N95

Sunday 6th July 2008
The N95 is a great little games machine. I have 12 N-gage games installed which turn the N95 into a handheld games console.
Sunday 29th June 2008
I have installed nearly 40 applications on my phone but there are 2 I use every day...
- Step Counter. I try to walk 10000 steps each day.
- Brain Challenge. To exercise my mind each day.

Sunday 22nd June 2008
I am hijacking this blog again to talk about the Nokia N95 8Gb phone. I have carried out a successful test which gives me the ability to update this blog entirely on my N95 phone.

Blue-Ice 2

Monday 31st December 2007 (Happy New Year's Eve to all our readers)
I don't have anything to post - it's just an excuse to say Happy New Year's Eve to all our readers.
Did you know that this Blog has been viewed 284 times this year?
What will 2008 bring?
For a small outlay (£30-£40), all 3 Desktop PC's can be upgraded to 4Gb of RAM. To take advantage of this, the 64-bit version of Windows Vista would have to be installed - perhaps replacing Windows XP and dual-booting Vista 32 and Vista 64.
Sunday 30th December 2007 (Review of the Year)
I don't have anything to post - it's just an excuse to have a review of the year.
What a year it was! - I designed and built 2 PC's, specced a Laptop and substantially upgraded my own PC.
Manufacturer of the year = Intel (All 4 PC's have Intel processors in them).
All 4 PC's have 2Gb of RAM - as required by the Windows Vista operating system. Significantly, 2 of the PC's don't have Windows XP installed and the other 2 dual boot XP and Vista.
Now for the benchmarks - if you look back in this Blog you will find some benchmarks for Black Ice and Blue-Ice 2 but you will not have seen any from Pink Icing. All that is about to change...
Windows Vista Experience Index (out of a possible 5.9)
Blue Ice (old) = 3.5
Black Ice = 5.0
Pink Icing = 4.8
Blue Ice 2 (new) = 5.6
(Grandad's Laptop does not have a graphics card powerful enough to be considered in these tests).
3D Mark 06 (The higher the better)
Blue-Ice (old) XP
Resolution = 1280 x 768
3D Marks = 596
SM2 = 288
HDR = N/A
CPU = 600
Black-Ice
Resolution = 1280 x 1024
3D Marks = 4736
SM2 = 1838
HDR = 2056
CPU = 1642
Pink-Icing
Resolution = 1280 x 1024
3D Marks = 3736
SM2 = 1604
HDR = 1331
CPU = 1666
Blue-Ice 2 (new) Vista
Resolution = 1280 x 1024
3D Marks = 9955
SM2 = 3828
HDR = 4317
CPU = 3537
As you can see Blue Ice 2 is the clear winner due to it's superior graphics card but bear in mind that it cost as much as the 2 graphics cards in Black Ice and Pink Icing combined. Also, Sally may be disappointed in losing out to Black Ice but strangely, her Graphics card is newer and capable of playing the latest DX10 games while Black Ice is limited to DX9. In addition, I have made sure that all PC's can be easily upgraded by simply replacing the old graphics card with a new one. Finally, none of these systems have been overclocked - yet, so the scores could be raised even higher.
Wednesday 26th December 2007 (Happy Boxing Day to all our readers)
I don't have anything to post - it's just an excuse to say Happy Boxing Day.
Tuesday 25th December 2007 (Merry Christmas to all our readers)
I don't have anything to post - it's just an excuse to say Merry Christmas.
Saturday 24th November 2007 (Happy Birthday to Bryan)
What is this? Another Blog post from Crash Cursor? Surely not.
It's just an excuse to say Happy Birthday to Bryan.
No, I want to talk about games. Games? Yes, games.
When I built Blue-Ice 2, it was with the upcoming next-gen games predominantly in mind, particularly Crysis and if it also meant I could move the graphics sliders on Oblivion all the way up to Max, well that was a bonus.
So, now Crysis has been released and the last Digital Content for Oblivion has been downloaded, how am I getting along? Is everything running as well as I had hoped?
The truth is ... The Crysis Demo has been started (I am happy with my framerates and graphical eye candy) but Shivering Isles remains unfinished.
Why is this?
What can be taking up Crash Cursor's time, to the detriment of Crysis and Oblivion?
In two words ...

The Witcher.

Yes, The Witcher is now, officially, the new Oblivion. For those who don't know, The Witcher is an RPG from Poland. This is significant in a number of ways, the most important of which is the fact it is not set in a sugar-coated candy world of Disney niceness to get around the American BBFC. You play as Geralt of Rivia - a white-haired albino monster slayer with 2 swords on his back. Atmosphere, action, style, moral greyness, consequences and even a touch of humour are all present, which makes a nice change. Did I mention that the lengthy CGI Introduction to the game is one of the best I have ever seen and initially got me interested in The Witcher.
Time to go, I have monsters to smite.
Wednesday 7th November 2007 (Happy Birthday to me - Crash Cursor)
What is this? Another Blog post from Crash Cursor? Surely not.
It's just an excuse to say Happy Birthday. No, I really do have some news about Blue-Ice 2. I had cause to use the System Restore feature of Vista today. Blue-Ice 2 was crashing regularly with a Black Screen of Death, so I booted into Safe Mode and ran the System Restore utility built into Vista. It suggested using a Restore Point from 4th November 2007 so I clicked on OK. After a restart, everything was back to normal. This is good news for Black Ice and Pink Icing because when I had problems in the past with Blue-Ice the System Restore in Windows XP would never work for me and so I had to resort to re-installing windows. That took a loooooooooong time, however Vista System Restore is quick, simple and - best of all - it works.
Time to play some more of that "Crysis" Demo. Also, the CGI intro for "The Witcher" is cool and impressive.
Monday 22nd October 2007
Sorry, I've been too busy playing Oblivion and it's add-on Shivering Isles to update this Blog. The eye-candy is great. I realise now that previously I had been playing it on a Spectrum Computer with really blocky graphics. Now I can crank those Graphics capability sliders all the way up to Max and turn on HDR + AA + AF (High Dynamic Range Lighting, Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering) and try out those 'power hungry' mods that I had not bothered with because they would have brought the old Blue-Ice to it's knees. I have neglected gaming for a while, but now it's back with a vengeance. Bring on those Next Gen DX10 games.
Saturday 13th October 2007
Yes, I thought this might happen.
Blue-Ice 2 has been "Benchmarked".
Here are the scores on the doors:-
3D Mark Score = 9955 (596)
SM2.0 Score = 3828 (288)
HDR/SM3.0 Score = 4317 (N/A)
CPU Score = 3537 (600)
Blue-Ice 1 scores are in brackets, so Blue-Ice 2 is 16.7 times more powerful than Blue-Ice 1 and bear in mind it is running on Vista at stock i.e. nothing has been overclocked ... YET!
You never know, one day I may get round to running 3D Mark 06 on Pink Icing.
Friday 12th October 2007
No time to waste - Graphics card is installed and working fine. Vista is looking the best it has been on Blue-Ice 2. No real problems encountered during installation, I just had to fiddle around with Monitor leads a few times but I have ended up using the Digital Connectors, so it's all good.
One more thing before I leave to install Oblivion - my Windows Vista Experience Rating has shot up from 2.0 to ... 5.6.
Thursday 11th October 2007
Wow, that was quick. My Sapphire 2900 PRO HD Graphics Card was delivered at 9:10am - less than 24 hours after ordering and the postage did not cost me a penny.
This weekend Blue-Ice 2 will be completed ... for now!
Wednesday 10th October 2007
The sites I was tracking did not receive their stock yesterday and today put up a date of 25th October for new stock. No thanks, unfortunately the ATI 2900Pro Graphics Card has gone out of stock at Scan (see, I told you it was a limited offer). Never mind, Novatech are selling a Sapphire HD2900Pro with free next-day postage so I have ordered one from them and I should get it ... erm ... tomorrow. Perhaps I could be taking a trip to the Shivering Isles this weekend. All those weeks without Oblivion but I am coping with it quite well, all things considered. Now, where's my Axe?
Monday 8th October 2007
I decided to hold off on the purchase of that Graphics Card as I found out that I could save £15 - 20 by waiting until 9/10/07 i.e. tomorrow, despite this being a limited offer. Looks like ATI are clearing out surplus stock before the launch of a new range of cards. So why don't I wait for the new card? Well, I don't think it will be as powerful and it won't overclock as well.
Thursday 4th October 2007
Apparently ATI's new Graphics Cards, the 2900PRO, are great overclockers. This is good news as it means you can get the power of a 2900XT but at a much lower price. Seeing as they are available now and in stock at Scan, I won't be able to resist ordering one this weekend. You see, it's all very well having a new motherboard and CPU but it's the Graphics Card that really shows it all off. (I may be making a similar argument around Christmas time for a new Glass Screen Monitor).
Sunday 30th September 2007
Blue Ice 2 is running fine on Vista. It has coped well with everything I have thrown at it so far. I have not tried any games yet as I am waiting for October to order a new Radeon 2900PRO Graphics Card.
One thing that stands out is the onboard sound. I listen through headphones and in the past there was always some background noise but the Hi-Def Audio on my Asus P5K Deluxe Motherboard is whisper quiet. Blue Ice 2 is also noticeably quieter running than Blue Ice although I will have to see what affect the new Graphics Card will have.
There is going to be a 1Gb version of the 2900PRO which may be worth a look as, if I can overclock it to 2900XT levels, I will save around £120.
Monday 24th September 2007
Fortunately things have settled down now and Vista Blue Ice 2 seems nice and stable, as well as cool. The temps on my 4 cores are 32 33 27 and 32 Degrees C. The max core temp is 70 so I am well within limits. This should give me loads of room for overclocking.
An obvious question is - Why am I not using the old Graphics card from Blue Ice.
The answer is due to the evolution of the PC.
A few years ago, when 3dfx was all the rage, graphics cards connected to the Motherboard via a PCI interface. Later, this was superseded with AGP. Now, PCIe has taken over from AGP. My old graphics card is an AGP type and so is not compatible with the PCIe slot on my new motherboard. However, I still have an old, old PCI graphics card which does work on Blue Ice 2 but is obviusly much slower than current (or even 4-year old) cards. The solution is to purchase a modern PCIe card and it looks as though my patience may be rewarded. There is a straight choice between 2 manufacturer's of Graphics cards: ATI and Nvidia. I favour ATI (Radeon 1950 Pro in Black Ice) because Oblivion runs best on this hardware, but currently Nvidia have the edge (hence an Nvidia 8600GT in Pink Icing). I found out today that ATI will soon be releasing a 2900Pro card. This is a slightly slower version of their 2900XT card but is much cheaper (around £150 as opposed to £240). The good thing is that it can be overclocked to near 2900XT speeds. In other words you effectively get a 2900XT for £150. In my eyes this is the VFM (value for money) I am looking for. The ATI 2900Pro graphics cards are expected to be on sale in the UK in early October - my birthday present is sorted.
Sunday 23rd September 2007
I spoke too soon - Everything was going well, I was making good progress with Vista and decided to install XP so that I could dual boot, just like Black Ice and Pink Icing.
I had major problems trying to get XP installed. The system would BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) at the same point requiring a reboot and I lost my boot to Vista as well. I tracked the problem to the new SATA DVD Drive. Previously I have always used IDE DVD drives but SATA is the future and I had read that Windows Boot times were much shorter, if you did not have any IDE devices, so I chose to purchase a SATA DVD drive for Blue-Ice 2. When I connected up my old IDE DVD drive from Blue Ice, the BSODs went away and I was able to install Windows XP. I updated Windows via the Interweb and upon rebooting I was told that Windows could not load because the HAL.DLL file was missing. (What is this? 2001: A Space Odyssey?). I had to install Vista again, overwriting the XP partition just to get back to the Vista install I did yesterday, then I deleted the temp Vista.
The upshot of this is that I am currently using Vista an the C: drive and nothing else. I will format the D: and E: drives later, and will probably revert to my new SATA DVD drive, since Vista does not have a problem with it. It looks like I will have to Game on Vista after all.
Saturday 22nd September 2007
This Blog is being compiled on Blue-Ice 2 on Saturday evening.
Everything went well considering I had to dismantle a lot before I could start building, which was quite scarey. With a new build I could always have Blue Ice running at the same time, so I could look for some advice from the InterWeb or have an eBook such as "How to build a super Computer" open. However, I did not encounter any real problems.
A few obsevations:
1. My old Motherboard and CPU cooler were incredibly dusty. It was surprising how many layers of dust had built up over the years.
2. New PC's are so much more 'streamlined'. SATA HDD and DVD cables are tiny compared to the large ribbon cables of old. This should aid the air flow around my case and perhaps help to avoid No. 1 above happening again.
3. The only real decision I had to make was how to divide up 1 Terra-byte of Hard disk space. I decided on two equal partitions on Drive 0 (approx 250Gb each for Vista and XP) and a 500Gb (Data) partition on Drive 1.
4. I have a Zalman CP9700 cooling my Quad Core 6600 chip which was really loud to start with but now I have connected it to my front panel fan controller, I can adjust the Speed/noise to suit. I have CoreTemp running at the moment and my temps are hovering around the 32 degree mark so there should be plenty of headroom for Overclocking.
5. I have only installed Vista for now and will use it for everything except Games and software which I can't get to work on Vista.
6. I have an Asus motherboard and sound worked first time (after Vista auto-downloaded 33 upgrades). Asus > Gigabyte methinks, although I made sure to plug my headphones into the Light Green socket.
7. My Windows Experience Index is 2.0 due to my crappy graphics card but with a decent upgrade it should go up to 5.6.
Friday 21st September 2007 (Welcome to Blue-Ice 2 weekend)
Yes, it's my turn now. Time to put this hardware together and see what Quad Cores can do. I don't have a decent Graphics card yet (I will have to use the PCI card from Sally's old computer for testing purposes) but I have not chosen an upgrade so it will have to do.
Pink Icing is running fine, even though it's not quite finished - I still have some more pink lights to put inside.
Tuesday 18th September
When I am next able to get anywhere near Pink Icing I notice that the lead is already in the Light Green socket, so I turn the speakers on and Boot into Windows Vista.
What is that four bar tune I can hear?"
Problem solved, Bryan. I know it's hard work for you to move all the things on Black Ice, but if you plug your speakers into the Light Green socket then I am sure you will have a tuneful Vista.
Oh ... the Hard drives for Blue Ice 2 arrived today. Ho-hum.
Monday 17th September 2007
Not another post about Pink Icing!!!
Yes, but the problem I am trying to solve affects Black-Ice as well, so that makes it O.K.
There is no sound in Vista on both Black Ice and Pink Icing.
Sound works great in XP but in Vista the speakers are silent.
I am really going to have to earn my I.T. stripes to solve this one.
First-up ... Get the drivers installed. I loaded the Vista sound drivers from the CD which was bundled with Sally's Gigabyte Motherboard. Everything went well and I was impressed to note that the drivers were 80Mb big.
Next, I turned the speakers on and ... nothing.
O.K. you probably need to plug the lead in the back again to get it working.
Unplug lead.
Plug in lead. Up pops a requester asking what it is that has been plugged in. I select 'Rear speaker'.
Test sound ... nothing.
Hmmm I will have to think about this.
Next, Sally tells me that there is no sound in Sims 2. While I have been thinking, she has gone back to Windows XP and loaded up Sims 2. Try pulling the plug out and putting it back in again. Up pops a requester asking what it is that has been plugged in. I select 'Line Out'.
Sims 2 bursts into song.
O.K. It works in XP but not in Vista.
Everything seems to be installed in Vista but why do I not get the option to choose "Line out", since that works in XP? I don't know.
My brain is working overtime on this conundrum and I decide to RTFM. (Read the Flipping Manual).
It does not mention the fact that you can plug the lead in any socket in the manual - each socket has a definite function.
*** Brainstorm ***
What if you actually plug the speaker lead into the socket that is meant for the speaker lead? According to the manual it is the Light Green coloured socket. I will have to wait for Sally to finish playing Sims 2 before I can try this out.
Sunday 16th September 2007
Don't worry, this will be the final post about Pink Icing on this Blog (Sheeh! Yeah! Right!).
I managed to get on Vista just long enough to update the Graphics Card Drivers which allowed me to obtain the Windows Experience Index for Pink Icing.
It is ... (pause for effect) -
4.8
Just to remind you, Black Ice was 5.0 and Blue Ice 3.5 all out of a possible 5.9. You never know, one day I may get to run 3D Mark 06 to benchmark Pink Icing.
I don't think sound is working properly in Vista. I would know for sure if The Sims 2 game was installed on Vista instead of XP.
Saturday 15th September 2007
I had to order a new Hard Drive today from Scan, as my old one in Blue-Ice is very nearly full. I have ordered 2 SATA 500Gb drives for a total of 1Tb. I will install them along with the other components I have and Blue-Ice 2 will be born. All I need now is a new Graphics Card. Nvidia are supposed to be bringing some new cards out in November. Can I wait that long?
Pink Icing news.
Vista is installed and updated. The wireless card worked straight away, without needing to faff around with drivers. I don't know how well anything else is working because Sally is playing Sims 2!!!!
Friday 14th September 2007
I am going to hijack this Blog to talk about Pink Icing (perhaps I started too soon), think of it as Sally getting her own back for all the times I hijacked her Blog.
I have managed to get Sally's PC internet working with a great piece of detective work.
I decided it was a Driver problem but I downloaded 3 sets of drivers from the Netgear site and none of them worked. "I know", I thought, "I only need to look at Sally's old PC Hard Drive to see which drivers she was using when the Netgear Wireless PCI card was working last week. As soon as I had a look I knew I had found the answer. I had downloaded a V3 set of drivers but had not tried them since I thought the Netgear was a V1 card. When I checked the old PC I saw it was using the V3 drivers. Problem solved. Sure enough, once installed on Pink Icing the V3 drivers detected the PCI Wireless card straight away and it was only a matter of moments before we were on the Tinternet.
Now to twist Sally's arm to allow me to install Vista.
Thursday 13th September 2007
Welcome to the Blue-Ice 2 Blog. The first thing to note is that I am not going to colour the words "Blue-Ice 2" in blue anymore.
The next thing to note is that there is not much news on Blue-Ice 2, as I need to buy a few more components before I can complete the build.
So I will talk about Pink Icing instead. The good news is that Several expansion packs for The Sims 2 Game have been installed and are fully working. However, Vista is a non-starter (perhaps this weekend) and there is a meaty Networking challenge to get my teeth into. To update Windows after building Pink-Icing, I connected it to my Broadband Router directly with a Network Cable. Now that Pink-Icing is in Sally's bedroom, the cable is not long enough so I need to install a Wireless PCI card that was in Sally's previous computer. Obviously, I know it is functioning because it worked last week. However, I plugged it into Pink Icing, installed the software and was greeted with the message "Netgear WG311 card is not plugged in". I, of course, disputed this claim, but my protestations fell on deaf ears. This often crops up in Computing e.g. "Please insert disk" when you have put the CD in the CD drive.
How to resolve it? I have tried the card in both PCI slots but still get the same message. I have searched around in the BIOS and set some IRQ's manually but to no avail.
I am not sure what I can do next. I could try another PCI peripheral to see if the slots are working or I could update the BIOS on the Motherboard. Perhaps the Netgear PCI has developed a fault after removing it from the old PC.
More research is obviously required.

Pink Icing

Tuesday 11th September 2007 (Happy Birthday Grandma)

It's Sally's Grandma's birthday today and Sally decided to celebrate the fact by playing Sims 2 on her new PC 'Pink-Icing'. At least it has some pink lights in it now, but only 2 (8 still to do), which also means that I have finally wielded a soldering iron in anger again after all this time.

N.B. Since Pink Icing is up and running now, although nowhere near finished, I have decided to conclude this Blog and set up a new one for Blue-Ice 2.

Monday 10th September 2007 (Post Pink Icing Weekend)

It isn't finished yet, but guess who is using Pink Icing in her room now. The wireless Internet connection is not yet working, Windows XP is not optimised, Windows Vista is nowhere to be seen, but at least we know that "Sims 2" works and is much better than her old PC version. I have used phrases such as "patience is a virtue", "Rome wasn't built in a day" and "you can't make an omlette without breaking eggs" but all to no avail, they fell on deaf ears. I now don't have a timescale for when Pink Icing will be complete other than ... "when Sally lets me".

Saturday 8th September 2007 (Welcome to Pink Icing Weekend)

After just half an hour I am ready to install the Operating System. Which one first? XP or Vista? I decide upon XP, insert the CD and format the Hard disk to 238465Mb, leaving 238464Mb free.

Later...

XP is installed - the only weird thing is - Sally's main XP Hard Drive is not 'C', it's 'F'!

I know how this has happened but now I can't re-name the primary partition. Everything works fine but its drive F not C. The Floppy has a built-in card reader and these two slots took up drives C and D before the Hard Disk was formatted. The CD/DVD drive is 'E' so the primary partition is now 'F'. Oh dear. The only way I can change it is to re-format, but Windows is busy updating right now (84 updates). Perhaps Sally will decide to keep it as 'F'.

Friday 7th September 2007 (Welcome to the start of Pink Icing Weekend)

Citylink delivered the QPack2 case before I left for work today so I knew exactly what I would be doing when I got home. The case looks smart and is by the same manufacturer (Apevia) as Black-Ice.

Two and a half hours into the build and Pink Icing is running Memtest from a bootable floppy. Everything has gone swimmingly - no problems (challenges) at all. I even got the Case LED's Power Switches etc. right first time (after learning from building Black-Ice). The good thing is how quiet it is. You can hardly hear it at all and the QPack2 case came with 2 fans built-in but they appear to be good quality and whisper quiet, as is the included 500W Power Supply Unit.

I have the SATA hard disk to wire up and the CD/DVD drive to install before I can begin the Operating System installs. Pink Icing is going to run Windows XP on one 250Gb partition and Vista on the other 250Gb. Sally does not know how she is going to fill all of that space but I have some ideas to help her out.

Thursday 6th September 2007

Great news today -

Pink Icing - I have been notified by Xcase that Sally's QPack2 case shipped today, so we should get it tomorrow. I can't believe that this has fallen into place perfectly the week after our holidays.

Blue-Ice 2 - Panic over. Apparently, for the Asus P5K Motherboard to talk to the Intel Q6600 CPU it needs to have version 404 of the BIOS installed. The board ships with version 202 - Problem solved. All I had to do was to update the BIOS to v404 via a USB Memory stick and the system boots up fine, telling me that there is no operating system installed. Well, I knew that but it's better than switching off and looping round ad infinitum.

Wednesday 5th September 2007

Xcase were true to their word - the QPack2 case is in stock today and one has been ordered for Sally. Looks like Pink Icing will be 'taking off' soon.

It's blog hijack time again as I am having real problems with Blue-Ice 2. This is great as I like a challenge.

I set up a minimum system, just as I did with Sally's new PC to see if it would POST. The Light was on the motherboard so power was available. I pressed the Motherboard Testing Kit switch and the CPU fan started to whirr, as did the fans on the Power supply. The speaker emitted one beep then the board seemed to reset itself and the power turned off. A few seconds later, it started up again, fans spun up and speaker beeped. This continued for a few times before I pulled the plug. Hmmm. Seems to be stuck in a loop. I was expecting to hear the beep but everything should have remained on and the system would fail because no operating system is present. What to do?

Fortunately, I am building Pink Icing at the same time so I have some components I can swap around. I tried the CPU and Memory in the Pink Icing Gigabyte Motherboard and they worked fine. This lead me to suspect the Asus P5K Motherboard. Was it faulty? I tried the Intel E6320 CPU in the Asus Motherboard and was able to get into the BIOS. Once there, the system remained on. Success - sort of.

So, the combination of Q6600 CPU in the Asus P5K Motherboard was causing looping resets. Could be a Memory Voltage issue but you have to change the voltage in the BIOS and the system resets before I can access the BIOS. Oh dear. Perhaps I will have to return the board to Scan for replacement or a refund.

Then, I read that you can access the BIOS by pressing 'Shift + F1', previously I had been pressing 'Delete'. I also tried just 1 stick of RAM instead of 2 and amazingly this worked. - I was able to get into BIOS. I set the RAM voltage to 1.9v as instructed by the Corsair website and saved the settings. Next, I connected a Floppy Drive and inserted a 'bootable' floppy with the 'Memtest' application on it. This ran for a good 15 minutes without failing so I pulled the plug. Is the Asus Motherboard faulty? I don't know - yet. Perhaps it just needs a SATA hard disk connecting and it will stop looping. I will do some research on the Asus website.

Saturday 1st September 2007

Apologies for the lack of updates - I've been on holiday (lame excuse).

The good news is that in the last week xcase.co.uk (the biggest supplier of PC Cases in the UK) have added the QPack2 case to their lineup. They note it as "available soon". Once I have this case I can finally build Pink Icing ("About time, too" says Sally).

Thursday 23rd August 2007 (Happy Q-Day or Happy SLACR Day)

Over 2 months in the waiting but Q-Day is finally here - I have a SLACR (i.e. a G0 Stepping Intel Q6600 CPU). Three months ago the B3 version of this chip would have set you back £350. Now it has halved in price and improved in design.

However, there is a downside. I have spent the last 3 months checking the price of this chip on a daily basis. I think it will be strange not having to do this again. I will probably occasionally sneak a peek at the price now and again to see if I got a bargain.

Tuesday 21st August 2007

I noticed, yesterday, that Overclockers.co.uk were selling SLACR Q6600's, however, this is the firm who are charging extra for the privilege so I thought it was best to wait for Scan to get them in. I was rewarded for my patience today, Scan are accepting pre-orders and should be sending them out as early as tomorrow. This means I have just enough time to get one before I go on holiday.

Saturday 18th August 2007

Blue-Ice 2 news - Scan have revealed that they expect to receive stock of the G0 stepping Q6600 CPU's on 28th August. Only 10 days away, which is good, but right in the middle of our holidays, which is bad. Perhaps I will seek out a Cyber Cafe in London. First, I had a long wait for July 22nd and now I am waiting for August 28th.

Pink Icing news - We have received Sally's Graphics Card but I can't test it yet. We are still waiting for the Apevia Qpack2 case which is freely available in America but not over here. I have found a German site who will ship it over to the UK and there is one UK seller but they only have the windowless version available. Since windows are an essential design feature, I will keep on waiting and check out the options on returning from London.

Sunday 12th August 2007 (POST day)

I have installed the RAM on Sally's Pink Icing Gigabyte Motherboard, seated the Intel Core 2 Duo E6320 chip in it's socket and placed the Intel stock cooler over it. I then connected the switches and LED's from my Motherboard test kit and connected up my old Q-Tec 550W Power Supply Unit.

Now for the big switch on. Press the switch and ...

... Success - the POST beeps and the chip cooler fan spins into life. The Power LED glows green. We have a working system.

Saturday 11th August 2007

Picked up a real bargain of a Graphics card for Pink Icing today - well, ordered it from Scan. I had not decided on Sally's VPU (Video Processing Unit) until recently. I was looking to spend around £80 and wanted a new DirectX 10 capable card. I had been thinking that 256Mb of memory would be the upper limit but then I noticed a 500Mb 8600GT model available for about £82 from Scan. It was not in stock and I wondered if the price was a mistake but it came into stock today so I have ordered one. At the same time, I noticed the Asus PK53 Deluxe Motherboard was also in stock so I have ordered one of those for Blue-Ice 2. I'm afraid you will have to wait for the new Blue-Ice 2 Blog (coming soon) for more details.

Whilst at Maplins yesterday, I picked up some LED-flashing electronics kits which I intend to replace with pink Leds and stick them inside Pink Icing to give it a distinctive Pink glow from the inside. It is certain that Sally is going to end up with a new PC that is totally unique.

Friday 10th August 2007

Wow, I didn't know such things existed.

Let me explain.

I went to Maplins today and bought a Motherboard Testing Switch Set for a Fiver.

What do you need one of them for?

Let me explain.

Like I said earlier, I only need two major components before I can start building Pink Icing - a Case and a Graphics card. The motherboard has integrated graphics so even the Graphics card is not essential (but it is desirable). Anyway, the Qpack2 case will not be available until later this month but how can I test the components I already have? The case will come with a Power Supply but I have a spare PSU so I could use that. The problem is ...

Where is the Power Switch?

Where is the Reset Switch?

Where is the Power LED?

Where is the HDD LED?

Where is the Speaker?

Answer - they are all in the Motherboard Testing Switch Set I have just purchased from Maplins. This means I can test all of the Pink Icing components before I buy the Case. Result!

Monday 6th August 2007

Not much happening on the Q6600 front - still waiting for G0 stepping to reach the UK but I have some news on Pink Icing.

The Qpack2 case is available to buy in the USA but not over here. I have found a Euro-based E-tailer quoting a date of 15th August and a UK firm have told me it could be selling them in 1-2 months time. I will probably wait until early September which is when I expect to put Pink Icing together.

Tuesday 31st July 2007

Two good things happened today -
1. Sally's Pink Icing components arrived from Scan.
2. Scan have announced they will shortly be selling the G0 Stepping Q6600 but at the same price as the older version. (Good old Scan - they will continue to get my custom).
Up until now, if you ordered a Q6600 it was a lottery as to which stepping you got (probably likely to be B3 Stepping since they will get rid of older stock first). Now, however, you will be able to order G0 Stepping Q6600 and be certain to get one. Whoopppeee!
Of course, the G0 Stepping versions are not in stock yet.....
Monday 30th July 2007
I thought this might happen.
Oberclockers.co.uk are selling a G0 Stepping Q6600 but at a higher price - £187.99. However, they are not in stock yet. I think I will continue to wait.
I have pretty much decided on an Asus P5K Deluxe Motherboard for Blue-Ice 2. The RAM, Hard Drive, DVD etc. are obvious but the Graphics Card has not been firmed up yet.
Sunday 29th July 2007 (Happy Wii Day)
O.K. Truth is, I didn't just cancel the Q6600 CPU from Scan - I replaced it with some of the components for Pink Icing. Next week, Sally should get her Motherboard and CPU, along with 2 GB Memory, 500Gb Hard Drive and a Lightscribe CD/DVD Drive. I have left out the graphics card because I have not yet finalised my decision and the Motherboard has on-board video which is not good enough to use for games, but it is good enough to test the system with.
Sally got a Nintendo Wii Console today, along with Zelda (and Wii Sports) so that takes the pressure off for building Pink Icing. The QPack2 case I am waiting for could be available in August, but who knows!
Saturday 28th July 2007
The Q6600 price is holding at £168.00.
Q. How can you tell a G0Stepping Q6600 from a B3 one?
A. Look at the Product Code on the Box. If the Serial Number ends in SLACR it is G0 Stepping - if it is SL9UM it is the older B3 stepping.
So, I am looking for a slacker and not a slum. (You couldn't make this up).
Thursday 26th July 2007
Scan have dropped the price of the Q6600 to £168.00 (perhaps to compete with YoYoTech). I thought that after July 22nd I would stop seeing these price drops. Good job i cancelled my order.
Wednesday 25th July 2007
Just got a text from Scan to say there is a delay on my order - the Gigabyte Motherboard is out of stock until 30/07/07. Great - this gives me a chance to cancel the Q6600 and wait until G0 stepping versions are in stock.
Sally's Pink Keyboard and Mouse arrived today and looks cool. The good thing is she can use them right away on her old computer.
Tuesday 24th July 2007
Good news - I got a text message from Scan to say that Sally's Pink Keyboard and Mouse is in stock and has been shipped, it should arrive tomorrow.
On the Q6600 front, the price continues to drop. YoYoTech have it at £163.96 (£139.54 ex VAT).
I have also found out about "Stepping".
What is stepping?
Wikipedia defines it as "an aspect of version designation". In laymans terms it means that Intel have revised their chips with newer, better versions. Thus a G0 stepping Q6600 CPU is a desirable object, much better than the old Q6600 B3 stepping. How is it better?
The TDP (Thermal Design Power) for a B3 is 105W, for a G0 it drops to 95W. So the newer chip uses less power. Power equals heat so the new chip runs cooler and this also gives it greater overclocking potential.
Now how to get hold of the G0 stepping version? The problem is that Intel only started shipping them on 16th July and shops will have stock of the old B3 chips to get rid of first. The Q6600 I have ordered from Scan is likely to be a B3.
Sunday 22nd July 2007 (Intel price-drop day)
Finally!
The Intel Price Cut day has arrived.
Pink Icing Motherboard - Ordered.
Pink Icing CPU - Ordered.
Q6600 CPU - Ordered.
Sally's chip is an Intel Core 2 Duo E6320, Socket 775. I went for this because it will overclock well on the Motherboard which is a Gigabyte GA G33M-S2 iG33 Express. Expected delivery date is Wednesday 25th July.
I did not order the memory because it was not in stock yet.
The Q6600 price is the same as it was on Friday. A few shops were selling it slightly cheaper but either their postage was dearer or the other 2 components I ordered were dearer so I stuck with Scan.
Friday 20th July 2007
Another day, another massive price drop on the Q6600 CPU chip. No, I'm only pulling your leg. Actually the price dropped by 10p and that's a fact. I am coming to the conclusion that the price has actually bottomed out now. The crucial point is the ex. VAT price of £150.00. I know that Intel are going to cut the price to $266 in the USA, on 22nd July. I think this will translate to £150 in the UK but then we add the dreaded VAT - hence £176.12 (where's my cheque book?)
Again I need to justify hijacking this blog to talk about the Q6600 but it is so ... interesting. As I say, I track this chip's price on a daily basis and find the price cuts to be astonishing. The good news for Sally is that her Pink Keyboard and Mouse now have an expected date of 24/07/07, so that is not very long to wait. That 6550 chip is in pole position for Pink Icing at the moment.
Thursday 19th July 2007
Wow, the price of the Q6600 has plummeted down to £176.24 (£149.99 ex VAT). Nearly a £60 saving on the price yesterday. It is tempting to order now, but we are not at July 22nd yet. Further price cuts could be imminent.
The Dual Core chips have held their price at around £100 but there are some new ones to choose from.
6320 = £98.69
6420 = £113.85
6550 = £111.61
6750 = £129.24
Which one should I choose for Pink Icing?
I will tell you on 23/07/07.
Wednesday 18th July 2007
It's getting quite close to the 22nd July now. I check the Scan website on a daily basis. The Q6600 price is holding firm at £234.96, but it's only a matter of time.
The Pink Keyboard and Mouse is still not in stock and the Memory I had earmarked has gone out of stock now, but it's due back in on 21/07/07.
The other item of Pink Icing I am waiting for is the case. I have identified the Aspire X-Qpack Silver/Black uATX Aluminum Case and it is currently in stock. However, I know that in the USA you can already buy the Qpack 2 case. This is a more up to date version with a beefier power supply (500W as opposed to 420W). When will it be available in the U.K? I don't know. My guess is sometime around late Summer. We will see.
Saturday 14th July 2007
Friday the 13th came and went. Scan's listing for the Pink Keyboard and Mouse now reads ...
Item overdue since 13/07/2007
Oh dear.
Tuesday 10th July 2007 (Happy one-month birthday for the Pink Icing Blog)
Today, the first components for Sally's new PC - Pink Icing - arrived. What? You did not know I had ordered anything? Hmmm. I may have neglected to talk about that. The reason is ... the fist components for Sally's Pink Icing are ... (dramatic drum roll) ... Pink LEDs. What? Pink LEDs? Yes, Pink LEDs. You see, since I can't get hold of a Pink PC case, my mission objective is to make Sally's PC glow pink on the inside with plenty of windows so that the light spills out. Therefore it needs to be pink light that spills out. This is where the Pink LEDs come in. I have 10 of them for £2. I aim to replace other coloured LEDs from components such as case fans with these new pink ones. The good thing is this is starting to remind me of my Electronics days. I may have to even dust off my soldering iron. The really good thing is it's much easier nowadays due to the Internet. I was wondering which way round to wire the LEDs e.g. Which is the positive lead, and which is negative? No problem - a quick look at the Wiki LED entry tells me all I need to know. Look for some more good news on here around the 13th July. Fiday the 13th indeed!
Saturday 30th June 2007
I realise that I could be accused of hijacking this blog to talk about Blue-Ice 2 when I am supposed to be talking about Pink Icing. To this end I have some news about Sally's new PC. The last time I checked, all components were in stock apart from the Pink Keyboard and Mouse. Now I have an expected date for these of 13/7/07, which is quite close to 22/7/07. Perhaps Pink Icing is not too far away.
Friday 29th June 2007
The prices - they just keep on tumbling down...
Guess how much that Q6600 is now?
Yes, it's only £234.96 (for the first time, the ex VAT price is below £200).
This chip has dropped in price by £100 in just 3 weeks. The only problem is I don't want to buy one in case it drops some more. Perhaps after July 22nd.
Wednesday 27th June 2007
Another week, another price cut. This week the Intel Q6600 CPU has been slashed to £270 at Scan. It's a good job I didn't pay £350 for it a few weeks ago.
Thursday 21st June 2007
Price cuts.
You know I said Sally's new Pink Icing PC would cost around £530 with £10 P+P? Well, now it's down to £490 with £10 P+P? How come? In two words "Price Cuts". As new PC hardware is introduced, the older hardware drops in price. I would never buy 'state of the art' components as the price is far too high. However, invest in tech that's a few months old and bargains can be found.
But guess what?
I am not going to buy anything right now!
The reason is that on July 22nd this year chip maker Intel will launch a new Quad core chip and the prices of all of it's 'older' chips will plummet. This may not make a huge difference with Pink Icing (although it could amount to a £10-£20 quid saving) it will make a huge difference to Blue-Ice 2.
Last year an Intel Core 2 Duo was the way to go, CPU-wise, and indeed, this formed the basis of Black-Ice and will suffice for Pink Icing. However, Intel already have Quad Core chips available and will expand the range next month with a 'domino-effect' of tumbling prices for it's existing products.
Quad core chips have 4 cores - effectively 4 CPU's on one chip. This is great for multi-tasking and ... games. Or, it will be, when game makers get their act together. But they will in the future and so to make as "future-proof" as possible, I will be building it around an Intel Quad core chip.
As I said, Intel have Quad core chips which you can buy now. A few weeks ago, I noticed that a Q6600 could be bought for around £350. After a bit of research and web browsing I got the price down to £329. When I looked earlier this week the price has fallen to £290. However, I am told the expected price for the Q6600 on July 22nd will halve to $250 - about £130!!!
Oh, by the way Bryan, I was careful to make sure that the Gigabyte Motherboard in Black-Ice can be upgraded, in the future, with a Quad core CPU. Just let me know when you need an extra speed boost...
Thursday 14th June 2007
So what components are we going to buy then?
How about...
PC Case - Aspire X-Qpack Silver/Black uATX Aluminum Case with 420W v2.0PSU with Window
Motherboard - Gigabyte GA 965GM-S2 iG965, S775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, uATX, VGA
CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo 6320, Socket 775, 1.86 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, Conroe Core, 4MB Cache, Retail
RAM - 2GB (2x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800), 240 Pins, Non-ECC Unbuffered, CAS 5-5-5-12
Hard Drive - 500 Gb Seagate ST3500641AS Barracuda 7200.9,SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.2 ms, NCQ
Graphics Card - 256MB XFX 8600GT, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1400 MHz,GDDR3, GPU 540 MHz, 2x Dual Link DVI-I/HDTV
Floppy - Mitsumi FA402M 1.44 Ivory FDD+Int Combo 7 in 1Card Reader (SM/MMC/SD/CF/MD/MS) Fits in 3.5" FDD Bay
Optical Drive - Samsung SH-S182M/BEBN 18x DVD±R, 8x DVD±DL, DVD+RW x8/-RW x6, DVD-RAM x12, IDE, Black, OEM, LS
Keyboard & Mouse - BCL Pink Rubber Coated Keyboard (LK-860) andMouse (LM100) Combo Pack
El Neon String - Optx® By StreetGlow™ 10" Neon String - Purple
UV Lights - Sharkoon 4" UV CCFL 2in1 Kit (x2 CCFL Tubes + 1 dualInverter + adhesive Velcro strips)
...So, more like 'Purple Icing' then, given that the case comes with some Blue LED fans and I will be putting purple lights in it which will glow through the 3 windows in the sides of the case.
At the moment, all of these parts are available at Scan except for the pink keyboard & mouse.
They add up to around £530 with £10 P+P.
Sunday 10th June 2007















A new Blog post.

This time it's for Sally's new PC which is going to be called - "Pink Icing".

How do you get hold of a Pink PC case? I have looked everywhere and can't find one, however, in a fit of inverse logic I decided to make the insides glow pink, and the outside can be whatever colour it is. Pink Icing will need plenty of windows to see the pink lights inside glow.

Oh yes, I know you can get a pink PC case in America but we live in the UK...

I have also been thinking of going for a small form factor case like a Shuttle cube. The trouble is, there is a fantastic Transparent Clear Acrylic ATX Cube Computer Case made by Sunbeam, but it's also only available in America. Here's a piccy.

Grandad's Laptop

Thursday 17th May 2007

Major testing day today. I have to :-

1. Set the Projector up.

2. Connect it to the Laptop.

3. Project an image onto the wall in our Living Room.

4. Run a Powerpoint presentation that I, in great Blue Peter tradition, prepared earlier.

5. Watch a DVD supersized in glorious Projecto-vision (there is no such word - I just made it up).

The really great news is - Everything worked perfectly.

I had abit of trouble with switching the resolution between the Laptop's 1200 x 800 display and the Projector's 1026 x 768 resolution, but I managed it in the end. The trick seems to be to set the Laptop to display on the 'Monitor' which in this case is the Projector.

Just a FYI - the DVD we watched was .... The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (the reason we chose to watch this film was that it has a really long title which I have to type out on this Blog. Yeah. Thanks Sally).

Wednessday 16th May 2007

Two large parcels litter the Living Room Floor today (see - I told you to check back today). The box for the carry cas is larger than the Projector box. Unfortunately, due to family commitments arranged many moons ago I do not have much time to try everything out. However, one thing I can confirm is that the Laptop and Projector fit perfectly well in the case together. You get a small carry case with the Sony Projector but even this fits comfortably within the combo case.

Tuesday 15th May 2007

I don't know what you are looking here for. Sally's Grandad's Laptop and carry case did not turn up in the post today. Try again tomorrow.

Sunday 13th May 2007

The projector has been ordered, along with a Carry case. In the end I ordered the Sony Projector with Lamp Warranty, but not from Dabs, since they were out of stock. I got a cheaper deal from Lambda-tek and both items were in stock. The carry case is by TechAir and it will accommodate both the Laptop and Projector. The end is in sight - this Blog may be winding up soon.

What next? Grandma's PC? No, more likely ... Sally's PC.

Friday 11th May 2007

2 x 1Gb Ram sticks of memory arrived today, along with a Mousemat from Scan. I have installed the memory already, with no problem at all. So, for £490 Sally's Grandad has a 2 Gb Laptop which is on sale at PC World for £599. I have also been doing some more research on Projectors. Prices, on the Dabs site alone, range from £292.57 up to £5709.99. The difference is related to 'Resolution'. The higher the price, the greater the resolution (i.e. more detail). The expensive Projectors are HD ready. The trick is to find the best Value For Money. I think an XGA projector with a resolution of 1024x768 should be available for around £500.

A Sony VPL-EX3LMP XGA Inc 3 year Lamp Warranty is listed on Dabs.com for £568.87 inc VAT. Looks like a good deal, but you can also get it for £487.62 from Dabs.com without the Lamp warranty. What to go for? Looks like a decision for Sally's Grandad.

Wednesday 9th May 2007

I have been informed by Scan that there is a slight delay on the Memory, but fortunately, only by one day.

Monday 7th May 2007 (Happy Bank Holiday Monday to all our readers)

I have ordered the extra memory for Grandad's Laptop today. Two 1 Gb Memory modules to take the total up to 2Gb - the recommended setting for Windows Vista. I also added in a mouse mat which will look very familiar to Bryan when he sees it.
Sunday 6th May 2007
Spoke to Sally's Grandad today. First of all, he managed to calm Sally's fears by promising not to fill his Laptop's hard drive with Classical Music MP3s. Then he suggested adding a carry case to the list of requirements. This should not pose a problem, since there are lots to choose from but I would ideally like to get a case which can house the Laptop, projector, mouse and mousemat so that when Sally's Grandad has to give a Powerpoint slide presentation, he only needs to take one bag and everything will be contained within it. I will check out Dabs.com as that is where the Projector is likely to be purchased from.
Saturday 5th May 2007
We made a trip up to Lancaster today to pick up Grandad's Laptop. I went for the Acer Aspire 5612ZWLMi but only paid £399 for it. I also picked up a wired optical mouse for £8. The Laptop was a "Remanufactured" model but in extensive testing it has performed flawlessly. The Operating System - Vista was already installed, along with a few basic applications but there was no Virus Checker. I have added Avast, along with Microsoft Office 2007 and Cyberlink PowerDVD.
Friday 4th May 2007
I have made a definite decision about the Laptop - it's going to be an Acer Aspire 5612ZWLMi but I am not going to get it from Comet. I have found out that a company called Black Box Computers sell reconditioned Acers for £420. The really good news is that they are based in Lancaster which is so close to Preston that I will be able to collect the Laptop in person and save on the postage. The other thing I have found out is that Scan are selling Corsair memory which is compatible with this Laptop for just £31 per Gigabyte. So, the idea is to purchase the Acer Laptop running Vista and then upgrade the memory to 2Gb for an extra £69 (incl. P&P). In all of my searches so far, I have not come anywhere near a Core 2 Duo Laptop with 2Gb Ram and a 120Gb Hard Drive for under £500. The nearest is in Comet but it is priced at £599. This should allow more funds to be directed towards the Projector.
Tuesday 1st May 2007 (Happy May Day to all our readers)
I don't actually have anything to add, I just wanted to say "Happy May Day"
Monday 30th April 2007
Sure enough - another day, another recommendation.
I had a wander around a few Electrical Stores during my lunch hour today.
At the moment Comet have a good offer on an Acer Laptop -
"Acer laptop featuring Windows Vista Home Premium, Intel Pentium Dual Core processor, 1GB RAM, 120GB hard drive, DVDRW & 15.4" widescreen display"
Amazingly, the price is a mere - £479.99
From the start of this search I have been looking for a Core 2 Duo Laptop with 1 Gb RAM and over 100Gb Hard disk for £500. Well at Comet you can get all of that and have £20 change. - Bargain.
For the Projector, head on over to www.dabs.com and take a look at the Sanyo PLC-XW55 2000 ANSI XGA Projector. Here is a bit from the description -
"The PLC-XW55 with 2000 ANSI lumens takes all the hassles from mobile presentation. In addition to the compact, neutral white housing, the PLC-XW55 distinguishes itself with its extremely user-friendly operations. With the automatic signal detection and Direct Power Off feature, there is practically no setup time and you are free to leave right at the conclusion of your presentation."
User-friendly and portable - can't be bad.
The price is good, too - just £468.82 inc. VAT and it's in stock.
Even with P&P to Dabs we are well under a combined price of £1000.
Throw in a corded, optical mouse for under a tenner and we are sorted.
Conveniently, Dabs have the following mouse available for £10.84 inc. VAT -
"Microsoft Basic Optical Mouse Black - Experience the convenience of optical technology at a great value. Replace that old-fashioned "roller ball" with a mouse that works on virtually any surface. It's easy to use, comfortable, and features a scroll wheel."
Sounds good to me...

Sunday 29th April 2007
Another day, another laptop.
After reading the May 2007 issue of "What Laptop" magazine, I might have changed my mind on the Laptop...oh and the Projector.
They do a group test of laptops below £699 and the overall winner is a Samsung R20 (Samsung R20 LWM T2250 - Core Duo T2250 / 1.73 GHz - RAM : 1 GB - HD : 160 GB - DVD±RW (+R double layer) / DVD-RAM - WLAN : 802.11 Super G, 802.11b/g - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium - 14.1" Widescreen TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA )). However, this is priced at £551 and it beats it's more expensive rivals. The cheapest I have seen it is £538 from www.LaptopsDirect.co.uk.
However, they also do an article on Projectors and there is another choice to make - LCD or DLP. Their recommendation is for a Viewsonic PJ358, (ViewSonic PJ358 - LCD projector - 2000 ANSI lumens - XGA (1024 x 768) - 4:3) priced at £589. The cheapest I have found is £587.50 (Big saving!) from Insight.
I am concerned that the combined cost is creeping up over the £1k mark, so I am not sure it represents good value for money. I think the budget is fine and it must be possible to get a combo for under a grand.
Speaking of projectors, I have found out that replacement bulbs for these things cost around £200, however, they do last for 2000 hours...









Friday 27th April 2007
Sally's Grandad wants a laptop.
Apparently he likes to give slide shows and is considering doing so in a contemporary style. i.e. running a Powerpoint presentation on a Laptop computer via a new fangled projector thingy.
This means that Sally's Dad must do some research...
PROJECTORS:
These come in two basic variants - SVGA and XGA.

SVGA Overview

Short for Super Video Graphics Array; defined by IBM; represents a computer graphics adapter capable of 800 by 600 resolution. These devices allow the image of a screen to be projected onto a large white surface such as a wall for the purpose of presentations, university lectures or home use when coupled with an appropriate input image or device.
XGA Overview
(XGA) Extended Graphics Array is a graphics standard developed by IBM that allows the display of 1024 x 768 pixels with up to 65, 535 colors These devices allow the image of a screen to be projected onto a large white surface such as a wall for the purpose of presentations, university lectures or home use when coupled with a DVD.
Well that's a "no-brainer" - XGA it is.
LAPTOPS:
These come in a million different variants.
First of all, Sally's Grandad does not know this yet, but he doesn't actually require a Laptop - what he really wants is a "Notebook". (No, you can't pop down to Stationary Box to get a budget notebook - The very idea!).
Notebook PC's are small and light (portable), with low power consumption for long battery life.
So what to go for then? Dell?
All Notebook PC's have their chassis made by a small number of manufacturers (Samsung, Compal, Asus) and then passed on to the Big Name Brands (Dell, Hewlett Packard, Compaq) to add their badge and mark-up (profit). There are actually only a few ODM (Original Design Manufacturers) making laptop carcasses — the motherboard, case, and integrated display. They distribute their products to OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), who add their choice of processor, hard drive, CD or DVD drive, RAM, operating system and accessories, set it up in a particular way to suit their target market, stick their label on it, and then submit it to varying amounts of testing before selling it with their own guarantee and level of technical support.
Bottom-line - you are paying a premium for that "Dell" badge.
However, Dell sometimes have sales (just like shops), some websites sell refurbished or reconditioned laptops and some firms sell cheap laptops because the box is damaged or missing. Quite frankly - it's a minefield.
At the moment I am weighing up whether to recommend the purchase of an IBM Thinkpad (which is actually quite upgradeable online) or a more modern Core 2 duo machine.
MICE:
OK, I don't have to explain what a mouse is (eek!) Bryan can demonstrate his Logitech one for me, but there is no doubting that Sally's Grandad will need one.
So where does that leave us?
How about this for an initial stab at it.....
Go to www.microwarehouse.co.uk
Lenovo 3000 N100 0768 - Core Duo T2250 / 1.73 GHz - Centrino Duo - RAM : 1 GB - HD : 80 GB - DVD-Writer - WLAN : Bluetooth, 802.11a/b/g - fingerprint - Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic - 15.4" Widescreen TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ) (Open Packaging)
£458.24
Epson EMP X3 - LCD projector
£546.38
Lenovo ThinkPlus Optical 3-Button Travel Wheel Mouse
£14.08
P & P
£5.00
TOTAL
£1024.58
Is that too expensive?
Another thing to bear in mind is the combined weight of the Notebook + Projector.
2.8kg + 2.6kg = 5.4kg
Is that too heavy?
It is early days, so let me know what you think.

Mikie's Blog

Saturday 15th April 2007

What's this? Another post on Mikie's Blog...I thought it was finished.

After setting up Black-Ice, I wanted to 'tweak' Blue-Ice to run as efficiently as Bryan's PC. I also wanted to install a trial version of Vista. However, I kept being thwarted at every turn. I installed some Raid drivers because Vista would not install due to the absence of these divers (supposedly) but it did not work and Blue-Ice slowed to a crawl...then the BSOD's started.

"Enough!" I cried and promptly re-installed Windows XP - essentially starting from scratch, but I did not re-format my hard drive since I had a lot of data on there that I wanted to keep. So I have 2 versions of XP on my primary partition (a menu pops up on booting and asks me if I want to run Windows XP or...errr...Windows XP. Obviously I choose Windows XP and up pops the Tellytubbies green hill. Hurrah. 60 seconds to boot as opposed to seven minutes. I looked at the relevant sizes of the Windows folders - 1.2Gb as opposed to 7.4Gb. I can clear up some hard drive space when I delete the old Windows.

Now all I have to do is to re-install all of my applications. As always, with a new install, I intend to make everything run better than they did in the past.

The next obvious thing to try was to install Vista. I did this from within XP and previously could not get beyond the screen where you choose the Hard disk volume to install Vista on. This time - no problem - I could choose from each of my 3 Hard Disk Partitions. I always intended to put Vista on E-Drive so I chose that and sat back to wait.

Vista only took about 15 minutes to install on Black-Ice so I would not have to wait for long....

45 minutes later and Vista was ready. Great...why does my mouse not work????

Luckily, I kept my old mouse and that works O.K. Interesting concept - New Operating System, Old Mouse.

One more thing to try - Vista gives each machine an internal rating based on the Hardware it finds.

Black-Ice scored 5.0 out of a possible 5.9.

Blue-Ice scored 3.5 out of 5.9.

Wednesday 4th April 2007 (B-Day Plus 2 days and started counting again)

Back to Blue-Ice after a most successful installation of Black-Ice at Bryan's abode. Everything went swimmingly, after we fixed a glitch concerning Broadband which was due to a rogue telephone socket mysteriously appearing in the lounge. This caused initial fluctuations in the Broadband signal which only stabilised after we took advantage of the fortuitous purchase of a twin-socket Micro Filter and re-employed the seemingly redundant telephone extension lead from upstairs to the living room. The only other hiccup encountered was the hi-jacking of the Audio subsystem by a USB peripheral which was switched to the correct Motherboard HD audio, emitting clear and loud sounds from Bryan's twin speaker set-up.

Exactly two calendar months after first being requested by Bryan to design and build a new PC for him, the project has reached a successful conclusion. I wonder why it is that I have a nagging thought at the back of my mind that Blue-Ice would run so much better if I just reformatted the hard disk, re-installed Windows XP from scratch, then added the applications and tweaked them to death. I could also install a trial version of Vista on the second partition of my hard drive.

Oh well, it is the Easter holidays and I now have some time on my hands...or I could just immerse myself in The Shivering Isles.

Monday 2nd April 2007 (B-Day Minus 0 days and stopped counting...) (Happy B-Day to all our readers) (Is it just me, or does "Happy B-Day" sound like a contented piece of bathroom furniture?)

O.K. A few, final, comments, then Black-Ice will be packed up and transported to Bryan's House.

Now that Windows is all set up I thought it would be useful to see how much Hard Disk space is left to fill.

On Windows XP the 195Gb Drive has 145Gb left, so I managed to fill 50Gb. Not bad!

On Windows Vista the 177Gb Drive has 164Gb left, so I managed to fill 13Gb. Room for improvement there!

So, in total, Bryan, you have about 309Gb to fill with your stuff. Should be enough for a month or two.

I have just checked the counter on this Blog and it's up to 101 views. (50 from me and 51 from Bryan).

Thank-you to all our listeners and it's Goodnight from me, and Goodnight from him.

Sunday 1st April 2007 (B-Day Minus 1 day and counting...) (Happy April Fools Day to all our readers)

Bad news Bryan, Black-Ice has just been transported to the Moon. I suspect the Judoon.

April Fool.

Everyone's doing it - even the BBC Web site is affected.

I'm so glad that this Blog has coincided with April Fools Day. The possibilities are endless...

Saturday 31st March 2007 (B-Day Minus 2 days and counting...) (Happy New Doctor Who Day to all our readers)

Getting close now.

It is Bryan's wish to get the counter on this Blog up into three figures. It was on 90 when I last looked so 100 should just about be achievable in the time remaining.

Friday 30th March 2007 (B-Day Minus 3 days and counting...)

I am stress testing Black-Ice today, since it has been running so well, recently. Indeed it was only when Blue-Ice crashed today, that I realised that Black-Ice has not crashed Windows (neither XP nor Vista) from Day One.

During stress testing the temps are 'peaking' at around 40 degrees, so there is nothing to worry about there.

I use a little program called "Prime 95" which ties the CPU up in repeatedly computing Prime Numbers for several hours!!!

Thursday 29th March 2007 (B-Day Minus 4 days and counting...)

Q. What comes after Black-Ice?

A. Shivering Isles.

Explanation - What will Mikie do when Black-Ice has been handed over to it's rightful owner? (Aside from providing Tech Support via Skype)

Time to get colder by entering the Shivering Isles - yes, the first official expansion to "Oblivion" is out now and will be on a hard drive near me, soon...

Wednesday 28th March 2007 (B-Day Minus 5 days and counting...)

Here's a picture of Black-Ice.

Ha! Ha! Only joking.

Vista set-up is going well - It's very nice to look at.

Bryan, you will be glad to know that the Vista rating for Black-Ice is 5.0 points out of 5.9 so that is pretty good.

Tuesday 27th March 2007 (B-Day Minus 6 days and counting...)

I have decided to designate Monday 2nd April 2007 as "B Day".

Why?

Because - Bryan Day

- Black-Ice Day

- Broadband Day

etc.etc.

Sunday 25th March 2007 (Happy Clocks-go-forward Day)

What time is it? Arghhh!!!

Easy Tune 5 does not work - who needs overclocking anyway? I have been reading some bad press about Overclocking and seeing as Black-Ice has been perfectly stable for a while now I am not sure I want to introduce some unstability into the system. I will put overclocking on the back burner for now - I can always come back to it later.

I will spend the time more productively tweaking Windows (XP and Vista).

I have been neglecting Vista for a while now but I plan to give it my full attention next week.

Saturday 24th March 2007

Overclocking Today, by Mikie Scott.

Overclocking can be very techie. i.e. you have to get your hands dirty by delving into the Bios and amending Memory Clock Timings and the CPU front side bus etc. etc.

Or you can do it the easy way and install the "Easy Tune 5" application which came on the Gigabyte Motherboard CD, I wonder which option I will choose?

The original CPU speed is 1866MHz.

For starters, we will attempt a 10% increase.

Friday 23rd March 2007

With the time rapidly approaching when I will hand Black-Ice over to Bryan I have devoted this week to the Windows XP half of the Hard Disk and next week is scheduled for the Vista half. Tweaks and installs have been the order of the day, as well as adding content to the storage space. The nature of this content will remain a mystery, for now.

Thursday 22nd March 2007

The last of Bryan's PC components arrived today - a Skype Phone (£10 from SVP). "What?", enquires Bryan, "Are you telling me that this did not come from Scan?".

No, Bryan - your mouse mat came from Scan but your Skype Phone is from SVP, and another thing - It's not black...

Sunday 18th March 2007 (Happy Mother's Day Mum!)

Time for Vista.

The reason I have split your Hard Drive into 2 partitions, Bryan is to "Dual Boot" Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Your 400Gb has been divided into two roughly equal sizes of 200Gb each.

When Black-Ice is switched on you can choose to boot into either Windows XP or Vista. This gives you the chance to try out Vista but with dependable old XP to fall back on if you need it.

All (!?!) I have to do now is to re-install everything with Vista drivers (I hope I can find Vista Drivers!)

Saturday 17th March 2007

Problems, problems, problems. Although this Blog is about Black-Ice I thought I would detail my trials and tribulations with Blue-Ice to give you an insight into ... "What to do when PCs go bad".

Blue-Ice boots into windows - Crash.

Hmmmm... Try again - Crash

Right - Hit F8, on boot, to enter "Safe-mode".

Windows boots.

Look to see what was installed last. Oh it's Windows Update. Uninstall Windows update. Reboot - Crash.

Press F8 for Safe Mode again and tell PC not to reboot on crashing.

Reboot - Crash. Ahhh, but this time we get the infamous BSOD (Blue Screen of Death).

This tells me that Windows has a problem with file "lzx32.sys" in System32.

O.K. Go to Black-Ice, copy file lzx32.dll to floppy disk. Go to Blue-Ice boot into Safe Mode and copy file from floppy. Paste into Windows/System32 floder - "Windows can't overwrite this file as it is already in use". Damn!!!

O.K. How to repair Windows when it is refusing to be repaired?

Insert Windows install disk and boot from CD.

After about 50 minutes, Windows has virtually re-installed.

Boot into Windows - Success. Yippee!

Now I can write yesterday's Blog...

Friday 16th March 2007 (Happy Red Nose Day - 10p goes to charity for every reader of this Blog)

Wow. Everything is going swimmingly with Black-Ice, but I have had some major problems with

Blue-Ice. However, that is in the future as I'm typing this in the past (or vice-versa), since it's Saturday now but I want to tell you what happened on Friday...(Benchmark Day).

I wanted to lay down some benchmarks, since Black-Ice is stable now, but remember, I have not even begun to overclock it. I installed 3DMark 06 on both Black-Ice and Blue-Ice.

Here are the results:

Blue-Ice

Resolution = 1280 x 768

3D Marks = 596

SM2 = 288

HDR = N/A

CPU = 600

Black-Ice

Resolution = 1280 x 1024

3D Marks = 4736

SM2 = 1838

HDR = 2056

CPU = 1642

Notce how some results are in the hundreds and some are in the thousands!!!

Even at a higher resolution Black-Ice blows Blue-Ice out of the water. Without overclocking, it is about 8 (4736 / 596 = 7.946 actually) times faster!!!

There is no score for HDR on Blue-Ice because the graphics card is not capable of handling High Dynamic Range Lighting, however, Black-Ice has no problems.

I will refer back to these scores when Black-Ice has been overclocked.

Monday 12th March 2007

O.K. Bryan - The Big One - Connecting to the Tinternet...

Virus Checker is installed, Windows XP Firewall is on, insert US Robotics USB Wireless Adapter CD and install the software. I connect the USB adapter when requested and it immediately picks up a signal from my router. I inform the router of Black-Ice's MAC address and we are in business - Time to update Windows. In the background, Avast has already updated it's database - the Virus Checker is now up to date.

Connect to the Microsoft Website and search for updates to Windows XP.

While that is going on there is this Blog I have heard about and I must read it. I am visitor number 55.

Sunday 11th March 2007

I installed some applications yesterday, but not much to write home about, hence no blog post.

Today, I have been testing the CD writing capabilities of Black-Ice - no problems encountered.

I am now going to talk about Viruses. At the moment Black-Ice is not connected to the Internet. This is a deliberate policy on my behalf due to the dangerous nature of the World Wide Web. An unprotected PC can be made unoperable after a relatively short time connected to the internet. The solution is to add protection in the form of a Virus checker. There are some Virus checkers included on the Motherboard CD (Norton and Kapersky) but I have not installed them because they are 2006 versions. Also, all Virus checkers need to be updated regularly and what happens when the licence to the 'free' motherboard CD versions runs out? That's right, you have to pay for an upgrade. This can easily be avoided by installing a free Virus checker which is constantly updated but does not cost a penny. One such program is by Avast - it is the Virus Checker of choice for Blue-Ice and so it stands to reason that I am going to install this on Black-Ice. However, there is a slight problem. Although Avast is free you must register by providing a valid e-mail address. E-mail is not set up yet and Bryan is going to switch to Broadband in the near future but that will not help now. The solution is simple - I can set up a temporary e-mail account for Bryan using my Broadband provider (I am allowed up to something like 20 e-mail users) and once I have the reply e-mail from Avast I can type the Activation code into Avast on Black-Ice and the Virus checker will be activated.

Friday 9th March 2007

Bryan, I have to say, Black-Ice is blisteringly fast. It has gobbled up everything I have thrown at it so far - the 4 CD's mentioned yesterday, Office, PowerDVD.

I have an idea to do some comparative tests with Blue-Ice, i.e. install the same software on both machines and run some timing tests. In computer jargon this is called "benchmarking". More to come.

Up to now, I have been very impressed with the graphical side of Black-Ice, but I have hardly heard a "peep" from it. PowerDVD gave me the idea of trying a DVD movie, but which one?

Tonight, Bryan, the movie I have decided to watch is.........................(long pause)...................................The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

O.K. stick disc in and sit back.

Choose to play DVD Movie with PowerDVD, and....

No sound. Check connections - they are O.K.

Look in Control Panel at Sounds and Audio Devices - No Audio Device. Yes, that could be the problem.

I put the Motherboard CD back in and choose to install the Audio Drivers (originally I chose to install a batch of files from this CD but the Audio must not have completed properly). Black-Ice informs me that I must install Microsoft Bus Drivers first. O.K. so I will install the Bus drivers (this is surreal). Once complete, I have to reboot and I know it has worked because I can hear the Windows Shut-Down tune. I make sure everything else that should be installed has been installed then it's back to.....Oh no! With all this messing about there's no time left to watch the film. (Yeah, like I had like 3 hours anyway - NOT).

Thursday 8th March 2007

I don't have as much time during the week, so things have slowed down a bit, but Black-Ice is really flying. After taking 50 mins to format the Hard Drive Windows XP installed in around 15 mins and the start-up and shut-down times are really quick.

Time for the Driver Installs now - I have 4 CD's to load, in this order...

1. Gigabyte Motherboard Drivers

2. Sapphire Radeon Graphics Card Drivers

3. Samsung DVD Writer Drivers and Software

4. Logitech Mouse and Keyboard Drivers (although both are working fine already).

Wow - up to now the graphics have been relatively low-res but you should see the silky, glossy images from the Graphics Card CD - I think Bryan is going to like his Monitor.

Tuesday 6th March 2007

Well, that was frustrating - ever since the last post I have been in Catch 22 land. I fixed the Floppy Drive problem but even with the required drivers on a floppy disk I could not get Windows (XP AND Vista) to find a Hard Drive to install on. Eventually I figured it must be a Hardware problem (I suspected a loose lead) and sure enough, when I took the Hard Drive out I found the culprit - a loose SATA connection. Now, as I type this, Black-Ice is partioning the Hard Disk, ready to install Windows XP. This PC building lark is a bit like detective work. You have to work what is going wrong and why. Fortunately I haven't been stumped so far.

I have decided to split the Hard Disk into 2 partitions of approx 200 Gb each. The reason for this will become clear in the fullness of time - Trust Me, I'm a Designer.

Sunday 4th March 2007 (P.M.) (Post the hilarious Top gear)

Here's the Catch 22. To install windows you need to format the Hard Drive. You can format the Hard Drive from within Windows but Windows will not install because the Hard Drive is not formatted.

The way around this is to boot the PC from the Windows Install CD which will allow you to format the Hard Drive as part of the install process. However, you need some drivers which are on a Floppy Disk. This is the sole reason I suggested the purchase of a £4.00 Floppy Drive.

So, I started to install from the Windows CD and was asked to insert a Floppy Disk. I put the disk in the drive and was asked to insert a Floppy Disk. Oh Dear! Check the Floppy Disk on Blue-Ice - it's fine. Put it in Black-Ice - Please insert the Floppy Disk.

It was at this point that I noticed the Floppy Drive light was on all the time. Most modern hardware is designed so that cables, leads etc. can only be inserted one way round to avoid errors, but not Floppy Drives. I noticed that the data cable could be inserted either way. I wonder what happens if I change it round...

Success, a working Floppy.

Time for bed, said Zebbedee.

Sunday 4th March 2007 (A.M.)

Guess what? It's nearly ready. You didn't miss much, I have installed the Optical (DVD) drive, Floppy Drive, Hard Disk and Graphics Card - all very straightforward.

I just need to connect power cables to everything internally, then connect a mouse, keyboard and monitor externally - ready for the big switch-on.

The big question is - will it POST?

What's that, Bryan? You don't understand the question?

POST stands for Power On Self Test. All PC's emit a number of beeps when you switch them on and they all mean something. Since we have not formatted the Hard Drive or installed an Operating System (Windows) the first way to test Black-Ice is to check if it POSTs correctly.

Better get those power leads connected then.

Right, that took a while. I had to move the DVD drive from the top bay to the bottom because it shares power with the floppy and the Audio lead was also not long enough.

Wow, just turned it on and got.....nothing - totally dead.

O.K. Check power.

Cable to PSU - yes, light is on.

Must be internal - I suspect the switch leads from the front of the case as this is how you turn the PC on.

Whoops!!!! I have found the culprit. I mixed up the Power Switch and Power LED leads. Once I had inserted these correctly Black-Ice sprang to life. Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Fans are working, Chip Cooler is working, Monitor and Graphics Card are working. RAM is working. The side of the case is off but it is still quite quiet and the front meter shows a temperature of about 35 degrees C in the case. This is good. I can adjust the case fans speed (they are set to slowest speed to start with). Yes, that works fine, even at full speed they aren't noisy at all.

I have left it switched on for about 10 minutes, the temp has increased slightly but nothing to worry about.

The monitor is displaying the following message:-

DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER.

This tells you what to do next - Format the Hard Disk and install an Operating System.

Time for coffee.

Saturday 3rd March 2007 (P.M.)

Ahhh. That was a long coffee.

Time to drop the processor into the socket on the motherboard using the ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) lever. That was easy, now for the Cooler.

It's a Cooler Master Hyper TX Intel, so it's the right type of cooler for an Intel chip, but which way round does it go? I have 4 options - NESW (Never Eat Shredded Wheat). I think the fan pulls air in, passes it over the cooling metal fins and expels it out the back so I will position it with the fan towards the front of the PC case and the exhaust at the back. It goes in easy.

Thanks for the memory. Yes, next up is RAM - 2 Gigs worth. The Corsair menory modules come with heat spreaders already mounted and what colour are they? Yes, Bryan, they're Black. I did not know this when I ordered them - serendipity. 2 chips, 4 banks. I decide to populate the yellow banks, leaving red for future expansion (up to a total of 8Gb) because the reds will be easier to access inside the case. (You may thank me for it one day, Bryan).

Wow, we're really zooming along now. Time to screw the motherboard onto its tray using the 7 stand-offs, then put the tray back inside the case.

O.K. that's done, the motherboard is in the case and the side is on.

Now to make all of the connections. This is where you hope the Case maker and the Motherboard maker are both singing from the same hymn sheet.

No, that wasn't easy. HDD LED, Reset Switch and Power + and - have been connected. Fingers crossed - time for tea.

Saturday 3rd March 2007 (A.M.)

Good morning readers. Don't worry, you haven't missed much - I have put the black front bezel on the DVD drive. It was a bit 'hairy' but I managed to do it.

What's next to do?

How about fitting the Power Supply?

I must say, Bryan, when I ordered the PSU I made sure it was Black. However it is not just Black! It's a superb metallic black colour and looks fantastic. Good job your case has a side window to see all these lovely components.

The other thing to say is that this PSU is 'modular'. That means you only need to connect the cables you require as opposed to other PSU's which have a 'spaghetti junction' of wires spewing out of them. Modular = neat and tidy. This is good since it helps air flow around the case which, in turn, helps to keep everything cool. Excessive heat can cause PC's to crash so it is to be avoided. The other good thing is that you get a free lunchbox to keep any spare cables in so they won't get lost (and there should still be room for your sandwiches, Bryan).

Right, 6 connectors, 2 are pre-determined but the other 4 are standard 'Molex' which power most peripherals. Here's where the choices start. There are also long leads and short leads. A good cable management system is essential but I can always make a stab at it to get the PC working, then 'tweak' the cable routing later. I will use all six connectors.

O.K. PSU is in the case - it's a nice snug fit - I am glad I put the cables on first!

Next - the back panel i/o template. All cases come with a generic one which must be removed and replaced with the one provided in the Motherboard box. Oh it's colour coded - I didn't expect that.

Slight worry there - the generic panel screws out but the Gigabyte metherboard panel clips in. It seems to work O.K. though.

Now for the standoffs. No it's not an arbitration dispute the motherboard 'stands off' the case to avoid short circuits. The case has a convenient Motherboard tray which can be removed to allow fitting of the Motherboard and a few components more easily than within the confines of the case. This is good. Better get it out.

That was easy. I have 7 standoff mounts and 6 holes on the motherboard align with six holes on the motherboard tray - but I want 7 - time to dig out the Dremmell. It's drilling time!

All done - 7 holes, 7 standoffs. Time for coffee.

Friday 2nd March 2007 - WOW!

No text message on my mobile yesterday, so I wasn't expecting much but after speaking to Bryan on the phone, I checked the Scan website where you can track a parcel order using the invoice number and found that all of the items had been dispatched. This meant I would be receiving 3 parcels tomorrow. (well, today actually, since I am writing this Blog on Friday).

Sure enough three parcels were waiting when I got home from work (2 big parcels - monitor and case and a smaller parcel with chip, graphics card, DVD and Floppy). The first thing I did was to check that all of the correct components had been sent.

Good news - everything is in order.

Next I took the Asus 19" Widescreen Monitor out of the box and... Wow! It's impressive.

The case is next out of the box and... Wow! It's impressive.

Bryan - I can honestly say your new PC looks fantastic - and I haven't even started to build it yet.

The other parts are a Black Floppy drive, a Samsung Super Writemaster Dual Layer DVD drive, a Sapphire Radeon XT1950 Pro Graphics Card and the ubiquitous chip - an Intel Core 2 Duo E6300.

Now the fun part starts - putting it all together. ( I hope it all fits and I hope all of the components work). Keep reading this Blog to find out.

One slight problem is that the Monitor's power lead is for a USA socket - i.e. a 2-pin plug. I will have a look in my bag of spare leads to see what I've got. Oh look - a U.K. 3-pin plug monitor power lead - and it's black (Perfect).

What is the first thing to do? - Yes, Bryan, that's right (how did you know?) - put the feet on the case.

Now the case does not come with a manual because you are supposed to download it from the Website. Fortunately I did this ages ago, so I will just print it out now.

~~ Interlude ~~ PLEASE AMUSE YOURSELF FOR A FEW MOMENTS.

What? Back so early? Well, fortunately for you the printing is complete - thank-you for your patience. The manual is 7 A4 size full-colour pages.

One of the criticisms that I read in reviews of this case was that a bag of parts (screws etc.) was rattlling around inside the case when delivered. Well, the manufacturer's have corrected this and the bag is taped inside the case so it can't move around in transit causing damage.

To get at the feet inside I will have to open the case - this means removing the 'Thumbscrews'. Bryan - did you know that your new PC will be endowed with Ancient Torture items?

O.K. Feet are on (Black-Ice has landed). It took longer to type this than to put the feet on.

Let us look at the chip - ever since reading about them around November last year I have wanted an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Oh look - a big huge fan that we don't need and a tiny piece of silicon which we do. Did you know that it's got a three-year warranty? I didn't.

I do hope Bryan has somewhere to keep all of these boxes.

Next up - the Graphics Card. Last March, when Oblivion came out, the hardware everyone 'drooled' over was a Radeon X1900, but at a price. Now, less than a year later, Bryan has the next model up (1950 is better than 1900) for not much more than £120.00.

You get an awful lot of leads with it. Out of it's box and its a thing of beauty - Sapphire Blue (Manufacturer = Sapphire). I hope you will be able to see it through the big window in the side of Bryan's case.

Finally, the DVD drive. ("What about the Floppy?" Bryan asks. There is not much to say about a Black Floppy drive - so I won't).

Back to the DVD - it is beige. Oh no! I did not want Bryan's PC to be 'boring beige'. Just as well then, that it comes with a further two interchangeable front bezels and one of them is black (the other is silver for completeist readers of this Blog). Included on the installation CD is a copy of "Nero Burning Rom". This is good because this DVD drive can write CDText to Audio CD's and Nero is the software needed to do this. This will allow Bryan to create Audio Cd's and the song title text will appear on some Hi-fi systems. Great. Super.

Thursday 1st March 2007

SEVERE WEATHER WARNING!!!

BLACK-ICE is coming....

Yes, Bryan, your PC has a name and its...

"Black-Ice".

Easy really - I always fashion my PC's out of huge blocks of ice. My PC is called "Blue-Ice", consequently, yours is going to be called "Black-Ice".

Tuesday 27th Feb 2007

I started this blog to chart the progress of Bryan's PC and its agood job I did - there's never a dull moment.

Today I took possession of 2 Gb of RAM chips, a Logitech Wireless Keyboard and Mouse and a US Robotics 54G Wireless USB Adapter.

"Hang on." (I can hear Bryan saying) "Didn't you order a US Robotics 54G Wireless PCI Adapter? What have they sent you a USB one for?"

Yes, Bryan, you are right - Scan are great and much better than that mob in Manchester but it appears they have their USB's mixed up with their PCI's. I have informed them of the mix-up although, to be honest, it doesn't make much difference.

Basically, USB (which they have sent) will be external to your PC whereas PCI would be internal.

Read this blog to find out what happens next.

On the good news front I have my fingers and toes crossed for the final six items to be delivered on Friday so that I can start building over the weekend. You never know - although you will if you keep reading.

Monday 26th Feb 2007 (Yes, I know I haven't posted for a while - typical blogger eh?):

The best laid plans and all that...

It seems that Aria have had some problems after trying to upgrade their Customer Ordering Computer System. Oh Dear! The upshot of this is I have cancelled the order with them and am currently trying to re-order everything from Scan. Apparently the graphic card had gone out of stock even though they had plenty when I ordered it. They did not communicate this to me so I heard nothing from them for 12 days. When I did eventually get an e-mail I had already decided to cancel with Aria and re-order from Scan.

The good news - I can actually save £10.00 doing this.

The bad news - I had to choose 9 months interest free finance to allow time for Aria to refund a big wad of cash and this will cost an extra £25.00.

However, looking on the bright side, the end of component ordering is in sight and I can actually get around to building this rig.

Another piece of good news is that Scan have now got Black cases in stock. I always wanted a black case from the beginning so the whole rig will be colour co-ordinated.

Hmm - must think up a name for Bryan's PC. Any thoughts, Bryan?

Thursday 22nd Feb 2007 (Sorry about yesterday's joke - I could not resist it. Just be thankfull that Groundhog Day has been and gone as I would just keep repeating yesterday's post:

I have ordered the last few components after speaking to Bryan on the phone today. The good news is that the RAM price has gone down £5.00 and is even more of a bargain at £133.94. This also means that officially the dearest item is the Monitor - as I said earlier "...as it should be".

In a remarkable U-Turn I have decided to (possibly) post pictures on this Blog to show Bryan what he is getting but I wll not reveal the Case.

Speaking of the case, Bryan asked a weird question today - namely "Is the top of the case Flat?". I told him the truthful answer - "Yes", but what I did not tell him was to beware of the chimney. It appears that Bryan wants to stand some miniature figures on top of his PC case. Well, that's all right, as long as they keep away from THE BLOW HOLE. Ho! Ho! Now Bryan is intrigued.

Wednesday 21st Feb 2007 (I'm going to give up Blogging for Lent):

Tuesday 20th Feb 2007 (Happy pancake eating to all our readers):

A big box arrived through the post today. It contained a Motherboard, Cooler, Power Supply and Hard Drive.

After 16 days we have our first components.

[Just a side note about this Blog - I have just realised that with Blogs you are supposed to put the new posts at the top - well, no-one told me!!!]

The CPU cooler is massive - I will have to check the case dims to see if it is all going to fit - good job I have the manual to hand. Oh it doesn't tell you in the manual. I will check on the Tinternet.

Dimensions(DxWxH)
19.25" x 7.75" x 17"

So the width is 7.75" and the cooler is 6" long - should be alright.

I can now confirm that the Motherboard is Rev 2.0 - Good, the latest version.

Monday 19th Feb 2007:

Received an SMS text on my Mobile to let me know that the first Scan order has been shipped and so is on course for delivery tomorrow (as per the original ETA). I have yet to hear from Aria, so it looks like Scan will win the race - another reason for a second order to Scan.

Sunday 18th Feb 2007:

Sent an updated spreadsheet to Bryan, although I have already changed my mind about some of the items on it...

I am still undecided on RAM. You really need 2GB for Vista and it it best to get two 1 Gb sticks together (matched RAM). The problem with only getting 1 Gb now and a further 1 Gb when Bryan eventually upgrades to Vista is that you are not certain of getting a perfect match. Besides Scan have got a good deal which is now in stock. I am loathe to incur more Postage but I could also order the last few components (Keyboard, mouse and Network Card) at the same time for around £7.00 P&P. This would bring the total build cost to around £900. If this is O.K. with Bryan it is the option I am currently favouring. I put PC World on the spreadsheet as a source for Keyboard, Mouse and Network Card but that was only because I was trying to save on postage.

Downloaded manuals for the Graphics Card (VPU) and Monitor. The Asus 19" Widescreen Monitor has speakers built-in, which is a bonus.

Friday 16th Feb 2007:

To cope with the waiting I downloaded the manuals for the Motherboard and case. I like to read up on hardware even before it arrives. I also read some reviews online.

Wednesday 14th Feb 2007 (Happy Valentine's Day to All Our Readers):

Got the cheque in the post from Bryan so I immediately ordered some components. However, in the time between last weekend and today, two items had gone out of stock at Aria. The good news is that they were in stock at Scan. The result of this is that I had to place 2 orders, one with Aria and one with Scan, so there will be 2 payments for P&P (£12.50 + £11.75). I would have preferred one order, but beggars can't be choosers.

I have not ordered the RAM since I have some doubts as to whether 2 Gb is necessary. Windows XP will work fine with 1 Gb but Vista certainly needs 2 Gb. It may be a year before Bryan upgrades to Vista so he could purchase an additional 1 Gb RAM at that time. Also, there are speed advantages with twin pairs of RAM sticks (e.g. 2 x 1 Gb), which I was going to order but the increase in speed is quite subtle - i.e. it does not conform to my criteria of getting the best bang for your buck. When I looked at the order, the most expensive item was the Memory - which doesn't seem right.

I will order 1 Gb from Crucial for around £90.00. This takes the total spend to £794.17 and I have still to buy a Keyboard, Mouse and Wireless Network Card (All for less than £50). Now the most expensive item is the 19" widescreen LCD which is still an absolute bargain.

Sunday 11th Feb 2007:

Posted an Excel Spreadsheet to Bryan, since his e-mail is not working hence the need for a new PC.

After reading a good article on Tom's Hardware in which an Intel E6300 was overclocked by 81% with the addition of a cooling fan, running on the Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3 Socket 775 M Motherboard, I am now convinced this is the board to go for. I was also unsure about RAM but the answer is obvious. I know it is not worth going above PC2-6400 because there is no real benefit for a lot more money - so I will use Crucial.com to determine compatible RAM at PC2-6400 speed - Simple.

I could post pictures on this blog to show Bryan what he is getting but I think it would be much better to keep him in the dark and keep the end result as a complete surprise. Besides, I'm a Designer - Trust me. I can assure you it won't be a boring beige box!

I know Bryan likes Easter Eggs (especially in DVDs) so I plan on adding a few easy-to-find and some not-so-easy Easter Eggs on that brand new Hard Disk.

Saturday 10th Feb 2007:

Decided to write a blog to keep Bryan informed on progress. He has access to the Tinternet so should have no problems reading this.

Friday 9th Feb 2007:

Read a good article on Tech-Hounds,com about overclocking the Intel Core 2 Duo E6300. Bryan does not know that he wants his chip overclocking but he does (Reason - Bang for your buck). Have not totally decided on the Motherboard yet but this article suggests a Gigabyte P965-DS3P Intel P965 motherboard. I will check on price and availability.

Thursday 8th Feb 2007:
Bryan is considering Broadband. This is good news because I can install a wireless card in the new PC which will pick up my connection to get the PC set up then be ready for the new location. Also there is SKYPE - free phone calls - must remember to include for the purchase of a Skype Phone Handset (£25).

Bryan also requested an A4 GraphPad - not a mainstream component but I will see what I can find.

Sunday 4th Feb 2007:
Bryan wants a new PC !!!
First thoughts -

(Item -Model -From -PriceEx. VAT -Price+ VAT -No. -Total -Notes)
PC Case
Aspire X-Cruiser Black Midi Tower with Window w/o PSU
Aria
£44.00
£51.70
1
£51.70

PSU
580W HiperPower Type-R Modular Black PSU Quiet Dbl Fan aPFC ATX2.2 20/24 Pin (RoHS)
Aria
£47.00
£55.23
1
£55.23

Motherboard
Asrock CONROEXFIRE-eSATA2 775
Aria
£46.40
£54.52
1
£54.52

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, Socket 775, 1.86 GHz, 1066MHz FSB, Allendale Core, 2MB Cache, Retail
Aria
£104.95
£123.32
1
£123.32
Includes Cooler

RAM
Corsair Value 2GB Kit DDR2-533
Aria
£134.95
£158.57
1
£158.57

Hard Drive
400Gb Samsung / 7200 / 8 SATA
Aria
£62.50
£73.44
1
£73.44

VPU
Sapphire Radeon X1950PRO 256MB DDR3
Aria
£107.95
£126.84
1
£126.84


Sound Card
£0.00
Use exist

Floppy Disk
£0.00
Use exist

Optical Drive
NEC ND-5170A-0B 18x DVDRW DL Black
Aria
£17.95
£21.09
1
£21.09

Keyboard
Microsoft Multimedia and Optical
Aria
£10.95
£12.87
1
£12.87
Incl. Mouse

Monitor
19" Samsung SM941BW Widescreen
Aria
£124.95
£146.82
1
£146.82

Modem
£0.00
Use exist

Speakers
£0.00
Use exist

Printer
£0.00
Use exist

Total
£824.40

Hmmm... Seems a bit expensive - I'm sure with a bit of tinkering we can get it down to anywhere between £700-800. There will be P&P to add which is why I am favouring one supplier e.g. Aria.com and plan to get as much as possible in one go.