redhead-kitten's Journal: C: go boom!

So, I've been having a little trouble with my computer over the past couple of weeks. Usually powering down and starting up again would allow me to use the computer for about an hour before I was ready to quit or it happened again. (rebooting didn't work, because when it froze, it froze *everything* so the 3-finger salute was useless)

Wednesday night my luck ran out. the powering down and back up didn't work. It didn't recognize the C: drive.

Now, about a year or so back, I found I needed more memory, so I had added an 80gb hard drive. All of my documents and pictures were stored on the new drive, the old C: drive had all the programs. (Note to self: time to make sure a regular back-up schedule is put in place)

The other piece in this is the fact that BBB is a gamer. We have been talking for a couple of months about upgrading his computer and giving me the guts to his machine, since mine was basically original to what I had bought in 2001. I was still running Windows 98, and BBB had Windows 2000. I had recently done a game study for the Evil Empire and as a comp gift, I got a copy of WindowsXP Professional which had not been installed yet.

Wednesday night, my computer said, "quit stalling!" and promptly refused to work any more.

So, Thursday after work, BBB and I met Talinom at Fry's. After much searching, discussion and education (1) , I dropped $1,100 on new computer parts(2).

Whee

Friday after Talinom got home from work, he started gutting BBB's computer and placing parts in mine(3). By the end of the evening, I had a computer back up and running.

Saturday, Talinom worked all day(4) and by evening, BBB had a new computer. He's playing Guild Wars now and the graphics are teh awsome!

So that's just a piece of how *MY* week has been going.

^_^

(1) Talinom 'splained the difference between video cards to me. BBB had to step away because his brain was about to asplode.

(2) Thankyouverymuch, RW. As I said on the phone this morning, I know that this amount would have bought a whole new computer, but that would have been more of a basic one. It really was cheaper to upgrade the gaming computer, rather than to buy a new one.

(3) Yes, it would have been easier if I had just taken BBB's case and bought him a new one, but I didn't want a flashy one, so I made it much more complicated for Talinom.

(4) You sould see this geek at work. He is awesome. Thank you, thank you Talinom!

Parts List

[Talinom]

The price paid differs from the amounts shown on the website, but this is what was purchased:

AMD Athlon(TM) 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 3800+ [outpost.com]
ABIT AN8-SLI Mainboard [outpost.com]
Ultra X-Connect 500W SUV [outpost.com]
Kingston 1GB PC3200 400 MHz 2x512MB Dual Channel [outpost.com]
EVGA GeForce 6600 GT 128MB PCI Express Video Card [outpost.com]
Fudin ATX868WBP "Scorpio" 430W Mid ATX Case - Black [outpost.com]

Yeah doing a transplant doesn't take nearly as long as doing a full system from parts but I feel it was worth it.

The video card was chosen because it provided a

Sounds familiar

[Timex]

Usually powering down and starting up again would allow me to use the computer for about an hour before I was ready to quit or it happened again.

That happened to me a week and a half ago with my iBook. Same problem. Unfortunately, the drive was so far-gone that I couldn't keep it up long enough to get stuff copied off of it. Lost a bunch of music that I had ripped from CDs that my kids have since destroyed (and may not be able to replace), and a handful of songs from the iTunes Music Store.

Because it be

the best thing about a top notch gaming rig..

[kesuki]

is that it genererally has about a 4-6 year life cycle if it 'retires' into a lower performance system as in this case ;)

although it's always a good idea to 'retire' an old gaming hard drive to an 'external' backup drive as hard drives really don't have that many years of 'use' in them. cheap power supplies don't always either.

ah well, i am jealous of the new gaming rig ;) i've been craving a new one, although right now i have sucky internet access (direcway) which is only usable for web browsing.