Aha - Found one!

[Area 51]

Good news and bad news. Found a 'Sophie' lurking in my cache:

http://www.primegrid.com/primes/?section=primelist&userid=62017

(OK, I didn't find it, Dark Orion did)! Thats one for the team.

Bad news - PSU went pop last Friday. Its replacement was supposed to turn up today, but it didn't. Spent the day cleaning out all fans and filters, and re-wiring stuff just so I could convince myself I was doing something productive.

[Dirk Broer]

Hi Area 51,

Congratulations on the 'Sophie', and my condolances for the PSU. What brand/power was it? (So I know what to avoid next time...)
Are you snowed-in in Scotland at the moment, like I am in the Netherlands? Could explain why the postman didn't ring even once.

[Area 51]

Hi Area 51,

Congratulations on the 'Sophie', and my condolances for the PSU. What brand/power was it? (So I know what to avoid next time...)
Are you snowed-in in Scotland at the moment, like I am in the Netherlands? Could explain why the postman didn't ring even once.

Its a nexus (850W). This is the second that's gone down. This one lasted 3 months (which was about how long the first one lasted), so I should get most of my money back once I RMA it. I've taken the opportunity to go up 1kw with a CoolerMaster.

We're not snowed in (got about 3 inches), but temps are down at about -10 to -12 and every few nights, we go down to -16. I actually work for the Royal Mail - and we've done 98% of our daily deliveries every day so far. The only paces we haven't got to are those rural properties located on steep (icy) hills. It takes a lot longer to get round as everywhere is covered in ice. I went into work this AM to see if I could find it, and it looks like to got stuck at East MIdlands Airport, along with the rest of the English mail for Scotland! Still, they would've trucked that stuff today, so I'm pretty sure it'll be waiting for me when I get into work tomorrow morning - it just means that I will spend all day delivering everyone else's goodies before I get to play with mine!

[Dirk Broer]

Hi Area 51,

We're covered in about 10 inches of snow (in those parts were it can remain lying undisturbed), quite unlike the average Dutch winter weather.
My eBay parcels from the UK take even longer than usual -provided they arrive with me at all, still trying to discover who'se nicking my aviation books-
and I try to keep my garden path clean for postmen and newspaper boys.
It's so slippery outdoors that my planned new videocard has to wait a bit longer, and my son's new system suffers likewise. Makes no sense to break them, falling on the way home.
The car is stuck on the parking lot as there is too much snow in front of the car to get get the car moving, and the bicycle path is too slippery to transport computer hardware.

[Area 51]

Hi Area 51,

We're covered in about 10 inches of snow (in those parts were it can remain lying undisturbed), quite unlike the average Dutch winter weather.
My eBay parcels from the UK take even longer than usual -provided they arrive with me at all, still trying to discover who'se nicking my aviation books-
and I try to keep my garden path clean for postmen and newspaper boys.
It's so slippery outdoors that my planned new videocard has to wait a bit longer, and my son's new system suffers likewise. Makes no sense to break them, falling on the way home.
The car is stuck on the parking lot as there is too much snow in front of the car to get get the car moving, and the bicycle path is too slippery to transport computer hardware.

Well, my PSU turned up a day later than expected. Installation has been a pain, and it s not finished yet by a mile. The new cables are so long that I haven't been able to stash the excess anywhere! There's also not enough clearance between the PSU and the bottom intake fan to allow the third set of PCI power cables to be plugged in, so I'm running on only two atm (I shall have to downsize that fan to 120mm) - with 1 side panel propped against the machine with a bunch of cables hanging out! I shall have to spend a day cursing and swearing and using vast quantities of cable ties to sort things out over Christmas as at the moment, it looks a right mess!!!

Clearing the path is a good idea and doubtless appreciated - if it can be done well. The most dangerous surfaces are those that look clear - but then turn out to be a sheet of thin hard ice!!!! I delivered some parcels to one property the other day, and the whole sloping front drive was literally a sheet of glossy ice - the guy couldn't have done a better job of creating an ice rink if he wanted to! It was impossible to walk up without hanging onto a wall!!!!

Do you know what service is used to send the books that keep on going missing - and whether the sender even bothers to contact Royal Mail? A lot of businesses don't bother and just write these things off and eventually send out another. The RM are pretty good at investigations and are pretty responsive as well - especially if a pattern is easily established. Its pretty easy to investigate the UK side of international parcels/packets, as they will only pass through only 1 mail centre before being shipped to an airport......

[Dirk Broer]

Hi Area 51,

- For the PSU problems: a (even) bigger case perhaps? Or a modular case, like the Antec "LanBoy Air"?
- As speedskater I know just how dangerously ice can be when you're on foot, so when I clear the path I clear the path completely!
- Upon complaining at my local post office I was told that only the sending party may issue complaints, so I am left in the cold. The sending party always quickly refunds me through PayPal, but some of my books are somewhere unknown to me (WW2 aviation/RAF Squadron histories). It is usually just 1 book in every 100 I order, but a nuisance nevertheless.

[Area 51]

I did a trial the other day and switched in a 120mm fan in place of the 140mm and everything was fine. A bigger case would be the obvious long-term-solution - and indeed, I had expected to do a case upgrade at some point and had selected the HAF X as the one for me. However, during Christmas, I decided that I would limit myself to 2 GPUs going forward as this is more manageable financially (no case upgrade required, no additional loops, no PSU upgrade for quite a while, etc etc). To that end, I'll will be selling my third GTX285 whilst it still has some value, and start putting some money together for a pair of 570's + waterblocks:icon_lol:

[Dirk Broer]

Hi Area 51,

Well, a 2nd hand GTX285 still goes for €140/€175 here in the Netherlands, wish I could afford one. My last two GPUs, bougt 2nd hand for incredible low prices, forced me to buy new PSUs as well, making the upgrade far more expensive than I originally budgeted. My own plans for a new case have since long been put on ice, as I still have plenty of old cases, albeit with poor ventilation or stupid placement of the PSU (early PIII and Athlon cases with their PSU directly above the CPU, leaving no room for a decent cooler)

More on topic: I just received a new color PPS Sieve badge, breaking the 4 million credits barrier. Still waiting for my 1st Prime though, while a fourth badge is lurking in the background as well.