Well, it took long enough to get an account, so I may as well use it - welcome to my collection of words, intersting links, musings and technical jargon, commonly known as a blog :-D
Sooo...for those that don't know me, I'm into judo (2nd dan black belt) and I'm currently off work due to having my knee ligaments repaired. Having been off for the last 6 weeks, I've gone through my backlog of TV shows (although I still need to watch Battlestar Galactica) and checked out a few new ones (watch Chuck, dont bother with Bionic Woman)
So, last week, I decided my computer needed an upgrade - I had an Athlon XP from my uni days, which did OK with internet and stuff, but couldn't cope with video stuff which is what I'd really want to use it for. I also have a Mac Mini, but that now acts as my Documents server and I have designs on it being a media hub in the future.
I bought a new Shuttle XPC, which is nice and compact and I'm really impressed with what I've been able to put into it. In true Christmas style, it's got:
9 memory card slots,
8800GT,
7.1 channel audio,
6 USB Ports,
5-hundred gigs!
4 processing cores,
3GHz overclock,
2 gigs of RAM,
And a gigabit Ethernet port...
OK, so the 8800 GT isn't coming till Christmas, but I think that's pretty impressive, for £300 less than what you'd get in the shops. The overclock is a bonus, and it idles at 50C...Main uses? Vdeo stuff mainly, but even ripping DVDs to XviD gives me rates of 250fps using Handbrake...
Feel free to comment on what you think of the spec, when I next do something interesting, I'll post it, or give a roundup of what I've been reading in my RSS feeds.
Chris out.