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The Great CPU Caper – Intermission (Alternate title: WTF, Intel.)

For the first post in this series, see The Great CPU Caper, Part I here.

Like every good geek, I did some research before buying my E8400.

What I found wasn’t pretty – apparently, Intel changed the reference design of the stock heatsink/fan that came with every CPU that they sold.

The pictures speak for themselves, so I’ll let them do the talking:

Height Difference

The HSF on the left is from my E8400. Note how it does not have a copper core or base, and how it is half the height difference of the HSF on the right, which I presume is from a previous-generation of Intel CPUs, such as the E6600 or similar.

This is bad for two reasons – copper is a far better conductor of heat than aluminium is. The second reason is that by halving the heatsink module, they’ve essentially halved the surface area that will contribute to the dissipation of heat produced by the HSF.

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The Great CPU Caper, Part I

Daylight Shot

Folks, I’d like for you to meet the latest additions to the Ling family.

Fawkes, and Voldemort.

We’ll start with Fawkes, because he’s definitely the most impressive of the two.

CPU: Intel E8400 3.0GHz/1333MHz FSB/6MB L2 Cache, $220
CPU HSF: Artic Cooling Alpine 11, $10.50
Mobo: XFX 780i SLI, $150
RAM: Team Xtreem Dark 4GB kit, $50
GPU: Asus EN9800GT 512MB, $100
HDD1: Western Digital 320GB WD3200KS, $40
HDD2: Western Digital 150GB Velociraptor, $130
Case: Cooler Master CM-690, $109
PSU: Cooler Master 460W, $30
Other: 2x Xigmatek 140mm fans, $44
OS: Windows 7 RC1, 64 bit edition, $0
Total Cost: $783.50

It’s not too bad. 😛

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Too many updates infrequently? (Alternate title: Less Pressing, More Blogging)

You might have noticed that I’m updating the blog a lot.

Problem is, in my humble opinion it’s happening far too infrequently – blog 600 articles one day, 0 the next, 542 the day after that, and so on and so forth.

I think the issue here is that I’ve lost sight of what this blog was created. It’s not supposed to be an internet scrapbook where I keep all my links so I don’t forget them. It’s not a place where I can just put stuff up ‘cos I think that it’s awesome (although that’s certinaly a part of it, there’s far too much awesome stuff on the internet these days to keep putting it up here).

No, dear reader.

Let me remind you of why this blog came about in the first place – those words uttered by Steve Jobs; “Computers are like a bicycle for our minds.”

It’s not because it was said by Steve (although that makes it slightly more awesome).

It’s not because I don’t want to share awesome things with you guys, I really do.

I feel as though there’s not enough “me” in these posts. Press This, while being the most awesome blogging tool ever invented, has made me a lazy blogger, and I’m sorry to admit it.

While I feel that there’s always a little I can add on to each Pressed post, I haven’t been out of sheer laziness.

It’s time that changed.

From now onwards – less Pressing.

More blogging.

Alright?

Even if it means sacrificing updates for days on end. Even if it means you won’t see the merely entertaining stuff, just the mega-awesome-zomg-that-was-incredible-stuff.

Less Pressing. More blogging. 😉

Ample Eye Candy

I saw the new Transformers movie today with a friend. It was pretty good – say what you will about the plot (holes), Michael bay’s performance as a director, but there’s no denying that however bad Megan Fox’s acting is, she provided ample eye-candy.

As did Isabel Lucas, I might add. She’s hawt. 😀

via Wait, Uni again? So soon? » freshbytes.

It doesn’t need to be said that I’d have a hard time choosing between Megan Fox and Isabel Lucas.

Or does it?