ZZ Block: Restoring My Com From The Darkness

Thursday night, upon reaching home...

ZZZ...

A problem I've been experiencing for quite some time - happens once in a while for the past few months...

Thought nothing of it. And so I click "Restart"...

Still the same.

Restart again...

Nope.

Again and again...

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Still "No Video Input".

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Ho Seh Liao...

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Now I know the true purpose of the laptop; to find out what happen to your desktop.

So anyway... from my diagnosis, it's 99% due to the GFX card...

Thinking back about it, I've been experiencing some weird graphic distortion even for low end games...

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So anyway, went to SLS the next day to hoot a new one...

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Ah... how much GFX card have progressed...

During my Poly Days... the most powerful of them all was like what... Geforce 6800 and Radeon 9800? (2004)

And then it became Geforce 7 fighting against Radeon X1 series... (2005)

Then Geforce 8 versus Radeon HD2... (2006)

Then Geforce 9 to Radeon HD3... (2007)

And today... Geforce 200 to Radeon HD4... (2008)

Things that cost $500 in the past is worth less than $5 now...

It's progressing that fast.

Anyway... to introduce the one I brought.

HD4870 was the flagship card of ATI (and the fastest single card) at the time of its release in Aug 2008, and remained so for sometime. It was dethroned earlier this year by HD4890 and its Nvidia equivalent GTS285.

1 Year ago, at its release, it cost $360USD... Now? $329.

And, it's on promotion right now - $259.

"2nd best card" at $259? Very worth it...

Not to mention I was able to get further discount using my super
bargaining skills...

(Buy 2 things what... should give cheaper mah...)

1 Frigging GB of Memory... Wootz... And DDR5?

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Wait a minute... where did DDR4 go? O_O

They just completely skipped it?

Unpackaging the case...

And what's this stupid "Stalker" game that comes with the GFX card?

Never even heard of it.

But 1 look and it's 90% FPS material...

ZZZ... totally worthless.

Why can't they have "Empire Total War" bundle or something? It's more worthy for this graphic card.

Or just take the game and drop the price more.

Anyone want the game?

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Anyway... A picture of HD4870 in its full glory...

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And here's my dead 7900GS... Sorry old bird. It's time for you to "ORD"...

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Old VS New... looks frigging cool...

Here's a summary of the stats, so I can track my upgrades...

	XpertVision Geforce 7900GS Sonic	Powercolor HD4870 1GB
Transitor Count	2 Million +	9 Million +
Core Clock	500Mhz	800Mhz
Memory	256 DDR3	1024 DDR5
Memory Clock	1400Mhz	3700Mhz

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7900GS... 2 years warranty, 2.5+ years up lorry... Ben one also the same O_O.

They calculate just nice?

After removing the PSU and GFX Card... looks nice and cosy...

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Had to get a new PSU since the old one cannot support the new card...

Much much better. 600W is one thing... but the main thing is the "80 Plus Bronze"...

That is the hallmark of a good PSU.

For those who doesn't know... Besides considering the wattage, the 80+ certification is extremely important. Some may advertise their PSU as 800Watt but may actually be worth 500Watt due to low efficiency.

The 80+ certification ensures high power efficiency. It has 4 levels that goes from 80+, bronze, silver, then gold.

Silver and Gold PSUs usually cost $400 ~ $800 and beyond... so it's not where lesser mortals like us can go...

Anyway, it's also the first time I'm getting a "modular PSU".

Modular means that instead of having TONS of cable attached to the PSU, cables are separated from the unit itself.

You don't need everything if you don't have 10 HDDs and Crossfire 4 GFX-Card and 5 Soundcards.

You add in only as many cables as you need to power up the system. This not only makes everything neater, it improves the air flow in the case by reducing the wire obstruction.

Awesome right? This is the future standard for PSU!

The GFX card is really frigging enormous... If it goes longer by 1 more cm, it wouldn't be able to fit into my case.

The sad thing is I have to break off those "blue clippers" of my case to accomodate the card... I couldn't clip down with the copper in the way... so just use the traditional screws method.

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And so it's time...

Time for the moment of truth...

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PLEASE START UP...

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THE ANTICIPATION AND THE ANXIOUSNESS...

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Beep!

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YES!!!

YES!!!

WOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I almost want to scream out when I saw the Windows screen.

But I couldn't cause it's 2am in the night and I don't wanna wake up the whole neighbourhood.

LOL.

A little bit of cable management... and all is good and done!

Wee~~~

The sense of satisfaction is really great...

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And then I took a look around my room...