The little dog interacts with the objects on the page: A WMF knife box, a buzz saw and more – he even pees on the chef’s hat

Take a look at it here: payback.de

I attended the database/business intelligence tracks and learnt some stuff about the new SQL server features (Change Data Capture, Merge, Resource Governor, Georeferencing, Filestream data type etc). I still need some time to evalute the features but the final server is released in Q3 at the earliest anyway. My colleagues attended mostly Windows Server and security tracks and were most impressed by the Server Core and the virtualisation Hyper V.

Maybe I will post something about the new features soon, so long you can test the SQL Server 2008 yourself: The feature complete February CTP has been released last week and can be downloaded.

Unfortunately I did the PCMark benchmark only with the new PC but the other benchmarks were quite impressive for me. The biggest difference between the old and the new system is graphic power: A modern graphic card like the Gainwad 8800 GTS is such a big jump compared to the four years old Radeon.

The overclocking doesn’t give much advantage at the 3DMark benchmark but as expected at the CPU heavy Cinebench.
The 25% overclock leads to a 24,76% better performance with one core, a 24,33% better performance with all four cores but only to a 3,91% better 3DMark performance.

More important than the synthetic benchmarks is the subjective impression – and that is that i absolutely love the new machine.

Do you know of any usefull benchmarks or have a comparison between your old and new machines?

Read part 1 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 2 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 3 of the building a new computer series here.

I carefully took out the mainboard and placed it on top of my kitchen table an removed the socket plate.

The insertion of the CPU wasn’t complicated at all, it only fits in one direction.

Same situation for the RAM. The retention and backplate for the cooler was more complicated. They didn’t fit the holes in the board 100%, so it was difficult to get four screws in at the same time.

But it got worse. I read at different places that installation of the Zalman 9700LED is a piece of cake compared to other coolers. Well, don’t let me try the others then. The basic installation and application of the paste worked well but I couldn’t get the clip screwed to the board. It took a while and more pressure than I thought would be good for the board, but finally the monster sat firmly on the socket.

Huge.

Now it was time to prepare the case. The PSU, the board and the additional fan were installed with ease.

A closer look.

The also huge graphics card found its way to the system and power was brought to the board.

An old monitor was prepared…

… and hey: We have a boot!

Euphoric I installed the HDD and all missing cables…

… and the DVD drive…

… closed the side door and began installing Windows.

Here it was glowing already…

… and Ms. computhomas benchmarked the system with spider solitaire.

I cleaned up my office for the admission of the new system. Unfortunately most of the glowing disappeared under the desk, but so far it looked really cool and worked.

In the next part I will benchmark the system and eventually overclock it a bit.

Read part 1 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 2 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 4 of the building a new computer series here.

Although I was tempted to start building right away, I tried to document everything for you. The Enermax case is really huge but it was lighter than I thought it would be. I expected the build quality being better for the price – the case only gets an OK on my internal checklist.

Nothing special on the backside.

Something special on the left side. A huge 250mm fan. I know already that the fan won’t help much for the CPU cooling, but maybe it is a way to keep board and graphics card cool. I’ll test this later.

Yes, it is indeed huge.

The inside of the case.

The mainboard comes in a typical box.

Nothing special in the inside. All you expect from an Asus board: Manual, drivers, cables, slot bracket and hopefully a board.

Ah, there is everything.

Finally, the board is there.

An eyecather is the heatpipe transporting the northbridge heat to the rear fan.

The socket – protected from abuse.

Get connected.

The CPU. It’s an Intel Q6600 with G0-stepping. This can be verified by looking at the code on the processor, SLACR. Basically the G0 consumes less power and is allowed to get a bit hotter then the old stepping, B3. Although in practice the difference isn’t significant, I wanted a new one.

The Zalman 9700LED is really huge …

… but it looks great …

… and the polished plate is really nice.

Memory looking as expected …

… just like the HDD.

For the biggest price of a component at least you get the biggest package.

Gainward really likes ladies.

Two slots for the card.

Is it a clown?

The Soundblaster X-Fi Music …

… has a shiny golden slot bracket.

Oh, look A keyboard.

The Pioneer DVR-212 SATA in his bulk plainness.

Power!

You get the modular cables delivered in a nice black bag.

Laser, yeah.

The additional back fan.

Well everything is here now

In the next part I’ll try to assemble the parts and create new life … or so.

What do you think of the components?

Read part 1 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 3 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 4 of the building a new computer series here.

The current pc was purchased at a discount supermarket, cause at that time I couldn’t find anything better for the same money. It was the first pc that i did not build personally and i didn’t regret it. I also said to myself, that I won’t build one myself ever again. But here I am, three years later, with a rising desire for putting the parts together – bringing a new monster to life …

Jeff Atwood made the desire even stronger by documenting his build for Scott Hanselman. The last few month I spend investigating for the best hardware i could get while keeping the total price reasonable.

That is the final list i came up with:

• Case

ENERMAX Uber Chakra ECA5001B Black Aluminum / Steel ATX Full Tower


+ Scythe S-Flex 800 120×25 8.7dBA
The case is mostly a matter of taste. I want something not to boring, still it should be quiet and cool. In the past I would have decided on the inside components first and then bought a cheap case and PSU – now I know how important these things are.

• PSU

CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520 Watt Power Supply


Corsair get their PSU from Seasonic, which is known for good and silent units. I wanted something with cable management and trust the Corsair brand, so I decided fast on this.

• Mainboard

Asus P5K


The only question here was: Asus or Gigabyte. I decided for Asus, because of good experience with their boards. I don’t need WLAN, VGA on board or any other specials, so i decided for the basic board, which is amazing cheap.

• CPU

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor – G0 Stepping (SLACR)


I decided on this one already in June, knowing that the price will drop immense. When they started to bring out a second revision, with lower power consumption, i decided to wait for it.

• CPU-Cooling

Zalman CNPS9700LED

This was a difficult decision. A lot of people prefer Scythe or Thermalright coolers but they won’t fit into the big chakra case, cause of the side fan. Some say that the Zalman is to loud but reviews show that it ist quiet at slowly rotation and still has good temperatures.

• RAM

2048MB(2x1024MB) DDR2 FSB800 Corsair XMS2 Xtreme Performance TwinX Matched | PC2-6400 | CL5 | 1.9 V


Wow, RAM is cheap.

• Graphics

Gainward BLISS 8800GTS PCX TV Dual DVI | Grafikadapter | GF 8800 GTS | PCI Express x16 | 640 MB GDDR3
The most expensive part of the new build. Gainward is normally silent, else there is almost no difference between the cards of the manufacturers.

• HDD

SAMSUNG SpinPoint T Series HD501LJ 500GB 7200 RPM SATA


Storage is cheap also. I didn’t want to pay the premium for a faster spinning disk, so it had to be 7200 for now.

• Burner

Pioneer (Bulk) DVR-212 SATA black
I don’t want IDE cables in my case.

• Sound

Creative SB X-Fi Xtreme Music Bulk
Since my birthday I have a Teufel 5.1 system under my desk, which is insulted by stereo sound at the moment.

• Mouse

Microsoft USB Wired Laser Habu Gaming Mouse


I need a new mouse also. I have a loyal friendship with my IntelliMouse for years, so I decided to go with Microsoft again. The razer precision isn’t bad as well – and it glows blue – like my case

• Keyboard

Microsoft USB Wired Ergonomics Reclusa Gaming Keyboard


Blue also.

This will sum up to around 1300 Euro. I will write again when the hardware arrives – I can’t wait much longer!

Read part 2 of the building a new computer series.

Read part 3 of the building a new computer series here.

Read part 4 of the building a new computer series here.

• Long Haul Flights – 5 Tips for Comfort
• Five Tips for Making Soccer/Football Exciting (or at Least Tolerable) No Matter Where You Are (I love soccer even without the tips, but funny little post here )
• 5 Tips to Being Interesting
• 6 Tips to Generate Outstanding Ideas
• Forgotten Someone’s Name? Use These Tricks. (I’m getting better at this but a few tricks can’t hurt)

1. Know your stuff

There might be people who can talk about just everything and sound intelligent and solid. But as hard as i try, that is not the case with me. I need to know about the stuff I am talking else I get bumpy.

2. Time planning

Time planning is essential when you have a limited time budget. And you should have a limited time budget always, otherwise you wouldn’t be focused on your goal.
If you know your stuff you should always expect that you need longer than you needed without your audience.
So consider which parts are more time flexible than others. Where could you drop something when time gets tight?

3. Storyline, Flow, Tension

To get your message out and to keep the audience interested it is useful to plan even finer.
Work on your storyline, keep a flow and create tension. If you use slides, make transitions between them. Don’t switch to next slide speechless to then read what’s on it.

4. Prepare, Practice

Prepare your presentation by practicing it. Start with talking to yourself then get a virtual audience. The next step is filming yourself and analyzing the video. The real challenge is the presentation infront of real people. You can use anyone you find, but it might work best with your spouse.

5. Use your voice

Be passionate, but not like in a bad tv spot. Vary your pitch without sounding like a lyre.

6. Use your eyes

Connect with your audience. Eye contact keeps the audience alert and interested. You can get direct feedback on your presentation that way also.

7. Use your hands

Here aswell you shouldn’t overdo it of course. But use your hands to emphasize your message, to show chronological directions (Put yourself in the position of the audience, their right is your left and vice versa).

8. Find your position, get comfortable

Find a physical standpoint which feels good for you. This will influence your conversational standpoint enormous.

9. You are the main event not the slides

Yes, it may be hard. You are probably just as well a computer freak as I am – but: Don’t think that your slides are your presentation. They may assist you while presentating but the star role is played by yourself not by the wall or the projector. Use your slides to list your agenda and your catchwords, don’t use them for all information you are going to say and don’t write long sentences.

Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30-Rule might not be the blueprint for every type of presentation but in essence it is really a great advice:

It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points.

Try to make other media part of your portfolio: Use a whiteboard (or even blackboard), use a flip chart and switch between them and the slides.

You can even turn off the projector for a while or use a white or black slide. This will get the attention of your audience to yourself immediately. (Better have something to say then )

Further recommended readings: Seth Godin’s Really Bad Powerpoint, Presentation Zen
You might even be as radical as Kathy Sierra and go without slides once in a while?

10. Dont end weak

Dont end weak. Get your message out.
So many presentations end abrupt with a presentator, who seems surprised by the end himself.
“I think I’m done…”
Don’t do it! Repeat your key messages. Engage your audience in future things. Tell them what you want them to
do. Call to action!

Ok, I think I’m done … Just kidding
It is important to plan, to practice and to get in touch with your audience. Get out and surprise them!

If you would like to get my future tips on this and other topics, subscribe to my RSS feed. This post is part of the Tips & Tricks Blog Writing Project at Daily Blog Tips.

Same station as in part 1, but this time it wasn’t clearly visible why the connection was broken. The crowd was directed to the replacement buses, which should arrive later. A woman borrowed a cell phone from another passenger to call her children and tell them that she wont make it on time. So she said: Hello this is mommy. Don’t worry, I will be late today, a bomb or something. Don’t worry. Bye.

As i found out later, she was almost right. An ownerless backpack on a bench rang the alarm bells. Fortunately it contained only a sandwich and a thermos flask.

But wow. I have no idea how old her children are, but i bet this call freaked the hell out of them.