Search found 92 matches

by bkh
Tue May 26, 2009 8:02 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Need a 3.5" external harddrive enclosure
Replies: 3
Views: 2674

The MX-1 is a good enclosure except that its fan is not quiet. I use one for backups, but would not be willing to listen to it for long periods of time.
by bkh
Thu Feb 26, 2009 6:44 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: External Storage - two options, advice please.II
Replies: 2
Views: 2497

Recall that Western Digital enforces anti-piracy restrictions for 30 multimedia file types if you use their Anywhere Access software for the WD My Book. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7136069.stm If you find their "Big Brother" approach offensive, this could be a reason to avoid the WD My Boo...
by bkh
Thu Oct 02, 2008 8:44 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Hard Disks. Good for offline storage over the years?
Replies: 34
Views: 17132

>Actually, even if a few bits on a hard drive have changed, the data can be read from it as usual, since every hard drive has error correcting features nowadays. Perhaps you miss my point. Despite ECC, sometimes the data that is read is not identical to the data that was earlier written. This sort o...
by bkh
Thu Oct 02, 2008 10:52 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Hard Disks. Good for offline storage over the years?
Replies: 34
Views: 17132

A hard disk is not an archival storage medium. If you write it, then put it away and hope for the best you may get a very bad surprise. But as inti points out, you can use hard drives with multiple copies to get reliable long-term storage, and inti points out several good tips on how to do this. But...
by bkh
Thu Oct 02, 2008 10:37 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: a passive card with HDMI ouput?
Replies: 15
Views: 6577

Before buying a 3650 please check recent video card articles at anandtech.com --- I vaguely recall (perhaps in a review of the 4650?) that there was some problem with HDMI in the 3xxx series, but that it works properly in the 4xxx series.
by bkh
Tue Jul 22, 2008 8:05 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: WD Caviar GP 1 TB SATA Hard Drives (WD10EACS) spin speed
Replies: 28
Views: 14471

> the wholesaler ... only used specification papers supplied by the manufacturer so there's nothing they can do! In effect they are free to falsely advertise as long as the (false) information comes from the manufacturer. I had a similar experience with a vendor in the USA. They asked WD a second ti...
by bkh
Wed Apr 30, 2008 7:48 am
Forum: Deals, Vendors and Classifieds
Topic: 200 bucks!! SAMSUNG 1TB 7200RPM SATA II 32MB CACHE (HD103UJ)
Replies: 2
Views: 2646

US $185 at zipzoomfly.com for those brave enough to ignore the trouble reports (e.g., at newegg). I've ordered from zipzoomfly several times with no problems.
by bkh
Thu Feb 14, 2008 9:01 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Samsung F1 series hard drives w/1TB model
Replies: 394
Views: 397164

> Now of course the even more interesting question on this off topic subject that has always bothered me is why would all HDD manufacturers only choose to read only single platter at a time. All the platters are spinning and heads are tracking same position after all. Tracks are quite narrow, and th...
by bkh
Fri Jan 18, 2008 5:49 pm
Forum: SPCR's Folding@Home
Topic: Shaving time between checkpoints - My AMD X2 4000+
Replies: 67
Views: 33754

>If that's true then how to explain that his folding is using 2 processors at 50%??

50%+50%=100%. The uniprocessor client has enough work to keep one core fully busy, but it doesn't stay on one core, it gets preempted by other processes and when it is resecheduled it is random which core it runs on.
by bkh
Thu Jan 17, 2008 6:02 pm
Forum: SPCR's Folding@Home
Topic: can't connect to assignment server at work
Replies: 6
Views: 6629

It could be the firewall at work. I had a problem about a year ago where (if I remember) all the linux SMP work units were distributed by a server on port 8080, none via servers on port 80, and the firewalls at work were set to block access to port 8080.
by bkh
Tue Jan 15, 2008 8:22 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Samsung Spinpoint - Vibrating/Pulsing Loud
Replies: 10
Views: 6638

What you describe is likely your case resonating with the disk vibration -- which is particularly pronounced with multi-drive systems. The usual SPCR antidote for this is suspension (hang the drive in a basket of strong elastic so that it doesn't touch the metal of your case). Try searching this sit...
by bkh
Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:27 pm
Forum: SPCR's Folding@Home
Topic: Folding Machine on the cheap?
Replies: 15
Views: 10788

Hi, cd8uk. You've clearly taken considerable pains to achieve economical high-yield folding. Let me be a bit forward and suggest that your knowledge could perhaps be of considerable value if you were to distill it to a "cookbook" and post "How to get 3000PPD on a Q6600". That posting would surely be...
by bkh
Fri Jan 04, 2008 1:14 pm
Forum: SPCR's Folding@Home
Topic: Questions from a Folder out of the loop for a few years
Replies: 6
Views: 5049

Hi, Autoboy. I think you can't get the big points with the single-core athlons. The main reason for the high PPD of the successful dual- and quad-core folders is that the SMP jobs (especially the 64-bit Linux SMP jobs) have much higher PPD values than the uniprocessor jobs --- in part because the SM...
by bkh
Tue Jan 01, 2008 8:00 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Any good 1TB drives? Samsung, WD, Hitachi all have trouble
Replies: 9
Views: 5755

>You are wrong Interesting. I looked around a bit and you are absolutely right. I had a vague concept of "false advertising" but didn't know what I was talking about and I made an over-broad statement. It turns out that, roughly speaking, the vendor runs afoul of the Federal Trade Commission's consu...
by bkh
Tue Jan 01, 2008 10:05 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Any good 1TB drives? Samsung, WD, Hitachi all have trouble
Replies: 9
Views: 5755

>paranoia about W/D seems irrational Idealism is irrational, I suppose. This particular concept has a long tradition: "you reap what you sow", "karma", "what goes around comes around" --- by our choices we create the kind of world we have to live in. >WD's telling the truth Evidently not. Vendors wo...
by bkh
Mon Dec 31, 2007 5:54 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Any good 1TB drives? Samsung, WD, Hitachi all have trouble
Replies: 9
Views: 5755

Any good 1TB drives? Samsung, WD, Hitachi all have trouble

Anyone know of a 1TB drive that is good and a safe choice for data we wish to keep? From newegg.com customer comments, the (extremely speedy) Samsung 1TB drives are having many problems with excessive numbers of sectors going bad. The WD 1TB drives are advertised by many vendors as 7200rpm but seem ...
by bkh
Sat Dec 22, 2007 7:21 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Time for RAID
Replies: 21
Views: 13894

I second the "none of the above" comment. I had been using a hardware mirrored pair (2 disks on an adaptec card) for my Windows XP "C drive" and evidently suffered a power glitch that happened during a disk write, trashing both disks simultaneously. Neither disk was bootable after that disaster. For...
by bkh
Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:52 pm
Forum: SPCR's Folding@Home
Topic: 2,000,000 Plus Club!
Replies: 3
Views: 4342

Maybe so, but TRC-13 will soon move back into 1st, even after I get past my current project and can restart folding.
by bkh
Sun Dec 16, 2007 10:57 am
Forum: SPCR's Folding@Home
Topic: 2,000,000 Plus Club!
Replies: 3
Views: 4342

TRC-13 is formidable indeed.
by bkh
Sun Nov 11, 2007 11:36 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Adding 1Gb DDR2 for dual channel up power draw much?
Replies: 6
Views: 3379

My rule of thumb is 10 watts per stick of DRAM, and 10 watts per disk drive.
I would buy the DRAM for performance reasons. Surely you can save 10 watts somewhere else in your house or apartment with little effort if you are looking to be green.
by bkh
Wed Nov 07, 2007 4:24 pm
Forum: SPCR's Folding@Home
Topic: Might be getting a q6600...
Replies: 7
Views: 6469

>I decided no quads until the Penryn 4nm chips come out.

4nm would be awesome.

>Is it still correct they will be announced on Nov 11th?

What year? (Sorry, Ari, I couldn't resist.)
by bkh
Tue Oct 30, 2007 5:46 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: WD Caviar GP 1 TB SATA Hard Drives (WD10EACS) spin speed
Replies: 28
Views: 14471

>now all we need to do is to persuade everyone to stop buying their drives That is not my conclusion. I think that we want the facts so that we can evaluate the tradeoffs among performance, power, heat, noise,.... Accurate specs help, as do high-quality performance tests and reviews such as found at...
by bkh
Tue Oct 30, 2007 3:03 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Smart Drive 2002
Replies: 4
Views: 5080

I've had a Raptor 150 in one for several months, and I haven't observed overheating (but have not taken a scientific measurement). But there should be some airflow over the smartdrive -- there's more likelihood of overheating if the smardrive is placed out of the airflow and depending only on convec...
by bkh
Tue Oct 30, 2007 2:58 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: WD Caviar GP 1 TB SATA Hard Drives (WD10EACS) spin speed
Replies: 28
Views: 14471

I went to the WD web site to see if they have a clear answer to the question of spin speed. From the Greenpower page, it states that for any particular size of WD GP drive, the spindle speed is fixed, not dynamically changing. It also states that, depending on which drive in the family, the speed ra...
by bkh
Sat Oct 27, 2007 5:24 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Antec MX-1: eSata is not Sata
Replies: 19
Views: 15694

Hi jackylman, >bkh, I have a few ?'s: > >- What kind of disk are you using? WD 5000KS-00MNB0 >- Is it possible that it needs some sort of firmware upgrade? I can't rule that out: I have never flashed a disk drive to newer firmware. But of course it works just fine as is on the internal nVidia and Si...
by bkh
Sat Oct 27, 2007 4:59 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Smart Drive 2002
Replies: 4
Views: 5080

The SmartDrive 2002 doesn't prevent it: it depends on your computer case: if the 5-1/4 drive bay mounting screw slots are long enough that you can pull a CD drive into a recessed position you should be able to do the same with the SmartDrive. But there are some small air slots in the side- and upper...
by bkh
Tue Oct 09, 2007 6:23 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Antec MX-1: eSata is not Sata
Replies: 19
Views: 15694

Here's another hint about particular motherboard chipsets that may have trouble supporting eSata using a Sata-to-eSata bracket. http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=3119&p=2 "As we noted in our earlier review of the ICY DOCK MB559US, proper chipset support of eSATA is strongly recommended...
by bkh
Sun Sep 30, 2007 7:44 pm
Forum: SPCR's Folding@Home
Topic: Q6600 G0 crunching, some questions and some issues
Replies: 19
Views: 14146

> Do any of you have these silent abortions using SMP client?

Never experienced that with AMD X2 or Intel C2D at stock speeds running 64-bit Ubuntu. Maybe you have a subtle instability from your overclock.
by bkh
Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:01 pm
Forum: SPCR's Folding@Home
Topic: Windows SMP client expiring very soon!!!
Replies: 15
Views: 8721

> also, anybody know a good method to upgrade the expiring client without losing any WU's? Plan A: Take a backup of the folding directory and restore it if anything goes wrong. Plan B: Stop the old client then restart it (prior to expiration) with the -oneunit flag so that it will stop after complet...
by bkh
Mon Aug 27, 2007 4:42 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Antec MX-1: eSata is not Sata
Replies: 19
Views: 15694

> I thought that the difference between esata and sata was a deeper and more robust connecter on esata - and that's all. So did I until my problem. Then in looking around I found a statement in the last paragraph on page 2 of this Icy Dock review at Anandtech that suggested there are technical diffe...