Hello world!

Sorry I've been neglecting you! A few days ago I noticed XP was running like a bag of shit. So I decided to re-install it. then I realized my hard drives were full, so there was no way to move stuff around to empty the C: drive enough to safely format it. So I went out to buy a 500GB Western Digtal HDD and a handy dandy eSATA HDD enclosure for the purpose of mirroring important stuff that I want backups of (which is almost everything.)

So I got home and started moving stuff onto the new drive. But it filled up and I still hadn't backed everything up that I wanted. So I went back to the store and got ANOTHER 500GB HDD, since they were still on sale for $85 a piece. I took out my 320GB Seagate and put in my new 500GB WD. Happiness! Ok, so now I was ready to format.

My man had installed Ubuntu the night before, so I wanted to try that, too. I would really rather move my whole workflow over to open source if it's possible, but I doubt it is quite yet. Anyhoo, why not start now, right?

Ok, so my HDDs are partitioned and cleared. Everything important is on my eSATA drive. I installed XP 32bit, then Ubuntu Ulitmate 1.8. Peachy! Now comes the onerous task of replacing my critical software loadout. Ugh. Argh. Tedium! Monotony!

I tried to get the dual monitors working in Linux to no avail. Blah. NVidia, I shake my fist at you angrily!

Today I am back in XP to work on my next video, which is due out tomorrow but I doubt will be rendered in time as it is already 2pm and I'm just starting to capture it off the camera.

So how has your week went?

This is a FIRST, ladies and gentlemen! Ever since I first had my own computer (as in not shared with my mother or my at-the-time-boyfriend) I have never had an entirely new system. I may have purchased new parts here and there for minor upgrades, but the majority of my computer has always consisted of hand-me-downs.

No more! Tonight my boyfriend is assembling my brand spanking new computer! (He is sooo amazing at cable management!) Here's what's going into it:

Antec P150 case
Asus P5K S775 P35 chipset motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33GHz 4MB cache 1333MHz
4GB Kingston DDR2 667MHz RAM
7600GT video card
Zalman VF700-ALCu video card cooler
Pioneer DVR-212D SATA DVD writer/reader
500GB Western Digital 16MB 7200rpm SATA drive
320GB Seagate IDE drive

The Seagate drive is from my current setup, so it's not SATA. The video card is new, but a gift from a friend who upgraded. The RAM is a slightly-used gift from my man, who also upgraded. So my machine will be soooo new! I am very, very excited! I'll actually have a computer that's current and can process my photos and video without hiccuping or taking several hours!

Photos will be posted when I'm online again! Yay!

Ok, when last we left our noble heroes, they were buried deep in the depths of a stubborn old PC case, struggling to rescue critical components for the new PC to be built. Now let us catch up with how they have progressed...

After my return from sunny Los Angeles, we were ready to continue our gutting and rebuilding. Here's a quick run-down of the old and new systems:
Old Beastie
Pentium III 800MHz, 815E Intel chipset
on-board video
768MB RAM
430 watt Antec TruePower power supply
SoundBlaster Audigy Z2 sound card
3 fire wire plug card
40GB dumb HDD
generic case

New Beastie
AMD Athlon FX-64 (Over clocked a weeeeee bit)
NVidia GeForce 5600 video card
1GB RAM
430 watt Antec TruePower power supply
SoundBlaster Audigy Z2 sound card
3 fire wire plug card
40GB dumb HDD
150GB Maxtor HDD
Antec P160 case

Are you ready for some pictures now? Here we gooo....!

The last boot up of the old machine. Hm, I wonder why it crashed? Any ideas?


Stupid packaging staples :(


Check out the dust in the old motherboard! No wonder it overheated!


Yuckity!


Ahh the pristine beauty of a new case!


Check that shiznit out! Side mounted hard drives!


The DVD and CD Burner are mounted...


And the motherboard is happily nestled...


And the drive bay covers are re-attached...


And the first power up! Check out the bluuuuuuuuue!


I would like to take this opportunity to thank my boyfriend for all his hard work and patience on this project! It would not have been done so flawlessly or thoroughly without him and his expertise. If you're reading this, I love you baby! MWAH!