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Copyright
1996-2010
by TSW
(Nikolas Tuzhilin)
Take a look at Latest drivers info.
News:
Take some new components for my computer from the junk: Intel Core 2 Quad CPU, Gigabyte P35-DS3L motherboard.
As TN LCD monitors and photo processing are incompatible - bought 24" IPS LCD monitor Dell U2410.
After installing water-cooling system on CPU and replacing HDD with WD Green the only noise source left is PSU. Also now I easily overclocked my CPU without any temperature raise!
Problems with stability and overclocking after installing 3d memory module (see the post below) were resolved by swapping two modules in other slots. The cause it seems is that I put two (identical) modules in the first channel and the new in the second channel. So I got two double sided modules on the same channel, which is bad. After swapping modules I got DS+SS and DS combination that works fine.
Installed one more memory module (total to 3G), but got only 2816MB available (It is limit for any 32bit OS due to address space reserved for PCI devices). To get more memory one need to use 64bit OS (but it use twice memory for itself and you will get tough time looking for 64bit drivers for your old hardware) and probable switch on memory remap (which slows down system). So it looks like after 3G you need to start with at least 8G. Also I had to stop overclocking my system as I got two memory modules on one channel which do not allows to overclock memory.
To make CPU Fan noise lower you just need to remove dust out of its heatsink! And to lower noise from HDD vibration (very loud low frequency noise) I had to screw them through rubber strips.
After I have installed new videocard, the noise level of integrated audio became too high, it is even audible without speakers or headphone attached! To be more comfortable when using headphones I "found" the old but still great audiocard Creative Audigy 2.
My old good keyboard have not survive the full glass of compote. I have disassembled and cleaned it out but the water with electricity corroded the spattered conductors so the half of buttons did not work. Working and gaming without keyboard turned out to be very pathetic, and on the next day I have bought the new shining Microsoft USB Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000!
On the last week I was very impressed when PCI-X 64bit 133MHz SCSI controller fit into the plain PCI (32bit 33MHz) slot on the mATX motherboard and started to work!
Start using wide screen monitor at work. The overall impression is good. It is really wide enough to fit additional panels in Eclipse and our main application structure fits good. But it is a little shorter on vertical side and too wide to view internet pages.
Asus with release of the new bios (0706) for P5B-VM motherboard caused me much troubles to find out why CPU temperature became 10C higher. After month of searching I found out that the reason is disabled by default HECI interface.
Tired to wait for Epson Stylus Photo 950 and BT848 drivers for Vista x64 (64-bit), I have uninstalled it and installed Vista x86 (32-bit). Now I have no problem with drivers (Epson appeared to have Vista x86 only drivers for some months but keeps it almost secret) and program compatibility, although lost the possibility to increase my memory to 4 or 8GB (no big problem for the nearest 2 years).
At last (a year pass) there is a SoundMAX drivers version for Windows XP that supports Stereo mix record source! Now I can use graphic equalizer of my Mozart Media LAB case.
The performance of two modern hard drives in RAID0 even on older system is outstanding - see here.
Today is very difficult to upgrade a computer just replacing one or two parts. Usually you have to buy a completely new one and find where to dump old one. But after some thoughts I found a way to divide upgrade to some stages: case and hard drive, then CPU + mainboard and some memory, then videocard and more memory. At the new year break I have already replaced the case and added new hard drive.
In spite of the fact that motherboard on my computer is plain old AGP there is still possible to upgrade videocard to the modern Shader 3.0 models. So I got one. It is Gigabyte GV-N76G256D-RH (GeForce 7600GS based). It is cheap, fast (4x faster then my previous Radeon 9500 Pro) and silent (no fan). Supplied with small external fan it became really useful :)
My long way to the real digital SLR camera is finished. Now I am proud owner of late Konica-Minolta Dynax 5D and couple of cheap but great lenses.
After many years of LS120 exploitation have wrote some additions to its review.
My computer
May be your computer is better, but I can not help to boast :)
- Intel Core i5-2400 CPU (3.1-3.4GHz)
- Gigabyte GA-P67A-UD3-B3 Intel P68 based ATX motherboard
- 2x4GB DDR3 memory run at 1600MHz
- Reservator water cooling system
-
Western
Digital WD1500 5400rpm 1.5T hard drive, SATA2 - OCZ Vertex 3 90G SSD drive, SATA 6G
- Thermaltake Mozart Media LAB desktop case
- Cooler Master Silent Pro 850W PSU
-
Inno3D
GTX465 i-Cool Black Series (water cooling) -
Dell U2410 24" IPS widescreen LCD
monitor -
Acorp
56EMS
external V.90 FAX modem -
Microsoft
Natural
Egronimiс Keyboard 4000 USB RUS -
Logitech
MX1000 cordless
laser USB mouse - Logitech C525 720p HD webcam
- Wacom Bamboo Fun pen tablet
- Altec-Lanzing speakers
-
KOSS
HQ2 headset -
KOSS
TD-80 headphones
- Samsung CLP-325 color laset printer
- Epson Perfection 2400 Photo scanner
- Bluetake BT009SX Bluetooth class 2 EDR USB adapter
- DLink DIR-655 802.11n wireless router with:
-
Western
Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200KS 7200rpm 320G hard drive, SATA2 (available with USB2 adapter)
- ADATA Superior SH93 500GB external USB hard drive
Other hardware
Minolta
DiMAGE Xt
ultra compact digital camera-
Sony
SLT-α55V digital SLR camera
with... - Konica-Minolta Dinax 5D digital SLR camera
with...
- Sigma EF 500 DG Super flash and
-
Minolta
AF 50/1.7
(old design) lens and -
Minolta
AF 70-210/4 lens -
Tamron
AF 18-200/3.5-6.3
XR Di II for Minolta lens and - Vivitar
AF 100-400/4.5-6.7
for Minolta lens
- NEXX NNS-4300 GPS navigator
- Acer One 522-C68kk netbook
- Opel Zafira car
For reference
- Giga-byte GA-8I945GMF Intel i945G based motherboard
- Intel DG965SS 965G based motherboard