Whilst trying to build a replacement HTPC I’ve realised I’ve made a blooper. I have a spare 500gb IDE drive but no IDE interface on the the PC motherboard I intend to use, it’s all SATA connections ! Sooo, looks like I’ll be browsing eBay to locate a IDE to Sata converter. Thankfully, the PSU has both traditional 4 pin Molex as well as the Sata type so I won’t have to worry about that.
Should have checked first 
I’ve added another project to my list of to do’s this year and that’s to complete my Mame Arcade Machine. It’s been an ongoing project for a while now and I’d really like to finish it – especially having made a liitle more space in the garage.
Below are a few photo’s I’d taken not long after arriving home with it.
The original 19″arcade monitor no longer worked but I have a 21″ CRT to replace it with.
I’ve removed the back panel for a peek inside. Most of the original parts were long dead. No matter they won’t be needed.
Here’s the original inner working complete with wiring diagram.
More ‘nude’ shots. By now I was starting to accumulate a large pile of parts!
I was so glad that the front bezel glass hadn’t broken in transit.
..and here’s a copy of the original sales brosure.
More pictures and updates to follow.
Just having a play with a new wordpress theme.
oops, I’ve lost my title image…doh’, and i’m not on my home network 
I went out with a friend from work on Saturday and I managed to pick up a cheap GFX card for my HTPC. I originally was looking for something that would at least allow me to run Aero on Vista/Windows 7 and basically be one step up from the onboard GFX chipset I was using at mo. I didn’t need anything too flash but what I got was a Geforce 8400 GS, 512mb onboard ram, low profile and passive cooling/fanless so no noise. Not only that but it has VGA, DVI and HDMI outputs….all for £30 – perfect!!
At the moment I’ve got it set up on a test box running Vista so hopefully if i have time, I’ll transfer it over to the HTPC in the living room this weekend and see if the HDMI link to my TV looks any better than standard VGA.
Fantastic buy and thanks Ben for the invite on Saturday.
I’ve been playing around with WordPress.com this afternoon and have signed up for one of their free hosted blogs. It’s very similar to Blogger i.e limited number of themes, widgets and customisation but I guess this keeps everything nice and easy rather than going down the route of a full fat WordPress blog hosted by yourself/domain you own. They don’t seem to have many 3 column templates that appeal to me at the moment but I’ll certainly be keeping a close eye on all future released themes. I’ve imported posts from my blogger site for comparison so feel free to take a look at http://stiggyblog.wordpress.com/
Over the past few days the snow showers have intensified, causing even more disruption to those on the roads. I noticed quite a few accidents on the way to work but thankfully all were fender-benders and no real harm done.
The office was very quiet today, I guess more folk had decided not to brave the weather and stay home. The Motorway was practically dead when I drove home this evening.
I was watching the news this evening and low and behold, two opposite political parties were having a right ol point the finger ‘discussion’ about how the leading party had failed to provide adequate provisions to deal with the problems caused by the snow – the worst, according to the news, in nearly 20 years. Now, I’m not remotely interested in politics or have any allegiance to any particular party but these two berks were going on about how Russia, Sweden and Iceland etc have excellent infrastructure for dealing with severe winter snow and that we should likewise adopt such a system and invest heavily into it.
It beats me how these people get elected.
Now that’s a great idea, lets all buy lots of snow plows and grit machines and have them all park in a specially constructed shed where they’ll be ready to jump into action on the chance that once every 20 years we might get a whiff of snow. Yes, the other countries mentioned have state of the art equipment for dealing with heavy snow but that’s because for 6 months of the year its sodding covered in the stuff.
Yes I know, snowplows save lives….but so do Doctors and Firemen and they’re required all year round. Rant over 
Now I’m not 100% what I was following on the way into work this morning, so I took a picture (I’d stopped at the time) in the hope that someone could identify it for me please?
What next, snow mobiles for the postman
I’m glad I left for work a few hours early this morning as the roads were terrible after a night of heavy snow. I noticed the increase of users connected via VPN, looks like they had the right idea to work from home.
I left at 4:30pm thinking that I’d get ahead of the rush hour. This must have been everyone’s plan as the usual half hour drive home took nearly two hours.
However, dispite all the disruption, It was nice to be home and enjoy the winter scenic views of our garden. We even had time to make a snowman..Of course I won’t admit to actually making a snowman, I was just clearing the drive and the heap of snow just took form I managed to take a few snap shots which I’ll upload tommorow.
It’s still snowing very heavy and the drive is covered again. Maybe another early start tommorow?
Hoping the snow lasts until the weekend.
I’m looking for a cheap GFX card for my Media PC to replace the onboard Intel GPU which will allow me to update to Vista MCE or maybe run/checkout the new features in Windows Se7en MCE. I’m getting very bored with the look of MCE 2005 and although I’ve hacked the theme file to replace the background and icons it still doesn’t have that wow factor.
Vista MCE, by default is very eye candy (perfect for HTPC) and is much easier to hack than MCE 2005. I’d originally planned on using Media Portal as the front-end, however I’ve not had much look getting it to work with my remote control. It’s a shame really because there’s a huge theme/mod fanbase.
The current onboard 910 GFX chip is fine for playing DVD, DivX, Avi etc, but you can forget about lag free Vista Aero.
So, my requirements are -
PCI-E
Low profile
Fanless – My main PCs Geforce 7800gt fan makes a right racket
Standard VGA, but would prefer DVI or even HDMI if possible.
Game playing not required so 128-256mb onboard ram is plentyful.
Always prefered nVidia cards but I’m becoming more interested in ATI based cards for HTPCs
Doesn’t need a huge 1000w psu to run it.
Looking online, prices seem to be about £30-£40…cheaper the better.
