Tag: computer

And I’m Back With Easter Greetings!

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From your friends at the Empire, here’s to wishing you a happy Easter!

Imaged edited by good old Microsoft paint. 😉 You can never go wrong with the classics.

Fantastic News
More than you ever wanted to know about my new motherboard, CPU, and ram.

Last time I posted, I was lamenting over my computer situation. I lament no more! I have a tablet, and it helped feed my addiction to the Internetz, but it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles as a full blown computer. Tapping and scrolling are okay for simple, mindless surfing, but for anything more than that… *pulls at hair*

Elrond taking a selfie with the new goods.

I had a lot of help from my comrade in arms getting all of this installed. I learned a hell of a lot about installation! I ended up deciding to replace the essentials. For less than $400, I have a working computer that is twice as powerful as my old one. I had to give in because I need a computer!

My review of everything is posted below. If anything changes, I’ll make an update. So far I give everything 5/5 happy computers.

I’m still trying to find Photoshop. I found an ancient Photoshop disc from from the early 2000s (possibly earlier!). I want to do some more searching before I install my retro copy. 😉

CPU: Intel core i5-4460 (quad core!)
I could have gone for a beautiful (yet pricey) i7, but I am not running any virtual servers or dummy terminals, and I highly doubt Lord of the Rings Online needs an i7, ha ha! So far this little chip is awesome.  I was terrified of installing it (my comrade in arms did the installation and showed me how to do it). It’s not so scary after all because it’s mostly a matter of “the round peg goes in the round hole; the square box goes in the square hole!” You just put a dab of the thermal past onto the heat sink and install the fan.

Motherboard: ASRock z97 Pro 4
My old motherboard was about ten years old. I had to get new ram (DDR3) to accommodate it. Eventually I will get a new video card (thankfully it has a regular PCI slot). It is a little smaller than the old one, but it still fits in my case beautifully.

I just want to rave about and praise how lovely the bios looks and how easy it was to install the drivers from the disc that came with it. The bios is more advanced than any bios I had seen before. You can navigate with your mouse, and the graphics are a step up from the old blue and white standard.

The driver disc came with a tool set that allows you to easily monitor the temperature of your CPU (among other things). FYI: you want your CPU to stay below 50 degrees Celsius (this is important if you do a lot of gaming or video/photo editing). It also came with Chrome. I am the queen of lazy. With the click of a few buttons, I had all the drivers, the tool set, and Chrome installed.

Oh, and the Operating System install? Within 30 minutes, it was up and running!

Ram: Two 4gig sticks of GSkill DDR3
It’s ram…It’s fast. It does what ram does and fits in the DDR3 slots. 😛

There you have it, more than you ever wanted to know about my new computer setup. I will shed tears when the credit card bill comes, but it was all worth it!

Computers Behaving Badly and Something Awesome!

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Where, oh where have I been? As much as I like the idea of traveling to the stars and exploring new galaxies, that isn’t the case right now.

The computer saga continues…
It had all the symptoms of a failed hard drive, so I did the normal thing and installed a new one. It worked beautifully for a few days. I thought that was that. Nope! I troubleshot everything from drivers, to faulty Microsoft updates, to the memory sticks. I even wiped everything and started over, which leaves only one piece of hardware as the culprit, the motherboard. 
Despite what people say, money does make the world go ’round. Without it, I’d be hungry and without a roof over my head. Until I can get more of said money, I am out of a computer (I’m working from a tablet).  Digital commissions are a no go for now, but I can still do old fashioned paper or canvas pieces. 
Well that was a Debbie Downer! How about I give you all some good news!
The Year is Now has joined the electronic world of the interwebz as an ebook!

For only $3.99, you can jump into the Empire, visit Pluto, and follow Elly and Pierson as they struggle through the wrenches that life throws at them!
It is available on lulu.com and the iBookstore (coming soon to Amazon). 




Something New

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Day 17 of my Post-A-Day challenge! Yes, I fully admit that I missed yesterday. I was exhausted and grumpy. Blogging, crankiness, and a severe case of wanting the ZZZs is more like no. That is to say, it does not make a nice combination!

Day 17: Post something new.
* my own prompt because I want to show off my new keyboard.

She is smooth, lovely, and her keys glow! I have to take a moment and morn my old keyboard. She was almost 10 years old, from an old XP machine (a Gateway). She lasted a long time, but finally bit the dust this morning. ~Picture not included because she looked her age…Half the letters on the keys had faded off!

I already love my new one. Next up will hopefully be a new drawing tablet. By next, I mean in several months. My tablet is even older than the ancient Gateway keyboard.

Here is to wishing you had a happy Hump Day and will have a great practice Friday tomorrow.

~ Cheers!