SO. I swapped out Yggdrasil’s motherboard. Save for his optical drive, the old man box now has pretty much new parts across the board– new mobo/CPU/RAM, new hard drive, new video card, new PSU. I’ve not carried him back down the hall to my room yet, giving my fingers a chance to rest a bit (relatively speaking– typing is nothing compared to mucking with teeny-tineh front panel wires and things). I’m not going to say “no reason he shouldn’t boot” because I know if I do, I’ll be back here dragging a giant squiggly-line ball and ranting about… who-knows-what. So, I won’t jinx myself there >_>;;;
Smart Yoshi is SMART, though, and did all the front panel wiring and crap before putting the mobo in the case. And I am so glad I did, because it would have been an extremely murderous thing for my fat fingers to do if I did that stuff last. However, due to cable hell… er… the placement of certain things is a little unflattering– Iggy’s mobo is only bolted in with one screw (his case only came with one riser and I don’t have any spares in my pouch of extras) and his hard drive is propped up against one of the rails, but so as long as I don’t jiggle him around– why would I, he’s a bloody DESKTOP– then there shouldn’t be any problems. >_>;
Also: AMD! I love you and I jumped ship from Intel for you but you get fail points on the design of the heatsink that came with the Athlon X2 I’m using. What the bloody SMOO are these bronze-looking pipe… things for? They make it a pain to latch in the clasps on the mobo. Boo. BOOOOO.
You know who else warrants a boo? Microsoft. I know, it’s always hip to hate on Microsoft for just about everything… and while I’m normally indifferent to them, they’re really being dumbasses about Windows 7 licensing when they are better off shutting up and being grateful that its launch didn’t blow up in its face. First it was being vague about using upgrade media for clean installs, and now it seems they don’t like small-fry, hobbyist system builders like me who buy OEM versions of Windows because it’s cheaper than retail. See this gem:
Yes, individuals can still buy OEM versions of Windows 7. But they cannot then install that copy of Windows 7 on a PC they are building for themselves. Instead, they can only install it on a PC that they then sell–and support–to someone else. And they must do so using Microsoft’s OEM pre-installation kit (OPK), a step that is clearly aimed at further preventing this type of software from being used by the hobbyist market.
What the crap, Microsoft? You might as well just say “CHEATER CHEATER PUMPKIN EATER, YOU DIDN’T GIVE US ENOUGH COINS.” Well, eff that. I’m a system builder– not for profit, mind you, and often at my own expense– and though I did use retail copies of 7 because they were so ludicrously cheap, I will continue to buy OEM whenever I build new boxes. Here is your Wario hat, have a nice day.
If you’ll excuse me, I’ve an old man to piggyback down the hall.
