Look who I'm with

The one and only!

I'm alive

Quick one.

In the last five days, I've worked 56 hours; ie I'm f***ed

More about the PC later :)

Let's Build A PC™ - Part Deux

Welcome back.

FINAL UPDATE: 22:49

17:55 - my hands have been aching all day today. Plus am really, really tired (slept at 4am, can't remember much of the Brütal Legend demo tbh). Also, received the PSP Go today (more on that later!).

Currently - PSU, hard drives, VGAs, and sound card installed. Need to install DVD/BluRay drives and then wire everything up.

19:42 - I "think" everything is connected. The case has 6 (!!) fans to power, and being a bit obsessive I've given each one it's own seperate molex. There are 3 HDDs and 2 Optical Drives, giving a total of 11 molex/sata power cables. Luckily, almost all of them I managed to tuck behind the cable management tray.

20:23 - The moment every PC builder dreads - the first power on......

20:24 - The moment every PC builder dreads even more - the power on that makes a horrible noise, like a fan is hitting a loose cable. Must investigate

20:44 - a cable was hitting one of the VGA fans. According to the BIOS, all drives are detected and the CPU fans/temps are fine (27 degree idle?!). No idea Re: timing/voltages/overclocking, something I've never done before.

Time to connect all the USBs and try to install Win 7.

In other words, let the software war begin!!!

21:54 - WE ARE LIVE!! This is a Windows 7 x64 blog, from the new PC!

I did the brave (foolish) thing of closing everything up and assuming it's all ok. Till now, all the hardware is there but no drivers.

Will go now for an hour or so to watch Peep Show and talk to the missus. Last few updates and a couple of pics later.

PS - it's FUCKING FAST.

22:48 - Installing VGA/Sound drivers. Not sure I can keep this up any longer, am tired, and am working 13 hour shifts both days this weekend. I might hit the sack with the PSP - Pinball Fantasies is out on it today!!!!

SO - Good night for now. Pics and more tomorrow!

Let's Build A PC™

Yes, yes hello!!!

First of all, before we start building the damn machine, I have some AMAZING news!

Our great, great, and totally awesome friend DrD, aka Chalabione, aka Yazen The Great has been sent on a super secret double-0 mission to Verona, Italy. He landed there last night, and will be staying there for 3 weeks.

BUT - here's the awesome news: I begged the bosses that I can have two days off, and they agreed! SO, on Thursday the 15th I'll be flying off to Italy to meet DrD and catch up on nine years' worth of news. Man oh man I CANNOT WAIT!!!!

And now.........

Let's Build A PC™

This, in true good delicious tradition, is a blog in progress, aka I'll update it regularly as I proceed, so keep refreshing for the latest!

FINAL UPDATE 03:15

21:00 - My brother has been on the phone for the last 30 minutes or so. Once he's done, we'll get going!

21:35 - He's finished! Now just need to move a few save games and make sure the steamapps folder is backed up (wouldn't wanna loose any game progress eh?) and then it's upgrade time.

21:48 - WHERE THE HELL DOES RIDDICK STORE IT'S SAVE GAMES ON WINDOWS 7?!!! And don't say in the appdata folder, I've looked. grrrrrrrrrrrrr!

21:59 - found it, it's in Appdata\Roaming .. damn you Atari/Starbreeze!!

22:00 - leave me alone Twitterati! I need to build!

22:13 - some specs (and a pic) - Mobo: Asus Rampage II Extreme. CPU: Intel i7 920. RAM: 6x2gb Corsair DDR3 XMP + fan. VGA: 2xATI HD 5870 in crossfire. CPU cooler: Noctua NH-U12P (thanks @anmarmansur)

22:43 - This Antec 1200 case is one sexy mofo. It's huge as well!

22:52 - OMG, Asus I heart you! The ROG mobo is extremely slick and beautifully packaged and with a great manual and a CD full of fully licensed software!

23:04 - just installed the 6 memory sticks. I say sticks, they're more like blocks :p

And from now on pics will be crappy, macbook webcam snaps - sorry!

23:27 - Turns out the RAM has an "airflow fan". Installed, it looks like this (techpower picture, not mine!)

00:10 - Struggling to assemble the Noctua fan. Yes, assemble, not even install :|

01:10 - OK so I assembled the Noctua, but I'm sure it's defective. No matter what I try, it just doesn't install securely over the CPU and is loose and not in contact.

01:32 - Of course it was ME that is defective :p I was attaching some pieces the wrong way round, hence preventing the fan from proper installation. I figured it out in the end, and now I'm going to email Noctua an apology ;)

01:45 - and here it is folks, one hell of a huge fan. If I install the RAM fan I'll just end up obstructing the CPU airflow, so I'll give it a miss

02:24 - Crappy picture aside, both GPUs and the Soundblaster (PCI-ex XFI) are installed. Time to rip the PSU out and install it here.

03:15 - My back aches. My bum aches. My hands are sore. I have two cuts. To get the PSU out (Thermaltake 1500w) I had to gut the entire old PC. PSU now in new case, and so are the hard drives.

Will call it a day/night/morning now, and will hit the sack to wake up in 4 hours time... but only after I check out the Brütal Legend demo :D

More on the build tomorrow. Thanks for listening!