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I got to play with computer hardware. Whoo! Not professionally, just my own.
When I bought the HP machine that I play Flight Simulator on, I bought a nice new Geforce 6600 graphics card to go with it. For purely lazy reasons, I didn't install the graphics card. However, I decided that to go along with my updated real-world flight status, I want to be able to fly virtually without having the simulation bog down because it's trying to render too much detail.
So I finally bit the bullet and got the graphics card out:
In addition to increased 3-D graphics rendering capability, the card has outputs for two monitors and component video:
The other reason to do the upgrade is to have a computer hooked to the TV in the family room, to be able to watch things like Rifftrax.
To package for the card recommended at least a 350 watt power supply, and the machine came with just a 300, so when I bought the system and the card, I also bought a 430 watt power supply. So the first task was to install that.
The patient open for surgery:
The old power supply:
and the new
Interestingly, the higher power supply is rated for less output on 5V. However, it has a total rating of 32A of 12V, vs. 19A for the old one.
Here's the flight simulator rig for the moment. Not ideal placement of the monitor, but I'll give it a better layout when I have all the software stuff sorted out.
And here's Jasper contemplating the old power supply:
