At last, I can play games!!

After my PC's video card (old pc) spoilt since last saturday (7/10/2006), I haven't been able to play any 3D games like Eve-online and stuff. Yeah, so far Eve-online is the only game I played. haha. Since it's not (economically) feasible to replace the kaput AGP ATi 9800 Pro , I made the decision to buy new set of system unit the next day. This includes AMD x2 3800+ CPU Dual Core, Gigabyte NF4 SLI motherboard, Gigabyte PCI-Express video card, 2 pieces of 512MB RAM , Thermaltake Big Typhoon CPU Fan, Coolermaster Centurion 5 casing. I got it from Compuzone Low Yat plaza. Costs me an arm and a leg, about RM2150 including credit card charges, which even costlier than previous upgrade to Socket 939 CPU.
Even though I got it back home on sunday, but I was too lazy to set it up. I was thinking of using my 200GB SATA hard disk from my old pc on my new pc. However, Partition Magic can't partition my 200GB SATA hard disk. (PartitionMagic can't partition, go figure).Since the hard disk is loaded with stuff, I rather not install my Windows XP on it for fear of corrupting my data in case the installation run into any problems.

So, I decided to purchase 250GB SATA hard disk. But , there's one problem. SATA controller drivers are not included with the Windows XP CD by default. Thus, I have to create my own start-up CD to include the SATA drivers so that I don't have to press F6 and insert the SATA driver floppy disk. I didn't buy a floppy drive for my new set of computer as well. So, that's way I have create a custom start-up CD.

Anyways, I finally set up my 250GB SATA hard disk with this Slipstream guide.
THANK YOU SHORT-MEDIA for creating such a simple guide and NLite (for such an awesome software) for making integration of SATA drivers a hell lot easier for computer users. I printed the guide in Landscape A4 and it took around 55 pages. Which is really a lot.

Well. I'll try to start playing games as soon as I'm done with installation of all the other software, eg. Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Office, sound card/ video card drivers, and etc.


Here's some photos of effects of a corrupted PowerColor ATi 9800 card, I bought it for about RM900 , 2 years ago (I guess?) during PC fair.


As you can see the fonts, have been mashed up together with some lines. Well, you can try to guess what they supposed to mean. or buy a new video card.Click the photos for close inspection.

Well you can see that there are some lines beside the cursor. This is what a corrupted video card can do to you.Click the photos for a closer inspection.