So what’s new…

Well quite a bit has happened in the last few months, where to start.

For one I have finally gotten rid of my SE P1i and have a BlackBerry Bold as a replacement. The change was really prompted by the support of html email on the Bold, a feature the P1i unfortunately doesn’t have. The number of work related emails I began to receive had doubled so I thought it was definitely necessary and I can say I am more than happy with the switch.

I also decided to take the plunge and build a rig again, something I had been putting off for a while. I picked up a ThermalTake Armor + LCS and gave it a go. I’ve been very pleased with the results seeing as the average temperature here is around 30° C on any given day. Although the case was a little pricey I gave it a try and can say it was definitely worth it. In addition to that I bought some LED 120mm fans and 1 more pump and radiator for extra cooling as I had all intentions of overclocking my Q6600. I managed to get it to average at 40° C idling which isn’t bad at all seeing as the room it’s in is nearly that hot anyway. Under load I haven’t gone over 60° C.

Anyways here’s my specs:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 2.4GHz (OC to 3.2GHz)
MSI 7519 Neo Mobo
4GB Corsair DDR2 PC6400 (4×1GB)
320GB Western Digital HDD
500GB Western Digital HDD
BFG 8800 GTS 320MB OC
Windows 7 RC 64 bit (build 7100)

Aside from the GPU getting extremely hot everything runs like a dream. I will probably drop in a new graphics card when StarCraft II comes out. When I get some extra cash I will also setup a raid array with a couple 1TB drives, the price on those has come down recently.

There is more to tell but I will have to save that for another post, the rigours of work has taken its toll on me today and I need to rest.

The first step

I decided to get going with my plans to get back into game programming but was met by an obstacle at the first step. I attempted to install Visual Studio on the laptop I’m using at home at the moment but the optical drive isn’t working!

I found this odd because I re-installed Windows about 2 weeks ago and it worked fine. I just didn’t have the energy to start diagnosing the problem but I suspect it has to do with the laptop seeing the end of its days. Over the last 2 weeks I’ve noticed that it has been overheating regularly even when the CPU is idle. I bought a laptop cooler which sits under it and has 2 80mm fans blowing on it and that seems to keep at a decent temperature.

I guess I have to go out and build a new system, nothing fancy but something that won’t give me as much of a headache as this laptop has. It reminded me of why I despise them so much. I don’t mind so much anyways because I wanted to build a nice system in preparation for Starcraft2 and because I have started playing WoW again.

More time with the P1i

I wrote my impressions of this phone a while back and all in all I was happy with the phone. This is more of a revisit of its features.

I recently had the BlackBerry service enabled on my sim card as it was necessary for me to stay up tp date with my work email. I have to say I have been impressed so far with it’s use of the BlackBerry connect software, it’s almost or just as good as a BlackBerry. The one little issue that disappointed me was the lack of a BlackBerry messenger but I can live without it. I hope this is something Sony addresses in the near future whether it be for this model or future handsets.

A major issue I had was the battery life of the P1i when I first received it. I’m happy to say after several charging cycles I have noticed a big improvement. The battery seems to last a lot longer now which is a relief as I am always making or receiving calls. Now that I added the BB service as well I feared that it would suck more energy out of the battery but I was pleasantly surprised as it appeared to have a small footprint on battery usage.

I am still very pleased with my purchase and it’s great I can have most of the functionality of a BlackBerry without having to own one. Don’t get me wrong I think BBs are good handsets but I like the media capabilities and design of Sony Ericsson handsets so I get the best of both worlds.

After owning this model I would definately invest in another Sony Ericsson handset when I plan to upgrade I just hope they address some of the nigly issues with this model.

No gaming rig :(

It’s been a few days since my last post but that hasn’t been intentional. I’ve been working so hard the last week and a half that almost every night I’ve crawled straight into bed after I got home. Working these 12 – 16 hour days were starting to take it’s toll so I’m relieved the weekend has come.

Anyways as I mentioned in an earlier post that I was planning to build a gaming rig in the coming months but after some reflection I have decided to put that on hold indefinitely. I wanted it ready by the time Diablo III & Starcraft II were released but right now to splash out on such an expensive piece of hardware doesn’t make sense. I hardly have time to play my PS3 which has numerous titles on the way for the winter season I might add. So spending a couple thousand dollars on a rig I will use maybe once or twice a week is a waste really.

As an alternate however, I did build a Window Media Center PC this weekend because I was tired of watching my movies from a laptop. Here are the specs:

• IN Win BT610 Slim profile media case
• Asus P5N-EM HDMI
• Core 2 Duo E4600
• 2GB DDR2 800MHz RAM (2×1GB)
• 1TB SATA HDD
• SATA DVD-ROM
• Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)

The beauty about this particular Asus mobo is that it features HDMI out so I can hook it straight to a HDTV without the fuss of getting a DVI – HDMI cable. I haven’t put it through its paces yet because I’m copying over my library but I hope to give it a good thrashing this weekend.

I’ll post some pics of the final build tomorrow after I’ve slept.

UPDATE: As I said I would post some pics but I have setup the media center already and can’t be bothered to move it now (I’m being lazy). So here is a link the the product page where you can take a closer look. This is a low profile case and the only issue I had with it was fitting the HDD. There didn’t seem to be a enough space to fit it and the mini extractor fan which was disappointing.

Big Rig – Introduction

I decided that I would put together a new gaming rig to celebrate my new job since I currently don’t own a PC.

I will be buying the components over the next few months and will document each stage until the final build is complete. I have been scoping out the parts already and have a pretty good idea what I’ll get and from where.

The first most important part I will be looking at first is the case. Any good system must have a solid foundation and I don’t plan to make any short cuts in this department as space and cooling are of the utmost importance.

Stay tuned for further updates.