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The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition
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AfterDawn Addict
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9. June 2012 @ 09:24 |
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Hi guys. Been a while since I have posted. Had a 7day a week job but now am finished, and feel like splashing the cash. Watercooled pc methinks
MGR (Micro Gaming Rig) .|. Intel Q6600 @ 3.45GHz .|. Asus P35 P5K-E/WiFi .|. 4GB 1066MHz Geil Black Dragon RAM .|. Samsung F60 SSD .|. Corsair H50-1 Cooler .|. Sapphire 4870 512MB .|. Lian Li PC-A70B .|. Be Queit P7 Dark Power Pro 850W PSU .|. 24" 1920x1200 DGM (MVA Panel) .|. 24" 1920x1080 Dell (TN Panel) .|. |
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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9. June 2012 @ 09:28 |
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Welcome back :)
Just don't go selling it in two months, eh?
Working 7 days a week sucks, especially when you don't even get paid for it (Personal experience of the last couple of months!).
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9. June 2012 @ 09:37 |
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Ouch, not getting paid for it. I can't imagine that! 15 hours a day though, 7 days a week. If i didnt get paid, there would be hell.
Hopefully Hopefully this time I don't. Well I'm not at uni anymore, so no logging it around, and that that was he reason then.
So what's new in the last 6 months, CPU wise, gpu wise, cases, ssds etc?
MGR (Micro Gaming Rig) .|. Intel Q6600 @ 3.45GHz .|. Asus P35 P5K-E/WiFi .|. 4GB 1066MHz Geil Black Dragon RAM .|. Samsung F60 SSD .|. Corsair H50-1 Cooler .|. Sapphire 4870 512MB .|. Lian Li PC-A70B .|. Be Queit P7 Dark Power Pro 850W PSU .|. 24" 1920x1200 DGM (MVA Panel) .|. 24" 1920x1080 Dell (TN Panel) .|.
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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9. June 2012 @ 10:01 |
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Okay, quick catchup lession.
CPUs:
AMD Bulldozer - 75% of the speed per-core as Phenom II, thus the 3.6Ghz FX-8150 is about the same as a 3.6Ghz Phenom II X6. FX CPu uses far more power when overclocked (400W+ at 4.5Ghz!), Phenom II discontinued, sad times.
Intel Ivy Bridge - about 5% extra speed per-core as Sandy Bridge, and similar clock speeds. Other than reduced power consumption has no innate advantages other than some PCI express tweaks. Due to a design flaw, runs far hotter than Sandy Bridge and is thus a little more difficult to overclock.
RAM: RAM is silly cheap now, it's pretty much a throwaway subject.
HDD: Prices still not recovered since Taiwan floods. Prices very slowly falling, but going rate is still £80-£95 for 2TB drives and £120-£140 for 3TB drives. Hitachi are first to market with a 4TB drive for around £220-£250.
SSD: SSD prices have fallen considerably, hitting around 60p/GB in some cases. OCZ SSDs consistently proving least reliable by a wide margin.
PSU: Not much changed here, unsurprisingly.
GPU: AMD HD7 series comes out, spanks all previous generations for very reasonable power consumption - includes some excellent idle optimisations allowing fan to be shut down at idle even on stock coolers. Shows far better performance at high-end resolutions, and much higher tolerance of nvidia-biased titles.
Geforce GTX6 series is released and, instead of relying on biased games, simply now wins full stop. The GTX670 is cheaper than the HD7970, reliably faster and has very respectable power consumption for once. Not only are nvidia now winning performance per £/$, they are also winning performance per watt. Despite the HD7970 price cut, they're going to have to go further before AMD are price-competitive in the high-end sector again.
Cases: Not looked to be honest.
In other news, my ISP have finally announced the upgrade to 80Mbps/20Mbps FTTC, and upped their peak usage allowances with it. Good times :)
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 9. June 2012 @ 10:03
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ddp
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9. June 2012 @ 13:16 |
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spammer spammed
harvardguy, what happened to your status? talk to site admin to fix it as we mods can't except to tell admin about it.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 9. June 2012 @ 13:39
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9. June 2012 @ 14:21 |
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Quote:
AMD Bulldozer - 75% of the speed per-core as Phenom II, thus the 3.6Ghz FX-8150 is about the same as a 3.6Ghz Phenom II X6. FX CPu uses far more power when overclocked (400W+ at 4.5Ghz!), Phenom II discontinued, sad times.
This will improve as AMD redesigns the Bulldozer based CPUs. Bulldozer isn't the problem and is a great architecture, but AMD implemented it in almost the worst way imaginable with their designs. As new steppings and slight modifications come out, it could improve incredibly even without a die shrink. Check out how well Trinity is doing versus Llano despite having Piledriver CPU cores that are based on Bulldozer as a slight hint of what's to come. Also, the FX-8120 and 8150 can be modded for a large performance boost that puts them beyond Phenom II in tasks that use four threads or less. FX's performance per Hz disadvantage is also not as bad as you stated. The 8150 at (or 8120 when overclocked to) 3.6GHz is still above a Phenom II x6 that's been overclocked to 3.6GHz if it is used in integer tasks that can use at least eight threads and is far superior in FP tasks that use SSE4.x, SSSE3, AVX, etc. etc.
If you disable one core from each module in an FX CPU, giving the FX-8xxx CPUs only four active cores organized as one per module, each core now has an entire module's resources all to itself. This improves each core's performance per Hz and also allows more aggressive Turbo frequencies. FX-81xx CPUs are also better-binned than the FX4100 with the same amount of active cores as the modded 81xx, so used in such a way, they should be a little more power-efficient than the FX-4100 (although still very power hungry for their performance compared to Intel's LGA 1155 processors). This improves FX-81xx substantially and lets them at least beat Phenom II in performance per core.
By using over 400w when overclocked, maybe you were referring to something like this:
http://vr-zone.com/articles/amd-fx-8150...-/13694-12.html
The 8150 used less than 280w at 4.7GHz (258w over idle and adding a little since idle is not exactly zero). Over 400w would be including the entire system's power usage, not the CPU's alone. This is still incredibly high for one CPU, but it is not as bad as you said it is. This is also with all of the power-saving features disabled and a somewhat higher overclock than even most overclockers would use, so it's not really representative of the 8150's power usage in more common, realistic situations, especially considering that this was Prime95, not real-world power usage. Dropping down a few hundred MHz and a voltage drop would only drop performance down marginally, but due to the exponential way that power usage increases with linearly increased clock frequencies and voltage, it would drop power usage substantially. It's not a perfect solution and this is still too high, but again, it's not nearly as bad as you said it is. Disabling four cores like I said above would improve the performance software that uses four or fewer threads (granted it means less highly threaded performance) while dropping power usage substantially. It can't compete with SB or IB in performance per watt nor performance per core very well at all, but it is a large improvement. It could fight the i7-920 for overclocked performance and overclocked performance per watt, possibly even beating the 920.
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Intel Ivy Bridge - about 5% extra speed per-core as Sandy Bridge, and similar clock speeds. Other than reduced power consumption has no innate advantages other than some PCI express tweaks. Due to a design flaw, runs far hotter than Sandy Bridge and is thus a little more difficult to overclock.
This is not a design flaw. Intel intentionally did this. Intel replaced the fluxless solder between the CPU die and the heat sink with poor quality thermal paste. Compared to the solder, the paste is almost an insulator. Ivy Bridge CPUs, when modded to fix this (remove IHS, remove paste, insert high-quality paste, glue IHS back on), are now superior to Sandy Bridge CPUs for overclocking. Well, K edition IB i5s and i7s are superior to similar SB K edition i5s and i7s after you do this mod. It's not as good as fluxless solder, but if you use the right paste, it's enough to let IB's lower power consumption and superior overclocking ability shine. It's an easy mod, but it is time-consuming.
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GPU: AMD HD7 series comes out, spanks all previous generations for very reasonable power consumption - includes some excellent idle optimisations allowing fan to be shut down at idle even on stock coolers. Shows far better performance at high-end resolutions, and much higher tolerance of nvidia-biased titles.
Geforce GTX6 series is released and, instead of relying on biased games, simply now wins full stop. The GTX670 is cheaper than the HD7970, reliably faster and has very respectable power consumption for once. Not only are nvidia now winning performance per £/$, they are also winning performance per watt. Despite the HD7970 price cut, they're going to have to go further before AMD are price-competitive in the high-end sector again.
The GTX 670 and the Radeon 7970 are on-par with each other at 2560x1600 if you use a large selection of games, although the GTX 670 does win in price/performance, in performance/watt in games, and wins more often in many of the more popular games. However, this is only true with the GTX 670 and GTX 680... AMD seems to win in the more affordable markets. When you count overclocking performance, the Radeon 7950 and GTX 670 are fairly close in price/performance (with the 670 taking a lead most of the time, but a much small one), so the gap closes significantly with overclocking. Going into 5760x1080 and beyond, AMD starts to win, granted that isn't really where AMD needed to win for most potential customers.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 9. June 2012 @ 16:43
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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9. June 2012 @ 17:52 |
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I'm sure there's room for improvement with Bulldozer, but I don't think it will be anything like the quantum leap needed to make Bulldozer a worthy successor to Phenom II. For it to really be any sort of success, CPUs need to be offered with at least the same performance per core as Phenom IIs, but preserving the 8-core advantage, so you could effectively buy a Phenom II X8.
For the power consumption numbers, here's one example:
Assuming a fairly generous 'rest of system' idle figure of 100W from those tests (the lowest recorded idle wattage in the test was 110W, leaving 10W for the CPU), this is a UK-based test, where the PSU used will be 90% efficient at this load. This makes the CPU's draw (586-100-20)*0.9 = 419.4W. The extra 20W subtracted is for the difference in boards used (mATX for the Intels, ATX for the AMDs in this test).
By contrast, when tested at 5Ghz, the Core i7 2600K managed (313-100)*0.9 = 191W.
I'm well aware of the fallacies of using whole system wattage as the consumption for a whole component, and it irks me as much as the next man.
I'm aware of the mods for the CPUs, but there are plenty of people who will happily overclock a CPU, but will not extend to the sort of work required for that mod, and arguably it shouldn't be necessary, as this is not an issue that solely affects overclockers - it will have an impact on heat levels at stock clocks too. It's by design, but by bad design.
Right now nvidia does not have the edge in the midrange market, which is ultimately where the money is. The HD7 series from AMD very much remains in force there. However, in the realms of high-end hardware here, it's a little shakey for AMD. The wins of the HD7970 at high-res are what keep me interested in it as a 2560x1600 user, but even so, 2560x1600 isn't even enough to prevent the GTX670 tipping the balance slightly. It's really only eyefinity where the HD7900s start to take over.
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Member
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9. June 2012 @ 18:12 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
I'm sure there's room for improvement with Bulldozer, but I don't think it will be anything like the quantum leap needed to make Bulldozer a worthy successor to Phenom II. For it to really be any sort of success, CPUs need to be offered with at least the same performance per core as Phenom IIs, but preserving the 8-core advantage, so you could effectively buy a Phenom II X8.
For the power consumption numbers, here's one example:
Assuming a fairly generous 'rest of system' idle figure of 100W from those tests (the lowest recorded idle wattage in the test was 110W, leaving 10W for the CPU), this is a UK-based test, where the PSU used will be 90% efficient at this load. This makes the CPU's draw (586-100-20)*0.9 = 419.4W. The extra 20W subtracted is for the difference in boards used (mATX for the Intels, ATX for the AMDs in this test).
By contrast, when tested at 5Ghz, the Core i7 2600K managed (313-100)*0.9 = 191W.
I'm well aware of the fallacies of using whole system wattage as the consumption for a whole component, and it irks me as much as the next man.
I'm aware of the mods for the CPUs, but there are plenty of people who will happily overclock a CPU, but will not extend to the sort of work required for that mod, and arguably it shouldn't be necessary, as this is not an issue that solely affects overclockers - it will have an impact on heat levels at stock clocks too. It's by design, but by bad design.
Well, Bulldozer CPUs really could have a huge leap if AMD designed them properly. I'll explain.
1. Bulldozer CPUs were completely computer-designed. This might sound ideal on paper, but it is not in practice. Computers know the fastest way to design a CPU, not the way to design the fastest CPU. This increases power usage and die size by about 20% while decreasing performance by a similar 20%. That alone is a more than 40% drop in power efficiency.
2. Bulldozer CPUs have soft-ended flip-flops. I'm not exactly sure of how much this affected power efficiency, but I know that soft-ended flip-flops are less power efficient than hard-end flip-flops.
Then there are other issues that AMD already had such as an inefficient memory controller, huge latency cache, and more. A simple improvement that AMD could have done without even improving the design would have been having the second core of each module present itself as a logical thread like in HTT, so that if any intensive threads were to run, they could run on the primary core of a module and let the secondary core idle, basically implementing the mod that I mentioned by default.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 9. June 2012 @ 18:55
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AfterDawn Addict
15 product reviews
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9. June 2012 @ 19:24 |
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Bulldozer has a LOT of room to improve. I've heard that computer design vs hand design argument before and it's interesting. Phenom I was also computer designed, and Phenom II was basically Phenom I re-worked by hand. So... if they can make some real improvements, Bulldozer will be a very worthy CPU. As it currently stands though, it is not very fast at all.
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 4GHz(20 x 200) 1.5v 3000NB 2000HT, Corsair Hydro H110 w/ 4 x 140mm 1500RPM fans Push/Pull, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, 8GB(2 x 4GB) G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz CL9 1.55v, Gigabyte GTX760 OC 4GB(1170/1700), Corsair 750HX
Detailed PC Specs: http://my.afterdawn.com/estuansis/blog_entry.cfm/11388 |
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9. June 2012 @ 23:17 |
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I know from experience that when making PCB's that computer aided tools alone doesn't work as well as hand design if that is what he is getting at which I would assume is similar to making the masks for a given cpu die. It is always better to control your routes and via's by hand in the tools I've used. So that argument could hold some validity.
And certainly the soft-ended flip-flops does too for wattage if that is true as well.
Interesting points...
I'll probably get one this fall to play with, can hardly wait. And then with Russ's monitor I'll have a new PC. LOL
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harvardguy
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10. June 2012 @ 01:02 |
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Thanks for the link:
Hey, I see its an overclocking forum. Would you recommend I mosey around that forum since I am just about to start some Q9450 overclocking, or should I just ask you guys when I have questions?
Speaking of questions, I do have one already. I wonder if my newb status will allow me to link.
I already took the picture out.
(This is getting really dull. I can't put any pictures, nor any links at all. How do I contact a moderator - for real. Add a lot of cuss words like Shaff, to get somebodys attention, lol?)
This guy said something about if you volt the 7950 to 7970 specs it really flies. Anybody know those voltages?
Rich
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10. June 2012 @ 01:35 |
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Originally posted by harvardguy:
Thanks for the link:
Hey, I see its an overclocking forum. Would you recommend I mosey around that forum since I am just about to start some Q9450 overclocking, or should I just ask you guys when I have questions?
Speaking of questions, I do have one already. I wonder if my newb status will allow me to link.
I already took the picture out.
(This is getting really dull. I can't put any pictures, nor any links at all. How do I contact a moderator - for real. Add a lot of cuss words like Shaff, to get somebodys attention, lol?)
This guy said something about if you volt the 7950 to 7970 specs it really flies. Anybody know those voltages?
Rich
It varies.
Quote:
In the meantime though a couple interesting facts have come to light. While both our reference card and our XFX card ran at 1.175v, it turns out that this is not the only voltage the 7970 ships at. Retail buyers have reported receiving cards that run at 1.112v and 1.05v, and Alexey Nicolaychuk (aka Unwinder), the author of MSI Afterburner, has discovered that there?s a 4th voltage according to the fuses on Tahiti: 1.025v. 1.025v has not been seen in any retail cards so far, and it?s most likely a bin that?s reserved for future products (e.g. the eventual 7990), while out of the remaining 3 voltages 1.175 appears to be the most common.
Regardless, bumping up the voltage of either Tahiti card can net very large gains. I know that 7850s can often hit 1.3v or just short of 1.3v safely, but I'm not sure about how far the 7950 and the 7970 can go. I'd assume at least as far as the 7850's 1.3v, but I'm not positive on that. Also, I'm a newbie on this site, but I seem to be able to post links.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 10. June 2012 @ 01:37
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harvardguy
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10. June 2012 @ 01:37 |
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Hey blaze - thanks for the voltage tips. I'll print them out in my 7000 paperport folder for future overclocking.
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Jeff, I am blown away by your crysis post - I'm still back at the mechanics. I have to do a bunch of little posts before they decide to let me do any linking, unless I can get a mod to give me a break.
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Originally posted by Jeff:
Basically all the wonderful parallax occlusion mapping(bump mapping on everything) doesn't have the proper visual effect when used in combination with anisotropic filtering. This is simply a tweaked shader that allows AF to work without reducing the effect of POM. Highly recommended even if you don't intend to mod Crysis.
Fantastic!!!
Originally posted by Jeff:
Its main downfall is the actual texture resolution of the individual leaves. So one of the most advanced aspects of Crysis got the worst treatment and needed modding the most. This mod is a wonderful upgrade on its own.
I would imagine that crytek was originally worried about texture sizes - no card at that time exceeded 1 gig, right? So I remember you talking about increased close up textures last week, and at the time I wondered how that might slow up the game - any performance hit?
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Ugh, stock rock textures in Crysis are horrible. Much akin to Far Cry 1. I believe this is one thing Sam made adamantly clear that he did not like. This small mod is another wonderful enhancement that feels like it should have been there to begin with.
Wow, this is great stuff. But how much horsepower requirement are you adding here?
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this mod changes that to something more natural for palm trees normally found in the Philippines(where Crysis takes place).
Damn! like Kevin said "I'm drooling." I see blazorthon has been back, and his quote just keeps coming back to me with every mod you describe, Jeff, how the visual enhancements can start stacking up until you get to the point where what you thought was fabulous before, is now, by comparison, only just average.
Keep them coming Jeff - I just hope someday I can run the game with all this stuff in it. Then I'll disappear for a month, and emerge from the trailer 20 pounds lighter, rubbing my eyes against the harsh real sunlight - "The Korean patrol is after me!" LOL
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Basically the water in Crysis is spectacular but way too calm to be ocean water.
Holy cr*p. I'm a kid in a candy store!!!
Originally posted by Jeff:
This is by far the largest mod I use for Crysis and one of the most spectacular. It basically re-samples, re-filters and re-bumps every stock texture in the game. This mod technically uses Crytek's stock artwork just completely re-processed. It leaves the look of the game intact while including higher resolution textures. Everything is much sharper, bump mapping has been re-done and is much more pronounced, and the performance impact is very slight as well due to still being stock textures. This mod makes Crysis really POP!
Okay - you mention performance impact - slight. Good! Thanks for including the fix for the transparent leaf problem.
Great tip about running in 32 bit DX10 mode.
You lost me here:
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Create a file called System.cfg(make sure it's actually a cfg file and not a text file with a CFG extension in the name. Turning off "Hide Known File Extensions" ensures you can create a cfg by saving a text file with the .cfg extension.
I know I am reading something the wrong way - to me it looks like first you say do not just create a text file, and terminate with a cfg extension instead of txt, but then you say save a text file with a cfg extension.
Wait - maybe we're talking plain notepad text, versus wordpad text.
Okay:
I make a text file. To be sure no extras, I open it in Notepad. Not Wordpad. Not a rich text - absolutely no wrapping - just straight simple text.
I add those statements you came up with. Then in notepad, I save with .cfg extension. Is that right?
Rich
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 10. June 2012 @ 04:22
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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10. June 2012 @ 01:42 |
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Rich, why do you have two harvardguy/harvrdguy accounts?
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
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harvardguy
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10. June 2012 @ 01:57 |
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Hey Kevin - I'm harvardguy all over the net, and get this, I own the website harvardguy.com. Yeah, lol. It's helpful sometimes to get real estate business.
Anyway, 5 or 6 years ago, (Shaff how long have I been hanging around here - since your little brother first destroyed one of your cases, right?) they had a 9-character limit, so I had to use harvrdguy, which half the time I forget which letter I threw away. Over on Tom's hardware, I asked blazorthon to come on over and visit our forum - very glad he did - and I was astonished that he came with all 10 letters of his nick - I had told him that wouldn't work. So I immediately created a new account before some other guy grabbed it.
So now I'm a total newb - I really don't care, but the forum won't let me post any pictures, or any links. Blazorthon, for some reason can, but I can't. LOL
So Kevin, you've been around for quite a while - how do I get the attention of one of the moderators to fix this newb problem I'm having?
EDIT: Oh, thank god, I just noticed DDP's post above - okay I'll try to figure out how to contact admin - thanks DDP!
Rich
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 10. June 2012 @ 02:06
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AfterDawn Addict
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10. June 2012 @ 02:00 |
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DDP is usually trolling around :P
I was concerned, because the spammers seem to be quoting me. It wouldn't surprise me if they start choosing highly similar screen names ;)
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
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harvardguy
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10. June 2012 @ 03:05 |
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You're right Kevin.
Good for DDP. He told me to contact admin, and I will pretty soon.
I'm right now reading the fascinating exchange between Sam and Blaze, and in a day or so I'm going back to find those pictures that Jeff posted.
In the meantime, man is it a joy when two guys come together who know their hardware so well. I have always been awed by Sam's technical prowess, on hardware he uses, and on hardware he doesn't use. And I keep thinking blazorthon is a chip designer - but if not - I guess he should be. I love that new quote - computers know how to design a computer fast, but not how to design a fast computer.
Hahahahahaha!
Not even Shaff could have come up with something better than that!!!
That idea about HTT sounds pretty good to me - sure - don't give the secondary cores complete access to all the resources, and thereby screw up the design. HTT puts the solution together at the end - somehow .......
Nice to see Stevo come in with some real world experience of building thousands of PCs. Not that I exactly know what you dudes are talking about - but it's fascinating anyway.
Rich
Side note: I have discovered iTunes.
And the saxophones are happening right now, in a big way - with that woofer rocking the house as the bass player strums those big strings while the piano takes a nice little turn. (I would be happy to upload this whole 17 gig library to my ftp site, and let you guys in on it - I wonder how much jail time I'd get.)
I was accused of destroying a relative's iTunes library in all those computer problems I had on the 320 gig ide drive with only one partition, on a laptop with a bios that had the old 130 gigs limitation, which I was not aware of, lol.
Thankfully, all that is fixed now - C has 120 gigs, plus D partition with 200, for both identical laptops. Everything is smooth. And best of all, the relative was wrong, I lost NOTHING.
But to prove that, whereas before I didn't know a thing about iTunes, now, a month after intensive study, I am a freakin expert. So right this minute, on my ancient but still great Altec Lansing computer speakers with big woofer, I have a saxophone playlist going that is almost as good as Russ's theatrical organs - and here in the trailer it is LOUD - it drowns out the sounds of the opossums shuffling around behind the cabinetry. (no lie - I am procrastinating going down to get some non-lethal traps to take the guys closer to the beach)
Oh - that reminds me - I know all you guys love the sound that comes along with gaming, and no doubt you all love music in general. Look how Jeff put the 5.1 spec in the .cfg for crysis. I too game with 5.1 through my medusa headphones.
Anyway, I decided to get that relative, who caused me to dive into iTunes, (because out of it I acquired her entire library, and now I have 2800 songs, not just 200, lol) a better set of speakers than the two small stereo speakers that she had - and of course with a woofer. I figured I'd pay about $100, similar to what I paid years ago for these Altec Lansings. I went on the net to Best Buy, where I bought the Lansings.
They had some Klipsch speakers - two satellites and a gigantic woofer - about $159. There were 440 reviews and every review was more ecstatic than the rest. One guy had spent $6000 on his Lexus car speakers, and he said they were just minimally better sound than the Klipsch. I installed the satellites on the wall, the woofer sitting in the corner, but we couldn't turn it up, and I returned to Orange County. She had her dinner party, and sent me an email about the awesome quality.
I went up there again last weekend, and one afternoon, when she wasn't around, I turned it up and let it rip! Jazz was flowing out of that house - I walked out front to see if I was going to be arrested.
A neighbor, a soul brother, said "I can hear it!" I said - put your head in - finally he did. "Wow it's loud in here."
Then he said, "You can tell good sound by Jazz, and by classical". He left. After a minute, I changed to some classical, stood back and let the violins wash over me - at high volume. My hair stood on end, it was so rich and melodic, the harmonies like walking under a waterfall. There was a sharp knock on the door - it was him again - he heard the classical come on and he wanted another peek. I said "Listen to those bassoons!" He said, "Yeah, like they're right here!"
If you know anybody who is looking for some computer speakers - Klipsch, at Best Buy - read the reviews - some of them go back 4 years, so it's a well-proven product!! Shaff - check it out since you're in a buying mood!!
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harvardguy
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10. June 2012 @ 03:51 |
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Sorry about the double!
OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just went through Jeff's pictures. CRAZY FANTASTIC!!!
I remember way back when - Sam said, "You know, Crysis doesn't look that good!" Of course, we started to figure out it only starts looking REALLY good at very high. So I put it back on the shelf, and Sam mostly did too as I recall.
But these mods, Jeff!!
You are a freakin magician - you should work for a game company. I'm scared to play it if I can get it lookin this good - I'll never come in for dinner!!!
It looks as good as these saxophones sound. I've got a big silly grin on my face.
I passed a car today with LG on it - Life's Good - yes it is.
My new life plan:
I'll get Crysis looking this good, listen to the saxophones one more time, wander around that environment sparring with the Koreans, then they can come and get me - "Saint Peter - I'm yours - Let's see if heaven can match the saxophones, and Jeff's modded Crysis"
What do you mean, you're not even at the pretty part!!!!!
WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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10. June 2012 @ 05:49 |
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I had a couple of sets of 5.1 headphones for a while, one from Trust and one from Zalman and they were fine, but not as good as proper stereo headphones really. What you gain from the 5.1 effect you lose far more in actual sound production vs. a proper stereo set.
I used Sennheiser HD212 Pros from the beginning of 2007 up until about late 2009 when the cable to the left ear stopped working - this is an inherent problem with sennheisers, and I'm now on my third set of HD202s (what I replaced them with, same thing pretty much) but I'm happy to pay out because they're pretty inexpensive (£25, even from general shops like Argos) and at least as good as far more expensive headphones.
Rich, if you mean:
Then as I assume you're aware, that's just the slogan. LG actually stands for Lucky Goldstar.
I hear lots of rave reviews about Klipsch speakers. There's very little from them that's reasonably priced over here in the UK, but I'm still a big fan of the Logitech Z-5500 speakers I bought second hand 5 years ago.
Also, there's no Best Buy in the UK. There was for a couple of years when they tried it out, but it was a financial disaster, and they've since pulled out of the market.
FTPing content privately to another individual is not something you should worry about Rich. Just don't open the floodgates to the masses.
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AfterDawn Addict
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10. June 2012 @ 13:39 |
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harvardguy,
I started with a clean page, I didn't want to add to so long a post. Thanks for your comments. I appreciate them. It only took over a year to find all the things Fannie Mae pulled that weren't kosher. I'm even thinking about seeing if I can recover the rent we paid. We signed a one year lease with Fannie Mae in 2010, and legally they didn't own the house, not without a proper deed, and they didn't have one. When they tried to evict us, the made the last month of the lease the 30 days on the eviction notice, and you can't do that. We were entitled to the entire 1 year lease +30 days. Again without a properly recorded deed, they had no right to charge rent. The original eviction papers from 2010 had a copy of the deed, but it was all messed up. The property originally had 3 houses. I large house in the front, and two small houses behind. The main house burned in the early 50's, and the deed was never changed, There was also a time where part of the property was going to be subdivided, but the deal fell through, but the deed shows it as being subdivided, so the property that was to be sold wasn't on the new deed. They scared the people from next door and got them to move out in 5 days. They also tried to do that to me, and he said he would be back with the Sheriff in 5 days the trouble was they filed on an address that didn't exist with the post office. 2 days later Fannie Mae gave us a 90 day notice to vacate, using the same deed, so the deed wasn't in order and there was no #219. I found out later that I had been wrong when I assumed, that the postal codes would change too. My Postman informed me #219 was unused. It's a class C Felony to knowingly and willingly send mail to an address you know to be false, but you walk free, like a ticket. But what do you when these felonies are being committed by a giant corporation, part of the US Government, to circumvent the law,
At first it was exciting, looking for stuff, but then it gets boring. Took me 14 months to find everything I needed.
Oh here's a little present for you. Meet "Mighty Mo", the second largest Theater organ in the world. It's special because it's not a Wurlitzer, it's a Moller. A much different and more beautiful sound. The acoustics of the Atlanta Fox are fabulous. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S4_MazmhQk
I don't play much anymore. I had a couple of strokes last summer and I've lost the touch in my left hand. The fingers don't work like I want them to. I can do mundane things with it, like pick up a cup of coffee. I can even write left handed, but the touch is gone and most of the speed. Still I have other interests. Here's one of them for you. http://video.pbs.org/video/1934358326/ This is Jackie Evancho singing Angel. If you've never heard her sing put a pillow under your chin, because your jaw is gonna drop. Oh, and bring a box of Kleenex. You may need them. If you know of her you probably know that already She's already in the Guinness Book of World Records. as the youngest ever to debut in the top 10, and was the last platinum awarded for 2011. She was the top selling debut album for 2011. Trust me you never heard anyone so beautiful in your life! she sounds 30 when she sings, and a little girl when she talks. Arguably the greatest! pure voice ever!
Enjoy,
Russ
GigaByte 990FXA-UD5 - AMD FX-8320 @4.0GHz @1.312v - Corsair H-60 liquid CPU Cooler - 4x4 GB GSkill RipJaws DDR3/1866 Cas8, 8-9-9-24 - Corsair 400-R Case - OCZ FATAL1TY 550 watt Modular PSU - Intel 330 120GB SATA III SSD - WD Black 500GB SATA III - WD black 1 TB Sata III - WD Black 500GB SATA II - 2 Asus DRW-24B1ST DVD-Burner - Sony 420W 5.1 PL-II Suround Sound - GigaByte GTX550/1GB 970 Mhz Video - Asus VE247H 23.6" HDMI 1080p Monitor
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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10. June 2012 @ 13:45 |
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I must admit, I'm becoming acutely more aware of the benefits of good senses, co-ordination and health. Over the last couple of years I've had routine back problems including sciatica, and today in particular I have a blocked ear leaving me almost deaf on one side until it clears. You only realise just how much you rely on good health when it is taken from you, so I know how hard it must be with that realisation Russ.
Here's hoping that's the last of the major ailments you'll suffer for a long time :)
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ddp
Moderator
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10. June 2012 @ 13:46 |
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omega, i never troll, i just browse.
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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10. June 2012 @ 14:19 |
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Originally posted by ddp:
omega, i never troll, i just browse.
I believe the word "Troll" has been mutated to the point of insult. I meant no offense.
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
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ddp
Moderator
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10. June 2012 @ 14:31 |
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i know that. i'm subscribed to this thread plus others so whenever somebody posts i get an update on it.
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AfterDawn Addict
15 product reviews
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10. June 2012 @ 15:58 |
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Quote:
I would imagine that crytek was originally worried about texture sizes - no card at that time exceeded 1 gig, right? So I remember you talking about increased close up textures last week, and at the time I wondered how that might slow up the game - any performance hit?
Overall these mods don't introduce a very big performance hit. I average 47 in the benchmark with maxed settings vs say 50 without the mods. Turning off streaming textures helps a LOT. Remember I'm still limited to 1GB of video RAM as well even with 2 x 1GB cards so the hit can't be very big.
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I know I am reading something the wrong way - to me it looks like first you say do not just create a text file, and terminate with a cfg extension instead of txt, but then you say save a text file with a cfg extension.
Wait - maybe we're talking plain notepad text, versus wordpad text.
Okay:
I make a text file. To be sure no extras, I open it in Notepad. Not Wordpad. Not a rich text - absolutely no wrapping - just straight simple text.
I add those statements you came up with. Then in notepad, I save with .cfg extension. Is that right?
What I mean is that if you try to save it with known file extensions hidden, it can save as filename.cfg.txt but the .txt is hidden. Otherwise you are exactly right.
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I just went through Jeff's pictures. CRAZY FANTASTIC!!!
I remember way back when - Sam said, "You know, Crysis doesn't look that good!" Of course, we started to figure out it only starts looking REALLY good at very high. So I put it back on the shelf, and Sam mostly did too as I recall.
But these mods, Jeff!!
You are a freakin magician - you should work for a game company. I'm scared to play it if I can get it lookin this good - I'll never come in for dinner!!!
I'll give credit for creation of those mods to their respective authors, but yep I do have a knack for putting them together the right way :P
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What do you mean, you're not even at the pretty part!!!!!
WOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Guess I'll have to play some more and get you some screens, lol. The alien ship and the ice levels are pretty fantastic.
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T 4GHz(20 x 200) 1.5v 3000NB 2000HT, Corsair Hydro H110 w/ 4 x 140mm 1500RPM fans Push/Pull, Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, 8GB(2 x 4GB) G.Skill RipJaws DDR3-1600 @ 1600MHz CL9 1.55v, Gigabyte GTX760 OC 4GB(1170/1700), Corsair 750HX
Detailed PC Specs: http://my.afterdawn.com/estuansis/blog_entry.cfm/11388
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