Archive for category Electronics

New PC.

Jul 26

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In a few weeks, I start classes which also means getting my extra financial aid which also means being able to replace my worn out PC. I’ve spent a significant amount of time over the last few weeks putting together a hardware list and refining it so that all I need to do when I get money is order the parts. I’ve pretty much decided on the following setup minus the case as I’m still having a hard time deciding on what case I want:

  • AMD Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition Deneb 3.2 GHZ (CPU)
  • GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P AM3 AMD 770 ATX AMD (Motherboard)
  • Sapphire Radeon HD 4890 1GB (Graphics card)
  • Western Digital Caviar Black  500GB (Hard Drive)
  • OCZ Platinum 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (RAM)
  • CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W (PSU)

It’ll definitely be a huge upgrade for the PC I currently have which is five years old now. I pre-ordered my copy of Windows 7 for $50 at the beginning of the month so all I need to worry about is doing some online backup and external hard drive backups on my files and such so that I have everything to go when I order my parts. I’ll probably put Windows XP on the new PC until I get my upgrade copy unless I decide to burn a DVD of the release candiate to have on hand. I can’t wait to have a new PC with no errors!

A computer upgrade?!

May 3

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Every single morning when I turn on my computer, I hold my breathe expecting it to not turn on. For the last 6 months or so my computer has been having issues ranging from locking up while browsing the web to locking up on startup to locking up while playing WoW. I replaced the graphics card back in November because the card I had, had a dead fan on it and was overheating itself; I figured that would fix the problems…it didn’t. Then I decided to do a memory upgrade and replace the memory I had because it was old and it had errors in it and some of the errors I was getting while playing WoW were memory related. I figured that would fix the problems…it didn’t. So Alan and I finally came to the conclusion a few months ago that my entire motherboard was on the fritz but being that my PC is about 5 years old now, it’s too old to replace and I may as well build an entirely new system.

This is something that I’ve wanted to do for awhile and I had planned on it last semester when I started school but ended up needing money for other things. Since then I haven’t been able to save up the amount that I need in order to build what I want. Also, I’ve wanted a laptop for school so I had been weighing building a new desktop or getting a laptop and for now I”ve opt’ed to get a Macbook for school. I realized this semester that if I had a laptop I would have done 10x better in my courses becaus I would have been able to keep up with my note taking. It would help tremedously which is why I plan on buying a Macbook in the next month or so when I get my school loans for summer classes; these loans can be used for computer equipment. I still want to build a new desktop system but as long as I have a working ANYTHING I can get by with what I have now. I’m excited!

New graphics card.

Nov 27

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I’ve been having problems with my video card for some time now and found out over the summer when I took my computer apart and looked at it that the fan was broken on it causing it to over heat. I’ve managed to do without replacing it up until yesterday which was a pretty long stretch considering it was overheating on a regular basis and I’m sure it wasn’t doing any good to the rest of my computer. The computer was left on all day Tuesday which after finding out about the fan being broken on the card, I tried not to do because it’d cause my computer to lock up etc. etc. I figured that my mom would turn it off before she left my apartment on Tuesday.

When I got home from class, the computer had been in locked up state for quite a few hours so I restarted it thinking it’d be fine like it normally is but I was wrong; it wouldn’t load to the desktop because the graphics card kept restarting itself. I was irritated…and considering that my computer is about 4 years old now it was going to be hard to find an AGP style graphics card in a store. I got lucky and found one at Office Depot for $80 ($85 after tax) and my computer has only locked up twice since having it in. I plan on getting a laptop come January or possibly building a new PC all together so…hopefully this card will be fine until then.

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It’s been decided…

Nov 7

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that next semester, I will purchase an Apple Macbook. In the last few days, I’ve been swamped with class work because of Thanksgiving break in a few weeks and then only having two weeks of classes after that before Christmas break begins and let me tell you, it’s hard to sit at the computer for a long period of time when I don’t have the TV near by. If my class work doesn’t require the computer, I’ll sit on the couch with the TV on as background noise…it helps me concentrate more than having a silent room. I figured that if I got a laptop that it would be that much better because I’d be able to do work on the computer and still be able to concentrate. I decided on an Apple because well, they are just so cool! Not only will a laptop be beneficial in regards to class work at home, it’ll allow me to go outside of the house like to the library and have everything with me; it also prevents me from having to buy new office furniture since I can just carry the damn thing around. I really can’t wait.

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Electronic want list.

Aug 4

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With moving to Kansas just around the corner – literally it’s next week, most likely around August 14th/15th – I’ve been looking at a lot of ads and such for items that I may need. Most of those items include household things like pots and pans, cups and plates, towels and bedsheets; items that are just…kind of boring but very much needed.

Apple MacBook

On the other hand, I’ve also been eyeing some other items that aren’t necessarily a need, but a want. One of those items is an Apple MacBook, which I’ve had my eye on ever since I got to use Alan’s back in December for the first time. I have never owned a laptop and it will definitely come in handy when I go back to class, however, I’ve never had the funds to be able to afford one much less one that I really want. I’ve mentioned wanting a laptop to everyone at some point in time over the past year, but have yet to receive one or purchase one. I am hoping that sometime before or shortly after classes start, I can convince my dad to buy me one or at least help pay for one – he asked me the last time I visited what it was that I wanted and I showed him, so I know he’s had it in the back of his mind…now is the perfect opportunity to get one.

The other electronic that I’ve had my eye on is a new point and shoot digital camera. I’ve owned two different cameras within the last three years, one of them managed to go missing and the other I got as a replacement for the missing one for Christmas. My mom has taken over ownership of the camera we currently have and I always tease her saying that it’s her camera every time she says it’s mine…she uses it the most and keeps it with her for work purposes. There isn’t any particular camera I want, although I’m more apt to lean towards the Canon brand because I’ve worked with their cameras before; perhaps a Canon Powershot will do the trick.

Xbox 360

I also wouldn’t mind having my own Xbox 360 either. Alan brought his with him when he came to visit me in December and in June, and although I didn’t play it much the first time around I enjoyed playing Vivia Pinatas when he was here in June. I currently have a Nintendo Wii which has games that I’m more interested in playing, like Mario and Zelda, but I think it’d be nice to be able to play some of the games Alan likes on co-op mode. Not to mention, it’d be another way to “spend” time with each other which would make me a very happy girl! However, with a $350 price tag I won’t be getting one any time soon…but it’s definitely something I’ll keep in mind for the future. Speaking of which, I preordered the Gears of War 2 Limited Edition ($77 dollars!) game for Alan the other week as a nice gift for him. I wanted it to be a surprised when he first mentioned it to me but since it’s a preorder deal and it’s something he really wants, I had to tell him I got it otherwise he’d go out and buy it himself. It doesn’t release until November, so he has to wait a few months still, but it’ll be a nice early birthday present for him (his birthday is November 27th) and I’ll have to find something else in the mean time.

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It’s dying!

Dec 8

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I swear my computer is dying on me and it makes me really sad – okay maybe not that sad because it means that I’ll have to build a new one, but still! Ugh! :(  The other day I took all the burned music CDs I had made out of my car and brought them inside to see what was on them since I don’t have a title written on all of them. I put a CD into the cd-rom of my PC, it loaded and opened in Itunes then it locked up…I was like WTH? So I took the CD out and put it back in at this point it wouldn’t READ the CD. So I think ‘great my cd-rom is broke!’; well not completely broke since I can hear it spinning and the light still comes on, it’s just not reading CDs. I’ve searched through Google like crazy to find answers and I’ve done EVERYTHING I’ve come across, the last thing to do is to check the connecting IDE cable with a new cable to see if maybe it’s gone bad but I can’t do that until I write my marriage and family paper because I don’t want to kill my PC altogether.

On top of the cd-rom, my computer has started locking up while loading Windows XP when I turn the computer on after turning it off for the night. It’s done this maybe once or twice before, but in the last week it’s done it a few times and I can’t figure out why. I have to restart the computer when it does this and sometimes I have to restart it two or three times before it’ll load Windows. UGGGGGH! I’ve already started putting together a new computer list on Newegg and hopefully will be able to build a new one come time next semester starts for school – probably around the end of January, beginning of February. I want a laptop also but I think I’ll ask for everyone to chip in for my birthday in February to get me one of those since it’ll help me ALOT during school when I transfer – I’m picky though and really want a MacBook which is just over $1000 so I won’t settle for anything different :P I mean if I HAVE too, I will but that’s what I REALLY want. Either way, I’ll most likely be building a new PC within the next month or so…I need my desktop and want my desktop thus why I’m building a new one, besides I had fun building this one that I currently own and it’s almost 3 years old and a POS :P

I guess no one will be getting a Girard Perregaux – who makes a $65,000 watch!! – from me for Christmas with all the money I need to save and then use to replace things! :P

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Random Thought: Phones.

Oct 23

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I’m taking a break from writing all the answers to my essays questions for my marriage and family class and I was thinking about how long we’ve been without a land-line phone (random I know but I had just got off the phone awhile ago!) - it’s been a few years now. Anymore it seems that many people rely solely on their cell phones as their way of communication via a phone, perhaps it’s because you have a lesser chance or no chance at all of being contacted by those pesky telemarketers or that commercial collection agency you owe money too.

I know a lot of people who use their cell phones as their primary phone line – my mom and I do, as does Alan and his mom, my dad and step-mom did for awhile – but there is also a downfall to doing so. For example, Alan and I use our cell phones to talk to each other every day (obviously! :P ) but the downfall to that is the fact that we’re on different networks, he’s on T-Mobile and I’m on Verizon. I won’t switch to T-Mobile because I’m on a contract with my mom and we share the family plan which she pays for and it allows for free minutes to be used between us and anyone on the Verizon network which is my whole family. He won’t switch to Verizon because he’s on the contract with his mom and can’t get off it until it needs to be renewed as well as being able to share free time with her etc. Because of this, it eats our minutes up during the day if either of us calls the other – mine end up higher than his usually though at the end of the month only because the minutes on our family plan (1400 minutes a month) are being shared by three people, me, my mom and my brother so we end up talking during free time which starts at 9pm. That’s when I wish we had a land-line sometimes with free long distance, so that I could call him any time I wanted too and it not really effect either of us…but we’ve managed and it’s been okay so far! Maybe at a later date, I’ll switch but until then we’ll keep talking after 9pm :P

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