Technically minded Weblog

It appears that my “news buffer” is finally full.

So let’s start.

First of all, remember that PC I was repairing which had a bad VGA card ?
The owner decided not to repair the PC (probably found someone who will do it for cheaper) so I did not replace/repair anything.

Fortunately, soon after that, I was requested to build and setup a low-mid end PC for Office and light gaming use. They also gave me a non-working old PC to re-use it’s case.
I was also allowed to keep the components from that old PC.
That PC had a dead motherboard (bad capacitors), Athlon 1Ghz CPU (P3 era probably), 256MB of PC133 RAM, a rebranded Codegen 250W PSU (still working, but crappy).

Ok, now about the build.
This build was nearly the same as my new secondary PC build, but without additional VGA card and with a slightly newer CPU (oh, almost forgot a 320GB instead of 500GB HDD):
Gigabyte microatx MB with built-in Radeon HD3100.
2GB DDR2 (Apacer, 1x2GB)
Athlon II x2 250 3.0Ghz (IIRC)
HDD: 320GB Seagate
PSU: FSP 400W
This new build also had an overheating southbridge problem, but the system was stable. My new secondary PC also has this problem (it was indeed southbridge, not northbridge overheating).
As both PCs are running fine, I will probably leave them as they are.

Also, I’ve got some more (bad) news.
This is probably the last (or one of the last) post published to this Weblog via FTP.
This is because Blogger is cancelling “upload via FTP” service due to… lack of users (less than 5% of users use FTP !). The only thing they offer is moving to “custom domain”, which is not an option for me (don’t want to change host).
I’ve found a workaround though. I will need to create a subdomain of ddscentral.co.cc and use the “custom domain” with that.
If I will use this workaround, I will also need to create a new main page for ddscentral.co.cc, otherwise my host will block my account as having no real site on it. I will probably use one of those free web or PHP templates (I have tons of them) for this purpose and customize it to my needs.

I just don’t understand why almost nobody uses FTP. Maybe because most users are novice or just don’t use a real hosting service.

Whoa! first post for 2010.

Some PC news.
I’ve reinstalled the heatsink properly using thermal grease.
Darn. That northbridge chip gets really hot. About 71C when loaded, 62C idle.

The chipset temperature seemed a bit too high for me, so I’ve sent the system to the shop (the same shop, where I buy most of my PC related stuff) for testing. They did not find any problems and said that it’s normal for the northbridge to be that hot.
Well, I will try loading the system and see if it remains stable. If it is unstable, I will probably RMA the motherboard.

Also, I have another PC that needs fixing. That PC has a bad (and crappy) power supply and a bad video card with blown capacitors (Club3D GF6600LE PCI-E).
I will either send the card for repair (the shop where I buy PC parts offers re-cap services) or replace it (the system owner will decide).

I was building my new system today. But I didn’t complete it.
While inserting the board into the case, I accidentally detached the chipset heatsink (my finger slipped). It would be easy to simply reinstall the chipset heatsink but I don’t have any thermal grease or thermal pads (after all, I don’t build PCs every day) to reinstall the heatsink.

I will need to find some grease or pads to put that heatsink where it was.
Will think of something tomorrow.

I hate having problems on such a nice day.

Parts have arrived 2 days ago.
The system will be:
CPU: AMD Athlon II x2 240 (AM3)
Mainboard: Gigabyte MicroAtx w/ AMD Chipset. AM2+ (AM3 ready)
RAM: 2GB Kingston DDR2 CL5 (2x1GB)
VGA: Gigabyte ATI Radeon HD4670 1GB (w/ Zalman Cooler)
HDDs: 500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA2, 640GB Samsung F1, 500GB Hitachi (external Iomega), 320GB Hitachi (external LaCie, slim). All from my main PC (will leave 2x160GB Samsungs alone. Should be enough for few more demanding games).
ODD: Not sure. Either Optiarc DVD-RW from my secondary or LG BD-RE from my main PC.
FDD: What ?
PSU: 400W FSP (not much room for expansion).
Case: some generic ATX tower (old case of my main PC, before upgrading to Antec 900).

Will probably start building tomorrow. Will post an update when the new system will be completed (or maybe earlier).

Happy holidays everyone !!

I have ordered the parts for my new build.
Parts list:

1. Athlon II x2 240 2.8Ghz CPU (Socket AM3)
2. Radeon HD4670 1GB VGA (Gigabyte)
3. Gigabyte MicroATX board AM2+ (with AM3 support, don’t remember the exact model, this board has AMD chipset)
4. 400W FSP PSU

As you can see, this will be AMD based build (I would prefer Intel and Nvidia instead but AMD parts are cheaper and this is not a high-end build)

I will take out 2x1GB RAM sticks and 2 HDDs from my main PC. For optical, I will either take the LG BD-RE from my main PC or Optiarc DVD-RW from my secondary PC.

This new PC will also need a name.

Will post an update when the parts arrive (or maybe sooner)
That’s all for now.

I’m planning to build a low power (400W maybe) PC which I will use as a File Server, DNS server, Web server, a TV (using IPTV) and a light gaming machine.

I already have a untested P4 CPU (2.4Ghz, Northwood Core 533 FSB) which I’ve salvaged from a dead Gigabyte motherboard (bad capacitors) a while ago. I also have 1GB of DDR2 RAM and I can get another 2GB from my main PC (it won’t need 6GB RAM without VMWare running anyway). I can also get some HDDs from my main PC (it won’t need 2.1TB just to store 10 or so newer games).
I already have the case (original case of my main PC, before I upgraded to Antec 900).

I don’t know if P4 CPU works (don’t have any socket 478 board) and I don’t want to waste money on socket 478 board in case if P4 is bad. So I will probably just get a low power AMD Athlon instead.

I will also need the PSU. I will probably get one of these Delta OEM Chieftecs.
I also think about getting some cheap PCI-E videocard so I can do some light gaming.

These plans are not final yet. I haven’t yet ordered any parts.
But I need to get this system built until the end of the year because electricity prices will rise dramatically (by about 30%) and I already pay too much for the power used by my main PC.

That’s all for now.

Decided not to buy that HDTV STB thing. That’s because my ISP gives non-hdtv one for free and my old CRT does not support digital anyway.
I will probably upgrade to HDTV STB when I will get a LCD TV (that’s probably when the old CRT TV dies which probably won’t happen in near future).

I will wait until December and buy some hardware upgrade. Just haven’t decided yet what to buy (probably not another HDD).

After returning from my African holiday (Nov 14-21), the first thing I’m planning to do is to get a new piece of hardware.
No, it’s not an upgrade for my main PC. It’s a DVB-T box with a 160GB hard disk and a USB port which supports flash drives and supports AVI (probably DivX, Xvid and maybe MPEG2), MP3 and JPEG. It also has HDMI port and supports HD channels.
Our ISP sells it for cheap along with their digital TV service. The channel set is similar to that offered by their IPTV service (which I use now).
The good thing is that I can now use this device with my main TV (a good old Panasonic CRT) and leave the IPTV for computer use only. This would allow me to watch anything I want on my PC (instead of having to watch the same channel on both my main TV and my PC) and also this would free up 4.5Mbits of bandwidth when I’m not watching TV (which is a lot of bandwidth for me because my line is just 6Mbit).
The HDD is pretty small’ish but I think it can be upgraded because most of these video recorders and DVB-T boxes use standard PC hard disks (unless there’s a hardware lock like in some Pioneer DVRs).
OK, enough for this post.

Darn. I should have posted this three weeks ago.
My BD burner is OK. It’s just those crappy Chinese BD-Rs.
Tried a Verbatim 2x, recorded at 8x without problems.(Too bad Vetbatim media is expensive).I’ve also tried another one of those Chinese BD-Rs (made by Infosource), it recorded without problems but had like 600 read errors at the end of the disc (and that’s before I canceled the verification).
Also, ImgBurn worked better than Nero 8 when recording BD-Rs (and ImgBurn does not care about max write speed returned by blank media).

That’s all for now.