Random Question Thread: Tech

[Fereydoon]

Alright, just checkin. I'm just used to sounds coming out of my computer being bad. xD

[Mellema]

The only stores I can think of nearby to buy one would be Best Buy or Frys. Would either of those be a good option?

Frys often has some good sales, but wait until Black Friday. Best Buy is good if you know someone who works there and you have them get it with their discount.

[TacoTaru]

That's normal. Don't worry about before at least 80+.

Mines around 85 but I thought that was normal. Should I get an extra fan or two to plop on the side of my case for extra cooling? It can support up to 4 120mm.

[hey]

Mines around 85 but I thought that was normal. Should I get an extra fan or two to plop on the side of my case for extra cooling? It can support up to 4 120mm.

What card is it? 85 is still normal under high load for some cards. For others however, that is definitely something to worry about.

[transmit]

I'm looking to upgrade my laptops RAM to 8gb from 4. And using Crucial's memory scanner it says I can either have

8GB Kit (4GBx2)
DDR3 PC3-8500 • CL=7 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1066 • 1.5V • 512Meg x 64 •

or

8GB Kit (4GBx2)
DDR3 PC3-10600 • CL=9 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1333 • 1.5V • 512Meg x 64 •

Now they are both the same price, but I have no clue which is better? Or will I notice no difference either way?

[Isiolia]

I'm looking to upgrade my laptops RAM to 8gb from 4. And using Crucial's memory scanner it says I can either have

8GB Kit (4GBx2)
DDR3 PC3-8500 • CL=7 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1066 • 1.5V • 512Meg x 64 •

or

8GB Kit (4GBx2)
DDR3 PC3-10600 • CL=9 • Unbuffered • NON-ECC • DDR3-1333 • 1.5V • 512Meg x 64 •

Now they are both the same price, but I have no clue which is better? Or will I notice no difference either way?

The second kit is clocked faster (1333 vs 1066), albeit with slightly higher latency (the CL number). Seeing latency rise with speed is fairly normal.

'course, it really depends more on what your laptop can/will run either set at. By default it may just clock either one at 1066, and possibly at a conservative CAS latency as well. You might check your BIOS to see if there are options to tweak RAM settings. If there are no settings you can change, I'd actually lean towards the first set as possibly winding up with the higher performance settings, since it might pull the CL setting from the SPD (serial presence detect, a chip on modern RAM that provides settings to the computer, albeit usually conservative ones). If you -can- choose to run memory at 1333, then that could make a slight difference in certain things.

All that said, would you really notice a difference? Probably not, outside of a RAM benchmark (or computing tasks remarkably similar to one). Real-world tests on RAM tend not to show as big a difference as you might think. For example, in this article you do see a little difference in a few games, but not nearly as disparate as you might think when considering the actual clock speed differences, and not something you could eyeball.

[Yugl]

Posted in another thread, but more research has made the issue clearer.

Laptop: Dell m1530 XPS

Facts: Laptop shutdown while running campah and brought up a blue screen to do memory crash dump and tests. I ran the tests, afked, and came back to a black screen. I tried turning on the laptop, but the LCD does not display any coherent screen. However, the laptop works with my external monitor.

What I think happened based on research: The Nvidia video card overheated and that affected the welding (term used in a thread I found). I need to get a new mainboard? Alternatively, I saw this: http://www.insidemylaptop.com/clean-...-m1530-laptop/

Would that help at all? Intuition says no, but I want that to work. Also, no experience with Laptops/PCs, so how much risk is involved?

[TacoTaru]

What card is it? 85 is still normal under high load for some cards. For others however, that is definitely something to worry about.

570GTX and a 560Ti GTX

[Caiyuo]

you guys know of anything I can safely store spare hard drives in? I've got 2 I need to put away for the moment but I can't find the anti-static bags or plastic enclosures they came in

[Mellema]

you guys know of anything I can safely store spare hard drives in? I've got 2 I need to put away for the moment but I can't find the anti-static bags or plastic enclosures they came in

Amazon has some. For temporary storage, I'd put them in a paper bag, then put that in a ziplock bag with some rice in it to prevent any moisture build up.

[hey]

570GTX and a 560Ti GTX

nVidia rates those cards at 97c and 99c max respectively, so you should be safe at 85, though you may want to consider adding the extra fan anyway, as 85 is likely still high enough to shorten their life times.

[Caiyuo]

Amazon has some. For temporary storage, I'd put them in a paper bag, then put that in a ziplock bag with some rice in it to prevent any moisture build up.

thanks!

[Mici]

So my old linksys wrt54 is dying (constant signal drops). I have put dd-wrt or w/e on but its like 4 years old.
Question is, they still make decent cheap routers? Should I flash it as soon as I get it? First flash was just to get some life back in it.
Thanks in advance.

[Niya]

@Mici: Linksys is the "cheap" brand of Cisco, in the sense of "they sell them cheaper", not "they suck compared to cisco". So yes, they still have good routers etc.
When you get one, just update it to the newest version of the pre-installed firmware. Flashing dd-wrt on it shouldn't be necessary unless you're missing some features in the stock firmware that dd-wrt has.

[Kiehl]

Upgraded PC with new MB, CPU, and ram about 2 weeks ago. 650w power supply about 2 weeks before that.

Usually from a cold boot I will get "No Signal Detected" coming from my TV. GPU will spool up to 100% fan. No beeps from the MB or anything. Most of the time turning it back off, waiting 10 sec, and repowering will restore functionality 7/10 times. Other times it can take a couple tries to get the GPU to sync?(not sure on verbage).

Suggestions? XFX Radeon 5770 that is about 4 months old.

[Arkanna]

Upgraded PC with new MB, CPU, and ram about 2 weeks ago. 650w power supply about 2 weeks before that.

Usually from a cold boot I will get "No Signal Detected" coming from my TV. GPU will spool up to 100% fan. No beeps from the MB or anything. Most of the time turning it back off, waiting 10 sec, and repowering will restore functionality 7/10 times. Other times it can take a couple tries to get the GPU to sync?(not sure on verbage).

Suggestions? XFX Radeon 5770 that is about 4 months old.

Do you happen to be connecting it via HDMI?

[Caylene]

Just a heads up- prices of Hard Drives are going up right now and expected to go higher for a while- so either grab one quick, or wait it out!

Reason- a huge plant in Thailand that makes hard drives is now under water due to a monsoon or typhoon or some weather of that ilk.

Some stores have started to limit the number of hard drives you can purchase at one time, and others are expected to follow soon.

[Kiehl]

Do you happen to be connecting it via HDMI?

Yes

[Qeomash]

Did anyone ever hack FFXI Helper to work in the more recent versions of FireFox?

[Kerberoz]

Dunno, but most "outdated" FF plugins still work perfectly fine in newer versions and can be fixed just by editing the version#:
http://www.storersoftware.com/Fix-Firefox-Extension.php