This sums it up really

fuji !! said...
GOLDRUSH is out !! but I'm sure your butt already knows that ;-)

Last night

shift (shit?) tonight.

Well, last of 4, then a week off for the 2nd round of 3. Bastards.



Been playing Jericho before the shifts start. Nothing phenomenal, a generic shooter. Fun for nights nontheless, and has ok GFX.



That's it.

Sometimes...

... I wonder if people change. I mean, just suddenly become someone else. Perhaps that'll explain why sometimes people suddenly become different?

May be they have too much on their mind, but just don't want to talk about it? Or may be I've changed or done something wrong and they still haven't told me. I don't know but I sure would like to.

Sometimes I think that it's all because I'm trying too hard; people could be busy, or have moved on, or even grown up, and I'm still stuck in my childish past. A past where things were simple, where friends were frank with each other and innocent. Could it be that the burden of life, family, or even money that's in people's minds, and the little time they have free they want to spend alone?

I miss the days when we spoke to each other, the days when we had fun, and the days when everyone was more patient.

If I was the one that has done something wrong then I'm sorry, if I have changed then please help me change back. I'll be waiting, hoping that one day we'll all get back together.

I miss my old friends.

The Atari ST "busy" icon

Was an awesome black and white bee, that I used to love on my old STFM. It was my first "real" computer, after the awesomeness that was the ZX Spectrum.

So, today I decided to remake it from Pixelblocks. Took me some time but I love the result. Problem is, don't know where to put it :)

So we figured it out

Me and Anmar, late tonight (this morning?) figured out how to fix TF2. Disable Quad SLI. Disabling Quad SLI made the game work PERFECTLY. No crashes, no C++ shit, and no chokes very few seconds!
With SLI disabled, the game still runs great at 2560x1600 with all bells and whistles, so it's not a big loss. What it is though is a big pain in the bum, as disabling or enabling SLI has to be done on the nVidia control panel and can take up to 30 seconds each time. Oh well, at least there's a way to play the game, I was getting mighty annoyed at the upgrade fucking up my favourite tipple.

Blog Change

Have removed the "PC Specs" sidebar panel. Not sure why I even put it there in the first place.

On that note, new PC is functioning fine on x64. In fact, x86 Vista just couldn't figure out that I had 4gb RAM (yes, even after SP1) so it was using the page files like mad, making the system slow.

Benchmarks I haven't done, and most likely won't. They just make your dick feel bigger.

But in terms or real life gaming, the benefit has been HUGE. ET:QW and COD4 now run at 2560x1600 + maxed out at a comfy 60fps vsync, and I have been playing a bit of Crysis; 2560x1600 medium settings, or 1280x800 on Very High. The second one was just to see what Very High looked like. It works fine like this, but looks crap cos the res is low and not native. 2560 medium is amazing anyhow, and I'm actually enjoying it...

Unreal Tournament 3 and Jericho (ie Unreal 3 engine games) have maxed out too, making them smooth as silk.

Team Fortress 2 is still problematic. When it works, it works fine maxed out etc, but it either crashes out (dreaded c++ runtime error), or chokes every now and then, pausing for a split second. The chokes are allegedly a common problem with the new nVidia drivers, so am waiting that gets fixed. There is a fix for the c++ crash for XP, but not for Vista. Can't be bothered to research it more now, have just been playing until randomly booted out.

Finally, Minesweeper has benefited from the upgrade too. Now, the mines sweep themselves automatically, hence all you have to do is just click on the first square and everything solves itself. Amazing.

Email from Razer

Hi Ali Alsawaf,

Thanks again, for signing up to download our Razer Gaming guide.

In approximately 24 hours time, we'll be launching an exclusive piece of news only to readers of this list(those who have downloaded the Razer Gaming Guide).. and what can we say, we're truly excited about sharing the launch details with you, but I'm afraid that the *VERY BEST* we can do right now is to give you a primer on what's to come!

This launch will likely go down in history as one of the *LARGEST* and craziest(and perhaps most fun) things that we ever did in our Razer labs, and we hope you will join us in making this happen!

Some Razer fans have already realized what's about to happen and have already jumped the gun, but unfortunately we will still have to keep it a secret till 24 hours later.

Some clues...

It's 8 letters, blue and very likely, a world record.

Be part of this!

More news to come in 24 hours!

Best regards
Ryan C

Any ideas?

Source vs nVidia Network Manager

Turns out nVidia Network Manager (whatever it was used for) was behind all the issues TF2 and other source games had (ie unplayable). Uninstalled it, and now they all work fine, and stupidly fast as expected.

All that's left now is installing all the crap that usually lies around the desktop, and fine-tuning my mouse settings. The Destructor mouse pad really is smooth and fast, so my old settings are a bit OTT.

Later.

Day 2

(Final update 20:58)

12:00 - Thanks to an email from Blue Blood, my BIOS is up to date now. Still no difference though, EPP still reports the RAM at 1333mhz. I've manually set them to 2000mhz and 1.9v, and taken 2 sticks out (leaving only 2gb in). That has kinda done the trick, but VISTA still reports only 1.7gb RAM (was reporting that even with 4gb installed).
Gonna install 64bit OS to see.

14:02 - Have decided to close everything up and make everything look like normal. Cleared all the boxes (kept them for future moves) and am now installing Vista 64bit. I think this is gonna be a stupid move (even more stupid than the whole project :p) but let's see.
BTW - COD4 worked and by God was it fast. Averaging 120fps at all times. Will benchmark things more properly once everything is set up.

14:33 - Vista 64bit installed. From the go it's read 4gb RAM. Not sure why 32bit was messing about, perhaps cos I hadn't installed SP1 (I thought I had). Now downloading nforce/geforce/sblaster drivers.

15:40 - Vista updating. Drivers installing. Reading Goblet Of Fire

17:30 - still using 64bit, one main difference is that the nForce control panel can now read all the data from the mobo, including EPP and stuff. Not sure why it didn't manage it on 32bit. Things seem to be OK 64bit, despite my hatred of the thing.
SP1 for 64bit needs to install now, and I'm also reinstalling Jericho, COD4, and TF2. Will install Crysis and update it to 1.2 also, just for laughs.

20:58 - been doing other things, left the PC all alone. Will spend the evening doing other things, leaving PC alone for tonight.

00:52 - OK I lied. Just nipped back and for the last hour been testing stuff: EVERYTHING I run (not Crysis though, don't be daft) works at 2560x1600 with at least 4xAA at 60FPS vsync'd. No noticeable dips at all. I vsync all the time, so to me 60fps is what I need, who cares if it can do 600, as long as it stays 60, I'm happy.
Problem though: Team Fortress 2 doesn't work :( Will download other source games over night to see if that's the problem.

Here We Go!

Blog in Progress - Keep Refreshing for updates.

11:20 - OK, gonna have breakfast now. Main PC is on the floor, still assembled. All the new stuff is sitting around still boxed.



12:05 - Old stuff all disembowled from the case. TONS of dust, I'm scratched all over again.





12:30 - Unpacking. PX9650 processor. The box was HUGE, no wonder why, damn intel are copying the old Zalman Flower design ;)




This 1500w ToughPower is HUGE! Compare it to the "small" 700W.






Because of the HUGE ToughPower, gonna have to remove the case's top USB/Firewire ports. Not used much anyway, since the monitor has it's own USB hub.



13:05 - The best thing about this new stuff is the beautiful RAM. These things are works of art, with their awesome yellowness and form factor. I couldn't resist taking the EOS out and snapping a proper picture of them :) Can't wait to install Lightroom in the new PC and edit this picture properly. Let's start installing.



14:45 - Major fitting issues. Damn these geforces are huge. Am wondering if I should've bought a Full Tower Armor.

15:35 - Mobo + most drives are in. Trying to connect modules to PSU. My hands are too sore to take pictures.

16:14 - I think everything is in there. Try to spot the soundblaster! The RaptorX literally squeezed in on display there.

16:42 - Ok the thing turns on, everything seems to be on too (judging by the noise, the GeForces are definitely on!). Not sure how to set the RAM to 2000mhz. Setting EPP2.0 on and auto still gives me 1333mhz

16:50 - Installing Vista Ultimate. Here we go. I'll try to read around regarding memory frequency settings.

17:25 - Am typing this from Vista!! Still running at 320x200 I think LOL. Time to update BIOS and drivers. Still not any wiser regarding FSB and DDR

17:43 - nForce and GeForce drivers installed. The system has suddenly become VERY QUIET! where as before the drivers it sounded like an aeroplane taking off, now it's just a nice, well-behaved, computer.

18:12 - Admittedly, I really like the nForce control panel. It lets me do something that sounds really cool, though might be useless: combine the two ethernet cards on the mobo, to "team up" for better bandwidth. WTF?
SLI is enabled now, and soundblaster drivers installed. Need to update windows then it's on to benchmarking time!

18:19 - Turns out SLI wasn't enabled. It's on now. Fingers crossed!

19:10 - updating. Dinner + swimming pool time. BBL

21:10 - vista updating everything now. I need to find where to download BIOS updates from. Tried COD4, it crashed (well, first crash of the evening).

22:20 - Quick 3dmark06 benchmark: used the free version, so can't change any settings. No overclocking and DDR still at 1333mhz only. Score = 15020

23:20 - Vista, as usual, is grinding away at the hard drives like there's no tomorrow. This does eventually settle, after a few days. A quick test on Quake Wars at 2560x1600xall high was awesome, average FPS 40-60. BUT I don't care about AF/AA so will test tomorrow with them off. Jericho on the other hand, looks FUCKING AWESOME! again 2560x1600xhigh, it ran at 80-120fps and the motion blur just rocked!

Time to stop this madness tonight. XFX site is down so no bios update yet, tomorrow I'll try to figure out the DDR3 2000mhz thing and install some more games to play around with. NN.

Mouse Pad

is here, finally!

And I am LOVING IT! I thought it was going to be made of metal like the eXactMat before it, but thank God it isn't (Metal pads are great but you really have to keep em clean - one spec of dust can fuck it all up!)

I don't know what it's made off, but it is amazingly great with the Lachesis!!

Oh, and as cheesy as this sounds, it comes with a carry case LOL. A hard one, just in case you wanna take your mouse away with you. Stupid, yes.

Still, great pad!

All aboard!

Just got text from KG- processor has been received, so all components are there now!!

Shame I'm working all day today. Tomorrow we're going out for dinner so Saturday I'll start assembling.

See you then :)

Quick one

all things are here, except the processor (stupid courier crap as always).

Should be here tomorrow. Destructor mousepad that was meant to come from Germany has been cancelled (again, stupid couriers!) but I've ordered from a local e-shop, so should be here Friday. I hope.

If I'm lucky, system assembly starts Saturday. Stay tuned.

Test iPhone email to blog post

If I'm doing this right, this email should be published on the blog on-the-fly.

In case you're wondering, this is me just before the Jarre concert, obviously way too excited.