Fuck Santa!

If Santa exists, he has very weird sense of humor. It was the christmas day evening when I had the chance to open the box and check all the stuff.



Everything seemed fine... at first. Then I realised that the 140mm HDD fans were not what I thought them to be. That's just my bad for not checking it out. Instead of having one 140mm fan, the coolers have two 60mm fans. I'll try them if I can use them or not. But that's not critical.

What's critical is the situation with the MoBo. I know there are risks in buying open box items, but I called the retailer and asked if the MoBo has all the accessories and stuff with it. They said "yes" and I was happy with that. I opened the box to realise that there's no driver DVD, no LCD POST screen and the optional fan was missing. The box says something about 3Dmark and Kaspersky, but the only disk I could find was the STALKER. The user manual also says something about SATA power cables. Can't find them either.

Also the waterblock for the GFX card causes a bit of trouble. It does not have fittings. I need to go and get them later.

With all this hassle I decided to give the parts rhumba a rest and wait until the retailer calls me (or I call them, which ever comes first). I try to get things settled and unless they can send me the mobo stuff, I have a cunning plan. I'll demand refund for the CPU and MoBo and invest that money to i7 920 and EX58-Extreme. makes about 300€ more, and I really need to think hard about this.

Christmas time is here!!

I got mail this morning and THEY'VE FINALLY SHIPPED MY COMPUTER!!!

The parts should arrive tomorrow, but unfortunately I'll be at work and can't pick them up right away. Luckily the post office is in the local grocery store and it'll be open from 0700-1300 on chrismas eve. Yes, I will be behind the doors at 0655 to pick the stuff up.

I'm beginning to think that Santa really exists...

Frame nears completion

I got the frame from sandblasting on friday. It was also painted with primer, so all I have to do is wipe off the dust and spray on. Very nice job. I have to thank that guy from our paint shop and propably get him some nice christmas present. It was all a freebie for me.

I'll also get the rubber plates today for the cover and maybe some nice corner decoration lists if I can find any.

Still no sign of the parts....

Like a little boy I'm waiting

But I'm not waiting for christmas. I'm waiting for my motherfucking computer parts!!

I called the retailer today to "celebrate" the start of the third month since I ordered the parts for El Jefe. They still cannot take the card from the shop inventory and give it to me. That's because there's still some poor soul who has waited longer than I have. Well, good luck to him/her too! I'm starting to think if the wait really is worth the 80€ the card price has gone up since I placed the order.

They offered me to have a card from another manufacturer, but a stubborn ass like me can't be pleased with that. I want what I ordered and I want it in my lifetime.

After a lengthy discussion about my options I decided to wait a little bit more. Their supplier is getting some cards on 11th and the retailer gets theirs probably on 12th. So there's light at the end of the tunnel (I hope it's not a train). My computer should arrive on 15th or 16th. That's two long weeks...

Then some thoughts about the frame.
I may have time to work with the frame on sunday or the next weekend. I decided to drille the holes after it's been sandblasted and painted. The color i'm still keeping as a secret.

To do list:
- radiator and fan mounts
- measure and cut cover panels
- exhaust grills
- handle mounts
- sandblast the frame
- paint the frame
- drill holes and tap them
- mount covers, handles, wheels etc.

These I can do only after the parts arrive:
- test water cooling setup
- mount water tank (may need a holder to be made)
- install windows
- install lights and other electronics

That's about it. I'll put an air cooled setup in an old case the day the parts arrive and test if the parts work. Installing and building the final version is scheduled after christmas and "It" should come alive just before new year.

Some new stuff, but no sign of the main parts

On monday night (2030 my time) I ordered some cold cathode lights to replace the LEDs I was unable to find. The package came in today (about 1100 my time)! 38 hours from ordering and that's what I call fast. You can't actually get faster without using a courier. Have to test them on my old rig today and post pics then.

The other parts, which I placed an order on October 2nd are still to come. The GFX card seems impossible to take out form the shop inventory and place it in to my order. I'm hopeful though, because their web page shows now that something has happened. Yesterday the saldos were -6 for the websales and +2 in shop. Now they show -5 for web and +1 in shop. I'm waiting for the e-mail confirmation today or tomorrow. Otherwise I need to phone them again and act disappointed.

The project is not dead

I am still waiting for my graphics card to arrive and haven't got time to visit my "lab". That's why the lack of updates.

They have the HD4870x2 TOP model in stock, but the prices have gone up so much since I placed my order that I'd have to pay more that 100€ extra to get that card right now. Not going to happen.

I have however asked if I could pay the price difference between the vanilla model and TOP model. No answer yet and I think the answer is going to be something like "sorry, no". The vanilla model was supposed to arrive last week.

In fact I just got off from the phone from their web sales department and I really hope for some progress. Their webpage tells that they have 2 of the vanilla version in their "offline" shop. So I called them and asked to pick one up and put it in to my order and send it to me. I got "I'm not sure if I can do that. Our saldos would get screwed, bla bla bla..." The sales girl also told me that if they'd take stuff from there it'd go as first come - first serve basis. So I asked "You have orders older than mine over there?" in a very suprised tone ;)

This might've done the trick, because she immediately said that she'll look into it and try to get my order in mail on monday.

WOOOT!!! \o/

I made a mistake, but then I realised that I was wrong

The visitor stats a few posts back were not accurate. Well, they were but they were only the stats of the last 4 weeks. Here are the stats from July 1st - November 10th.

Visits by country:
1. Finland 270
2. Norway 36
3. United States 30
4. Sweden 21
5. France 9
6. United Kingdom 7
7. Canada 5
8. Germany 4
9. Greece 2
10. Romania 2
11. Switzerland 1
12. Spain 1
13. Poland 1
14. Malaysia 1
15. South Africa 1
16. Bangladesh 1
17. Estonia 1
18. New Zealand 1
19. Belgium 1

Total visitors 395

Visitor loyalty:
1 times 327
2 times 32
3 times 13
4 times 6
5 times 4
6 times 3
7 times 3
8 times 1
9-14 times 6

So it's safe to say that there are about 20 people interested in this stuff and about 350 who just followed a link. Nice amout of visitors anyway IMO.

Thank you all!

By the way, I have come up with another case modding project idea, but I'll tell about that when I get this one done.