Some problems with the PC I usually work on made a weekend changeover to a different motherboard and processor setup seem like a good idea.

I say that because the machine was heavily configured, and it has taken the better part of two days to get all the settings right, and all the programs correctly configured, along with 500GB of data transferred through a USB2 connection. (I could have used a Firewire connection, but the Belkin 1394A card I have, has problems with the NForce board I am using, the Belkin has a TI chipset - and no extra money for the nice PCIexpress 1394B card I really want). All other hardware issues were small, the installation went relatively smoothly, with minimal trouble. At first I discovered I had bad RAM, and none extra lying around, so I had to scavenge RAM from a less used machine. Then I had real difficulty putting the killer (almost literally) heatsink and fan combination on the motherboard. I have never had to put such clamping power on a chip to simply get the heatsink on. On an older Athlon, the chip would have surely been toast. Thank goodness for the heat spreader on the Athlon 64s!

As I look at the exterior of this machine, I think about how smoothly it is running - with the memory of the nightmare of wires that need to be rerouted, so as to make the appearance better for casual inspection. It is hard to wire 10 drives, and 8 fans in case while keeping everything neat. I’ll be acquiring some beautifying stuff from A.C. Ryan soon!

Moving data is never as easy as it should be. The facts are always slower than any specification. Whatever might be possible, it is never achievable. This made things worse as I am still transferring the last 40 GB of the information from 2 250GB drives, to 1 500GB drive.

I am writing this on this machine, which because it is now a dual core AMD64 with 3GB of RAM, makes multitasking smooth as ‘buttah’. However, because the transfer and all my other daily stuff is taking place on 1 17″ CRT, instead of the usual 17″ LCD and 19″ CRT, I am in pain. I am spoiled. I like screen real estate!

As a matter of fact, I am looking forward to getting 2 22″ LCDs and leaving this CRT world behind. The ability to look at two screens, watching a virus scan progress screen, a couple of windows with articles open through Opera, and having the writing program and a transfer window open, all at once, with everything almost fully visible, with very few slightly overlapping edges - is wonderful. It’s like having a really big desk, with room to put all the papers you are using for the research paper draped all over, and still having room for that big IBM Selectric (Yes, I am old enough to have used one).

The trouble is almost over. I will soon be able to move this machine back into the room where it normally resides, and hook my dynamic duo of KDS 17 and 19 back up. Holy Acreage, Batman. Yes, these sore eyes will enjoy that!

(As I re-read this, I see that this looks very curmudgeonly of me, and kind of reminds me of when I used to read Jerry Pournelle’s articles in Byte magazine - I guess we eventually get around to trying to emulate those we admire.)

[tags]dual monitors, KDS, CRT, LCD, dual processor, Byte magazine, Jerry Pournelle[/tags]