so what the fuck.

A day or two later the computer suddenly freezes totally and go blue screen, and it happens again and again. I soon narrows the error down to my oldest harddrive, a maxtor 160gb. The one that is C: but not windows drive. I couldn't access any files on it without the computer freezing. Couldn't run any CHKDSK or anything on it either. I tried getting a trial membership on experts-exchange.com to get some help. Didn't get much valuable help, but one suggest reinstalling windows, which I do after plugging out the cable to the faulty harddrive so it doesn't make that C: and system disc again.

And that is when magic happens. When I plug it in again after the second XP reinstall in five days there's no more freezing or blue screen \o/ CHKDSK however finds some errors and fixes.

Best of 2007

Another year has passed an it's time to sum up on the best of 2007. Here are the winners! As last year runner ups are more of less ranked.

Movie

Transformers

Runner ups:
Clerks II
El Laberinto del Fauno
Letters from Iwo Jima
Cashback
The Kingdom


Comment: All really awesome movies, and very different movies, which makes it hard to choose which is better. However Transformers had something special and gave me that great feeling that you can do anything ;).


TV Show

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip

Runner ups:
The Class
Gossip Girl
How I Met Your Mother
Scrubs
Friday Night Lights


Comment: Beside an awesome cast (Matthew Perry!) this show just really hit it for me. I found the whole plot really interesting. Sadly it was cancelled already after it's first season, a great loss for TV.


Song

Hilary Duff - Never Stop

Runner ups:
Avril Lavigne - Hot
Mandy Moore - Can't You Just Adore Her?
Andrea Corr - Champagne From A Straw
Alicia Keys - No One

Comment: For more than half a year I've been completely sure which song would win this catagory. Very unlike the last two years, where this catagory was really hard to decide. Don't get me wrong, the other songs are really good too, it's been a good year for music, but Never Stop is just awesome. Simply can't sit still when listening to it, and it got such a simple yet beautiful message. Might be the second best song ever.


Music

Mandy Moore

Runner ups:
Hilary Duff
Avril Lavigne
Britney Spears
Natasha Bedingfield

Comment: Bought her best of in the begginning of the year which has a lot of great songs, such as her songs from A Walk To Remember which has an awesome soundtrack. And her new album Wild Hope from the spring was really beautiful.


Hottie

Kristen Bell

Runner ups:
Avril Lavigne
Hayden Panettiere
Britney Spears
Hilary Duff

Comment: I saw Veronica Mars over the summer and ever since I've been completely in love with her. Which by the way also was awesome, too bad it's cancelled too.


Website

iGoogle

Runner ups:
CSManager
Amazon.co.uk
IMDb
Celebrity Movie Archive

Comment: By iGoogle I mean the entire google. It's just got so many useful things and I don't know how I should survive without it.


Day

October 25. - Drove firetruck with blue lights

Runner ups:
February 22. - Most snow in almost a decade
June 30. - Graduation party
December 24. - Christmas eve

Comment: It's been the only alarm I've been on so far. Beside that it was exciting to drive with blue lights blinking (and with max 50km/h) it was somewhat of a kick to be there, thought not much happened. I think I haven't written a post about, I'll try to do that.


Blog Entry

Current situation

Runner ups:
Snow at last
Avril La -FUCKING- vigne

Comment: Well, read it.

FVANG LAN

Sometime in early January we decided to have an FVANG LAN at my place this weekend.

Around 14:00 enil, Napol and Zerox arrived in enil's car. As they fixed up computers I had some lunch, and when I came back I realised I hadn't thought of any switch for the LAN. So enil quickly called epp, so he could bring Napol's. epp had to work untill 14:00 or something so he arrived later. While waiting for epp to arrive we played to battles, and basketball on my basketball game.

epp arrived around 17:00. As he fixed up comp we attached Napol's switch to our internet. However it did not work. Luckily epp bought his router aswell. It worked, had only four ports though, but that was no problem as I did wireless.

However a short time afterwards when we were going to play smultronet I could not connect. As I consulted my father I remembered my little sister has a switch. So we tried that one and it worked. \o/ I could not connect before as the router creates some kind of under network.

For dinner my parents bought some family pizzas. Some hawaii and kebab were eaten. That was nice for my stomach. Rest of the night was spent with some battling and smultronet. And random stening ofcourse.

Around 21:00 we drove 5 km to the nearest shop, to get some soda and chips ect. Around 3:00 we went to bed.

When everyone had woken up the next day we had some bread for breakfast. A few days before the LAN we had talked about going to Jesperhus in order to play bowling. So in the afternoon we booked a lane for two hours. Firstly Zerox tried to book, but failed. Then a short time after I tried and succeded.

Apart from that the afternoon was spent with some more battling, smultronet and stening. Also epp, enil and napol played a game of Dota.

My parents cooked a nice dinner, which we rushed a bit through in order to get to the bowling place in time, which were at 20:00. epp ruled. He won the first two games, Zerox won the third. In the last game of which we only played 7 rounds before the time went out, epp won again and I was second. Apart from the last round I sucked pretty hard.

Back we had a few beers and more battling and smultronet. And some leeching obviously. Around 2:00 we made some toasts, and went to bed around 4:00.

In the morning my father had bought rundstykker. After that some last time leeching and such.

They all left a little past 14:00.

GG LAN <3

PS. Battle results are intentionally left out of this entry, all to say is that I won two and enil won far too many.

PSS. I'll upload pictures later.

Best of 2006

Sorry about the delay, but some catagories was very hard to decide. Like last year the runner ups are more of less sorted. Here are the best of 2006!

Movie

Imagine Me & You

Runner ups:
Just Like Heaven
V for Vendetta
Just Friends
Superman Return

Comment: What would seem like a mediocre romantic comedy turned out to be one of the best movie love stories. Maybe not a year with big competition, and only two movie rated 10. However this doesn't mean Imagine Me & You wasn't a really really great movie.

TV Show

Alias

Runner ups:
Scrubs
How I Met Your Mother
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
Lost

Comment: This was very hard to decide. Scrubs is a really great show aswell. Season four of Alias was awesome and kept up the great standards the previous seasons had set.

Song

Nelly Furtado - Maneater

Runner ups:
Kelly Clarkson - Because Of You
Panic! at the Disco - I Write Sins not Tragedies
Nelly Furtado - All Good Things (Come to an End)
Roxette - One Wish

Comment: Extremely hard one this year aswell. Because Of You is a really nice song, but Maneater have that great power in it, and Nelly Furtado has a great voice too. Maneater didn't have me hooked from the beginning though, it took some time before I discovered how good it was. I Write Sins not Tragedies was close too.

Music

Hilary Duff

Runner ups:
Kelly Clarkson
Britney Spears
Mandy Moore
Shakira
Vanilla Ninja

Comment: Last.fm stats says everything. Didn't start using last.fm before June though, that was also around when I started listening Hilary Duff. 1,246 plays, around 3 times as much as the second place. Have developed a greate love for Hilary Duff during the last year.

Elma achievement

Upside Down 1:04,40 danish record

Runner ups:
Master Cup 2 12th place
Flag Tag win at DEM06
skintatious 4th place on kinglist at one point, 8th now
1 hour TT win at DEM06

Comment: Though I probably used more time on Master Cup 2 during the year, it was just such a relief to finally get Upside Down back after 3½ years of trying. Hopefully it will last this time.

Game

The Settlers II - 10th Anniversary

Runner ups:
The Sims 2 Nightlife
TrackMania Sunrise

Comment: Again a year where I haven't played that many games. The new version of Settlers II rocked, the best of the series with modern graphics and fysics, what a threat.

Hottie

Hayden Panettiere

Runner ups:
Natalie Portman
Rachael Leigh Cook
Keira Knightley
Eva Longoria

Comment: Hot cheerleader in the surprisingly good Bring it On 3, cheerleader in new hit TV show Heroes. Uhh babe.

Website

CSManager

Runner ups:
skintatious
IMDb
Live Privates
JenGarnerNet

Comment: A really great browsergame. Have played CS maybe twice in 2006, but CSManager have me hooked up big time. Has had some succes in it lately also, playing in league 2.2 now, and one second place in a weekend tournament.

Best of 2006 (Nominations)

Ever since finished the list for 2005 I've been looking forward to make this. I just love such kinda things.

From last years post: All are things made in 2006, or which I experienced the first time in 2006.

Movie

Just Like Heaven
V for Vendetta
Imagine Me & You
Just Friends
Superman Returns

TV Show

Alias
Scrubs
How I Met Your Mother
Lost
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip

Song

Panic! at the Disco - I Write Sins not Tragedies
Nelly Furtado - Maneater
Kelly Clarkson - Because Of You
Nelly Furtado - All Good Things (Come to an End)
Roxette - One Wish

Music

Kelly Clarkson
Shakira
Hilary Duff
Vanilla Ninja
Mandy Moore
Britney Spears

Elma achievement

skintatious 4th place on kinglist at one point, 8th now
Master Cup 2 12th place
Upside Down 1:04,40 danish record
Flag Tag win at DEM06
1 hour TT win at DEM06

Game

The Settlers II - 10th Anniversary
The Sims 2 Nightlife
TrackMania Sunrise

Hottie

Rachael Leigh Cook
Hayden Panettiere
Natalie Portman
Keira Knightley
Eva Longoria

Website

skintatious
CSManager
IMDb
Live Privates
JenGarnerNet

Winners will be puplished next Sunday!

New harddrive

A while ago I decided that I couldn't stand my half defect external Maxtor drive anymore and wanted a new. So the 26th I ordered a 320gb WD and a Sandberg external USB box.

The day at arrival there was to package in our carport. In one of them only the usb cable I ordered for my printer, and in the other the harddrive. No box, it were sent from another place so I expected it to just be a day late, but later same day I looked in our mailbox and there was a note that I could pick up a package at the post office.

The new SATA harddrive I plugged into my comp to get the speed from SATA in my comp, and took my older 200gb WD ATA out to plug into the external box next day when I picked it up.

While plugging it in I scrathed my one finger so bleeded a lot :/

Anyway, I got it in and started installing windows on the new drive. Because my secondary 160gb maxtor drive were still in, that one became C: and windows installed on D: So the old was system drive and the new boot drive. I don't know if it matters, but I plugged the old one out and reinstalled windows to be sure.

The day after I picked up the external box and after fiddling a lot with it I got it open and plugged in the 200gb WD.

I have now 870gb all in all, but with 250gb half defect. The black one is the new one.

Just before starting to write this post I decided to start using more pictures here in order to spice it up a bit. ;-)