Archive for the 'Technology' Category

The graphics card in my Compaq died on me on Wednesday last. Since then I’ve been using my Dell to research new graphics cards. It hasn’t been as straight forward as I was hoping it would be. With so many different choices, it been difficult making a decision.

• ATI vs Nvidia
• PCI-Express 2.0 vs PCI-Express
• DVI vs Dual DVI
• HDMI, HDTV, HDCP, Tv-Out
• GDDR3 vs GDDR4
• Overclocked vs Superclocked vs Default

I’ve had to read up on what each feature meant to get a better understanding of what each card is capable of. And then there’s the choice of manufacturer.

• ASUS
• BFG
• Club3D
• EVGA
• Gainward
• Gigabyte
• HIS
• MSI
• Point of View
• PowerColor
• Sapphire
• XFX

I still haven’t come to my final decision yet. It has to be soon though, because the longer I delay, the longer my PC is out of action.

From reading reviews, it seems the best on the current market in my price range are the Radeon XD3870, the GeForce 8800GT or the GeForce 8800GTS.

Choices…. so many choices!

Update

After lots of research, I eventually decided on the EVGA GeForce 8800GT 512MB. I also ended up buying a Corsair Memory 620Watt HX Series Modular PSU, because the current PSU isn’t powerful enough for the new card.

I just hope the delivery is faster this time than it was with my last purchase from the same online store.

A good while back I talked about wanting to get an MP3 Car Stereo. What I ended up buying was a Goodmans Car Stereo. The reason I bought this one was because it had a USB port on the front panel. That meant that I could simply insert my USB flash drive (which incidentally has recently died) and I listen to mp3 songs.

This has turned out to be a very good alternative to an actual mp3 car stereo. It’s so easy to add or delete songs and it also means there’s no longer a need to haul around a case of CD’s

My 1GB OCZ Ultra-Slim USB Flash Drive has died! Well I think it has. I’m having trouble writing data to it - even after a reformat, so I guess that’s it. The lifespan of the drive was 14 months. I don’t know if that’s good or bad. For €31 you’d think it would have lasted a little longer.

So I guess that means it’s time to get a new one. I could buy the same one again (this time for €17) or upgrade to the 2GB one (for €24). I’m not sure what I want Because I mainly use it with my car stereo, I like the ultra-slim one. It’s small and unobstrusive. But if I go for another ultra-slim one, will it suffer the same faith? Should I go for something a bit more sturdy? I’m still undecided :-/

Opinions are welcome (and needed)

Update

Some how the flash drive has miraculously repaired itself or so it seems! I’m able to write to it again

But I think something it still screwy with it because it’s only a 1GB flash drive, yet according to Windows it has a capacity of 4GB :-/

A few weeks back I bought a second hand HP Pavilion ZD8000 Notebook on eBay. The buying process went very smoothly, thankfully.

It’s got a nice 17″ display, but because of that it’s quite heavy. Overall though I’m very happy with it. But! I might not be holding on to it for long. Why? Well, I had originally planned on buying an Apple Macbook (or Macbook Pro), but I couldn’t really afford one. So while waiting for an auction to appear on eBay that I might be able to bid on, I decided to check out the Notebook listings.

Once I saw this one and the price it was listed at, I contacted my sister (who’s planning on buying a notebook) and told her about it. I said I would bid on the notebook if she might be interested in buying it off me. She said she would, so I placed my bid and won the auction.

Now I’m on the hunt for a nice, well priced Apple Macbook (or Macbook Pro)

Spam, or junk mail, now accounts for over 85% of all email traffic in Ireland. The figures are based on the monitoring of more than 13 million email messages, sent to over 1000 domains, during the month of July.

I can totally believe that stat, because I would say that roughly 85% of the emails I receive are spam.

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