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purplecthulhu: (anti-bush)
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Eventful day

posted by [personal profile] purplecthulhu at 04:04pm on 13/06/2008
The good news is that I'm getting a new MacPro to sit beside my desk - 4 times as many processors as the old one, and each one faster.

The bad news is that I'm having to do this because my old PowerMac just died - probably an issue with the water cooling system.

Meanwhile the building just got buzzed by 2 US Marine helicopters that are presumably scoping out the area in preparation for the Texan Twit's arrival here over the weekend. Probably nto a good time for me to dangle my tubular black poster carrier out the window...
Mood:: 'annoyed' annoyed
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There are 9 comments on this entry. (Reply.)
 

(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] brisingamen.livejournal.com at 03:24pm on 13/06/2008
Probably nto a good time for me to dangle my tubular black poster carrier out the window...

Probably not. Tempting but would hate to see you 'disappeared' under the 28 days rule ...
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] annafdd.livejournal.com at 06:18pm on 13/06/2008
Water cooler?
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] purplecthulhu.livejournal.com at 07:05pm on 13/06/2008
The dual 2.5 GHz G5 processor power macs, which were top of the range at the time I got this machine, had water cooling for the processors since they dissipated so much power and to avoid it sounding like a jet engine (it was usually a very quiet machine!).

Sadly this would appear to be an achilles heal. Best bet on the death of a machine is a small water leak leading to corrosion of the mother or processor board. Not that I've got the tools to strip the machine and check, but when a service engineer does himself out of money by telling you that it's better to get a new machine you know there's probably no hope.
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posted by [identity profile] gaspodog.livejournal.com at 01:36pm on 15/06/2008
Water bad. Ammonia good.

I still recall their vain attempts to make "our processors run too hot" into a sales pitch. Something along the lines of "So powerful it needs liquid cooling" as I recall... At least now you get 8-core Xeon goodness - and with the extra added benefit of being Intel and hence future-proof should Snow Leopard prove to be Intel-only (jury still seems to be out on that one).

If my powermac dies, It will have to have a much cheaper replacement - though I wasn't able to afford top-of-the-line in the first place so there aren't any dangerous liquids sloshing around my processors :)
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posted by [identity profile] purplecthulhu.livejournal.com at 01:46pm on 15/06/2008
Indeed, water cooling seems in retrospect a bad idea. Still, it lasted 4 years and worked even longer for Seymour Cray :-)

I suspect all of my main machines will be moving to Intel in the next year. The laptop was meant to be the first as it had been displaying some screen problems which led to complete screen failure on a colleagues machine before, and which prompted a logic board replacement on this machine when it was still under applecare. It's 3.5 years old now so that won't happen again, but the recent trip to the US seems to have frightened it back into reliability. unlike my powermac.

I'm lucky enough to have work budget for all except my home machine which might have to wait a bit longer for upgrade.
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posted by [identity profile] yvonneh.livejournal.com at 09:28pm on 13/06/2008
Commiserations. I had a death in the computer family earlier this year - of my main work machine - and it was hideous. At least you've got a replacement up and running in record time.
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] purplecthulhu.livejournal.com at 09:39pm on 13/06/2008
Not up and running - I realise what I wrote could be taken the wrong way. My laptop is filling in for now, and I hope the backups worked and that the replacement will arrive soon.
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] not-on-fire.livejournal.com at 11:23am on 14/06/2008
Apple still make computers? :-p
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(no subject)

posted by [identity profile] purplecthulhu.livejournal.com at 01:47pm on 15/06/2008
You bad person!
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