Bits & Pieces

Friday and no work. It's cold and raining again so we didn't even bother to waste our time today. I beat a level of my game Roller Coaster Tycoon and had some food so I could blog and start packing the car for the weekend trip. Suddenly this morning it hit me like a ton of bricks - I am going to miss the USC vs Husker game! NO! What was I thinking? Simply put I guess I wasn't thinking. I am gonna set the VCR and the DVR (Digital Video Recorder - that's my computer) to record the football game and I will watch it Sunday evening or something. Then again, maybe I won't want to watch if things turn out bad for the Huskers. GO HUSKERS!

I ordered some parts for my computer yesterday as well. Here's what I will be recieving in 3-7 days. The tower will be empty - it is a Diablo tower and just looks good, it's really a cheap one and probably not worth much, but it comes with a 400 watt power supply which was a plus.Next up is the Motherboard. This is like the skeleton for a computer. It is what does all the support and moves things around. It is also what everything plugs into - when you look at your computer from the back you only see a small amount of the motherboard, just the plug-ins, but there is a lot happening inside. This is the Epox 9NDA31 socket 939 board - which for most people means nothing, but it explains a lot when you are buying a computer in pieces. Take note on the socket 939 part, that's gonna be used again.
So in order to have that motherboard (the skeleton) work properly you have to have a processor (a brain to control it!). This is the brains of the operation. It is the AMD Athlon 64 3500+. What does that mean you ask? Well most computers work on 32 bit processing but the new age of computer will work in 64 bit and be much faster. While a 3.8 ghz processor is fast, a 2.2 ghz processor (like this one) can keep up with it because it is operating with 64 bits. That's the short of it, there is A LOT of factors that go into the equation but that's the fine lining. This is the most exciting thing about the new computer by far! At least I think so anyway. This is where that socket 939 comes into play. You can't just mix and match a processor to a motherboard - they have to have the same socket to work. It's like a wrench or screwdriver. You have to have the write attachment to get the best results.
You would think since the processor is the brain that it would have memory as well, but that's not the case. It only thinks, it doesn't save anything. Just like a human brain, the computer has different parts to remember stuff. The memory of a computer also helps it think faster - it's like the eyes. Take this example - imagine you have a dozen books open in front of you and you are working on some research. The memory determines now fast you can read those 12 books - however, you don't read them one at a time, you read all 12 at the same time and then put it all together. Seems complicated doesn't it!? That's why the more memory you have the happier the computer will be - otherwise it would take A LONG time to read all those books. Wouldn't it be nice if we could read 12 books at the same time? I would have done all my readings in college if that were the case. Ha ha! Opps, I forgot mom reads this - I meant to say I would have read more books than required and done bonus work. Yeah, I never missed a reading assignment.... Quickly moving on, here is the memory I got - with a $20 rebate. I kind of cheaped out and only went with 512 MB of memory. My current computer has 768 MB of memory so that is something I will save up some more money for and then upgrade later.That's the major extent of my computer that I ordered. I have a lot of other stuff stocked up over the years to add to the computer once it gets here. One thing I wanted for my new computer was an internal card reader - so I don't have to plug the digital camera into the computer. I can just take the card out and put it into the computer. I have a few different card readers on the computers I already have, but I have to plug them into the back and it creates a lot of clutter so I felt an internal one would be best. The interesting thing about this card reader is it can be used internally or externally so I'll be interested what that will be all about.What excitment huh! Ok, so only a vast few find excitment in talking about computers and electornics like I do. I decided working on the computer while Laura was gone to West Virginia would be my best bet to tranfer all my files from one computer to the other. That will take quite a long time - but I will be working, playing frisbee, and working on my computer so that should take a lot of my time up. Time for my to pack some things for the trip and look up a few geocaches as well! You know we can't travel without taking time for a geocache or two! Have a great weekend and everyone cheer for the Huskers! GO BIG RED! Oh yeah, can't forget the Alma-mater - GO LOPERS! Until again

-=Nolan=-

**Bonus points to everyone who caught the title and understood the pun. Ah, computer geeks.