- 3,204
- 2.2L Camry
- NissanSkylineN1
- Xbox??? Who is this Xbox??
Got an email already asking if its still avail and how much the final price is.
What Have You Done Today - (Computer Version)
- Thread starter tlowr4
- 4,223 comments
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bevo
Premium
- 2,483
- GTP_bevofrancis
- bevo francis
BobK
Premium
- 7,020
- Massachusetts, USA
So I got the new HD installed, dd'ed the old drive's contents onto the new, and did the apt-get dist-upgrade thing. I'm getting used to KDE4, but I doubt I'll ever really like it. Lots of whistles and bells and flashy new toys, but core functionality is a major step backwards in several areas.
- 11,969
- Christchurch
That's waaaaaay high, my i5 750 idles at 32-40C depending on ambient temperature and hits 60-65 with 100% load on all four cores with the stock Intel cooler. Either your HSF isn't working or CoreTemp is giving you false readings - try CPUID's HWMonitor to double-check the CoreTemp figures.
65ish C is about right for a video card under load, so your 570 temps are fine.
- 3,204
- 2.2L Camry
- NissanSkylineN1
- Xbox??? Who is this Xbox??
I got Win 7 on a USB drive to install from.
- 2,726
- England
- ECGadget
- Eh???
bevo
Premium
- 2,483
- GTP_bevofrancis
- bevo francis
I ended up buying a corsair h60 today at best buy http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835181015&Tpk=corsair h60
Best buy actually had it 10$ cheaper then newegg. I'll get to see tonight how much it helps. Hopefully it drops the temps about 40C.
I got it hooked up and the results are great. Last night I ran the benchmark in Dirt 3 and my temps got up to 100c on all for cores and they were working at around 40% max. Today with the new cooler and the same test, the temps were at 40-45c max, and they were working at around 75% on all 4 cores at different times. It looks like I got about a 60 degree drop when it's working itself fairly hard. I couldn't ask for more for 80$.
Best buy actually had it 10$ cheaper then newegg. I'll get to see tonight how much it helps. Hopefully it drops the temps about 40C.
I got it hooked up and the results are great. Last night I ran the benchmark in Dirt 3 and my temps got up to 100c on all for cores and they were working at around 40% max. Today with the new cooler and the same test, the temps were at 40-45c max, and they were working at around 75% on all 4 cores at different times. It looks like I got about a 60 degree drop when it's working itself fairly hard. I couldn't ask for more for 80$.
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- 11,969
- Christchurch
Received my extra 4GB of memory this morning, so installed it. 8GB total ftw 
Although they're identical sticks, the XMP SPD timings are flipped compared to the two sticks I already had (7-8-7 vs 8-7-8) so hopefully that doesn't cause issues down the line.
Although they're identical sticks, the XMP SPD timings are flipped compared to the two sticks I already had (7-8-7 vs 8-7-8) so hopefully that doesn't cause issues down the line.
- 11,969
- Christchurch
Well I had the timings in the BIOS set to 8-7-8-20 as although the sticks are designated 7-8-7-20, I've found they're unstable at those settings - at least when I only had 2x2GB. 8-7-8 is as stable as a rock, although that begs the question as to why my original sticks now read 8-7-8 SPD when they're 7-8-7s (and used to show 7-8-7 in CPU-Z!). Oddly, I have the timings set to 7-8-7-20 at the moment and with all four sticks installed it appears to be stable 
2x 2x2GB Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C7s if anyone cares.
2x 2x2GB Corsair CMX4GX3M2A1600C7s if anyone cares.
- 7,956
- BradleyH131
OK. A better review now I'm not so drunk
On the other day I picked up a set(pair?) of AudioTechnica AD700s. I was previously using Zalman ZMRF6F 5.1 headphones, but the cups were starting to get in a pretty bad way, so I was deciding if I should get another 5.1 set (from Razer/Logitech or the like), or get some professional headphones.
I'm so glad I dismissed all those gaming headphones. When I listened to the AT's for the first time, everything just seems right. It's very hard to review audio things across the internet, but basically everything sounds exactly as it's intended, very small details I've haven't heard before are picked up. The soundstage on these are also ridiculous, it's like you don't even have headphones on at all. They're a monitor style headphone, so if you give it crap to play it will sound like crap, but give it a decent source and they come to life.
I also picked up a Xonar DG soundcard/amp, which also allows Dolby Headphone for better positional audio. In terms of that, the AT's aren't quite as good at positional audio as my Zalmans, however my Zalman's had 3 drivers in each ear. Compared to my old 2 channel Logitech's they are much, much better.
The only real downside is they aren't too bassy if you're into heavy bass, but the bass is does provide is extremely smooth and accurate, so you don't notice too much, but they're not going to pound your headoff.
Also Audio Technica have a life time replacement warranty on the cup padding. Highly Recommended.
On the other day I picked up a set(pair?) of AudioTechnica AD700s. I was previously using Zalman ZMRF6F 5.1 headphones, but the cups were starting to get in a pretty bad way, so I was deciding if I should get another 5.1 set (from Razer/Logitech or the like), or get some professional headphones.
I'm so glad I dismissed all those gaming headphones. When I listened to the AT's for the first time, everything just seems right. It's very hard to review audio things across the internet, but basically everything sounds exactly as it's intended, very small details I've haven't heard before are picked up. The soundstage on these are also ridiculous, it's like you don't even have headphones on at all. They're a monitor style headphone, so if you give it crap to play it will sound like crap, but give it a decent source and they come to life.
I also picked up a Xonar DG soundcard/amp, which also allows Dolby Headphone for better positional audio. In terms of that, the AT's aren't quite as good at positional audio as my Zalmans, however my Zalman's had 3 drivers in each ear. Compared to my old 2 channel Logitech's they are much, much better.
The only real downside is they aren't too bassy if you're into heavy bass, but the bass is does provide is extremely smooth and accurate, so you don't notice too much, but they're not going to pound your headoff.
Also Audio Technica have a life time replacement warranty on the cup padding. Highly Recommended.
Lain
Premium
- 7,105
- Pasadena, TX
- Yaywalter
It's pretty cool, but it's still a work-in-progress. And unfortunately, as of right now you can't install the hardware drivers for the MacBook Pro in Windows 8 so a lot of things don't work... the speakers, optical drive, etc.
If you're on a Mac, you can create a partition with Boot Camp Assistant if you've got enough free space. I'd recommend at least 30 GB. There's also a way to modify partitions in Windows, but it's hard to find and also a bit more complex.
Not sure how we'll proceed from here, though.
- 1,002
- Northern VA
I replaced my PCI X-Fi XtremeGamer with a PCI-E X-Fi Titanium HD thanks to a recent sale. I imagine the days of PCI-E/PCI bridge chips are numbered and at some point it'll be time to upgrade my motherboard and CPU.
The upgrade was a real pain though. You have to make sure you've really cleaned out all the old Creative software, and it's not intuitive. Initially, some of my new sound card's features weren't presented. I went back and uninstalled everything again. It required running the uninstaller from CD, manually unzipping the latest downloaded driver, running a specific setup.exe file from within the bowels of those directories, and for insurance removing orphaned registry entries. Good times.
The new card does sound quite nice though. It doesn't support analog 5.1, but I'm done with "gaming speakers". It sounds great with a decent pair of desktop monitors or headphones.
The upgrade was a real pain though. You have to make sure you've really cleaned out all the old Creative software, and it's not intuitive. Initially, some of my new sound card's features weren't presented. I went back and uninstalled everything again. It required running the uninstaller from CD, manually unzipping the latest downloaded driver, running a specific setup.exe file from within the bowels of those directories, and for insurance removing orphaned registry entries. Good times.
The new card does sound quite nice though. It doesn't support analog 5.1, but I'm done with "gaming speakers". It sounds great with a decent pair of desktop monitors or headphones.
- 1,002
- Northern VA
I've never owned a set of "gaming" headphones. The integrated mics are convenient, but I'm not willing to give up sound quality. The multi-driver headphones sound terrible to my ears, and also end up being enormous, heavy, and expensive. The marginally better positional performance is not enough of an upside. The stereo gaming headsets usually sound serviceable at best. I've seen some broadcast production headsets from Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic that look pretty amazing, but they have price tags to match.
So yeah, I've been using various quality stereo headphones for my gaming. I have an Ultrasone HFI-680 which I use for lots of music listening and some gaming, but my Ultrasone Pro 650 has taken over for gaming duty. The 650 isn't quite as neutral and accurate as the HFI-680, but it brings out a bit more detail and sounds a bit more open. It's also more comfortable and the swappable cord comes in handy. I have Fischer Audio FA-003 too, and lately that's been the music headphone for me.
I'm currently using a Zalman Zm-Mic1 clip-on mic with my headphones. It's dirt cheap and works well enough, but it does leave plenty of room for improvement, so I may modify a boom mic to clip to my headphones.
I've been using an Astro Mixamp 5.8 wireless with my consoles and have been very happy with it from a gaming standpoint. It's not the strongest headphone amp, but it does the job, and its Dolby Headphone implementation works great for games (less so for movies—sounds a bit artificial). I also appreciate that it can be used with just about anything. As noted above I use Creative X-Fi cards in my PC and use CMSS-3D with headphones. I think it works quite well. I'm in agreement with you; a pair of real headphones with good surround processing sounds way better than any multi-driver surround headset.
If you look at the very high end, the best surround systems are based around virtual surround processing through conventional stereo headphones:
http://north-america.beyerdynamic.com/shop/hah/headphones-and-headsets/multimedia/headzone-game.html
http://smyth-research.com/products.html
The Smyth Realiser is pretty wild. It actually comes with in-ear measurement mics to tailor the HRTF to your ears.
The AD700 is a fantastic headphone. It's probably the most comfortable set I've ever tried. I do think it's a bit light on bass. It rolls off significantly below 100Hz. I like headphones that reproduce deep bass without overemphasis myself.
Oh, and I did receive a new addition for my PC today. Backstory: I have the Apple Wireless Keyboard for my Mac mini and love it. It's compact, I like the low profile keys, and the chiclet design reduces typing errors. It's just a quality product. I while ago I went to Micro Center and impatiently bought an HP Wireless Elite Keyboard rather than shopping around and looking online. I used it for months and tried to convince myself it was good. It's not. It's cheaply made. The case plastic is "al dente" and bows in the middle when you type on it while risers on the bottom are deployed. The key caps are large and run together, with no true gutter between them. There's no illumination on the keyboard at all, so you have no idea if caps lock or numlock is active. If you install the OSD software, you're often kicked back to the Windows desktop if you adjust volume during a game. It's just crap.
Anyway, I finally gave up on that HP Wireless "Elite" Keyboard. The HP Touchpad BlueTooth Keyboard looks nice, since it's a shameless ripoff of the Apple Wireless Keyboard. But I was concerned about a lack of functionality when paired with a PC and I didn't want to throw more money at HP's peripherals division. So I did the only thing a man in my position could do: I broke down and bought a real keyboard, a Filco Majestouch 2 Tenkeyless with Cherry MX browns. It's expensive and kind of ugly and I'm back to a wired connection and I have zero regrets:
- 7,956
- BradleyH131
Yeah, it doesn't worry me too much as I'm not too much of an FPS explosions kind of guy. I barely notice it cause everything else sounds so good. That said, I now am considering the AD900 as I've read they're a little bit 'better', in the low end department. Before I got the AD700s I was considering the Beyerdynamic DT770, but at 250Ω, I'd have to buy something more expensive again to drive it which put it far beyond a reasonable budget. But now I'm in love with the 700s so I have no regrets.
How are you finding the Cherry Browns, I'm also making the mechanical plunge soon...
- 1,002
- Northern VA
Kinda ugly? Compared to that Frankenstein's monster of a mouse next to it?
To mouse: "It's ok, baby. He didn't mean it."
How are you finding the Cherry Browns, I'm also making the mechanical plunge soon...
I really like the browns. Nice, slight tactile resistance, but otherwise a firm, smooth action. Maybe some typists would prefer something with more of a defined click, like the blues, but I like the smoother, quieter feel. The browns lend themselves well to gaming too, since they still offer reassuring resistance when you have your hand planted. The blacks and reds didn't have nice feel to me.
