Hefty computer upgrade

During the next months I will probably be able to stay at home for longer periods and will continue to work (and occasionally study) from there. Since my old ASUS A8Jp laptop started to break apart a year ago (and now I risk to complete the process every time I open or close the screen, by tearing away the last plastic pieces that keep it attached to the rest of the laptop), I either had to buy a new laptop (and would have picked a Mac Book Pro probably) or upgrade my old desktop computer.

I chose the latter, which also is the option with better price/performance ratio anyway. I ordered all components on AvalonPC, they shipped very quickly and today I'm busy putting all pieces together.

Above you'll see the brand new components: a shiny Intel Core i7 920 CPU, an ASUS P6T SE motherboard and two kits of 6 GB RAM (for a whopping total of 12 gigs). The amount of memory is probably overkill, but it being so cheap I simply couldn't resist. And it sounds cool, anyway...

I ripped out every old piece of my previous desktop computer and spent almost two hours dusting and cleaning everything. These computers sure get incredibly dusty! Perhaps my next PC should be with oil cooling?

Then I quickly put the new stuff into the case. By the way, the 1366 socket is quite easy to mount. Quite a difference from the screaky and uncomfortable 939 socket of the previous Athlon X2 (which you have to lock in position forcefully with a screwdriver while risking to destroy your whole motherboard). Also nice, a "power" button on the motherboard itself that works before you wire the case buttons.

Some stress testing with Prime95.

I immediately installed Windows 7 RC and it literally flies! Can't wait for the final version to be released. Gaming performance must still be tested, but since I kept the "old" X1900 XTX Radeon while waiting for an affordable DirectX 11 card, I don't think there will be great improvements. Still, the most fun thing is watching task manager and those 11 gigs of available RAM... how cool is that?!

Now... what do I do with them?