Yrae Chronicles

I MADE A COMPUTER. I'm very proud of myself. I've been toying with the idea for a few months, figuring my old graphics card was on its last legs and also wanting a shiny new 4k monitor. My second monitor has for YEARS had some sort of a loose connection inside it which means having to go desk diving every time I'd turn the computer on, unplug and replug the monitor until it stops with the alarming light show and just shows desktop. So I was going to ditch that one and downgrade first monitor to second monitor... then first monitor started getting horizontal grey pixel lines across the whole screen, and I decided stuff it, let's just upgrade the whole damn system.

I had no freaking clue what I was doing except that I know what parts a computer requires to function (processor, motherboard, etc and so on), and I can Google. So. Started with a swanky 12th gen Intel Core i7 processor, under the assumption this thing will last for a solid decade like the last one has done and, honestly, continues to do. Googled to find a motherboard from MSY's stock list (MSY is a computer bits shop in the city) which would support the processor while going 'I don't know what I'm doiiiinnnnng but this looks fine, right?' Then the only 8GB graphics card they had for less than a grand because holy shit graphics cards are expensive, but they have been since a) covid destroyed supply lines and also b) data mining has made them a thing data miners buy to run into the ground and make money off them till they're dead. So. I hate crypto. Anwya. 2x 16GB of ram, which was the most I could get for said motherboard, and... frig what else. Power supply and a new case. Figured I'd need a new power supply, since the last time I got a new PC (which brother built, I just paid for it) and we tried reusing the power supply from the old one, it didn't have the guts. Got a new case because I didn't trust myself to put it together right and still wanted the old machine functioning in the inevitable case I screwed it up. Also new case is WAY smaller and cuter.

Thing to know about MSY: they are famously zero service. You go in with your list, if what you want isn't in stock they won't give a recommendation of an alternative so it's up to you to pick one, no advice if the bits your buying will actually function and if you fuck it up, that's totally on you because you picked the wrong thing. This is fine, this is what they are, you expect it. I took my list in and dude looked it over and went 'yep, all looks pretty good, but how about this motherboard instead because [reasons]? Oh and I think we've got this other graphics card which is cheaper but actually technically better than that one... no wait they dropped the price of this one, you're good! Also how about this RAM for another $10? It's more stable than the one you've picked.' DUDE SO HELPFUL OMG. I was not expecting that, so so grateful.

Went to Hardly Normal to get screens, only to see them pulling the security door down just as I got there. So. That sucked. Officeworks was out of the same screen and JB HiFi was also closed, so called that a bust and figured I'd pick them up tomorrow.

So I took all my bits home, found a manual online for the motherboard and set about plugging everything in, sticking all the teeny weeny little plugs in the case onto the teeny weeny little pins on the case, trying to figure out the difference between 'Audio' and 'Sound' plugs and generally having NO idea what I was doing but being excited when the CPU fan made a satisfying click. Also discovered my old machine actually had four disks, not the two I anticipated--three SSDs and a monster 3TB hard disk. So, added a 1TB and a 500MB SSD to my list for tomorrow.

Hardly Normal put the price of the monitors up by $300 each overnight, arseholes, so got them from JB HiFi instead, stoll $150 each more than what I'd seen on Hardly Normal the previous night but whatever. Two new SSDs, took them home and opened them up and they are tiny. It's literally just a chip, like, twice the size of a USB stick. No cables or anything it just plugs straight into the motherboard and clips in there. So weird. How long have they been that tiny for? Idek.

Plug in one monitor, plug in power, turn on power and LIFE HAPPENED. The LED on the keyboard turned on and the laser on the mouse and all its power LEDs on the case and the sodding RAM lit up with rainbows, which I wasn't expecting and I DID IT I MADE A COMPUTER AND IT FUNCTIONS. The screen didn't turn on at first, but Sallie helped me find out I needed to plug it into the graphics card, not the motherboard, so did that and the monitor, too, turned on! My thinking was that you'd want as few connections as possible when you're testing the thing out to make sure it works, but nope, works on the graphics card, not the motherboard. Whatever it's fine, this was the only error I made on my FIRST PC BUILD I'm so proud.

I did need some extra bits. Fans, because the case didn't come with fans and it was overheating in the beginning. HDMI connector, because the new, smaller case puts the back of it far enough away from the backof the desk now that the 2m cables which came with the monitors aren't QUITE long enough to reach and a connector is way cheaper than a 3m HDMI cable. HDMI to... DisplayPort convertor. Because three of the four outputs on the graphics card are DisplayPorts. So many new things. And they look almost identical to HDMI ports so I was trying to shove the cable in and wondering what I was doing wrong and it just would not go. Anyway. Got that in.

AND NOW GLORIOUS. 4k monitors are SO BEAUTIFUL. I can barely see the pixels. And they're smart monitors, too, so they've got their own apps in the sodding screen, so I put the cricket on Foxtel on monitor two while I was installing drivers and software and rebooting the computer a dozen times on monitor 1, while monitor 2 just keeps on with the cricket.

When I went back to get the fans and the cable bits I talked to the same dude and he was so impressed I did it first time on my first build and I just alkjshghklajshd I'm stoked. I already drew a thing, which have previously been getting drawn at 900x900 because that'd fit perfectly on my old screen in Photoshop. For the redraws I've been making them 300dpi for printing at around A4, making them a tad over 2000x2000. It almost completely fits in the window without any zooming, and with my refs off to the left so I can still have videos on monitor 2.

I'm so happy. I MADE THIS and it WORKS.

So remember my issues with getting the nbn connected? And how it took two weeks from 'connection date' to the day I actually got connected? iinet told me they'd credit me for those two weeks I wasn't connected. It was nbnco's fault, not theirs, but presumably they can get something off nbnco for that. Anyway. They totally credited me the entire first month. By golly gee whizz they're a good mob. They've also been lovely to talk to whenever I've called, either for an eta or for the said bill query or whatever.

Tomorrow the boring tree comes out! And I go and buy a lemon and a lime tree to put in its place. And also bunches of succulents. Sunday is Fathers' Day but we're postponing it til next Sunday, because Colin has his brother-in-law's wedding on tomorrow and will probably be plans on being a bit under the weather by Sunday. So idk, might even get everything planted and pretty pebbles in on Sunday. This is probably unlikely, but we can dream.

I've been looking at home/contents/car insurance and called AAMI last night. I talked to a girl called Amy. She's literally Amy from AAMI. This is almost as good as the TAFE guy who I talked to regularly on the phone back when we had that account at work. He could've just been 'Bill from O'Halloran Hill TAFE,' but no. He owned it. He was 'Bill MacGill from O'Halloran Hill.'

I also bought these for my computer, mostly because they're white and I'm all for aesthetics, with my white monitor and keyboard, but also the old ones were starting to go a bit crackly if they went too loud. And by 'too loud' I mean if I was watching a movie with explosions. Webcam remains black, as does the scanner, old monitor, Wacom and printer. Also the new router from iinet. With the exception of webcams that I'm not trusting for quality, none of these things appear to come in white (or, even better, green) but we're getting there.

General life update is go! Thursday was my brother's 29th birthday, but we had the celebration on Friday night because then you can a) not drive home and b) sleep in the next day. Thursday was footy night, where we kicked 28 frigging points omfg. And North still lost. Might've been embarrassing kicking from my boys, but North still lost. I knew they'd be found out. They've only been beating the bottom eight. Come up against a genuine contender and they're screwed. Apart from the woeful goal kicking, my boys played brilliantly, still beat them by over 5 goals (or 28 points and a goal, ahaha). YAY FOOTY.

Friday night, Colin's birthday! Up at Mum and Dad's as per tradition, where Mum did amaaaazing duck four ways that I think Colin's requested for the past three birthdays now, but omfg it is SO GOOD. Beef fillet for main, and salted caramel brownie with home made salted caramel ice cream for dessert. so good I love my mum.

Over Thursday and Friday it'd been pissing with rain, with the forecast being for more of the same over the weekend, so Mum and I decided to forego getting dirt as was the plan. BUT. Saturday morning was sunny! So I suggested doing the dirt to Mum and she agreed with speed that suggested she'd been thinking about it, too. So off we went, rented a trailer and bought some lovely garden bed soil from Crafers. The guys there are so lovely. When he was lowering the scoop into the trailer he held it right down, carefully tipped a tonne of dirt in to make a nice big mound, then used the tractor scoop to pat down the top of the mound. Idk I just find that really cute XD Then we used buckets, filled them up and loaded them into the wheelbarrow to empty into the pallets. Still a fair bit left over, maybe enough for a half wine barrel that I could then plant a lemon tree in, but for the moment it's just in a wheelie bin at Mum and Dad's. This weekend we buy plants 8D

I've also finally been looking at NBN plans, after my street was connected to it, what, two months ago? Probably end up sticking with Internode, even though they seem to be the most expensive (barring Optus and Telstra). I just trust them more, and it makes a big difference them having their head office in Adelaide. All the el cheapo companies don't seem to get much of a rap on Whirlpool. Even though they're like half the cost, they're unreliable and slow, especially in peak time, so I don't want to go with a 12 month contract and live with a year of frustrating internet. HMM.

I've organised to get a quote for fixing Yoshi, so we'll see where that goes. Estimating $2000 but I sure as hell won't be paying it =|

Finally, I think, TV and associated home theatre system which includes bluray player and speakers. The speakers come in white! Which I hardly ever see, especially not for the stand-up ones. Also they're pretty. So that'll be my full entertainment system for about $3500, not bad. Kinda like a Sony telly, too, but I don't know that it's worth the extra money right now. Haven't actually bought them yet, I'd like to first check if Hardly Normal can do any better, or if they've even got the speakers in white at all, but either way I'm getting them tomorrow 8D

Dinner time, then OitNB yaaaaay.

Finished my Christmas shopping today, yaaaaay. Also finished off a couple of loose things that needed doing, which was nice. Didn't get around to uni to pick up my final painting, tho. I got lazy :< Still, I did cross everything else off the list.

Including~ looking at laptops. Harvey Norman couldn't have been any less helpful if they'd tried, so well done them. I knew their prices were going to be about $400 more than you'd expect anywhere else, but they do have the biggest range for looking at stuff.

Me: I'm looking for something around about a grand, give or take a hundred, and that will fit in this *holds up bag*
Hardly Normal Guy: Ah right, well, the only one we've got really is this one *points to one the right size and about $1600* which has [technical details]
Me: Yeah, that's a bit out of my price range. Anything that size and cheaper? I don't really need it to do much--
Hardly Normal Guy: *SNRK*
Me: --really just word processing, internet and Photoshop at most.
HNG: Well, there's this one *points at one worth $900 but about four inches too long* but that won't fit.
Me: Noooo~ not quite.
HNG: See, the thing is, they get more expensive as they get smaller--
Me: . . .
HNG: --since they're targeting a more niche market of people who want to take it travelling.
Me: ...Right~ *backing away slowly now*

You heard it here first, folks. BIG SCREENS ARE CHEAPER THAN LITTLE ONES. MY GOD Hardly Normal sucks. Who genuinely goes there to buy shit? oO The guy at Radio Rentals was awesome. Chunky computer geek ftw. He actually pointed at stuff that fitted my criteria! And he even tried to get the 'loaded with XP' thing in there! Except that one was about $1600, alas. But yes, the whole $1000-ish laptop that fits in my bag thing is possible, so awesome cakes and all that. Radio Rentals guy also said they're closing that store and moving (as evidenced by the fact that half the store was completely bare) on January 11, so they'd be having soopa cheep deals on for soopa cheep laptops and stuff. I like people who tell me that.

More expensive as they get smaller my ARSE.

RE: cricket? I WANT MY PEOPLE BACK. SRSLY. PIDGE~ COME BAAAAAACK out attack FAILS without you DDDDD: Five sessions and only four wickets omfg ><