Life | Archive | Muffin Man
There once was a time was a time when I had a slow computer. But now, I have a very fast computer. And it is good.
When I ordered the parts, I only had enough money to get the motherboard, processor, case, and cooling. I ordered all the parts on Sunday, the 6th of January. I was expecting to get the parts on the next Monday, since I had had other experiences with shipping delays.
One time, I had a package come from California, then my home state, then some place in Pennsylvania, then all the way back to California, and back to my home state. It took that package about 4 weeks to get here.
Anyway, to my surprise, I got a package on the Thursday of that week. It was my case. I was very surprised, but I suppose the only reason for the early delivery, (or maybe it was on time... Hmmm...) was because it shipped FedEx, and the others were going by UPS. I have started to hate UPS because of their slow delivery times.
The case was pretty nice. It came with a 300 watt power supply, 4 bays, a case fan, (only because I requested it with it) and they were nice enough to put the risers in for me. I got it from Amamax. They are pretty good and I would recommend them. You can get a front case fan, rear case fan, and various pieces of hardware from them. This is the link to the case that I got.
The following Monday (1.14.02) I got the motherboard and processor. No cooling yet. So I couldn't assemble it. As I was opening the box to the processor, I thought to myself, "Ya know, this would be bad if it was a mail bomb." Luckily it wasn't. I didn't like the way they packaged it. All they did was wrap it in bubble wrap, and put it in a small static bag. Usually they come in these neat little plastic case with foam squares in it to protect the processor. They also stuck this latex glove in the package which I thought was odd.
They put this little sheet in there that said, "STOP NOW! AND LOOK CAREFULLY THROUGH THE BAG FOR ANY POSSIBLE CHIPS IN THE CORNERS OR ALONG THE EDGE OF THE RAISED BLUE-GREEN CENTER ... PROCESSOR...." and some other warnings. Apparently, they could not spend enough money to use descent shipping of the processor. Luckily, the processor wasn't chipped. They said it usually wasn't. That makes me worry when they have to put a note in there saying that my processor might be damaged.
Anyway, after I inspected the processor, I opened the box to the motherboard. I got an EPoX 8KTA3 + PRO. The reason it is a PRO is because it has RAID on it. Not that I would use RAID unless I had several massive hard drives.
I also had some new PC-133 RAM. We were gonna put it in my dad's but it wouldn't fit. So since I needed some faster RAM for my computer, I bought it from him.
Also, since I didn't order my ATI Radeon All-In-Wonder, I had to use some old video card just laying around somewhere.
I decided to reformat my hard drive so that it would have a clean start.
The next day I finally got my cooling. I got a Cooler master heatsink/fan combo. When I got it, I went to put it together.
The Surgery
Everything was going smoothly. I put the Motherboard in the case, screwed it in, installed the processor, installed the heatsink, installed the new RAM, then the video card. then the case fan, hooked up the CD-ROM and hard drive, and made the case all pretty.
During this process, there were some small things to do like punch out some metal in the case and such things like that, and one time there was this little booger of a strip of metal that would not come loose. I ended up cutting my finger. It wasn't bad, but it required a band-aid. That just goes to show that I put my sweat and blood into that computer! When I took the band-aid off about 2 days later, there was this pale ring around my finger where the band-aid had been. It was pretty cool. I need to do that again for Halloween or something.
When I finally got everything hooked up, I turned it on and it beeped several times. So I looked those little diagnostics LED's, and then I looked at the manual to see what the problem. It said something about memory, so I suspected that the RAM had come loose during the rest of the installation process. I pressed it back on, and I came on like a dream.
After I installed Windows 98 SE, I put in my Ethernet card, so I could use my network and get on the Internet.
I stuck it in, and it saw it thanks to Plug and Play (more like Plug and Pray), and it needed to install the drivers. I got the disk, stuck it in, and for some strange reason, it said that it was not the disk it needed. Yet it was. So I toyed with it, and tweaked it some, and I finally got it to work. Yet during the toying and tweaking, there were some files that had been deleted and modified and such, (I DIDN'T DO IT!) and when you would boot, there would be annoying error messages, and you would have to press "any key" for it to boot. I couldn't settle for this, and since I had to have a perfect "Psycho Stable" computer, I had to solve this problem.
Turns out I had to reformat my hard drive and do it again. But this time, my network card troubles were nothing. And now my computer is running smoothly.
The Results
My computer is very fast. That is the best way to describe it. Fast. Programs run fast, it boots and shuts down fast, everything about it is fast. I am very satisfied with the results.
The Future of Ed
Next for sure, I am going to get new speakers, and my ATI Radeon AIW. Then I'm gonna get a new soundcard, then I'm gonna get more RAM, then a DVD-ROM then a GeForce 3 Ti 500 (or whatever is better and within my budget. It should be by the time I get it.
The future holds many possibilities for Ed. And it looks like it will be a good one.
