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...

Christmas Purchase

Zalman CNPS9700NT. One of the best processor air coolers in the market. It has stunning cooling performance, thanks to its 'figure 8' heatpipe design, pure copper base and fins allow better heat dissipation, with an aesthetic green LED 110mm low noise ball bearing fan. Bundled with Zalman high performance thermal compound. Bought in PC fair at RM230

Cold Cathode light (dual kit) by Cooler Master. Blue colour. Best to use for case with transparent side panel, giving a good interior components illumination. Bought in PC fair at RM30

Top-rated antivirus software for the year by BitDefender. Perfect score for ease of use, effectiveness, updates, feature sets, ease of installation, and help/support. It comes with the lowest price in the crowd. Bought in PC fair at RM49 (1 year license for 2 users)

Mont Blanc Individuel fragrance. Scent composition - bergamont, cinnamon, corriander, juniper berries, rosemary, lavendar, mint, geranium, orange blossom, violet and jasmin, patchouli, sandalwood, oakmoss, vetyvert, black chocolate, tonka beans, raspberry, amber, vanilla and musk. Bought in Parkson@KLCC at RM251 (free Hugo Boss travel bag + miniature fragrance)

This is the ‘family photo’ of my Christmas purchase. Pictured Philips portable storage is the freebie of HWM IT magazine annual subscription offered in PC fair, worth RM199, and also a cakebox of cd-r media bought at RM5

Total money spent: RM709

Kick Ass Home Office Setup

这么hardcore的电脑摆设，哪一个又是你梦寐以求的组合呢？