New Computer

Warning: I am horrible at English grammar and I am A.D.D with my writing, so HA!
Well we now have a new computer. It is frikin awesome! I like it at least. So the dirty specs of the computer. Well I have some pictures of the components of my computer for those of you who are visual and nerds. So here it goes.
Just joking... before I get to that, I have to tell you why we got this computer seeing as how we both have a laptop each. Well my laptop is definitely dated. Still works but not for CAD or games really. Jessica's laptop does all that, but while she is as school I can't be doing any work with CAD (I'm taking CAD class for anybody that is lost). Also I've been dreaming of getting a desktop up again, because laptops are cool but just something about a desktop makes you feel all soft,warm and fuzzy inside. I've been wanting to get a raid 5 server going as well for security of pictures and other files I have. My friend Dan has a raid 5 and I'm jealous. Also I like to computer game when I have the chance. I'm probably leaving some things out but awww well.
OK! so, here are some pictures of my new powersupply. It is a Corsair 750 watt. You may say "oh my gosh he doesn't need that big of a powersupply." I'll agree with you as of right now. I don't need it but I would rather have it then to little. I had a powersupply from my old desktop, but I ruined it running a 220watt peltier on it and also the rest of my computer. It works but just not right. It didn't regulate the power and keep a good enough 12volt line. So here is the beauty that stole my heart. It can run much more than I need but also know that I will probably be upgrading in the future and also if i'm lucky getting a how lot of harddrives. yummy.

As you can see, this only has one rail. Most of the newer powersupplies have more than one rail for safety concerns but it's not 100% right. Also a lot of them advertise that they have say 4 rails but in truth they fibbed. (read hardcore reviews and you will see the truth) If you do have the multirail powersupplies most likely you have only a certain amount of amperage you can pull through certain powerconnectors. With one rail it all comes from one source and no worries. I'm probably no making sense but trust me, it makes sense in my head. haha

This is my beauty of a processor. It is a AMD X2 BE2400 Brisbane 2.3GHz AM2 dual-Core processor that I got for 25$ shipped. Awesome deal!!!

Since my processor was OEM it did not come with a heatsink. So I did some research and ended up with this heatsink. It has a 92mm fan and it keeps my processor nice and cool for probably the best price for that type of heatsink.

The motherboard I got was an ASUS M3A78-T. There are some nice things with this motherboard. First it can handle the processor I got which is a AM2 (dual core) and it can also handle the newer quad core (AM2+). So if I decide to upgrade to a quadcore then I am able to. Also it has the newest chipset out from amd/ati, the 790gx. It also has onboard video (HD3300 video card chip) with sideport ddr3(extra memory for the video card). It has 5 serial ata for later raid setup and also an external serial ata for any external drive that I may own in future. Just a typical good mother board.

My brother-in-law (weird cause he was always known as friend dan not brother-in-law... haha NICE!) well anyways he hooked me up with some ram for the computer. He sent me 2.5gigs woot for free. and a 200 gig harddrive for a longterm*cough* borrow. You'll get it back. I'm thinking of getting some ram in the future. It's so cheap these days.
So onto the harddrive huh? Well I was using my 120 gig old western digital that i have banged around too much and it was sLOWWWww!!! but I had a computer up and running a day before dan's shipment arrived. I had to borrow a stick of ram from a local friend for the night but I got the computer up and running. As I was saying about my harddrive it was messed up. So I figured gosh i want some space to dual boot windows and linux and then some space. So I bought a 1TB western digital. And I didn't get that crazy of a deal on it at all cause i wanted a good one. the 7200.11 not the older 7200.10 that you usually see crazy rebates with. Well it is also serial ata and not just ide like the 120gig. So let me just say GLORIOUS amount of harddrive space. I also figured I could down size my main Operating systems harddrive and put this 1TB to the raid system if i get a couple others. So right now I have about 150 gigs to windows then 150 gigs to ubuntu and the rest is just a stuff drive. What stinks is the fact that after the format of the drive there is only about 930gigs of space. I guess I can handle that. haha.
A picture for good measure.

Well I was bummed about the video card that was onboard on the motherboard. I mean I don't expect much from onboard cards, but I heard praise about this one. Well long story short is I found out all the praise was from people with monitors smaller than 24". Well luckily we own a 24" wide screen lcd. The only problem with that is whatever video card you have needs to have a lot of memory on it and the onboard didn't. I believe it would be great for anyone that has a 22" or less but for the amount of area on a 24" monitor it needs a lot of memory to render all of it. I was getting page tearing even on my own blog site with it loading the pictures and the dark background. So I guess I wasn't satisfied with the onboard video and it really bummed me cause I expected the onboard video to surely be enough. Well It wasn't really esp for a video game I play with a friend from back home when I have some extra free time. So I researched probably two whole days, Jessica can vouche for me and she was probably feeling left out in life cause I just felt I had to find the best thing for what I needed. I ended up with a Sapphire Radeon HD4850 with 1gig of ram on the videocard. If you have a 22" or less that is way over kill but if your like me, you will need the extra ram. That pushed the price up but man the video is amazing! I'm am reallllllly pleased with it. I played a video game "Crysis" with all the settings to high and a resolution of 1900x1200 with smooth playing. This video card is awesome!!!

I have never had a wireless mouse or keyboard. Well now I do. Jessica and I watch some movies everynow and then and it is so annoying to always have to get up if we want to progress through the movie or even pause it. It is also very clean looking on the desk without the cables. I also got the keyboard and mouse on sale with a rebate. sweeet.

So here are some pictures of my actual computer with everything in it. If your wondering abotu the rust looking area in the back part of the case... welll... that is rust. Let's jsut say, never put a chevette heater core in your computer case that might leak water in the bottom of your case. poo on that.

This is my video card.

Ram and processor heatsink

Powersupply

Well if you actually understood me through my horrible grammer and spaz thinking.. I'm not reading over this to correct anything and I'm going to sleep right now. I'm tired.. night. Also this is for you wilson for the comment you left.. hope your doing well

New Toys

So Grant has been talking about getting a desktop for at least the whole summer if not longer... So, he finally got it. Once he decided to get it, and had done all his research, he bought everything for it.

Here is his old case with some of his new stuff put in it already.


He is doing something on his laptop, and we were both laughing at the fact that we now have two laptops and one desktop... more computers than people in our apartment... we would make Daniel and my dad proud! ;p

Grant always seems to be a very logical kind of guy and gets annoyed when others don't share his gift of logic since we all know there are people like that out there. Well, the only time when Grant is not logical, is when he is being lazy. So all of the plugs were taken my his laptop and new desktop,but he needed my laptop over there so of course the next closest outlet made sense... I got to deal with the fact that one couldn't open the fridge without hurting someone or something.

Just another picture...I was laughing so hard when I saw this, cause this isn't the normal Grant!

Grant mainly bought the things for this desktop because his laptop is definitely dated, and now my laptop is the only thing that can play his favorite game, team fortress 2, and CAD. He is now taking a CAD class, and when he has time to work on his homework, I am in Conway , an hour away, with my laptop. It just wasn't working out, so this was a great solution!

Just showing all of Grant's boxes and stuff. I was so happy that he finally got his desktop!

Him doing stuff in the Bios... "tweaking as he says"

Just the lovely mess, but it didn't bother me, he was happy, and I had a GREAT book to read!

Grant getting all excited!I think it was almost working at this point... even though in these pictures he was missing a few parts that he was going to borrow from Dan which were in the mail and coming the next day, but here he was calling up his friends(Austin) seeing if he could get random stuff (Ram)to make it work just so he had something. It was just too unfair to have everything but one or two items, so he used them even if they weren't the best.

The inside of his case, I know what the jist of the things are,but I just smile and nod, I'm just glad that it all works and he is happy!

Me happy in my corner of our apartment with my book!!! (Just and FYI, I was rereading The first king of Shannara which is written by Terry Brooks and is my ALL TIME FAVORITE author of Fantasy.. definitively better than Tolkien! )

OHHH, last but now least, here is another example of Grant's non logicality due to desperate need... he had a network card from Dan that had been modded... it didn't work for his purposes, so I don't know if you can see, but here is a network cable running from the corner of our bedroom all the way through the main traffic area of our apartment to his desktop! When I pointed it out to him we were both CRACKING up because he hadn't even noticed...he had a need.... internet, and he solved the problem. Oh, well, everything is very pretty and organized now, and I finished the amazing book so everyone is happy!

Funny Things

Now that Grant and I are married, people always ask us what married life is like. I would say it is great, I mean it is more work,but when you are both trying it makes it so much better. But there have been a few adjustments which most of them are an issue because of how small of an apartment Grant and I have. We are both very happy with it, and for the money it is more than we expected, but we have one bedroom, one bathroom, and one large room that has the kitchen, living area, and desk area in it. So, we first of all just barely fit all of our things in this place, and then when we are both here it can get crowded. Since I am here more than Grant, when he left certain things laying around I would put them away thinking I was doing him a favor, but then he would feel lost cause it wouldn't be where he left it. So we had to sit down and talk about the best solution because it is definitely too small to leave things everywhere cause we both trip over stuff. Well, we have found out that if we have designated places for Grant's things then when I put them away they are always there and we are both happy. Grant also wanted his own bowl and Fork... he had the fork, but I will explain that later. Also, with most of the money that we got from our wedding, we bought an expensive pot and pan set, and they are so amazing! We are very pleased with them so we are posting some pictures of them here.

One of the pots that we were using to make Ramen noodles...sorry for the dirty stove top.

the box.

Some of them laid out.

This is Grant's bowl and his "bamboo" fork... this was from when he lived at three Harding drive... it looks nothing like bamboo, and it is burnt on one side, but whatever... it is HIS fork! LOL!

Me happy on Sunday after we found Grant an acceptable bowl that could be claimed as "his."

Brötchen

I was really Craving Brötchen, and I have been looking for a good recipe, so this is the best one that I have found. I was pretty excited about it! Here is the website where I got the recipe from. They take a long time to make,but I would say they are definitely worth it!

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/German-Brotchen-Rolls/Detail.aspx?prop31=1