Endless Paradigm

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote: [ -> ]2x4GB DDR3 (~$50)

I though high end Intel systems all ran 3 channel memory these days... dunno, haven't been keeping up with this stuff for a while.

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote: [ -> ]Too bad none of the <$200 motherboards have 2x LAN or IEEE1394 ports >_>

Wait why do you need 2x LAN and Firewire?


I'll probably upgrade at the end of the year or something.

Socket 1366 supported triple channel, 2011 supports quad channel, but the more budget oriented 1155/1156 only do dual channel.
Not like it really matters much with only a quad core CPU.

2x LAN is handy - one for internet, and another for a crossover connection to another computer.
I guess everyone's into wireless or plugging everything into a router these days...
Quite a few older DV cameras used a Firewire connection.  I don't actually need it (can use my current motherboard to transfer DV video) but it's a bit of a shame that it's not offered on mid-range boards.

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote: [ -> ]2x LAN is handy - one for internet, and another for a crossover connection to another computer.
I guess everyone's into wireless or plugging everything into a router these days...

What I originally had in mind was, you're a dektop, you can't going to carry that around.  So if you LAN that means some other person with a laptop comes to you.  In that case can just get him to wireless to the router and LAN through that.

I guess you might also want to set up LAN between your old and new computer, I never considered that before.

ZiNgA BuRgA Wrote: [ -> ]Quite a few older DV cameras used a Firewire connection.  I don't actually need it (can use my current motherboard to transfer DV video) but it's a bit of a shame that it's not offered on mid-range boards.

Oh, you mean 0 Firewire ports.  I though you mean you can't get 2, and I was thinking why the hell would you ever need more than 1 Firewire.

That's weird because my motherboard is mid end, and I have both eSata and Firewire.

Assassinator Wrote: [ -> ]What I originally had in mind was, you're a dektop, you can't going to carry that around.  So if you LAN that means some other person with a laptop comes to you.  In that case can just get him to wireless to the router and LAN through that.

I guess you might also want to set up LAN between your old and new computer, I never considered that before.

Now that I actually have a wireless router, and aren't running a crossover cable to the other PC in the house, it's not so much of an issue for me, which is why I'm settling for it.  But one of the reasons I chose my current board was because of the 2x LAN ports.
Still, with motherboards having like 10x USB ports on the back these days (actually more like 8 with 2-4 optional), I'd much rather a second ethernet than all the USB ports.

I believe the Intel Z77 chipset gives like 4 USB 3 and 6 USB 2 ports in total, and the Asrock Extreme4 has an additional Asmedia USB controller for even more ports.  I'd rather that be a 2nd ethernet controller.  At least it has a pretty good Broadcom ethernet chip on it (not too sure what the difference is, but Broadcom and Intel are considered the best ethernet chips, whilst Realtek usually considered to be sucky).

Assassinator Wrote: [ -> ]Oh, you mean 0 Firewire ports.  I though you mean you can't get 2, and I was thinking why the hell would you ever need more than 1 Firewire.

That's weird because my motherboard is mid end, and I have both eSata and Firewire.

I think it might be a bit of a timing thing.  Firewire is pretty much dead these days, which is why current motherboards mostly don't have them.  A few years back they were on pretty much every motherboard.

This computer is randomly crashing and BSoDing at odd times.  Haven't done any system level changes and not getting odd temps for hardware.
Dunno what the issue is, maybe I could chuck a crash dump through a debugger or something, but can't be assed.

Got my SSD today, maybe I should just build a new box.  Too bad that Ivy Bridge hasn't gone down in price at all yet.  Too bad 3770k is still a ripoff, being like $80 more than a 2600k.  Maybe I'll go for an i5 3570k instead.

So grabbed the stuff, and spent ages trying to set things up.  Decided to give Linux Mint 13 a try, but apparently is unstable and getting system lock ups every now and then.
Anyway, finally managed to coerce RT Seven Lite into working so I can make a stripped version of Windows 7, installed, and installed pretty much all the apps I often use.

The SSD doesn't seem to improve loading times as much as I had expected it to.  Booting is definitely a fair bit faster, but application loading is probably only 2x faster.
And USB 3 has a different header - great, I can't have USB 3 ports on my case.

Gonna try NoScript again in Firefox, and also disable cookies by default (maintain whitelist using Cookie Monster).  See how well that turns out.

Played around with CPU overclocking a bit.
Am running with a 0.13V VCore undervoltage, but +0.14V additional Turbo voltage, with CPU at 4GHz (4 cores) to 4.3GHz (1 core active).
Despite the additional Turbo voltage, it appears that it doesn't go all the way; on my current settings, VCore goes up to ~1.06V on full load, but if I do -0.05 offset +0.05 turbo, it goes up to ~1.1V - weird.  Also seems that when I add to the turbo, it makes things more stable?  A straight -0.05V offset with Auto turbo seems to be unstable at 4GHz, but gets similar VCore.

Anyway, I like my current settings - 4GHz overclock with a bit of undervoltage @ 1.06V.  Runs at just over 0.8V idle.
It's nice that you can set higher clocks for when other cores are idle, but it seems you can't change voltages this way - CPU doesn't run particularly hot with only one core active, so it would be nice to up the volts a bit then so you can push the frequency higher.

Spent the time to update my phone.
Now on Android 4.1.1.  Dunno what changes there are, but the custom ROM (Codename Android) I'm using is indeed quite different.

Yay, can finally toggle the navigation buttons!
Seems they've fixed the HE-AAC clipping issue too.  MKV support is still whacked.

Got new monitor!

Decided to get a monitor arm, but my current 22in doesn't have a mount.  So ordered a 27in monitor.
Sadly there's no 16:10 monitors at that size these days... :(

The arm I got is rated to hold 8kg capacity (and also 24in screen size, though I don't exactly understand why there's a size restriction (issue with centre of gravity?)), but I can't exactly get a fully firm clutch to the desk, so I tried getting the lightest monitor I could.

So I got a Crossover 27Q, which is 6.5kg - damn light for a 27in monitor.  It's an 27in IPS LED panel with native res of 2560x1440.  It's actually the same panel found in the $1000 Apple Cinema monitor, and I got this for $380 delivered.
I've got the brightness turned right down, and whites seem to be a bit off, but that's probably because of the dimmed backlight.  But damn, this monitor feels so massive - and only 5in bigger than the 22in.

One thing that's a bit annoying is that changing resolutions seems to be quite slow on this panel for some reason.  From my understanding, this panel doesn't support anything other than the native res (because it doesn't have a scaler?) but I'm using GPU scaling, which I thought shouldn't be subject to the issue...

Installed OpenWRT on my router.
Was much easier than I had anticipated - was imagining that I'd have to edit config files etc, but it has a nice web interface preinstalled.
Installation was just uploading the image - it automatically restarted into the configurator web UI, where you just need to set up your PPPoE login.

Is it any better than the stock TP-Link firmware?  Well, if you just use a router like a router, probably not really.  Being a Linux distro means you can install packages etc on it, and do any cool Linux-y stuff, but I can't see myself really doing that.
Still a fun thing to try.  Maybe I'll give IPv6 a whirl some day.