New Epson projector

The old one started complaining about the lamp, sooo the wise thing to do was to replace the projector... :)

It is an Epson EMP-TW2000, with 1920x1080 resolution and D7 panels. I also got a Lite-On DH-401S BD player, with the PowerDVD bundle, in order to play Blu-Ray discs. After a night of frustration and a little help from Ars Technica, I got PowerDVD to work, and watched amazing things!!! The projector outputs a lot of light compared to the old one, even in low lamp mode. Black levels are vastly improved, too. Gone are the green to the left, red to the right hues that all D5 projectors exhibited. White is white.

New Eizo

I got tired of the Samsung 245B and got an Eizo S2431W today. The difference is night and day! Perfect uniformity, excellent colors. It is a bit bright for my taste, so it's set at 10%.

Copper Ninja!

It surfaced a few weeks ago, as soon as I saw it I knew I had to have it. Fortunately, the retailer I usually shop from, had it on stock. The SI-120 was getting old, I got it used and it's been installed in 4 systems.



Installation of this huge thing meant motherboard removal (again...).



At first I tried using it with no fan, but it was a bit warm for my taste (60c load temps). I then tried opening the top and using a second exhaust fan (the very quiet one provided with the HS), but had no difference in temps, and the system got noisier, as there was a direct path for noise to escape.


I always try to get some airflow to the northbridge and FETs, putting the fan the way it was designed (blowing parallel to the board) on the Ninja was not optimal for me.









I wanted the fan to blow at a 45° angle, cooling both the HS and the board. Luckily, I managed to use one of the fan holders, which works like a spring, pushing the fan slightly towards the ODD cables. With this configuration, CPU temps are very low (32c idle, 50c load), the board gets airflow, and I'm happy. I even lowered the intake and exhaust fans' voltage a bit more, and overclocked a bit higher, to 2.66GHz.