Ok, after all this talk and hot air, I finally bought some parts. I ended up getting everything. I’m going to be giving my current machine to Liz after everything is said and done.
Antec P150 case - $50 at outpost.com
2gb PC3200 Kingston Value RAM
Asus A8N32 SLI - Deluxe
AMD Opteron 165
(2) 160gb WD SATA 3.0 drives for a RAID 1 windows config
(1) 320gb WD SATA 3.0 for data
Gigabyte GeForce 7600GT PCI-e16 with a heatpipe
Samsung 18x DVD+/- w/Lightscribe
Lite-On DVD drive
My current machine has a nice DVD-RW drive that I can always use if I need to. I’ll be able to use the SLI in the near future if I’d like to pick up a second card when prices are down. The dual channel memory will be nice and I’m liking the idea of a RAID 1 config for my windows drive. My data consists of mainly video files that are TV shows so it’s not like that will be crucial to back up. I can always get that back again.
Like the video card, the motherboard also has a heatpipe on the north bridge. That should help cut down on the sound. The case is supposed to be super quiet and has a 120mm fan in the back. It’ll be interesting to see how loud everything is once it’s put together and running. I’m going to just go stock fan/heatsink for now on the processor. Yes, I know the 165s are ‘like the best cpu ever for OC’ing’. I can rev it up to at least 2.2ghz with that and if I want to I can always get something bigger and badder to push it closer to 3.0ghz. For now, I just want a working machine.
Here’s my current thoughts. I’m pretty set on the motherboard and processor. I’m getting the RAM so I can use the dual-channel memory features. I could go cheaper on the video card. That wouldn’t be hard to do. The hard drives aren’t necessary, but I would like to put them in a RAID 1 configuration.
Still need a case. I’m looking at two deals right now. Telman has one for sale and Justin, Liz’s cousin, has one for sale too. I’ve decided not to be brave and take the Vista plunge. I took the plunge on Windows 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 95a, and 98. I think by now I’ve learned my lesson. Besides, hardly anybody has drivers out yet.
Mb - ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Processor - AMD Opteron 165 Denmark 1.8GHz Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model OSA165CDBOX - Retail
RAM - Kingston ValueRAM 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Desktop Memory Model KVR400X64C3A/1G - Retail
Video - GIGABYTE GV-NX76T256D-RH GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Silent Pipe II, Lead Free Video Card - Retail
HDs - Western Digital Caviar RE WD2500YS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Are you tired of Adobe Reader always being lame and slow when trying to open a PDF? You should try Foxit. It’s a stripped down version and it’s only 1.5mb compared to the 30 or 40mb download you need to get for Acrobat Reader 8.0. You won’t be getting asked for updates all the time and it won’t try to take over your computer.
The only downside that I know of doesn’t even apply to most people. That would be that they recently changed their user license to exclude non-profit organizations from using the free version.
Do you know the differences between the Opteron, Athlon 64, Athlon 64 X2 and Athlon 64 FX? They can be hard to figure out. Some of the main differences are:
Single or Dual Core
L2 Cache
Number of HyperTransport links
Supported RAM
Price
The AMD64 Core is what all of these processors are based on, so a lot of the features are shared. The Opterons, however, were made for servers and they’re a bit beefier. You can also use them in a desktop machine and do some insane overclocking. The FX is catered towards gamers and the X2 is supposed to be for the more serious computer user. Personally, I’m going to go with an Opteron.
I have a couple links here you can check out. I really liked the first one, and the second one was ok. I’ll put some of the highlights below.
http://www.devx.com/amd/Article/27340
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=1466&page=6
“The Athlon 64 has one HyperTransport link, which is dedicated to I/O access. All devices send (and receive) data to and from the processor on this link. As we shall see shortly, Opteron processors by contrast support multiple links.”
“All Opteron models come with three HyperTransport links (vs. a single link for Athlon 64).”
If you haven’t ever checked out Toothpaste for Dinner, I think this one could be a good entry point. The author is from Columbus, OH. His wife does NatalieDee and they both do Married to the Sea.
toothpastefordinner.com
I had this crazy dream last night that Heather Armstrong from Dooce.com came to hang out/chat/interview Liz and I. Only they didn’t come here, they came to my mom’s old house and we met in the basement. She also said her real name was Ruthie something and that she just made up that other name for the internet. Her husband was there too, but he never really introduced himself. We were talking about violence and I’m not even sure what about. Liz had made up several pages of questions and answers, but never told me about it so I felt pretty clueless. It was weird.
I was just at NewEgg and it looks like Vista is officially for sale. The OEM premium is going for $199.99 which is a bit less than the suggested retail price of $399.99 I saw a couple days ago.
As much as I’d like to have a new, shiny OS, I’m afraid. Deathly afraid. I remember when Windows 1.0, 95, 98, ME, 2000 and XP came out. If you do too, than you’ll also remember that you need to give it some time before jumping in head first.
Here’s a couple articles:
Slashdot
10 Reasons to upgrade
10 Reasons not to upgrade
I just got back confirmation that the Lebowski Podcast is up on iTunes. Here’s the link for it. That will bring you up to the iTunes pages where it’s located and you can subscribe to it. If you do happen to tune in and give it a listen, please send us an email telling us if you liked it, hated it, have suggestions, etc. We’re counting on listener feedback for ideas for next time.
It’s submitted. A lot easier than I thought. Hopefully it’ll be showing up on iTunes soon. I’ll keep you updated.
This was actually a lot easier than some people make it out to be. We recorded Tuesday night, Wednesday I cleaned it up a bit and today I added music and made my RSS feed. Not bad at all.
The first episode is an overview of the movie and us talking about a few characters. Nothing fancy. I hope you enjoy it.
Here’s a list of the music we included:
Creedence Clearwater Revival:
- Lookin Out My Back Door
- Run Through the Jungle
- Someday Never Comes
The Big Lebowski Soundtrack:
- Hotel California
- Ataypura
- Traffic Boom
- Lujon
- Dead Flowers
- Just Dropped In
- The Man in Me
Well, last night Gunner, Whitt and I sat down and talked about where we’d like to insert some music. This morning I got all the editing done and am currently giving it one last listen. Then I’ll work on getting the xml file created and then I’ll submit it to iTunes.
For editing I used Adobe Audition. It’s a newer piece of software we have so I’ve been learning how to use it and using the Lebowski podcast as some material to play around with. The software is pretty impressive so far.
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