Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Italian verdict on Google privacy sets dangerous precedent

Content providers are responsible for what users upload? RUBBISH

Italian verdict on Google privacy sets dangerous precedent

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Hum tum

This was the best thing to watch on tv tonight and it was nice. It was
released in 2004 and has the usual drama and a couple songs but all
bearable. I recommend it.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hum_Tum

Shooting star over Princes Town

Last night I saw a shooting star above Princes Town. It was going from
west to east. It was the brightest one I've ever seen, so it had to be
a big meteor. I saw it for about probably 5 seconds before it went out
of view behind a house. The brightness fluctuated while I watched it,
it was hard to miss if you did not see it at first. I made my wish a
few minutes later when I remembered, will I still get it?

Monitor going blank but not turning off, xfx 5770 catalyst 10.1, win 7, fixed with 10.2


So you set "Turn off monitor" to a sane value like 10 minutes and your lcd monitor goes blank but you can still see light coming from it, the backlight is still on. This defeats the purpose of the function as power is still going to the main power drainer, the backlight. I have this problem and I am using an XFX HD-577X-ZNFC with Catalyst drivers 10.1 on Windows 7 64 bit. I read on a forum that this is only an issue as of 10.1, if you use the previous driver (9.12) you will not have this problem. As of today, the 17th February 10.2 is released and I installed it and the problem no longer exists, the lcd goes off as it should.

Choose your version of Catalyst driver here: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

Sleep and hibernate work as they should and the monitor goes off as expected. I use a Dell S2209w that goes into "Power Save Mode" when it is not being used by the PC and the lit power button on the bottom right goes from white to orange when not in use.

Monday, February 15, 2010

i5 gaming rig build Feb 2010

I put together a new pc last week with the following specs:

Intel i5 750 (quad core, 2.66Ghz, turbo boost)
4GB DDR3 RAM (Corsair XMS3 1600mhz)
XFX HD-577X-ZNFC Radeon gpu (XFX 5770, 1gb, DX 11)
Gigabyte GA-H57M-USB3 H57 motherboard (usb3, 7.1 audio, xfire, raid)
WD WD1001FALS 1 TB SATA hard drive (7200rpm, sata2)
OCZ OCZ600MXSP ModXStream Pro psu (600w, modular, 80+)
Thermaltake VI1000NWS M9 case (2 x 120mm fan, toolless, bought locally)

The parts I already have are:
Logitech MX518 mouse
Dell S2209w 22" LCD (5ms, 1080p, DVI-D)
Logitech x530 speakers (5.1, 70w rms)
MS Keyboard
Sony MDR-XD200 headphones
500VA UPS
HP 3050 AIO


Most things were ordered from amazon.com and in abount 8 days after ordering it I had it here in Trinidad. This was after free shipping from amazon. The system came alive after my second attempt to power it up. The first time I did not switch the power supply on. All parts ram straight out of the box. The only thing I changed for specs was to select an XMP to get the memory up to 1600mhz from the 1300mhz it was on.

Windows 7 took some extra long pauses when setting up but it went smoothly. After I loaded up the drivers I loaded a couple games. NFS Shift runs well although I just played for a few mins. I am playing Wolverine:  X-Men Origins now. It is now an 'old' game but looks amazing. I have seen slowdonw in a couple seems with water and fighting, but for stock settings... WOW. Pics and benchmarks will be up soon.
 
Here is a screenshot of the the win 7 assessment with stock settings.



The motherboard came in its own box. The ram was the smallest package as expected, althought it could have been smaller if the package was made for only 2 sticks instead of 3.





The gpu had the most sturdy box of the lot.




The hard drive was just the drive in a static bag in a 'padded' cardboard box, true OEM style. No cables etc. The motherboard came with 2 sata cables and the case came with plenty screws so no problem here.



This is a shot of the back ports on the motherboard. The next shot is a closeup of the cpu area on the mobo.







The GPU has the egg shaped cooler setup which I read is the 'revised' version. The back of it has nothing worth mentioning. It comes with a 6 pin PCI-E power adapter but my supply has 2 of these built in so I will not use the adapter. There is also a DVI to VGA adapter. The card is 2 slots tall so I had to remove one back panel cover, one was missing already.





This cooler design does not push air straight out the back of the case as the other cooler did but I guess with my case fans I should be okay.





I am using the stock cooler to see what results I get and decide if i need to upgrade it. The gray 3 sectioned circle is thermal paste exactly as it was shipped to me. The fan is a 4 pin connector, so it can be throttled as necessary.





The power supply comes with a carrying case for the unused cables and a standard 3 pin power cord. One point to note is as I was lining it up to screw it onto the case, I scraped a bit of paint off the power supply where it rubbed on the case. There was no force applied, I was just sliding the case around to line up the screw holes. Be careful when attaching the power supply to your case.




The Thermaltake M9 case is a decent case. The worst aspect I think is the hard drive attachment method. You have to load your HD into a 3 storey case that has a fan attached to the front. This case fits into the 5.25inch slot area and is held in place with plastic clips. The clips line up with the standard screw holes and the middle turns to lock/unlock the clip onto the case. Standard HD screws are used to keep the HD in the tray and the opening to attach the screw coupld have been much wider to maybe use your fingers, instead you are forced to use your screw driver to balance the screw into place.
If you have more than one HD, in order to take it out you must remove the 3 drive tall tray from the case. If you have a long video card or alot of cable this can be a problem if the tray is not placed in the lowest slots, even then it can be difficult. The clips are only used on one side but I think they are sufficient. I did have to take a riser from my old case to keep the board from flexing in the case. I used all the risers from the M9 bag-o-screws-n' stuff and there are 6 built in risers in the case (of which I used 4) but one corner was still left unsupported. Lucky thing for old spare parts. The M9 includes a single 3.5 or 2.5 to 5.25 inch adapter tray to use for a card reader or floppy drive. This is what takes up the top open space in the pic below. This too is held in by the same clips used for all the other slots. I took it out and put my burner here. The two fans that come with the M9 use big 4 pin pass through connectors so their rpm cannot be monitored. The cables going to the front of the case for USB, audio, power sw etc are long enough to get snaked around the outside of the motherboard. The right side of the case does not have any channels to pass wires behind or under the board to make it neater.




























Saturday, February 6, 2010

Are Amazon Shipping Estimates for packages exaggerated, just a little?

I'm building a pc and buying parts from www.amazon.com as they have excellent prices for what I want right now. On an item's page you sometimes see an estimate of how long the item takes to be shipped out of the warehouse, eg. my motherboard says "Usually ships within 2 to 3 days". This was the item and time frame I wanted so I went through purchasing it, but them on my orders page I saw "Shipping Estimate February 16, 2010 - February 17, 2010" which was very surprising as today is the 6th 
so that means it might take 10 days to be shipped. This was unacceptable as I was 
trying to time the delivery of the board with the rest of items as I ordered those 
two days ago because of their estimated shipping dates. A few items may be grouped 
together and can save on shipping costs.I decided I would wait it out and see if I might 
get lucky and get it shipped sooner. That was at 1.40pm. 

It is now 4.00pm and the board is saying "Shipping Soon". This means it is a few 
hours from being shipped out. WOW!, from 10 days to a few hours? really? 
WOW! I am glad I kept the order when I saw ten days , looks like it might just work 
out perfectly.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Searching suggestions for Windows 7


I saw this on a forum and made a screen shot of my own, pretty funny stuff really :-D