Well, it’s upgrade time again for the home machine. My new video card, EVGA 6800gt, should be here tomorrow. What had originally turned out to be just a video card swap out has turned into a major production. First I found that the reason my first 6800gt was not working was due to the fact that my 300-watt power supply was just not strong enough to handle the card, and in the process of installation I fried the card, wonderful. Luckily, the manufacturer of the card allowed me to send it to them for a replacement. In the meantime I have swapped out my power supply for a 480-watt power supply, which will definitely give me enough juice to run the card.

The next issue I will have to deal with is heat. The new video card, and power supply will generate much more heat than I was dealing with previously. Currently I have two case fans, one intake and one exhaust, which do a pretty good job of moving air through the case, thus cooling CPU and motherboard. My plan for improving the cooling is thus:

-Add a slot fan as a second exhaust, just below the video card, this should assist with excess heat build up from the video card.

-Exchange the ribbon IDE and floppy cables for round ones, this should improve airflow through the case.

Also on the agenda, I am going to clean my case out, and perform a fresh re-install of XP. I will let you know how everything turns out.

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