~Shiyosha

Internet! -tackles it- Oh my goddess! Literally so many months without any internet access, lost count how long it's been. ^_^
Geez! How am I supposed to go through all those submissions with only 56k dial-up?
May need some form of expensive sub-broadband? o.o;

I was supposed to upload a sketch many months before, but then the corrupting NTFS kicked in while Gimp was doing it's usual harsh demands on the HD's virtual memory.
All of this was caused by an imminent mechanical failure, hasn't happened yet but the growing signs means it will happen (probably spectacularly) if the HD is more used.
Only solution was to keep it off-limits (can't even look at it)until a new PC could be found to transfer all the data in hopefully one/two moves.
Had decided in a long-term interest to make the move to a new PC built on my own, no way I'm repeating my first mistake of buying an el-cheapo micro-case or a Dell whose specs are a little low. (even though they bundle Vista in them)
I never expected it to be this long, but then I never expected to be struck with not only the incompatibility, but also the "power disease" that some like to call it.
A month or so passed and it was taking longer than expected to save up $3,000, so I got an 80GB IDE disk to clone the failing 40GB as a possible temporary solution.
However the PSU suddenly made a lot of worrying clicking sounds literally the very second the power button was pressed, with the disks gaining/losing power constantly before the whole thing failed (gave up and turned itself off) only a second later.
Trying again with just the 80GB disk gave the same results, later found out the PSU simply doesn't have the minimum amps to handle it.
Hmm... I guess not only does this power disease affect CPU's and GPU's, (demanding PSU's measured in kilowatts if your into a dual card setup) but also the humble HD drives are hit, needing much more power (amps) than before.

Well, guess it does explain why attempting to use the CD drive always caused hard-restarts all the time, yet more proof never to buy a cheap pre-built system.

Replacing the PSU with one that would handle the new disk was sadly impossible, since 1: a standard ATX unit won't fit in a micro ATX compact cramped case.
2: PSU's use 24-pin plugs, whereas the old motherboard only uses a 20-pin.
3: A new motherboard means a new everything else. Can't plug in a AGP video card in a PCI Express 16x slot, DDR into DDR2 and so on.

Of course I still had to wait as PCI-Express x16 was being upgraded to the 2.0 version, Intel's newer 45nm Penryn chips (seems a lot for the 9650, may stick with a Q6600 till the depreciation value kicks in) and the Nvidia's newer 780i chipset. (3 dual-slot cards running at the same time? Seems insane the once humble PC) XD
Didn't seem the need to hold out for DDR3, (the 780i only supports DDR2 anyhow) since that's currently a lot more money for only a slight performance.

The current one I'm using now is an old AMD Duron 1.3ghz I've been given. It's only for temporary use as it's got bad sectors on the disk (which 99% of the time spread with my luck) and it's slower too, so there's no point in trying to plug in the tablet. (not to mention the entire table's needed for the new PC)
I still don't have all the components for the new PC yet, but I'm trying to get them one-by-one to be sure they are right for my needs and will hopefully last a while.

Only question left: 32bit OS for 3Gb Ram max. or 64bit OS for more than 3Gb Ram?

Oh. On another personal annoying note: Cartoon Network (the only channel on Sky that even showed a bit of anime) seemed fit to cancel the Adult Swim section at the start of this year. So no more Bleach, Inuyasha etc.... The existence of anime in this little island just keeps getting worse. >_<