I've wanted more RAM and a third monitor for a while. Upgrade time. I hate upgrading hardware, it's the worst of chores.

The new hardware is a Zotac Fusion ITX A motherboard including a Radeon 6310 graphics blah, a passive Radeon HD5450 graphics card (actually a 5430 chip), and the rest is from from the previous libertango: Silverstone SG05 case, Scythe Slip Stream 120mm fan, Be Quiet SFX power supply, SSD.

The difficult bit was to persuade Xorg (on Ubuntu Oneiric) to use the graphics cards. It detected both graphics adapters, but didn't pick anything close to reasonable settings by itself. I had to select IGD as primary graphics device in the BIOS (the alternatives were NB PCIE and SB PCIE, abbreviations make the world go around) and then write some new files in xorg.conf.d.

The Xinerama option has to be on, GLX, Composite and XVideo must be disabled (otherwise VLC and Thunderbird crash the X server), the PCI IDs must be specified by hand, and when lspci says a PCI ID is 1:0.0, X wants to hear PCI:1:0:0. No leading zeroes, no dot. Type a dot, and Xorg breaks silently. One of the two graphics adapters must be specified by hand twice, one for each monitor.

Logging out and back in is not enough to test new X settings in Ubuntu Oneiric, and X :1 isn't really realistic. The right way is to kill the X server process.

The resulting computer makes less noise than the Mac Mini I also have, and it's fast enough to work. But I have too many cables now.

My neighbour is putting up another concrete building and I don't like noise.

For the past few days I've used a Nuforce μDAC-2 together with Bose QC15 headphones. I tried the QC15s alone, but they don't suppress the construction noise very well on their own. They do better when fed music.

The μDAC-2 does well. It's not exactly highend (for context: I think Musical Fidelity makes highend gear, and I consider most Bose devices to be overpriced beep-beep gadgets). But it also doesn't offend me like most computer audio gadgets. It's pleasant, and allows me to work in complete disregard of the $#$@# concrete mixers. Well worth the price.

Tidying my office, chapter 17, in which beloved hardware is less beloved than a usable shelf.

I'm throwing away the keyboard Cherry made for me sometime around the middle nineties.

It has an AT keyboard plug, so I haven't been able to use it in a while, and it's worn out (more…)

Nice. Very nice.

It's solid, doesn't move around on the desk, the keys feel clear without any jarring click, (more…)

Zotac ION ITX B motherboard, Silverstone SG05 case, Scythe Slip Stream 120mm fan, Be Quiet SFX power supply, SSD. (more…)