Perfect Isolation 2.0beta
Discussion => Grand Miscellany => Topic started by: individualzero on May 30, 2011, 04:35:57 AM
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Just a general tech thread. Post any technology/computer-related geekery here, whether it's posting cum1.gif because Intel FINALLY FUCKING FIXED Sandy Bridge, debating if you REALLY want to pick up a that new graphics card, or troubleshooting your PC or Mac because your cousin downloaded goat porn and it fucked your rig up.
geeking out:
So I'm thinking of grabbing a smaller Solid State Drive to store my OS and browsers on to make shit lightning fast, and then tossing my games onto my 500GB Samsung SpinPoint F3 so my OS and applications are on two separate drives for maximum performance.
The thing is, with the price-to-performance ratio for SSDs slightly skewed at the moment, I think I will wait until people stop jizzing over solid state being new and fast tech and pick one up when they won't cost me my first-born son. BUT, I will have the money to pick one of these up if I want to. The question is, should I bother?
What SSD would you guys recommend? I'm thinking a slower 60GB SSD, but the SandForce-based SSDs with 25nm architecture are a lot faster (purportedly double the speed in real-time performance), and bigger -- so at the time of posting, they cost about 20% more per gig. Right now, the minimum storage size the SandForce SSDs are toting is 120GB. I can afford it after the move either way.
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So I'm thinking of grabbing a smaller Solid State Drive to store my OS and browsers on to make shit lightning fast, and then tossing my games onto my 500GB Samsung SpinPoint F3 so my OS and applications are on two separate drives for maximum performance.
BZZZZT! Incorrect! Unless you're using Linux (and going through some funky jazz to make that setup feasible) you'll want to keep your OS and installed applications on the same partition. The performance of both is reliant on one another in a very interconnected way, and ripping them apart will slow things down more than speed them up.
What SSD would you guys recommend?
Its almost impossible to actually recommend one over another at this point. Any benchmarks I've seen have any drives tested come out practically identical (unless there was a firmware bug of some type, and just about any of those I've heard of have been fixed).
Honestly, if you're looking to burn money on fast storage space, I wouldn't go with SSD's yet. They're great for portable devices and laptops, but for hefty desktop computing they're still bloody expensive compared to the alternatives. I've been sporting a RAID 5 setup for ages, and its bloody awesome. For the cost of 3 1TB hard drives, you can have 2TB of space with backup in case one drive fails, all running at the equivalent of a 14,000RPM hard drive. The contents of my hard drive have never been safer or faster.
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re: OS and apps
I must have had it backwards. I was always told that having to load games AND OS files on the same partition made games run -- or at least load -- marginally slower. Thanks!
in regards to RAID-5:
You know, that doesn't sound too bad at all. It actually sounds pretty boss. I don't like going over 500GB HDDs for the sake of "what if one fails" (though that seems to be less of an issue with RAID-5) and it'd probably be a better buy, right now I was thinking of picking up one of the SATA-III 6GB/s HDDs (with a 32MB cache and 7200 RPM) since my motherboard can actually utilize SATA-III. What I could do - and save a fuckton of cash doing it -- is get a RAID-5 setup going on with three of those hard drives.
Do you know if there would be a substantial speed difference between 32MB and 64MB caches? Say I have the same exact RPM, SATA support, size, and what not and the only difference is cache, do I really need 64MB? I ask because SpinPoint F3 500GBs are cheap as fuck and some of the best HDDs I've worked with, but they're 7200RPM on a 32MB cache. As far as I can tell 64MB from reviewing some benchmark comparisons, a 64MB is barely faster at all if they're not gigantic drives, so I could probably just grab another two SpinPoints, reformat and set up RAID-5.
Assuming my math and understanding don't suck, that would give me 1TB of space with ~14,000RPM and one redundant partition in case of total hard drive failure? I'm not very familiar with RAID setups though, at least not RAID-5. I'd have to Google how to get that rigged up.
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For the most part, the difference in the cache size will be pretty negligible to you. There are situations where it makes a world of difference, but normal desktop computing is not one of them.
RAID 5 is a combination of striping and checksumming, and for desktop work its the best of all situations. You need three drives to pull it off. The first two have the data striped between them, so for every file you write half goes to one drive and half goes to the other. It splits the write/read time in half because only half the data gets read/written, with two drives working in tandem. The RAID controller splits/joins the data before its passed off to the OS/program, so to Windows it just looks like you have one massive drive. This virtual drive can be partitioned however you like it, and I still recommend creating two seperate partitions, one for OS/programs, and one for data. In Windows, I map my Documents/Library folders to a folder on my D: partition, and I pretty much never have to think about it again.
The third drive is used as a checksum, and contains the data written to both drives summed together. This way, if one drive goes down, data can still be reconstructed using the remaining drive and the checksum. Its like automatic backup. If your RAID controller is decent too, it won't even crash your computer when the drive fails. It'll just pop up a warning telling you to replace a drive. When you replace the drive, the RAID array will rebuild the data for that drive on first boot, and you can continue on like nothing ever happened. If two drives blow though, you're fucked.
All this work is done by the RAID controller, so you basically have to do nothing beyond going into the RAID section of your BIOS, selecting "Create RAID 5 Array", and hitting OK. Assuming Windows 7 recognizes your motherboard's RAID controller by default (which it mostly will these days), when its ready to install it'll just see one massive drive to work on.
Just whatever you do, if you go RAID make sure all the drives you get are IDENTICAL. Same make/model/size/cache, everything, preferably. If one thing is off on one drive from the others, everything gets degraded to the lowest common denominator. If one of your drives is 50GB smaller than the others, then 50GB goes unused on each of the bigger drives. If one of the drives has a smaller cache than the others and retrieves data slower, then the other drives are constantly going to have to wait for it in order for them to do their work. It might not seem like much when there's just a millisecond of difference, but when every single transaction your computer makes with your hard drives is affected in the same way, and there can be hundreds or thousands of transactions a second, it adds up in a hurry. With hard drive access speed being the most notorious bottleneck in system performance, screwing with that makes everything seem slower.
For the record, my computer really isn't anything to sneeze at. Core2Duo E8400 with 2GB of DDR2 RAM. But Windows 7 boots to desktop in about 10 seconds.
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Understood. Thanks for the guide and the heads-up on RAID-5 -- it was an alternative I'd never even considered!
The HDDs I was going to set up RAID with were all going to be the same exact model and specs for a SpinPoint F3. I already have one, so I'll probably order two more this week when I get paid, then reformat just for the sake of having a nice clean slate to work with (I haven't reformatted this year, yet, anyway), and set the drives into RAID-5. I like the idea of having two separate partitions though. I do that now with two separate physical drives, though the reason I'm wanting to get into the triple-HDD RAID-5 setup is because I'm currently bottlenecking the shit out of my games because half of them are on an older 320GB iteration of the WD Caviar GREEN models, which -- as you already know - are notoriously ass-tastic for gaming.
I do have my OS, all my apps and my slower games on the SpinPoint (and as it is, I still have 267GB free across both drives) so it's not awful, but I'd honestly much rather try a RAID-5 setup. It sounds sexy.
Yeah, Win7 here. I was a good boy and went with 64-bit. The OS takes about 15-20 seconds to boot. Here are my specs, if you're curious!:
WINDOWS 7/Home Premium 64-bit
COOLER MASTER Storm Scout
SAMSUNG SpinPoint F3 500GB
WESTERN DIGITAL Caviar Green 320G (WRYYYYYYYYYYYY)
EVGA GTX 460 768MB (performed a 30% overclock to core clock and memory)
GIGABYTE 890GX AM3 Mobo (I am disappoint in this mobo as it is not a SLIP-supported chipset and I have two matching EVGA GTX 460s for SLI... can't use them though. Boner killer)
CORSAIR XMS 1600 DDR3 / (2x2=4GB 9-9-9-24 [1.25v])
AMD Phenom II X2 555 Black Edition / OC'd up to 4.0GHz (stock cooling & stable temperatures so far)
Sony Optiarc
Peripherals:
LOGITECH G35 Headset (it has faux 7.1 surround sound and sounds great, but it was kinda pricey)
LOGITECH G510 Keyboard (expensive as fuck for a backlit keyboard with some useless macro buttons, but it was a Christmas gift from my vnother)
R.A.T. 7 Mouse (it would be the best mouse I'd ever used if they calibrated it correctly...)
24" ASUS Widescreen LCD (1920x1080p native resolution. AW YEAH)
What I really wanna do is wait for Bulldozer and upgrade when that hits. I'm gonna pick up a badass AM3+ mobo, maybe up to six gigs of some faster RAM, and then a quad-core. Right now I'm sporting the aforementioned dual core kicked up to 4.0GHz clock rates.
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why the fuck am i posting in a tech thread?
because i'm in the market for a laptop and know NOTHING* so i was hoping someone could steer me in some sort of direction of what brands are good....something for a starting point for my research.
all i really want it for is using the interweb while B is hogging the pc playing black ops, downloading/loading music onto my mp3 but not storing large quantities of music, loading/editing pictures but again not storing lots of stuff. the only real requirement that i have is that i want to load photoshop cs3 on it and want it to run at a decent speed....sooooo yeah
also i am adverse to hp and dell, long story, goes back to my tech support days
*ok i shouldn't say i know absolutely nothing...if you talk to me in english i'm sure i will understand :lol:
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Up until the Photoshop CS3 requirement, I'd almost say you'd be better off buying a tablet than a laptop. That said...
also i am adverse to hp and dell, long story, goes back to my tech support days
I just applauded your karma up for this. :D
Your requirements aren't exactly demanding, so it shouldn't be tough to find something for you. Two questions before I can make a decent recommendation though:
- What's your price range?
- What size of screen do you want? Or, rather, what's too small to be unusable to you?
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I don't want a giant screen because I want the whole thing to be nice and portable...15 inch or so seems fine. Price range around $600-700? Although that can be adjusted if it's inrealistic
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You cant really beat this for the money. Sounds like it can do everything you are looking for, plus more for $500.
ASUS 1215N Netbook (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220805)
It has a separate Nvidia Ion graphics processor that kicks in when using 3d or HD apps. Otherwise it jsut uses the onboard video so it saves battery life. It also has a HDMI out that would pump 1080p video to any external monitor or TV. Turtle is ordering one of these soon.
If you want more portability, they make a 10" version (with a little lower processor specs) of this too for $350 and my workmate is in love with it. He said he has never been happier with a laptop/netbook purchase.
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Thanks i'll look into it :)
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Not really computer talk, but tech nonetheless.
I'm in the market for a new phone. Right now I have an LG envy, nothing crazy- talk, text, basic internet. no apps.
iPone or Droid Thunderbolt? Keep in mind that I'm not going to be doing anything crazy beyond a few apps and music. I'm leaning iPhone. I posted on FB and got mixed results- I did hear that the Thunderbolt battery sucks and that it's difficult to listen to music on it. I do like apple products (though I am not a blind follower by any means) and most people I know who have an iphone love it. Thoughts?
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I haven't heard great things about the Thunderbolt either. If that's your only Android option, and given how you'd use it, you'd probably be perfectly happy with an iPhone. If you had an HTC Incredible or Samsung-made Android option available, I'd be giving those a serious look.
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I'm on verizon, so anything verizon is fair game. most people who aren't pro iphone are all about the thunderbolt. I guess I'll just have to go into the store and check things out.
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My phone is a Samsung GalaxyS. And I don't have anything bad to say about it. However, I haven't use either an Iphone or that droid phone. But I love mine... So I can't really help you out at all...
My rom drive shit the bed. I haven't been able to burn cd's for awhile. Which I can't say is that big of a deal, however, not being able to rip them in a normal amount of time sucks. a lot. Right now its going at 1.6x ya. So I just bought a new one off Newegg. 24 bucks. Either way the three cd's I want to rip are gona take for ever. (Pretty much the time it takes to play them.)
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@K: I don't know if you need a phone as fast as the recent Droid iterations because a fair number of the newest and best (albeit high-end) ones utilize Tegra*. Maybe look into one of the less-brand spanking new Android phones?
I'd hate to say it, but the latest iPhones ARE pretty solid; they match what you want in a phone, and even I can't summon up enough hated for Apple to deny that it may be an option for you. Since you mentioned Verizon, though, I'd go for a good Android phone. I've heard so many good things that I'm dying to have one, now.
*Tegra being the latest architecture for the high-end Droid phones; if they sound up your sleeve moreso than other phones, I'd first look into reviews and see what Goose has to say first, but any of the phones that utilize Tegra will blow away most (if not all?) of the current iPhones in terms of raw speed. I don't recall if you're too into computing, but if the processor being dual core means anything to you, that is what Tegra is. Any phones that use the Tegra chipset are probably going to be the fastest thing you can get right now in terms of apps and multitasking. Since you don't seem to need that horsepower though, I think you'd be well-off with one of the newer iPhones or a Droid without Tegra since either phone type pretty much does all you're asking it to do.
@Aaron: I could have sworn even the first (as in, not S-II) Samsung GalaxyS was Android-based, or are you just using yours without a data plan / not using the market...? I'm not familiar with V-Mobile.
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Naw I haven't used the phone she is talking about... I love my phone. Its the shit. being able to google anything and yell at my coworkers for being WRONG is amazing (the amount of weird random shit we talk of, its amazing to find out who is right/wrong about stuff.) And the voice search thing is also amazing. But ya, I love my phone. But I haven't ever used an Iphone. Well I played a game on it a year ago? So even then, nothing really new or current for the Iphone.
And my old phone was very basic and old school. It could flip and that was about all it could do... It was like going from Windows 95 to XP (I haven't used 7 yet.)
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being able to google anything and yell at my coworkers for being WRONG is amazing
funny you say that. I saw some stand-up comedian on Conan the other day and part of his bit was talking about the current times and how having a phone that Google's is like "having a drunk know-it-all in your pocket at all times." lolz
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The Samsung Galaxy S was the first Android phone available out here (SaskTel has a real hard time getting good phones because the market is so small). Its a bloody sweet piece of technology, and everything I've heard about the Galaxy S-2 just makes me drool even more. Same with the HTC Incredible. Almost enough to make me actually want to buy a cell phone (thank jeebus I can't afford one).
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It's not a Samsung Galaxy phone, but I have the Samsung Galaxy Tab and have been nothing but impressed with it. When it finally gets the Netflix app, perfection is on the horizon.
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I've also heard that the galaxy is pretty awesome
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The Samsung Galaxy S was the first Android phone available out here (SaskTel has a real hard time getting good phones because the market is so small). Its a bloody sweet piece of technology, and everything I've heard about the Galaxy S-2 just makes me drool even more. Same with the HTC Incredible. Almost enough to make me actually want to buy a cell phone (thank jeebus I can't afford one).
They're not the most creative people when it comes to product names are they!
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Ya I love my phone. Its the shit. And the amount of upgrade makes me love it even more. And my bill went up like 15ish bucks. And I can do a lot more so its all good.
I think I'm gona reinstall windows on my pc. Its getting laggy and just not running that great (It isn't bad by any means, just not as good as it could be.) I need to back everything up first. But that won't be to hard. Just start it right before I go to work, and by the time I get back its done. I think I would do a fresh install of wow thought. The folder is huge, and I don't really know what all I can get rid of and not fuck it all over horrible... (I have kinda stopped playing though. And I don't think I will start back up any time soon. With my guitar getting ordered soon (tomorrow, err later today. I think...)
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Don't bother going through the timely re-install and patching process for WoW. Just back up everything but your interface and WTF directory and copy it over to your new drive. That will be exactly the same as fresh install and will save you a ton of time.
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Oh snap. Sweet thanks. That will save me a ton of time downloading it all again. (I bought digital copies instead of disks...)
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Having those discs is vastly underrated. Beloved and I don't own install discs for vanilla, but we do have BC, Wrath, and Cata all in hard copy. The reason? When our computers go, they go up in flames (figuratively, of course). Rarely have I had the opportunity to just snag my relevant folders and redistribute them, so being able to reinstall the games without depending on our shitty internet not to be shitty is both a huge time saver and a boon to my blood pressure.
I've reached the point of kicking around the idea of a new graphics card. I discovered during my short trial that my onboard CANNOT run Rift in any practical sense of the word "run," and I've gotten to thinking that it might be nice to see what WoW looks like on Ultra. Can anyone direct me to somewhere that puts the benchmarks into plain English? I've tried looking at just the benchmark listings, but it kinda just tends to give me a headache. If it can run "current" games on middling settings, I'll be happy. I don't want to plan the rig around WoW and then have to buy a new card when I finally do quit because WoW is still the friggin dinosaur of the gaming graphic world and the card can't handle anything bigger.
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@Nayl: You won't have to have a particularly amazing rig to run Rift on even high settings as it seems to be optimized pretty freakin' well, from all I've seen.
I don't know what the rest of your computer is like, so posting information like the particular model and wattage on your power supply unit (if you know how; I'm assuming you do, and if not, we can help you there too!) will help us figure out what kind of graphics card you can/should pick up, as well as the ideal price you'd want to spend on a graphics card, will all help. Pretty much, just throw all the information you can at us; it'd be nice to know the specifics of your processor and RAM, as well, so you can avoid bottlenecking your newly-found graphical horsepower. Any information you can provide is important. Anything helps, like what kind of connectors your PSU totes to if your motherboard has PCI-Express slots, so tell us all you can!
tl;dr: if you can get us the approximate top end of moolah you want to spend on a graphics card and tell us all you know about your current setup, I'm sure the tech-heads here can find you the perfect card.
Just off the top of my head, I use a single GTX 460 and while I did tamper with the speed a bit, it runs Rift with every single setting maxed - in windowed mode - on a dual-core processor with 4GB RAM. You can also snag what is one of (if not arguably...) THE best GPU brands, EVGA, to pair with one of the greatest budget beast cards for all of $125 on sale, sometimes even less after rebates. Of course, depending on what the rest of your setup and your budget is like, there may be better deals. Keep us updated!
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*snerk* oh, no doy, it would help to know what kind of rig I'm putting it in, eh?
Don't cry, my more experienced techie friends, it does what I need it to do! And quite well! (Fair warning, it may look like a horrorshow to someone with a) a budget and/or b) more experience. Building my own machines is still something of a learning experience. This most recent one is MUCH better than my first attempt.)
Running on 4GB ram because it is still a windows box (XP 64 bit if that matters). Processor is AMD Phenom 9450e Quad-Core Processor (4 CPUs), ~2.1GHz, but I believe it's only running on two because unlocking and overclocking push the boundaries of my computer knowledge a bit. Using 2 cores is the default state, isn't it? Power supply is 450W, and mobo is PCI Express x16 architecture (this critter, here (http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM2Plus/M2N68AM_PLUS/)).
Until my little run-in with Rift, the onboard graphics have been serviceable, though far from prize-winning. As far as monetary restrictions, I don't really foresee them coming into play. My rig probably can't accommodate the very tip top of the line right now, so I don't much imagine that prices for what will fit and do the job will push too far into the unreasonable, but I'm willing to throw down around $200, maybe a little more, depending on what else I'll get for spending the extra.
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ended up getting the iPhone 4 for verizon and it's awesome.
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Nayl, first thing you need to do is get off of XP 64-bit. It was never supported properly, and next to no one wrote proper drivers for their hardware for it. You have more than enough computer there to run Windows 7 64-bit nicely.
One thing you will need to find out is the amperage your power supply can put out, not the wattage. That can be a little harder to find, but with the hardware you've got it may become a factor. It did for me a while back when I wanted to upgrade my video card, and I found my power supply couldn't give it what it needed.
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What Goose said; if I were you, I'd take that $200 and order a copy of Windows 7 64-bit - you'll thank yourself in the first two minutes of booting it up - and then a graphics card like a a GTX 460 or even something a little less hefty (a 5770, if they sell them anymore.. I know they rebranded them as 6770s, which can now utilize DirectX11 - albeit at a higher price tag).
I also want to echo Goose again here and say that you should make sure that the amperage is solid, too. Your PC sounds like it's a little bit older and while I'm pretty sure that you'll be okay (450 watts is more than good enough for any of the above cards), it never hurts to be sure.
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Google +
Anyone else looking forward to it, or currently playing with it?
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Both! I am quite pleased with it so far! I has more user-friendly grouping than FB, no ads currently (and if gmail is any indication, they'll be less intrusive and obnoxious when they do arrive), editing capabilities that FB has not incorporated over the years its been out.... and all of that combined with the good parts of facebook. Also, rather than stalking your friends for friend-suggestions, it gives you the option to look for people outright, add people who've added you, or to cull through people you've emailed (if you're on gmail, anyway, I'm not sure what the integration is like for other email services). Photos upload quickly and easily, and you can confirm or deny tags in others' photos (meaning that if someone tags you, it comes up in your notifications with a check and an x under the picture so you can easily tell Google+ to untag you).
Sparks seem to be neat in that they aren't just facebook pages for things you like; it actually looks like it trawls Google for new postings about your interests and tracks them for you, with an option to share to your feed if you so choose. Unlike FB, Sparks are separate from your stream for your friends, and thus your friends won't be flooded out by crap that interests you, nor vice versa. Likewise, your interests won't flood each other out because you flip between them individually.
There are some things that still need improvement, for instance, the notification system choices right now seem to be either "super spammy" or "silent." This is one thing that facebook does have right, in my opinion, where it emails you once about an update to a thread, and then it's quiet until you check back on that thread. There's a conversation on a picture I uploaded yesterday that found about 10 emails waiting over the course of one night's raiding (or something similar, I forget just why I wasn't playing with Google+ at the time).
All in all though, it seems like a cleaner way to keep in touch, and I will be VERY happy if I can get the majority of my friends off the cesspool and over to Google+.
@Goose + Zim - I may have a legal way around shelling out for 7, so I will hold off on the card til I know one way or the other about that, but thank you both for the input. I'll be honest; I didn't do the research I should have when I put XP64 on the machine. I just assumed it couldn't be that different from regular XP (I know, I know :-[) and went with it because I was under the impression the 64-bit environment was superior (without the knowledge of the issues with this PARTICULAR 64-bit environment).
Now for the silly question... is the amperage right there on the power supply itself, or do I have to go dig out the paperwork that came with it when I bought it? There are kind of a lot of numbers on there :unsure:
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Thanks for the review. I really hope that G+ isn't going to end up with the legacy of Wave, which was actually a productive tool for me for a while. I too hope to pull the ones that matter over from Facebook.
If for example, I add you to the group "PI.e.e.ps" do you receive notification that you've been added to that circle? Also, playing with the tour pages, it seems as though a friend can only be added to one circle. Is that the case? Circles may or may not prompt me to drop my online user names, so that when I meet up with some of you IRL, you don't think that my name is really Jim: an anagram of "rim jobs." :p
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Nope! You can put friends in as many circles as you like, and all you find out when you're added to someone's circles is the fact that they have put you in a circle. Most of the people I have over there right now are in a minimum of 3.
Also, don't I feel silly for not catching the anagram :lol: I knew your name wasn't Jim, but I hadn't quite worked out why you were going by that on facebook yet.
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Now for the silly question... is the amperage right there on the power supply itself, or do I have to go dig out the paperwork that came with it when I bought it? There are kind of a lot of numbers on there :unsure:
It might be, there might be a small spec sheet printed on a sticker on the side of the power supply. If not, the make/model should be, and you can google that for all the technical info about that power supply.
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Yeah, the easiest way to get the amperage is probably just popping open the case, looking at said sticker with the sheet of its specs and Googling up that particular model. A lot of "spec-stickers" (so to speak) don't really make it easy to tell which is the amperage and which is the wattage if you don't already know the number of watts, and what's the serial and model number, yadda.
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Also, don't I feel silly for not catching the anagram :lol: I knew your name wasn't Jim, but I hadn't quite worked out why you were going by that on facebook yet.
I like my privacy. Mostly work related.
Thanks again :)
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Well huh...
So I bought me a new Rom Drive (that does everything. Even light scribe....) And I fucked up, I got a SATA one instead of IDE. SO I bought a new power adapter (since my pc only has two sata power plugs) And a SATA cord. So I'm gona go do it to that soon. And hope and pray my shit works! if it does. I may just back up all my stuff, and reinstall windows today... (tomorrow with as much as I will need to back up.)
EDIT. IT WORKS. AND ITS GOING FAST! and its quite... The other one would get LOUD. when it was ripping. This one is like another fan in the case... SWEET!
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I like my privacy.
I say the same thing every time someone asks me why I'm not on facebook. (Which is at least several times a week now, and only serves to prove my point more).
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Do. Fucking. Want: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823830003
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Managed to convince B I don't need a super fancy expensive laptop, he convinced me to spend a little more to get something apparenty way better and ended up with this http://ncix.com/products/?sku=61181&vpn=K53SV%2DA1&manufacture=ASUS
He's getting it all set up right now
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nice! If you want something that will get rid of all the bloatware some of these companies pre-install on laptops, I highly suggest decrapifier (http://pcdecrapifier.com/).
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The Samsung Galaxy S was the first Android phone available out here (SaskTel has a real hard time getting good phones because the market is so small). Its a bloody sweet piece of technology, and everything I've heard about the Galaxy S-2 just makes me drool even more. Same with the HTC Incredible. Almost enough to make me actually want to buy a cell phone (thank jeebus I can't afford one).
Sprint is releasing the S2 at the end of the month with some new stupid name. I don't care, it will be mine, oh yes it will be mine. I'm looking into how much I can sell my husband for so I can buy it.
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nice! If you want something that will get rid of all the bloatware some of these companies pre-install on laptops, I highly suggest decrapifier (http://pcdecrapifier.com/).
Ooh thanks! :)
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nice! If you want something that will get rid of all the bloatware some of these companies pre-install on laptops, I highly suggest decrapifier (http://pcdecrapifier.com/).
One of the best software names EVER! (I think iDump is better. But not by a lot...) Either way I got a good laugh out of it!
Holy shit 200mbps internet... IN MY TOWN. I don't know how much that shit is yet. as their site doesn't say. But if it's only a bit more then what we pay now, I want. SOOO MUCH.
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it's finally been proven. :lol:
Internet Explorer users 'have below-average IQ' (http://www.pcworld.com/article/236944/internet_explorer_users_are_kinda_stupid_study_suggests.html)
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:lol:
Wondering if I should be switching to Opera or something though, if that's what all the smart kids are using. There has to be a reason for it!
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Google announces privacy changes across products; users can’t opt out (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-tracks-consumers-across-products-users-cant-opt-out/2012/01/24/gIQArgJHOQ_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboNE_b)
So yeah... does anyone here recommend any other good search engines or free-email services?
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Google announces privacy changes across products; users can’t opt out (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/google-tracks-consumers-across-products-users-cant-opt-out/2012/01/24/gIQArgJHOQ_story.html?wpisrc=al_comboNE_b)
So yeah... does anyone here recommend any other good search engines or free-email services?
What the fuck, Google?
Looks like I might be ditching Chrome for Mozilla or something... and FFS, I HAVE an Android.
It's not a huge inconvenience or anything, but damn if it doesn't suck.
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Yeah... guess it's time for me to stop using gmail then.
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I know advertising is usually a necessary evil when using a free service, but if you want to obtain personal information from me, you give me the option to supply it for free or you pay me for it.
We all know what the driving forces are behind all of this though. First, of course, there is money. But another major force is the pay to play nature of government lobbying and bullying. When you are a massive global corp like Google, you have to grease lots of palms to do what you want to do. The grease, so to speak, is access from big G into your company's user records when they want them. This leverages future DoJ decisions, IRS audits, etc. As far as the states go, we live with a government run like the mafia, except Vinny the knee-breaker is now a federal agency that will come to see your business if it does not comply with what the government wants from it.
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To be perfectly honest, I thought they were doing this already.
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we're against internet censorship too... unless it's us doing the censoring. ::)
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/twitter-announces-censor-tweets-activists-worried-article-1.1012804
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So I accidentally left my LG Optimus Slider smartphone charging and fell asleep for like 16 hours a weekish ago. I've been charging it to full, but the phone only stays on for like four hours (versus 2+ days before I dun goofed) at a time before it runs out of battery and shuts down. I might have to call Virgin Mobile and/or order a new battery... this is disappointing.
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Look on ebay to. I bought a new battery for my phone on there for like 16 shipped.
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Good advice! Thanks!
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We picked up an iPad 2 yesterday. I'll let you know how it is if I can ever get it away from r00tle. 8-p
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I've played with iPads (both versions), and I gotta admit, I like the Galaxy Tab 10.1 I've got a lot more. Doing anything that involves multiple apps is just seamless once you get used to it in Android. That being said, the iPads are great devices. Your family will get tons of use out of it.
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I have Galaxy Tab 7.0 and have to agree with you about the multiple app capabilities and I use it mainly for work activities. I have to say the iPad's touch sensitivity is much better though. My only beef with it is the fact that I can't replace the battery myself if it goes bad. That's the kind of thing that keeps me from being an apple fanboi. 8-p
edit: I also have to say I love the fact that the iPad connects to my 5GHz N wireless network. So many devices claim to be "N band" but end up only doing 2.4GHz.
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in the market for a new laptop. any recommendations?
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Good lord I missed that post, doom. Still looking for a new lappy or did you settle on something?
TL;DR tech-rave. Probably moon-runes to those who aren't gamers or enthusiasts. lol
So I'm saving up a ton of money to make a massive thousand dollar order for Christmas to upgrade my computer to BEAST MODE. Right now I've got $300 on me, plus whatever I make when I land my job in September, plus whatever I save between now and then
The total with shipping comes to...
$1,027.57
....though I'm pretty sure things will be cheaper around/by December thanks to prices going down, Black Friday, Christmas sales etc. so I'm anticipating it being about $900-ish total when I get all the components between November-January, but I won't be piecing the finished build together until the last parts arrive in December (plus the 2nd GPU and monitor in January or later).
FINISHED BUILD:
Windows 7 Home Premium (same OS)
Silverstone RAVEN Computer Case (from Cooler Master Storm Scout)
8GB Samsung DDR3 1600 (from 4GB DDR3 1600)
ASRock Z77 Extreme4 (from Gigabyte 890GX AM3)
Intel i5-3570K Ivy Bridge (from AMD Phenom II X2 555BE @ 3.8GHz OC)
EVGA GTX 670 2GB (from GTX 460 768MB)
Cooler Master Hyper 212+ CPU Cooler (from No CPU Cooler)
SeaSonic X650 Power Supply (same PSU)
Samsung SpinPoint F3 500GB HDD for Data (same HDD)
Crucial M4 64GB SSD for Boot Drive (same SSD)
Sony Optiarc CD-DVD Drive (same Optical Drive)
1080p HD 24" ASUS Widescreen LCD + 19" Dell LCD (same Monitors)
Eventually going to throw out that 19" Dell for a matching 24" ASUS LCD or touchscreen monitor, plus a second EVGA GTX 670 2GB for double GPU goodness (SLI 670s!), which would put the accumulated worth of my computer at about or over $2000 with everything inside and connected to it. In other words, I'm a huge fucking nerd and my computer's the most expensive thing I own. lul
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If you ever plan on doing SLi, I'd go for a bigger PSU.
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I ought to be okay, though it IS something I'm considering (maybe upping my X650 to an X750). I'm not sure yet; 600-series cards (especially the 670s) use a lot less power than previous generations, plus the power supply I own is amazingly efficient. There are people who are running around with dual 670s on quality 600w PSUs, and mine's a very high-quality 650w.
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My computer is starting to show its age...(It's 4years almost five. And while It can play all the new games. I have to turn the settings WAY way way down.) I need to start saving up for it... I want to drop at lest 1000+ (I need a new keyboard and I want to have two monitors.) but I want the box to be at lest one 1k. If not a bit more...
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So.
Kindles.
I don't know shit about them and I want to buy two (one for my mom, one for my dad) for Christmas. Can anyone recommend me a nice version of the Kindle between $50-$150ish? They have poor eyesight so built-in lights (maybe with adjustable brightness), the ability to increase or decrease font size, and a simple interface are a plus. It doesn't need to be fancy--no need for music, videos, touchscreen capabilities etc. They literally want it JUST for the simplicity of reading.
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I have one of the older new model kindles the kind with a full keyboard. It's pretty much perfect for what you want. Check to see if they sell them refurbished. I'm pretty sure they are cheapish. Eh, they only have the one with wifi and 3g. It's like 140, but its damn good. they have a touch screen one for 70...
They don't have backlights. Or at lest mine doesn't. but they sell lights for cheap. And you can make the text size huge...
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The newest Kindle that's available now for $89 is probably the best e-reader ever made. I'd go for the one that actually operates on buttons rather than a touchscreen one myself, simply because e-paper screens still refresh a little slow for a touch screen to feel natural. That, and having the page-turning buttons on the side of the device is just awesome. The battery life is also way better than any Kobos I've ever seen. My parents have to recharge their Kobo every few days, even with the Wifi radio turned off, but my two-year-old Kindle will last about a month on a single charge (and we read at similar paces).
The only downside is getting books onto the Kindle that weren't bought from Amazon can be a pain in the ass, simply because every other eBook store in existence will sell books in the ePub format, and the Kindle won't read them. For the vast majority of users, this isn't a problem, and I doubt it would be for your parents either.
Hope this helps.
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@Aaron and Goose: I think I found the exact model you guys are talking about, (http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Ereader-ebook-reader/dp/B007HCCNJU/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1353507328&sr=1-6&keywords=kindle) if I'm not mistaken?
This looks to be at a perfect price point since I can easily buy two for the price that I was anticipating to pay for one. For that price I might actually buy one for my brother. lol Anyway, since it seems that model has backlighting and adjustable font and it doesn't have those stupid fucking touch interfaces that make me paranoid that my parents will hate the thing, I think this should be perfect.
I don't think the non-Amazon bookstore purchases won't be a problem, since really that's the only place they like to shop online. They will literally only buy from Amazon or Newegg with few exceptions.
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That's the one. Be aware of the difference between the "with special offers" one and the one without. "Special offers" means you save $20 on your device, but it replaces the normal selection of wallpapers it has for when its off with advertisements. I think ads can also show up in the menus while browsing, but I'm not sure. Is $20 worth saving to be bombarded with ads for the entire lifetime of the device (which could easily be 5 years, if not 10 if its kept well)? Your call.
Also, Kindles don't come with power adapters any more, just a USB cable. Without a USB wall plug, the only way to charge it is with a computer. USB wall plugs are pretty cheap, but its something else to be aware of. Amazon will sell you one for $9.99 on the right side of that page. Monoprice or Newegg could probably sell you one for $4.
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Whoa, thanks for the advice--I didn't even realize THAT was the difference. To be honest, I think the ads would end up frustrating the 'rents, so I'm going to slap an extra $20 in there just to prevent them from going through the hassle. It's twenty bucks, ya know?
As for the power adapter issue: My parents found out about Monoprice through my brother and I and they make exceptions for that site since cables are ridiculously, hilariously cheap there. My dad does own a netbook with a USB interface and I can always let them charge it through my PC if they really need, but I think they'd prefer the ease of a wall charger.
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i'm trying to build a robot sexbot. all i got are 2 old PCs, a broken iBook4, 2 broken iPods, and a broken apple 2c.
if that's not enough do i have enough for a robotic monkey (sexbot capabilities optional)?
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Gonna give it to you straight: I don't know if you've got enough robotits to assemble your virtual hoohah, or at least you won't have enough jiggywatts to power it at any satisfactory levels of mechalovin'.
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Also if you have old smart phones the power usb thing is the same (Or at lest for my two phones.) So while I do charge through my pc you can also find cheap wall usb chargers to. (Or at lest just the part that plugs in and then goes to usb...)
And naw, mine is even more old school it has a full button keyboard. But ya, spend more and get the one with out the ads, like you said 20 bucks... And the screen savers are really pretty.
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i'm trying to build a robot sexbot. all i got are 2 old PCs, a broken iBook4, 2 broken iPods, and a broken apple 2c.
if that's not enough do i have enough for a robotic monkey (sexbot capabilities optional)?
I saw the plans for one somewhere. Just google image search lemonparty and you should find it.
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okay, i'm on lemon party and those old guys are blowing into something... which makes sense since i used to blow into my nes cartridges to fix 'em back in the day... i'm going to try this and post my results.
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I bought more RAM for my pc. (4 more gig so I now have 8GB total...) It may just be me, but it seems to be running a lot smother... Either way, for 60 bucks worth it.
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Nice! Adding more RAM (doubling it from 4GB in particular) can definitely give you a nice boost in performance. 8GB is a nice sweet spot since, while games won't benefit from more than the first four gigs, there's still more memory for the computer to delegate other tasks too.
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IZ I'm late for the party but I would highly recommend one of the kindle covers with the built in led light, I use the light on mine all the time and the battery still lasts 2-3 weeks
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IZ, ya, it's a lot better. I sleep with it on and I have it playing music (I don't sleep as well if I have no sounds.) And its kinda slow on the start up. Now it's hella fast! I loves it.
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IZ I'm late for the party but I would highly recommend one of the kindle covers with the built in led light, I use the light on mine all the time and the battery still lasts 2-3 weeks
Sweet deal! I actually think that's the kind I wound up purchasing alongside the power cable Goose recommended. My mom and dad were a bit confused by how the Kindle worked at first but I honestly think it was a great purchase, since they seem to love it. I myself may actually start reading more actively again.. it's actually a pretty cool little device. lol
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I got one for my dad last year and he loves it!
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So since my pc is dead. I have been looking at Newegg for cpus. I want a nice higher end one. While this pc has an Intel in it ( and I don't know enough about pcs in general to hate or like Intel over amd... )What's the difference? Like there is an AMD cpu 8 core and 4 ghz for 200 bucks. Which seams really cheap as the Intel ones I looked at were way more and slower... But seeing that speed and price might make me a convert. Basically what I'm getting at is, is it really that fast, are they good cpu? Also since it is that beefy will I need an aftermark heat sinc? (i will not be overclocking this in anyway. I don't trust my self to do that. Also can't afford to replace shit if I melt it. )
SSD are they really needed? I like the idea. And while they are cheaper then when I last looked still really pricey... Right now I'm thinking of getting a really big hhd and then a smaller faster one. Keep all my music games and os on the smaller one and the bigger one will have storage. Movies ect...
Mobos. Are there any brands to stay away from? Like of I do get the AMD I'm sure I'm a bit limited in what I can buy for it. (mine is a gigabyte and while its worked for ever. I havnt made enough pcs to really say one way or another as to how good it is...
Uh video cards any to stay away from? Same with ram. Also if 16gb is cheap would I be better off buying it then 8. Like 8 gb for 60 bucks 16 for 100 bucks...
My budget for the whole thing is gona be right around 1000. I could do a hundred higer. If needed. But the closer to 1k the better...
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CPUs: If you check benchmarks and reviews on just about any tech site, you'll see Intel pretty soundly kick the crap out of AMD at any comparable price. My dream machine right now would include an i5 3570K, it seems to be the sweet spot in the performance-per-dollar ratio.
SSDs: Not really necessary for a desktop machine, but can have some benefits (faster load times for programs/games is the big one). Most people who build an all-purpose desktop with them have one for the system drive, and store their data on a larger hard drive. 128GB isn't a ton of room for a desktop machine, and its always a good idea to separate your data from your system (either through separate drives or separate partitions). In the end, its up to you if you want to think a faster load time on games and booting is worth the extra cash layout (my best guess is your answer would be "no").
Mobos: There was a time when I'd stay the hell away from certain manufacturers, and opt for others, and those would sway back and forth. In the last few years, processor designers have started to get extra anal about what goes in to a mobos chipset and really ensuring that those are as stable and compatible as possible. As such, pretty much every major mobo manufacturer is putting out decent products these days. Find one with the features you want, and then check reviews on it in a few different places to see if there have been any major outstanding issues with it that have affected multiple people that you might need to be wary of (because every manufacturer can have a bad day with one model or another).
Video cards: nVidia and AMD have been competing pretty nicely here, and both have cards at just about every price that you could be really happy with. If you're going for gaming, just remember that the amount of video memory available on a card can be just as important as the card's processor, so don't skimp by $15 just to get a card with 1GB of RAM instead of 2GB. Get more memory. You'll be thankful.
RAM: If you've got money to burn, go for 16GB. If not, you'll be just fine with 8GB.
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I have been an AMD fanboy for almost the past 15 years, but like Goose said, Intel now kicks the shit out of their CPU's. So I made the jump to Intel on my new PC (got that i5-3570k). It indeed kicks major ass, especially for being just over $200.
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Cool thanks Goose, r00. I have read a few reviews about it (the amd cpu.) And a lot of people say the i5 kicks the shit out of it. And it runs a lot cooler. I looked at Newegg and some of the Mobos even come with 8 gb of ram... So the i5 looks like the way its gona be. It may not be as fast. But I will notcie a huge difference from what I have now.
Now just to find a good video card. (also really need my taxes to come soon. But maybe some of the stuff I want will be on sell/shell shocker deal thing. I want to get what I can from amazon free two day shipping for the win. (if I can the case would save me a bit for shipping alone.)
The ram thing is basically if I can find a good set for cheapish... Like if double the amount is only 20 or 30 more I have no issue with that. I can upgrade down the road like I did with old one...
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Quality RAM will run you around $75-$95 for 16 gigs. (I recommend Corsair). 8 gigs will be around $50. So you could possibly double your RAM for only $25 more.
Best bang for your buck video card IMO right now is the GTX 660 ti.
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Ya. I want good ram. And that is one brand I have looked at a little. And that video card looks sexy as hell. And Amazon has it for cheaper then Newegg. Just need to get my damn taxes back.
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newegg is running a big overstock sale right now. might be worth checking it out. I saw PSU's and cases on there.
http://promotions.newegg.com/NEPro/13-0654/index.html
I picked up some sennheiser earbuds for $14.99 w/ free shipping.
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What Goose and r00 said once again. You've got a really nice area for your budget to be in so you can pretty much have all awesome stuff in your rig.
Picking a good brand and model of RAM is important, as it has more impact on speed than a lot of people realize. I'd pick up an 8GB kit since that's the sweet spot for today's gaming rigs; 9-16GB and up is overkill unless you're doing some serious benchmarking, are involved in serious F@H projects or have a need for the extra memory for media/art/music/editing programs. Corsair and G.Skill are in the top three and you can never go wrong with either of them, but IMO the hands-down best memory kit on the market right now comes from Samsung, of all places: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147096
I'd recommend a SeaSonic power supply -- they're the creme de la creme of PSU manufacturers -- but you can't go wrong with a good Corsair unit since the internal components they use for Corsair PSUs are the same as SeaSonic's. They literally come off the same manufacturing belt in a factory. lol
In terms of Intel motherboards to pair with your i5-3570K, ASRock is my #1 favorite Intel motherboard manufacturer right now because they pack all the punch and reliability of other motherboard manufacturers but cut costs without sacrificing quality. In some departments, their components are actually BETTER and higher-quality for less cost.
ASRock Z77 Extreme4: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157293
(Though Gigabyte's Z77-UD3H is always a solid choice, too...) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128544
I was looking at an MSI 660 Ti myself: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127696
(MSI make amazing fans and the whole card is made of solid construction and components.)
PSU, Mobo, Memory, CPU, GPU aside:
Storage. IMO the best thing you can do for your PC to make it blazing fast is to get a smallish (say, 64GB-128GB) solid state drive and throw ONLY your operating system, browsers, programs and apps -- and maybe a handful of slower games -- onto the SSD and pair it with a second storage unit -- a high-capacity, high-speed hard disk drive (7200RPM, 32mb cache, with 500GB-1TB of space) -- to throw all your files like movies, music, pictures, yada yada, onto it. The amount of space pertains to your own tastes, but make sure it's at 7200RPM and totes at least a 16mb cache.
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I got more or less everything I need in my Newegg cart. And unless I get something different right now its gona be about 1200 and then like 20 or so for shipping...some of it Amazon has for cheaper so I will look there when it comes time to buy... But ya. Now my tax return just needs to show up.
The new egg power calculator said I needed 479w psu. About 100 w more then my old pc. I did get 16gb ram. And the vid card r00 said and case. I am not getting s ssd. I might at some point. But not yet... The new pc will be more then fast enough for while. I am getting two hdd a bigger storage drive and smaller os games and tunes drive. And a blu ray player. Sqwee. Its gona be a sexy beast when I get it.
Also gona use windows 7 one of my best friends works there and can get it for super cheap for me. Woo.
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nice! Sounds like it's gonna be a sweet rig.
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Hell ya gona be a beast! Can't lie I'm a little wet just thinking about it... Now the gov needs to hurry and send me my monwy!
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Well, after seven years of fairly heavy use, one of the hard drives in my old computer finally kicked the bucket. Thank jeebus for RAID 5, as I hadn't had a chance to get a proper backup procedure going between the machine and my NAS yet. Got everything copied off in no time so it could be shut down nicely. Goodnight Starbuck, you served me well.
I'd been saving up for a new machine, but hadn't quite got the funds on hand for what I wanted. Decided to bite the bullet anyways and plunked down for a new beast. Just got it up and running last night (after installing Windows fuckin' twice, more on that later). We named it Talyn.
Intel i5 3570 CPU
Asus P8H77-V Mobo
16GB DDR3 RAM
Zotac GeForce GTX 660 Video Card
Asus Xonar DG Sound Card
250GB Samsung SATA3 SSD
500GB Seagate SATA3 HD
LG BD-RE Drive
Internal SD card reader
CoolerMaster Silencio 450 Case
CoolerMaster 650W Power Supply
With the SSD doing most of the work, and that Silencio case, the thing is practically non-existent in terms of noise. But I do have a whole new reason to hate Asus. Their shitty drivers made me have to install Windows twice last night. I just put my brain on auto-pilot and did my standard procedure for new hardware, which is to hit up the download page for the mobo and install ALL THE DRIVERS!! Turns out a few of those aren't applicable to my motherboard at all (the setup wizard actually says "you don't have this hardware"), and one of them (probably either the chipset or one of the SATA drivers) actually caused Windows to blue-screen on reboot in such a way that Windows couldn't restore the boot procedure, causing me to have to format and start over with a fresh Windows install. This time, just the LAN, USB3.0, and Realtek sound drivers went in, and its still running.
Tonight's probably going to be spent installing actual software, and then Rage. I'll crank everything to 11 on that and splatter some shiny.
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Sucks the old HDD died. However the new beast sounds sexy! Congrats Goose! :rock:
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very nice! 8-)
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That is a beast of a rig right there. Nice!
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I can't wait to build a computer with an SSD in it, but I don't have an excuse for a new one at this point (or the cash).
Goose, that sort of issue has really soured me on Windows; that you have to completely rely on the manufacture to get anything to work. I had to reformat the hard drive on my girlfriend's laptop and re-install Windows. It had 'Samsung Model No xxxx' labeled on the disk it came with but it was just a completely vanilla copy of Windows 7. I've never been able to find the right software for the trackpad and get it back to full functionality.
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What anti virus are you people using? I was using AVG but it got annoying (however it's less annoying then Avira I might just switch back to it for the time being....) But are there any other options out there that are as good?
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Personally I use ClamWin, but that's not the best option for everyone. Its not an active virus scanner, so it won't pick shit up on the fly. You can schedule scans, or scan suspect files on demand, but it won't actively monitor your system. For people who can remember to scan suspect things before opening them, that's fine.
For free active scanners, Microsoft Security Essentials is probably the best of the bunch out there (mostly because it wasn't made by Microsoft, they just bought it and slapped their name on it). AVG still works, but its getting into the scareware category, and its firewall (which it flashes a bunch of warnings and scary things if you turn off and use the Windows one) actually breaks a bunch of things like Windows file sharing (discovered that recently while trying to debug my parents inability to get files between a desktop and laptop). Haven't really used anything else in ages, other than McAfee (thanks to work), which still sucks more balls than the Shine-o Ball-o.
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Security Essentials is great stuff.
Personally, I've been using Avast! for three years now and it works pretty great for me. It's an awesome active scanner that can also be used for impromptu system scans if you think you've caught something that the active 'shield' didn't pick up. It's also 100% free; it'll ask you to refresh your yearly license every 365 days or so, but that doesn't cost anything but the time it takes to click to say "Sure, I'll take another license key."
If you're careful where you poke your head around on the internet, Avast will be all you need, though you can always look into some other great, free programs to be rid of malware and spyware such as MalwareBytes' Anti-Malware free version or Spybot: Search & Destroy. CCleaner and Defraggler are also great for routine maintenance -- but they're not antivirus, just really nice to have.
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Thanks Goose and IZ. I will look into Avast! I have Spybot S&D and MalawareBytes.
I just downloaded the Microsoft Security Essentials. Thanks guys.
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I think one of my HDD is crashing. Slowly...? I have two HDD one is my main with most of my music, and OS and game files. The other is just movies tv shows... When I was buying things with Torrent dollars utorrent said it couldn't write the files to the drive I open my computer and it doesn't show the drive, I restart and it's there and fine. This has happened a few times while torrenting stuff. I know I have the space like the drive is like half full ish. It just stops. But it isn't every time I dl something. I downloaded the newest ep. of Cosmos and it was fine. (watched it just fine to.) So does it sound like there is something wrong with Windows (7 Ultimate) or is the HDD dying slowly? (I looked newegg has new ones of the same size for 100ish bucks.) So It own't be crazy spendy to fix. But ya.... In the mean time I'm gona back everything up again...
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Be sure its the hard drive before you go replacing hardware. Do a scan looking for bad sectors. If you find a ton, its the hard drive. If it doesn't, or the scan errors out in a weird way, it could be the SATA controller on your motherboard is the problem.
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Ok. Thanks.
And right now it's not even showing up. I don't hear any bad HDD sounds... So I might open up my box and change where it's plugged in at... And by showing up I mean I have My Computer open and it is only showing one HDD. How do I fix the SATA controller? Or is it just getting a new mobo?
So I scanned it and it came back fine. It then vanished from the my computer icon list. So I'm going to unplug it and plug it back in a different slot on the mobo... Maybe that will help?
Thanks by the way you just saved me from buying a new HDD...
I switched where they are plugged in at and that hasn't done anything to change it. I was keeping the HDD open like a window open with it. And that doesn't do shit... It sounds like the noise when I unplug my phone from charging and it's gone...
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If you can, scrounge up a different hard drive from somewhere and plug it in to the same port as the wonky drive on the mobo. If it shows up and has no problems, then the hard drive's at fault. If it goes in and out of service same as this one, then the problem's on the mobo.
It also sounds like there might just be a loose connection. See if it shows up consistently in your BIOS/UEFI, and make sure all the cables are plugged in properly on both ends.
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So I changed my HDD to a SATA port that I know is good. (I also checked to make sure it was plugged in fully...) And right now I'm hopefully right that it is the mobo...
How it was since I built it. (The X are the empty ports, 1 is my OS drive and 2 is my storage space drive...)
XX
1X
2X
Then I changed it to this, and the HDD still went out a lot...
XX
X1
X2
Now I have it like this.
XX
21
XX
And it's about 10 minutes after I started the pc up after moving the cable. It's still there.... YAY
And now it's gone... It's hours later... so I should be able to back everything up. Slowly... But... GRRRR. new HDD time I think...
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I'm saying this goes here. Cuz this place is dead so why not...
PS for the tl;dr people, Friend works for amazon. He told boss about me. Boss wants me to learn Linux, friend said to learn Bash Scripting... Getting my PC ready to handle dual boot is a huge pain in my ass. BUT better job if it works/ happens....
So my friend was moving I said I was more then willing to help him move. (Cuz I can pick it up and put it down.) So over a weekend I helped him for most of it... New house was about a 40ish min drive, on the way (Friend his coworker and I were in the moving truck) he said that his office needed a server monkey... (he works at amazon) he said he would send his boss my resume and talk about me to him. He was interested. Lots of me bugging him. And then I stopped (coke job interview and then not getting job. Told friend I'm still interested. He said boss wants me to get up to date with Linux. Friend mostly said to learn how to do Bash Scripting. He also said don't use Ubuntu. (Which is one of the two Linux distros I know of. The other being Red Hat.) He told me CentOS is goodly...
So yesterday and today have been nothing but me trying to get Linux (I didn't have a USB drive or any dvdrs so I dled CentOS) And I'm fucking hella paranoid about fucking anything up. And fucking both boots. (dual boot for the win.) And after defragmenting my C drive I have 7ish gig of space I can use for a new partition.... (I have about 150ish gig free. I went from 4gig to 7gig after degragmenting it.) I want the new partition to be big enough to install a few things on it. (chrome really is all I'll need. email youtube tutorials on how to bash.) So now I'm gona try to dual boot using two different HDD... THis should be fun. Wish me luck...
After a bit more googling it looks like trying to dual boot from different HDD is gona be a lot harder then I thought... Maybe I'll need to back everything up and reinstall windows and go from there...
This has turned into a lot more work then I thought it would be...