Video Card Troubles

As mentioned in the last post I wrote about my new toy, I had to send my graphics card back. The original graphics card was an EVGA 8600 GT. Well, after getting a replacement card, I tried it out on my new machine, and once again, the same problems occurred (wouldn't boot, beep codes, etc). After flashing the BIOS, trying the video card in a different PCI Express slot, it still wouldn't work. :(

So, I Googled the problem, and sure enough, the combination of my specific mobo (ASUS P5Q Pro) and graphics card (EVGA 8600 GT) were incompatible for some reason. EVGA blamed ASUS for not implementing PCI Express 2.0 correctly to be backwards compatible with PCI Express 1.1. I know for a fact that this is incorrect because I used my old graphics card (EVGA 7600 GT), which is not PCI Express 2.0, just fine. I think separately the products are fine, but together something occurs that makes the incompatible.

Not being able to return my 8600, I decided to just suck it up and purchase a PCI Express 2.0 card. After some looking around, I settled on the XFX 9600 GT. I wasn't too heartbroken because 1) it forced me to get a better graphics card for my desktop and 2) it came with a free copy of Call of Duty 4. After eagerly waiting for a few days, my new purchased arrived and I slapped that puppy in. For 3 days it was awesome. Incredible rendering of CoD4 - the fan rarely ever spun up during the game, which easily gave my 7600 GT hell.

Unfortunately, the card died shortly thereafter, so I had to RMA it back to Newegg (I think it was a power short or something). Since then, I have received my new 9600 GT and everything is running smoothly. Hopefully this is the end of my new computer building troubles and the beginning of a new computing era :)

Final desktop specs are:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz 1.3GHz FSB
ASUS P5Q Pro Intel P45 ATX Motherboard
4 GB Corsair DDR2 800 SDRAM
XFX GeForce 9600 GT
2 - 22" Acer 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor
1 - 80 GB Seagate HDD (System Drive)
2 - 500 GB Seagate HDD (RAID 1 - Data Drive)
Antec 650W Power Supply
Lite-On SATA DVD Burner w/ LightScribe
Lite-On SATA Combo Drive

I just might post pictures eventually :-D

I don't understand why...

movie studios make straight to cable/DVD movies. If they know that the movie is not good enough to turn a profit by releasing it to movie theaters, then why the hell do they waste money on making the movie?!?!! I don't think I've seen a good straight to cable/DVD movie EVER! (Well, I did like Steven Seagal's The Patriot, but it still had bad acting) Studios need to stop wasting money on crappy scripts and put more thought and money into their bigger productions. Then maybe some of the movies that get released to theaters but SHOULD be straight to cable/DVD will disappear. The end!

New Computer Update

Well, I've received all my new computer parts and I got everything put together the other night. However, this process did not go as smoothly as I would've liked.

First, after everything was assembled I tried booting up for the first time just to be greeted by a nice POST beep code. Because my motherboard manual did not mention anything about the POST codes, I had to look them up online. Once this information was located, I was informed that either I had no video card installed (which was not the case) or the RAM on my video card was bad. So, I managed to get my old video card into the machine and sure enough, it booted up without problem. So, I have to send my new video card back for a replacement.

Next, during the first boot up, my monitors came to life just for me to find a stuck pixel on one of the monitors. Ironically, it was on the monitor that managed to make it through the shipping process undamaged; whereas, the other monitor came through with a partially opened casing and works just fine! Hopefully I can claim shipping damage and send it back for a new one, because my OCD cannot handle a stuck pixel!

Finally, I configured my two 500 GB SATA drives in a RAID 1. I decided to install Windows XP as my operating system because it is extremely stable and reliable when kept up, and Vista is still experiencing a few problems here and there with software compatibility. As some of you know when you install Windows XP, it will ask for 3rd Party RAID drivers if it cannot find them. I only have a copy of Windows XP SP2 so it couldn't find my RAID drivers. Well, Windows ONLY will look for those RAID drivers on a floppy disk! I decided not to insult the 21st Century-ness of my new machine by installing a floppy drive on it, so I had to rig up a temporary solution just to get XP installed.

Alas, I was able to get Windows and all of the everyday software that I use installed and I got my RAID formatted (Only 465 GB when recognized by Windows) . Now I must wait on a new video card and monitor to start fulling utilizing the awesomeness that is my new computer!

More details and construction pics to come!

- Taylor

Why does everyone hate Nickelback?

I was listening to Nickelback in my truck this afternoon while driving home from campus and I couldn't help but think back on the numerous times someone has told me that they despise Nickelback. And everytime I ask those people why they hate Nickelback, they cannot give me an answer past "I just hate them", "They suck", etc. It's kind of like when I ask people why they LOVE Dane Cook and all I get from them is "He's awesome" (but that's a whole 'nother post).

So, if there is anyone actually reading my posts, I pose the questions:

1) Do you dislike Nickelback like everyone else I know, and if so

2) Why?

My New Toy!!

After my awesome internship this summer, I've been sitting on a little bank trying to figure out what I wanted to do with it. After some thinking (actually not really that much), I decided it should be about time to build a new computer! I just submitted my order to Newegg for the components for my new toy!! Check out the specs below:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz 1.3GHz FSB
ASUS P5Q Pro Intel P45 ATX Motherboard
4 GB Corsair DDR2 800 SDRAM
EVGA GeForce 8600 GT 256MB
2 - 22" Acer 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor
1 - 80 GB Seagate HDD (System Drive)
2 - 500 GB Seagate HDD (RAID 1 - Data Drive)
Antec 650W Power Supply
Lite-On SATA DVD Burner w/ LightScribe
Lite-On SATA Combo Drive

Usually, I'm an AMD fanboy because of their past company achievements ( 1. First to offer 1GHz CPUs back in the day, 2. First to 64-bit CPUs, 3. First to offer dual-core CPUs, 4. First to offer TRUE quad-core CPUs). However, after having performed system installations on some Intel Core 2 Duo machines on campus, and looking at the technical specifications online, I knew that Intel had a better product. After much thought and debate of ther matter, I decided to go with an Intel processor.

Also, I have been slow on the uptake of widescreen monitors. There is just something I've liked about normal aspect ratios on non-widescreen monitors. So originally, I was going to do just 2 - 19" monitors. However, I started looking around and saw an awesome 22" for a decent price and figured I could just use the large screen real-estate instead of two monitors. Then, one night, I was watching my new Three Days Grace DVD and while watching it, I was wanting to get some things done, but didn't want to stop watching. Thus, I decided to go back to a dual-monitor setup. But this time, I noticed that the 22" widescreen was only $30 more expensive than the $19, so I decided to make this thing a beast and go with 2-22" widescreen monitors.

Luckily I have a Newegg Preferred Account which qualified me for Free Rush Processing and No Payments until October 2009! So hopefully I should have everything by the end of the week and I won't have to pay for it for a year :)

Stay tuned for construction pics!

- Taylor