I have recently been seeing some very strange networking issues on my home computer, and I'm not certain I understand where the problems are coming from. Because my computer is a long way from our cable modem, I make use of a wireless networking adapter (a Netgear WG311 v3, to be exact). The signal strength I receive is somewhat low, due to the adapter's tiny antenna and its lousy location at the back of my computer.

The actual problem I'm seeing is a severe degradation in performance over time. When I run the speed test at Speakeasy right after a reboot (or when I initially turn on my machine), I can consistently get ~4500 kbps down and ~300 kbps up. After an hour or two of usage, running the same test consistently gives me ~750 kbps down and ~50 kbps up (sometimes slightly higher; the numbers vary). None of the other computers in my house see this issue, and all are wireless.

Last night I flashed the latest firmware onto our DLink DI-624 wireless router (the one that was installed was really old), but I saw the issue again after I made the update. Seeing that this issue is limited to my machine, it makes me think of two possibilities:

1. It's a problem with my wireless card (though another computer in my house has the exact same type of card, and doesn't see the problem).
2. It's a software issue (something is screwing over the network settings system wide).

Does anyone have an idea of what might be going on here? I'm thinking about buying a new networking card with a better external antenna (this one at NewEgg is what I'm currently looking at), with the hopes that better signal strength will make this problem disappear. But I'm grasping at straws; this is driving me nuts and I want it fixed!

Yesterday, while playing through Half-Life 2 (this time at 1600 x 1200 ... :-D), I noticed that, after playing for a while, the game began stuttering. Strangely enough, changing the graphics and audio settings didn't make things any better. Even down at 640 x 480 with everything as low as it would go, the game was still quite choppy. So I got looking around the web, and began wondering if my new AMD dual-core processor was the problem.

I found a number of pointers to CPU drivers, dual core optimizers, a hot-fix from Microsoft, and more. But one forum post in particular caught my eye. It has links to all of the aforementioned fixes, and contains a number of tips on how to get games to work properly in a dual-core environment. This morning, I installed the latest nForce chipset drivers from nVIDIA, as well as the dual-core optimizer from AMD. The nForce drivers have unfortunately made my SATA hard drives appear as removable, which is odd but understandable considering that SATA drives support hot-swap functionality. And the dual-core optimizer seems to have removed the stuttering (though I haven't played as long today as I did yesterday; I still need to investigate whether this has truly fixed the problem or not).

Anyways, if you happen to have a dual-core processor, and are concerned about game stuttering, I highly recommend the forum post above. Perhaps the steps I've taken so far will fix the problems I was seeing.

This weekend I had the great fortune of rebuilding my personal computer. It turned out to be quite an experience, and surprisingly frustrating at times. Before I detail the problems I ran into, here's a list of the new components I put into it:

• Asus A8N5X motherboard
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ CPU (dual core)
• 2GB Corsair XMS DDR400 SDRAM
• Antec SmartPower 2.0 500W Power Supply
• eVGA GeForce 7900 GT 256MB
• 2 Seagate Barracuda 160GB SATA 3.0 GB/s hard drives

I have also put up a small photo series detailing my progress, for those interested (more on this in a moment). Fortunately, it doesn't contain any photos of my frustrations.

After assembling everything in the system, I plugged it in and turned it on. For a fraction of a second, the system begins to boot; after that, nothing but silence. I try again, with even worse luck the second time: nothing happens at all. Panic instantly sets in. Frustrated, I surf the web looking for answers but come up empty handed. My dad suggests that it sounds like power supply issues so, one by one, I disconnect every device from the supply. After getting down to just the motherboard, CPU, and memory, things begin working. Slowly but surely I replace the items and, to my delight, everything eventually works.

I tried out Windows slipstreaming for the first time, and was pleasantly surprised with how well it worked. I was able to load Service Pack 2 instantly, bypassing the oh-so-annoying Windows update process. Interestingly enough, I still had a total of 55 critical updates to be applied, and even more for Microsoft Office. I'm slowly getting things back to normal, and I look forward to doing a little gaming in the near future.

I'll have another Zalman VF-900 blog post here soon, detailing the install process (as well as my second no-power adventure with my new machine).

As I noted earlier, I have posted a photo series here at this blog covering my computer building experience. I am trying out the Plogger photo gallery software for my photos, so feel free to check out my main collection (I have replaced Plogger with Monkey Album, my own photo album software). Plogger has a few bugs, and a few features I dislike, but I'm going to try it out for a while (until I can write my own). If you see a problem anywhere in the gallery software, let me know. Hopefully things will work as they are intended to.

Since early February and March, I've been talking (and thinking) about upgrading my home computer. And I'm finally making some inroads to the situation. For whatever this is worth, here are the components I've firmly decided on:

• Asus A8N5X: This motherboard has great reviews at NewEgg, and the socket 939 platform from AMD is way more mature (and stable) than the new Intel stuff (or even AMD's socket AM2, as far as I know). It looks like this isn't available anymore at NewEgg. :-(
• AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+: A great processor for a very reasonable price (although it went up $15 just today). Dual core should be fun to play with.
• CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM: Going from 1GB of RAM to 2GB will certainly be an improvement.
• Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-500 ATX12V 500W Power Supply: I'm going to try a modular power supply and see how well I like it. Antec makes quality units, so I don't doubt that I'll be pleased.
• Seagate Barracuda 160GB SATA 3.0GB/s: I'm planning on getting two of these, doubling my available storage (not that I need double the storage mind you). My current Maxtor drives really suck; they're loud, slow, and I'm tired of dealing with them. Hopefully these Seagate's will do better. These drives are no longer available at NewEgg. :-(

I'm also looking at upgrading my video card (preferably to a GeForce 7900GT), but I don't know which brand to go with. I currently have a card manufactured by eVGA, and as I have mentioned before, it runs a tad warm. I've also been reading about a number of stability problems with eVGA 7900 cards, although they recently did a 7900 series reload to fix some of the issues. As a result, I've been focusing on the XFX GeForce 7900GT (470MHz). The XFX model comes with stock speeds (most 7900 cards come factory overclocked, something I'm thinking I'd like to avoid) and it has fairly good reviews at NewEgg. The price, around $225 after rebate, isn't bad either!

Had I fully made up my mind about a video card earlier this week, I would have gone ahead and ordered these components. But I'd rather spend some more time weighing my options. Suggestions? Comments? As always, they are welcome.

I recently ordered a Zalman VF900 VGA cooler for my NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT. As I previously mentioned, the temperatures I've been seeing on this card have been incredibly hot. It would probably be safe to say that this was the primary factor in my frequent system crashes, but only time will prove that theory. Well, yesterday the cooler arrived and I installed it. Read on for my thoughts on the card, the results I've seen so far, and more.

A photo set detailing the install process is now available. Much to my delight, I encountered no problems during the whole process. Removing the stock cooler took some time, mostly due to the number of screws that were holding it down to the card. After removing the stock cooler, I cleaned the memory chips and the CPU with a dry paper towel. I probably could have done better during this step, but it seemed to do the job.

Next up was the application of the Arctic Silver 5 thermal grease that I purchased along with the cooler. This was the step that I was most worried about, mostly because I had never done it before. It turned out to be quite easy, although spreading the stuff over the chip definitely required a steady hand and some patience. I then attached the cooler to the card, and plugged it in to my motherboard. It was time to test!

For a reference point, here are two screenshots of the stock cooler:

As can be seen from the first screenshot, the idle temperature is 71°, with an ambient temperature of 45° (all temperatures are in degrees Celsius). The second screenshot shows the card after a high load (specifically the Lost Coast level from Half-Life 2). Under load, the card reached 81° and the ambient temperature shot up to 54°. These temperatures were quite ridiculous. Let's see if the VF900 can correct this problem:

Wow, what a difference! The idle temperature has dropped down to 56° while the ambient temperature is now only 36°. Under load (the same test as before), the temperature only reaches 64° while the ambient temperature is 45°, which happens to be the same temperature as the idle ambient reading using the stock cooler! So we've come down a total of 15° on idle and 17° under load. Although the load temperature is still a tad warm, we've improved greatly. My next system will be even better in the cooling department, thanks to a lower power CPU and graphics card.

As one can therefore conclude, this VGA cooler works wonders. I'm very pleased with this product and will most likely purchase another one in the future (when I finally upgrade my system). Or I might reuse this one (I would just have to buy some new thermal tape for the RAM heat sinks). If you're machine runs hot, I highly recommend the Zalman VF900 (be sure to snag some Arctic Silver 5 as well). Again, we'll see if this corrects the crashing issues I've been seeing lately. In a few weeks time, I'll report back with the results.

My current graphics card, an eVGA GeForce 6800GT, has been running very hot recently. Spending time in Half-Life 2 or Oblivion causes temperatures in excess of 75 degrees Celsius, scorchingly hot by most standards. As a result of these high temperatures, video output routinely becomes corrupted, requiring a power-off of the machine to set things right. This occurrence seems fairly recent, and I'm not entirely certain why. My computer has always done a good job of controlling its temperature, thanks to my Cooler Master aluminum case. I've inspected all of my system's fans: three of my four chassis fans (I've disconnected the one on top for being too noisy), the power supply fan, the CPU fan, and the fan on the graphics card. Each one seems to be spinning, and airflow doesn't appear to be blocked.

I've been looking at building an entirely new system for some time now, and this problem is only pushing me closer to actually going through with it. Switching to a more energy-efficient AMD processor should help somewhat, and I plan on adding an after-market cooler to my new graphics card (I'm currently looking at a GeForce 7900 GT). Hopefully these steps will bring my system's temperatures down considerably.

I'm beginning to spend more time thinking about how to upgrade my personal computer. As I have mentioned before, deciding what pieces of hardware to buy is frustratingly difficult, especially in today's market. This time around, I'm trying to pay more attention to user reviews at sites like NewEgg, and less attention to the dedicated hardware "review" sites, which tend to consist of more previews than anything else.

I'm currently leaning towards getting the AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ CPU. I'm still trying to track down a good motherboard, and then I'll have to pick some memory and, quite possible, a new power supply. Throw in a couple of new SATA hard drives (the Maxtor drives I have are real crap), and a new graphics card, and you've got a brand new system.

I'm probably going to end up spending a large chunk of change on this upgrade, but I think it will be worth it. Selling my current components on eBay should offset the cost somewhat. I've always done a good job of taking care of my stuff, and I tend to keep the boxes that components come in, so that should help increase the price I get by auctioning them off. Plus, I'm getting a performance bonus at the end of this month at work, and that can only help.

Were I to have my way, and were I to know exactly what I want, I'd order the components today. But seeing as this upgrade is going to be rather expensive, I'm resigned to waiting a bit. I'll clearly have to put Amazon purchases and the like on hold for several months after I make this move. The old bank account can only handle so much spending.

The LA Times is reporting that Google is slowly switching to AMD-based processor solutions for their 200,000+ (!) servers. This is a most interesting report, especially since Intel has owned the vast majority of processor market share for so long. Could AMD be the David to Intel's Goliath?

On a completely unrelated note, I've about decided to put off upgrading my personal computer. Not only does convoluted hardware make it hard to find what to buy, but things change so quickly (especially as far as prices are concerned). Instead of upgrading little bits now, I'm planning on building a completely new rig from scratch later this year (with any luck). Although I don't have any details in place, I do have these general milestones I want to hit:

• AMD dual-core processor (most likely)
• No less than 2 GB of memory
• PCI-Express based graphics card (an NVIDIA based solution, no doubt)
• Seagate SATA hard drives (SCSI seems a little too expensive)
• Perhaps a beefier power supply (~500 W)

Waiting a while will allow me to (a) save some money up and (b) allow prices on today's hot hardware to fall. I generally like buying stuff one generation back from the bleeding edge. You seem to get the most bang for your buck that way.

I have recently been toying with the idea of upgrading my personal computer (although I don't use it near as much as I used to). I'd like to double my system memory, get a faster processor (a new motherboard as a result), and replace my SATA hard drives (which have been surprisingly disappointing).

The problem is that computer hardware is complicated, and it's getting more so all the time. I remember spending weeks researching various options for my last major upgrade; and that was well over two years ago! Since that time, processor model numbers have become increasingly complicated and motherboard options seem to have multiplied several times. Adding to my frustration are hardware review sites such as Anandtech and Tom's Hardware, both of which make the assumption that readers spend each and every day staying up to date with hardware trends. Don't they realize that there are those of us who look at hardware on an incredibly infrequent basis? Thankfully, Tom's Hardware has some charts that they keep updated on a semi-regular basis for graphics cards, processors, and hard drives. The benchmarks within them are handy for people like me, who just want to get a feel for where things are.

I am thinking about moving to an AMD processor this time around. I've always used Intel Pentium chips, but the AMD solutions seem way more affordable. Can anyone recommend an AMD CPU / motherboard combination that would work well for gaming? It clearly needs to be faster than my current setup (P4 - 2.8GHz), but I don't want to pay thousands of dollars for it. Why can't any of this stuff be easy?

Yesterday, I received my NEC FE2111SB 22" CRT monitor from Azatek.com, and I finally got a chance to set it up this morning. What a beauty! The monitor was listed as "not exactly new" on Azatek's web page. I have found only two flaws with the monitor: the face plate is lightly scratched (you have to be looking for it to see it) and one of the buttons on the front plate is indented (it looks like it's stuck in the depressed position, but the button is completely functional - it's just cosmetically out of line with the others). Both of these items are minor; I think they give the monitor "character".

I only have good things to say about Azatek. I placed my order last weekend (on Friday morning) and was assured that it would be mailed that day. When I received notification from UPS that it had not been mailed, I contacted Azatek's customer service. They promptly replied via email, stating that the monitor was not able to fit in that day's UPS shipment (the box this thing came in is gigantic, and apparently the UPS truck was full of other packages). My monitor was sent out first thing Monday morning, and got here (via UPS ground) yesterday. The monitor was extremely well packaged (these folks really know what they are doing) and it's in awesome shape! If you're in the market for a CRT, check Azatek out. I was pleasantly surprised by their fast, friendly service. And the low, low price of $337.80 (that includes shipping) didn't hurt either!

I have recently been looking at refurbished monitors from Azatek, in an effort to replace my 22" NEC monitor which got screwed up during my recent move. They have a nice (albeit limited) selection of Grade-A 21-24" monitors. I'm currently looking at the NEC FE2111SB 22" model, which they list in Not Exactly New condition. What that means remains to be seen, but at only $289, it doesn't look like a bad deal at all. I hope to order the monitor today: with any luck, I'll have it up and running by this time next week.

It's a shame that CRT monitors are going the way of the dinosaur. I'm surprised that no company has stepped up to fill the niche market of those who prefer the older CRT technology. You would think that there is a fair amount of money to be made by selling to enthusiasts, but apparently that's not the case.

Update: I've ordered the monitor, at a final price of $337.80 ($289 + $48.80 in shipping costs). Not bad for a 22" CRT!

So I'm playing through Far Cry again, this time with all the eye candy turned way up. This is all thanks to the wonder that is the GeForce 6800 GT. It's absolutely fan-freaking-tastic. But I digress...

I had just arrived at Rebellion, quite possibly the biggest map in the game. After clearing the first area of the map, I begin the long journey to the other side. As I round a bend in the road, the screen goes corrupt (in an incredibly wicked way) and my system hangs. Performing the three finger salute did absolutely nothing, so I was forced to perform a hard reset. So now I'm booting up my machine, everything is fine, and BAM - as soon as I reach the Windows desktop, I have the same problem. Complete and utter destruction of my screen. Again, keyboard control is highly unresponsive.

At this point I power down the machine and open up the case. Could the graphics card be getting too hot? I am pushing it rather hard. After waiting a few seconds, I power up again and all is well. I didn't try loading up Far Cry again, but I plan to give it another go tonight. Has anyone ever seen this issue? I updated my chipset drivers last night (after the crash), and I also patched Far Cry (I was running 1.3, and am now at 1.33), thinking that might help in some way. Hopefully this problem isn't an ominous omen of some sort. I certainly don't want to replace this awesome piece of hardware.

I'm all for healthy competition in the video card industry, and I think it's a good thing that both ATI and NVIDIA are slugging it out to see who's on top each week. But I'm seriously considering going back to an NVIDIA based graphics card. The last NVIDIA card I owned was a GeForce 2 MX, the budget model of the GeForce 2 family. I never had issues with drivers, and the card was as solid as a rock.

Then I made the switch to ATI (they had become King of the Hill at the time). My current card is a Radeon 9700 Pro, and I have had nothing but problems with it from the beginning. Whether it's a corrupted boot up screen, crashes with various games I own, or just plain flaky-ness, this card has left a bad taste in my mouth for ATI. The NVIDIA card I'm looking at going to is the eVGA GeForce 6800 GT, one that has been getting rave reviews. The price is a little hefty, but I can afford it. Besides, my time and frustration have to be worth something.

I picked up a used 22" NEC monitor tonight for $200. Not a bad deal, considering you can't find new CRT's that size on the web for less than $550. The color isn't 100% (it's more like 95%), but I think I can get used to it (and I might be able to tweak it some). What's more irritating, however, are the front buttons. The plastic bezel around the front is placing some tension on these buttons, causing the monitor adjustment menu to show up at inopportune times. Perhaps I need to disassemble this thing to see what's causing the tension.

Anyways, I can finally run my desktop at 1600 x 1200. How glorious the web becomes at that resolution! Screen real estate is freely available now, and I couldn't be happier.

CRT monitors are quickly becoming endangered. The NEC/Mitsubishi FE2111SB, a 22" behemoth that I've had on my wish list for some time, is now incredibly hard to find. Most places that list it are strangely "out of stock." And those stores which actually have some have increased their price by nearly $100! The end is apparently near for the tried and true CRT. Fare thee well, old friend.

While over at the local Target yesterday (a store I truly enjoy visiting, by the way), I picked up a Logitech Notebook Optical Mouse Plus. This thing has to be the coolest little mouse I've seen for notebooks. Not only was the $19.99 price tag $5 cheaper than the Microsoft equivalent, but it's better in almost every regard. The coolest feature is the cord management system. When you're done using the mouse, you wrap the cord around the base and snap the USB connector to the bottom, covering (and thus protecting) the optical sensor. What an incredibly novel concept!