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The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition
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AfterDawn Addict
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19. March 2013 @ 20:49 |
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Senior Member
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19. March 2013 @ 21:09 |
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Now that looks very cool, I'll have to play with it. I'm wondering if it gives you control of the security detail as well? Most that play with structural rights and NTFS+ know what a pain it can be sometimes to manage user rights. It would be nice to have a graphical tool like this for that.
I get a kick out of the summary of his tool, he invented? More correct would be created as there have been plenty of tools similar that go way back to a DOS environment. But tit for tat, looks like a nice tool.
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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20. March 2013 @ 03:24 |
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Yeah, I used to use SequoiaView for that, but at work we've been using TreeSize lately.
That seems to be the quickest way to identify a large number of separate spacehogs.
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AfterDawn Addict
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20. March 2013 @ 14:00 |
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Quote:
I get a kick out of the summary of his tool, he invented?
He just says that the concept of Treemap was invented by another person, and gives them credit as the tool utilises it. Not quite such a grand claim!
This is where I came across the tool:
http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/sean...e-for-ssds-hdds
Some of the info is basic and n/a to most in this thread no doubt, but I picked up a few bits I hadn't heard of before (mainly a couple of the regedits for "speed" related tweaks).
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AfterDawn Addict
15 product reviews
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20. March 2013 @ 17:38 |
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I believe Treemaps have been around for a while. Not the first time I've seen a drive tool like that. Very interesting insight into how drives are structured. Makes it a snap to see what's what :P
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 |
AfterDawn Addict
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3. April 2013 @ 18:41 |
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Wanted to run something by anyone that sees it.
Laptop battery was on the way out (failed a diagnostic after I noticed charge was lacking), so I bought a cheapo replacement against my better judgement.
More recently, but not immediately after I started using it, I've experienced a few CPU lockups with no reasonable cause process wise. Since the change in battery, I've also finally got round to switching out my HDD for an SSD, so I know it is not the Windows install or the HDD.
I've been running on AC power for ~6 hours solidly now with no lockups, which is longer than it would usually go with the battery hooked up. I am assuming the battery is dodgy and bad power supply through it is causing the lockups, which I had assumed even before I had reason to change out the HDD. Obviously not using it until I get an OEM replacement in.
Agree?
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 3. April 2013 @ 18:42
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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3. April 2013 @ 18:48 |
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A fairly sound diagnosis I think, especially if you've changed the drive to no avail.
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AfterDawn Addict
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3. April 2013 @ 18:57 |
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Old drive is fine (now in an enclosure), I changed it out just for the SSD, so I'm thinking so.
HP laptop batteries are hilariously expensive, if I can find one that is!
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Senior Member
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3. April 2013 @ 20:30 |
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If it runs on wall power that only leaves the regulators used for charging or the battery, so I think you've covered all bases. You can get your old battery rebuild with new cells or you could even rebuild it yourself if you feel so inclined.
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AfterDawn Addict
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4. April 2013 @ 20:02 |
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Old HP battery runs laptop fine, just obviously doesn't hold much of a charge (hence replacing it), so must be the battery not the regulators/connecting pins.
Hadn't considered rebuilding it but I'm not sure I have the tools nor the inclination.
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sytyguy
Senior Member
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4. April 2013 @ 23:10 |
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Batteries are relatively cheap. Do a Google on your battery, and I think that is true.
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ddp
Moderator
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4. April 2013 @ 23:17 |
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i get them off ebay brand new as laptop companies don't make them so they markup the hell out of the batteries. got 1 off ebay for hp laptop for about $50 when hp wanted $175-$193 for the same battery.
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AfterDawn Addict
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5. April 2013 @ 19:49 |
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Originally posted by ddp:
i get them off ebay brand new as laptop companies don't make them so they markup the hell out of the batteries. got 1 off ebay for hp laptop for about $50 when hp wanted $175-$193 for the same battery.
Numbers sound about right for mine too. I'm going to RMA the replacement and see how I get on.
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AfterDawn Addict
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21. April 2013 @ 10:09 |
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No problems since RMA. Good news.
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AfterDawn Addict
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21. April 2013 @ 11:11 |
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hi guys finally update my PC per my sig haven't OC(ed) it yet and at this point don't see any need to do so..I was able to encode DJango with DVD Rebuilder Pro in 12 mins so pretty good times like the setup so far..not really gaming much so I didn't go with a brand new Videocard...thanks for all the help guys and your PMs Russ even though it ended up being something different than we talked about...if you guys want to rip it apart feel free lol...OS is Windows 7 64 bit
Antec 1200 Full-Tower Case/Thermaltake 750-Watt PS/ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 Mobo/Western Digital Black WD500 500GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache/NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express Video Card/CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM 16GB DDR3 /Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo)/CORSAIR Hydro High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler/3-Asus DRW-24B1ST Sata Drives/Samsung 2493HM 24" LCD Monitior 1920x1200 resolution,5ms respone time/OS Windows 10 Pro SP1 64-bit
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 21. April 2013 @ 11:12
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sytyguy
Senior Member
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21. April 2013 @ 11:18 |
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ZoSoIV,
Russ has passed away, sorry to say.
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AfterDawn Addict
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21. April 2013 @ 11:20 |
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I knew he wasn't doing good sorry to here that..his in a much better place now
Antec 1200 Full-Tower Case/Thermaltake 750-Watt PS/ASUS SABERTOOTH Z77 Mobo/Western Digital Black WD500 500GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache/NVIDIA GeForce 8800GTX 384-bit GDDR3 PCI Express Video Card/CORSAIR DOMINATOR PLATINUM 16GB DDR3 /Intel Core i7-3770K Ivy Bridge 3.5GHz (3.9GHz Turbo)/CORSAIR Hydro High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler/3-Asus DRW-24B1ST Sata Drives/Samsung 2493HM 24" LCD Monitior 1920x1200 resolution,5ms respone time/OS Windows 10 Pro SP1 64-bit
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 21. April 2013 @ 11:30
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harvardguy
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23. May 2013 @ 00:52 |
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Wow, quite a shock to come back to this thread after 3 months and find Russ gone. Jackie Evancho, you just lost your biggest fan. Take it easy buddy. Did you ever have a chance to get out there to drive that new car you just bought about 6 months ago - wasn't it some kind of Mustang or Camaro as I recall? You're probably out there right now cruising with the top down, in some other place and time.
Sam, I know you're familiar with Rolls, Bentleys, Jags, and the like, but those two cars I just mentioned are products that we yanks made popular here stateside quite some time back. :P
Russ was quite supportive of AMD's products, and their excellent price/performance ratio. Estuansis mentioned a few months back (an hour of reading ago for me as I am trying to catch up) that he has been using the AMD better price/performance ratio to stay technologically on top of things in his sweet spot of 1920x1200 gaming. I totally agree with that strategy, Jeff. I just told a friend to think AMD regarding an HTPC I am suggesting that he build.
I also caught that quote about Intel preferring to shore AMD up, than have it die out and possibly end up fighting the anti-trust commission to prevent breakup of the company. I think there could be a lot of truth to that. Healthy competition not only benefits consumers - it can also benefit competitors. Let the other guy stick his neck out sometimes - he might get the patents but often you can license what you need without making the huge R & D investment.
But it's quite tricky, as Stevo alluded to, because if you aren't careful you can get snuffed out, like 3dfx by nvidia. Microsoft has always operated with a bit of paranoia about the chance of missing out on a sudden shift in technology - and they weren't too concerned about snuffing out Netscape when they put out windows 98 with Internet Explorer bundled in. Competitor gone - but then they found themselves with a stressful fight with the government over accusations of monopolistic practices. How many states - was it 20 - where the state attorneys joined forces against them?
Gates himself was very involved, and he was not happy about that fight. I am sure Intel management remembers that quite well, and who needs it? Yes, they might be thinking, probably better to let AMD stay alive and healthy with a good chunk of the lower end of the market as long as profits are good.
As I mentioned, I just told a friend to build an AMD HTPC rather than try to find a laptop with an hdmi output port powerful enough to handle Power DVD 13 and its True Theater upscaling. I poured over the market today, and it seems to me that an AMD midtower could be built for close to $350, whereas a suitable laptop might be more like $800.
He wants to do what my brother and I do. We play our movies on the Toshiba 47" screen (usually downloaded at 720p at a reasonable quality of about 2 gigs per file, sometimes 4 gigs) with power dvd true theater upscaling to 1080p which makes quite a difference. I just shelled out $100 for the upgrade from version 10 to version 13 to try to get wider compatibility with all the new formats. Our HP mid-tower phenom 1 9750 quad core with 8 gigs ram runs 40% stressed with the true theater effect turned on. (It's all run on the cpu - if you enable hardware accelaration, you can't enable true theater.)
The hdmi graphics card is a cheap $50 3650, and it has been acting up, so, just in case, I recently picked up a spare $38 4000 card with twice the memory.
Power DVD allows you to split the screen and see the difference the true theater makes - and if you're not familiar with it, it's remarkable. Even if the movie is already 1080p, the change is still amazing - much richer color saturation, detail - profoundly better in my opinion. It works on even the really skinny 700MB files, but I prefer something better to start with. So, as I said, if I can download around a 2 gig file size, 720p, that will turn out to play beautifully on this lovely screen.
Speaking of lovely screens, that was some link you posted Sam (3 mos back) about the 4k technology. A 10" screen with 2560x1600 resolution? Wow. That much information on 30" looks terrific now, but that pixel density would make it look almost like a painting. Every time I go up to LA and see the 1080p 24" Samsung that I bought them, I am amazed at the quality of the image.
If you're right, Sam, and those pixel densities hit main-stream within 5 years, and we can run that on our 30" screens (3 X 3 = 9 X 4megapixels = 36 megapixels, should I say 15 years?) then the graphics would be so gorgeous, I can't imagine it.
Speaking of gorgeous graphics, I just played through Metro: Last Light over the last few days starting Sunday.
I hovered at around 30 fps and it was okay. I first maxed everything, but fps was only about 24. By backing off of - is it SMA? - from 4x to 2x, frames jumped up to about 32. I could not see any real difference. Assuming that is an anti-aliasing setting, I can tell you that I never had any jaggies jump out on me, as they did when I tried Far Cry 3 at 2x AA - you must be at least at 4x on that game.
For anybody who is into that kind of gaming, one reviewer called Metro: Last Light "Astonishing." Absolutely incredible game. Some very fresh innovative material that none of us has ever seen before. Yes, astonishing is a good word. I finished it, then immediately went back and played the last half again - starting with the monster chapter. You can be so busy trying not to run out of ammo, or not to run out of filters for your gask mask, that the challenge, and the stress, can cause you to miss out on some of the extraordinary events. The second time through, of course, you can pace yourself better.
Welcome to post-apocalyptic Moscow through a gask mask.
So back to my friend and his HTPC needs. He won't be doing any fancy video editing like some of you guys are expert at. He's like me - he'll just play the movies. So does anybody care to suggest parts for that cheap $300-400 mid-tower HTPC AMD build?
Rich
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AfterDawn Addict
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23. May 2013 @ 01:14 |
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Shoot, my brother is sporting a pretty outdated HTPC. It keeps up with the times quite nicely. An AMD Athlon x 2 5200 (2.6Ghz), and I have it underclocked to 2.0Ghz to keep it cooler. It handles Blu-ray with ease, plus it has onboard video, which can also be used for hardware acceleration in TMT5. For an HTPC, you really don't need much. Depending on how enclosed the HTPC will be, you'll wanna consider cooling. Those cramped cases can cause some heat. And he's got a stereo receiver on top of the HTPC. Which is why I had to underclock it. You really don't notice it though. Before I underclocked it, he was complaining that the fan would rev up from time to time. I heard it a few times. Haven't heard it since :) It probably could do better with a larger heat sink, but in an HTPC, what do you do LOL!
As you probably know, do NOT go with the stock Power supplies, if it comes with one. Typically they're not very high quality. I went with a seasonic 300w I believe. Rock solid little gem!
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 23. May 2013 @ 01:16
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Senior Member
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23. May 2013 @ 01:24 |
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Hi HG,
Quote:
As I mentioned, I just told a friend to build an AMD HTPC rather than try to find a laptop with an hdmi output port powerful enough to handle Power DVD 13 and its True Theater upscaling. I poured over the market today, and it seems to me that an AMD midtower could be built for close to $350, whereas a suitable laptop might be more like $800.
Actually you can get a laptop with HDMI that is easily capable for a HTPC unless you want to use it for gaming too, then you are totally correct as you'll want a dedicated or very powerful graphics card. I bought a Acer with an A8 CPU and it worked very well when I connected it to my 50" Samsung. Also I could use both the laptops screen to watch a movie in full screen play while I used the laptop to surf the web or whatever I wanted to do, I was streaming Netflix and surfing. Now the other thing to consider is storage space but I have a server for my music and movies.
Those are nice graphics, very sweet!
I've been playing with Windows 8 as I'm working on a friends netbook which has a 570GB SSD and nor ROM drive of course. I can't say I like 8 as it is a pain in the but with the Metro crap. I do like the Copy/Move UI though as it is pretty slick have a graph of the bandwidth and I do like the new borders they use. Again MS is hiding a lot of good stuff that if Russ was still with us would be going nuts over. But once you learn the new locations it's not so bad.
I installed ObjectDock on the Desktop and added most of the Windows 7 features to it to make it easier to get at stuff including GodMode features and a Power/ReStart/Logoff/Sleep button. Stardock has gotten better with stability but still not 100% as I can get Stardock to crash when configuring the Menu Bars. The Flyout feature they have is pretty slick and cuts down some of the bulk of just adding icons for all of the features I added. I'm really please with the Stardock configuration and I think the guy will be thrilled when I give him his netbook back.
What I can't believe is that Delta Airlines is now transitioning to 8. My mom got it on her PC first and just hates it, I can understand why. The workers around her have seen what she has to go through and they don't want it but the IT staff basically said you will be forced to use it, typical I'd say. I've shown her a couple of tricks that should help her so that should curve some of the frustration, I hope.
Stevo
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harvardguy
Member
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23. May 2013 @ 01:52 |
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Hi guys,
Well, I'm printing out your windows 8 stuff to Paperport, Stevo, to keep for when I find myself being forced to use it for some reason. Like maybe fixing somebody's computer that came with it. Otherwise I'll never upgrade from 7. I know Sam also had talked about customizing the Metro interface to get back to the 7 look.
I was thinking about your 2560x1440 monitor, Stevo, when I helped my brother build a Cad system (with 250gig Samsung 840 pro SSD) - he bought two of those beauties and runs a dual monitor setup. I posted about it on the gaming thread a month ago - first dual-monitor setup I've ever participated in.
Speaking about dual monitors, that is a big eye-opener about your Acer. I can't believe it is that powerful to do a full-screen Netflix play on the 50 at 1080p, while you surf the web on the laptop monitor! Is that a recent purchase? Do you have a model number for me? He won't do any gaming, but he does need it to run Power DVD 13, and put out 1080p including at least 5.1 audio.
(That above shot reminds me of Russ, he loved music, especially organ music!)
Am I right about an $800-1000 price point (if not more) or do those things go for less than that? Actually I would bet that you invested well over $1000. But an AMD midtower would be quite a bit under $400 I'm sure. Regarding the case and power supply, Kev, I'll keep in mind your little seasonic 300 - what do those cost? And Stevo - you picked up a $50 case recently as I recall - are you happy with it? What model did you get?
Hey guys, on that discussion about laptop SSDs, is there not a potential problem of having the paging file on the SSD (lots of writes all in one spot?) Sam, are you saying that SSDLife gives you 8 to 9 years on your 40 gig Intel SSDs? That is way longer than I ever heard anybody talk about! Is that just for Intel, and just for that size?
Rich
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 23. May 2013 @ 02:24
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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23. May 2013 @ 02:44 |
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To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
AfterDawn Addict
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23. May 2013 @ 04:47 |
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Rich: Yes, I do know something about american cars, certainly more than that much :P
AMD has been better performance for cost up to a point almost entirely consistently for the last 10 years since the Athlon XP came out, with perhaps a slight blip when the Core 2 Duo was first released, which was a real game changer at the time. AMD prices soon fell to compensate, and the trend was restored.
The conditional is though, up to a point. There comes a point when AMD CPUs simply don't get any faster, and if you're able to put more money toward a CPU, you have to switch sides. Up until pretty recently, you never really needed to cross this barrier for general games purposes. Now though? I think the tide is slowly turning.
Despite pretty unnerving performance in the desktop CPU sector, AMD are doing fairly well overall - winning all three games console contracts will help keep them upright, and they are taking on a few ex-nvidia staff for marketing and product development. I don't see them going away just yet, but whereas until a couple of years ago the CPU division was holding up the GPU division, now I think it's the other way round.
For video playback alone, I'd say go with an AMD APU system. Inbuilt integrated graphics is best in the business (but ultimately is still integrated graphics, so not that great for games), and from a value perspective, they're excellent. The CPUs themselves are also much better hardware designs than the FX series.
Also, upscaled 720p is no match for real 1080p, both in terms of demand and image quality - with a good source, I think you'd see the difference quite clearly between the two, but you also might need a better CPU.
For Windows 8, I use classicshell. It's easy to use, creates not just a windows 7 style start menu, but earlier versions such as XP and 98 if you really want, and is also full of tweaks for windows explorer itself, restoring the 'up' button and things like that. It was a bit flakey when I first installed it, but is fairly reliable now - you occasionally get a 5-10 second wait time before the bypass occurs, but if you're on a slower PC that would go unnoticed anyway. Very neat little program - I avoid anything Stardock after a bad experience with windowblinds many years back managed to corrupt my entire OS install the point of needing a reformat.
One thing I do hear though, Win8 is tolerable for home (if you can deal with Metro or discard it using third party software) but it's not great for business, for various reasons. I do question business rollouts of it this early. If I were forced to rollout an OS for a business it'd probably still be 7, but if it had to be 8, classicshell would go on all the PCs, no doubt.
On the screens front, the 10" 2560x1600 does exist, in the Nexus 10 tablet PC, which I'm very fond of. In a remote desktop or citrix environment you can see how a windows desktop looks at 300+ dpi. Not easy without a stylus I will say, but it is stunningly clear.
4K monitors are out there in the wild, they cost an absolute fortune but they are there. I imagine they will eventually filter down to the 21-24" or so size that 1080p is common for today, give it time. Currently excluding the 10 year old IBM T221 (which at 40Hz and 50ms is not exactly current-gen panel material) the smallest I've currently seen a 4K at is 36" from EIZO, at a price tag in excess of $30,000, but they are slowly but surely coming down in the ultra-large HDTV market, so PC monitors will inevitably follow. It's painfully slow progress, but we will eventually have them in a useable, affordable size.
I ran SSDLife on my Corsair Force 3 60GB and got a fairly similar result from that. SSDs aren't quite as short-lived as people often think as long as you don't do anything silly like defrag them. Well, not unless you buy from OCZ of course :)
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Senior Member
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23. May 2013 @ 06:01 |
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Yeah win8 is not as bad as people make it out to be, but what surprised me was its big brother server 2012. I just completed capstone for degree in network support/admin and added a 2012 machine to our server pool. At first i laughed when i seen the tiled interface to a server OS, but it was minimal and there are so many new features that it quickly became my favorite.
also, no problems with OCZ for me, have used Vertex1,2 and 3 with no problems. Am aware of the reputation, however I always thought it was due to the early drives needing manually flashed and a bunch of people who shouldn't be booting into DOS opening command lines bricked them. YMMV
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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23. May 2013 @ 06:26 |
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Nah, all OCZ drives have had higher failure rates than other brands since day one, even the 'good' ones. Some of their products are particularly awful though, and have failure rates higher than 50% within 12 months of purchase - when you consider the average failure rate for Intel, Samsung and Plextor SSDs is below 0.4%, that's quite impressive. Current top dog for SSD reliability is Samsung, with less than one drive in a thousand being returned. Intel are not too far behind, with one return for every 200-250 sold.
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