F*ing exams

I been busy with exams. Just a quick update. My latest upgrade adds a new lcd screen on the front panel of the pc. It looks so badass that picture just doesn't do it justice. So I recorded an video and posted it on youtube.



Another news. 30 Seconds to Mars just released their newest album. Their third album titled "This is War" sounds good. But I just don't love it as much as their last album -"A Beautful Lie"-.

Next week something big is gonna arrive. I'm definitely gonna post an update next week.

Furuta Pendulum

This is a video from my Digital Signal Processing lab. It was suppose to be a very happy day to see it working, but it turned out to be a very tiring day. In the end we’re just glad it worked.

Dragon Age: Origin

Normally I'm not a fan of role-playing-games (RPG). The kind of games that starts with customizing the character's features, attributes and class, followed by a lot of dialogues and leveling up process; you'll need to talk with a lot of people to gain information needed to progress and get quests. They just consume a lot of time and unless the game is really good, it's gonna feel like torture. The last memorable RPG I played in a long time was Diablo 2, in 2000. What does Dragon Age: Origin has in common with Diablo? For me it is the great story, random encounters, solid game mechanics and massive area to explore.

It's not the first time Bioware releases a hit. Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights and Mass Effect are just a sample of their highly successful games. However, I never played more than 30 minutes let alone completed any of them. Not that I never gave them a chance. I played the aforementioned games for a couple of minutes and lose interest really quick due to the boring first mission or slow progress. That is not the case for DAO though.

After just 10 minutes of gameplay, I thought that this is just another fail attempt to get me to play RPG. Then suddenly the character's home got attacked by demon hordes; his family murdered and brother lost amidst the entangling battle. The game mechanics was easy to learn but hard to master. Unlike most RPG where you just click around the map hoping to hit something, DAO requires micromanaging the battle with tactics. Heck, you can even let the character finish the fight without you if your tactic is robust enough. They'll choose the spell based on the situation, take health potion when needed and even run if they are outnumbered.

The story is engaging and complex in good way. You are required to make simple good and bad decisions, however the outcome is never as you would have expected. Sometimes the effect is only seen long after the decision was made. An example is: after saving one helpless enemy, he/she may return to assassinate the main character really late in the game. The character's relation with others should also be noted. Since this is an M(mature) rated game, and coming from bioware, you can expect lots of gore and a couple of interesting sexual scene. If you ever wondered how a dwarf and an elf can mate, look no further. You may even get lucky and force a gay elf and human girl to fight for a dwarf's love. It's just hilarious.

All in all, this is a must get game. A 5* game with lots of playtime. A friendly warning, don't get too intimate with Morrigan or you'll get heart broken.

Atreyu - Storm To Pass

One of my favorite band returned with their newest album Congregation of the Damned.

My hobby

From morning...

till night..

Arch Enemy - Dark Insanity

It's been a while since I've post something about music. Well, good news. Here's the new music video from Arch Enemy's new album, "The Root of All Evil". The video was released today, and the album is already available since last month.



I got a lot of respect for the vocalist, Angela Gossow. Not even most males can make their voices go as low as hers.

How to improve your GPU temperature

This is a guide on how to improve the temperature of your GTX 260 graphic card. It is also applicable to other nvidia graphic cards since the cooler is pretty much the same. If you don't know the temp of the card chances are you don't need this guide. However if you feel that the card is a too hot or needed to get it cooler so you can overclock higher, read on. This guide will teach you how to change the old thermal paste on the gpu so you WILL need a replacement, hopefully better thermal paste.

First off, the tools needed:

1. Air canister. Just required if the card is dusty.
   
2. Cotton swabs
   
3. New thermal paste. I used Arctic cooling MX-2 bought from newegg. Also called TIM (Thermal interface material)
   
4. Thermal paste remover. You can just use water, but this thing will make your life a lot easier. Also bought from newegg.
   
5. Small phillip screwdriver
   
6. Time. I manage to finish and took pictures at the same time in around an hour.
   

Find a clean non-static surface. Wooden tables works. Don't do it on a table with plastic table cover or rug for example. Also to avoid damaging the processor, never touch it directly with your hand/fingers. Thats why we have the cotton swab. Remove the graphic card from your pc. In my case, it's the GTX 260 core 216 from evga.

Remove the screws at the back/bottom of the card. Only remove the big ones that you can see clearly. Also remove the 2 small ones on the side of the card near the output connections. Once you removed all the screws, gently pull apart the plastic cooler from the circuit board(pcb). You may have to twist it a little since the thermal paste may glue the two sides together.

You'll get a similar configuration as in the picture. The thin board is the one that cost 90% of what you paid. The big second half is just the cooler with the heatsink and fan.

As you can see, the gunk is what they use as their thermal paste. No wonder its ineffective.

Take caution not to accidentally remove/tear the small thermal pads. These are use to cool the small ic's on the circuit board that does not generate much heat.

Remove the old thermal paste from both the processor and the cooler using dry cotton swabs. The second pic shows how the processor looks like without the gunk.

Next use the thermal paste remover and cotton swab to remove the excess gunk. You may use water, but it might not do as good a job. This is how the processor looks like cleaned and dried. Notice the difference?

It's time to reapply the new thermal paste. Since the chip is a big one, I prefer to use the 3 line method to apply the tim. Then I just press together the two sides to get a well covered area. You may also use a card to manually cover the whole area of the chip. But from my experience it doesn't really make a difference.

Once you place everything back together, you're ready to test the new temperature. Sometimes, the new thermal paste need a couple of hours to completely cure and reach its' max potential. I manage to decrease the temperature by 10C the first time through. If you see an increase instead, the thermal paste might not be enough or the chip surface doesn't meet the cooler. Here, I place the core 216 card at the bottom since it's cooler and also I prefer the old GTX 260 backcovered version of the card.

Ps: I use Office 2007 to write this blog and office just published it straight to the web. I don't need to copy /paste. cool