I currently use a Zalman CNPS9500 heatsink/fan combo for my workstation (pictured above), and I’ve been very happy with it. I liked it enough to bother migrating it from my previous workstation, instead of using the stock heatsink/fan combo that came with my new system. It makes a very significant difference in noise and heat levels.

Having operated on two computers with that heatsink present, I finally solved an enigma and discovered a hazard of Zalman’s product. Those thin copper “leaves” (closeup below), so good at dissipating heat, are also good at giving “paper cuts”.

Sometimes when I operated on my previous workstation, I would end up with cuts on my working hand. I’d wonder why - after all, the reason I buy Antec cases so obediently is because all the cutting edges have been smoothed away - but I chalked it up to some unknown point that I’d dragged my hand across. In retrospect, cuts made by points hurt a lot more than “clean” cuts made by knife-like edges, which would explain why I never noticed the injuries until later when they were bleeding and/or itching.

I guess idly playing with the heatsink (it’s fun, like bubble wrap!) wasn’t a good idea.

I thought it was my incompetence that rendered my computer inoperable, but in fact it turns out that my motherboard, the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L, is known to sometimes fall into a state of constantly rebooting - the entire line, in fact. See here, here, and in particular here.

So for my new purchase, I asked for a non-Gigabyte recommendation from my local Canada Computers, and got the ASUS P5K-E/WiFi-AP motherboard instead. It’s about twice the price of the GA-P35-DS3L - itself the low end of that line - but I didn’t want to invite more mishap by picking a low-end family, regardless of brand.

Replacing the motherboard solved my rebooting woes, and a strange might think that after my troubles, I would leave well enough alone. Not at all. Knowing now, that it was not my tweaking efforts that was the root problem, I resumed my overclocking attempts.

Notable highlights working with the ASUS P5K-E/WiFi-AP:

• The length of the eVGA GeForce 8800 video card was enough to block one of the SATA connectors. Poor design on ASUS’ part, since my previous motherboard didn’t have this problem.
• Able to overclock my Xeon E3110 from stock 3.0 GHz to 3.6 GHz. Based on Internet readings, I can’t get much higher due to the CPU, rather than the board.
• Automatic overclocking BIOS works surprisingly well. I constructed a simple timing test, and the BIOS got ~15% boost on its own, compared to ~25% timing improvement manually.
• Has a lot of overclocking options: voltages, speeds, etc. Defaults to an automatic setting rather than a fixed value for all of them.
• CPU fan speed control didn’t work with Ubuntu (pre-release Hardy 8.04), even with the appropriate BIOS settings. Strangely, the same operating system install had no problem with the GA-P35-DS3L.
• WiFi works like a charm on Linux (uncommon in my experience).

My first impressions when my new workstation was delivered: “Hmm… how am I going to fit TWO of these monitors on my desk?” Each monitor box was about 30″ long.

The Samsung 226BW is a very classy monitor. Very nice chassis, fashionable polished metal buttons, cool blue lights, and that delightful glossy coating that gives colours and text such a vibrant life. They fit quite comfortably on my (cleared) desk. I had to tilt them in a slight V-formation, though, to keep them inside the desk edge - also, they fit in my field of vision otherwise.

Assembling the computer was the same usual process, but for some reason it made me… content. Not exactly happy or giddy. I think at some level I was hearkening back to the childhood days of Lego(TM).

Oh, and just as I did when I was child, I broke the motherboard while trying to remove the CPU heat sink. Snapped the plastic right off with excessive force, a mistake that renders an entire computer irrecoverably useless. Fortunately, this was on my old computer, which was already useless from a short somewhere. It’s also good to know that I’m as stupid now as I was then.

The Antec Sonata III case is a pleasure to work with, and beautifully black with blue beads of light to boot. I remember being impressed with the first Antec case I bought. “Removable hard drive mounts!” “Metal edges that don’t cut me like a vicious papercut!” How wondrous it was then. This time it was, “Drive mounts that face the opening instead of the back!”, “Silicone grommets to reduce vibration noise!”, and “Extra large fans to reduce whirr!”. Combined with my smart motherboard, which reduces the power supplied to fans when the box is cool, this workstation is much, much quieter than my last.

After fussing around with internal cables, clearing some space, and fussing with external cables, comes installing an OS. I went for the 64-bit version of Ubuntu Linux. Skipping the play-by-play, my 64-bit related experiences:

• The amd64 image for Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon (7.10) won’t boot on its own if one is using an NVidia GeForce 8800 video card. One must edit the boot options and set splash to nosplash.
• 64-bit Linux “feels” faster than 32-bit Linux; at least, for simple operations like installing software. Possibly my imagination.
• NVidia supports Linux better than ATI. Installation process is about the same for both, but nVidia’s autoconfiguration tool to generate `xorg.conf` files works much better than ATI’s. Also, a lot less hassle about mutually exclusive parameters, or certain settings resulting in display failure. The display failure might be an unfair comparison, though, since I am comparing Linux support for the 5 year old Radeon 9800 Pro, to the months-old Geforce 8800.
• Support for Java applets in a 64-bit browser is terrible. Some people have had success with IcedTea plugin, but not I.
• Never got Flash support in a 64-bit browser either, but the workaround, using the ff32-3in1 script to install a 32-bit browser works alright.
• Compiz Fusion, the set of 3D desktop graphics effects, is fun, but surprisingly, some of those effects are actually useful. Witness the Zoom Desktop.
• Couldn’t get Adobe Acrobat Reader to work, but I think it’s because I didn’t try hard enough. xpdf is fine for now.
• Had trouble getting VMWare Server (1.0.5) to work. Didn’t like some of the 64-bit libraries - or dependency on 32-bit ones? Eventually got it up by applying the vmware-any-any-update115 tarball update, as well as installing+referencing some 32-bit libraries.

It’s all running pretty smoothly now, though.

I can’t directly observe the benefits of the video card (upcoming Starcraft 2 will be the first major video game I’ve played in awhile), except to say that finding a video card that had two DVI output ports (intead of one DVI, and one VGA w/ DVI converter) is completely worth the crispness and lack of colour adjustments. My old workstation worked with VGA connectors, and I can say with certainty that VGA connectors do not do justice to LCD monitor.

I’m sure the fast and bountiful memory also contributes to my vastly improved computing experience, but I’d never notice it directly. It’s comforting to have more than most, though, and to know that, despite the race to ever more bloated software, I’ll be one step ahead!

The best part is easily the higher resolution and larger monitors. The desktop is now so wiiiiide.

As a final commentary for my upgrade story, some comparisons to illustrate what a difference four years makes: