Relaxation
Its nice to do nothing sometimes.
That was yesterday. Back to more overtime tomorrow. 
My 2nd Intel Box running!
I finally got my 2nd Intel box running. It’s hard drive died a couple weeks ago. I had a nice 160GB WD 8MB cache one hanging round from the Black Friday morning. I figured I’d just put it in an reinstall.
The old hard drive was making a clicking sound when booted and wouldn’t get past the BIOS screen. It was toast. It was my most expensive WD hard drive, which I should have recieved a rebate, but they shafted me (Young America). I ended up paying $1.65/GB for a $99 hard drive. The warranty is valid for one year from date of purchase, and for $15 I can get it extended for another 3 years. No, I’m not gonna pull warranty fraud on this one… not worth the hassle.
Well, I got my rebate from BestBuy (They are fast and quick!!) for $30 so, it was a $99 160GB drive. Coming out to a $0.61/GB for that. 1337.
It’s back up and folding. Yay! If you dont know what folding is, please read this other post of mine: Folding@HOME - FAH. Folding for Team Extreme Overclocking, EOC.
Playstation 2 Networking
So I bought myself a PS2 Network adapter to get connected. A sweet deal at EB Games of $25 used, it was in good condition too. So I hooked it up and like anything you try for the first time it never worked. Naturually I had to troubleshoot rather than make myself seem like a n00b whenever I called PS2. I basically wanted to pass blame on the product for the PS2 network since it wasnt working for me.
So what I did was to try with the router to see if it needs port forwarding. Naturally, that didnt work. So I went directly do the cable modem. Power cycled it, didnt work. Then I was getting a little concerned something is up. I know Sony wants to make sure everyone uses OEM hardware from them, which I was. everything was legit. So after google searching my error message (DNAS Error -614), I came to a conclusion of just calling them and see whats up. Some PS2 forum said Sony has been having problems…. so I figured I’d check and see.
I called Sony at the DNAS Error Message number then I went through a recording thing helping understand the issue, wasnt really helpful. Pressed zero for an operator, then I got connected to an (american, wow…) who apparently didnt like her job. I explained what I got and asked “what usually causes this?”. She sighed loudly, like I somehow troubled her… I was waiting for a response. I hear a few click on a screen, so she can pull up a script. She then read it monotone about doing a power cycle. I sat there like I simpleton until she was done; then said I did it. I wasnt trying to be an ass, but just letting her know I already tried power cycling it.
Then she was thinking I was a real moron, asked me how I did it, I explained politely how I did, and that I’ve done power cycles myself before. Basically I unplugged the power cord to cable modem for 5 minutes. She then condescendingly said “No, you did it wrong. The way you do it is to unplug the A-C-D-C Adapter from the modem for 30 minutes and plug it in!” I was almost enraged when she was done. I said, “Lets assume I’ve already done that, then what else could be hindering it?” She said the cable modem has a firewall and I would need to call Cox to turn it off. ROFL! I said “My Motorola SB5100 does not have a firewall, routing, NATing functions., thats what my router is for.”
Then I found an opportunity to get some info on whats going on, I then asked “Theoretically if there is a firewall, what ports would I forward?” She was pissed that I was asking a question to help me in my quest to play online. She said “Do you have a pen and paper?” rudely, and I said “Yeah the recording informed to have that ready.” She than read what article on her screen about port forwarding. It was almost funny “…you need to forward 10070T-C-P through 10080U-D-P. I wrote it down before she could hang up…. I asked… is it both TCP and UDP? She said she doesnt have info on that. I said “Excellent”. Thats fine I’ll see what I can do with this info. Thank you.
She said in a dull monotone voice “Thanks for calling the playst…. (she hung up)”.
God what horrible customer service, I wasnt even playing 20 questions with her like sometimes I deal with. I was polite and nice, and she was rude and incorrect in what she was saying. There is NO difference between 5 minute power cycle and 30 minutes like she tried to LART me on. I wasn’t gonna argue I bet she had some crappy “Solution” program similar to how AOL has. Christ… no wonder people resort to unofficial forums for support for Playstation.
I port triggered it in my router, no power cycling necessary and I was online. Pretty odd. The reason why I bet was when I did it direct to the modem it didnt get an IP address yet as the PS2 adapter requests it.
Firefox Market Share
Mozilla Firefox gains market share, while Microsoft Internet Explorer drops below 90% (first time in years). (Source)
This is excellent, hopefully microsoft won’t put security on the back burner like they have. I’d strongly suggest that you try Firefox if you haven’t yet, as its faster, more secure, and more customizable than any other browser I’ve used.
Oh yeah, not to mention Mozilla Thunderbird (Mail client, alternative to MS Outlook)
My 1337 Computer
I removed my watercooling setup, which was a true pain in the ass. I like it, but isnt ideal for mobility - to LAN parties. I will just have to keep my tornado’s on max for a bit.
I plan on moving out soon anyways into an AIR CONDITIONED, free utilities apartment. I’ll make sure I consume the most kilowatts more than anyone - hahaha! I will some how try to conserve also, if I can such as using those “eco-friendly” spiral lights for my lighting.
I need a little more cash first for that, which will be cool when I get my fat check from AOL!! (Double of FMR’s I’m thinking!)
Chilled Water Cooling Rocks!
I recently hooked up my watercooling setup. It works really well. I can throw even more volts at the processor with out temperature worry, and can thereby increase my stable overclock speed.
I’ve hit 2.62GHz unstable, but sucessfully hit my RAM’s max of 2.57GHz stable. I plan on buying BH-5 RAM. Corsair made the best BH-5 modules in their RAM, so I am going with them. I might just wait to see how the next release of the new BH-5 goes, and benchmarks on them to see if they are truly the same chip. Supposedly, they are going to sell for cheaper.
My computer is an AMD Athlon XP-M 2400+, with Corsiar XMS 1.2 (CH-5 RAM :() I am also running two Seagate SATA 7200RPM 70GB drives in a RAID-0 RAID Array. Technically, RAID-0 isnt an array, because it doesnt offer redundancy, but it offers speed. Windows boots a litter faster and moving large files around are done much quicker. My motherboad is an Abit NF7-S 2.0 using “tictac’s” modded firmware for better FSB stability.
I’m very satisfied with this setup. Its also much quieter. It also outperforms P4 3.2, close to a prescott in terms of performance. I <3 AMD.
My temps are:
~78F outside/ambient
45F CPU Core
47F “Board” Temperature == right outside the socket.
This is excellent because I use to run 115F during the day (Folding).
modded case
I modded my case which held my intel. I plan to do finishing touches later this summer, but for now its cool.
I added a blow hole above the CPU with a fan so it can exhaust the high temperatures in there. The Celeron 1.7 was cooking at 60C, so I needed to resolve that.
When I removed the heatsink I was somewhat stumped because I actually never took off a stock Intel HSF. This system was the first Intel system I put together, so it was a learning experience. So I remember all I had to do was snap the four corners over the slots for it to snap in and pull the levers opposite of each other. That was fine, then I figured how to uninstall it, by pulling the two sides apart to release from the slots. I felt silly for not trying that afterwards, yet I learned something, so it was an OK feeling.
Anyways, I remember the stock black paint intel paints on, that stuff is useless and was a bitch to take off. I found some of my 600 grit paper and sanded it off the heatsink. Yuck, it was like tar, so I did it, and while I was at it I lapped it to a mirror finish.
The processor I wasnt gonna sand it, so I used rubbing alcohol and cleaned it over and over until all the black matter was gone. Now I am about to put it in my case, and do more cable management, to try to keep air moving in it.