Blog - Antony Leather - Page 5

Morph tries to build a PC

Posted on 10th Sep 2009 at 12:41 by Antony Leather with 18 comments

For those of you not familiar with Morph, he's the plasticine creation of the late Tony Hart whose art-focussed kids TV shows were aired in the UK in the 1980's. I thought they were great and recently I received a 'kit' as a present that allows you create your own Morph. If you have no idea who Morph is then check him out here.

Of course as soon as I made him he was up to mischief and with lots of PC bits hanging around, he soon caught the bug. I've hidden my Dremel for the time being in case he fancies and bit of modding. I dare to think how quickly a circular saw attachment can cut through plasticine, pretty quickly I'd imagine.

Tags animation, cartoon, modding, morph

Using the iPhone as a sat nav

Posted on 1st Sep 2009 at 10:36 by Antony Leather with 19 comments

Previously, I've mainly used GPS for marine navigation rather than pointing the way on road trips. Having navigated busy areas off the south coast of England, I don't tend to find A-roads such a problem. That said, having had TomTom on my HTC TyTN II Windows Mobile PDA for the last few years I'm all too aware of how much of a boon it can be.

I've therefore been waiting patiently for a similar app for my iPhone 3GS. The iPhone 3G - which has a dedicated GPS chip - has been with us for what seems like an age but it's only with the release of version 3 of its OS that true Sat Nav apps, with turn-by-turn directions, have been able to start appearing. The latest of these is the much anticipated TomTom app but having used this and also CoPilot Live, I have to say I'm not just disapointed, I'd actually rather use a compass and a sextant to navigate as they're far more reliable.

When three storms collide

Posted on 17th Aug 2009 at 15:53 by Antony Leather with 14 comments

I was at a press event last week and whilst on my rounds meeting and greeting various hardware manufacturers and distributers, it was clear that a storm is brewing in the PC industry. However, in spite of the recession, this isn't a storm that will dampen our spirits further.

In contrast it will hopefully send a bolt of lightning right up the backside of any kind of daemon that has a financial grip on the IT industry. In fact it's what some might call a 'perfect storm' which, if you've seen the film, can only happen when two or more storms collide, the more the merrier really, unless you're a swordfisherman that is.

In this case, these storms are Windows 7, DX11 and Lynnfield and all are coming to an etailer near you before Christmas.

Epic gaming moments

Posted on 11th Aug 2009 at 07:58 by Antony Leather with 35 comments

A few months ago after searching for a new game to get my teeth into, I revisited an old friend and was soon hooked on Battlefield 2 again.

It's years since it was first released, but the servers are still teeming and my G36E felt just like it used to. What's more, it's one of the few games I've played that seems to have no problem generating epic moments, which is one of the main reasons why I love it.

One such moment happened a few nights ago. On the map Operation Cleansweap, myself and two other soldiers were defending the shoreline and picking off individual enemies with our sniper rifles when from across a bay appeared an armoured personnel carrier (APC) - Uh Oh!

What was your first mod?

Posted on 29th Jul 2009 at 10:36 by Antony Leather with 21 comments

Bit-tech is full of modding. In fact our forums are brimming with countless different types of mods using an even greater number of different materials. Some are simple, with modifications to improve cooling or allow installation of hardware that otherwise might not fit, while others completely transform the look of an entire case or are even built from the ground up.

I bet there are many different reasons people take to modding. Personally, my modding experience began ten years ago with a high end system in a Chieftec Dragon. It's a poor case in terms of airflow compared to modern cases like the Antec Twelve Hundred, and I was finding the temperature inside the case was nearly hot enough for hydrogen atoms to start fusing together. I decided to cut a hole in the roof and mount an 80mm fan which actually worked really well.

Noise versus performance

Posted on 20th Jul 2009 at 08:59 by Antony Leather with 34 comments

With the hot but undoubtedly brief summer finally making an appearance here in the UK, I imagine that plenty of bit-tech and Custom PC readers have had to ramp up their PC's fan speeds to keep the machine cool. Maybe you've even had to buy new cooling hardware to keep that shiny new overclocked Intel Core i7 system under control?

In any case, most of us have had to alter our PC's cooling at one time or another but what's always surprised me is how varied noise tolerance is from person to person and how different their goals are when tweaking their PC to enhance its cooling capability.

iPhone 3GS – the Apple tastes sweet

Posted on 6th Jul 2009 at 10:26 by Antony Leather with 33 comments

I blogged recently about the fact that while I hate Apple, I was considering acquiring the new iPhone 3GS. The reasons for this was that I wanted something a bit lighter and easier to use than my HTC TyTN II which sported Windows Mobile 6.1. Well, I’ve now owned a 3GS for just over a week and in short, it’s everything I wanted and more.

Is there such a thing as the perfect PC case?

Posted on 19th Jun 2009 at 10:53 by Antony Leather with 30 comments

What would your perfect case look like? It's a question I've been pondering ever since I got into water-cooling. I’ve tended to scrutinise every new case I see in terms of how much room there is for pumps, reservoirs and more importantly, radiators. If there wasn’t a viable location for a radiator - for example where two 120mm fans are placed together or a panel big enough for a section to be cut out for a radiator - then I'd lose interest straight away.

My viewpoint has changed somewhat now that I’m reviewing all kinds of cases and with good reason - not every one of our readers is into liquid cooling. Besides, good air cooling is a must in any case, even if you're water-cooling, as you still need to maintain a good degree of airflow to cool hardware such as hard disk drives and hot spots on the motherboard.

The iPhone 3GS - You can't beat them, so join them, but you can still hate them...

Posted on 10th Jun 2009 at 07:56 by Antony Leather with 48 comments

So the iPhone 3GS is here. And with it, a host of new features that promise to make it even better and faster than the iPhone 3G.

Combined with the latest version of the OS (which will also add quite a few features to the existing iPhone 3G), it's without doubt a force to be reckoned with. Naturally, within a team with four iPhone owners, there's been a bit of a debate about whether it's worth an upgrade. And even I'm feeling tempted.

Now, I hate Apple - so I never thought I'd see myself checking the Apple Store for news on prices and contracts minutes after reading the closing snippets of information from the keynote at WWDC 2009.

I don't own an iPhone, or an iPhone 3G for the simple reason that when it launched, I already had a fairly capable smartphone that played music and videos, could surf the net and unlike the iPhone 3G, could also run any one of many true turn-by-turn sat nav apps such as Tom Tom - something I use quite regularly despite having a BSc degree in navigation. I also hate the hype surrounding Apple products, so if I do buy an iPhone 3GS it will be the first Apple product I've ever owned.

Summer’s coming - have you water-cooled your PC?

Posted on 3rd Jun 2009 at 10:53 by Antony Leather with 9 comments

It was a hot summer six years ago that resulted in me doing the crazy thing of mixing water with some expensive electronic components in my PC. I’d overclocked my AMD Athlon CPU and it had a massive effect on my system, boosting frame rates considerably. Unfortunately, the hefty vcore meant my system started overheating in the 30 degree+ temperatures of my room and I had to downclock.

Clearly that sucked, so I looked into more exotic forms of cooling and two months later I had water-cooled my PC and I had my CPU overclocked even further. Parts were pretty scarce back then but these days there are shops popping up all the time. Which brings me on to two exciting bits of news for those of us in the UK.

bit-tech.net

Archive for Antony Leather

Morph tries to build a PC

Using the iPhone as a sat nav

When three storms collide

Epic gaming moments

What was your first mod?

Noise versus performance

iPhone 3GS – the Apple tastes sweet

Is there such a thing as the perfect PC case?

The iPhone 3GS - You can't beat them, so join them, but you can still hate them...

Summer’s coming - have you water-cooled your PC?

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