Awesome. So my Shuttle SG33G5 finally arrived back, and it powered up out of the box. It’s been a painful four weeks without it, but now everything seems to working in tandem.

What’s funny is that I have no idea what Shuttle actually fixed on the barebones. I marked all my parts lightly with a pencil before sending out the unit. Guess what came back? All my marked parts! Nothing new, everything the same! *Scratches head*

However, not everything is perfect. My PCI-E slot is a bit flaky, considering that if my RMA’d 8800GT is not perfectly seated, the computer will refuse to POST, and the endless cycle of computer problems will come back to haunt me. Also, when I couldn’t keep my cool about the computer not cooperating, I ended up messing up my Windows installation. Therefore I had to reformat, and decided to put on 32-Bit Vista Business, instead of the x64 variant I had before. No more incompatibility issues.

Prior to the Shuttle coming back from RMA, I also decided to reward myself with a larger screen for my line of work. The Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP-HC is a great piece of tech - S-PVA 8-bit panel, colorful, accurate, bright, height adjustable, and can be rotated to match the eventually upcoming 2nd 24″ and 30″ screens. You pay a premiums for the UltraSharps, but they are worth every penny. In Photoshop, I’ve picked up visual discrepancies in the JPEG compression that I haven’t seen before, and the amount of virtual real estate you get in 1920×1200 is almost endless. Perhaps I may have to write a review on it.

Enough talking, here is a cellphone picture timeline of my computer setups (while at college):

My Computer Setup from August 2007 - December 2007

• Dell XPS M1210 @ 1280 x 800
  • Intel 1.66GHz Core Duo
  • 2GiB DDR2-533 RAM
  • nVidia Geforce 7400 Go
• Viewsonic vx1935wm @ 1440 x 900
• Some Kensington USB keyboard
• Logitech MX400 mouse
• Logitech X-230 2.1 speakers
• Chemistry Book powered laptop cooler for trace amounts of O₂.
• 1/18 Scale Lamborghini Gallardo and lots of Car pictures(my vision board)

My Computer Setup from January 2008 - Present

• Shuttle SG33G5
  • Intel Core 2 Duo e6750 OC’d to 3.2GHz
  • 2GiB OCZ DDR2-800 Cas4 RAM
  • nVidia 8800GT OC’d
• Dell UltraSharp 2407WFP-HC @ 1920 x 1200
• Viewsonic vx1935wm @ 1440 x 900
• Logitech Wave keyboard
• Logitech MX1000 mouse (lasted 4 years already!)
• Logitech X-230 2.1 speakers
• Dell XPS M1210 Laptop
• My Goal Sheet (to keep me focused!)

My Computer Setup from ??? -???

• Multiple monitors to keep me unfocused

Better start working hard!

Tags: Personal //