The VT Boys are building a super computer

The VT Boys are building a supercomputer, this time it is Mr.Gadget turn, as almost four years ago Mr.Garfield did his build. As it was Mr.Gadget's birthday this month he ask if he can have a new processor and memory as his presents. VT Girl and Mr.Mac did not disappoint.

Mr.Gadget came around for a sleepover and this gave him plenty of time to build his computer, and wow what a beast it is, it took him not much to put it all together and installing Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 took much longer, however ones it was all up and running the computer was really fast.

The specs are AMD FX 8530 with Samsung EVO 850 SSD and WD Black HDD, 8Gb DDR 1600 memory, USB 3 and NVidia GS730 graphics card for now but the case is a real show stopper. We can say from here this was another successful build and I believe many will follow.

The VT Boys are joining the Air Cadets

The VT Boys are joining the Air Cadets in Cambridgeshire and Mr.Gadget is very proud, so he should be because this is no light task, you have to be very prompt and you have to make sure that you are in line with all your mates. Every week Mr.Gadget goes for training, how to march, to learn about airplanes and lots more other stuff he has not told me about.

One thing is sure, a few weeks ago, he had a parade in town and all when't well that day, please see picture below.     

The VT Boys have been playing with a new Ultra Book from Samsung

The VT Boys have been playing with a new Ultra Book from Samsung which is very nice, first we had to upgrade it to Windows 8.1 as it was running plain old Windows 8 Home edition. After the upgrade all was well, this is a speedy laptop having a Quad Core processor and 128Gb SSD installed. The screen is also not to bad, however we have seen better ones for the same price.

We tested the laptop for all sorts of things and gaming is out of the question but day to day web browsing, emailing and office applications run perfect on this laptop.

In the afternoon we had to do some shopping with the girls and we had time to play some games with VT Girl number 3, for dinner we had Macaroni Cheese which was the first time for Mr.Gadget - he loved it,

Also Mr.Gadget is resiliently enlisted in the Local Air Cadets and passed his first exam, in the next few weeks he will get his uniforms (I believe he said 3 different ones) and will progress with his training. We are all very proud of him.

The VT Boys have been working hard

The VT Boys have been working hard a few weekends ago, Mr.Mac had to set-up a new server for a toy manufacturing company (Mac Pro 3.1 8 Core) so Mr.Gadget came with him to his work and was able to strip down a first generation Mac Pro 1.1 from top to bottom.

Mr.Gadget really enjoyed this and had great fun playing with all sorts of equipment in Mr.Macs shop. Mr.Gadget also help Mr.Mac with setting up the new server and testing it.

We also had time playing with VT Girl number 3 playing UNO and of course she was winning all the time. It is not long before Mr.Gadgets birthday and he likes to have some computer parts as he is building a computer.

The VT Boys visited Mr.Garfield

The VT Boys visited Mr.Garfield as a surprise as Mr.Mac had not seen him for 10 months or so, I had a very nice drive out to Bognor Regis and within the 4 hours I was at the front door of Mr. Garfield's house, I believe he was really surprised and the first thing we did was had a haircut in town because we both needed it. (see the before and after below)

After the haircut we walking in to town and visited a nice cafe and we had two big milkshakes, they tasted really good and we had a long chat about Mr.Garfield future and how it was living in Bognor Regis.

After a nice walk in town we took the car and drove to the sea site and had Fish, Sausage and curry sauce for lunch which we both very much enjoyed. After spending time on the beach we drove to Chichester and visited Chichester cathedral, please see the pictures as we had so much fun and it was very beautiful inside, we also spend time in the bishop's garden and had time to reflect on live and other matters.

We needed a drink so Mr.Garfield suggested we can go to Shake-A-Delic, they make fresh milkshakes from ice cream, fruit and sweets or chocolate. (see the pics below)

The next morning we had a early start because I needed to leave around 1pm, again we drove to the beach and spend most of our remaining time together on the sea site, before we said goodbyes and hopefully not to long before we see each other again.

  

The VT Boys setting up some new Apple gear

The VT Boys have been setting up some new Apple gear a few weekends ago, Mr Gadget never had the chance to open up a new MacBook Pro 15" Retina model. This MacBook is top of the range i7 Broadwell Quad core with 8 virtual cores, 16Gb DDR3 1600 memory and 256Gb Flash storage.

Mr Gadget had great pleasure opening up the box and in no time had the mac configured and up and running. OSX 10.10.3 was installed and we installed BOOTCAMP with Windows 8.1 Pro on it.

It was very easy to do this as Apple's can running Windows just as good as PC's (Sometimes even better)

We also had to setup a new iMac i5 Quad Core however we run out of time (simply because we could not stop playing with the MacBook Pro) We also had time to play in the garden with VT Girl No.3 and we had great fun. 

For dinner we had Babi Pangang and white rice and ice-cream for afters. The weather was absolutely lovely and had a great drive back to Cambridgeshire.

Next time Mr Gadget is staying over for a sleep over as he need to help Mr.Mac setting up a small network for a client in Cambridge. (He better be awake on time lol)

The VT Boys have a workshop

The VT Boys has a brilliant workshop erected and what a workshop it is, lovely space inside for all the tools big or small, Mr. Gadget has his workshop very organised with all the tools in their place.

The workshop is only complete with nice clock inside of it. (look at the picture to see how it looks inside)

After the viewing of the workshop this weekend we had to do some shopping for a birthday cake for VT Girl No.3. We found a lovely cake and I am sure she will love it. We stopped of at the drive in at Mc.Donalds and got lunch for all of us.

In the afternoon we have been looking at the old LaCie NAS drive we had to see if we can fit a new drive in it, however the NAS is very picky so we gave up in the end. For dinner we had Babi Pangang and white rice.

The VT Boys have been together for father's day

The VT Boys have been together for father's day which was nice, Mr.Gadget had a nice sleep over which he always enjoys especially now he can sleep on the new sofa. We had homemade hamburgers for lunch really lovely.

In the afternoon Mr.Mac Junior came over from Cambridgeshire to see me and he gave me a lovely present and a card. Mr.Gadget put a lot of trouble to make me a father's day card. In the afternoon we had time to play some computer games on our new Mac Pro - wow that goes very well.

For dinner we had spag bol and garlic bread shaped like a pizza - we watched a film and the last 20 minutes of Top Gear before it was time for Mr.Gadget to go home.

The VT Boys opened up a new MacBook Air

The VT Boys opened up a new MacBook Air as this one was not running to well, ones on the fan inside to make a noise and did not stop. The machine is not a speed monster however with a new Intel Broadwell 1.3Ghz chip, speedy PCIe SSD and 4Gb DDR3 ram it should run fine.

So we decided to open up the MacBook and have a look inside. The first thing we noticed was how small everything was, the first thing we took out was the PCIe SSD flash drive, that was easy just one screw and pop it came out. The next thing to go was the battery, again so thin but it takes 75% on the space inside. Out with the motherboard and fan, there was no officious signs of water damage or corrosion. So Mr.Gadget said it must be a logic board problem which will cost around £200.00, so we just have to wait and look around at Ebay or other second hand Mac online places.

The VT Boys did a bit of drone flying

The VT Boys did a bit of drone flying a few weeks ago which was great fun, we managed to make some great in flyed video and pictures and hopefully some we are able to upload them to the blog.

We also had some time for a bit of cooking because we like doing that, this also gives us the opportunity to talk about lots of things. We had some time to listen to some music and play a few games on the computer.

Next time Mr.Gadget comes over for a sleepover as it fathers day. He told me he has a card for me and I am looking forward to see it. We also had a promise from Mr.Mac Junior that he comes over so watch this space maybe next time we have a few photos of him on the blog.

The VT Boys are refurbishing an Apple iBook G3

The VT Boys are refurbishing an Apple iBook G3 this weekend and what a job that was. Mr.Gadget took it all apart because some bit did not work on it also a lot of screws have been missing. To take a iBook apart is not so easy if you compare it with the newish MacBook Pro from 2011 there is a lot more to it.

As you can see from the pictures even then Apple cramped a lot of technology in to the laptops, bit not working like the magnet which held the keyboard down was fixed easily, the microphone was a different story, but Mr.Gadget found the connector and the cable which was not connected and the job was done.

He also had time to play with his little sister and do a bit of cooking (Chicken in white wine sauce with white rice.

The VT Boys are going 5K

The VT Boys are going 5K, last weekend Mr Gadget had a big surprise, he was allowed the setup one of Apple best computers about the iMac 5K, this model has the following specs: Intel i5 Broadwell 3.5Ghz Processor with 6Mb Level 3 cache, 16Gb of DDR3 1600Mhz memory, 1Tb Fusion HDD and AMD Radeon R9 M290X Graphics card with 2Gb DDR5 memory - wow.

It took Mr Gadget only 5 minutes to setup the mac and it was ready to be played with, we both sat on front of the screen and we could not believe how great it looked. First we had a look at some 5K images we downloaded from Google, but the big test was to play Grid 2 Reloaded edition in full 5K, we downloaded the installation file from our server - installed it set everything on full or ultra and hooked up our Xbox 360 wireless controller.

Seeing for the first time Grid 2 in full 5K was a feast for our eyes, we still believe this is one of the best games around for the Mac and PC. We played it for a while and as always we are hooked on it.
Next time we will install some other software and see how it goes, but we can say this is the best screen we have seen for a long time.