Just an update to the movie game. We powered through the Indiana Jones trilogy and now we're moving on...

The Sum of All Fears (Stefan Kalipha and T.B.D.)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Pat Roach and Stefan Kalipha)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Frank Marshall and Pat Roach)
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Alfred Molina and Frank Marshall)
Ladyhawke (Ken Hutchison and Alfred Molina)
Straw Dogs (Dustin Hoffman and Ken Hutchison)
Rain Man (Ray Baker and Dustin Hoffman)
Without a Paddle (Bruce Phillips and Ray Baker)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Stephen Ure and Bruce Phillips)
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Katie Jackson and Stephen Ure)
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Viggo Mortensen and Katie Jackson)
Crimson Tide (Gene Hackman and Viggo Mortensen)
Superman IV (Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman)
Superman III (Jackie Cooper and Christopher Reeve)
Superman II (Ned Beatty and Jackie Cooper)
Superman (Robert O'Neill and Ned Beatty)
Twelve Monkeys (Bruce Willis and Robert O'Neill)
Mercury Rising (Chi McBride and Bruce Willis)
The Terminal (John Williams and Chi McBride)
Star Wars: Episode VI (Anthony Daniels and John Williams))
Star Wars: Episode V (Peter Mayhew and Anthony Daniels)
Star Wars: Episode IV (James Earl Jones and Peter Mayhew)
The Hunt For Red October (Stellan Skarsgård and James Earl Jones)
Ronin (Jean Reno and Stellan Skarsgård)
Godzilla (1998) (Ben Bode and Jean Reno)
Empire Records (Liv Tyler and Ben Bode)
Armageddon (Owen Wilson and Liv Tyler)
Permanent Midnight (Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson)
Keeping the Faith (Edward Norton and Ben Stiller)
Rounders (Edward Norton - Starting Film)

The Sum of All Fears (2002)

Because my workout session today was cancelled, I switched early days with a co-worker and got off at 4pm. I knew that my power supply and northbridge heatsink would be waiting for me at home, so I figured I'd come home and try and get the heatsink installed. Unfortunately, after unscrewing the fan on top of the northbridge, I discovered the miniscule heatsink lurking below. To take off the stock heatsink, I had to take the whole motherboard out of the computer which required me to completely take everything apart.

So, after upgrading the heatsink, since I had everything out of the computer, I decided to switch out the power supply as well. I didn't need to since the one I had in there before was pretty damn quiet, but if you're going to quiet the computer, do it right. Also, with everything else out of the computer, I rearranged the hard drives at the bottom of the case and re-routed some wires.

Now, with the new power supply in the computer and the northbridge heatsink fan removed completely, the computer is very quiet. I can hear the hard drive from my DVR 10 feet away over my computer which is 2 feet away. The 120mm fan in the power supply is not noticeable at all and I was quite surprised as to how much noise that stupid northbridge fan put out. The loudest fan in my system is the Thermaltake on top of the heatsink on the CPU - it's running pretty slow right now and could probably be turned up a little, but I've been monitoring my temperature for the last hour and it's stabilized at 47°C. I'm thinking about turning it up a little, but I figure I might be able to only shave off 3-4°C, which, when compared with the extra noice put out by the fan wouldn't be worth it.

This morning, I ordered a new heatsink for the CPU along with a big 92mm fan to sit atop the new heatsink. I had considered waiting for the heatsink to come in to use it on my current computer, but I just couldn't put up with the noise for that much longer. So as long as I can stay at 47°C and almost no sound, I'll stick with this heatsink. That XP-90 is pretty sweet though (see post below).

Anyone want to give me $945 so I can finish putting together my new computer? Or make that $1065 since I think I need another NeoPower.

URL: Antec.com - NeoPower 480

Well, my new computer is slowly but surely starting to come together. Two days ago I purchased a sweet Antec Neopower 480 modular power supply along with a northbridge cooler for my current system since the fan on my computer is dying and being really annoying. Then today, I ordered a beautiful looking Thermaltake 92mm fan to top it off. Not quite sure what will be next. I figure the next order will have to be a big one and include the main "guts" of the system (and maybe a sweet case):

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ 90nm (Socket 939)
DFI LanParty NF4 SLI DR Motherboard (or the MSI)
Corsair XMS Xtreme Memory Low Latency (2-2-2-5) 1 GB RAM (2x512)
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM Hard Drive (2 would be nice)

So...in a nutshell: 309+239+243+154=$945. So yeah - a big purchase for the guts of the system. With those ordered, all I need is the case (linked above) and I'd be set after I cannabalize my Dual Layer DVD Burner and a couple hard drives from this computer (though I may just buy a new DVD Burner so I don't have to cannabalize this one at all - it's only another $60).

URL: Thermalright XP-90 CPU Cooler

For my tracking, The X Files: Season 1 is ready to be served up. Compressed from 40.9 gigs to 7.69 over 24 episodes.

URL: "The X Files" (1993)

Yesterday, I didn't care much about the Superbowl. Sure, I wanted the Patriots to win just because I'm not a fan of the Eagles. And yeah, it would have been nice if I could have won something in the big grid pool I was in (I made my money back in the smaller grid pool I was in though). But really, I just didn't care. During most of the game, I was sitting in front of my computer as it is now set up in front of a larger TV in a different room and I really only paid attention to the television during the commercials. That being said, there were only a few good commercials this year - much fewer than I had expected. Here's my favorites leading to my #1:

#5: Honoring Our Troops. Classy move by Anheuser Busch. As a group of military men and women walk through an airport, they are applauded. One very quick flash of the Anheuser Busch logo at the end. Again - classy.

#4: Top 10. This FedEx/Kinko's commercial featured the 10 must-haves of any good commercial. And, since it had those 10 items, it was a good commercial. I mean...how can you go wrong with a bear kicking Burt Reynolds in the groin?

#3: Bad Kitty. After sneaking in to surprise his girlfriend with a home-cooked dinner, the cat spills the spaghetti sauce and as he reaches down to pick up the cat who has strolled through the sauce while holding a butcher knife in his other hand, the girlfriend walks in and thinks he's murdered the cat. I loved this commercial because 1) it's cleverly set-up and 2) I hate cats. I couldn't tell you what the ad was for without looking it up though (Ameriquest Mortgages).

#2: Hammer Time. This one was hard to pick. It could have easily been number 1. It involves kids throwing a bag of chips over the wall to retrieve an errant softball. The man on the other side starts throwing everything back that had gone missing - including...M.C. Hammer. Luckily the kids throw him back. Bringing back an icon of the early 90's like that was classic - and it was classic Hammer which made it even better.

#1: Monkey Business. Perhaps it's because I've worked with monkeys before, but for some reason, this series of commercials just seemed to resonate with me. A guy is working only with monkeys and at the end, the commercial asks if you're sick of being surrounded by monkeys and looking for another job. The first commercial was just so-so as the poor soul tries to clean up on the phone after the inept monkeys, but the second and third commercials were pure gold. The second one featured the monkeys planting a whoopee cushion underneat the guy's seat and then laughing hysterically while the third had the lone human state that "Titanic" probably isn't a good product name while the others literally kiss the butt of the boss. Awesome stuff and it really worked to reinforce the CareerBuilder.com brand.

Honorable Mention: Godaddy.com, Pepsi Truck, Cedric Stranded, the In-Action Hero, and Shaq's mini performance in the V-Cast commercial.

Worst of the night (just going down the list linked below):

Frozen Mustang. Really - was this supposed to be funny? Plus, I had to watch it 3-4 times. Boring.
Famous Fries. A man auctions off a fry that looks like Lincoln which is bought by a Japanese guy obsessed with Abe. I guess I have to go to McDonald's today to see if I can strike it rich too!
Protective Bird. I just didn't get it. A parrot protects a girl from slimy men at the bar? What's funny about that? The stupid accent the bird had? Why is there a bird at a bar? It made no sense and wasn't funny in the least.
A Good Face Licking. The guy calling home every 5 minutes to leave messages for his dog? Yeah...sure the girl at the ticket counter will know exactly who he's talking to. American Airlines is such a small, personable business.

Thanks for indulging me and my list today. I'm sure these'll pop up on blogs across the internet, but I needed something to do this morning to kill time before I have to go deal with the monkeys.

URL: FOXSports.com - NFL Playoffs- Ad watch: Tracking Super Bowl commercials