Wednesday, September 03, 2008

New Systems and Rotator Cuffs

It's been somewhat of a running joke (to me, at least) to say that I'm going to build a new system this year.

I've been saying that every year since 2005, if I remember correctly.

This year, though, I have no choice. I am required by law to build a new system before Fallout 3 is released in late October. There is absolutely zero chance that this game will be anything less than great, and I will be enjoying it at 1920x1080 resolution and ridiculously high frame rates.

Except... I'm waiting for Nehalem.

Nehalem is Intel's upcoming CPU (code name Bloomfield), releasing in early October (allegedly), and it uses a new socket (LGA1366). If I bought any of the current CPUs, my upgrade path would end in about six months, because the socket would be obsolete. So I decided to pay the premium for a new generation CPU in order to extend my upgrade path another 18-24 months.

A new CPU socket also means that existing motherboards (using theX48 chipset, for example) are incompatible. So motherboards supporting the new X58 chipset will also be released in early October. I hope.

That's not much of a window-- 3 weeks, at best--but somehow I'm going to get it all done. I can build a system in a few hours (famous last words), but getting all the components and getting everything organized takes much longer than that.

But I am absolutely, positively building a system before the end of October.

I went to the doctor today (nice segue) to have my shoulder examined, because the slight pain I was having in the last few months has become much more pronounced. The rotator cuff, of course, and I'm going to see a specialist on Friday. Hopefully, I'll get a cortisone shot and that will take care of it, because my fitness level has really improved in the last month, and I'd hate to see that lost.

I was in a classic Catch-22 situation: I had very slight pain in both shoulders, so I added a supplemental workout to strengthen both my core and my shoulders. It worked great for my right shoulder, but I think it actually made my left shoulder worse. So I needed to work out to get stronger to not be injured, but I couldn't get stronger before I got injured.

That, in a nutshell, is what being old is like.

Site Meter