Time to Upgrade

[gregvb]

It's Saturday and I'm work manning the Information desk.  Ick.  Fortunately, I only have to do this once a month.  It's not bad duty.  I'm generally left to my own devices, interrupted only occationally by a clueless student wanting to know where this or that is.  And I'm more than happy to tell them where to go.>:)  The downside, of course, is it breaks up the weekend.  When I work Saturday I take Friday off, work Saturday, then off Sunday.  So even though I still have two days off, it doesn't seem like it.  What REALLY cheeses me off is when I forget I'm working Saturday and show up at work Friday, like I did yesterday...AAAARRRGGG!  To think I wasted a day I could've slept in.  Not to mention waiting for a bus that was ~15 min. late.  ALL--FOR--NOTHING!  And to add insult to injury, the bus from the College was also ~15 min. late...Sheesh!  I didn't get back home until about 12:30.  What a way to spend the day.

OK, on to more happy stuff:  I'm putting together a whole new computer system.  Check out these specs:

• EVGA nForce 780i SLI mobo
• Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 Mhz CPU
• 4 gigs DDR2 RAM
• GeForce 8800GT SuperClocked Ed. graphics card
• XP 64 Professional

I still need to select a case and power supply.  I know I want a full-tower case and a 500 watt PS, but choosing specific models has been a tad frustrating.  I've been trying to find some comprehensive reviews on these items but, believe it or not, even with the Net, it's not easy.  I've been to several sites but they seem more interested in selling than reviewing.  I could use the case I have, but working "under the hood" is a real hassle.  Any suggestions?

Carry-overs from the old system:

• Hard drives (850 gigs total)
• SB Audigy ZS 2 Platinum sound card
• CD/DVD burner

Besides the beefier components, this will also be, what's known as, a "silent computer".  One where the cooling fans, power supply and system case are designed to keep the noise level down, which can be important when you've got a system with four or more cooling fans, PS fan, CPU fan, BIOS fan, graphics card fan and hard drive(s) all whirring  at the same time.

So why am I upgrading?  Two main reasons: 1)The current crop of FPS games don't run well on my current system; some not at all.  2) I'm into Second Life (as are some of you) and I want to get better performance and crank up the graphics settings.  And it's been about five or six years since I made any significant changes to my setup, so it's about time anyway.

That's it for now.