.. well almost anyway. I got my upgrade hardware today for my old gaming rig. This machine has lived for 5 years as an AMD XP1700+ w/ 1GB RAM and a GeForce 3 Ti200 on a Shuttle AK31 rev3.1a board. Various drives have filled the case over that time, as have different network cards, sound cards, and for the last 3 years a Promise Ultra100TX2 IDE controller. Sadly, the age of this machines puts it back before there was a crazy thing we like to call USB 2.0. I’m stuck with USB 1.1, and the slowness that comes with it. What’s that? You think I should just go buy a USB 2.0 card and use one of the 6 PCI slots on the AK31? Yeah I did that already – it no likey non-Knoppix 2.6.xx kernels. Apparently you’re screwed if you have a VIA chipset on your motherboard, and have any intention of using a PCI card that also has a VIA chipset of some sort (like say a USB 2.0 controller). Works fine in Knoppix – not so fine anywhere else. Doh.

Anyway, on to the details. Happyface, as the machine has been named forever, still packs the same XP1700+, though now there’s 2.5GB of RAM, 2x 80GB hard drives, 1x 250GB hard drive, a DVD-ROM, and a dual layer DVD burner. The GF3 has been replaced with a GeForce 6200LE, and that about covers it. Oh wait, I forgot the best part – be gone horrid resolution. 20″ LCD @ 1600×1200 = teh win. Seriously, I didn’t know you could fit this much stuff on one screen – and be able to see and READ all of it at the same time.

When I get back from the Warrior Leader’s Course, I’ll order a USB 2.0 card with an NEC chipset, so I can have the benefit of fast transfers from my CF card reader. The drive behind this upgrade is of course photography, hence the increase in RAM and larger screen. That means I’ll be transfering huge RAW files across USB – so this won’t be finished until I’ve got USB 2.0 love going on here.