Originally posted by sammorris:

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Originally posted by Deadrum33:

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Green drives aren't built for RAID/NAS but you used to be able to flash them to get them to work. So yes, they are either slow black drives or fully functional greens depending how you look at things.

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The Red drives share very little in common with the Blacks, they are derivatives of Greens. Even the manufacturing serial numbers are very similar -
One of my WD30EZRX Mk. II drives has a serial beginning WMC1T04594..
My WD30EFRX (Red) 's serial begins WMC1T08465...
Compare this to a WD30EZRX Mk. I and it's totally different - WMAZW04318...

(Mk.I / Mk.II Denotes the large casing 4x750GB original model versus the standard casing 3x1TB newer model that started production a few months ago)

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Originally posted by Mr-Movies:

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Originally posted by omegaman7:

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Curious, are there HDMI cables that accept audio on one end, but on the other end, it's dead, with an RCA/left/right, or 3.5mm Jack? Essentially, an hdmi cable that bypasses the audio for another source. My brother got a projector, it only accepts inputs(no passthru), and the speaker sucks(naturally). we're aware of running through a Receiver that has passthru. What we want to do, is hook it up to a Boombox in the spring, for outdoor movies ;) Thoughts, suggestions?

I suppose depending on the source device, we may be able to run audio out from it, to the boombox. Just curious is all.

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NO.

What you need to do is run HDMI cable + a 3.5mm TRS to RCA or TRS to TRS as an extra cable, paired set. However I have seen some converters that strip out the audio to RCA or TRS that you might be able to use but converters come at a cost and I don't mean money.

For cables and most converters Monoprice is a great place to shop.
Monoprice's Website Home

Here is just what you need there are others like this but this should get you going.
bidorbuy.co.za South Africa

I hear it is very nice in South Africa at this time of year... :D

Hope that helps Kevin,
Stevo

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year
Yuletide
Happy Hanuka

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Originally posted by Estuansis:

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LOL SpeedFan's S.M.A.R.T might be no longer reliable. One of my EARX drives now shows 93% for both Fitness and Performance, but the raw values for everything are perfect. It marks areas as a problem, when both sets of data show no problem at all. The drive was previously 100% for both ratings.

Interestingly the 1001FALS still shows 100% with the same values as the ones that are flagged on the Green drive. Makes no sense. I know it starts downgrading both ratings after disks reach a certain age but the EARX is almost new. Only has about 10,000 hours on it. My Samsung HD501LJ has some 40,000 on it and gets a 90% on both ratings for the online test, but then gets a 97 and 98 on the offline test. The online test must include power on hours count as part of its ratings. It also has one reallocated sector. Only use it for game installs, so not worried about it holding an OS or something.

I have a Seagate 7200.10 500GB that might be on its last legs. I am considering running some disk tools on it to clean it up a bit and throwing it into an external enclosure. It has a pending sector that so far has refused to reallocate. If I can get that to clear up I see no reason not to use it until it dies. 32,000 hours on it currently. I always need the storage and I don't keep anything that I can't just go get again, however large the amount of data. I filled most of it with a 1Mb connection :)

Will probably be checking everything out with a different tool later on. SMART values are only a general guideline. Particularly, the Seagate 7200.10 has always shown errant values. CrystalDiskInfo is a bit better as it uses simply a Good/Bad qualifier to tell you if the disk is good or not. I don't know what SpeedFan uses to calculate its final scores.

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Got my Digital Coaxial to RCA converter. Good quality audio output, but loud static when there is no signal to the TV, so must turn off the stereo. Also no direct volume control through the TV. Everything must now be controlled at the stereo, not a big issue, but it has no remote so a bit of a hassle. Is about 20-30 years old. Good quality unit though and worth the fiddling around for the good audio.

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Originally posted by estuansis:

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I still give Crysis the nod in sheer visual fidelity and use of modern graphics techniques, but Far Cry 3 is a lot more consistent. To say it beats Crysis is laughable, but to say it is an equal to Crysis in many ways is true. Crysis did many things [arguably] better such as water, lighting/shadowing, dense foliage cover, AI, physics, explosions, the list goes on. I could spend hours comparing the two, drawing a contrast, but suffice to say Far Cry 3 suffers from the limits of consoles in ways that Crysis simply doesn't. The two are a very close analog though, and Far Cry 3 being half a decade newer, not more modern, goes a long way in that regard. Crysis outclasses it by miles on the technical level, but Far Cry 3 is infinitely better optimized and more polished.

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Originally posted by Estuansis:

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Far Cry 3 is indeed great. Still fundamentally a bit boring, but drastically more engaging than Far Cry 2. Sadly the map interface and menus stink of consolitis as well as the general controls. It translates remarkably well though and scales wonderfully to high end PCs. PC gamers get by far the better looking game, no contest. The console versions are about equal to medium/high at middling to low resolution.

Am currently waiting on more hardware to be able to max it effectively. X6 1090T and 6970 in the works. Second 6970 will be a hassle though I am sure Amazon or Ebay will have a used one for a reasonable price. Just the one is the goal for now, to be able see the difference. Crossfire certainly works, though hard to place a scaling percentage on it. Maybe the memory boost and elimination of scaling worries is all I need. As I understand it my cards Crossfired are more or less equal to a 6970 when scaling is ideal, which it hardly ever is.

Lately have been going back to Bad Company 2. It is especially sensitive to stability issues so has been unplayable for me the last few months. Crashed every 20 minutes to an hour. With the new parts in place and new OC stabilized, I have been playing problem-free for hours and hours :)

Such a fun and fundamentally solid game. BF3 doesn't hold a candle. Too much room for exploitation and the large maps and large player sizes are too confusing without a dedicated commander mode. DICE were onto something with 32 players on medium-ish maps. BC2 is undeniably fun. Wish BF3 were better organized. Also, BF3 is another game that will need more Vram to play properly, so I've been avoiding it. That doesn't have me hurting too bad though. Bought the full game only to have them release all the best maps in expensive DLCs. BC2 had exactly 2 DLCs and neither was essential to enjoy all the maps for the stock game. All the map packs were free.

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Originally posted by theonejrs:

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Originally posted by Estuansis:

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LOL SpeedFan's S.M.A.R.T might be no longer reliable. One of my EARX drives now shows 93% for both Fitness and Performance, but the raw values for everything are perfect. It marks areas as a problem, when both sets of data show no problem at all. The drive was previously 100% for both ratings.

Interestingly the 1001FALS still shows 100% with the same values as the ones that are flagged on the Green drive. Makes no sense. I know it starts downgrading both ratings after disks reach a certain age but the EARX is almost new. Only has about 10,000 hours on it. My Samsung HD501LJ has some 40,000 on it and gets a 90% on both ratings for the online test, but then gets a 97 and 98 on the offline test. The online test must include power on hours count as part of its ratings. It also has one reallocated sector. Only use it for game installs, so not worried about it holding an OS or something.

I have a Seagate 7200.10 500GB that might be on its last legs. I am considering running some disk tools on it to clean it up a bit and throwing it into an external enclosure. It has a pending sector that so far has refused to reallocate. If I can get that to clear up I see no reason not to use it until it dies. 32,000 hours on it currently. I always need the storage and I don't keep anything that I can't just go get again, however large the amount of data. I filled most of it with a 1Mb connection :)

Will probably be checking everything out with a different tool later on. SMART values are only a general guideline. Particularly, the Seagate 7200.10 has always shown errant values. CrystalDiskInfo is a bit better as it uses simply a Good/Bad qualifier to tell you if the disk is good or not. I don't know what SpeedFan uses to calculate its final scores.

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Got my Digital Coaxial to RCA converter. Good quality audio output, but loud static when there is no signal to the TV, so must turn off the stereo. Also no direct volume control through the TV. Everything must now be controlled at the stereo, not a big issue, but it has no remote so a bit of a hassle. Is about 20-30 years old. Good quality unit though and worth the fiddling around for the good audio.

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Estuansis,

Speaking of good audio, I made a discovery a couple of days ago, to do with GigaByte motherboards and their on board sound. I've heard lots of complaints about bad sound, with clicks, pops and stuck (staccato) notes. Before you call for an RMA, add a couple of +clicks to the CPU NB VID Voltage, and it most likely will vanished. The sound quality is now outstanding. I listened last night to a recording of "The Nutcracker Suite" taken from a premium vinyl record, and it was superb. Jackie's new album which I got from Santa Claus, sounded awful the first time I played it. Now the sound is beautiful. I hope this helps others with sound problems.

Happy New Year to all,

Russ

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Quote:

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BF3 is ok what i miss the most from BC2 was the recoil of weapons and the awesome effects. BF3 had recoil from the start but it was odd in the fact that the guns themselves didn't really reflect on the recoil. the other step backwards that they could have improved upon vastly was vehicle disabling.

shoot a tank on the side and disable its tracks, hit the turret or the front and disable the video feed. the whole engine fire should have been left for the rear hitbox only. jets you should be able to clip the wings off on disabling and for the 50% damage marker secondary weapons malfunctions. for choppers disabling the Tail Rutter would send the chopper spiraling down and enough damage to the front would disable or cripple your co gunners capabilities. the system was already there it just wasn't used to its fullest potential.

don't get me started with indestructible lamp posts or electrical polls, you can send a tree crumpling down topple a 2 story building but you don't screw with the invincible telephone poll....there obviously there for strategic reason beyond my minds capabilities.

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Originally posted by DXR:

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don't get me started with indestructible lamp posts or electrical polls

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Originally posted by ZoSoIV:

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Originally posted by sammorris:

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Good to hear things are going well Jeff :)

I have to say, I still think the Phenom II X6 1090T/1100T are about the best CPUs AMD has yet made. Piledriver has gone some way to make up for the shortcomings of Bulldozer, but hasn't quite finished the job - If you spend the vast majority of your processing power on truly multi-threaded applications, they're fantastic value for money, but even in raw total performance, the FX-8350 is not a significant amount better than the X6 1100T, for its two extra cores. There's no sign of any major leaps forward from Phenom II with performance per clock, however, which is really what AMD need to be competitive in all fields. My i5 3470 compares reasonably favourably to the FX-8320 in multi-threaded applications and costs only a little more, yet it does what the FX-8320 needs 125W and a northbridge to do, in just 77W and a self-contained unit, and for being only a quad core, offers me not far off double the performance per clock.

In other news, have recently bought myself one of these:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/VSX-922-K-Chann...l/dp/B007YDOY8A

Got the PC, Wii, FM and Internet Radio hooked up to it at the moment.
Since you have to spend an absolute fortune to get a receiver with 5.1 analog pre-outs, you really need to use proper speakers with receivers if you have more sense than money.
Fortunately, the Logitech Z-5500s I've had for the past 5 1/2 years actually connect the satellites to the amplifier in the sub with proper speaker wire, and the satellites are a regular 8 ohm impedance, so you can attach those directly to the receiver.
As for connecting the subwoofer to the sub preout, although that doesn't have a dedicated input port, you can simply connect the port to one half of a 2xRCA->3.5mm Stereo adapter, and plug that into the Centre/SW port on the Logitech's control unit, and use the speaker set as normal, but just for the subwoofer input. Works great, and means you keep the control centre volume dial for adjusting the subwoofer, proportionally (not in absolute) to the volume of the rest of the system.
It's actually turned out really well. Since the receiver is an upscaler, it means all the various composite/component connections from consoles can be run through the single HDMI output to the 3008WFP. My only regret is that the smaller 23" Dell Ultrasharp beside it doesn't also have an HDMI port.

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