Off-Topic Thread

Brian

Headshot wrote: »

Tad expensive

Get a G400 then :P

ShadowHearth

cherryghost wrote: »

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.

so wheres link, how much was the damage bud?

Monotype

Deleted User wrote: »

Bad idea Microsoft :mad:

Important Announcement from Software4Students Concerning Microsoft Products

Hmm... not good. I know a lot of people would just get the software under technicalities of being family members or just chancing it. However, I'd say students would be one of the most likely groups to just go ahead and pirate the software if they can't get it cheaply.

There's still windows server available through dreamspark which can be customised to be very 7-like.

Fluffy88

Or just go straight for Windows 8 :P

ED E

Other than Peats anywhere in South/Central Dublin selling CPU paste?

Monotype

ED E wrote: »

Other than Peats anywhere in South/Central Dublin selling CPU paste?

www.maxburns.ie in Tallaght?

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Or just go straight for Windows 8 :P

Was looking at a few video reviews as I couldn't be bothered installing it. The new interface additions are advantageous to the casual and tablet user but offer little real value. The new performance and task manager looks handy for an integrated way of monitoring bandwidth and so-forth. The only genuinely useful thing I see is the file copy which finally allows you to pause files, which has been possible in Linux for yonks. It's like it's just a media centre edition rather than a full upgrade.
Sure, for new builds you might as well get it - in fact I wouldn't even be worried about waiting until a service pack as there's so little difference but you'd be mad to actually upgrade just for Windows 8 from 7. Or even really to postpone a build for it (unless it's <week).

Fluffy88

Yeah, I won't be upgrading to Windows 8, whereas when 7 came out we bought a family pack :P
I'd even go as far as to say I doubt I would even get 8 with a new PC if I could avoid it.

I tried it last night and apart from the changes you outlined it seems to be almost the same as 7. A few little tweaks in the UI, like the red X button in the top corner is slightly different, and explorer now uses the ribbon style menu. But if your looking for a free Windows licence why not

ED E

Monotype wrote: »

www.maxburns.ie in Tallaght?

Never heard of them before, cycled up, no Themaltake but they had some noname stuff that should do the trick. And not a ripoff

Cheers.

ShadowHearth

Monotype wrote: »

www.maxburns.ie in Tallaght?



Was looking at a few video reviews as I couldn't be bothered installing it. The new interface additions are advantageous to the casual and tablet user but offer little real value. The new performance and task manager looks handy for an integrated way of monitoring bandwidth and so-forth. The only genuinely useful thing I see is the file copy which finally allows you to pause files, which has been possible in Linux for yonks. It's like it's just a media centre edition rather than a full upgrade.
Sure, for new builds you might as well get it - in fact I wouldn't even be worried about waiting until a service pack as there's so little difference but you'd be mad to actually upgrade just for Windows 8 from 7. Or even really to postpone a build for it (unless it's <week).

dead on there. in all fairness windows 7 is very stable and does all it needs to do. windows 8 has a lot of support for touch screens, but why on earth "us" would need it?

Headshot

Razer Tiamat 7.1 are finally out I see

180 euro

Wont be going near them at that price

Serephucus

Got my M4 installed yesturday, and damn, it's fast! I now have all my apps bar Steam on my SSD and I still have about 95GB free, bliss!

Headshot

Can you sell your Steam account? Just looking on ebay there and I see some

Wouldnt mind going down that avenue too

Monotype

Headshot wrote: »

Can you sell your Steam account? Just looking on ebay there and I see some

Wouldnt mind going down that avenue too

AFAIK, it's against their agreement and they sometimes ban accounts that are for sale/sold if they know who they are (hence the blocked out names on ebay). You could easily get away it if you were in personal contact with someone but you'd be on more iffy grounds in a public sale.
Also, if anything goes wrong and you have an account with a big archive of games, Valve won't come to your rescue.

Serephucus

Quick question for all the M4 owners here:

I'm getting about 400/175 seq.R/W according to ATTO. I assume that's within the realm of normality for these drives?

Brian

Headshot wrote: »

Razer Tiamat 7.1 are finally out I see

180 euro

Wont be going near them at that price

Gaming headsets are ****.

http://www.vanillatf2.org/2011/07/guide-toss-your-old-headphones/

Serephucus

That's an extremely bad article. Absolutely no depth at all when it comes to pros and cons, and none of the "better" headsets have mics!

Also, not all gaming headsets are USB. Sennheiser's PC360 is excellent, as one example.

Headshot

Monotype wrote: »

AFAIK, it's against their agreement and they sometimes ban accounts that are for sale/sold if they know who they are (hence the blocked out names on ebay). You could easily get away it if you were in personal contact with someone but you'd be on more iffy grounds in a public sale.
Also, if anything goes wrong and you have an account with a big archive of games, Valve won't come to your rescue.

Thanks mono.

It's pretty bad that I can't sell it even thou I have bought no steam games, all my games are on disk

Brian

Serephucus wrote: »

That's an extremely bad article.

Thanks, I wrote it!

none of the "better" headsets have mics!

Try reading it next time?

Serephucus

Baza210 wrote: »

Thanks, I wrote it!

Try reading it next time?

Right, perhaps my first comment was a bit harsh. It's well written, I just don't like the rather big (and quite brutish) generalisations with regards to gamers and their outlook. Many do know a thing or two about what they're buying, and don't just go by marketing hype. The kind of people you're describing are simply (usually) the kind with more money than sense, which of course doesn't just apply to gamers.

As regards mics, I had a semi-skimmed read through it, and I don't see you mention mics for any of the headsets, though there is that bit at the bottom for seperate mics.

Brian

The image at the start is a joke. It's not a very serious site.

The point of the article is that separate headphones + microphone give you greater flexibility, performance, and value.

Anyway, came across this interesting thing on /r/battlestations - http://www.overclock.net/t/1215866/reviewed-400-2560x1440-ips-no-ag-90hz-achieva-shimian-qh270-and-catleap-q270 apparently it's the same LG panel as the 27" iMac / Apple Cinema display, but it's €300 shipped on eBay http://www.ebay.ie/itm/New-YAMAKASI-CATLEAP-Q270-SE-27-LED-2560X1440-WQHD-DVI-D-Dual-Computer-Monitor-/110834882557?pt=Computer_Monitors&hash=item19ce4617fd

glynf

Serephucus wrote: »

Quick question for all the M4 owners here:

I'm getting about 400/175 seq.R/W according to ATTO. I assume that's within the realm of normality for these drives?

Thats not bad, think I had similar woth the last M.board I had as it used the same Marvell 9128 SATA III controller. There are issues using the marvel controller, so a lot of people use the SATA II port instead. If you have it set to AHCI and the latest Intel rapid storage driver you're good.

Tea_Bag

Baza210 wrote: »

The image at the start is a joke. It's not a very serious site.

The point of the article is that separate headphones + microphone give you greater flexibility, performance, and value.

Anyway, came across this interesting thing on /r/battlestations - http://www.overclock.net/t/1215866/reviewed-400-2560x1440-ips-no-ag-90hz-achieva-shimian-qh270-and-catleap-q270 apparently it's the same LG panel as the 27" iMac / Apple Cinema display, but it's €300 shipped on eBay http://www.ebay.ie/itm/New-YAMAKASI-CATLEAP-Q270-SE-27-LED-2560X1440-WQHD-DVI-D-Dual-Computer-Monitor-/110834882557?pt=Computer_Monitors&hash=item19ce4617fd

looks very cool. read quite a bit of that thread. no-one mentioned customs though. if you do get hit, you're looking at at least €75 on top of what you paid.

arg im very interested, i might be shelling out €250 for a u2412 in a week or so.

unfortunately though, at that res, even my 6990 isnt going to handle very high settings.

deconduo

Tea_Bag wrote: »

looks very cool. read quite a bit of that thread. no-one mentioned customs though. if you do get hit, you're looking at at least €75 on top of what you paid.

arg im very interested, i might be shelling out €250 for a u2412 in a week or so.

unfortunately though, at that res, even my 6990 isnt going to handle very high settings.

One of the companies declared it as a $50 monitor for customs, so you'd only have to pay €15 or so. :pac:

Tea_Bag

anyone else want to order one?

I dont want to be a pioneer here.

Icyseanfitz

just after ordering in a 7970 for myself and i now see that monitor really tempting tbh, just out of interest what would a similar quality monitor from say dell or apple cost? also your man in that thread was saying there was a version of those monitors with a dp connection, any idea which one it is?

Bloodwing

Serephucus wrote: »

Quick question for all the M4 owners here:

I'm getting about 400/175 seq.R/W according to ATTO. I assume that's within the realm of normality for these drives?

I'm getting 500/192 seq. r/w with Crystal Disk Mark on my M4. I'll try ATTO and see what i get.

Edit: what transfer size and length are you using on ATTO?

Serephucus

0.5-8192, and 1GB. Queue depth of 4.

I think I get about 380/170 with CDM, will test again.

Edit: CDM gives me 380/180 @ 5/1GB.

Bloodwing

Serephucus wrote: »

0.5-8192, and 1GB. Queue depth of 4.

I think I get about 380/170 with CDM, will test again.

Edit: CDM gives me 380/180 @ 5/1GB.

Here's my results from ATTO and CDM.





This is probably a stupid question but are you using SATA 6GB/s cables?

Serephucus

Neilos wrote: »

Here's my results from ATTO and CDM.





This is probably a stupid question but are you using SATA 6GB/s cables?

Can't see them.

... There's a diference? Dunno where I got it from, but I always thought they were the same. 375 is the theoretical max. for SATA2 though, so surely I have to be using the right cables.

Bloodwing

I'll just post the links directly so.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/71842889@N06/6952785523/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/71842889@N06/6952785643/in/photostream/

I seem to be getting better reads than you. I got 2 SATA 3GB/s and 2 SATA 6GB/s cables with my MB, just thought that might be the reason. I'll try mine on a 3GB/s and see if it has any effect if you want.

Serephucus

Your results do seem quite a bit higher. I take it you're using the 128GB drive too?

Nah, it's fine. I have a feeling it's down to the controller, as the cables are interchangeable.

Bloodwing

Yeah it's the 128GB one.

Fluffy88

Here's what I get.
Capture.PNG
Capture2.PNG

I got such different results to it tried it a few times.
The seconds screenshot was the best I got.

I haven't done anything to try boost performance, just ran the bench. I have windows, ubuntu and all my programs on it.

Serephucus

Weird... What drivers are you guys using? Oh, I should mention I'm on 0009 firmware, not the new 0309, though as far as I remember, that was only to fix that crash-every-hour-after-a-given-amount-of-on-time bug, and not a performance enhancing update.

Edit: After a bit of reading, it appears it's the controller on my board. The UD5 uses a Marvell SATA3 chip, which apparently really isn't the greatest in the world - where-as, I'm pretty sure all of you guys with your Z68 boards have native Intel SATA3. Not really a huge issue for me, as the drive is still far, far quicker than my previous SSD. Thanks for doing the benchmark runs though guys.

glynf

glynf wrote: »

Thats not bad, think I had similar woth the last M.board I had as it used the same Marvell 9128 SATA III controller. There are issues using the marvel controller, so a lot of people use the SATA II port instead. If you have it set to AHCI and the latest Intel rapid storage driver you're good.

Serephucus, as mentioned here ^^^^^:)

I ended up using the SATA II ports on the Ga-P55A-UD3 as the Marvel 9128 is an unreliable POS.-sure you have same SATA III controller on your board. Now on a Z68 & getting 494 read, 187 write.

Tea_Bag

Lads i think im going to bite the bullet and get that 27" IPS.

Ill have the money in a week or so and will let you know how i get on.


anyone else?

Brian

Not I - trying to get a 120 Hz at the moment!

Tea_Bag

Baza210 wrote: »

Not I - trying to get a 120 Hz at the moment!

apparently 1080p @120Hz is more taxing than 1600p @ 60hz.

hope you got the juice to fuel the monitor?

im struggling to find benchmarks of a 6990 @1440p.

mostly i care about BF3, and the only bench i can find says 67fps, which is lower in real world multiplayer things. god i hope i dont have to get another 6990 to run BF3 @ ultra settings......

Brian

All I play is TF2, which is much more dependent on CPU than GPU. If I want to get 240 fps steady @ 1080p I'll probably have to drop down from DX9 to DX8. Especially if I'm to continue streaming...

Serephucus

I'd do it except:

a) It doesn't have a VESA mount, which I'd need.
b) Really not a fan of glossy panels.

It's a steal though, hopefully it'll be an amazing monitor.

Tea_Bag

yea ill really be playing with fire. I'm going to get the tempered glass model, which is even more risky. customs could hit me for €100, no warranty outside of South Korea.

EDIT: Both variants have VESA mounts. im not worried about the Gloss, cause i usually play in a dark room. i imagine it would be a nightmare if ive a window behind it in daylight.

ShadowHearth

lads, whats with ssds droping in price? is there something new coming out soon?

cherryghost

Woot my monitor arrived

Headshot

cherryghost wrote: »

Woot my monitor arrived

Have it set up yet?

Monotype

ShadowHearth wrote: »

lads, whats with ssds droping in price? is there something new coming out soon?

I'm guessing it must be the OCZ petrol. I haven't heard news of any other drives coming and SSDs are still in a good position relative to pricing of hard drives.
Although the petrol is definitely a significantly inferior SSD (to the current), maybe people are just buying it as being "good enough" - it will still be much faster than HDD for access.

There could be a price drop in raw materials that we're not seeing on the manufacturer side too.

Overheal

Tonight I finally changed out the cooler for the FX 8150. It just had the stock. The stock was noisy and stupid. The H60 cooler though is nice. I had to remove the rear case fan to put it on and I didn't have the screws to mount that to the other side of the radiator but it found a new home on the side panel.

Genius father though, after goading me to get around to installing it for him, meanders over to the table and looks at the bare CPU discolored with silver. "What's all this?" *SWIPE FINGER* "who the fcuk told you to touch that then?!?" Oh man, I made him feel like a right eejit. Had to remove the CPU and run the whole thing down with alchohol. Grr! And he had thrown away the tube of silver I bought him (!!!!!!!) so now he has to settle for the stock paste square that came on the H60. Good riddance!

Still runs quiet as hell don't get me wrong but I think I can bring the temps below 50 degrees on Prime95. 58 is a little high for me. I can shift the side panel fan up a position and it will blow into the CPU zone to cool down the H60 and the ATX line. The GPU zone was running much cooler at about 28. I love thermal radar.

Serephucus

The stock paste that comes with the Hydro series coolers is actually some of the best you can buy, so it's good you didn't replace it; odds are the replacement stuff would have been inferior. Next step: Custom water cooling!

Brian

Oh how I wish this were in Dublin..

http://www.adverts.ie/tv/lg-3d-monitor-23-inch-w2363d/1425847

dwighet

Baza210 wrote: »

Oh how I wish this were in Dublin..

http://www.adverts.ie/tv/lg-3d-monitor-23-inch-w2363d/1425847

Do they work well in 2d...
What im getting at is will the 120hz vs my 60hz be much of a visual improvent for gaming with xfire 6970`s?

If so looks like im off to cork for a spin

Brian

dwighet wrote: »

Do they work well in 2d...
What im getting at is will the 120hz vs my 60hz be much of a visual improvent for gaming with xfire 6970`s?

If so looks like im off to cork for a spin

Yes, that's exactly why I want to buy one. I don't even have an NVIDIA card, so the 3D functionality is useless to me. You will need to be playing a game where you can uncap your FPS though ... I don't know if it will be any good if you're only rendering 60 fps.