Off-Topic Thread

Fluffy88

deejer wrote: »

I finally gave up on Firefox during the week :mad: and made the switch to Chrome and I tell ya I am not looking back.

Why did you give up on firefox? Did it do something bold!

I tried using Opera for a while, but it just didn't feel like a regular browser. There was some little quirks that would take me ages to get used to.
I tried Safari for awhile too and I actually really liked it, but it's Apple so I feel obliged not to use it :P

deejer

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Why did you give up on firefox? Did it do something bold!

I tried using Opera for a while, but it just didn't feel like a regular browser. There was some little quirks that would take me ages to get used to.
I tried Safari for awhile too and I actually really liked it, but it's Apple so I feel obliged not to use it :P

There always seems to be a problem with memory usage (with only a handful of tabs open) and flash player is always crashing (not sure if this is a settings issue or something). Have been using Chrome on my netbook for a few months and was happy with it so changed my desktop over this week aswell. Problems seem to have disappeared

I know you are a fan of Firefox but I think it has gone downhill in the last few months, I never had an issue with it before they started releasing a new version every 6 hours *maybe a slight exaggeration*

On a side note I also read somewhere during the week that Modzilla are working on an operating system which could be interesting

deejer

deejer wrote: »

I know you are a fan of Firefox but I think it has gone downhill in the last few months, I never had an issue with it before they started releasing a new version every 6 hours *maybe a slight exaggeration*

On a side note I also read somewhere during the week that Modzilla are working on an operating system which could be interesting

Ya I think they are gone crazy with a 'new and improved' browsers with very little differences
Maybe they dont like adding numbers after a decimal point:D

Still cant stand Internet explorer. 9 is an improvement but still lacks something

A Mozilla OS? Really?:eek:

ktulu123

Made the switch to chrome a while ago myself. Was always an avid firefox user until it began to feel a bit too clunky. Chrome feels much slicker.

Serephucus

I like Chrome, except that when zooming on certain websites, it seems to break GPU acceleration (or something similar), because scrolling becomes horrible laggy.

Fluffy88

deejer wrote: »

There always seems to be a problem with memory usage ....

Isn't that why RAM prices have fallen so much :P

I don't want to use Chrome as I said before coz google already have too much information about me.
And one of the main reasons I stick with firefox is familiarity. I use keyboard shortcuts for everything, and it would take me weeks/months to get fully used to a new browser. Little tiny things like I can use "Ctrl + Shift + Left/Right Arrow" to (un)highlight text which doesn't seem to work on other browsers. Chrome does feel the closest to firefox for shortcuts but feck google :P

It's not that I love Mozilla or anything, just I'm really used to it. And overall there is very little difference between all the big browsers now apart from the feel. I don't have flash problems with firefox, the odd crash which is annoying but all in all it works fine.

Trevor451

I don't get all the internet explorer 9 hate tbh, its just as fast as firefox or chrome. Only thing preventing me from using it as my main browser is the lack of add on support (adblock plus specifically )

ShadowHearth

Lads, have you noticed a high end pc in the " personal pc stuff for sale thread "? No discussions in there, but I found that quite funny.

FlyingIrishMan

ShadowHearth wrote: »

Lads, have you noticed a high end pc in the " personal pc stuff for sale thread "? No discussions in there, but I found that quite funny.

I assume we're talking about the price? I noticed it too but didn't bother saying anything. There is lots of cases on adverts where people are charging a couple of hundred more than what hwvs charge for it brand new.

jaykhunter

I think he means that it's not personal pc stuff, it was built specifically to sell

Monotype

Hey guys, I want a HTPC and was thinking an air mouse would be nice. I'm not sold on Logitech's MX Air or Gyration's Air Mice so does anyone else have any suggestions?
They seem to have lost their popularity... I suppose that's when the wii was at the height of it's own popularity. I think an air mouse would be a natural controller. I know you can get similar apps for phones with accelerometers but I don't really want to get a phone just dedicated to that purpose.

Serephucus

I don't know of any others, unless you want to consider wireless keyboard/trackpad combos, or iPhone/Android controller apps or something. What's wrong with MX out of interest?

Monotype

Nothing specifically wrong with it, but it's been out 5 years now so I would have thought they'd have an MX v2 or something by this stage. I was thinking a few extra controls would be good too.

Serephucus

I think the V2 of the Air is that useless Cube yoke. Better off sticking with the clearly superior V1 in this instance.

Monotype

Wow, I never saw that before. Looks TERRIBLE. A big step in the wrong direction; what kind of people have they got there in logitech?

Serephucus

The wrong kind? :P

Yeah, it's a truly awful product. I really don't know what they were smoking when they came up with that. Maybe this instead?

Monotype

Hmm... well maybe. That's a lot of buttons on a mouse!
I was thinking of having a small, compact keyboard as well, so I could have something like this instead and a more regular tv remote to back it up. Thanks, I'll think about it anyway.

ShadowHearth

FlyingIrishMan wrote: »

I assume we're talking about the price? I noticed it too but didn't bother saying anything. There is lots of cases on adverts where people are charging a couple of hundred more than what hwvs charge for it brand new.

To be honest it's all together wrong!

Price for once, and not just a few hundred off.

Them: build to sell.... For 1.4k you can get 2500k + 7970 combo

ShadowHearth

Well lads. I decided to go for vita, not monitor!

Picked it up today and it's fantastic little device!!! It's more of a tablet then gaming device lads. It's still bare bones, but they are adding more feutures in next few patches!

Next buy will be upgrade for pc! I promise! I am not a traitor!

Bonesy.

Quick question, Which is a better GPU : 560Ti or Radeon 6870?

Serephucus

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_GTX_560_Ti/27.html

deconduo

Gotta love newegg trolls:

FlyingIrishMan

So I have been sort of planning on upgrading soon and I have been making a list of what I want to upgrade when I get the money and in what order.
So far I've come up with this:

1. New Case, looking at: http://www2.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?adp=0&aid=53132&agid=632&apop=2
Mainly because it looks awesome and it has a handle. I bring my PC from house to house a lot.

2. Water Cooling
Is it worth it? I want it to be quiet so I'm thinking water cooling is the best path to go, but is there a lot of work involved in keeping it working? Like replacing fluids and stuff?

3. 2nd Display
Simple enough, I have one at the moment I'd eventually like three.

4. New GPU.
Which would be better getting a second 6950 to crossfire? Or selling my current one and buying a 7970?

Nothing else really after that, perhaps some better peripherals. I only have a cheap 20euro mouse and keyboard from Argos.
Would you arrange them in any other order?

Serephucus

RE watercooling:

It mainly depends on if you want to cool your GPUs as well. If not, it's decently cheap. I'd say about €150-200, roughly. Adding in GPUs and it becomes a bit dearer. It also depends on what you mean by quiet. I had my 580 and my 950 on a 360 rad, and though it was quieter under load, It wasn't as quiet when idling. This varies from person to person though. Right now my PC is where I want it, and makes as much noise as an idling laptop (basically nothing).

FlyingIrishMan

Serephucus wrote: »

RE watercooling:

It mainly depends on if you want to cool your GPUs as well. If not, it's decently cheap. I'd say about €150-200, roughly. Adding in GPUs and it becomes a bit dearer. It also depends on what you mean by quiet. I had my 580 and my 950 on a 360 rad, and though it was quieter under load, It wasn't as quiet when idling. This varies from person to person though. Right now my PC is where I want it, and makes as much noise as an idling laptop (basically nothing).

I wasn't aware water cooling was for GPUs as well. Shows how much I know.
I thought it was just for the CPU so it could be seriously OC'ed.
I'd say I would just go with the CPU Water Cooler just to save money and throw a few extra fan cases into it to keep the GPU cool.

Serephucus

Lord no! You can cool your CPU, GPUs, motherboard, hard drives, RAM... everything.

Your CPU is the cheapest, your GPUs will show the most benefit, and pretty much anything else is unnecessary.

For a CPU-only loop, you're looking at a good 240mm radiator (XSPC RX240, ideally), a decent CPU block (XSPC Rasa), pump (MCP-350/655), tubing and fittings (whatever). About €50 for the CPU block, €70 for the radiator, and €40 for the pump. Then maybe €20 for the tubing and fittings. That's very rough though.

Maybe I should do a watercooling guide for the B&U 101 thread next...

FlyingIrishMan

Serephucus wrote: »

Maybe I should do a watercooling guide for the B&U 101 thread next...

That might be helpful. It will probably be a month at least until I can buy the water cooler so I'll look up a lot more about it first.
I don't know much about cooling at all really. My current case I don't have any coolers other than one case fan, the CPU stock cooler, and the GPU fans and I haven't seen any component go above 50.

Serephucus

Have you run stress tests, etc. or just been gaming? (and is your computer sitting outside your house?) Because those are very good temperatures.

Headshot

Some drought of pc games of late and nothing in March appeals either

April not looking good either

FlyingIrishMan

Serephucus wrote: »

Have you run stress tests, etc. or just been gaming? (and is your computer sitting outside your house?) Because those are very good temperatures.

I haven't run any stress tests, I was afraid too in case I broke anything
I was having problems where BF3 (Ultra settings) was freezing on me after about 10mins in, and someone told me it might because of GPU getting too hot.
So I played some more and kept the settings the same, but minimised it every few mins to check the temps with Speccy and once my CPU hit 50 my GPU went slightly over 50 but dropped again. My GPU is the Gigabyte 6950 and it has three fans on it so that might be whats keeping it cool.
Computer is sitting under a desk.

Serephucus

Those are very good temperatures. I suppose NVIDIA's cards running a bit hotter has something to do with it. For reference, my 580 got up to 90 after extended periods on air. Under water, it never goes above 45, and overclocked from 772 to 975 core, it never goes above 55. It idles in the 20s.

One good long gaming session is about as stressful as it would get, really, so if you're not going much above 50, that's very good. If it's quiet enough for you, then you're probably fine to do a CPU-only loop.

Tea_Bag

Im going to be honest and say, i just read the charter for the first time just now. i accidentally clicked on it and I'm dying of boredom so i thought I'd give it a read.

my only comment: OOOGAABOOOOGA WHERE DA WHITE WIMIN AT?!

Monotype

I was looking at making a HTPC with a blu ray drive. After doing research, it's a lot more trouble than I would have thought, where it seems I'd be restricted to proprietary software and playing on linux would nearly be impossible. It looks like even DVD regions are harder to step around than with regular DVD drives. Most people around are ripping the blu rays to HDD rather than trying to play them.
So has anyone tried this? -Is it worth my while or should I just forget about it, the blu ray element at least, until people have found ways around it?

jaykhunter

If it's just to play blu-rays, why not just get a PS3? It's quiet, always up to date, has a hard drive for videos/tv/netflix etc, cheap, and it's a gaming console too! I thought most blu-rays were region free. I personally couldn't stomach having one movie taking up 50GB of my HDD space but to each their own!

ShadowHearth

I personally find Blu ray drives to be useless on pcs now. I don't really think will take over same way DVD took over cd drives. Digital distribution is bigger then ever and blu ray movies are not going as great as DVDs did.

Above mentioned ps3 would be better solution all around if you are in to blurays. Unless you are in to "downloading" stuff.

Serephucus

^ I'd personally agree with this. I have an innate hatred for CDs/DVDs, etc. They're just so damn slow.

Press eject button, wait for drive to spin down, drawer opens, close drawer, wait for drive to register disc, wait for drive to spin up, wait for disc to be read. Then actually pick what you want to do with it. Total time is usually at least 8-10 seconds.

Alternatively you can browse to a folder and open a file. Typically about 3-4 seconds or less.

Monotype

jaykhunter wrote: »

If it's just to play blu-rays, why not just get a PS3? It's quiet, always up to date, has a hard drive for videos/tv/netflix etc, cheap, and it's a gaming console too! I thought most blu-rays were region free. I personally couldn't stomach having one movie taking up 50GB of my HDD space but to each their own!

AFAIK, even though there are regions A, B & C, most blu rays are region free, I'd still have to worry about DVD regions and I have a good few DVDs from around the place.
I don't know about the PS3... I'd never use the gaming part of it and there's plenty of blu ray players for cheaper.

ShadowHearth wrote: »

I personally find Blu ray drives to be useless on pcs now. I don't really think will take over same way DVD took over cd drives. Digital distribution is bigger then ever and blu ray movies are not going as great as DVDs did.

Above mentioned ps3 would be better solution all around if you are in to blurays. Unless you are in to "downloading" stuff.

TBH, I'd prefer to have a disc in my possession rather than rely on a digital subscription - the physical media is nice but I'd be more concerned about owning it rather than having to 'rent' from someone else. That aside, does digital distribution actually match up in quality to blu ray discs? I'd imagine that compression techniques have improved a lot but even so, it's likely they cut corners or otherwise the download size would be enormous.

Serephucus wrote: »

^ I'd personally agree with this. I have an innate hatred for CDs/DVDs, etc. They're just so damn slow.

Press eject button, wait for drive to spin down, drawer opens, close drawer, wait for drive to register disc, wait for drive to spin up, wait for disc to be read. Then actually pick what you want to do with it. Total time is usually at least 8-10 seconds.

Alternatively you can browse to a folder and open a file. Typically about 3-4 seconds or less.

So I should just invest in a lot of storage and rip everything to hard drive?

Serephucus

Monotype wrote: »

So I should just invest in a lot of storage and rip everything to hard drive?

Pain in the hole at the moment (HDD prices, etc.), but yeah, that's what I do with all my TV/movies.

Tea_Bag

bluray is a scumbag format. the proprietary licensing issues, hdcp, etc means it will never be fully adopted like DVD was. the region thing on DVDs was challenged by a few countries iirc and found to be against the law. there are easy ways around it which i really don't feel ashamed to do it myself.

i had a friend who lived most of their life in America, but moved here, and suddenly their PC was no longer allowed to play the vast collection of DVDs they spent €100's on?! disgusting.

that's my hatred of content distribution anyway. music/movies/games should all be far cheaper than what they are now.

mono give it a bit of time; VLC players next big update is supposed to have bluray playback, and its free and Linux friendly. if it works out the box bug free you're onto a winner as far as a little HTPC Linux box goes.

Monotype

Tea_Bag wrote: »

mono give it a bit of time; VLC players next big update is supposed to have bluray playback, and its free and Linux friendly. if it works out the box bug free you're onto a winner as far as a little HTPC Linux box goes.

Great! I love VLC.
I think I'll go ahead with the HTPC. I was looking at blu ray players in a shop today and they look very good aesthetically - much smaller than before. Although they now cover many formats, I think a HTPC has more potential and I could draw in internet and PC features.
I might grab a blu ray drive, depending on price when I'm buying, but I'll avoid depending on it. Hopefully I can get my various DVD regions to work OK with the blu ray drive.

It's a bit sad that blu ray just f**ks people over so much. It makes pirate downloads easier than just playing a disc!

cherryghost

Yay ordered myself a new LED Backlit monitor. God bless you Pixmania reductions!

Headshot

Link?

cherryghost

:pac:

Monotype

What kind of messed up stand is that?


Oooh! 120Hz! :cool:

Headshot

That is a sexy stand

cherryghost

Monotype wrote: »

What kind of messed up stand is that?


Oooh! 120Hz! :cool:

It's not messed up its awesome! The screen is just over 1cm thick. It's very light but the frame is very tough and rigid. The viewing angle is almost 180 too! My friend picked it up last month and it impressed me so damn much.

Headshot

All you need is that mouse

Check out eBay for rat 7

cherryghost

Headshot wrote: »

All you need is that mouse

Check out eBay for rat 7

Aye the RAT7 is now on Pixmania for the exact same price as the RAT5

Headshot

cherryghost wrote: »

Aye the RAT7 is now on Pixmania for the exact same price as the RAT5

Tad expensive

Bad idea Microsoft :mad:

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