Random Question Thread: Tech

[hey]

I'm not looking to overclock

You bought the wrong cpu.

[Rellikard]

I got it for $100.

[Senji]

Use the 212.

[richardd]

can anyone recommend me a decent program for 2d animation? something simple that's a little more visual than flash but not as complex as 3ds max?

[Kenshiin]

I'm looking to change my internet provide to something higher. I currently have Century Link at 10d/1u. Is there a website I can go to see which providers can give me better speeds in my area.

My zip code is 33967 if that helps.

[6souls]

http://reviews.cnet.com/internet-speed-test/

Just run the test, then compare speeds. After that just click any of the "Find ISP's" links on the right, enter your info, and they will provide what you are looking for.

[Caiyuo]

Little panicky, hoping someone has some ideas for a problem I've run into.

Shutdown my laptop last night and when returning to it this morning, all I got when turning it on was a black screen and a blinking cursor. After various suggestions from searching, I tried all the MBR and fix booting instructions I found to no avail. Windows Recovery finds no issues even though bootrec /showos from the command prompt returns 0 operating systems. Ran chkdsk, returned no errors, ran diagnostics from the BIOS, ran tests from UBCD and haven't found any indications that the hard drive's dying or hardware errors. Later tried booting into a ubuntu live CD which was totally functional, but was unable to mount the partition and it only displayed the hard drive with no partition. Opened Gparted from within the live CD and it now says the full space of the hard drive is unallocated.

In short, halp

Details are a laptop running Windows 7, single hard drive, single partition of the entire available space (previously).

[Kerberoz]

Someone swapped out your HDD with a blank one for April Fools'.

[Caiyuo]

At this point I would love that to be the case. Going to try testdisk this afternoon, but some good news is that from checking diskpart from within the windows recovery command I'm still able to see the partition, the correct size and that it's marked healthy. Ideally that will mean I can at least back up everything and reinstall if I can't get Windows to boot to it anytime soon.

[Meresgi]

EVGA Nvidia GTX560 1GB for $144.99, worth the price or do they go lower? I need to upgrade my GTS450

[Senji]

They go lower. Skip the regular GTX560 for a Ti version.

[Callisto]

What's the difference between the regular and the Ti?

I'm also looking to upgrade cards, I have occasional use for a third monitor but I don't think my GTX460 can do it, it has 3 outputs(DVI x2, HDMI) but when I tried hooking up a third screen I couldn't get it to recognize it. Is a 560 pretty sufficient for most things? I don't do a lot of hardcore gaming, mostly video capture/streaming, but sometimes I'll need to output from the stream program to a TV which uses one GPU monitor slot, then still have two other monitors going to use.

[hey]

Only ati cards can do 3 or more monitors, and they need to be connected via displayport for the third+. nVidia requires 2 gpus if you want 3 monitors.

[Callisto]

Ahh, thanks. I know nothing about ATI cards, can they mix with my intel x58 board? And any specific recommendations? I'd probably be trying to keep it under $200.

[Mellema]

The only Nvidia card I know that supports 3 monitors is the gtx590 and it's way overpriced. You can get an AMD 6770 or 6850 for under $150.

[Senji]

The 560 (non-Ti) is identical to the 1GB GTX 460 (32 ROP, 336 CUDA cores, 256-bit mem bus, etc). It just has higher stock clocks. 10-20% gain with Ti depending on application, and then there's overclocking.

Over twice as powerful as a 450.

Nvidia cards cant do 3 monitors without SLI or a dual gpu card. So your [realistic] debate would be pick up a cheap 460 or go ATI.

[hey]

Ahh, thanks. I know nothing about ATI cards, can they mix with my intel x58 board?

Any gpu worth buying uses pcie, and will work fine in any mobo less than a million years old.

[Senji]

Ahh, thanks. I know nothing about ATI cards, can they mix with my intel x58 board? And any specific recommendations? I'd probably be trying to keep it under $200.

Mix? Cant run ATI and Nvidia at the same time, generally.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150563

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127560

[Callisto]

The 560 (non-Ti) is identical to the 1GB GTX 460 (32 ROP, 336 CUDA cores, 256-bit mem bus, etc). It just has higher stock clocks. 10-20% gain with Ti depending on application, and then there's overclocking.

Over twice as powerful as a 450.

Nvidia cards cant do 3 monitors without SLI or a dual gpu card. So your [realistic] debate would be pick up a cheap 460 or go ATI.

Any gpu worth buying uses pcie, and will work fine in any mobo less than a million years old.

Thanks, my original intention when I bought the GTX460 was to get a second one later to SLI, but I'm having trouble finding a second of this guy that isn't being gouged in price. Got boned all-around on it, PNY screwed me on my rebate to boot, I should have just gotten a better card off the bat.

Mix? Cant run ATI and Nvidia at the same time, generally.

Err, I didn't know if GPUs had to match specific boards/manufacturers the way CPUs do, my current PC is still my first-ever, lol.

[Callisto]

Derp, next dumb question, those cards say PCIe 2.1, my board's PCIe slots are 2.0, are those backwards compatible?