Halloween

My wife will be passing out the candy to trick-or-treaters. One year, she ran out of sweets. She thought about turning off the porch light, but the doorbell rang. Some older kids were at the door. She decided to give them loose change she had. One kid said, "Wow, bus money."

Ubuntu

I tried the latest version of Ubuntu Linux (6.10) and I must say I like it a lot. The installation was very smooth. Creating a dual-boot system with Windows XP was pretty easy. Everything in 6.10 just seems better integrated than the previous version of Ubuntu that I tried.

Oni-san

The more I listen to Onitsuka Chihiro, the more I realize what an amazing singer she is. Even if you don't understand a word of Japanese, the emotion in her voice as she sings will affect you. Among my favorite Onitsuka songs: Gekkou (Moonlight), Edge, Infection and We Can Go.

As I mentioned before, she has stopped performing for reasons that are somewhat of a mystery. I hope she comes back soon.

DDR2-1173 Orthos-stable

DDR2-1173 appears to be the limit for Orthos stability on the TeamGroup memory with 4-4-4 timings and 2.45v.

Orthos

It's always a good idea to test the stability of your RAM with a program like Orthos which runs two instances of SP2004. By allocating 1024MB of memory to each instance (assuming 2GB kit), you'll really stress the RAM. DDR2-1161 @ 4-4-4-8 passes with no problems. Need to work a little more on DDR2-900 @ 3-3-3-8.

461 @ 3-3-3

I wondered why the TeamGroup memory was doing only 446MHz @ 3-3-3. Then I decided to move the modules to different dimm slots. I discovered dimm slot #1 had a problem. After I switched the modules to different slots, the problem went away. Now up to 461MHz @ 3-3-3 with 2.4v.

Xandros

I purchased and installed the Home Premium edition of Xandros. Instllation was very easy. Linux does not support my X-Fi card, so I have to use onboard sound. The Firefox browser is integrated into the OS. And two virtual desktops come as default, but you can configure up to 20. So far it's been running smoothly.

Xtreem testing

More tests with TeamGroup memory at 2.4v on the P5B Deluxe.

TeamGroup DDR2

I recently got a pair of TeamGroup TXDD2048M1800HC5DC. This RAM is rated at 3-4-3-8 @ 800MHz and 5-4-4-10 @ 1000MHz. This memory runs very well at 3-3-3. I've been able to do DDR2-928 with those timings and 2.4v.

Linux

I avoided using Linux for a long time because I did not want to have hardware/software issues. My concerns were obviously exaggerated. I recently began trying various distros and found Linux pretty easy to use. I like Xandros. It's good for someone like me who is used to Windows. Linux is a lot more user-friendly than I thought. Unfortunately there is no support for my Creative X-Fi sound card. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Shopping

I needed a new suit. My wife seemed more excited than I was. She insisted we go shopping the next day. I went into the men's clothing store, thinking I was just getting a suit. I also ended up buying a sport coat, two shirts, ties, a leather belt and socks. She almost persuaded me to buy a suade jacket as well. But I said I'd think about it. I hate shopping, but my wife was very happy. When I tried on the suit, my wife said it reminded her of why she fell in love with me. I didn't know shopping could invigorate a marriage.

FSB Stability Testing

Trying to determine maximum FSB that's Orthos-stable. So far, have tried 531X7.

Motherboard: P5B Deluxe Wifi-AP
BIOS: 0614
RAM: Corsair 6400C3
HSF: Tuniq Tower 120

7900GTO

Recently bought a 7900GTO. I'm not really into high-performance video cards anymore. But the price was right on this card. $250. My last upgrade was a 6600GT. The card is huge, but has a decent fan. Idle temps are around 37C with stock clocks. My 6600GT idles in the low 50's.

Onitsuka

Recently I stumbled on the music of a Japanese singer/songwriter named Onitsuka Chihiro (Chihiro is her given name). She's from Kyushu. She sings folk/pop. The songs are very beautiful. But it's her vocals that you will remember. She has a voice that's haunting and full of emotion. She can reach incredibly high and low tones.

Her first album, Insomnia, was released in 2001. Even though she was a relative unknown, the album sold over a million copies in two months. She has so many good songs. I especially like Infection. The music and her voice just soar into the heavens.

She has not performed in quite awhile. There are all sorts of rumors including health issues and problems with her record company. I hope she comes back. Her singing is just phenomenal.

Bench table

My metal benching table arrived from Japan. Thank you, Fred-san for arranging everything. Don't be fooled by the appearance. It is very heavy. The long screw puts pressure on the heatsink, helping to give better contact with the CPU.

The top of my heatsink (Tuniq Tower) has a plastic cover which bends. I need to go to the hardware store and buy a short metal bar to place on top of the heatsink. In the meantime, I'm using a slot cover which isn't great because it too will bend under pressure.

564 FSB

I had a screenshot of 565X8, but it was corrupted. I did manage to save 564X8. Time is actually slower than 558X8, probably because of instability. There is a danger of hard drive data corruption at very high FSB.

P5B & Vapochill

Did some FSB testing with P5B Deluxe and Vapochill. Made it up to 565FSB. But times were not good after 560. System was probably unstable. 558X8 gave the fastest time.

Almost under 11

So close to going under 11 secs. I did this last weekend. Will try again at some point.

Pifast

I sometimes run Hexus Pifast instead of SuperPi. Pifast tends to be a little more sensitive to memory timings.

P5B Deluxe

Giving my P5W64-WS Pro a rest. Back to the P5B Deluxe, a board I like a lot. Much more flexible than the 975X boards. Only major negative is the voltage droop.

Vapochill

I got my Vapochill LS working again. It had a blown fuse and one of the fans was not working. I replaced the fuse and hooked up another fan. Almost 4.6GHz with 1.6v (bios).

If you own a phase change unit, always have spare fuses handy. You will likely need to replace one at some point. I found a pack of 6.3A slow-blow fuses at Radio Shack. They are close enough to the original fuse spec.