Author: Roganty

New Computer Built

If anyone has been keeping an eye on my Flickr account, you may have noticed pictures of my new computer being built have appeared!
They are the best of the ones I took, and unfortunately don’t show every step I took in building the computer.

I started the build on the fourth of March (Tuesday) by fitting the power supply, motherboard, cpu, memory and DVD drive inside the case.
Then on the eighth (Saturday) I fitted the two hard drives, and connected all the cables!

The build went quite well, I brought a few extra bits that I didn’t actually need, but at the time thought I did need! Lol!

I found a few limitations with the case during the build, one of them being the extra hard drive bay in the bottom of the case right behind the power supply, I feel it was a little cramped, and that there was barely any room for the cables coming out of the back of the power supply!

There is practically no cable management built into the case!

And finally the external drive bays, only one side of the case can be opened, which means that only one side of any drive fitted is attached, but there is some support provided to hold the drive up.

There is also the problem of the blanking plates on the front. I found I could not remove the plastic blanking plate from the outside of the case, and I couldn’t push it out from the inside because of a metal plate that had to be broken off first.
Having the metal plate there may help with the cooling, or keeping the system quiet, but maybe there should be some easier way to remove it?

That’s all I have time for in this post, but I’ll post more details when I get another chance!

Till then,
Happy computing!

Bad start to the week!

Its been a bad start to this week, I had some sort of stomach bug on Monday, I woke up not feeling quite on top of the world.

At about lunch time I was sick, sorry if any ones eating, I had only eaten cereal for breakfast that morning, and had drunk some water, so it must of been something I ate the previous day, but I have no idea what caused it.

And then I went to work on Tuesday, I was still feeling rough, but I thought it was better to be doing something rather than sitting around at home all day thinking about it.

I’m feeling much better now, and still with a computer in pieces! Lol!

Till next time
Keep healthy!

Finally got the hard drives!

I’ve finally gone and got the hard drives, and DVD drive for my new computer

And here’s a nice photo
Hard drives and DVD rewriter
The photo shows the DVD rewriter drive (top) and the two hard drives (bottom)

The details are:

DVD Rewriter: LG GSA-H66NBAL 20x DVDRW/RAM Black – SATA £13.85
Product Details: (Could not find specific details on website)

Hard Drive #1: 160GB Samsung Spinpoint SATA2 8MB £24.55
Product Details: http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/detail/spec.do?group=computersperipherals& type=harddiskdrives&subtype=spinpointpseries&model_cd=HD160JJ
Hard Drive #2: 500GB Samsung Spinpoint SATA2 16MB £46.95 (on offer at the time normally £48.95)
Product Details: http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/detail/spec.do?group=computersperipherals& type=harddiskdrives&subtype=spinpointtseries&model_cd=HD501LJ

That’s a total of £89.15 exc VAT
Delivery was an extra £9.95 (I chose a morning delivery)
The VAT came to £17.34
Which brings the total to £116.44

That means that the total price for my new computer comes to £369.78

Now I just have to build it now, that’ll be fun! Lol!

That’s all for this post now!
Till next time!

Slowdown!

For some strange reason the past month has been a bit of a slowdown time for me, I don’t know what it is, but I just cant seem to be able to get into anything, or do anything!

Take this blog as an example, the last time I posted was the 4th of February, two weeks since the post before.

In those three weeks I have done practically nothing, even though I have added a couple to plugins to my blog, but that’s just about it.

Linux Links is at a stand still.

The only things I do do regularly is feel tired, and work!

And its valentines this week, and I haven’t got my girlfriend anything

I’ve got this week off work, so its a good time to recharge my batteries, and build my computer!

Hopefully I’ll be back to my ways next week

Till next time, if I don’t fall asleep!

Aimlessly Wandering the Information Superhighway!

The title just about sums up what I have been doing for the last three weeks since my last post, but more precisely describes what I did on Sunday!
I have a history list as long as your arm, and I have no clue about what I was doing!

But I have signed up for Gravatar, and have finally reported that bug with WordPress.

During the past month I have managed to do more work on the next version of Linux Links, I have most of the update working, and I’m just working on the Tag page. The next section I’ll be working on will be Search.

I am also working on the problem of how to make short unique URL’s similar to tinyurl.com
I’m thinking maybe put the md5 hash in a matrix table and add up every row and column, and then use that to make up some letters.
Yes, as you’ve probably guessed, I have no idea on how to go about it, and I don’t want to just use the id of the URL in the database

Other than that, nothing much has been happening, work is still the same, we’re starting to get in a lot of Easter eggs, which seem to magically disappear, must be due to the price! And there was me thinking that people would be boycotting Cadbury chocolate and not buying it!

Untill the next time
Enjoy your Easter Egg!

Edit: I have just been told that the price of Easter eggs in ASDA have gone back up to their original price.
I have also just installed the WordPress pluginWP_MonsterID, and have edited the blog theme, so if you are signed up to Gravator your avatar will show up, otherwise you get a random monster!

WooHoo! Its Christmas Again!

The parts for my new computer arrived! It was like a second Christmas! Lol!

It was about 2pm when the van arrived. I’ve uploaded some photos onto Flickr and you can also see them on my site here

I’ve had a test fit of the PSU into the case to see if it fits, its a tight fit, but do-able!
I’m not yet ready to put it all together yet as i need to get a few other pieces first, namely a cooler for the processor, and a hard drive and some kind of optical drive (DVD/CD)

I’ll keep you posted on progress!
Till then, happy computing!

I’ve Finally Done It!

Way back in September I posted details about my new computer wish list, well I’ve gone and ordered the main parts of it, thats the CPU, Motherboard, Case, Memory, and PSU!

Processor: AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core BE-2350 2.10GHz (Retail AM2) £46.95
Product Details: http://amdqrg.getspringbox.com/gb-en/desktop/details.aspx?qsearch=true&opn=ADH2350IAA5DD

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA69GM-S2H AMD 690G Socket AM2 Motherboard £34.95
Product Details: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Products/Motherboard/Products_Spec.aspx?ProductID=2579

Memory: Corsair 2GB PC2-6400 C4 XMS2 (2x1GB) £49.95
Product Details: http://www.corsair.com/products/xms2.aspx

PSU: Thermaltake TR2 RX W0146 450W Modular PSU £29.95

Case: Nexus Caterpillar – Silenced ATX case £41.95
Product Details: http://www.nexustek.nl/NXS-nexuscaterpillarsilentsystem.htm

Thats a total of £203.75 exc VAT
Delivery was an extra £11.86
The VAT came to £37.73
Which brings the grand total to £253.34

It should all be delivered tomorrow (Tuesday), I hope it does, it was an extra £4 for next day delivery!
When I receive the parts I’ll take some photos and upload them to my Flickr account.

Till then,
Happy computing!

The Year Ahead

Ok I know that this is now a little late, I was originally going to post this on the 8th but never got around to it!

Right, I think its resolution time!

But first lets have a look at last years resolutions:

1. Again, finish any projects I start, and complete any that I have started

Well, I’ve started two or three this past year, and I have completed one, and one is ‘out’ but its still being worked on!

2. Update my website and blog more often

I’ve started to do that, the past three or four months I have been trying to post once a week.

Ok, now on to this years resolutions:

  1. Carry on updating website and blog more often
  2. Finish any projects I start, and complete any that I have started (third time lucky lol!)
  3. Update and improve Linux Links
  4. Try and get Linux Links on the first page of a Google search

Now lets see which of these ones I can break this year!

Thats its for this post
Till next time
Happy New Year

New Year, New Style!

Its the new year, and what a time to update my websites style!
A new year, a new style!
What do you think? Comments are welcome!

There may be a few issues, especially in browsers other than Firefox on Linux.
So if your using Internet Explorer, Opera or any other web browser on Windows, or Mac and you spot a problem let me know about them so I can sort it out. Thanks!

I don’t have any time to post any more as I should be on my way to my girlfriends by now, so I’ll post more details as soon as I can.

Until then,
Happy New Year!