Error!

I just noticed that I haven't mentioned my amazing hardware/software
failure.

I'll post much more details later, but just one day after finishing
the watercooling, the PC suffered a hardware and software catastrophy!

I lost tons of game installs (and some saves!) but nothing major. I
had to reinstall windows, and I've had to order some new hardware ;)

More details, including pics of the water cooler and new stuff, very
soon.

Stay tuned!

Pizza, solved:

(from http://jaytest.posterous.com/solve-for-pizza)

We have water!

I'm cut, bruised, and tired. As usual.

After a lot of heartache, waiting for the delivery driver, finding out the CPU block that comes with the Reserator isn't 1366 compatible, etc etc.. I finally have the PC running with 2 watercooled VGAs and a watercooled NorthBridge. The CPU is aircooled with the Noctua because of the above, but that might change.

Anyway - am too scared to touch the damn thing.. it's scary knowing that water is spinning around in there now... saying that, the GPUs are both idle at 21 (GASP!), the PC is super quiet, and the northbridge is at 41.

It's all good. Now let's try to blow it up with some games.

Keep your fingers crossed, and if all's OK I'll post some pics soon ;)

Let's Watercool a PC!

Yes, as Tron correctly predicted, the "coming soon" project was my very first foray in to the murky, dark, depths of watercooling.

I had it all planned for Saturday just gone. I read, and read and read some more on lots of not very friendly forums (the world of PC watercooling is filled with very snobby people!), and I eventually ordered the following kit:

Zalman Reserator XT - This is an all-in-one external single box solution. See, it turns out to watercool a PC, you need a reservoir (for the water), a radiator (or rad), and a pump to circulate everything. You also need lots of room to shove all that in your PC. The Reserator XT is an external box (about as big as the good old mini-towers we all loved/hated back in the 90s!) that contains all 3 elements.

The kit also includes a CPU waterblock, and I purchased a NorthBridge one. My NorthBridge runs at 50-60 degrees (nothing dramatic, within normal), because I've overclocked the CPU to 4.2ghz by increasing the BCLK to 200 and multiplying that by 21.

EK HD5870 Waterblocks: These are used to cool the VGAs. Installing them involves disassembling the factory fan/heatsinks, and replacing them with the blocks. It's scary!

But, I couldn't carry on doing anything on Saturday! See, in my ignorance, I failed to order some VERY basic couplings which didn't come as standard with my VGA blocks, hence I had to delay everything. I placed another order for everything (I hope!) and that should arrive tomorrow!

SO - why all this? See, my HD5870s are both 2 slot cards. When sat together in the motherboard, their fans have virtually no room for airflow. This leads to the cards getting stupidly hot when active (90 degrees), which in turn makes the fans loud. More importantly, when the cards reach these temperatures they throttle their performance, leading to a palpable dip in performance.

Keep your eyes fixed on the blog tomorrow, hopefully I'll manage to get everything installed, and most importantly, NOT LEAKING!

Some piccies

Of the snow that is :)

Coming soon...

... a radical design change in my PC.

And I mean RADICAL. Something entirely new to me (and I presume most of you), the thought of which is terrifying me.

Stay tuned....

Snow!

Yes it's snowing in this neck of the woods, but more importantly it's so thick (about 10 cm here) that the roads are closed! As in, chocablock closed, packed, no one can move.

This is gonna carry on till Sunday morning. So, obviously, I am at home today with no work!

It's all very pretty too, it's nice and warm inside with a postcard-like view out of the window. Behind us is a school field you see, and there are loads of kids playing around. Very christmassy too!

Modern Warfare 2

I have to mention that Modern Warfare 2 has one hell of a single player campaign. ONE HELL OF A CAMPAIGN.

The criticism that it's too short is not fair. That's like criticising a really good film or book for being too short. Who cares about the quantity, when the quality is outstanding.

And the multiplayer, despite what all those "let's boycott MW2 cos there's no dedicated servers ZOMG" people warned us about, works WAY BETTER than having a dedicated server, and is fantastic fun.

Get it if you can.

The Tetris God

:D

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Twitterfeed test

..and a bit of news

1\ Nights are finished! YAY!

2\ Bayonetta, is one hell of an awesome, awesome, AWESOME! game. Stylish, sexy, and super fun! Demo out now, full thing January!

3\ If I've set things right, this blog post should be tweeted :D

4\ Salam

Night 7

There must be some sort of mistake, but everyone who has a heart
problem has decided to come in on my shift.

Sigh.

At least it'll all be over in just over 6 hours.

Battle of Branchage

Battle of Branchage is THE MOST AMAZING light show you will ever, EVER see. Seriously. It is beyond cool how creative this thing is.

In the words of Wired UK:

Evan Grant brings buildings to life. As part of Jersey’s recent Branchage Festival, the 29-year-old founder of Shoreditch-based arts and technology collective Seeper projected ultra-bright video on to the walls of the third-century Gorey Castle. This “3D projection mapping” made polychrome blocks appear to slide out of the fortifications and the structure twist and collapse against the night sky.

Prepare to be amazed (watch it in HD if you can):

Battle of Branchage from seeper on Vimeo.

Night 6

I genuinely, honestly, can't feel anything beneath my knees.

That's how much I ache.

Night 5

Tonight is the night that I discovered that the awesome Pinball
Fantasies is out on the iPhone!

Couldn't play it though :(

Night 4

For some reason, tonight the hospital corridors smell of a very
pleasant apple shampoo.

Sadly, that's the most exciting thing.