Search found 558 matches

by Nick Geraedts
Mon Dec 21, 2009 11:22 am
Forum: The Silent Front
Topic: Does SPCR seem way too obsessive compulsive about noise?
Replies: 77
Views: 68640

I think the answer to Mike's question, are we better served by quiet gear, is "within reason". As far as the quiet computer thing goes, my machine is quiet enough for me to hear the hum from my monitor. OTOH, the heating and AC system in parts of the house is loud. In retrospect, I wonder if some o...
by Nick Geraedts
Sun Dec 20, 2009 11:50 pm
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Windows 7
Replies: 41
Views: 26534

I've been using Win7 RTM on both my desktop (a fairly powerful quad-core system) and my netbook (Asus EEE 1000HA) since about a week after it's final build, and I've got to say it's fantastic. Others have already mentioned some of what I'm about to say, but I figured I'd condense it into a list. Har...
by Nick Geraedts
Thu Apr 09, 2009 10:02 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Windows 7 ...
Replies: 16
Views: 8894

Windows 7 is really impressive. I've got one of the latest builds running on my netbook without any real flaws that I can find. That being said, there wasn't any real difference in performance between Vista x64 and Win7 x64 on my desktop at home (my desktop is already a high performance machine thou...
by Nick Geraedts
Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:33 am
Forum: Video Cards & Monitors
Topic: Got the Twin Turbo on my 4870 1 gb :-)
Replies: 33
Views: 19689

Sorry to bring this thread back from the grave, but it seems as though the wonderful heatsinks that falcon26 linked to are discontinued from sidewindercomputers.

Does anyone know how to get in touch with Iandh to ask if they're still available for order?
by Nick Geraedts
Thu Mar 05, 2009 1:23 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: New HTPC system planned, seeking advice (AMD vs Intel)
Replies: 11
Views: 3846

If you're just looking for something that will play media and possibly deal with recording TV shows, getting a Gigabyte 780G based motherboard and a low power AMD CPU will do just fine. There are several media players out there that will allow you to take advantage of the hardware decoding capabilit...
by Nick Geraedts
Tue Mar 03, 2009 2:51 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Virtual Memory ... worth to modify ?
Replies: 16
Views: 4751

-the question of who's the master and who's the slave - the desire to improve things in general[/list] For the second question, the actual performance gains from disabling the pagefile is negligible at best. Windows does not "randomly" dump memory to disk - there's a reason for it, even if you don'...
by Nick Geraedts
Tue Mar 03, 2009 2:40 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: New system builders, what OS?
Replies: 16
Views: 4904

Why not use the Win7 Beta for the time being? From my experiences, it's not "rough around the edges", and I know several people who use it as their primary OS. Windows 7 Beta Homepage The trial should last you until the summer, at which point the upgrade licensing for Vista will allow you to upgrade...
by Nick Geraedts
Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:45 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Windows Vista Supercharged !!
Replies: 16
Views: 6330

@Cov - I'm not saying it's my "life support" - El Jefe's post just sounded like... well.... FUD. As with many new features (from any program or OS), it takes time for people to utilize them to their full potential. I was also trying to point out that it's not just a glorified WinXP search like many ...
by Nick Geraedts
Sun Mar 01, 2009 1:30 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Windows Vista Supercharged !!
Replies: 16
Views: 6330

yeah, I am with you here. how often do I NOT KNOW where I put my files? Like... um... 3x a year? It's not a matter of forgetting where you put your files - it's about speed. How about simply typing a few words and hitting enter? It's far faster than clicking through folders or clicking through the ...
by Nick Geraedts
Fri Feb 27, 2009 1:57 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Noisy half-baked "green" hard drives?
Replies: 17
Views: 13949

http://www.kwikpiks.com/files/1/computers/HDTach_WD3200BEKT_thumb.jpg There's the benchmark from my netbook. Looks about the same as the nVidia test. There's no noticable ticking from the drive, but I haven't been putting my head to the computer to listen either. If it's very faint, then I wouldn't...
by Nick Geraedts
Fri Feb 27, 2009 11:26 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Windows Vista Supercharged !!
Replies: 16
Views: 6330

Also if a person that is not so much computer-literate "tweaked" and a problem occurs, they would not know how to go back and change it. This is probably my main problem with tweaks like this (and the retched horror that is BlackViper's guides). People go and disable 10 services at a time, then som...
by Nick Geraedts
Fri Feb 27, 2009 10:43 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: WD Scorpio Black vs. Scorpio Blue vs. Caviar Green Power
Replies: 9
Views: 23139

LodeHacker wrote:Nick Nick Nick... Oh my dear Nick: http://www.applefritter.com/node/10859
OWNED! :lol:
That's on an open laptop.... doesn't count. :P
by Nick Geraedts
Fri Feb 27, 2009 9:01 am
Forum: CPU Cooling
Topic: Intel Q9550 c1+Xigmatek 1283+P182 = High Temperature! HELP!
Replies: 73
Views: 31012

I'm surprised your temperatures are that high as well. I've got my Q9550 overclocked to 3.4GHz @ 1.25V (BIOS) and my load temperatures are 62-57-57-57 while running BOINC projects and playing games (there's a ATI 4870 and 4850 in the case as well). Mind you, I've got a TRUE cooler in my system and I...
by Nick Geraedts
Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:54 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: WD Scorpio Black vs. Scorpio Blue vs. Caviar Green Power
Replies: 9
Views: 23139

Yes, the WD10EACS still gets good performance while being quiet, but it doesn't fit into a laptop, now does it? ;) I've got the WD3200BEKT in my EEE PC simply because I'm impatient, and the drive is no louder than the system fan that's running all the time. For a performance notebook drive, it's har...
by Nick Geraedts
Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:49 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Noisy half-baked "green" hard drives?
Replies: 17
Views: 13949

I've got the WD3200BEKT in my netbook, and it doesn't get read speeds anywhere NEAR that fast. Heck, my RAID0 arrays in my workstation and desktop at home barely beat thost measurements. Your access times are simply too low for a 7200RPM drive. That reading should be at least 8ms for both drives. HD...
by Nick Geraedts
Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:45 am
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: Where the ... is that global [climate change] warming?
Replies: 223
Views: 87755

I'll keep it short and say that I generally agree with blackworx's views here. We don't have a second earth that we can depopulate to see what would happen without human influences, so all the simulations and projections are just that - computer aided guesses. You can make a very good guess, but it'...
by Nick Geraedts
Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:31 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Windows Vista Supercharged !!
Replies: 16
Views: 6330

It really is a personal customization, and IMO, things like these should not be suggested without detailed information as to what you're doing. Disabling the Vista indexing means you have no more instant search. I personally use this feature several times per hour (as do most of my friends and famil...
by Nick Geraedts
Fri Feb 27, 2009 8:17 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: My system dies if I try to play games
Replies: 11
Views: 5589

antivenom wrote:Thanks Nick, I've always been worried about doing exactly that because it has happened to me before, but the power connectors to the motherboard and graphics card require your to press on the little latch thing anyway, making it impossible to yank them by the cable.
That's what you'd think..... ;)
by Nick Geraedts
Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:43 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Where to get U-channel tubing?
Replies: 4
Views: 3527

Thanks for the replies. I'll see if any of the places/methods here work. :)
by Nick Geraedts
Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:42 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Antec P182 too noisy!
Replies: 11
Views: 4627

I'll add to the vote of replacing the tri-cools. When I moved my system into a P182, the first thing I did was remove the tri-cools and install my own Scythe SlipStream fans (highly recommended).
by Nick Geraedts
Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:41 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: My system dies if I try to play games
Replies: 11
Views: 5589

But because several people have mentioned it might be a memory fault, I thought I'd test my memory by only installing one at a time. But during this process, I jiggled a few power connectors to my motherboard and graphics card and everything seems to be working fine now :? Just from seeing this hap...
by Nick Geraedts
Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:51 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Where to get U-channel tubing?
Replies: 4
Views: 3527

Where to get U-channel tubing?

I'm planning on doing some mods to my case/cases in the near future, but I was wondering if people had any suggestions on where to get the U-channel tubing to cover up the edges of cut holes.

Digikey? McMaster Carr? Local hardware store?
by Nick Geraedts
Wed Feb 25, 2009 3:27 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: New Samsung EcoGreen F2 1.5TB !
Replies: 5
Views: 4437

What? Only one drive? What have you been smoking lately? :P
by Nick Geraedts
Sun Feb 22, 2009 4:19 pm
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: W64 and 4GB RAM: How much do you have available?
Replies: 18
Views: 5565

You know, the cool thing about the i7 platform is that it goes in 3 gb chunks. just a random tidbit of info. Not necessarily true - the memory controllers on the i7 CPUs supports triple-channel memory access. The lowest "common" packs that are sold today are 3x1GB. That being said, that's still no ...
by Nick Geraedts
Sat Feb 21, 2009 7:12 pm
Forum: Off Topic
Topic: W64 and 4GB RAM: How much do you have available?
Replies: 18
Views: 5565

i will say, unless you're really doing a lot of work, 64bit is pointless for the average user, between driver issues and software issues. How so? The 4GB "barrier" aside, there are other reasons for using a 64-bit architecture over 32-bit. First off - it's faster. There are 16 registers available t...
by Nick Geraedts
Thu Feb 19, 2009 3:46 pm
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Problems with HTPC (IGP & HD4670) and Toshiba TV
Replies: 9
Views: 4315

I too have a Sharp TV (and a 780g gigabyte mobo) and am coping with the lack of 1:1 pixel mapping (burred text when compared with a D-Sub VGA output at the same resolution) -- I was of the understanding that it is a display-side issue, not a function of the graphics card? How are you getting 1:1 pi...
by Nick Geraedts
Wed Feb 18, 2009 12:19 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Problems with HTPC (IGP & HD4670) and Toshiba TV
Replies: 9
Views: 4315

I had a similar problem with my HTPC setup (using the onboard ATI 3200 card on my gigabyte board) with a Sharp LCD TV when I was using XP MCE as the OS. However, when I upgraded to Vista, the new drivers managed to get a proper 1:1 pixel mapping out of the box. What version of Windows are you runnin...
by Nick Geraedts
Thu Feb 12, 2009 3:36 am
Forum: System Advice / Troubleshooting
Topic: Quiet RAID 5 home server
Replies: 10
Views: 3945

dhanson865 - I can understand the argument against RAID5 for enterprise situations, but at the same time, look at their calculated values for MTTDL is on the order of hundreds of years. In a home situation, if you're looking to maximize storage space while still keeping basic redundancy, RAID5 will ...
by Nick Geraedts
Tue Feb 03, 2009 1:22 pm
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: whats the deal with Velociraptors?
Replies: 9
Views: 4893

With the Intel X25M SSD drives dropping below $400, the VR has a serious competitor. Below $400? Here in Canada they're still well above $700CAD, and that's for "only" 80GB. With the various software I have installed on my workstation, I'm using about 120GB on the system drive. I'm hoping that some...
by Nick Geraedts
Tue Jan 27, 2009 9:39 am
Forum: Silent Storage
Topic: Is there a problem with head parks on WD Green HDDs?
Replies: 296
Views: 457800

Oh yeah all the data was on the drive that died. I don't meant to sound harsh or blunt about this, but simply storing files on an external source is not a backup solution. A backup means that you have a duplicate copy of your file(s), preferably in different physical locations. You could have start...