Off-Topic Thread

Tea_Bag

yea, but as it currenty stands their new tech is not implemented.

TheJims

Has anyone ever tried or known someone who tried to build a mineral oil filled case? just ordered all new parts for my current rig barr a new case!

nothings broken just upgrading, so it seems like a fun project since i have nothing else to do with the parts!

Thoughts??

NTMK

TheJims wrote: »

Has anyone ever tried or known someone who tried to build a mineral oil filled case?

I've seen one first hand a friend of mine was retiring old gear and decided to submerge it in a fish tank filled with oil works great but you'd need a fork lift to move it also any moving parts need to be outside the oil naturally and your gpu unless passively cooled would need to have its reference cooler removed and it more than likely voids any warrenty

Tea_Bag

What do you replace the reference cooler with?

NTMK

Tea_Bag wrote: »

What do you replace the reference cooler with?

he removed them completely and the oil acts as the cooler

Monotype

I've seen it a few times around the net. Tom's hardware showed it a few years back. I don't think I'd be in a hurry to do it myself.

Pics please if you decide to do it!

Tea_Bag

Monotype wrote: »

I've seen it a few times around the net. Tom's hardware showed it a few years back. I don't think I'd be in a hurry to do it myself.

Pics please if you decide to do it!

i move my PC way too much. it would be an absolute nightmare to shift it anywhere with it covered in oil.

IIRC, it doesnt actually give great results as far as cooling goes, and most people run rads around with fans anyway?

Solitaire

Tea_Bag wrote: »

i move my PC way too much. it would be an absolute nightmare to shift it anywhere with it covered in oil.

Umm... Tea... The case isn't covered in oil. Its full of oil :eek: Thus the weight issue

TheJims

lol! well once its set up it wont be moved! itll be the 3rd pc in the house so itll be just hooked up to the big tv in the sitting room for streaming things...

im goin fishtank shopping this weekend so pics might be around next week!

Monotype

Just reuse chip pan oil. You'd get hungry every time you watch tv!

Tea_Bag

Solitaire wrote: »

Umm... Tea... The case isn't covered in oil. Its full of oil :eek: Thus the weight issue

har har har funny comedian is funny

Monotype wrote: »

Just reuse chip pan oil. You'd get hungry every time you watch tv!

yea it'll smell lovely when the PC gets hot

deconduo

Shamelesly stolen from reddit:

Monotype

I think a small form factor case and board would make a better comparison.
You're mostly paying for the brand like people who will blindly buy alienware. You can get nice gaming laptops for half that minus the fancy LCD keyboard section, but I don't think that's worth €1000.

deconduo

Usually I'd complain about ridiculously overpriced computers on adverts, but for once theres a bargain. If I could afford to pick it up I definitely would:

http://www.adverts.ie/desktops/powerful-gaming-pc/825290

The 570 + Windows 7 Ultimate alone would make up most of the cost. Shame its probably an OEM license so you can't carry it over from that computer.

Monotype

Decent for games in mind. The 570 alone is worth quite a bit and I see you get a monitor. Very good for someone on a tighter budget.

Tea_Bag

Yay stickies are kinda back! Being mostly on my mobile I never understood the problem anyway.

Edit : ah nvm I could have sworn the 'how to ask for help ' was stickied but now Ira's not? Is someone trying to confuse me?

Monotype

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=576

Brian

Can the mods merge the charter and FAQ into one thread? Seems a bit pointless having two, single-post, stickied threads.

freeze4real

Guys which is better AMD 64 OR AMD 64 X 2 5600 processor.

Brian

Anybody got experience with using a car seat as a desk chair? Sick of this wooden thing I have.

Tea_Bag

Baza210 wrote: »

Anybody got experience with using a car seat as a desk chair? Sick of this wooden thing I have.

ha what car seat? get something like a BMW 7 series seat (with the electric massager)

like a BOSS.

Brian

Sure, if it takes molex.

I'm wondering if I could get something cheap from a scrap yard, around €20 or so.

Tea_Bag

Baza210 wrote: »

Sure, if it takes molex.

I'm wondering if I could get something cheap from a scrap yard, around €20 or so.

sounds like a great idea tbh. id be interested myself if you get on well. and im sure it can be converted to molex seeing as it'll be a DC motor??!!

Brian

Tempting... http://www.adverts.ie/car-parts-accessories/subaru-impreza-seats/822075

deconduo

I'm hosting a game of mafia in one of the other boards but its pretty dead there :P If anyone is interested you should head over and sign up, its great craic. I play lot on another forum and its always been something I've wanted to try out here.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056444056

Trevor451

I have a MSi 6950 2GB and I noticed when doing the default furmark test the screen kind of tears at certain points.

I had another spare 6950 card and tested that out in the same system and got tearing also so I would imagine its OK? Furmark is running at 30 FPS so It would not be the usual cause of tearing.
Games that I played (BFBC2 and TF2) seem fine with V-SYNC enabled BTW.

On a side note, I like how MSi advertise that there cards will not explode

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=s27hp1&s=5 :P

Solitaire

Amazon.co.uk, you are the biggest load of f***ing w***ing arseholes this Earth has ever seen.

€17 shipping on a bag of cable clips costing less than €2. A collection of bits costing less than €20 and weighing less than 100g? You f***ers added over €60 to the delivery cost on the very last page of the checkout.

You have it in your power to display such information long before then. Indeed, you make it look like the subtotal on the penultimate page tells you the subtotal including shipping. The real subtotal is saved for the last page just below the Commit To Assrape button. Its a scam, pure and simple.

You f***ing f***ers.

Eamonn Brophy

Solitaire wrote: »

Amazon.co.uk, you are the biggest load of f***ing w***ing arseholes this Earth has ever seen.

€17 shipping on a bag of cable clips costing less than €2. A collection of bits costing less than €20 and weighing less than 100g? You f***ers added over €60 to the delivery cost on the very last page of the checkout.

You have it in your power to display such information long before then. Indeed, you make it look like the subtotal on the penultimate page tells you the subtotal including shipping. The real subtotal is saved for the last page just below the Commit To Assrape button. Its a scam, pure and simple.

You f***ing f***ers.

You're buying off 3rd party sellers who sell through amazon probably, go back to shopping and clikc "free supersaver". Things Amazon sell themselves from their own company nearly ALWAYS shps for free.

VenomIreland

Solitaire wrote: »

Amazon.co.uk, you are the biggest load of f***ing w***ing arseholes this Earth has ever seen.

€17 shipping on a bag of cable clips costing less than €2. A collection of bits costing less than €20 and weighing less than 100g? You f***ers added over €60 to the delivery cost on the very last page of the checkout.

You have it in your power to display such information long before then. Indeed, you make it look like the subtotal on the penultimate page tells you the subtotal including shipping. The real subtotal is saved for the last page just below the Commit To Assrape button. Its a scam, pure and simple.

You f***ing f***ers.

You sure it's Amazon themselves that were selling it and not some merchant selling through Amazon? I've never had a problem with overpriced shipping for anything from Amazon.

Solitaire

Its the way Amazon are doing it though - they refuse to show correct shipping until the very last page, AND this new total is hidden under the Commit button. It reeks of scam on Amazon's part. And is reminding me of why I didn't touch them with a bargepole for many years.

Its crazy how some items can't be purchased cheaply in Ireland at all unless you know a man with a van though :eek: That forces them into risking Scamazon and if they click the wrong button before reading all the small-print... ass-rape ensues.

Headshot

Lads do any of ye get pc gaming mags

Use to get pc gamer back in the day but I saw it recently and couldnt believe how thin it is

Like a mag that gaming reviews, demos and hardware reviews

Eamonn Brophy

Headshot wrote: »

Lads do any of ye get pc gaming mags

Use to get pc gamer back in the day but I saw it recently and couldnt believe how thin it is

Like a mag that gaming reviews, demos and hardware reviews

Waste of money with the net these days. You get outdated information slower and it costs more money.

The only exception is if I'm stuck travelling on a long journey, I might pick one up then in an airport or trainstation, otherwise no.

Solitaire

Yeah. Web killed them for me, I sometimes get them for laughs and demo discs but certainly not for hardware reviews anyway! :P

ShadowHearth

All true about mags.

My phone replaced mags in toilet too.

P.s. I am laying a Brick while typing this! I love technology

Monotype

TMI!

Re: Amazon. They're one of the best sellers around as long as you buy from amazon themselves. They're fast at taking care of customers when there's problems. Always look for the Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk. You can filter this by selecting Free super saver delivery on the left hand side. This usually filters out amazon themselves or priority sellers which you can avail of free delivery with. It's a bit buggy though, so it could be improved. I've bought the ocassional item from the third party sellers, but you have to be very selective and it's usually only worth it with rare items as the postage can add up. It's pretty much like buying things on ebay. Postage varies so if you're looking for the best price, there's a lot of moving between cart and checkout. That said, they should have the real prices displayed for shipping here.

Sasquatch76

About to buy a monitor from a German site - I assume that apart from needing a plug adapter, I'll be alright? Can I change the language of the OSD?

Monotype

You can use the same plugs you find on most PCs and monitors. It might depend on the monitor, but just about every monitor in recent times that I've looked at the settings allows for language change.

Sasquatch76

Derp, I could have just looked up the manual online. So yeah, I can change the language no probs

Samsung S23A700D by the way. Can't wait The model has an external power adaptor box, so I'm not sure if that means the plug/lead will be moulded/attached to the box or not. Either way, I'll pick up an adaptor plug somewhere.

deejer

Headshot wrote: »

Lads do any of ye get pc gaming mags

Use to get pc gamer back in the day but I saw it recently and couldnt believe how thin it is

Like a mag that gaming reviews, demos and hardware reviews

Custom PC and PC Format are worth a read. Have been getting them both for the last couple of years. Custom PC is better id say if I had to pick one.

I get the train to work so like having them for a read then. I admit they are a bit of a waste of money. They cost between 6-8 euro and I might get 1 or 2 evenings out of them. But there can be some interesting stuff in them.

Headshot

Iv been trying to find out when these headset are out but cant get a date all. Anyone know when the Razer Tiamat 7.1 are out?

Brian

Surround sound headsets are bogus. Just buy a decent stereo pair. http://www.vanillatf2.org/2011/07/guide-toss-your-old-headphones/

Headshot

Nope the razors will the first true 7.1 system

nesf

Baza210 wrote: »

Surround sound headsets are bogus. Just buy a decent stereo pair. http://www.vanillatf2.org/2011/07/guide-toss-your-old-headphones/

Eh, some of the gaming headsets give decent sound (for the money) and surround sound is useful in some games for some people (i.e. ones whose ears suit surround sound via headphone). My HD 25s are better for sound quality than my Steelseries 7Hs but they were twice the price so they'd want to be. Really and truly good quality headphones are not needed with gaming. It's not like you'll be doing any critical listening while fragging someone now will you?

If I was spending more than £100 I'd go with headphones from an audio company though. You'll be glad of it (with a nice DAC and/or amp) for music later.


Edit: On the Tiamats, I've heard good things about the sound positioning and bad things about the sound quality for the price. Depends on what you're after really.


Edit 2: Because I can't sleep, the kids are awake and one of them is running a fever of 40...

If you care a lot about listening to music and don't have a good speaker set up it's hard to recommend a gaming headset. If you have the money then something like the Sennheiser HD25-IIs or similar will give you much better returns if you start looking at amps and DACs down the line. Good open headphones like the better Grados and Sennheisers HD5xx or HD6xx series will be better again assuming you don't need isolation. It doesn't matter how good your soundcard or DAC is if your headphones can't show the quality of them. That said, if all you're looking for is positional sound for FPS play then it's hard to recommend stereo headsets without Dolby Virtual 7.1. Surround sound headsets will never approach a decent surround sound speaker set up but you can't take your speakers to a LAN without you and that's where a gaming headset really shines. Be warned though, once you start down the road of good headphones, it starts getting expensive quickly. You'll want a DAC rather than relying on onboard sound, you'll want an amp too (personally I think Fiio has some good products here at a nice price point though I just had an E7 die on me so I'm a little annoyed with them at the moment).

If it's purely about gaming and convenience and sound quality is a secondary issue for you, something sub £100 like the Steelseries 7H headphones (they have a design flaw that has affected some people, though I haven't experienced it), or the Siberia V2s or whatever are not a bad option. If you want to listen to music too at that price point you'd want to at least consider Koss Porta Pros or better along with a decent desktop mic if positional sound isn't an issue for you. If you have more money and care about music and need good isolation then the Sennheiser HD25-IIs with a decent but cheap DAC/amp combo like the Fiio E7 or E10, are superb in my opinion without going into crazy money territory (oh how I want a pair of HD650s and a proper DAC and amp!). Another option is something like the HD25-IIs with the Steelseries Siberia USB Soundcard (it has enough gain to drive them well) which will give you 7.1 though not as good as the Tiamats.

Bonesy.

This probably isn't the right place to post this but I wasn't going to make a whole thread dedicated to this :P DCan anyone tell me how they make the card/grid style list for products of Dabs etc on this, I've tryed copy and pasting but it dosn't look right..

Monotype

Fluffy's script.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=72858800

Paste the following into the address bar when you're on the basket in dabs.

[php]javascript:var before = 'Item|Price'; var after = '';var format='{itm_quantity}{itm_name}|{itm_price}';var debug = false;function loadScript( url ){if ( document.getElementById( "basket_parser" ) == null ){var script = document.createElement( "script" );script.setAttribute( "id", "basket_parser" );script.setAttribute( "type", "text/javascript" );script.setAttribute( "src", url + "?" + Math.pow( new Date().getMonth(), 2 ) + Math.pow( new Date().getDate(), 3 ) );document.getElementsByTagName( "head" )[0].appendChild( script );setTimeout( "loadScript('" + url + "')", 200 );log( "Started loading script: " + url );}else if ( typeof( init_script ) != 'undefined' ){log( "Loaded." );init_script();}else{setTimeout( "loadScript('" + url + "')", 200 );log( "loading ..." );}}function log( string ){if ( debug ){document.body.appendChild( document.createTextNode( string ) );document.body.appendChild( document.createElement( "br" ) );}}loadScript( "http://fluffy88.com/scripts/basket_parser.js" );void( 0 ); [/php]

Fluffy88

What are the sales like for hardware after Christmas?

I am looking at buying a Crucial M4 128GB for €174 and was wondering should I go ahead and get it now or wait until January and hope that the price drops?

This is my first year that I have actually have any knowledge of computer hardware so I have no idea of the on and off seasons or when the best sales happen so any help is greatly appreciated

Monotype

Seasonal hardware sales are usually non-existent. It depends on the type of item though. Things that might be in stock because they lose value very slowly can be flogged off cheap to clear out old ones, for example cases. A lot of things which closely follow market prices and are kept in low stock, e.g., CPUs, are rarely reduced.

I'd say SSDs fall into latter category. The stores can really only offer combination deals to cut prices a bit - any big reduction has to come from the manufacturer. I'd say demand is quite high for SSDs at the moment given that hard drives are so high. On the other hand, OCZ released some new SSDs which may influence market prices and those M4s have been climbing up the past few months so they a price drop could easily happen.

Last thing to consider is the extra 2% VAT in January. That's nearly an extra €3. This will apply to all the Irish places and anywhere which applies Irish VAT (dabs.ie, amazon.co.uk, overclockers.co.uk).


TL;DR: I don't know, but I wouldn't expect any huge price changes.

Fluffy88

Cool, so I am probably best getting it now so.
Plus I would love to have it over the Christmas so I can show it off to my friends :P

Thanks Mono, your a legend

Solitaire

deejer wrote: »

Great sale on in Steam over the xmas/New year

Couldnt get on it last night after they went live in the US.

Some of the catalog deals look really tempting

GAH!! So hating my sister for pissing off back to Japan now She's the only member of the family with a credit card! So no Steam for me ;_;

Trevor451

Solitaire wrote: »

GAH!! So hating my sister for pissing off back to Japan now She's the only member of the family with a credit card! So no Steam for me ;_;

maybe you could pay with bank transfer or visa debit?