Tech General Chat

[mystk]

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.

I myself like the rugged looking cases the most. The HAF932 is one of my faves .

[ptiko]

Man, those two cases have massive fans.

 

I liked the look of the limited edition cooler master case. Cosmos "Black Label". I was interested in it awhile ago

 

I was gonna sell my Antec P182 and get the corsair case, the 800d.

Its such a nice case, with loads of good stuff on it. The only problem is the price.

 

The money Im saving at the moment for an upgrade is going on parts though, I cant afford a big case aswell :<

[Saggy]

Man, those two cases have massive fans.

 

I liked the look of the limited edition cooler master case. Cosmos "Black Label". I was interested in it awhile ago

 

I was gonna sell my Antec P182 and get the corsair case, the 800d.

Its such a nice case, with loads of good stuff on it. The only problem is the price.

 

The money Im saving at the moment for an upgrade is going on parts though, I cant afford a big case aswell :<

Out of curiosity, what do you have against the P182?

 

I'm using a P180 I got two years ago, and I love it man. I'm only just now starting to run out of space.

 

I'll probably wind up buying another one of these models for my next build. 'Cept I think the P183 is out now...

[ptiko]

Out of curiosity, what do you have against the P182?

Nothing, I love it.

 

Some time in the future, I wanna try water cooling. When I can afford to do so, and the 800D has plenty of space on the inside. Triple rad at the top and I think its a nice looking case. All matte black :3

 

The 182 does have some room for watercooling but from what Ive seen on some forums, most of the rads are on the outside, and the custom jobs look terrible. Id rather have it all internal.

[Saggy]

Out of curiosity, what do you have against the P182?

Nothing, I love it.

 

Some time in the future, I wanna try water cooling. When I can afford to do so, and the 800D has plenty of space on the inside. Triple rad at the top and I think its a nice looking case. All matte black :3

 

The 182 does have some room for watercooling but from what Ive seen on some forums, most of the rads are on the outside, and the custom jobs look terrible. Id rather have it all internal.

Oh, yeah.. I noticed water-cooling holes on the case, but it seems a little cramped for that to me.

 

I don't have any interest in water-cooling though. That gives me the willies just thinkin' about it. lol

[Pico]

I don't have any particular cases that have really caught my eye.

But my general style of case is a sleek, simple black one. A few LEDs for components are nice (NOT fan LEDs, I don't like the bright light they emit, sadly my PSU and front fan, and HSF have bright blue LEDs), I'm talking about status LEDs and stuff like that. I also like a look of utilitarianism, turning the functionality into aesthetics.

 

With that said, the craziest looking case I like is the GMC R-4 Bulldozer: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811110017

It's got a crazy, futuristic kind of sci-fi look to it. But, if you check the link you'll see it's lacking in many ways. Only 1 ODD drive bay, 2 HDD bays... and it's got those bright LED case fans. Meh. Still, a crazy look.

 

[cold fusion 33]

I looked at a build put up by Warlord earlier today, and he put down an "Athlon X4". Now, I've never even heard of these before, I thought that Athlon governed dual core AMD chips and Phenom governed quad core chips. So, what are these Athlon X4's like? I have an X2, are the X4's like two X2's mashed together?

[Pico]

If they're anything like the C2Qs were compared to the C2Ds, then yeah it's just two dual cores on one processor unit. Not sure though.

 

Anywhooo, f*cking AWESOME news here! I finally got my lazy ass to email Seagate last week. They were going to replace the drive no problem. But then I mentioned how I thought it was the firmware issue that plagued the 7200.11 drives and how I read Seagate was offering free data recovery. They sent me over to i365 which is Seagates data recovery company. They had a local lab, so I dropped it off two days ago. They were able to just flash the firmware (I couldn't if you recall, it wasn't detected on my computer) and it's all good! All my data!

 

I was getting a little worried after I didn't hear from them yesterday as they said they'd call then. Why was I worried? Well I'll just say there's some uTorrent goodies in the drive... was starting to except the FBI to come a-knockin. But it doesn't seem to be the case, so I should have my drive late next week

I'd pic it up tomorrow on my day off work, but the office is closed...

[Pico]

I hate too double post, but I'm doing it anyways!

 

Had some free time today, so I've spent the past few hours working on over clocking my CPU. It's an E6600 C2D which runs at 2.4Ghz stock. A lot of people get it OC'd stable at 3.4-3.6Ghz... but I'm limited by my RAM which is only 667Mhz. So I got it just up to 3.0Ghz, so a .6Ghz increase. It ran my Super Pi 1M calculation from 24.4 seconds to 19.6sec, and my 8M count from 5:06 to 4:54.

I had an error 45 minutes in on Orthos and one 35 minutes in with Prime95. So I just upped the Vcore (currently at 1.38v). Hopefully that'll cure the problem. If not, I'll clock it down to 2.9Ghz, as 3.0Ghz might be too close to the RAMs limits and might be pushing it too hard.

Oh, and Real Temp was giving me incorrect temps before. It was saying 30-33*C, but after I checked the sensor and ran CPUID's Hardware Monitor they're both agreeing with a 23-24*C idle! Damn that Zalman HSF I got really keeps it cool! Those temps are even with the voltage bump. 45 minutes into the Orthos stress test it hit 37/39*C for core 1 and 2. Not bad at all I think.

Loving the fact that I can OC now! Just wish my RAM wasn't holding me back...

[Cursed]

I don't know why I overclock. I doubt it does anything to help my computers performance, but there is just something that makes me do it. Possibly just the bragging rights. It's like how I want a new graphics card. I very rarely play games, and there isn't really anything wrong with my current one but I still have an upgrade itch. Maybe I should just stop upgrading for a while and conserve my cash. It will be nostalgic of the days when I kept my PC exactly the same for 3 years except for upgrading the RAM from 256MB to 512MB if nothing else

 

I mean why the hell have I got 1.5TB of hard drive space? (Well, actually because I got the 500GB one for free...). I have about 400GBs worth of stuff spread over both drives, and that includes music and photo backups from my Dad's PC.

[kingvercetti]

Had some free time today, so I've spent the past few hours working on over clocking my CPU. It's an E6600 C2D which runs at 2.4Ghz stock. A lot of people get it OC'd stable at 3.4-3.6Ghz... but I'm limited by my RAM which is only 667Mhz. So I got it just up to 3.0Ghz, so a .6Ghz increase. It ran my Super Pi 1M calculation from 24.4 seconds to 19.6sec, and my 8M count from 5:06 to 4:54.

Oddly enough I'm in the same boat with my Q6600, although my RAM is 800MHz, I just can't get the chip past 3GHz. 3.1 makes everything jittery for some reason, and 3.2 isn't stable. Still, it's a fair increase and they are really good chips. And just for the record my Super Pi 1M is 17sec, but I think it only uses two cores.

 

@Cursed: I think it's like people who tune cars. Most of them don't race or even sell to people who do, they just like to have their machines running at the best they possibly can, and it's the same with us and computers. Shame it costs so much money. xD

[Pico]

Good comparison with the cars kingvercetti

However, I push my computer pretty hard from time to time. The extra speed on the CPU will definitely help while burning movies.

As for your jittering I'm way too new to OCing I'd have no clue what that is or why it's unstable at 3.2Ghz. Most people I hear can OC the Q6600 to 3.4-3.6Ghz very stable. With your RAM and a 9 multiplier (assuming the Q6600 can't go higher) your maximum clock with out over working the RAM is actually 3.6Ghz, fyi.

 

@Cursed. Well, I've got a 320GB, 500GB and a 1TB drive. Thing is, between all three I've only got about 700GB free, from a total of 1750GB after formatting. And that free space number steadily decreases month after month

[Cursed]

I have my Phenom II 720BE running at 3.2GHz at the moment (2.8GHz stock). I have had it up to 3.5GHz but it was unstable. At 3.6GHz it won't boot, plus mine needs quite a voltage boost whereas some people can get 3.4GHz on stock. I'm not sure if it's just my CPU, my rather cheap motherboard or my 800MHz RAM. That's another thing I want to do, get a decent AM3 motherboard and some quality DDR3. I'm not sure if it is a worthy upgrade though. It will cost a fair bit but might give me more OCing room and maybe even an extra core as well as futureproofing it a bit.

[Pico]

Extra core? I'm assuming that has to with the disabled core CPUs they've come out with, yeah?

 

As for my computer, it's old and not really worth any upgrading. Maybe another gig of RAM. 3 years old, an E6600. The CPU is too slow to bother getting all new faster RAM to only OC to 3.6Ghz or so, that and a better mobo. The mobo isn't that great to justify just buying a new processor and RAM for it...

I plan on just building an entirely new computer next time I've got an extra $1,000 or so to spend. That one should last me much longer than this one will. Going on 3 years though, it's still a champ.

[Cursed]

Yeah. I have a Phenom II X3 which is just a X4 with one core disabled. Sometimes it's disabled because it's defective, but sometimes they work perfectly.

[Pico]

I read about those. I don't think they work "perfectly" otherwise they wouldn't have disabled them. But iirc, they work just fine for most people because the issues with the disabled core is only present during certain operations like the ones they do at the factory to test them. I personally don't think I'd risk wrecking my entire CPU (and possibly more) just to gain one core. I'd cry if my CPU went out, I can't afford another one right now!

[Cursed]

I read about those. I don't think they work "perfectly" otherwise they wouldn't have disabled them. But iirc, they work just fine for most people because the issues with the disabled core is only present during certain operations like the ones they do at the factory to test them. I personally don't think I'd risk wrecking my entire CPU (and possibly more) just to gain one core. I'd cry if my CPU went out, I can't afford another one right now!

Sometimes a core is disabled even if it isn't defective. Otherwise they'd end up with a lot of Phenom II X4s and hardly any X3s and X2s. This would be alright if AMD was only aimed at the high end market, but it makes more business sense to keep catering for lower budgets too. In this case the unlocked core would work perfectly. I wasn't aware of any permenant risk with unlocking one of the cores though? I've heard of lots of people unlocking them, both sucessfully and unsucessfully. Never heard of one being ruined by it though. Surely it would have been damaged when tested in manufacturing if that was the case. I'm not really sure though.

 

To be honest, I doubt I would notice the jump from 3 to 4 cores though. For gaming most games can still only make use of dual-cores, and the ones which can use 4 seem to run just as well on 3. Other than that I only really web-browse, talk on MSN and occasionally use 3ds Max and Photoshop. I don't do any of the video encoding or HD playback that is CPU taxing and benefits from four cores.

[Pico]

I think damage occurs when the core is activated successfully but doesn't have a problem occur until it's really being used. So it might seem good at first, but then it just sh*ts out and I believe can destroy the entire CPU. But don't quote me on that.

I personally wouldn't use all 4 cores for the most part, but when I needed them it'd be great. A couple friends want me to start burning DVDs for them and I would if it wouldn't take an hour and a half per DVD. That's where the extra core or two would really help me out!

 

Speaking of burning DVDs though... I just got my 1TB hard drive back from Seagate! Picked it up an hour ago, just got it in, started it up. EVERYTHING is there!!! All 700+GB of data

I know in another thread I just said I have about 700TB free between all three of my drives... well I guess I underestimated what I had on my 1TB. I've only got 483.29GB left between a total of 1694.05GB (1.69TB). sh*t... looks like it'll be time to get another HDD soon. Sadly, I've run out of SATA ports because I bought a SATA DVD drive...

[iRloading]

hello, i rarely venture this area but just a quick query:

 

i've been playing around with a little overclocking with my phenom2 x4 940BE and have been monitoring the temperatures since i'd really have to upgrade my cpu case soon (it's way cramped in there with the 5870 bumping into cables)

 

yesterday i bumped up the multiplier to get it from 3.0 -> 3.4 without upping the voltage any bit, after scoring some benchmarks and some gaming it's on 58 celsius under load and 52 idle.

 

figuring id try my luck again today, i bump up the multiplier and fsb as well as voltage to go from 3.0 -> 3.6

 

now the funny thing i noticed is: after doing the same benchmarks, gaming and getting slightly noticeable performance increase... my temps under load is actually LOWER than yesterday with 56 under load and 49 idle...

 

im getting the temp readings through speedfan, im just wondering since naturally if you up the cpu voltage, multiplier and fsb, heat should increase?

 

room temperature is controlled by the a/c and both comparisons were made early evening around 6pm with the same weather.

 

so yeah, any idea what this means? im just worried my comp is reading faulty temperatures or something.

[Pico]

I know you said you don't come around here much so I'll just let you know, this is better suited in the Random Questions pinned thread in this section

Anyways, I had similar results while over clocking the other night. It was idling at about 30*C then a little bit later it was showing 24*C.

 

I was using Real Temp to monitor the temperatures and before the temps dropped I ran the "Sensor Test" in the program. Then I opened up CPUID Hardware Monitor. Seeing the temps in CPUID HW Monitor showing mid 20's I went back to Real Temp and sure enough it was also showing these lower temps! I'm not sure if it's because I ran the Sensor Test or because CPUID HW Monitor did something... but both the programs were now agreeing with the same, lower temperatures with a higher clock speed and higher Vcore.

 

Those were idle temps, and running Super Pi to 8M for each 100Mhz increase I only hit 34*C (about 5 minutes of stress on the CPU to calculate 8M). And again, weird thing was the higher I went on clock speed, it started not going past 32*C in the same ~5 minute range of stress. I could see some reasons why it's not increasing temps, or at least not significantly but it still does seem counter intuitive.

 

I would like to warn you, it's generally not good to OC with such large increases. .4Ghz at once is pretty risky if you've never ran your CPU at those speeds and don't know it can handle it. If it ran stable, going from 3.4Ghz to 3.6Ghz isn't too bad, but I generally find that going .1Ghz is the most you should really do with out causing damage. But hey, to each their own.

 

So my recommendation would to take it easy on the increase in clock speed, and try out a different temperature monitoring program. I like CPUID Hardware Monitor, personally.

 

Also, make sure you're not over powering the processor compared to your RAM and mobo abilities, specifically the RAM.

[iRloading]

was bumping it .05ghz until i reached that number, had to up the voltage a tiny bit to get it stable at 3.6ghz (1.4v now from previously 1.35)

 

just pushed it to 3.8 and did some benchmarks, and bumped it down to 3.6 for now until i bag a case with better airflow.

[lordjubblydave]

I think this is the correct thread.

TechRadar.com have started selling software, they have some pretty good deals on too.

Not as good as Free software but

Check it out

[Pico]

Oh, ok Julio. I thought you meant you just bumped up the multiplier to get it up to 3.4Ghz right off the bat. Good job doing it at .05 increments... I'm too lazy and just did .1Ghz increments

Knowing that my processor is capable of over 3.0Ghz I figured it'd be fine. I've also over clocked it at least once before to see how it went and I've gotten to 2.85Ghz or so before my temps jumped. Thanks to the new Zalman, I don't have any heat worries

 

What were your temps at 3.8Ghz? 60*C while gaming isn't that bad, imo. It's not good, far from great. But it's well with in the max temps I'm sure. If it started hitting 70*C that's when I'd clock it down for sure. But of course, if it's at a lot lower temp while only being down .2Ghz then I'd just keep it down that much.

 

Do you have a stock HSF on it? As I posted recently my CPU was overheating like a f*cker (80-83*C at IDLE!) with the stock HSF and thermal paste. Got a Zalman CNPS9700 110mm HSF and put some Arctic Silver 5 thermal paste on it, dropped the temps to mid 20*C at idle! Just slightly over room temp. Now that it's OCd it'll hit about 33-35*C during pretty normal use (FF, WMP, etc). Before it'd idle right around 32-33*C. Still, a worlds different. A nice HSF can make a HUGE difference.

 

As for your temps, I'd say make sure any thermal sensors are on in the BIOS. Then check out Real Temp's sensor test (run the program, there's a button at the bottom of the window). Mine was a 5 per core before OCing and just now I got a 7 and 8 for core 1 and 2 respectively. So my sensors seem to be fine. This way you can get a better idea if your thermal sensors are accurate. Also, since you're OCing some mobos have thermal and power saving features which affect the CPUs speed. I'd suggest turning them off

Edited January 13, 2010 by Pico

[Slamman]

The big talk the past week it seems revolved around CES in Cali, where a new laptop displayed a removable SCREEN you could take with you anywhere, working less like a Tablet PC then a Titanic sized iPhone portable media device. What do you feel the benefits of that? It is interesting, but I just tote the whole laptop/notebook with me, typically they aren't too big, of course, that depends.

[Tornado Rex]

I can see that being used in Corporate environments quite a bit. Either for presentations or for IT. Especially if the laptop docks to a bigger monitor and a real mouse and keyboard. It would be much easier to just take a screen off rather than having to un-dock a whole laptop.

[Slamman]

I think it was Samsung who puts out the specific model, I don't recall the power limits while detached, or battery details

[Tornado Rex]

I thought it was Acer. I could be wrong though. I think the battery was supposed to be pretty good on it. I can't imagine it using too much power.

[Pico]

Speaking of CES, one thing I'm loving is all the Android devices! Phones, MIDs, Note/net books, eReaders... MmmmMmmmm

[Slamman]

I thought it was Acer. I could be wrong though. I think the battery was supposed to be pretty good on it. I can't imagine it using too much power.

Pretty sure it wasn't Acer. It got coverage on more then one local TV network here, or more then one channel, like it was the best of the show or something

[Pico]

Well, I finally did some hardcore cable management. I really only had zip ties, no clips or anything so it's not as great as it could have been. And while my case is pretty large, there's no special holes or anything to pop wires through easily, so I had to work with what I got.

 

First, here's an OLD pictures of how it looked. I'd say a year ago...

 

Flash forward, I've got a new HSF and had moved the front panel wires and put the 1TB drive in the HDD tray. Still a f*ckin mess, eh?

 

Well after some time rerouting, twisting, bending, taping... this is what I've got. I love the trick I saw for SATA cables on youtube, just wrap it around a pencil (I used a screwdriver) and it keeps the coiled shape! I also ripped out all the IDE cables, since the only things connected to those were my floppy and old DVD drive, both of which don't work.

So, with out further ado...

 

And here's the back for sh*ts n gigs.

 

Sure it could be a little better, but I worked with what I had. I think it's pretty damn nice, a lot nicer than before.