Monstrous new desktop

It has five fans!

You may remember that my gaming laptop died recently. I hadn't anticipated buying another one for several months, as I was looking into options for a 4-GPU system and had been quoted C$4000 for it. More research revealed that I would probably not want even two graphic cards for a while, and by then I'd probably be getting whatever was on the market at the time. So I settled for just one GPU and capped it at 1 GB because benchmarks show that 2 GB doesn't give you a lot more bang for your buck.

The desktop recommended by local North Vancouver, BC, Canada outfit Global Express Communication included a Gigabyte X58A-UD5 motherboard (which has curious innovations like a backup BIOS); a massive Lancool case that hums with five fans and has practically no screws involved in opening it or adding cards and drives; Intel i7 CPU at 3.2 GHz (not overclocked); and XFX Radeon HD 5770 graphic card (1 out of 3 possible on the motherboard).

Except for having gone cheap with a less-than-1TB hard drive, Windows 7 scored the desktop as having a Windows Experience Index of 7.4 out of 7.9. Total price under C$1500 -- and GEC delivered it right to my home!

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Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 3

A picture from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. I can't remember why I had this couple in the picture, but I do vaguely remember this to be in London, on the first official day of the tour group getting together. Their insistence on my helping them take a picture caused the three of us to be late getting back to the bus. The local tour guide had a "rule" about lateness, that we had to buy chocolate to share with everyone. As it turned out, later in the trip, on at least two occasions, we were stuck on the highway on either a long commute or a traffic jam, and I had chocolate and chocolate-covered marzipan to share. About the chocolate-covered marzipan -- Apparently we were in Austria just as they were celebrating Mozart's birthday with special marzipans wrapped in foil with the famous composer's picture. I'm pretty sure it was Mirabell Mozartkugeln . Anyway, there were enough to go around the en

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 10

The last of my pictures (at least the ones that survived the cheesy disposable cameras) from my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. Below is the obligatory group photo. Not sure everyone's in it, actually. I'm pretty sure this one was taken by the tour director, Mike Scrimshire as I'm in the back row, on the right side.

Trafalgar's European Explorer 2006 memoirs part 9

More assorted couples on my 2006 trip, a Trafalgar 's bus tour, on an itinerary called the European Explorer. An American couple who joked about being from "the land of the giants" -- and with good reason, because both of them were really tall! A cute Jewish mother-daughter pair who ducked out part-way to divert to Israel. I vaguely remember the issue of the daughter being an orthodox Jew was highlighted in France when, to make things easy, she just declared herself vegetarian for the wait staff. I also remember there was some logistics error in France because our party size was way underestimated or simply relayed incorrectly, and there was a shortage of food at dinner. Dessert came as an unopened can of yogurt. It did not seem like they tried to make it up to us later, either. Plus there was smoking every which way in France, and I had a helluva time with that. We were also in a hotel that seemed tucked away in the burbs, and not walking distance from anythin

Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

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