Sebastian Bergmann

Ever since I upgraded my desktop box's hardware last December I had stability problems when playing games. The first ATI X1950 Pro based graphics card I had simply turned itself off after a couple of minutes. The second ATI X1950 Pro based graphics card was too loud and the third one exhibited the same stability problems but until now I was too lazy to replace it.

Yesterday I finally replaced the Sapphire ATI X1950 Pro Ultimate graphics card with a nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS based graphics card.

Thanks to the new graphics card, my system finally works stable again.

• 3DMark Vantage Basic: 3.601
• PCMark Vantage: 3.289
• 3D Mark 2006 1.1.0: 8.765

Today I received the Sapphire ATI X1950 Pro Ultimate that I ordered last night at Amazon.de.

I had to order the graphics card at Amazon.de because my local hardware dealer told me yesterday that it sold out at its distributor's. Fortunately, Amazon.de still had one in stock. Yay!

Now let's hope that my hardware trouble is over.

Today I got myself an 5.5th generation iPod. It is the first piece of Apple hardware that I bought, and likely to be the last.

The iPod replaces my old Sony MZ-R70 MiniDisc Walkman that I have not used in at least two years because it is so cumbersome to transfer music to a MiniDisc. Finally I will be able to listen to music and audio books while I am travelling.

As I am still experiencing hardware trouble, I do not have access to my music collection at the moment. To testdrive the iPod I downloaded "Anywhere But Here" by Michael McCann. This song is the main theme of "ReGenesis", a Canadian TV show that I really like.

Transferring the MP3 file to the iPod worked like a charm using gtkpod. I am looking forward, however, to synchronizing my complete music library using iTunes once my desktop box is operational again.

Before I moved back to Germany on December 16th, 2006, I was in Germany for a week at the end of November, beginning of December 2006. Apart from other, more important things, I bought the hardware components for my new desktop box during that week. In that week, I only managed to assemble the box, install an operating system, and experiment a bit with the new system.

After I moved back, I was looking forward to play "Anno 1701" and "Neverwinter Nights 2" on the new system. However, I quickly realized that the original cooler of my Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro graphics card was rather noisy. No problem, I thought. In the past I had good experience with replacing the standard cooling solution with a custom one. For my Sapphire Atlantis 9800 Pro I got a passive cooling solution from Zalman, for instance. So I bought the Accelero X2 VGA cooler from Arctic Cooling. This was a mistake: afterwards the graphics card shut off after a couple of minutes while gaming. Replacing the Accelero X2 with the original cooler did not help either.

A first test at the dealer's yieled the result that the graphics card was not defective. I then brought in my complete desktop box for a checkup. After almost two weeks the result was ... that the graphics card is defective. I most likely broke it while mounting the Accelero X2. Shit happens.

Yesterday I bought an GeCube X1950 Pro FZ from GeCube. This graphics card comes with a custom cooling solution that is based on thermoelectric cooling and already mounted. It features two 80mm fans that could make good on the manufacturer's claim of being "ultra silent". But they do not. Frankly, this card is at least twice as loud as the default cooling solution offered by ATI that is, for instance, mounted on the Sapphire model that I got initially. I returned the card today and got my money back.

Now I am, again, without a graphics card in my new desktop box. I now ordered a Sapphire Ultimate Radeon X1950 Pro card that comes mounted with a cooler made by Zalman.

Let's hope for the best.

My OKIPAGE 14i died last week.

Today I replaced it with an HP LaserJet 1320. I am more than content with its quality, speed, and happy to finally have a printer with a duplex unit.