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The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition
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Any Flaming Results in a Temp Ban or Worse. Your Choice!!!
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27. October 2009 @ 15:27 |
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I think it's more a case that AfterDawn has an abundance of gamers.
A 2002 'quicksilver' is an old school G4 isn't it? In which case isn't the coding dramatically different? Doesn't this kill any potential for redistribution or is that not the point of your rather ominous sounding 'scientific software'? I just want to learn as I'm not as up-to-date on these such subject matters as I'd like to be and you seem to know your bearings.
I could put something funny here but I cant be arsed. Now GO AWAY! |
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27. October 2009 @ 16:59 |
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Keith,
Sorry, didn't mean to sound ominous. Yes, I just checked 'NIST', and their software is principally for Unix, and the binaries will run under Linux (with X).
Long before PCs, scientists distributed the source code of their applications. (The ACM did as well.) In the 1970s, Unix became the favorite programming platform, and has remained so. 'Old School' scientists believe that science, by definition, is to be offered freely to as many people as want it.
Because Linux is free, has replaced Unix, and runs on many platforms, scientists make available either the f77 (Fortran) code, try and write portable C or C++, or distribute binaries that will run on any flavor of *ix.
Yes, the 2002 machine is old; but MacOSX 1.0 was essentially BSD Unix. It has a 64-bit, 133 MHz bus, 1000 Mbit/sec ethernet port, and everything else can be upgraded. (The processor is on its own board, so it can be doubled & caches included.) It's optimized not for speed, but tuned to run well its virtual memory and all my old gizmos (ports & protocols of all ages), which will be needed if it's ever to garden. :-)
However, it's valuable to read here about processors, power supplies, and fans.
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AfterDawn Addict
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28. October 2009 @ 09:51 |
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Originally posted by creaky:
Auslogics Disk Defrag has a new update available (3.0.2.40). The only reason i mention this is because one of the updates is the ability to defragment all drives at once. Enjoy.
I may well now be able to replace Diskeeper Pro. Another paid-for product gets whooped by a free alternative :)
Creaky,
Thanks for the link for Auslogics. Fastest disk defrager I've ever used. I just downloaded and installed 3.0.2.40, but I haven't figured out how to defrag all the disks at the same time yet. How do you set it to do that?
Best Regards,
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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28. October 2009 @ 09:52 |
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I've not tried the new version, but you could queue them in the old version by ticking multiple drives along the left column, then starting the defrag, perhaps it's a similar method?
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28. October 2009 @ 10:01 |
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Annoyingly you have to analyse disks one at a time. Once that's done you can defrag as many concurrently as you want. Strange, but hopefully a future update will allow concurrent analysis.
edit- Omegaman7 - i didn't think much of IOBit's defragger, Auslogics does the job anyways. Cheers for the suggestion though
Main PC ~ Intel C2Q Q6600 (G0 Stepping)/Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500/Zalman CNPS9700/Antec 900/Corsair HX 620W
Network ~ DD-WRT ~ 2node WDS-WPA2/AES ~ Buffalo WHR-G54S. 3node WPA2/AES ~ WRT54GS v6 (inc. WEP BSSID), WRT54G v2, WRT54G2 v1. *** Forum Rules ***This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 28. October 2009 @ 10:03
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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28. October 2009 @ 10:02 |
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Analysing drives doesn't take long in AusLogics though, thankfully.
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28. October 2009 @ 10:03 |
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True, it is very quick. Defragging is very quick too
Main PC ~ Intel C2Q Q6600 (G0 Stepping)/Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500/Zalman CNPS9700/Antec 900/Corsair HX 620W
Network ~ DD-WRT ~ 2node WDS-WPA2/AES ~ Buffalo WHR-G54S. 3node WPA2/AES ~ WRT54GS v6 (inc. WEP BSSID), WRT54G v2, WRT54G2 v1. *** Forum Rules ***
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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28. October 2009 @ 10:05 |
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My one criticism of it, however, is that it does not bother compressing files very well, which means there are lots of gaps left in the structure between the files. While this shouldn't have any direct impact on performance, it means there's less space to work with bigger files, so you're more likely to run into 'free space not found' problems.
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28. October 2009 @ 10:08 |
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I don't believe it's overly efficient for a moment, but as there's so much churn on all my drives and most of them are full for most of the time, i'm just glad to be able to defrag them even a little :) (i don't get around to defragging very often)
Main PC ~ Intel C2Q Q6600 (G0 Stepping)/Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3/2GB Crucial Ballistix PC2-8500/Zalman CNPS9700/Antec 900/Corsair HX 620W
Network ~ DD-WRT ~ 2node WDS-WPA2/AES ~ Buffalo WHR-G54S. 3node WPA2/AES ~ WRT54GS v6 (inc. WEP BSSID), WRT54G v2, WRT54G2 v1. *** Forum Rules ***
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28. October 2009 @ 10:09 |
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I more wasn't sure if there would be differences between the PowerPC coding and x86/x64 or do those sorts of problems only occur at higher levels?
As for defraggers I've used the severely basic Defraggler for aaggggeeessss and it does the job. It might do anything dramatically special or anything but from my understanding it doesn't need to does it?
I could put something funny here but I cant be arsed. Now GO AWAY!
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AfterDawn Addict
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28. October 2009 @ 11:28 |
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creaky & sammorris,
I just ran the newest version of Auslogics defrager, and it automatically does all the drives at the same time unless you uncheck any of them. As far as skipping large files goes, it seems to only do that if you select it from the menu.
I ran it on the new eMachine, and it took a whole 3 min, 22 sec to do 160GB. That's outstanding. Thank you Creaky and Sam!
I just ordered my new Athlon II x4 630 Quad. Should be here tomorrow or Friday. :)
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
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 28. October 2009 @ 11:28
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1 product review
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28. October 2009 @ 12:29 |
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Originally posted by keith1993:
I more wasn't sure if there would be differences between the PowerPC coding and x86/x64 or do those sorts of problems only occur at higher levels?
My apology! Yes, avoid big-endian processors (like the G4, though I love it AltVec coprocessor). Intel & other modern processors are little-endian. (Big-endian order was traditional for Unix - though not Linix, but this is more romantic than practical.)Software can't switch bytes, so before distributing software beyond my own house, I have to recompile it on an Intel machine. Some cross-compilers have been built, but it's more practical to build an Intel machine in the future. (By then I may be able to afford an old Intel Mac. :-)
MacOSX deviated significantly from Unix, with its own virtual memory modifications, by the time the still-expensive Intel Mac appeared.
No, I really didn't know how to optimize a machine for *nix, but I assumed Apple's engineers did. The 2002 Quicksilver was designed for MacOSX 1.0 (a Unix) and was US $200. MacOSX offers a numerical linear algebra library, which I assume Apple engineers optimized for the AltVec short-word vector processor (akin to the Cray supercomputer).
About 'ominous': no, I refused to work for government labs. :-) The algorithms implement new thermodynamic theorems, initially written in the 'J' (APL) computing language. The theorems allow one to determine much about the environment where granites & such formed. (They have no military applications I'm aware of :-)
When students, we punched cards in assembler or computer-dependent Fortran, then stood in line to hand them to the mainframe operator. Then we fixed our comma & did it again. When Stallman released EMACS, I remember commenting 'Why should I want a monitor, let alone the ability to move about the screen?'
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AfterDawn Addict
15 product reviews
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28. October 2009 @ 13:15 |
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Defraggler user myself. It works well enough for me as I have no real fragmentation or storage issues ATM. It makes my games run smoother and my load times shorter and that's all I really care about. It's faster than Windows defrag and is very easy to use :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/11388This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 28. October 2009 @ 13:17
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AfterDawn Addict
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28. October 2009 @ 13:24 |
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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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28. October 2009 @ 13:42 |
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Originally posted by keith1993:
As for defraggers I've used the severely basic Defraggler for aaggggeeessss and it does the job. It might do anything dramatically special or anything but from my understanding it doesn't need to does it?
Forgive my messy post above: a spurious keystroke combination caused Afterdawn to post my initial draft. (Supporting the last statement, I suppose.) I offer the following as an apology.
Regularly, I either use a defragmenter or perform a file-by-file restore of the partition. (The latter is very convenient if Linux or Unix has been partitioned for this purpose.)
My need, with small disks, is to defragment free space, not files. This leaves sufficient contiguous free space for swapping applications.
However, if using a defragmenter to thoroughly tune a disk, I find it much faster to do it in three stages: (1) defragment the files themselves, leaving spaces between them; (2) compact the disk, eliminating these spaces; and (3) sort the directory structure, speeding the ability to find the pieces. Many defragmenters offer to do all the above at once, but I've found this often takes many times as long.
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AfterDawn Addict
15 product reviews
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28. October 2009 @ 13:48 |
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I've been playing with Auslogics lately and it supposedly can defrag your system files and optimise the drives at the same time. I love that it does multiple disks at once :)
Also it moves OS files to the outside of the disk for faster access times. I might do a before and after on HD Tune as I have hardly defragged on 7 and then only with Defraggler yet.
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
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 28. October 2009 @ 14:02
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28. October 2009 @ 14:00 |
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Originally posted by shaffaaf:
http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/16159/1/
not looking goof for win7 users who want to use an intel gen2 SSD
Shaff,
The thing I don't understand is why people rush to upgrade firmware and software every time there's something new. I guess I just don't understand the "Gotta-Have-It" mentality. I'm an "If it ain't broke, Don't fix it" person myself. I get stuff from customers like that all the time where someone has upgraded something, just because it's the latest, even though everything was working fine before they decided to change things. Hell, I crashed the bios in a BioStar G-Force MB, simply because someone at BioStar made a mistake and accidentally switched the G-Force and the T-force bios revisions when making up the download files, which rendered the bios useless. It cost me time, and money for shipping, not to mention that I had to pull everything apart and then put it all back together again! I've yet to upgrade the bios in my UD4P, and it works just fine. I have all the revisions in case I ever do need one, but I see no point in upgrading, just to have the latest (and supposedly the greatest) firmware or bios revision.
I also strongly believe that the manufacturers should give more info on what the different revisions actually do, or correct! Just my opinion of course!
Best Regards,
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
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28. October 2009 @ 14:03 |
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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
7 product reviews
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28. October 2009 @ 14:42 |
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I've never updated a HDD firmware. But if a firmware addresses a huge performance gain...I'd probably do it LOL!
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
AfterDawn Addict
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28. October 2009 @ 15:34 |
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Originally posted by omegaman7:
I've never updated a HDD firmware. But if a firmware addresses a huge performance gain...I'd probably do it LOL!
Oman7,
I would too, only I would let others be the Guinea Pigs for a month or so first, and wait for the feedback. Sometimes, we learn patience the hard way! Been there! Done that, the hard way! LOL!!
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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Member
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28. October 2009 @ 15:42 |
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It doesn't make any difference to me. It wouldn't appear Samsung bother to release newer firmwares....
I could put something funny here but I cant be arsed. Now GO AWAY!
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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28. October 2009 @ 16:16 |
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Originally posted by theonejrs:
Originally posted by omegaman7:
I've never updated a HDD firmware. But if a firmware addresses a huge performance gain...I'd probably do it LOL!
Oman7,
I would too, only I would let others be the Guinea Pigs for a month or so first, and wait for the feedback. Sometimes, we learn patience the hard way! Been there! Done that, the hard way! LOL!!
Russ
Oh no! I wasn't suggesting you a fool. In fact I agree with you completely. HDD firmwares are apparently not a laughing matter LOL! However i'll laugh about this mishap LOL!
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
Senior Member
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28. October 2009 @ 17:12 |
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I mentioned last week about flashing my OCZ SSD's firmware which for the most part was the same reason as this Intel story, Win7 TRIM capabilities. I'm glad I didnt have the same problem.
There is not a huge performance gap between between the Intel and most newer generation SSD's. Sustained read and write times are comparable but random, smaller writes which a Windows OS is good at are much faster on an Intel. They bogged down the early compition and caused some stuttering but that has gone away with newer controllers and firmware revisions. Tweaks that a person with enough geek in them to early adopt an SSD, are easily found online and can minimize the slow writes soooo once you minimize the slow random writes you are left with 2 drives with comparable sustained read and writes.
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1 product review
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28. October 2009 @ 17:12 |
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Originally posted by Estuansis:
Also it moves OS files to the outside of the disk for faster access times. I might do a before and after on HD Tune as I have hardly defragged on 7 and then only with Defraggler yet.
Nice! Can one really do such things these days? When I stopped consulting, I stopped studying improvements in hardware design; but I thought that HDD drivers were, essentially, deep mysteries: we no longer knew how our hard disks were organized, where the partitions went, or even where the files went within the partitions. Are these still controllable by us?
There were great varieties in the above; and Unix usually placed its 'directory' in the center of the disk, Microsoft on the outside of the disk's platter. Because each user's habits are individual, no HDD can optimize the placement of partitions & files. (The BSD Unix disk cache & virtual memory learned habits as it went, but forgot all when the computer shut down.) I always partitioned clients' drives twice. First was a partition for swap and one for everything else. Then I installed a program that studied the history of which files were opened when, and studied the startup sequence. After two weeks, I used this information for a second partition and file placement.
Because it was based upon actual use, it greatly sped and smoothed disk activity. (The startup on an OS/2 computer was decreased from 2 minutes to 20 seconds.) Though it required work, it was done only once. Does one still have such control over placement of files and information about access & read times?
Also, because reliability was of utmost importance, all hardware & software I purchased was the previous versions: all the bugs had been fixed, and the price was reduced. I agree that none but hobbyists should buy the latest & greatest.
Regularly, I update the firmware on my optical drives, to speed writing or write to new media; but I've never 'flashed' an ATA drive. (Be sure you have an alternative boot device & ability to reinstall your old firmware.) Are you speaking of old PATAs or SCSIs, or of a newer drive type, such as SATA? (I'm about to buy a new PATA drive from one of the major companies.) Installing MacOSX 10.2 (not 10.1) allows all 120 GB to be addressed by it; and I'm hoping I can snuggle a Linux boot partition (in ext3) within such a Mac partition, after a Mac boot partition (in HFS+) with no difficulties. I would buy a larger drive if I knew there would be no difficulties.
Finally, I also agree with the person who wrote that computer companies have an obligation to let us know the content of a patch. MacOSX 10.4.1 flew on my wife's G3 iBook. By 10.4.9, she had to wait (and glare at me) as a new window opened. (Remember, Apple sells hardware.) I needed only bug fixes & security patches, not new frills. I've decided to give her a nice variety of Linux, a secure WiFi USB dongle, and let the Quicksilver handle its security, mailboxes, &c. That way she can bank over it and shop by web page.
In short, I agree with everyone and think these hardware topics are related.
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Senior Member
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28. October 2009 @ 17:38 |
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Thanks for the link for Auslogics, just tried it on one machine and is now running on the other 4.Awesome! Thanks again!
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 28. October 2009 @ 17:53
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