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- Mar 5, 2002
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Bought myself a few new toys recently.
I can only play CoD 2 online on my bedroom machine, a single core CPU setup based around a socket A XP3200. The game crashes on my dual core machine which apparently is a common problem.
I have 5.1 speakers setup, the two rear speakers are on stands and it sound pretty good.
So I thought I’d try a Creative OEM X-Fi Audio sound card £30.54 plus postage from overclockers.co.uk.
Here’s a pic:
A Link
The card came with a CD that had drivers plus some useful software. There is a media player and audio converter on the CD, here’s a few screen grabs:
After I’d set it up for 5.1 sound, adjusted the bass settings and set the graphic eq, I played some music.
My my, does it ever sound sweet, it absolutely knocks spots off the onboard AC97 sound. The motherboard is a DFI LAN Party Ultra II B, btw.
I’m hearing things in the music I hadn’t noticed before and the bass is really very very good. The speakers are made by Hercules and to be honest I hadn’t been impressed with them previously but suddenly they seemed to come alive. Superb
Next I tried CoD 2 online. I know V_R has recently bought a soundcard and has said how he can hear enemies creeping up on him, I can only confirm it’s true.
There is a clarity, a crispness, a clearness with the sound now, it’s as if a whole new presence has been added.
So, there ya go, for a little over thirty quid (although OCUK’s postage charge is £8.50) a very worthwhile upgrade imo.
The DVD burner I had in this machine had been playing up, I was getting quite a few failed burns. It was a Pioneer 110, about two years, maybe two and a half years, old.
So I bought an NEC SATA DVDRW, cost about £21.00, in black. Here’s a pic of the back of it showing SATA connections, seemed quite odd to me after all those years of PATA connections.
I’ve burnt 8 CD’s on it so far and haven’t had a dud, so seems the Pioneer was on it’s last legs.
Just by way of mentioning, using a SATA connection for the DVDRW freed up an IDE/PATA connection, so I was able to install a spare 120Gb hard disk I had.
The main hard disk in this machine is in a swappable caddy, I have four of them which makes it very easy and handy to mess about with Linux Distros.
The disk with XP Pro on is 60Gb and I use the machine primarily for video and audio editing. And CoD 2 of course
The rest of the disks are 3 120Gb's, two SATA and one PATA, giving me a total of 420Gb of space.
Next new toy was an external enclosure, an Icy Box model, takes IDE/PATA drives and works on USB. I had a spare Samsung 160GB hard disk which I fitted and I’m using this for selective backup on all machines.
That's my main dual core machine it's plugged into, first pic taken with no flash, to show the blue lights on it, 2nd pic taken with flash for clarity. The blue lights flicker when the hard drive is active
(You will all, of course, ignore the dust on my case & keyboard
)
And finally, I had an MX1000 mouse on this machine which, after being used a Logi G7 mouse, actually seemed a little slow and sluggish when playing CoD 2. So I bought a Boomslang Razer Copperhead corded mouse, the green flavour.
All I can say is that this is the most sensitive mouse I’ve ever used, it is perhaps a little too sensitive. It is also possibly the best looking mouse I’ve ever owned.
There is software I can use to adjust the sensitivity but so far haven’t had a tinker. I have played a little CoD 2 online with it and done ok but it’s going to take some getting used to. I don’t notice that it’s corded which I thought I may do after using cordless mice for several years.
My initial thoughts are that it isn’t as comfortable to hold as the Logi G7, prime gripe being that the scroll/click button seems ill-placed to me, as I only have small hands.
Still, I’ll give it a few days and hopefully I’ll get used to it. As I mentioned, it’s very very sensitive, I only have to look at it and it moves 2cm
I’ll report back on how I get on with the Boomslang in a few days time, I am optimistic it will be good as it handles ever so well and is extremely responsive, just a little worried about the grip of it in my hand.
So there ya go, new toys, I also bought a tub of CD-R’s and ten dual layer DVD+R’s, the first ones I’ve ever bought (ten for ten pounds, Datawrite) and the whole lot inc postage came to £130.00.
There’s nothing like a few new toys on a cold winter’s day to warm a fella’s heart
I can only play CoD 2 online on my bedroom machine, a single core CPU setup based around a socket A XP3200. The game crashes on my dual core machine which apparently is a common problem.
I have 5.1 speakers setup, the two rear speakers are on stands and it sound pretty good.
So I thought I’d try a Creative OEM X-Fi Audio sound card £30.54 plus postage from overclockers.co.uk.
Here’s a pic:
A Link
The card came with a CD that had drivers plus some useful software. There is a media player and audio converter on the CD, here’s a few screen grabs:
After I’d set it up for 5.1 sound, adjusted the bass settings and set the graphic eq, I played some music.
My my, does it ever sound sweet, it absolutely knocks spots off the onboard AC97 sound. The motherboard is a DFI LAN Party Ultra II B, btw.
I’m hearing things in the music I hadn’t noticed before and the bass is really very very good. The speakers are made by Hercules and to be honest I hadn’t been impressed with them previously but suddenly they seemed to come alive. Superb
Next I tried CoD 2 online. I know V_R has recently bought a soundcard and has said how he can hear enemies creeping up on him, I can only confirm it’s true.
There is a clarity, a crispness, a clearness with the sound now, it’s as if a whole new presence has been added.
So, there ya go, for a little over thirty quid (although OCUK’s postage charge is £8.50) a very worthwhile upgrade imo.
The DVD burner I had in this machine had been playing up, I was getting quite a few failed burns. It was a Pioneer 110, about two years, maybe two and a half years, old.
So I bought an NEC SATA DVDRW, cost about £21.00, in black. Here’s a pic of the back of it showing SATA connections, seemed quite odd to me after all those years of PATA connections.
I’ve burnt 8 CD’s on it so far and haven’t had a dud, so seems the Pioneer was on it’s last legs.
Just by way of mentioning, using a SATA connection for the DVDRW freed up an IDE/PATA connection, so I was able to install a spare 120Gb hard disk I had.
The main hard disk in this machine is in a swappable caddy, I have four of them which makes it very easy and handy to mess about with Linux Distros.
The disk with XP Pro on is 60Gb and I use the machine primarily for video and audio editing. And CoD 2 of course
The rest of the disks are 3 120Gb's, two SATA and one PATA, giving me a total of 420Gb of space.
Next new toy was an external enclosure, an Icy Box model, takes IDE/PATA drives and works on USB. I had a spare Samsung 160GB hard disk which I fitted and I’m using this for selective backup on all machines.
That's my main dual core machine it's plugged into, first pic taken with no flash, to show the blue lights on it, 2nd pic taken with flash for clarity. The blue lights flicker when the hard drive is active
(You will all, of course, ignore the dust on my case & keyboard
)
And finally, I had an MX1000 mouse on this machine which, after being used a Logi G7 mouse, actually seemed a little slow and sluggish when playing CoD 2. So I bought a Boomslang Razer Copperhead corded mouse, the green flavour.
All I can say is that this is the most sensitive mouse I’ve ever used, it is perhaps a little too sensitive. It is also possibly the best looking mouse I’ve ever owned.
There is software I can use to adjust the sensitivity but so far haven’t had a tinker. I have played a little CoD 2 online with it and done ok but it’s going to take some getting used to. I don’t notice that it’s corded which I thought I may do after using cordless mice for several years.
My initial thoughts are that it isn’t as comfortable to hold as the Logi G7, prime gripe being that the scroll/click button seems ill-placed to me, as I only have small hands.
Still, I’ll give it a few days and hopefully I’ll get used to it. As I mentioned, it’s very very sensitive, I only have to look at it and it moves 2cm
I’ll report back on how I get on with the Boomslang in a few days time, I am optimistic it will be good as it handles ever so well and is extremely responsive, just a little worried about the grip of it in my hand.
So there ya go, new toys, I also bought a tub of CD-R’s and ten dual layer DVD+R’s, the first ones I’ve ever bought (ten for ten pounds, Datawrite) and the whole lot inc postage came to £130.00.
There’s nothing like a few new toys on a cold winter’s day to warm a fella’s heart
