Friday, April 24, 2009

Raidmax Case

My new case came today a Raidmax smilodon, of all the systems I have put together this case stands out I highly recommend this case.
It came with instructions in English that I could actually use and understand not to mention the packaging they did with it could withstand all the abuse UPS can give it. Th case itself is awesome since the sides fold down to get to everything it reminds me of a server the way its simple to access everything.
The case is very well made 28 pounds empty so after you get all the goodies inside it, it can be rather heavy. I got this because my old case was poorly ventilated, the temps have dropped about 8 degrees Celsius, I even tried to get it to get it hot running all the graphics I could and it never went much above 45 C.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Over Heating

Well my computer started acting up the other day, I had noticed a difference in it as the temperatures outside warmed up it had started acting up and over the weekend I was watching a movie on it and it came to an abrupt halt. well after a few minutes when it did allow me to reboot I went right into the bios settings to the hardware monitor and noticed it was about 48 C. I had put this computer together back in February and it never much went above 38C-39C so I began researching it and made sure it wasn't full of dust. After finding no dust inside it I rebooted it without the side cover and duplicated what I was doing before and had no problems. The case I have is a cheapo Antec and it doesnt have a lot of room for extra fans or many vents so I ordered a new Raidmax case.
This case has lots of room for extra fans and such and the reviews other have left sound pretty good so I am hoping that will solve my problems and I can once again close my computer up. My wife says this is only an excuse to get a new case.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

XBMC Media Center

I have just Installed XMBC on my Ubuntu system this morning and it works without a hitch, I have used Microsofts media center before but the Open source version tops it.


It is real simple to install with Ubuntu and there were only a few local setting to adjust for the weather and file locations. You can get it HERE
Be sure and read through this and install all you repositories,

If you are up for a big change you can download the new version of Sabayon if you look through the downloads and find the ones ending in MCE they have XBMC included., Here is a screenshot of Sabayon in action.