I think they (you know, them) are right, IE8 could break the internet. I started using it when it was in Beta, and I have tried using the RC, and I still find it failing to do an adequate job.

So I had a choice, continue using IE and get used to the fact that my browsing experience may become a bit more brittle, or find another browser.

I have used Opera for a long time as an alternative browser. Its fast and easy to switch off all the javascript and “content” (i mean flash etc) which makes it very secure and quick webbrowser. But, Opera still feels to “alien”. I wanted an experience like IE, yet better. I want my tabs to open my homepage. I want the pages to actually look the same as they did in IE. (As I often found previously that pages not only rendered differently but fonts and various objects always looked different to me)
It just boiled down to the fact that I like IE. (Or the way IE does it without the crappy crashy bits)

Hmm… better be careful… this could turn into a moany whiney post :P

So I tried Firefox 3, and I was surprised at how quickly it felt so natural. It was quick, much quicker than my previous experiences of Firefox 2. Pages I frequently visited looked the same as they did in IE.

Not only that, I found add ons that reproduced various behaviours that I liked in IE.
Like Tab Mix, so my homepage loads in my new tab. How new tabs open next to my old one, how and when new tabs are opened from other tabs. Really sublte finicky things like that makes a really big difference to me.

But one of the nicest things I love in Firefox is the NoScript add on. Its really easy to block things on pages, I find that I have used Opera less and less to open pages that I don’t like the look of. NoScript blocks the scripts and content, and if I need to I will allow it in a simple click.

So it’s official, Firefox 3 has turned me into a convert!

I woke up this morning with the most peculiar craving for human flesh. I can’t quite put my finger on it; I am missing my right hand.

Walking into the kitchen I was greeted by my parents; my father rolling around on the floor and my mother bumping into the table.

*Sigh* Looks like rain, I should find a hat to cover the hole in my head.

One failing I found, which could be attributed to the case really, is that because the power supply is located at the bottem, it is a real stretch for the 4pin power to reach the top of the mother board. Also, the main 24pin power socket is kind of awkwardly placed. If you have a graphics card that is longer than the one I have, it will interfere with the power supply cable. Also the placement for some of the ports made it difficult to route the cables nicely.

I couldn’t be arsed with taking photos of the second part, it was just too much bother for a boring part of the build. i do have some of the result however =D

Installed Vista with no problems. On first impression I would bet that my old machine is faster for desktop actions, I am sure it boots faster. Once in Windows however, its fine.

Got a lovely 5.9 for everything from Vista. And its quite a quiet machine, doesn’t rattle like my old machine. I left all the fans on medium, seems to be the best overall choice.

Blue screened my machine twice though within as many hours, nTune was not happy, so I cannot find out the temps for my graphics card. CPUIDs Hardware Monitor puts the CPU @ 45ish C on idle and 60 C under load. Couple of months time I’ll stick a new cooler on it.

Once all the crap was out of the way I got stuck into installing games. Vegas 2 runs like a dream, only I still die as much… can’t use the stuttering anymore as an excuse ;)

Also stuck Sacred 2 on it as well. Now, this was the game that gave me the nudge to get a new machine as it failed to render graphics on my old machine. However I ran into the same problem again. Thanks to Matt though, he gave me a command line to use (/skipopenal). It seems to be an issue with Sound Blaster sound cards, can’t understand why but that all works now too.

End result, I am a happy chappie.

Managed to get it cleared off tonight, and started work.

Heres some piccies, I apologise for the quality and lack of more pictures but the anti-shake seems to fail much of the time, so I had to cull alot of them. Sadly this is the cream of the crop.

The CPU heatsink was the most difficult part. I struggled to push the pins into the board and I was scared of breaking it. In the end I took it out of the case, placed the board on top of its anti static bag and resting the lot on a blanket I managed to get the pins through the board. Looking at it closely the board is slightly warped, will have to see what damage I might done once I boot it up.

During one attempt my thumb slipped and I cut it open on one of the heatsink fans. I saved you a picture of the gash (bit excessive :P)

Thats it for the night, I plan to continue tomorrow and will post more pictures.

Everything else is perfect, but the problem is that the motherboard is too old to support some of the newer features (such as SATA2, PCI-E 16x etc) so as a result I am just going to replace the entire lot. (Except for the soundcard, thats fine)

As always I obsess over the specs, checking all the fine details, reading reviews, pre-plan upgrade paths etc… but since I never really do upgrade or overclock, I just bought what seemed to work.

Heres what I bought:

• Western Digital WD2500AAKS Caviar SE 250GB 7200RPM SATAII/300 16MB Cache – OEM
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.5 GHz (FSB 1333MHz) Socket 775 L2 6MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
• Asus P5Q3 DELUXE/WIFI-AP P45 Socket 775 8 channel audio ATX Motherboard
• Inno3D 9800GT i-Chill Edition 512MB DDR3 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card
• Antec 1200 Twelve Hundred Full Tower Case – No PSU
• Antec NeoPower 550W Modular PSU With 80mm Low Speed/noise Fan 18db
• Corsair 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 1333MHz/PC3-10666 XMS3 DHX Memory Kit
• Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate – Licence and media – 1 PC – OEM – DVD – 64-bit – English

That should do the job at least for another 2 years. Will hopefully have it up and running sometime tonight :)

The old machine will get cleaned up and given to my darling sister to replace her old slug of a Cellery.