Random Thoughts... [Entertainment Edition]

[YOUTUBE]99E16w0PxCA[/YOUTUBE]

Ahahahahahahahaha.:lol:
 
[YOUTUBE]99E16w0PxCA[/YOUTUBE]

Ahahahahahahahaha.:lol:
lol. Is that his real voice? :lol:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDK8EdONSuw[/YOUTUBE]He?s mostly voiced by the guy that does Bruce Willis (wich doesn?t sound at all like the real Bruce Willis too) over here ... wich is quite a cool voice ... but his real voice is quite a shock ... :lol:
 
[YOUTUBE]pOGVhU1bMGI[/YOUTUBE]

The reason why we haven't seen this film yet is because its distributor, Yari Film Group, went into bankruptcy. Several films scheduled to be distributed by them are now in limbo. It seems that some may come out on DVD but that is it.
 
Should I buy an "open box" motherboard from newegg?

Full price is $349, open box is $239.

I can return it within 30 days for a refund if it doesn't work out...but...still. I don't have any other components yet besides the case, and I was kinda hoping to just buy Windows 7 straight away and not buy Vista and then upgrade later.

Thoughts?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131358
61Wuxc0RflL._SS500_.jpg
 
That is a good deal on a great board, but often open box items are just a bare board. Its a crap shoot really.
 
So far, I've selected two possible graphics cards for my planned budget build. However, I'm not sure which one to get.

Right now, it's either an HIS H487QT1GP Radeon HD 4870 1GB IceQ 4+ Turbo or an EVGA GTX 260 Core 216 Superclocked Edition.

Both seem to have roughly equal performance, but the Radeon is somewhat cheaper, and a smaller package. That, and I'm planning on an AMD Phenom II processor, so there may be some performance advantages to using an ATI/AMD card. (I may be wrong) However, the GeForce has PhysX, something I'm rather interested in, and is also higher rated on Newegg. (Granted, it also has more reviews, so it isn't a direct comparison)

So, which one do you more knowledgeable types recommend?

Edit: And I'm planning on squeezing them into an Antec Three Hundred, so if there are any concerns about whether or not the card will fit...
 
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I just watched the season finale of Bullshit, and couldn't help noticing that Penn didn't honour his promise to put an exposed pair of breasts into every new episode :(
 
Which would you rather have, and why?

Option 1:
Should I buy an "open box" motherboard from newegg?

Full price is $349, open box is $239.

Thoughts?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131358
61Wuxc0RflL._SS500_.jpg

Option 2:
$209 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188049
url


I know I'm spending for more than what I need right now, but my last two builds, I low-balled on the motherboard and spend more on the CPU...but then I had nowhere to go with upgrades, since my CPU was the maximum the board could handle. This time I'm looking for some headroom.

I know the Asus is more capable, but...I'm still having trouble wrapping my mind around what all of the different PCIe numbers represent, and what it means to me...
 
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I need a little explanation if someone is willing. I've been reading about the RAID controllers on my board (P5Q PRO) and cut a long story short, the one I'm using is rubbish. The board supports standard RAID through the ICH10R controller. Which is fine, I can rebuild the array on there in no time.

Problem is, once I do that can I still connect my two other drives (neither are RAID), as the RAID controller covers all 6 SATA ports. The setting in the BIOS is either ATA or RAID (Ignore AHCI for now). Obviously it's no good if I can't use (or might destroy) the data on the other two disks, so I'd have to look at getting a PCI raid controller, which I don't want.

I'll keep digging but it's got me confused.

Cheers.

Edit: It seems that I can simply switch the two controllers, putting the two drives that are currently on the Silicon Image controller onto the Intel controller and setting up RAID0, then switching off RAID on the silicon image and reconnecting the two other drives in 'normal' mode.

Apparently the Intel controller will deliver roughly double the speed of the Drive Xpert setup, and it should fix the compatibility issue with Windows 7. :)

Think I'll run this past the Asus forums though before pulling plugs out. Also I must remember to install the RAID drivers before backing up and then breaking the array or I'll be screwed.

Edit(2): Appears that I got that totally wrong and I can just plug them in to the Intel controller and they'll work fine. cracking! :D
 
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Random Thought: Asus is extremely picky about what memory modules you put on their motherboards...

Meaning? I've read several reviews where people mentioned that, but what should one be on the lookout for?

Also, After my last 3 builds, i determined that AMD's "focus on power efficiency" means that it's cheaper than the parellel Intel because it's slower. :p It keeps swinging back and forth, but that seems to be the current direction of the swing. :lol: I keep getting caught on the other end, though.
 
So, after swapping my main disks over to from a RAID0 on the ASUS DriveXpert ports to the Intel controller, rebuilding the array and coaxing windows back into life (now with SP3 and IE8) my read speed (tested through Pinnacle Studio 10) has gone from 55MB/s to 101MB/s and write has gone from roughly 60MB/s to 124MB/s. So I think that was successful. I can really notice the difference too. :)
 

just seen that on BBC News, Marvel being bought by Disney... i'm sorry but no. Given the family centric attitude of Disney, they're going to what declaw Wolverine and say the Punisher has to fire lasers now?
I long since left Marvel Comics behind (Spiderman's One More Day was the final nail in the coffin for me) and stayed with DC Comics but i can't really see how this will be beneficial for Marvel. If i was a Spiderman or X-Men reader, i'd be very worried at the moment.
 
All I have left to buy for my new computer is optical drive, hard drives, and some fan grills.

Question:
Would it be awful to just throw two 1TB drives in it? Would 1TB be too cumbersome to use as the OS drive? Will there be a noticeable performance loss compared to a smaller system hard drive? Should I go 500GB/1TB? If I keep the TB drive defragged, will that be good enough?
 
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