"Who is the user?"
4/13/05: My HDD is seen by Windows! Installation went surprisingly smoothly, given that the last few desktop installations I've done prior to this had refused to recognize something or other. All my files from the laptop copied over successfully, except that Netscape is not allowing me to port my address book over (um, OK, it accepts the bookmarks but not the address book, that's odd).
4/15/05: WOOHOO! Navi is online! It took me a fair amount of fiddling (and cursing) to get her on the network; it turns out that our network is set up with the ISP in such a way that each cable modem is permanently bound to a single computer. I had to powercycle the modem not once but three times before it would release the MAC address and recognize a new machine.
4/23/05: Hardware Recap: Thermaltake SViking case, Asus A8V Deluxe mainboard (not overclocked yet), 1GB Mushkin in dual channel mode (512 matched pair), Athlon64 3500 (Newcastle core), Lite-On IDE combodrive (I still have the Plextor), 160GB Samsung SATA HDD, floppy drive. I haven't installed the Thermalright XP-90 as I don't have a proper fan (somehow I don't think a chipset fan is going to work; I have two 70mm screamer fans but those are a bit too small to fit).
Somewhat early photo of the wire mess.
Navi moved to my desk. Hand-me-down monitor, keyboard and wireless mouse.
Case only (case window still covered with plastic as I haven't had the decal made yet). Case temp is about 35C right now; there's no breeze in the window (roommate won't allow me to turn the AC on). CPU temp is about 51C and MB temp about 30C as reported by AsusPCProbe. CPU temp seems high. That probably has something to do with my Ceramique application; I put on a bit too much. I need to do some cable sleeving/wire management/fan replacement so will deal with the thermal paste when that gets done.
So, what did I learn?
- Bleeding-edge tech doesn't always work right off (the SATA optical drive that I'll try again at some later date).
- I work better getting varied opinions on stuff (thank you OCForums!)
- My roommate's jealous; I have a shiny desktop that I built myself and she has an old laptop that crashes if you look at it (BTDT; that's partly why I did this).
- There are pros and cons to being one's own support, but you learn a lot very quickly.
So, Navi is now complete. I see this as Phase One; no overclocking yet but I want to replace my HSF before I try tweaking anything. I've been running Folding for about a week straight now and everything's stable at stock so far. I do plan to do something with the front bezel; exactly what and how remains to be determined. I'll think about it over the summer. I think that I've learned more during this build process than I'd get in a classroom setting; it took longer than I originally anticipated, but I like to take things like this slow the first time out and there was a slew of unanticipated hardware problems to deal with.
10/20/05: Installed XP-90 and 92mm Panaflo fan. It took a bit of fiddling to get the heatsink clipped down properly; if I ever have to remove it, things are going to be interesting. Plextor drive also installed and functional.
