Ikea Shopping - Side table

another recent purchase is this side table (birch color). It was packed neatly and easy to carry. A table top, 4 legs, and a pack of screws for assembling the legs.


there are 4 screws included, which the screw threads are 2-way designed for super easy assembling.


Here is the instructions: place the table top with its screw holes face upward, put a screw on the hole, rotate clockwise until it is just enough to stand firmly, put a table leg on the screw and rotate clockwise until the leg has tight contact with the table top.


Here is how it looks like after fully assembled. I prefer birch color since dust is barely noticeable and is of greater aesthetic IMHO..compare to other plain colors, this has texture look but smooth surface, which I think it's special...another satisfied purchase from Ikea..*thumbs up*

Ikea Shopping - Table Lamp

Recently saw a table lamp in the latest Ikea brochure and attracted me, so went there to take a look...price is cheap RM15.90, but then..eii, I realize the price is not including the lamp, need to buy separate..and it'll cost me another RM29.90..walao err, like that also can, what a marketing trick! Anyway that's fine for me, since I already feel that the price couldn't be that cheap given its Ikea brand..ok lo I bought one then...after bek to home I cant wait to assemble the table lamp and it is my 1st time buying Ikea thing...so the result is quite impressive given it's affordable price.

this light bulb, which Ikea claimed that it last up to 8 times longer than a light bulb found in average table lamp (dunno real anot), who cares to calculate how long the table lamp operates on each usage? Anyway, I presume that the claim is true since Ikea brand quality is no doubt better in many senses. By the way, it's the 1st time i see this kind of light bulb with transparent body showing its circuitry within...



this is how the table lamp works, before and after...(this table lamp takes about 3-5 mins to reach its max lighting capacity depending on ambient temp, i wonder why?). After all, a nice purchase experience on this Ikea item.

Bye Bye Mr. Xtreem D9

On 18 Oct, somebody called me for the DDR2 ram (team xtreem 2x1GB). We had agreed on the deal and he would come to meet me in half an hour time. I have mixed feeling that time: happy becuz can get some cash back; sad becuz i know i have to give away this ram, indeed it's very good ram for overclocking, however i value capacity over overclocking (due to limited budget on proper cooling and restricted o/c margin of chipset), I prefer 4gb kit for future upgrade (win 7 64 bit + demanding applications & games). Before going to meet the buyer, I took this pic for memory...

My Sold Items (Feb '09 - Oct '09)

1. XFX Geforce 8600GT 256MB Fatal1ty Edition
2. Plantronics GameCom 367 Gaming Headphone
3. Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Value sound card
4. HP 10bII financial calculator (8 units)
5. BitDefender Antivirus retail pack (1 user)
6. KWorld Plus TV Analog Lite PCI TV Tuner Card + Indoor antenna + antenna cable -
7. Corsair 1GB ValueSelect DDR2-667 long-dimm (2 pieces)
8. 1GB Hynix Korea DDR2-667 PC5300 Sodimm
9. Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1
10. Canare mini to RCA cable 2 meter (2xF10+F12, L-4E6S)
11. Team Group Xtreem DDR2 800 2GB Kit
12. Nokia handsfree HS-5
13. LCD cleaning kit

PC DIY - Part 2: Cleaning Graphic Card Cooler

To make the cleaning job easier, I use a battery-powered mini vacuum (4 AA). You can buy one at computer shop for RM15-20.


The card shown here is Sapphire Radeon Toxic HD4850 512 MB. Aside from high performance, Radeon HD4800 series is known for it's high heat, too. Zalman VF900-Cu cooler is used to keep down the heat more effectively than reference cooler. Nonetheless, it cannot run away from dust like any other cooler. You can see that after one month of usage there's a lot of dust clogging the gap between cooling fins, I hate that! Fortunately the fan is removable, all you need to do is just unscrew the 3 screw that set the fan in place with the cooler by using small cross screwdriver. The screw could be easily located by looking from side. After that, unplug the fan cable from the extension.

Close-up view of the dusty cooler

After finish cleaning the heatsink, use some cotton bud dampen with water to clean the fan blades, and it is ready to be installed back into the heatsink. Please note that the screw should not be overly tight as this will increase the vibration generated by the fan to the card itself. This is often overlook by many people and shall be avoided for installing other pc components like harddisk, dvd drive, motherboard to prevent damage.

Close up view of the cooler after cleaning. Clean & clear ^_^

Conclusion

Well, dust is unavoidable regardless whether your case has any fan filter or not, the only difference is that one with fan filter installed will accumulate less dust compare with the one without the fan filter in a given period. Since dust will build up on components surface, it'll affect heat dissipation and eventually shorten components lifespan, and makes your case looks bad too (for cases with transparent side panel). It's advisable that you clean your case at least once every 2-3 months for case without fan filter and 4-6 months for case with the filter. You shall clean it more often if you care about your pc more than average users. For the filter it's better to be cleaned twice in a month since clogged filter would allow less air pass through your computer case, and hence hinder cooling. Graphic card is one of the hottest component inside a system unit, and it should receive extra care on the dust cleaning. Spent a little time to do some housekeeping for your pc and it shall better serve you in long term.

PC DIY - Part 1: Aftermarket CPU Cooler + CCFL

As mentioned in my last post regarding the new cpu cooler and cold cathode fluorecent light (CCFL) that I bought in pc fair last December, this is how my system looks like after the cooler and CCFL have been installed...

System view

Front view

Side view

Back view

Case view

Ventilation holes view (illuminated by CCFL)

Ventilation holes view 2 (mainboard decorative LEDs)

well, there's more upcoming components update photos to be posted, stay tuned...