Last Friday (4.10.09), Nathaniel, Hugh, Elliot, and I gathered to build the computer I had researched and purchased the parts for. It was my first build, and quite educational and satisfying, even if it did thwart our purposes until the early hours of the morning.

Specs:

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz
PC Power & Cooling S61EPS 610W
ATI HIS Radeon HD 4850 512MB DDR3
Crucial 4GB PC2-8500/DDR2-1066
Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB SATA 7200rpm
LG 22X DVD±R Black SATA GH22NS30
COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW
LG 19" Flatron W1952TQ-TF

The log of events:

5:13:00pm Watches synchronized.

5:16:26pm Pictures of components.

5:18:28pm Case removed from box.

5:19:35pm Side panel removed.

5:23:19pm Pictures of heart throbbing loot.

5:28:00pm Preinstall SATA drivers downloaded from Asia.

5:31:23pm Front panel removed.

5:33:41pm Motherboard drivers transfered to floppy disc via USB floppy drive.

5:47:27pm Moved to kitchen in order to circumvent electro-static discharge risk.

5:51:52pm Removed motherboard from box and anti-static bag.

6:03:54pm I/O panel busted out after much difficulty.

6:04:09pm Installed I/O panel.

6:14:49pm Standoffs installed.

6:17:47pm Motherboard mounted.

6:33:31pm Began testing screws due to irregularity in tightness.

6:35:54pm Standoff discrepancy diagnosed and motherboard removed.

6:49:39pm Discovered we had no less than FOUR faulty standoffs.

7:05:59pm Dinner break.

8:15:21pm Motherboard installed.

8:21:14pm Power supply installed.

8:38:51pm Front panel connections established.

8:50:45pm Prepared heatsink for installation.

8:53:34pm CPU installed!!!

8:57:03pm Checked motherboard screw tightness.

8:03:52pm Arctic Silver thermal compound applied to CPU.

9:08:12pm Heatsink installed.

9:12:27pm After much deliberation decided to install HDD in the top slot.

9:14:49pm HDD installed.

9:23:41pm Memory modules installed.

9:34:33pm GPU installed

9:42:27pm Optical drive installed.

9:56:08pm Double checked everything.

10:09:07pm POST!!!

10:14:36pm The zip-tie attack begins.

10:59:07pm Windows XP installed.

11:14:01pm BSOD due to incorrectly configured AHCI BIOS options.

11:26:07pm Began reinstalling Windows XP, having floppy problems.

12:20:00pm Tried enabling Mode 3 Floppy support.

3:24:17pm Must.... have..... sleeep.

[Next day]

2:07:14pm Successfully switched to AHCI mode after Windows XP installation.

So, today I stopped in at J's Place on my Christmas shopping rounds, and vaguely wondered if he had any mics. I was looking for one for my harmonica, as I have a Leem GA410D amp that was given to me, but no mic to go with it. It's just a small guitar amp, but that's perfect for that essential blues harp sound. Also, I had checked at WC Marketplace while shopping there, and saw a few cheap $15 mics, and one nice $188 Shure SM58 Vocal, which is pretty much the standard for vocal mics. I wasn't quite sure what I was looking for....I knew what Adam Gussow recommends, but not sure if I could find that kind of mic, especially as he got his a long time ago in some obscure store. Anyways, I was just looking around, and saw this box that said "Shure" on it and "microphone" and had a little picture of a mic, but kind of a strange-looking mic, more like you'd see on an old ham radio or something. I asked the guy if he had any mics, and he said he was out of stock, and asked what I was looking for. But when I mentioned harmonica, he went over and pulled that mic out, and said it was a harmonica mic he'd had around for a few years (the box says 2001 on it). It's a Shure 520DX, also known as the "Green Bullet". If you looked at the picture linked there, you can see why. He told me it listed at $150, but I could have it for $85, which I think is a deal, considering current online prices are a little above that, and no shipping and handling.

When I got home, I plugged it in and tried it out. I was getting some undesirable feedback with sudden attacks on the harp, but it sounded pretty good. Then I looked up the manual online, only to have my mom point out that it probably came with one, which I quickly found in the box. Funny. Anyways, once I followed it's recommendations, I got a better sound. It's pretty sweet. The only thing that I'm not completely happy with is that, with a normal vocal mike, you can use your right hand quite well for vibrato, whereas this is a little bigger around. Oh well. Anyways, it IS pretty much the standard, time-tested favorite for blues harmonica. So, cool.

Also today, the Dell tech came and replaced my motherboard and LCD screen on the good old Vostro 1400. I had called Dell on Monday complaining about some graphics issues. I had initially seen my display divide into little, rectangular pieces, and start rapidly jiggling back and forth, and then go black. I powered it off. I ran it in safe mode, and uninstalled my nVidia drivers, then installed a different version, 180.70, although I see a newer version is now available from LaptopVideo2Go. I had no problems until a couple days later, while sitting in Bucer's in Moscow, ID. My screen did the same trick, except this time in a tasteful shade of pink, broken up with little black strips here and there. I powered off and back on, this time resolved to call Dell as soon as possible. I did so, the representative, after a little troubleshooting, advised that he would send a tech out with a new mobo and screen. In my opinion, they could've just replaced the mobo, or even just the gfx card, although it's kind of better to replace the whole deal in these cases, but I wasn't complaining about the screen, especially since I had a minor scratch on mine. At any rate, out he came. It was the same guy who replaced my mobo last year, when I complained about audio issues often experienced with this line of Vostros and Inspirons. The condition is pretty widespread, and solutions range from DIY frequency adjusters, tape between the wifi card and speaker cables, and installing drivers for different graphics cards. Not to go into the technical details right now, but there's supposed to be some conflict between maybe the wifi and audio, and/or gfx and audio being on the same PCI or something.... (Speaking of which, my new mobo audio sounds just as good, if not better, than previously. Great!)

Anyhow, he disassembled it, replaced the motherboard and screen (giving me an opportunity to clean out some of the dust with compressed air and oil the screen hinges), and reassembled it! Sweetness. And, so far, everything looks wicked awesome.

As a sidenote, I also finally put my MD button to use. I still am afraid to hit it when the laptop is off, for fear it will screw up my boot partitions, but, in Windows, I now have it set to turn off my screen (using Monitoroff, of course). Instructions here. I downloaded the zip file, and just edited the registry entries before incorporating them, and used Monitoroff instead of the other program.

Next on the list? Maybe try out KDE in Ubuntu, perhaps set the MD button to boot Ubuntu per this guide, perhaps buy a 9-cell battery....options, options.

Well, that's it for now!

-pixelot