First post from the new PC
Yes, this is the first post from my new PC. Converting to the Dark Side is a funny thing, there are a number of ironies, like... on my iMac I used IE and Outlook Express exclusively, on my new PC I only used IE to get to Mozilla's website to grab Firefox and Thunderbird, which will be my two main Browser/Email clients.
Another funny thing is that this is the first iPod-capable machine, despite the fact that the iPod was made for the Mac.
The installation process for Windows XP was estimated to be four hours by a friend, but it was up and running in an hour 30, and auto-regonized all of the components.
At first the Internet wasn't working, and I figured I'd have to dip into some arcane Windows Control Panel hardware driver mumbojumbo, but no - plopped in the MSI motherboard driver CD, it auto-installed everything, and on the restart I was greeted with XP's auto-regognize popups and Google.com.
Ok, maybe there were fewer ironies than I first thought.
The hardware:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Socket 939 (Stock fan and heatsink)
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (nForce3) motherboard
MSI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
Coolermaster CM Stacker case (full tower, the thing is huge, even has a spot for a 300mm fan, and comes with 2 x 120mm fans, and 1x80mm fan, with room for 6-7 more)
Thermaltake 420W Power Supply
Samsung 997DF 19" CRT monitor (Ivory, matches pretty well with the CoolerMaster brushed aluminum case)
Maxtor 80GB ATA-100 drive (Definite upgrade planned on this one in a few months.
Speakers: None
Keyboard: Microsoft Internet generic (Amazingly, with an old PS2 connector, not USB, absolutely amazing)
Mouse: Logitech 510 optical
Planned upgrades:
CoolerMaster <a href="http://www.coolermaster.com/index.php?LT=english&Language_s=2&url_place=product&p_serial=KHC-V81&other_title=KHC-V81Hyper%206">Hyper 6 Heatsink</a> (a huge one)
A bigger, SATA hard drive.
Upgrade to a Gig or two of CAS2 DDR400 RAM
Longer-term upgrades:
AMD Athlon 4000+ or possibly FX-xx series CPU
Radeon X800 XT or GeForce 6800 Ultra GPU
Higher output power supply
Micro-fusion generator & liquid cooling system, noise-proof sound room. ;)
It's a lot of fun moving to the PC and getting access to games you never could play on the Mac. There are also a lot of ironies, but the nice thing is I know every component in it, can upgrade just about every component in it by itself and retain compatibility with the others, maintaining performance is much cheaper than it is with any comparably-priced Mac, the total value of the hardware for the dollar is way ahead of the value you get in a Mac...
The dark side is powerful, but fortunately I don't need to go all the way to the dark side, there are a lot of awesome Microsoft alternatives and this first post on my new PC is being written with one.
See y'all in Battlefront Vietnam
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Huh?
<>"Another funny thing is that this is the first iPod-capable machine, despite the fact that the iPod was made for the Mac."
Not sure I understand the above. Are you saying you couldn't use your iPod with your mac?!
Good luck with your new PC and Windows XP. I've already heard horror stories about SP2. :)
D'oh! Technology makes the 3500+ obsolete
That was quick:
Review of the Athlon 64 3200+</a> indicates that it outperforms the 3400+ Socket 754 with 1MB cache, and my 3500+ Socket 939. So the core has improved.
Also the correct URL for the Hyper 6 (hopefully) is:
here
Hey Graham
It's a rich text editor we've got enabled here now -- you don't need to paste in code, just use the "link" button on the toolbar, or simply drag and drop the link into the comment editing space.