Archive for September 22nd, 2003
Getting busy already…
Monday, September 22nd, 2003
I’ve been busy doing anything but blogging for the last week. I think I need something new to keep myself interested in this, maybe a photoblog would work better. I’ll think about it someday.
Anyway, I just had a CS “quiz” today, which was okay except that I sold myself short on a few questions and consulted the book (don’t worry, it’s open book) instead of trusting what I had written… so when it came down to the last five minutes, I realised that I could have used the ten minutes I spent making sure my other answers were correct to actually finish the last problem. So, in essence, I should have studied more. Oh well.
So after that, I walked my ass down to the used computer store to get some thermal compound for my CPU.
Whoops— backtrack. My processor set off the heat alarm on my motherboard yesterday while I was playing the new Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy demo (which is friggin awesome). That means it got over 60 degrees Celsius (which is, for those of you who don’t know how to use Google conversions, 140 degrees Fahrenheit). That’s hot. So the alarm went off, warning me that if the proc got any hotter there might be some nasty burnt PCB smell coming out of the case real soon. I shut it off, let it cool, and looked at the heat sink. First of all, it’s the stock heat sink that comes with the processor-in-a-box, meaning it only does enough so the processor works; and secondly, it was very clogged with dust. So I removed it to clean it and reapply thermal compound and generally make things not so close to burning up. I failed to realise that I had no thermal compound to reapply. So I hooked up my laptop to my monitor and mouse to get my work done (which was cool — dual monitors) and left my processor alone for the night.
This morning, I had lots of ES, like I do every Monday. Then I had lunch and did my dumb CS quiz. Then I walked my ass down to the used computer store to get the thermal compound.
When I got there, I saw that thermal compound was almost as much as a new heatsink (a nice one, at that, at least for the lower speed Athlon XPs — the Thermaltake CU6) which included thermal compound. That was a no brainer. I also already have a tube of Artic Silver 2 at home if the need ever arises again. My processor is now happily idling at 43 degrees, and goes no farther than 52 degrees at 100% usage. I am much less worried.
So that was my story for today. Pretty boring. Though I did stop at the new EB Games on Shattuck… it’s so close to campus… the irony… and I almost gave in to buying the full version of JK:JA, but fortunately the power of the force compelled me to wait until after my Math midterm next Monday, directly after which (as in directly from 10 Evans) John and I will go buy video games to numb our minds. But unfortunately, until then, it’s math math and more math, which is what I’m about to do… after study break…. ::