11:09 pm - Local Cooling
I bought myself a sweet (and expensive) new "cooling solution" for my graphics card. Still fan-based, but totally silent, and keeps things nice and frosty.
All that would be lovely if it actually did anything for the problem I've been having with that card (polygons not being drawn where they should be, and being drawn where they shouldn't be, basically - but only in recent games. Anything DirectX 7 or older, or anything OpenGL at all, works pretty much fine). But nope, for that particular problem, it's done bugger all. I may be imagining it, but it also seems to have increased my incidence of crashing, too, somehow. I don't see how making the GPU cooler can cause crashes, but sometimes it BSOD's on me (I though XP was supposed to not have BSOD) and it blames the graphics driver. Well, whatever - it seems to me more like it's my sound card, but I was wrong about my graphics card problem being overheating, so I could be wrong about that too.
So that basically leaves two options - either it's just a bad card, or I need a PSU with a Molex connector for the graphics card (rather than the PCIE one I have, leaving me to use a hard-disk power cable for my card).
At the moment I'm hoping it's the PSU - if I have to replace that, so be it - the PSU I have will still be of use in the future when I finally upgrade my computer to 21st century architecture. If I have to replace the card, then the card I have at the moment's wasted.
Now I just need to find a PSU by one of the three reputable brands (Enermax, Antec, Coolermaster) that has a Molex VGA power cable yet still delivers a decent amount of power. I know the Enermax-with-Molexes only go up to 350W ratings, which, given that it's an Enermax, should be enough (no PSU ever gives its full rating except under laboratory conditions, but the three brands I mentioned deliver closer to than anything else). And somehow also find the money for it, which, given my expenditure on this lovely new fan which lights up blue, I don't think looks terribly likely.
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