Tech General Chat

[3niX]

Well...

 

 

I know its going to cost a fair bit, but I always use my PC for everything. After Christmas, my birthday and Ive sold my PS3

I should be able get the parts mid January >: )

AFAIK, Nvidia is heading for a February launch if everything goes smoothly from here on (which it hasnt previously). So Id expect the prices to start dropping around early summer (taking into account that the new GPU will be pretty darn expensive when new).

Im not too sure about Intel yet. I think the new Extreme Edition i7 processors are heading for a late spring launch.

[Slamman]

I have a Panny MiniDV mentioned in the main threads, It has an AC input near the attachment space for the battery, and again, unlike any Common sense in design, this defeats any chance to have the camcorders recharge depleted cells. SO, what is the cheapest multi (brand) Lithium Ion batt charger I can find as an alternative... and Damn You, Panasonic!! (Next time I go with Panaramic ((GTA4 parody brand <G>))

Edited December 15, 2009 by Slamman

[Otter]

I hate it when they do that. Even more so, I hate it when they design a 'shoe' for the camera as the only way to charge/connect firewire/connect external mics/connect headphones.

 

It's just f*cking ridiculous. I'm glad I don't have to deal with many POS cameras anymore.

[Slamman]

I went to National Camera. They advert like crazy that they are the people to see, however, they only really deal in Sony and Canon cameras that they sell. I was referred to Best Buy and Ultimate Electronics in the area (Midwest)

 

I look online via Google and you mostly get specs or battery dealers, a new battery is nice, but without that elusive charger, it's a paper weight

[leik oh em jeez!]

Also, I have some movies and tv series on there which I acquired in less than legal ways and I'm cautious at asking for a back up on that. Do you guys think Seagate would pay attention to te data? Would they report it or just say they can't copy it... or just not care?

I've also heard they can be a bitch to deal with trying to replace the drive... of course those posts were all made during the initial peak of drive failures. I just need to get my lazy ass on the phone with them and take care of it... but it doesn't really matter right now since my PC is currently a 30lb paper weight...

As far as the legality of the contents of a drive goes, I don't think Seagate is interested in reporting potential copyright infringements. They'd have no real proof that they aren't just back ups and I'm not even sure if they can legally do anything other than move the data. I'm really not up to speed with these things though.

 

I personally never bothered trying to get my failed drives replaced under warranty because by the time they failed, newer drives had greater capacities at a lower cost. Plus I'm like an anti-packrat. I try to reduce clutter and maintain the same functionality when possible, so I don't want a bunch of 3.5" drives that can't hold much lying around.

Technically, what is on your drive is your own property, and you are entitled to your privacy. They're not going to look through the drive and search for any copyrighted material.

 

Now if they stumble upon child pornography on your drive, then you'll have something to worry about. But I'm just going to assume that you're a normal person and don't.

[Slamman]

I'd say hide the porn!!! Hide those pirated Warez, bad news, bub!

 

I will be continuing to post terminology we tend to encounter and often don't have all the background on. What I refer to as MiniDV ports are commonly associated with Digital Video editing and Software Movie making Suites on PCs and Macs.

 

Referred to as well iLink and Firewire, the technology of IEEE1394 is todays' WikiTech Byte from yours truly....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE1394

 

[Pico]

Also, I have some movies and tv series on there which I acquired in less than legal ways and I'm cautious at asking for a back up on that. Do you guys think Seagate would pay attention to te data? Would they report it or just say they can't copy it... or just not care?

I've also heard they can be a bitch to deal with trying to replace the drive... of course those posts were all made during the initial peak of drive failures. I just need to get my lazy ass on the phone with them and take care of it... but it doesn't really matter right now since my PC is currently a 30lb paper weight...

As far as the legality of the contents of a drive goes, I don't think Seagate is interested in reporting potential copyright infringements. They'd have no real proof that they aren't just back ups and I'm not even sure if they can legally do anything other than move the data. I'm really not up to speed with these things though.

 

I personally never bothered trying to get my failed drives replaced under warranty because by the time they failed, newer drives had greater capacities at a lower cost. Plus I'm like an anti-packrat. I try to reduce clutter and maintain the same functionality when possible, so I don't want a bunch of 3.5" drives that can't hold much lying around.

Technically, what is on your drive is your own property, and you are entitled to your privacy. They're not going to look through the drive and search for any copyrighted material.

 

Now if they stumble upon child pornography on your drive, then you'll have something to worry about. But I'm just going to assume that you're a normal person and don't.

Lol, yes I'm a normal person. I like my women to be of age and have some tits and ass

 

I'm starting to get a pissed though, I haven't heard anything back from Seagate...

[Slamman]

Pico, are you referring to me liking my women OLD, or Young, or top heavy? I like the breasts, but that aside, Seagate is in Cali and Minnesota, I found out you have to apply for positions at Seagate online, I'd love to be able to work there! I'll be checking their site again, but they lacked a position good for me. I imagine it's microscopic clean-room like many around here (medical up the ying-yang!)

 

My problem comes RIGHT back to my Precision Dell 9150, I booted it up again, at first it didn't post, then it did and my PSU and CPU are working fine as hoped, but the Setup of Windows stalls on the blue/white screen after all drivers load up and it tries to access the disc to start the formatting. So, again, is this really a motherboard related problem? Anyone anywhere encounter such oddity?!? This desktop loaded Windows Vista Home Basic, so can I get a pre-formatted Vista drive to work, or Win 7?

I'm wondering if it's less a driver and registration issue with the newer Windows OSes.?

 

Got my Win98 and ME to boot with 1GB of RAM and wish I could test it under 512 max for this machine. Putting a YouTube video to present this query to more people, someone with the same Dell model perhaps.

 

Well, to add some Tech news, a magazine report on future evolutions details a Wifi approach to getting thing running on AC power without plugging into a wall outlet. Sounds good to me!! Hopefully not a spendy tech.

 

Here's another Tech Term from Wiki, I enjoy Wiki as of late, some good history like what ASUS and VIA stand for, I never really knew before!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86

Edited December 21, 2009 by Slamman

[ptiko]

Who has got an i7 and had a core 2 quad?

 

Since Im upgrading next year and I don't know if its gonna be worth getting a new mobo and ddr3 ram for an i7.

 

Would It be better on the wallet to get a core 2 quad and overclock it? I just dont think spending an extra 300 or more on a new mobo and ram will be worth the extra few frames.

 

Discuss

[Slamman]

They are spendy. Like all new tech, there must be those with deep pockets willing to play the part of Early Adopters, these people are truly "fearless" as they incur all the issues associated with new tech. If it's going to find more then a niche, I'd wait and see how things level out over 6 months. A years' time will really start to tell where the Industry is headed. You may find the i7 becomes a more common player and at reduced cost. The i7 and i5 chips and mobos are on store shelves, but they are also a bit more spendy then others sharing the space for consumer dollars. I'm looking just to quad Intel for the time being, on a 1333Mhz FSB that my new board supports

[Pico]

Pico, are you referring to me liking my women OLD, or Young, or top heavy?

Is that a joke? I was referring to liek's hope that I wouldn't have CP on my PC.

 

@Pt, the i7's have better core structure than a C2Q. The C2Q are two two-core processors in one unit. The i7's are 4 individual cores. I'm not sure if that's why, but the i7's also have more cache, and I believe it's L3 instead of L2. As far as it being worth it with all the other supporting parts needed when you can just OC a C2Q... well that's up to you. If you can OC a C2Q to it's max OC then I doubt it'd be for anyone with a normal sized wallet. But if you also OCed an i7 to it's limit, which is pretty damn high, it'd perform a lot better than any stock or even OCed C2Q for the most part, I would believe.

[Cursed]

Slamman will like this one. I decided to get my Athlon 1800+ system out from the garage to see if it still worked. I've put Windows 2000 on it and just decided to see what upgrades I could do to it. I've managed to upgrade the SDRAM from 512MB to 768MB.

 

This is the best bit, I decided to see if the original 3DFX Voodoo I bought for £1 last year would work, and it did. So I've gone from the purely onboard SiS 700 to SiS 700 + Voodoo 3D accelerator. I bet it will storm Doom now.

 

 

[Slamman]

I'll gather all my computers in the storage locker here and get a pic, I don't think they'll all fit in frame to be honest! I need a Windows 2000 install, having so many COAs for it and no copy of the OS disk. I had Windows XP Professional with a crack in it, that was never replaced either. I ask only if you plan on not using it any longer, want to donate, or trade/swap.

I have COAs to register them to new drives.

 

It's on the up and up.

I have to give up on my Dell Precision 9150, until I get an installed OS that will boot on it, I noted in Dell's F12 menu, a partition Boot option, and noticed I could have used the partitioned Restore function on my Acer 4710 drive, at least, it would have been something to try in reviving or getting a solution. I did replace that drive, which was 120GB to 160GB, and oddly 160 is the defacto Netbook size, so look for those drives to become rather plentiful I should think

[Cursed]

I was going to suggest you "acquire" them, but then I realised you have dial up

[Slamman]

Windows 7 via the net I looked into, I don't do much P2P / Torrants at all.

If any

 

 

My sister's husband hauls out a Dell D800 he IT'd from a school, where he says he HAS to return it so they can throw it out, as required, they discard the damn thing!!!!!

Well, he tells me "while buzzed", that I can take some parts off that they likely won't notice. Well, turns out there is a better LCD on his then mine, though when assembling I paid for a WUXGA screen and I got a plain-jane XGA, he has the SXGA+ on his. So I do a straight display swap, only problem is, my plastic bezel arrived scratched, through no fault of my own. It looks like between the two, his outwardly looks like mine, though I swapped the screen, so now the pressure is on to return it or pull the bezel for a swap as well, I think I can do that if I have the opportunity. How would the school notice anyway!??! haha

The other issue is CPU comparably speaking is 1.4Ghz Centrino P4 with 1MB cache, mine is 1.73Ghz normally, but runs at 1.30 normally and 600 Speedstep in low mode. Never seems to run properly at 1.73 though. My "mismatched" CPU speed chip has an L2 cache that is 2MB however, better by a bit more then the actual clock.

 

In terms of memory, Looking at both, and the BIOS display... 200 and 266Mhz is the only supported DDR ram speed, and between the sticks on both, there appears to be an actual hardware limitation with the RAM speed, I have two sticks of 256MB @ 333Mhz speed.

His has 512MB x2 sticks at 266Mhz, however, capped at that low end speed, it's still 1GB of Ram, and the max for the D800 Latitiude is 2GB total. Most CPUs I've seen actually top out around 1.8Ghz, which is what I was trying to get, but wound up with the 1.73, and it has the limitation of 1.3 speed most often.

 

Well, I'm quite dismayed he even suggest I could use parts from it, after all, he's got the standard battery I had stolen from my original D800, and the video card on his is nVidia Geforce 4200 with 32MB Ram, matched to a high performance LCD panel, great!

If I could just get the LCD paired with my own GPU, the same Geforce4 4200 Go but with 64MB vid Ram... I think SA would work better because each LCD upgrade brings with it better resolution. The card will still have it's own limitations though...

 

EDIT update, I just swapped the internal LCDs on both, but with one micro screw driver handy, It was damn near Mission Impossible, my hand and fingers are still sore! At least two screws seemed soldered in place, and I wound up bending the attached metal to spin the screws loose, that put dangerous flex on the LCD panel itself in one instance and of course the mounting brackets. DAMMIT!

Edited December 25, 2009 by Slamman

[Star-Lord]

Slamman why don't you just sell all those computers and built a new one?

No more hassles. I'm pretty sure Warlord would provide you with a design, for a nice decent and affordable rig.

[mystk]

I think Slammy just likes old tech. A hobby maybe?

[Slamman]

Damn right, however, it's not just liking old tech, I tinker with many electronic items in fact.

[Cursed]

I've just had to pull a RAM stick out of my PC. It completley froze twice and the speakers were making a screeching sound. Problem turned out to be one of my DDR2 RAM sticks. I don't like the price of DDR2

[Pico]

I hear ya, DD2 has jumped up in price quite a bit since DDR3 has been out. Where it would have cost $25 -30 for 2GB, now it's like $40-50. I should have picked up another gig or two when they were still low....

 

On another note, my 1Tb Seagate drive that died.Talked to Seagate, they asked a few questions after I asked about (free) data recovery. They then must have determined the firmware was at fault so they sent me to a recovery service they do. So now I've got to file a thing with them in hopes they can repair the firmware on my drive and send it back...

[Cursed]

Well, I payed £17.49 for a 2x1GB PNY PC-6400 kit in January, the same kit is now £32. A single 1GB stick of PNY PC6400 is £12, so still quite cheap, but I'm not sure if I can get it replaced for free instead.

 

I was secretly hoping it was my 8800GT, would have been a nice excuse to upgrade

[Slamman]

Your getting rid of the 8800GT? I heard it runs Crysis on the ECS board I bought, I'll take it! haha

My Ram is DDR2, but being 400Mhz, it's PC3200 I believe, and causing me a headache. I paid too much for it it seems

[Cursed]

Not quite yet, but some time in 2010 I will be replacing it. It's still quite a good card, but they came out in 2007 which was quite a while ago now.

 

LAPTOP EDIT: Just as I finished this post it started resesting costantly. Now it wont post or show a display, again

 

PC EDIT: I had to remove another stick of RAM, down to 2GB now

Edited December 31, 2009 by Cursed

[Pico]

Just got a new mouse... the Logitech G500. Holy sh*t, it's nice so far!

I'm coming from a pretty basic Creative mouse, standard two buttons and a scroll wheel, with a forward/back button behind the wheel. It was a laser mouse too...

 

But the G500 has some awesome features. First off, it's got 3 buttons next to your thumb. Then two more to the left of the left click button, the scroll wheel which goes side to side and in, right click... and some mystery button behind the scroll wheel I've yet to figure out, seems like it turns something on or off.

 

I love how I can customize all the buttons, I can even launch programs. And the scroll wheel is friggin great. It's easy to move and it rolls smoothly. It also allows for momentum scrolling, so I can just flick it up or down and it'll scroll up continuous until it reaches the top/bottom or I stop it. Never thought I'd like a mouse so much!

 

edit: Oh, and it comes with weights to allow you to customize the feel of how the mouse moves. Pretty neat idea, although I'd have payed what ever it cost less if the feature and stuff wasn't included.

[Slamman]

Well, I vented, editing this for those locked topics, the refurbished 600 watt PSU, seen at MicroCenter, I frankly can't recall the brand but looking at what they had on display, it's safe to say, it fits a brand I'd bank on, From the Gaming factor, I believe it's CyberPower as currently advertised on the GTAF website (top banner) from what I saw.

The "X" series or eXtreme model line. I don't care if you object to me saving money and going with price/performance versus some boutique stuff, it's my opinion I am entitled to have. I also say over $100, go with the 800 to 1200watt PSUs, if you're spending a lot, and you don't even know if the PSU will adapt to a further case change down the line, then it's something to ponder, saving money on the chance you'll upgrade.

 

My own Power Supplies died due to some voltage error typically incurred in testing, not out of the blue during use of a machine, and often times a fuse can bring them back into service.

 

The other topic was on DVI and what to look for, I mentioned the 4 pins surrounding the bladed intersect between male and female recepticles. This indicates D (digital) or A (analog) as far as I am aware, my experience is you require matching components to use these, if one has pins and one doesn't you're SOL as they say.

Edited January 4, 2010 by Slamman

[ptiko]

I was wondering what kind of cases you guys like?

Do you like fancy cases, the love it or hate it design with lights and stuff or clean looking ones?

 

Im after another for a newish build anyway so and selling my old one.

[Cursed]

I like my Antec 300, nice and simple. I do like case windows and black interiors though. Tidy cable management is a must though if people can see in.

[Slamman]

Yeah, I like the lighted cases, but it adds more heat too, and more current drain. Computers that are running often will be energy hogs, with all the more hardware like GPUs gleaning power, Overclocking is adding additional power as well.

I pick up any case I can retrofit, not a big surprise. Though I hate the eMachine power buttons, I love that blue light around them! haha

I wish I had more T5026 cases for these miniATX upgrades. I took some video to show off both boards near the case to see the difference in size. With my new Ram stick I got both boards going, now I don't have to return the ECS board I posted earlier! Weight off my mind. It powers up fast too, BIOS from 2008, newer then the MSI, which has Auto Update software with the discs. Note to PCguytech, I need a driver disc for the ECS GeForce 7100, if you can ZIP the files I need, eternally grateful.

 

Note also to Wolf, Since you asked sternly not to PM you again, ever, I am observing that wish, I am not here to piss people off, I just want to express my way of doing things, if they work, if they don't. No ONE person has all the answers that's why sharing and updating is so informative.

 

I'm doing a bit more background on things I was called out on, I know I mentioned PSUs from 1980, I was basically implying that a company known for good product doesn't just appear and start making Godly items, unless they have a crack staff, etc.

I'd buy more on branding if I'd used that brand and been real happy with it, like OCZ, I have experience with them on the RRoD 360 projects, and while those systems worked again for a short time, it was far better then some other none-brand stuff (thermal paste)

Aside from that as well, read a review that OCZ DDR2 was pretty damn good, as well as their 4GB set DDR3, I mentioned a memory shootout I was reading, This helps cement a good, working brand one can put some faith in.

 

What's also nice about OCZ and some of the others is the lifetime warranty if you don't overclock things, and that's worth paying for in the long term.

[Star-Lord]

@ Slamman - Are you talking about the graphics card or the motherboard? The reason I ask is because the drivers you need are all on ECS Web Site.

 

These are the drivers for: ECS Nvidia GPU 7100

ECS Nvidia GPU 7100 - 128MB

ECS Nvidia GPU 7100 - 256MB

 

Hope this helps.

[kingvercetti]

I was wondering what kind of cases you guys like?

Do you like fancy cases, the love it or hate it design with lights and stuff or clean looking ones?

 

Im after another for a newish build anyway so and selling my old one.

At the mo I have an X-Clio Windtunnel, it's huge and it has two giant fans with blue LEDs on the side. It's pretty good as cases go and it looks pretty badass in motion, although I wouldn't mind something more subtle saying with the fans on it's like a jet engine and the fans are like giant dust hoovers.