New Computer

Recently I’ve been thinking that I need more gaming and photo-processing power than my current AMD 4400+ X2 / 7950GX2 system provides, so I started looking at buying a new computer.

Overclockers (http://www.overclockers.co.uk) do some good deals on pre-overclocked systems. Lots of Q6600 quad-cores which are overclocked from 2.4GHz to 3.3GHz. Nice as the Q6600 is £160 rather than over £680 for the 3Gh QX6850!!

Anyway, the only problem was that they didn’t have exactly the spec I wanted. The nearest to it had a 8800GTX and 4x1Gb memory modules – rather than the newer G92 based 8800 GTS 512Mb and 2x2Gb memory.

So after lots of indecision I’ve decided to buy all the components separately (apart from a bundle on the Mobo/CPU/RAM/Cooler) and put it together myself (and learn how to overclock it which should be interesting)

Here’s the parts list:

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM
Asus P5N-T Deluxe nForce 780i (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-8000C5 1000MHz ReaperX HPC Enhanced Bandwidth Edition Dual Channel DDR2
Tuniq Tower 120-LFB CPU Cooler (Socket 478/754/939/940/AM2/LGA775)
Point of View GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Western Digital Raptor X 150GB 10000RPM SATA 16MB Cache - OEM
2 x Samsung SpinPoint T 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
Pioneer BDR-202BK 4x BD-R/RE Blu-Ray Serial ATA Dual Layer DVD Writer - Black
Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case
OCZ GameXStream 1010w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Power Supply
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-Bit Edition DVD - OEM

You’ll notice I’ve gone for Vista 64-bit. Well I want DX10 support for Crysis, and also lots of memory support for Lightroom – so not much choice really.

I’ll post some shots when all the bits arrive….

HDR Beer

Beer HDR 20080119
Originally uploaded by Billius

9 Exposures Bracketted on D300. 1/2 EV increment (set on b2 I think) 105mm VR Macro

Wanted to crop - so batch cropped in Lightroom, exported as DNG but PhotoMatix choked - so exported in TIFF.

Processed in PhotoMatix

My First HDR Shot!

Christmas Lights

 
On of our neighbours has put a couple of lights up on their house for the Christmas season. He told me "I've scaled in back this year."

Stormy

Stormy
Originally uploaded by Billius

...First second-hand iPod Nano sold in Japan!

About 30 mins after getting new video Nano I sold it for a 200 Yen profit to a friend from work! He liked the colour more than me and I'm going to get the iTouch instead!

First iPod Nano Sold In Japan

First iPod Nano Sold In Japan
Originally uploaded by Billius

So... there I was in the Apple Store in Ginza, Tokyo, when a large trolley appeared with lots of boxes of new iPods...

It was impossible to resist the lure of a new shiny video iPod Nano.. when I went to pay for it they all got excited as it was the first new iPod Nano sold in Japan.

I later heard it was out in Japan before lots of other countries (including I think the USA) so maybe it was the first in the whole world!

Selling SXV M8C Astro CCD

 
Unused Starlight Xpress SXV M8C CCD, Boxed, as new. £600

I gave it a go selling this in Feb - but after rushing it to buyer sale fell through due to lack of funds at his end - being somewhat disorganized and having a lot of other stuff on my plate I have done NOTHING else to sell this since. A recent tidy brought me eye-to-eye with said wrapped parcel - so - lets try this again :)

Note: sold autoguider seperately already.

M8C Was £1200 new direct from Starlight (March 2005)