I haven’t been writing as of late, and frankly I don’t have anything I want to talk about or discuss. I did assemble myself a new computer. I’m overwhelmingly satisfied with it, considering that the whole set-up only cost me (my dad) S$747 and is a good 3-5 times faster than my previous one. 2GB of memory does help.

Specs are as follows. (i.e. I bought the following. Other parts not listed were re-used from old computer.)

• Intel Dual-Core E2160 Allendale 1.8GHz LGA 775 Processor
• 2 x 1GB Corsair Valuram
• GIGABYTE GA-965P-DS3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard
• Leadtek WinFast PX8600GT 256MB DDR3 Zalman Fan
• Verudium PowerXT V-480XT
• Cooler Master Centurion 5 Case

The CPU runs at a stock of 1.80 Ghz (that’s gigahertz, 1.8 billion cycles per second). Being the enthusiast that I am, I overclocked it to 3.00 Ghz. Here’s a screenshot for you.

Want to compare how fast yours is? Download Superpi and calculate 1M decimal places. Take your timing and compare. Mine is 21.000s.

I have no idea how it scales, but I’m quite sure that if your timing is twice as fast as mine it doesn’t mean your computer is twice as fast. It is, though, a good indication of relative speed (i.e. my computer is FASTER than yours).

Do find out what stuff your computer’s running on with CPU-Z.