TechDribble

Upgrading my PC

July 4, 2009

Every 12 to 18 months i go thru the process of upgrading the motherboard and CPU. For a small cost I get a performance upgrade. Depending I my needs and what I have changed since the last upgrade there may also be an upgrade in memory, graphics card and HDD. In the last upgrade I did all this plus installed a bigger power supply. I have been using the same Antec case for the last 3 years. Its big and give me plenty of room to move.

The specs before my upgrade were

O/S – Vista Ultimate (64 bit)
Processor – Intel Core 2 Duo – 6600 @ 2.40GHz
Memory – 3GB
Video – Nvidia GeForce 8600GT – 512mb
HDD – 1 x 120GB SATA (Primary) – 1 x 500GB SATA – 1 x 1TB SATA
DVD/CD Combo reader/writer
Memory Card reader
Monitors – 21″ Samsung 215tw(1680 x 1050) – 24″ Dell (1920 x 1200)
Keyboard & mouse – Logitech MX3200 wireless
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS
Altec Lanseng 621 Speakers

The specs after the upgrade are (new parts in bold)

O/S – Vista Ultimate SP2 (64bit)
Processor – Intel Quad Core Q8300 2.5 GHz
Motherboard – MSI P45 Neo3
Memory – 8GB DDR2
Video 9800GT – 512mb
HDD – 1 x 150GB 10,000rpm (Primary) 2 x 1TB SATA (1 of the TB drives is new)
DVD/CD Combo reader/writer changed from IDE unit to SATA unit
Memory Card reader
Monitors – 21″ Samsung 215tw(1680 x 1050) – 24″ Dell (1920 x 1200)
Keyboard & mouse – Logitech Wave 2.4 / Logitech MX1100 Mouse both wireless
Altec Lanseng 621 Speakers
Power Supply -OCZ StealthXStream 500W SLI

It runs nicely and scores 5.9 in all categories on the Windows Experience Index. The fast primary makes program opening very snappy. One of the TB drives is a “Green” drive and there is a 1-2 second delay before the drive spins up. Not a major issue but I wouldn’t use one as a primary.

A majority of the parts where sourced online or from a local contact. For online I can recommend PC Case Gear. Great prices and great service.

My next upgrade may or may not be to Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit. The pricing of Windows 7 upgrades (I want to do 3 other machines as well as this one) is on the high side. I was running Windows 7 RC on my HTPC (built between main PC upgrades) and really liked it but I have not had any issues with Vista on any of the 3 PCs that run it (one older one runs XP – this will upgraded later this year) and with the pricing on 7 I find it hard to justify the OS upgrade. It will be a wait and see on the OS upgrade.

Posted in Microsoft, Tech, Upgrade, Vista, Windows7 | Leave a Comment »

Windows 7 Beta – early impressions

January 13, 2009

Technorati Tags: Windows7

I downloaded the beta of Windows 7 on the weekend and installed it in a virtual PC. There was no issues there the install was smooth and straight forward. So far its been pretty good and certainly very stable and cant be that far off of being fully cooked.

Now a couple of things that I dont like.

01 - Windows Media Player 12 – no podcast support still and I couldn’t find the media player toolbar that shows when I minimize it as it does with Vista/XP with media player 11. There is no excuse for this and I can only hope this will be rectified before the final release.

02 – the second is the new taskbar. I gave it a chance but I prefer the way I use the Taskbar and Quick launch bar combo in vista and XP. With windows seven it appears to a combination of the taskbar and the quick launch that feels like a step backwards to me. To see what is running it is not always obvious because the indicators on the taskbar are so subtle. With some programs if I want to launch a second instance I cant click on the taskbar that just max or minimizes the currently running instance. I have to go thru the menu to launch a second instance.

this is how I work with the taskbar / quick lauch bar in Vista/XP. I can see what is running easily and can launch new instances quickly and with one click.

whereas the Windows 7 bar looks like this.
Here you can see firefox running but when you have a few apps running it can be harder to pick.

At this stage I wouldn’t be looking at upgrading from Vista straight away. The taskbar feels like a step back and like Microsoft is trying to emulate the Apple dock which am not a fan of either. It just feels like its half complete and as a result is half as useful

Update: I have learnt of the centre mouse button press to launch a new instance. In someways this is even worse when in Visual Studio and FireFox I middle click to close tabs

Posted in Microsoft, Upgrade, Vista, Windows7 | 2 Comments »

Random music

December 21, 2008

I am not a religious person but I do believe in the power of the human spirit. Every now and then you come across a song that talks to you or just feels comfortable. “Watch over me by Bernard Fanning” is one such song.

I will let the song explain

Posted in Music, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

True Talent – Lisa Lavie

December 10, 2008

Sometimes not being perfect is itself perfection. With a song some of the best performances are those where the emotion of the singer really connects with the emotion of the song

In the following video I think Lisa’s rawness and emotion really makes this performance. To quote Lisa “I had laryngitis that night and I was so tired and emotional drained”. This performance of one of my favourite songs gave me goosebumps and made me tear up thinking of people who I have lost. It makes me thankful that true talent like Lisa still exists.

Posted in Lisa Lavie, Music | Leave a Comment »

The Xbox 360 “NXE”

October 18, 2008

Despite Microsofts pathetic Xbox 360 support I managed thru the help of the retailer to get it replaced and I upgraded to 360elite. However now with the new interface coming I may regret it.

Just spent a bit of time looking at the new vbox 360 interface. Talk about "wii wannabe” . It looks juvenile and Microsoft should be honest and rename the console the Wii360. I already have a Wii I dont need another one.

What really gets me is this from the FAQ

Q Is the Update optional? Can I keep my old interface if I want to?

A Why would you want to? The New Xbox Experience is the same experience you had before and so much more! As a matter fact, the blades that people have come to know and love are integrated directly in to the guide button so that every aspect of the Xbox experience is always only one button click away. The new Xbox experience is built with community as its foundation and requires everyone to upgrade

Why would I want to ? Why wouldnt I and why should I if I dont like this new interface. The arrogance oozing from this reply is just amazing I guess they learned that from the Vista team. I can see the people responsible for the upgrade have a caught the “smug”.

Posted in Arrogant, Microsoft, Xbox360, pathetic | Leave a Comment »

Things that Annoy Me.

September 18, 2008

Its been a while since I been here so I guess I should write something couldn’t think of anything vast so thought I would write a few things that annoy me.

Itunes for Windows – the boring grey drab interface. It looks badly out of place on windows machines. Apple do suck at writing software for windows.
Itunes for windows – why is not capable of monitoring folders and adding any new content automatically. Windows Media Player does it. It is not that hard.
Safari for windows – why the hell did apple both with this poor excuse for a browser. It cant even render fonts clearly. It also provides further proof that Apple suck at Windows software.
OS fanboys who assume switching to their OS of choice will cure all your ills. GET OVER IT AND SHUT THE FUCK UP!!. Just because it works for you doesn’t mean it works for everyone. Despite what they think a lot of people use another OS because they want to.
Vista FUD – the media and alleged experts are responsible for most of this. Despite what they tell U it will not cause your immediate death or will your computer blow up. I run it on 3 computers and guess what I am still alive and I like it.
Google Gmail – FFS Google give people the option to turn conversation view off. Despite what you think not everybody thinks it is a great thing and fix up IMAP so it works properly if I say on my client to exclude a “folder” don’t continue to download it.

On another note lets talk about communicating with the community. Microsoft cop a lot of heat for a lot of things but out of Apple, Google and Microsoft, Microsoft is miles ahead of the others. A lot of the teams and individuals at Microsoft have blogs. Apple like there hardware and software is a closed shop. Sure google has blogs but how many allow you to leave comments and how many of their authors supply contact emails ? Not many, if any to quote Scribe. The Microsoft blogs nearly all allow you to leave comments (even bad ones) and many provide contact emails. Most of them will go out of there way if you have a genuine query or issue to help you. So well done to Microsoft for this you should be congratulated for the effort you put in.

Ok thats enough from me. Catch ya later.

Posted in Apple, Fanboys, Microsoft, Tech, Vista | Leave a Comment »

Apple Fanboys

July 9, 2008

I have written before about fanboys but I am going to again.

Apple fanboys are the most arrogant, ignorant and pathetic people I have ever come across. Firstly I am not talking about the majority of Apple users who are sane reasonable people who use Apple hardware/software because it does the job they need it to do and respect it for what it is. You can hold a normal reasoned conversation with one of these people and they are the people who are most helpful with people new to Apple.

Fanboys on the other hand have tunnel vision and believe their view is the correct view and anything that goes against their view is rubbish and must be wrong. Any criticism of Apple is not justified in their view regardless of facts and common sense. They do more damage to Apple than good. Blind faith in anything is dangerous. You need to be able to see the big picture to make good decisions. To fanboys using Apple products will cure all your problems even if they don’t know what your problems are.

Fanboys are the tools that line up to be the “first” to get a product (see the iphone 3G lines). Its sad to think they need to do this and that in their life they cant find something more constructive to do.

Posted in Apple, Arrogant, Fanboys | Tagged Apple, Fanboy | Leave a Comment »

Xbox360 support is pathetic

May 23, 2008

I have owned a Xbox360 for about 8 months now and haven’t had a problem with it. Its stored in a very well ventilated area and is kept dust free.

Anyway the other day I was playing Forza2 and towards the end the display started breaking up. I dint think to much as it went away and I turned off the unit as I had finished playing. A few hours later I tried to start and I get 1 red light and a E74. I looked up the error on Microsoft’s site and went thru all troubleshooting (different cable, removed HDD and unplugged from network).

Next step was to get onto the website service.xbox.com and check my warranty. After registering I am informed by the site that my warranty has expired. WTF!!! when I went to school 8 does not equal 12.

I attempted to call the support line and after being in hold for 20 minutes without answer I hung up. I then decided to contact support from the website. Talk about inept. You ask basic questions and you get an totally unrelated and pointless answer. I may as well written about growing grass for the amount of attention they seem to pay. Its just not 1 occasion its been 4 at this stage. I feel like I am banging my head against a brickwall the support is absolutely hopeless. I have tried to call them 2x since and both times given up after a long period on hold and call back well lets just say I am still waiting

At this point I have gone out an ordered a PS3 because regardless what ends up happening with the Xbox I have had enough of this pathetic incompetent support.

Update: several more email and load of pointless answers. Picked up the PS3 today and all is going well.

Update 2 : 17 emails this weekend from support and not a straight answer amongst them. At least they are consistently pathetic.

Update 3 : 10 more emails and still not a straight answer or any attempt to actually help. XBOX360 support is beyond useless

Update 4: a list of the support ticket numbers I could find

SRX1068079470ID
SRX1068149549ID
SRX1068146782ID
SRX1068134712ID
SRX1068133281ID
SRX1068156199ID
SRX1068157979ID
SRX1068160690ID
SRX1068220202ID
SRX1068378360ID
SRX1068506525ID
SRX1068564584ID
SRX1068602819ID
SRX1068603676ID
SRX1068606516ID
SRX1068689044ID
SRX1068054023ID
SRX1068044021ID
SRX1068041998ID
SRX1068077773ID
SRX1067878722ID
SRX1067969544ID
SRX1068713932ID
SRX1068782741ID
SRX1069037263ID
SRX1069129126ID
SRX1069140309ID
SRX1069239125ID
SRX1069334549ID
SRX1069414566ID
SRX1069483804ID
SRX1069541146ID
SRX1069568403ID

My advice would be to avoid the Xbox360 like the plague and get a PS3 instead. Once microsoft have your money thats when support stops being useful.

Update 5: Vincent called today and left a voice message (it was 11am and I was at work so why they would call at that time I have no idea). He wanted details of my problem that I have detailed several times already to support. The level of "patheticness" shown by support continues to amaze me.

Update 6: Vincent called again today he obviously has no concept of time as it was nearly 2pm and again I was at work.

Update 7: Still going. Dont really care about the xbox anymore which is much the same attitude Xbox support has towards customers.

Posted in Microsoft, Xbox360, pathetic | Tagged Microsoft, support, Tech, Xbox360 | Leave a Comment »

Good Music

May 22, 2008

Ok I originally had part of this in a previous post but I thought it deserved its own post.

This week I have purchased 2 albums which while being different are both consistently great.

Lisa Lavie

Last week Lisa Lavie released her debut CD “Everything or Nothing” on Itunes. I would encourage everybody to have a listen and if you like you should buy the CD from iTunes as I have. Every track is quality and highlights Lisa’s talent not only as a singer but as a songwriter. Do yourself a favour and check the CD out. Check out the video below.

Gabriella Cilmi

The second album I purchased this week was young (16 years old) Australian artist Gabriella Cilmi. Called “Lessons to be Learned”. This cd has a definite 70s feel and like Lisa’s CD is absolute quality. Check out the video from her first single “Sweet about Me” below.

I can highly recommend both CDs.

Technorati Tags: Music,Lisa Lavie,Gabriella Cilmi

Posted in Gabriella Cilmi, Lisa Lavie, Music | Tagged Gabriella Cilmi, Lisa Lavie, Music | Leave a Comment »

Random Stuff and Rants

May 21, 2008

Technorati Tags: Uncategorized

Ok this post isn’t about anything in particular just my thoughts on some things. Some good and some bad.

Digg

Like many I am an occasional vistor to Digg.com. It constantly amazes me the amount of lists and pointless headlines exist. For example as I look at Digg now I see

Top 10 Fights in Movie History
Seven things we want from the Hobbit
8 Diets That Will Make you Sh*t your Pants
Top 10 Animated Videos From Radiohead’s In Rainbows Contest
10 Strangest Names EVAR (this ones both a list and misleading and misspelled – the EVAR part is pointless and sounds like a excited 10 year old.
5 Giant Holes That Devoured Everything Around Them [pics]

thats only a example from the first 2 pages. Headlines with “Best Ever” and “Must See” seem to exist in abundance and I am pretty sure none of them are the “best ever” or I must see other ones. Those sort headlines just scream of idiots trying to attract attention to themselves and apparently the population of idiots is enough to get them to the front pages on digg. I just ignore those items for the crap they generally are.

Commenters

It amazes me (when I should really know better) the amount of pointless comments that are posted on forums and places like youtube. With TV shows you get the constant “the new ones are not as good as the old ones” without offering any reason why except their “expertise” . You also get the comment (mainly on youtube) “That was crap” or “that wasted x minutes of my life” or “I could do better”. Here’s a clue people if you don’t like something don’t spend x minutes watching it you are free to look and listen to other stuff and if you can do better either put up or shut up. I realise alot of these are mindless trolls but they ruin the experience for everyone. Of course you are free to criticise contributors but if you do at least make it constructive and well thought out. “You suck” doesn’t qualify and either.

Ebay forcing Australians to use Paypal

Ebay in Australia have decided that from Jun 17 all sellers must use paypal in a majority of cases. Ebay claim this is for buyer protection but I suspect it is more to grab more fees. Guess who owns Paypals. I would encourage all Australians to look elsewhere at places like http://www.oztion.com.au/ that treat their customers with some respect something which ebay has trouble doing.

Read article at APCMAG

Posted in Tech, Uncategorized | Tagged Tech, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »