Spring cleaning
I spent the day today cleaning my computer. Turns out, I'm a bit of a sloven in that department. I bought it a little more than three years ago, back in 2011, and beyond a quick huff on the components to get rid of the worst of the dust bunnies inside the case, I haven't actually cleaned it properly even once since then. So today, I (tried) to clean it properly. I suspect some bunnies escaped the purge, but overall I managed to remove a shocking amount of dust.
In the process, I noticed the peeps who built this rig for me stiffed me on the memory. I thought I was getting the good stuff but it turns out I got some generic, bottom-of-the-line crap. And not even matching crap, two modules from different makers. I basically use my computer to write, surf the web, do some programming and some light image editing, hardly intensive stuff. Also, the PC I had before this one was an old laptop which I had for yonks, so I got used to a certain lack of responsiveness. These factors combined mean I didn't notice the performance hit. I can't go back and complain three years after the fact, so I'm basically forced to make do until I can buy some more. Which comes out of the non-existant budget for my next computer, the one that doesn't weigh thirty kilos (somewhere north of sixty pounds if you're an American heathen who has yet to convert to metric), can be opened up easily to perform system maintenance and runs silent so as not to disturb my delicate ears.
In the spirit of no budget, today I began upcycling an old desktop tower that's been lying around in the garage since before Gutenberg invented the typewriter (shut up). It's my father's old office PC. I yanked out all the internals, ripped off the front bezel and got to work with a metal saw. The result is a lightweight frame I'm going to use as the skeleton of a homemade case. Something in plywood, perhaps lined with aluminium, held together by a few brackets. A box, basically, with a few holes for ventilation. Nothing fancy. I can use the hard drive cage from my current rig, recycle the power supply, the graphics card, the processor and the fans, chuck a new, smaller motherboard into the mix and add in some proper RAM. The result should be tolerable. Might even be cool if I can get it right. Of course, this whole process is going to take a few months, as I am about as gifted for DIY as a hippo is for brain surgery. I'll have to keep using my current system for now, save up as much as I can and spend a few days teaching myself carpentry and whatnot. Still, it could be fun :)