Built a new PC

Caution: You dont need to read this post if you are not a techie !!

Half-Life 2 was out Nov 16. I still have not started playin HL2 "properly" - thats a whole another story. I will pen that down later sometime. Here is some interesting events that happened today.

My old pc's motherboard had konked off a month ago..one of the capacitors blew out...I was stuck without a bad*** PC to finish Doom 3. After HL2 released I started playin it via Steam (www.steampowered.com) ....(hehe..I got a free copy of the game, because last year I bought anATI display card and they bestowed me with the boon to play HL2 when it gets released..)

I started playin half-life2 on this crap laptop that i use atwork...which crashes every time a new level loads..i finally got fedup of it..and wanted to do somethin real quick to fix my pc. I knew I could probably buy a new MB and swap the old MB on my broken PC. That was my plan. I also knew that I would have to get new RAM, as my old PC had RDRAM andRD's are so expensive...I went to a local Fry's electronics and checked out the motherboards. Asus MB's were like 120 + dollars ...i did not want to spend that muchon it...so I thought..let me test a cheap motherboard and got one for49 bucks...i know these might not run for long..but i guess its goodfor the time being..i will sell this on ebay some time later...the MB had 800 Mhz FSB, 2 DDR memory slots (this is the downside,memory can be upgraded only to 2Gig..(but whats the point in having 4gigs of memory?) It has 2 SATA with RAID built in, AGP 8x slot, can support Processorsupto 4Ghz + and also supports HT technology. I also bought 2 DDR2 (theduals which runs at twice the speed - if you get a 400 Mhz DDR2memory, it will essentially run at 800 Mhz). I went back home and tookmy P4 processor out of my old PC...and found out that P4 was a 1.7Ghzbut will not fit a socket 478..It only fits in a Socket 423 MB.Shucksssss...........Ran back to the shop again..while the rain is pouring cats andcats..now I had to buy a processor..otherwise there is no gooduse...a new processor means...need addons like a CPU cooler +heatsink..Now what good use is it to keep a brand new motherboard,processor, memory in the OPEN...(without a case, unlike my oldPC)...So I went ahead and bought a ATX case also...Thank god I could shell out my 250 GB hdd, dvd rw drives, sound cards,ATI display cards out of my old PC..In effect this is what I spent yesterday night..

a. PC Chips MB - 49 dollars
b. P4 3.0Ghz with HT - 179 dollarsc. 1 GB PC 3200 DDR2 memory - 159 dollars (with 30 dollars
c. 1 GB PC 3200 DDR2 memory - 159 dollars (with 30 dollars mail in rebate)
d. Vantec Aerocool CPU Cooler with fan - 25 dollars
e. Thermal compound - 3 dollars
f. ATX Case with two extra fans - 79 dollars



Took two hours to assemble the entire thing..HT technology is\great..it fools the PC to think there are dual processors in the\system. Windows XP thinks that there are two...I tried overclocking\the processor today and saw that I could go upto 3.3 Ghz (Infact if I\use a FSB of 232 with a multiplier of 15 i can go upto 3.5 ghz - but\my PC was not booting with that speed)...I ran a 3DMarks benchmark\(remember i used 2001SE, havent used 2005 version yet)..and got a\score of 6503..not too bad..thought some overclocked AMD machines have\gone till 16000+ in score... I am trying to overclock the display card\and see what happens next...

Pretty interesting Day!!!!!! Spent Close to 500 dollars...All that for just playing Half-Life 2 ??