General Computer Chat

[Purple Materia]

I'd go with a BenQ or Dell monitor if you can. They're a little bit more, but the quality is a LOT better.

The heatsink is brilliant. If you're not overclocking it's probably the best choice on the market. If you are, then you might want to spend a little more dough. I personally use one of these.

I looked at a BenQ monitor and decided on BenQ G2220HD. Perfect for my needs.

As for the heatsink, I don't really have any plans to overclock. I don't like the idea of risking my parts for better performance, lol.

 

[Archer]

I looked at a BenQ monitor and decided on BenQ G2220HD. Perfect for my needs.

As for the heatsink, I don't really have any plans to overclock. I don't like the idea of risking my parts for better performance, lol.

Good choice. And for the record, until you go playing with voltage, you're not going to hurt anything. But that's fine. Great choice of cooler. The only thing that you may want to consider at a later date is another fan. The extra fan means that the they both have to turn slower (less noise) to get the same airflow/pressure.

 

[TheAppleFreak]

Okay, so over the past few days I've been revising my hardware to make a better Hackintosh, and save for a few components I think I have a new rig here. What do you guys think? Some of the components haven't changed from the last build to the next, but I did a fair bit of research on InsanelyMac and I've determined that this new mobo, processor, and GPU are compatible with OS X.

Spoiler:

Gaming Rig
CPU:
Intel Core i7-950 Quad-core @3.06 GHz
$300
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115211

Motherboard:
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3R Motherboard
$210
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128423

Fan/Heatsink
Cooler Master Hyper 212
$30
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103065

Disk Drive
Samsung Blu-ray DVD Burner
$50
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151199

RAM
G.SKILL 8 GB DDR3 SDRAM @1333 MHz
$120
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231311

Graphics
MSI R5770 Radeon HD 5770 1GB Video Card
$170
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127490

Power Supply
Corsair PSU
$130
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171048

Hard Drive
Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB @7200RPM
$55
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152185

Networking
TP-LINK 802.11a/b/g/n PCI Wireless Adapter
$30
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704040

Case:
Antec 900 ATX Case
$100
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129021

Total: $1195

It's a little more expensive than the old build, but this should work a lot better than the old one.

 

[Archer]

Take 3. PC's server is getting worse.

summary:
- No Blu-Ray under OSX
- Antec 902 is better. Black internals, etc.
- Double check people can get Hardware accel. with the 5770.
- Better heatsink if overclocking, otherwise it's fine.

 

[TheAppleFreak]

Take 3. PC's server is getting worse.

summary:
- No Blu-Ray under OSX
I know. It's dual or maybe triple booting with 7 and possibly Ubuntu
- Antec 902 is better. Black internals, etc.
Hmm... I'll just need to make sure to get it during a sale, but otherwise it's better than the 900 indeed.
- Double check people can get Hardware accel. with the 5770.
Apparently it's an issue with Flash. According to some people, they fixed it in Flash 10.1. Others have posted profile mods that disable the power saving benefits of the card but get rid of those pesky annoyances.
- Better heatsink if overclocking, otherwise it's fine.
Not going to overclock; I don't wanna risk having this rig overheat. Besides, 3.06 GHz is enough for me; what would I possibly do with 4?

My responses are bolded. But that's good to hear that the machine is otherwise good to go!

Also, apparently my school's server BSOD'd for about 15 minutes today. It was pretty funny, logging in about 5 minutes before the crash and then watching people stare at me enviously while I work on a functioning machine.

 

[Archer]

My responses are bolded. But that's good to hear that the machine is otherwise good to go!

I don't know about the card, they just didn't have much past the ability to set the res via configs the last time I looked. And the i7s will happily hit 4GHz if you give them enough cooling and volts, but that's a personal thing. Keep in mind 4GHz means 33% faster rendering or any CPU-intensive tasks. No pressure.

Also, apparently my school's server BSOD'd for about 15 minutes today. It was pretty funny, logging in about 5 minutes before the crash and then watching people stare at me enviously while I work on a functioning machine.

Yeah, I remember a really old teacher pulling the plug on a computer years ago, when an friend and I were play "slime volleyball" in IT. Idiot.

Hahaha. I remember one guy hacked his friend's account and put a tiled image of excessively large breasts for a background. A teacher saw and unplugged the computer, and it damaged the fragile network connection. It had major problems logging in and getting past the Desktop Authority screen, and after waiting half an hour, fixed his friend's profile and lost his computer privileges.

I swear, the teachers do more harm than the students, because they think themselves more capable.

That said, our school network was really sturdy. I think it went down once this year. And the one time the previous year was due to someone in my class sneaking into the server room and swapping all of the ethernet cables around on the switch.

Servers should not just BSOD. They're locked down tighter than a normal Windows install, so I'd be testing the memory on that...

 

[Purple Materia]

And the i7s will happily hit 4GHz if you give them enough cooling and volts, but that's a personal thing. Keep in mind 4GHz means 33% faster rendering or any CPU-intensive tasks. No pressure.

How hard is it to overclock a Phenom X6 to 4Ghz? I typically stay away from overclocking, but I can't ignore a 33% increase of speed.

 

[Archer]

How hard is it to overclock a Phenom X6 to 4Ghz? I typically stay away from overclocking, but I can't ignore a 33% increase of speed.

They will need a voltage boost and you will need a better cooler than the the 212+, but I'd say 1.45V and pop the multi up to 20 and it's done. Of course, it's not quite that simple, you need to keep an eye on temps and do stability testing at each point.

You don't have to push it to 4GHz. The Phenoms should hit at least 3.6 on stock volts. =20% from 3GHz isn't too shabby.

 

[Purple Materia]

Hmmm. Even a 2% increase in performance isn't bad imo.

 

[Archer]

@Archer: The school's computers were bad enough as is. It took computers 5 minutes just to log in. When we did our first login, we had to log back out so we wouldn't ruin anything. If we ran a program before logging out for the first time and it had some error, it would send that error to the server within our roaming profile and that program would be plagued with that error for the next eight or nine months. There were also many days when the network was down, so Multimedia and Digital Imaging classes were rather boring. I'm so glad, in some ways, that the school district upgraded to 7 this summer. The only downside is we don't have cookies and we cannot customize our profiles (backgrounds, window colors, etc.)

To have a student go swapping ethernet cables? That's cruel. And costly.

Funny part is: I would rarely use the school supplied computers (we've been loaned laptops, as well) I used my laptop in class, because it was nicer and it meant I didn't get distracted by using the net in class. :D

 

[Archer]

I so wish. Our school has laptops, not enough for 2000 students though. I have been threatening to get a laptop on Boxing Day, but mom keeps on insisting that she'll get me one as a grad gift in 2 or so years.

Don't feel too bad. It's only for the senior students, so Year 11 and 12. This might be... >140 students? Laptops can be great for some things, but it's bad to rely on them. Especially when it comes to keeping study notes and getting into the practise of writing a lot for essays.

 

[TheAppleFreak]

So... yesterday was Black Friday and it's Cyber Monday in two days. Did anyone purchase/is anyone going to purchase anything new yesterday or Monday?

 

[Purple Materia]

Hmmm, I never really thought it was necessary. I guess I should at least try it whenever I use Windows 7 again.

 

[Archer]

Nope. This school is Grades 10-12 (Year 10-12 if you prefer) and that alone is about 800-1200 students. The district would never have enough money.

We're only borrowing them, so the school is keeping them in comission for about 4 years. They're really crappy, anyway. Celerons with 2GB Ram WOOO... Locked down really heavy, too.

Has anyone tried Windows Readyboost? I am trying it with a 1 gig usb stick, and I don't really see any change, unless I am doing something wrong.

Total waste of time. Unless you only have 1GB ram in the first place...

 

[Purple Materia]

My motherboard doesn't support PCIe 2.0. Which means the best video card I can get would be a 8600GS. So I'm going to replace my motherboard with a better model. Any suggestions?

GA-EP43-UD3L?

 

[Archer]

My motherboard doesn't support PCIe 2.0. Which means the best video card I can get would be a 8600GS. So I'm going to replace my motherboard with a better model. Any suggestions?

GA-EP43-UD3L?

Are you sure about that? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure a PCI-E 2.0 card will work in a PCI-E 1.0 slot. Unless it's AGP, you should be okay.

Can't do much, like needing Administrative permissions? Same here, less portable though.

No, can't do much as in - can't run any programs they don't explicitly allow, can't change any settings whatsoever. That includes wallpapers.

And if you need readyboost, your computer shouldn't be running Vista. What are the specs?

 

[Purple Materia]

Are you sure about that? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure a PCI-E 2.0 card will work in a PCI-E 1.0 slot. Unless it's AGP, you should be okay.

Most people tell me that a 2.0 card will need a 2.0 slot. But I do need a new motherboard anyway.

 

[TheAppleFreak]

Well, on a completely unrelated subject to the current chat, I talked to my parents regarding my most recent build, and being the incredibly computer savvy people that they are [/sarcasm], they had some questions regarding building your own computer.

1) Would it be worth it building your own computer or just paying a premium for a prebuilt one from, say, Dell?

2) How long would it take to construct the actual machine, given that you have all of the parts (not counting installing the OS(es) and applications)?

Even though to any tech geek such as ourselves these questions are trivial at best, they'd still appreciate an answer that isn't mine.

 

[donavannj]

My answers to those questions:

1. Yes. You control what goes into your machine with a custom built machine and therefore can build it better suited to your needs, whereas with a pre-built machine, you can only choose from a limited selection of options. The motherboards in pre-built machines also tend to be quite locked-down, which can cause problems when you're trying to add an expansion card or more RAM in, because they'll only work with certain kinds of each (which is largely a ploy to try to get you to order parts through them at a pretty big markup). The parts also tend to be lower quality

2. An hour tops.

 

[Spinor]

I'm tech savy... I just don't know why I don't post here often >__>

Anyways, here's a new face for you all.

I need some opinions of a computer I bought online: This one

I think it's pretty good, but I have a few questions:

1. Are there any disadvantages to using shared memory versus dedicated? (The video is Intel HD and all shared up to 1.5GB or so)
2. How good exactly is the processor (I've never used Intel before XD)
3. What the hell is Lightscribe?