Random Technology Questions

[Sombra]

doublepostwhatevz

 

getting a NZXT Source 220 soon, just wondering whats the best fan configuration to run with it? Cooling options are:

 

Front, 2 X 120 mm
Rear, 1 X 120 mm @ 1200 RPM (included)
Top, 2 X 120/140 mm (1x 140 mm included)
Bottom, 1 x 120 mm

Side, 1 x 120mm

 

I'm thinking have the rear 120mm and the top 140mm fan as exhaust and buy one or two more 120mm's and have one as front intake and one on the side as intake although my system is nothing special (phenom x4 9650, gtx460, 8gb ram yeah I know it's old but hey it works for me) so I'm just wondering what's gonna be the best cooling setup. Also it's a mATX board if that makes a difference.

 

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/nzxt-source-220-black-mid-tower-case-with-side-window-and-2x120mm-quiet-clear-blue-led-fans-w-o-psu-

[Fallcreek]

What's the average temperature for your GPU? My GTX 980 OC usually sits idle at around 50°C while playing GTA V with everything maxed out (except AA and grass)

[Andreaz1]

doublepostwhatevz

 

getting a NZXT Source 220 soon, just wondering whats the best fan configuration to run with it? Cooling options are:

 

Front, 2 X 120 mm

Rear, 1 X 120 mm @ 1200 RPM (included)

Top, 2 X 120/140 mm (1x 140 mm included)

Bottom, 1 x 120 mm

Side, 1 x 120mm

 

I'm thinking have the rear 120mm and the top 140mm fan as exhaust and buy one or two more 120mm's and have one as front intake and one on the side as intake although my system is nothing special (phenom x4 9650, gtx460, 8gb ram yeah I know it's old but hey it works for me) so I'm just wondering what's gonna be the best cooling setup. Also it's a mATX board if that makes a difference.

 

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/nzxt-source-220-black-mid-tower-case-with-side-window-and-2x120mm-quiet-clear-blue-led-fans-w-o-psu-

The included front and rear one. Buying any more would be wasting your money.

 

 

What's the average temperature for your GPU? My GTX 980 OC usually sits idle at around 50°C while playing GTA V with everything maxed out (except AA and grass)

Idle while playing GTA V? What?

[Sombra]

What's the average temperature for your GPU? My GTX 980 OC usually sits idle at around 50°C while playing GTA V with everything maxed out (except AA and grass)

 

Right now with fan speed on the GPU at 35% it's 42c but I'm just chillin on IRC. If I ramped it to 100% it'd be around 36/37c idle. Highest I saw it hit was 55 playing some IV a few weeks back.

 

@Andreaz the included fans are the top 140 and the back 120 and I've never had a case with a top fan mount so idk how well it works as an exhaust so if I don't buy any more the best I could do is a 120mm on the front and the 140 at the top which seems a little lacklustre. Fans are pretty cheap these days anyway so I don't mind paying for some decent ones.

[Andreaz1]

@Andreaz the included fans are the top 140 and the back 120 and I've never had a case with a top fan mount so idk how well it works as an exhaust so if I don't buy any more the best I could do is a 120mm on the front and the 140 at the top which seems a little lacklustre. Fans are pretty cheap these days anyway so I don't mind paying for some decent ones.

More fans than two hardly make a difference, especially if your hardware isn't that powerful and doesn't put out that much heat to begin with. You'll be wasting money that would be much better spent on something else or saved up. If nothing else, you could wait with them and get them when/if you find your temperatures are too high.

 

[Sombra]

Aight so I should basically stick the 120 as intake and the 140 as exhaust and see what happens? Cheers

[dice]

Although it doesn't make much of a difference in this case you generally want the output fan to be larger since cooling is more effective on expelling heat rather than drawing in cool air

[KilnerLUFC]

Quick question that will seem daft to the more knowledgeable amongst you, but something I need help with. If pages are taking an age to load on Firefox, is this a sign that it's an issue with Firefox itself, or my laptop? For example, if a topic has a few videos posted in it, it can take a good minute or two to fully load up, encountering a few freezes in that time too. I haven't exactly got the best laptop in the world, but even like 4/5 years back on a sh*tty XP desktop, I'd never encounter any problems loading any pages up. I've only installed a few add-ons, less then I ever have before, so I can't see that as the problem, but maybe I'm wrong?

 

Anyone fancy giving me a few options to try out to see if anything helps?

[Andreaz1]

I think it's your laptop, give us the specs of it. Browsing in Firefox feels generally slower on my laptop than on my desktop.

[epoxi]

In my personal experience I got a drop of around 5-10°C in CPU temperature by using four 15mm fans instead of two, in the following arrangement:

 

 

 

 

Note I have an aftermarket cooler blowing hot air upwards from the graphics card (as opposed to a reference cooler) so this may be a contributing factor to more fans being effective.

 

I believe upgrading the CPU cooler is a better way of getting CPU temperatures down, however I went with case fans because half my motherboard risers are broken so I didn't want the extra weight stressing the board (and I am too scared/lazy to dismantle the whole PC again).

Edited December 20, 2015 by epoxi

[DEALUX]

I've been using (medical) ethanol to clean my monitor (yes, the display area) for a while now and it didn't occur to me that I might damage it. The "Internet" seems to think that you can in fact damage your display this way. Is it true or should I keep using ethanol since it's such an effective cleaning substance?

[Andreaz1]

Never use alcohol or ammonia-based cleaning fluid on your screen. We understand why many people use window cleaner on their monitors, many high-end flat screen computer monitors and HDTV sets have a nice glossy glass screen. The problem, however, is that both ammonia-based cleaners (e.g. window cleaners like Windex) and alcohol-based cleaners (diluted rubbing alcohol or specialty alcohol cleaners sold in electronics stores) can strip anti-reflective coatings off screens, cause clouding, or otherwise damage the screen. Even if you have a glossy glass screen, that screen is most likely coated with things that aren’t as durable and chemically resistant as glass. Don’t risk using using alcohol or ammonia-based cleaning fluids.

http://www.howtogeek.com/170080/the-how-to-geek-guide-to-cleaning-your-lcd-monitor-screen/

[sivispacem]

So, I'm preparing to do my Extreme Edition build at the moment, which means a good portion of the build in my signature is going to be going up on eBay.

 

So I'll be selling:

> 1x AMD FX-8320, pretty decent binning that's been happy as Larry at 4.5GHz with a mild voltage bump.

> 1x ASUS 990FX Sabertooth R2.0 motherboard

> 12GB Corsair Dominator DDR3-1600 CL9 1.5v

 

Do we think I'm better off selling all together, or parting out individually? I dont think I have the box for the processor anymore but I still have all the motherboard bits. And what do we reckon it'll go for?

[Ryan]

I'd probably sell the CPU and motherboard together and then sell the RAM by itself.

[RedDagger]

If getting a laptop that will only be used for browsing and office work off of Amazon, is a £120 budget okay and what would one look for for the best bang for your buck? I couldn't say there's really anything we're looking for in particular (in terms of looking for speed, graphics, hdd space or whatever), just a good all-rounder.

 

Thanks in advance.

[sivispacem]

I'd buy a second hand ThinkPad off eBay.

[Flachbau]

I think you're fine as long as you don't buy something as cheap as a "notebook" PC, like a very low end Asus or something. Laptops have decent enough specs and hardware where they can handle web browsing, video playback, and Office programs as well. A ThinkPad would be nice, and they're affordable if you're buying multiple. Only thing is that you have to find a nice set on eBay.

[yoječ]

I'd probably sell the CPU and motherboard together and then sell the RAM by itself.

True that, AMD parts aren't that popular, selling the CPU+mobo in a bundle should save you some hassle.

[Crokey]

I've been using (medical) ethanol to clean my monitor (yes, the display area) for a while now and it didn't occur to me that I might damage it. The "Internet" seems to think that you can in fact damage your display this way. Is it true or should I keep using ethanol since it's such an effective cleaning substance?

The best things I find for cleaning monitors especially LCD screens, is a lightly dampened with water cloth, preferably a microfiber cloth, then dry it off with a dry microfiber cloth.

 

Now if you get any marks that are little difficult to remove with just the water, then the next step may be a little ewww for some folk, but a little bit of spit does wonders. Then dry it off with some kitchen paper, then use the wet and dry microfiber cloths to polish it off.

Edited December 21, 2015 by Crokey

[RedDagger]

I'd buy a second hand ThinkPad off eBay.

I think you're fine as long as you don't buy something as cheap as a "notebook" PC, like a very low end Asus or something. Laptops have decent enough specs and hardware where they can handle web browsing, video playback, and Office programs as well. A ThinkPad would be nice, and they're affordable if you're buying multiple. Only thing is that you have to find a nice set on eBay.

Thanks, definitely a better choice than what I was looking at initially!

[sivispacem]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301646991538

 

I've got a T420 I picked up on the cheap ages ago. They're great for the money, much better than a £200 new laptop.

[DEALUX]

^ Yep. You should definitely get something like that. New laptops in that price range come with sh*tty single core CPUs (which won't even be able to handle YouTube video playback properly).

 

I was doing some changes to the way my PC and other stuff are set-up since the airflow for my computer sucked and I accidentally switched the Xbox 360 HDMI cable with the one I used for the PC.

Both the Xbox and PC are running on whatever version of HDMI supports up to 1080p but I was wondering whether different cables make a difference. I don't think they should make a difference since it's a digital display interface and the Microsoft cable is probably a good quality HDMI cable. The same probably goes for the HDMI cable that came with my monitor. Needless to say, I heard that some cheap HDMI cables might produce poorer image quality.

Edit: f*ck. I didn't double post on purpose. Someone (a moderator) should merge my posts.

Edited December 24, 2015 by Raavi

[Sombra]

http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/why-all-hdmi-cables-are-the-same/

 

Never had any problems/quality issues with the £5 3m HDMI cable I bought for my PS4 anyway

[yoječ]

I've got a cheap-ass 10m (or something) HDMI cable and there's virtually no difference comparing it to another, shorter and more expensive one.

[Sombra]

oi m8s best way to store old cpu's? currently have two athlons (a 7550 and x2 215) sitting ontop of some foam in an iphone box is there any problems with that? I'm planning on using one of them (prolly the 215) for a small HTPC. Got some drives, 2GB of RAM and a PSU plus I'm getting a new case soon so I can reuse my old one, so all i'll need then is a board with integrated gpu and a cooler and I should be set.

[Flachbau]

Not my picture, but I have two of these storing my C2D E6300 and E6550 respectfully.

 

 

I added a very thin piece of foam on the bottom of each. They've been in there for a while and I don't think there has been any issues. Your problem would have to be finding a case that would fit your CPU.

Edited December 23, 2015 by Android

[Sombra]

yeah i dont have any of those CPU boxes sadly, I should be fine with the way it is now aslong as the box doesnt get dropped or something.

 

Hello m8s, anyone good with networking?

 

I want to run Ethernet to the router downstairs but being that I still live at home my mum isn't too keen on cables everywhere. I was using Powerline before but I got rid of those and now I'm stuck on wifi. Before I got powerline my uncles suggestion was to run the cable from my room into the loft/attic then out the front of the house, down the wall and in through where the TV satellite cable is so there's not two cables dangling down. Questions are:

 

1. Would there be any signal loss or quality degradation?

2. Would an Ethernet cable be fine outside?

3. Can I connect the cable that would be in my room to a cheap little network switch and use that to connect both my PC and PS4 (it would go Router > Ethernet up to my room > Switch to PC/PS4.

 

I read that you can run CAT5 up to 328 ft with no signal loss and as a rough estimate I don't think the distance it'd run is any more than 65-70ft although I figure I'll just get a 100ft cable so I have room to work with. Then there's the cable itself I don't want it f*cking melting in the sun or some sh*t although I doubt Britain weather gets that warm. Maybe I could use something like an outdoor clear coat spray to protect the cable?

 

Cheers for any answers guys

Edited December 25, 2015 by Blaze

[RedDagger]

Bit of a specific one but I'll throw it out there anyway.

 

There's this game from the year 2000 and I thought it'd be nice to screw around with simple in-game stuff like cost of upgrades, but as far as I can tell all the actual game stuff is in a single .dat file which when viewed in notepad is a load of random symbols with none of the in-game values (e.g. prices) as plaintext appearing (i.e. something costs 64000, search for 64000 but no results).

 

The rest of the game files consist of a 12KB executable that as far as I can tell loads stuff for the .dat file to work, and 3 .dll files that seem to have been created in Visual Basic that form the menus of the game - I can search for menu text, such as car descriptions or the difficulty selection, edit it then it changes in-game, but it's in a sea of symbols like the .dat file.

 

I'm more looking for what I should be searching for to help with this since I've tried and nothing's been relevant, so any help would be appreciated, thanks!

 

E: just realised this may have been more suited to programming...eh.

Edited December 26, 2015 by RedDagger

[dice]

You can try a hex editor to find the corresponding values and edit them to your will. Depending on the editor, you'll most likely do all your searching and editing in hex

[gajrajgchouhan]

How can I create a donation link where people can donate me ?

 

Would be better if the site accepts all currency and is available in all countries.

 

Thanks