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.
