Tomas' log of stuff

Since my cool new workstation now runs a 64-bit CPU, I figure the natural thing to do is to install Windows XP x64. I'm a little apprehensive about the whole thing, thanks to mixed feedback from Baldido and other friends, reporting that this feels like "old" 32-bit Windows XP retrofitted with 64 bit support as an afterthought. Which I guess is actually what it is. Already, just a few hours after installation, I'm seeing some of these quirks surface. Also, I can't for the life of me understand the point of having separate \Program Files directories for native 64 bit apps and 32 bit apps. One of the first quirks I came across was during the installation of Adobe Creative Suite 2; XP x64 instructs it to default to \Program Files (WOW64), but according to the Adobe installer, ( is not a valid character in the installation path :) Furthermore neither PDF Printer driver in Acrobat 7 Pro nor the Flashpaper printer driver that comes with Studio 8 work under XP x64. Other quirks include some poorly coded apps that check the OS version before installing, and come up with Windows 2003 SP1 instead of XP, and thus refuse to install. Some also demand that you have SP2, which is a bit hard with XP x64. I got to say, I'm not impressed. I'll give it a chance tho...

So I finally finished the workstation rebuild, and it's looking good! I ordered 3 new main parts for this.

1. The excellent dual core, 64 bit AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 4800+ CPU
2. The ultra cool Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard with passive chipset cooling
3. Graphics powered by the very powerful ATI based Club 3D X1900XT 512MB PCI-E card

Oh, and 2GB of DDR400 RAM :) As I mentioned in yesterdays post, the reason I consider these rebuilds so important is that they force me to familiarize myself with new stuff on the market. The big challenge/surprise for me this time was the whole Nvidia SLI vs. ATI Crossfire thing. The way I normally choose my components is by starting with the CPU, then let that dictate which mobos I choose between, which in turn decides the memory, etc. This time however, I discovered that the graphics card decision also affects the chipset/mobo decision. Well, it does if you ever plan to add another card, at least. For me that wasn't a big deal, as I can't afford to add another card anytime soon anyway. But I was thinking that sometime down the line adding a similar second hand card could be a cheap way to extend the life of the setup. But dual card setups these days are dependant on chipset support - if you want SLI with two Geforce cards you need a chipset with SLI support (in practice a NForce4), and if you want Crossfire with two Radeon cards you need a chipset with Crossfire support (which means an ATI chipset). To complicate matters (for themselves, mostly), to set up a dual ATI system, one of the boards must be a Crossfire edition master card. That instantly lowers the appeal of the system as there's bound to be a lot fewer of those second hand around than 'just' another Geforce 7800GTX in a few years. So despite the ATI x1900xt comes out on top in reviews both in single and dual setups at the time I make the order, I'm aiming for the Geforce 7800GTX. That is, until I find out Nvidia expects me to pay €250 MORE for a inferior performing card! No way, I refuse to get conned. However, despite logic telling me I should now get a ATI based motherboard, I just couldn't find a motherboard with the featureset of some of the nForce4 based mobos out there. I briefly considered the MSI A8N Diamond Plus, mainly because of the onboard Creative soundcard, but I chickend out and went for my alltime favourite mobo maker Asus instead. That's how I ended up with the rather eccentric solution of a nForce4 SLI16 based mobo and a x1900xt graphics card. Phew, I'm tired... guess I'll do the OS install and post some pics tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will finally start the first major PC upgrade in 3 years. I figured I should write down some thoughts around this, if for nothing else then at least to keep them for my own reference. 3 years ago I spent a lot of money on building a very powerful system, going with components with a relative specification much higher than I ever had before. To my delight, it has held up surprisingly well, and I've had no reason to upgrade before. In fact, the main reason I'm upgrading today is because my server is starting to struggle, and I want to use the motherboard, cpu and ram from my old workstation in the server. Of the components, only the ATI 9700 Pro graphics card is starting to show it's age.

Bought some great new additions to the camera equipment yesterday... In addition to a excellent 512MB CF card that was given to me, I now have a excellent monopod. It's a fairly long, one-grip release trigger, excellent build quality Manfrotto Neotec Pro 684B. Also, with that I got a Quick Release head, the Manfrotto Swivel Tilt Head w/quick Release 234RC (aka 3229 in the US). I'm taking this baby on a spin pretty soon, watch this spot! :D

Well, this isn't exactly a new Gadget, but it's way kewl so I guess it qualifies :) To make a short story long, it started with me reading some IT newspaper about ADSL2+ implementation in Norway. Basically, it said most of the big operators were sitting on the fence for now. But a couple of smaller companies were rolling, and one of them turned out to be my current reseller, Dataguard. So I stopped by their site and filled out a form asking for info, including availability and pricing. No more than a hour later I got a mail back saying that unfortunately they would not be able to deliver to me until this autumn, but then they would be able to deliver the full bonanza (25Mb/s down, 2.5Mb/s up). But, seeing as I was a SDSL customer already, if I would like to sign up for another year? They could offer twice the speed (2MBit) at the same price... Having just asked about ADSL2+ out of curiosity, and being extremely satisfied with the current line (allthough looking for a bit more speed), I jumped on it! :) While accepting the offer, I asked how fast it could take effect, and while I was away for an hour fixing some stuff (I was at work), not only did a reply drop in saying it would take effect within two hours, but the change had already been made. So now I'm on 2 mbit/s SDSL - at no additional cost! :D You know, after having dealt with a lot of isp's/broadband providers over the years, I've come to expect slow responses, month-long delivery prices, and incompetent, arrogant, and generally unhelpful "customer service". But after a few years with a line supplied by Catch and with Dataguard as the reseller, I cannot praise them enough. Excellent quality product, and excellent customer service. I cannot speak for technical support, as I've never needed it.