I have finally upgraded my ageing socket 939-based computer to a new quad-everything (quad-core, 4GB ram, 4TB HDD… I’m sure you get the idea)

Some of the basic specs:

• Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450
• OCZ 2×2GB 1066MHz DDR2
• Gigabyte X48-DQ6 Motherboard
• 4×750GB, 3×500GB, 1×250GB Samsung Spinpoint F1
• Antec Quattro 850W PSU
• Windows Vista Ultimate 64bit SP1

For the complete specs list, see the systems page. Thanks to Scan, eBuyer and CCL for selling all the components I wanted

I will be putting Fedora 9 on it (in 64bit of course) once it’s released.

I bought myself the new Dell 2407WFP-HC, a 24" widescreen monitor with a native resolution of 1920×1200 - 120 pixels more than a 1080p HD video has

The extra 5 inches make a pretty big difference in pretty much everything - working, chatting or browsing web pages

Gaming at 1920×1200 is also a big change, once I had configured the games to run at that resolution - newer games, such as Command and Conquer 3 and Counter-Strike: Source were easy, you just select the resolution in a dropdown list. In others, such as Battlefield 1942 and Battlefield Vietnam, it takes a bit of config file editing - but once that’s done, it works really well. Being able to see further to the left and the right helps a bit too

If I had the money, I’d definitely buy another one, but I’m saving for my new PC and about to buy an iPod Touch, so I won’t be getting another one for quite a while.

If you’re looking for a new monitor, and can stretch to the price for this one, I highly recommend it!

I finally bought myself the new Apple Keyboard on Tuesday! I would’ve bought one when I got my new Mac Mini, but Micro Anvika didn’t have any of the new ones in stock at that time.

So far the keyboard has been great - as with all other Apple products, it “just worked”, even in Windows! It’s much lower on the desk than any other keyboard I’ve used, and seems to be smaller without actually looking smaller, which will let me push it further out of the way when I need to use my laptop on my desk.

I haven’t yet tried it in any games or doing any serious coding, but from my experience chatting with it, writing comments on blogs, and just “using” it, I would say it’s probably the best keyboard I’ve used to date - I highly recommend buying one if you need a new keyboard

I bought myself a Mac Mini on my way home from work at Micro Anvika (as the Apple Store in Regent Street didn’t have any of the new Core 2 Duo ones yet) earlier this week

So far it has just amazed me - considering it only has an Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics processing unit, you wouldn’t know that that was all that powered it from the way it does the animations. Exposé, Dashboard, the “genie” effect when minimizing and maximizing things to/from the dock, the “Flurry” screensaver, and various other subtle effects really show off the power of OS X

As Apple (and fans of Apple) often say, “it just works” - and I’d say they’re right Everything is so easy to install - most of the time it’s a simple drag and drop of one icon to a folder, and it does the rest for you. Even complicated applications, such as the Adobe CS3 are very easy and quick to install.

Last weekend (28th) I went to Richer Sounds and bought myself a few bits to upgrad my 2.0 Hi-Fi system to a 5.1 Surround Sound System! I kept the same floor-standing Eltax Symphony 6.3 front speakers, and added a Mordaunt-Short 905i centre speaker, a pair of Mordaunt-Short 903i’s as rear surrounds, and a Mordaunt-Short 308 Avant subwoofer. I swapped my Cambridge Audio A5 amplifier for a Cambridge Audio Azur 540R AV receiver, which is connected to my PC’s S/PDIF output using a very thick Cambridge Audio digital coaxial cable.

It took me quite a while (several hours) to get everything installed, and then another couple of hours to get the S/PDIF output on my motherboard to send the correct signal - AC3Filter helped a lot here, once I got it working.

Music still sounds great, although the extra bass is very welcome I also tried some DTS-encoded music, which sounds amazing, compared to normal stereo music. And of course movies sound awesome too. It makes a pretty big difference playing games too, once you get them working in surround-sound mode

For more photos of my desk, the speakers and the receiver, take a look on my Flickr.