Ok, this is more of a "what bits have I bought in the last month" rather than the last week, cos I haven't gotten round to posting.
1st up, I got myself a
Zalman ZM-NB32J northbridge heatsink, partly cos it was on sale, & partly just cos I felt like it. Of course, although it can work without a fan [& is intended to], I didn't see any reason why I shouldn't put 1 on it. :-) a 40mm 1 would have fit on perfectly with screws, but the only 40mm fans I had were pretty much dead anyway, so I tied on a 45mm fan I had that was still working ok.
Next I got myself a new HSF for my CPU, another Zalman product, this time it's the
CNPS5100-Cu. It keeps my CPU a bit cooler than the stock 1 that came with my retail/boxed athlon XP. It's also noticeably quieter than the stock 1 [even @ full speed without the fan speed thingy] - so much so that when I'd put the side of the case back on & powered it back up I thought there was something wrong with my HDDs because of the amount of noise they were making, then realised that they'd always made that much noise but that I just couldn't hear it because of the HSF noise!
I also got 1 of those slot blower thingies that is intended to take the hot air from your gfx card & shove it straight out the back of the case. It
allegedly is supposed to push 42cfm, but I've felt stronger airflow from a <30cfm fan. Oh well, it was only £5.99, I guess you get what you pay for.
Then I found myself with a bit more cash to burn, so I decided to treat myself. I'd been wanting a DVD drive for absolutely ages, but hadn't gotten around to getting 1, then found that the PC World just down the road from me were doing OEM Lite-On LTD-16SH drives for only £35.
While I was in PCW I also decided to have a look @ game controllers. I don't play games all the time, just occasionally - when I feel like it, but for quite a while I'd wanted some sort of joystick or gamepad for the few games I've got where 1 might be useful. I didn't want to splash out on something expensive that could do the dishes & make me a cup of coffee 1st thing in the morning as well, as I already had about £200 earmarked for something else. Sadly they don't let you try them out in store, but they did say I could take it back within 7 days if I didn't like the 1 I chose, which ended up being the
Saitek P2500 Rumble Force Pad for £20.
Tomorrow's [Monday] the last day I can take it back, so I'm going to have to try it out on a few other games before I go to bed tonight, but going on the 1 game I've tried it with so far [Moto GP Racing] it's going back. Yes, it looks nice, & it is also comfortable to hold, but whilst there is an option to calibrate the analogue thumb sticks with regard to how far they can be pushed in each direction, there's nothing to calibrate the sensitivity of them. What I mean is, that unless the game includes its own sensitivity option for analogue controllers & you try playing a driving game using the analogue sticks then you may find yourself wondering if your driver/rider is gonna get pulled over & breathalised!!!
Right, almost done - been saving the best for last. What did I have that £200 [actually £199] set aside for? My new pride & joy, & currently my favourite piece of hardware - a
Mordaunt-Short 907W 100w sub-woofer [mine's black, not that nasty cherry colour]. Now all the deep bass bits in films sound just like they should.
