IT Legends – Tech in Connecticut

Repairing a friend’s PC tonight. She got it for free and it didn’t work.. Someone had previously tried to fix it and replaced the Power Supply with one that is so not correct it is silly… They put the 20 pin connector into the 24 pin slot on the mother board.. hmm Why won’t this power on???

I know, I know.. those pins aren’t “Required” but with a Pentium D class power hog, what do ya expect..

Luckily we had an extra PS around the house(surprise)

Anyway.. to the point.. I’ve mostly managed to avoid Vista.. really, but this PC has it installed and I have to say.. WoW.. It really sucks!

First I couldn’t connect to my own wireless networks, so I disabled the  firewall, then it displayed that it was back on, then it displayed that it was off again,  is not on.. now it is on..Then Windows showed it ON but not at recommended settings. So I click on what is recomended.. mistake…

So I mange to get onilne and head straight to windows update… more fun…

First, There are no important updates, just optional ones.. So I click to see those.. oh wait.. now there are actually 69 critical updates right next to those… . sigh..

I’ve used Windows 7 for a couple hours, nothing like this crap….

Disclaimer: I’m still on XP on my main PC.

I just got a Zalman ZM-GWB 8800GT/GTS on my favorite website, Ebay! (Finally, a full cover block for my EVGA 8800GT Super Clocked!)
Having several days for it to arrive I scoured the web looking for images of it esp the internals but  I couldn’t find any of the inside!

So, as soon as it arrived I did the only thing I could do: Opened up and snapped a few pics with the Iphone.

Here they are:

BTW: I also just picked up a 2nd one of the 8800gt cards.  Now I’ve got to get a 2nd water block!.. Will update once I get them hooked up.
Also.  I went with these instead of the Danger Den for 2 reasons: 1. Price  2. Size/orientation: These have the barbs on the side while the DD ones are on top and I’d have to cut a chunk out of my Sunbeam acrylic case. (same 2 reasons that I have the 8800GT and not the GTX, that and power usage) I already had to drill 2 holes in the case for the coolant tubing.

Disclaimer: I received no product or  Treasure from the listed companies. (though I’ll take some, and then of course disclose it)  Just writing what’s at hand and what I know. I purchased all this myself.

My co-worker just put me on to a cool new hardware/software solution coming out in Jan.
She saw it on an episode of  This Old House.
I just contacted PowerHouse Dynamics to ask them for a demo unit for their Total Home energy management solution.

The cool part is that it has current clamps for all the circuits in your breaker box and software that looks pretty slick to monitor everything.

Will update when I hear back from them.

Travis.