User:Darkstrike

Darkstrike's Computer list:
My custom-built desktop - "Darkstrike v2.5": Purchased in early 2004 as my first computer. Soltek SL-NV400-L64 motherboard with NForce2, originally running Windows XP with a 1.8ghz AMD AthlonXP 2500 processor and 512mbs of DDR RAM, later upgraded to 1gb. It had a 80gb IDE HDD and 48x LG CD-RW burner with a 16x ASUS DVD-ROM added later, and eventually an 16x LG DVD-RW replacing both. Started with a Sapphire Radeon 9600 Pro video card with 128mbs of RAM that finally died last November after going through two heatsinks. After the video card died, I figured there was no point in continuing to put money into a computer that was outdated and 5 years old. This was, and still is my main computer.

It was completely overhauled in November 2008, I used the same ICute case I had purchased in 2004, with the same 80gb IDE HDD as it's main HDD and am continuing to use the upgraded LG DVD-RW as it's optical drive. Otherwise, it is completely different. It first ran WinXP SP3 until it was upgraded to Win7 Ultimate in November 2009.It runs an ASUS P5K-SE/EPU Motherboard with a 2.4ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2gbs of DDR2 RAM, a Palit Radeon HD3850 1gb video card, a secondary 320gb SATA HDD, and a new, more powerful 500watt Coolmax PSU (compared to it's original 400watt Icute PSU, which the fan had once died in and which I had replaced with a red LED fan I had laying around). It has many added case fans - one is an orange LED 80mm exhaust fan in the blowhole at the top of the case, one was a 80mm blue LED side intake fan and has recently died to be replaced my an 80mm, standard-black temperature-controlled fan. There is also a tri-LED (red, green blue) 80mm exhausting at the back, although the green and blue LEDs have died and only the red remains. I have modded the HDD Activity LED of the case from a dim red to a superbright white LED. I have also replaced two blue LEDs in the light strips on the front of the case that have died in it's years of use. As the case had no motherboard-plugged-into "power LED" I have added a superbright Blue LED using an LED wire taken from an old 486 being thrown out in my school and run this LED to point out of the back of the case, casting a nice glow on whatever wall it sits in front of. Finally, although I RARELY use it, it has an ancient, but still functional 3.5" Floppy drive custom-painted from gray-beige to black to match the case and custom-modded with a blue LED.

Many of the parts from the original "Darkstrike v1.0" from 2004 now reside in "The Beast v3.0" an ongoing all-purpose desktop made of completely random parts that periodically reincarnates between my friends and I. "The Beast v3.0" has "Darkstrike v1.0's" 1.8ghz processor, motherboard and original 512mbs of RAM. Supplied by my friend are an old 64mb Nvidia Geforce2, and a 20gb or so hard drive to make it functional. It currently dual-boots WinXP SP3 and Ubuntu 9.04.

My MSI Wind U100 - "Mini-Darkstrike": Black, 160gb HDD, 1.6ghz Intel Atom, 1GB RAM, WinXP Home SP3, 3-cell battery. Purchased in September 2009 for university / my BEd practicum as my mobile machine. I love it! Very portable and has not let me down once yet. Eventual mods will probably include a 6-cell or 9-cell battery, a possible upgrade from WinXP to Win7, a dual-boot with Ubuntu 10.04, and possibly replacement of the LCD with a 10" Pixel Qi model (look them up, really neat technology!) Currently it has a custom boot screen using Bootskin XP, a custom Logon screen using LogonStudio XP, and a custom Windows visual style using the UXTheme patch.

In February 2010, I in my infinite wisdom went to close the lid of my Wind as the Sociology Class I was teaching was about to start without noticing that the very TIP of the corner of a textbook was in between the chassis and lid by the hinge. I did not close it forcefully or quickly, but the sheer location of the corner of the textbook as I closed the lid lead to heavy damage. Inside, all the screw mounts in that corner were immediately broken, rendering the hinge useless as there was nothing holding it to the lower chassis, I did not notice this as my class was starting and did not find out until I got home. Once home, on attempting to open my Wind, the attached-only-on-the-lid-side hinge proceeded to swing the unattached end into the chassis and break all the plastic surrounding where the hinge mounts would have even been. There was no damage at all to the internals, but I had to spend 1 month of waiting and $40 in ordering two brand new lower chassis pieces for Mini-Darkstrike before it was back in one piece and fully functional again. And now, here we are! It is as good as new (minus the fact it has NO stickers of any kind any more) and ready for years more service!

The Backup Computer - "Kayne": Named for my fraternal triplet brother who passed away a month after he was born (my fraternal twin brother and I are still kicking about), this computer was given to me in by a friend due to it's overheating problems. A horribly generic, beige AOpen case with an AOpen motherboard running a 1.5ghz AthlonXP 1800 processor, 768mbs of RAM and a 20gb HDD. It runs WinXP SP3, has a 24x LG CD-RW drive, an OLD gray floppy drive that still works, and an Nvidia Quadro2 video card with 64mbs of RAM. Not the fastest computer in the world, but it serves faithfully. The overheating was caused by a dead chipset fan on the motherboard. After successfully bringing the fan back to life once, it later died permanently. I have not been able to find a replacement, and removed the dead fan heatsink and replaced it with a passive heatsink and some added 80mm case fans. The temperature can still get a little high periodically, but otherwise, it is fine now.

Darkstrike's Device list:
Creative Zen V 1GB MP3 Player: Reliably serving my music-listening needs since 2007. It's white with orange highlights. This little gadget also stores contact info in the form of phone numbers of my friends and has a number of my favorite pictures on it as well. It can last about 15 hours on a charge, and I love it...my only gripe is that I wish I had purchased a model of it with more space. 1GB is only about enough for 150 decent-quality MP3s.