I've built my new desktop computer / server and now have it up an running. It's been 4 years since my last PC, so it was time for an upgrade. The biggest advantages of the new computer are a dual-core processor, a super-quiet case, and a RAID hard drive controller card that provides protection against drive failures and lets me add disks to the array to make one huge drive. Biggest advantage: all of my movies stored on my network, so that I can use the PC in my basement to browse and play movies. Just like TiVo, only with a better looking interface (Windows Media Center 2005 + My Movies plugin).

Update 2006-Mar-19: Asus released a new beta bios, version 10.11-006, that fixed the A8N-SLI Premium / RAID card compatibility issue. I'm glad that it is released and fixed, but disappointed that it took them so long.

Old Info about Hardware Incompatibility: For the first time in years, I've had a hardware compatibility issue. The is odd because I've probably built or upgraded 15 different computers over the past few years and issues seem to be a thing of the past. Not now; my Asus A8N-SLI Premium motherboard does not properly recognize my Areca ARC-1230 RAID card. I had to place it into "dual video card mode" to even get it to acknowledge the card. Now, exactly every other time I reset the system, the motherboard fails to recognize the card. So every single time I reboot, I have to wait for the BIOS power-on self-test to complete and then hit CTRL+ALT+Delete to reboot and recognize the card. BIOS updates have not helped and I've changed every single setting in the BIOS to no avail. I e-mailed ASUS technical support, but 6 days later and they still have not even acknowledged the request.
I did find some info on the problem, here are the relevant links:
From planetamd64.com
From anandtech.com

Anyway, these are the components I used in my system:

• CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Socket 939 Dual Core Processor (better value than any Intel dual-core processor)
• Memory: Kingston ValueRAM 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) ECC Unbuffered System Memory Model KVR400X72C3A/1G (ECC to offer a little more reliability, but purchase unbuffered instead of registered for compatibility and speed)
• CPU Fan: ZALMAN CNPS7000B-CU 92mm 2 Ball Cooling Fan/Heatsink (very quiet)
• Case: Antec Performance I P180 Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case (very quiet)
• Motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard (ASUS has a great reputation for reliability and compatibility)
• Card Reader: Atech Flash XC-14U 15-in-1 USB 2.0 Int/Ext media Card Reader (more important than a floppy drive)
• Video Card: ASUS EN6200TC256/TD/64M Geforce 6200TC 64MB PCI Express x16 Video Card (fast and cheap)
• Power Supply: SeaSonic S12-380 ATX12V 380W Power Supply (very quiet and high efficiency)
• Floppy Drive: Sony Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive (still need these for operating system installs if you install to a drive on the RAID card)
• RAID Card: Areca ACR-1230 12-drive PCI Express to SATA controller card with 256 MB cache
• Hard Drives: Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3500641AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (quiet and they have a 5-year warranty)

I did run into one issue when I installed Windows. My card-reader was plugged-in and it has 4 drive letters. My main hard drive, instead of being Drive C, was Drive G because Windows assigned C, D, E, F to the card reader (ahead of the hard drive). Brilliant. I had to unplug the card reader and reinstall Windows because that is the easiest way to fix the problem. This really needs to be fixed in the new Windows Vista.

I finally took the first step in getting my music collection back into my car. I used to listen to CD's all the time when I had my Pioneer 6-disc changer and a bunch of cartridges. However, after my headunit when bad, I had no changer and starting listening more to the radio. Today, I ordered a PhatNoise PhatBox for my Infiniti. If all goes well, I'll probably get one for my other vehicles as well. I was seriously considering the Omnifi devices (with openfi add-on) because of WiFi synchronization, but decided on the PhatBox because of FLAC support, OEM headunit interface, and voice prompts while sorting through songs/directories. No Apple iPod car kit can give you that.

I've setup a petition to get the GPL software for the Rockford Omnifi media players released. The petition is available here. It's currently up to about 250 signatures. Hopefully slashdot will pick this up and it will get some more publicity. SimpleDevices, who is responsible for the software on the omnifi, appears to be the company with the unreleased GPL source code.

I love learning how musicians are influenced by each other. One interesting display of this is which songs certain artists choose to cover in live and/or album performances. In going through some live recordings today, I found that Hootie and the Blowfish have covered quite a few artists from a surprisingly diverse spectrum. I knew about the covers on their album "Scattered, Smothered, and Covered", but that's just a portion. What got me started with seeing them in concert a last month and hearing a several songs but not being able to place the original artist. Below is a list of every cover song I've come across performed by Hootie & the Blowfish. Many of these have only been performed live but some have appeared on the Scattered, Covered, and Smothered and The Best of Hootie & the Blowfish (1993 Thru 2003) albums.

For anyone who has enjoyed Hootie in the past, I highly recommend their latest album Looking for Lucky. It's their best studio effort in the past 5 years and a frequent listen for me right now.

Also, check out CoversProject.com for some interesting cover song cross-reference.