The "Quick Questions that does not Deserve a Thread"...Thread. V3 - Hardware & Software

[QUOTE=Pelf;37677922]How does a VPN work? [sp]I'm really networking illiterate[/sp][/QUOTE] [url]http://www.howstuffworks.com/vpn.htm[/url] edit: a VPN is not really a proxy; it's more like a virtual encrypted LAN connection across the internet some people use it just to connect two computers together, like a more secure remote desktop, but it can actually connect entire LANs edit: of course, a VPN can be used as a proxy, because nothing you access through the remote network can be traced back to you. but this is only one usage

A friend of mine told me to downgrade my i5 to a core 2 duo or core 2 quad and get a better graphics card. He said the GTX 550 Ti sucks for gaming, all my games will have to run at half resolution at medium settings. Should i drop the i5 and get a new card?, i'm barely pushing my budget as it is right now.

[QUOTE=SEKCobra;37678442]You make a VPN sound like a Proxy. But it's far more than that.[/QUOTE] I suppose I did fail to mention the rest of it. [QUOTE=Silverspar;37680192]A friend of mine told me to downgrade my i5 to a core 2 duo or core 2 quad and get a better graphics card. He said the GTX 550 Ti sucks for gaming, all my games will have to run at half resolution at medium settings. Should i drop the i5 and get a new card?, i'm barely pushing my budget as it is right now.[/QUOTE] 550 Ti is a fairly underpowered card in terms of price, and how much electricity it wastes, but why would you drop an i5 in favor of a core 2. That's just retarded.

[QUOTE=Zephyrs;37680712]I suppose I did fail to mention the rest of it. 550 Ti is a fairly underpowered card in terms of price, and how much electricity it wastes, but why would you drop an i5 in favor of a core 2. That's just retarded.[/QUOTE] there used to be a time in gaming where your CPU didn't really matter at all; everything was done by the graphics accelerator. unfortunately, that's not true anymore thanks to increased physics calculations.

[QUOTE=ShaunOfTheLive;37680774]there used to be a time in gaming where your CPU didn't really matter at all; everything was done by the graphics accelerator. unfortunately, that's not true anymore thanks to increased physics calculations.[/QUOTE] I thought the argument was that CPUs don't matter as much today because they're all (at least for Intel) pretty damn fast anyways, and that GPUs are doing all the heavy lifting now? Hell, I run a Q6600 at 3GHz and a 5850 and I'm not even hitting 100% CPU usage in most games. But I agree, dropping the i5 for a Core2 is silly.

[QUOTE=Zac;37679975]Anyone know of free video editing software that will alow me to have two videos playing? Like for a facecam kinda thing? I tried camtasia, its awesome but i am NOT paying 300$ for it.[/QUOTE] Depends what you mean by 'video editing software' I for one, know that premiere allows you to create a huge amount of source windows, that you can of course set the source of e.g webcam as you previously mentioned

[QUOTE=ShaunOfTheLive;37680774]there used to be a time in gaming where your CPU didn't really matter at all; everything was done by the graphics accelerator. unfortunately, that's not true anymore thanks to increased physics calculations.[/QUOTE] Most old games did most of the rendering on the processor. Physics calculations are frequently ported over the GPU now (Nvidia Physx), and it's primarily AIs that kill your processors. See Crysis, Skyrim, and Starcraft 2. All are games that suffer from a poor CPU because their AIs are very greedy. I'm not sure quite what you are talking about.

[QUOTE=Silverspar;37680192]A friend of mine told me to downgrade my i5 to a core 2 duo or core 2 quad and get a better graphics card. He said the GTX 550 Ti sucks for gaming, all my games will have to run at half resolution at medium settings. Should i drop the i5 and get a new card?, i'm barely pushing my budget as it is right now.[/QUOTE] Uhm... I wouldn't downgrade from an i5. I'm not sure what price range 550 Ti's are in right now, but I'm sure that you could find something just as good if not better for pretty cheap.

A friend of mine currently has a monitor connected to his computer via DVI. He also has some speakers he wants to use with a Sony STR-DH520. He asked me if it was possible to connect it to a HDMI port to transport just the audio through it. I was pretty sure that's not the optimal way to do such a thing. How do you think he should connect that to his computer? Optical? HDMI like he said? Analog?

I heard when you format a drive on Windows 7 it writes zeros, is this true does this mean that all data is removed without the need of dban?

[QUOTE=Noss;37687406]I heard when you format a drive on Windows 7 it writes zeros, is this true does this mean that all data is removed without the need of dban?[/QUOTE] I doubt it, considering how fast the process goes.

Ah, alright then thanks. I was just wondering because I was planning on giving away an unused 1TB HD, how long would dban typically take to wipe one?

I just switched to a student promotion internet that a major ISP was offering. (Can't recall the speed, but I believe it was 32Mbps) And my parents are cheap, so they have VOIP Home Phone. When I'm downloading, the speed promised isn't met. Is there any occurrences where the VOIP Home Phone conflicts with my Internet and throttling the speed? *Note* -The modem provided has a built in router -Would it be helpful if I get a new router and separate the VOIP Home Phone box and the modem?

All videos I browse on youtube stops after a while, It loads normally then after a minute or so it seems to have loaded fully (aka "white bar" fully loaded) but when it reaches a certain point, it just fully stops and i have to either reload video or change quality. Anyone know anything about this? [img]http://puu.sh/15HFM[/img] That's an example, it seems to have fully loaded but it stops and wont start.

[QUOTE=Noss;37687587]Ah, alright then thanks. I was just wondering because I was planning on giving away an unused 1TB HD, how long would dban typically take to wipe one?[/QUOTE] If it's unused, why would it have stuff on it?

[QUOTE=TheNuB;37687590]I just switched to a student promotion internet that a major ISP was offering. (Can't recall the speed, but I believe it was 32Mbps) And my parents are cheap, so they have VOIP Home Phone. When I'm downloading, the speed promised isn't met. Is there any occurrences where the VOIP Home Phone conflicts with my Internet and throttling the speed? *Note* -The modem provided has a built in router -Would it be helpful if I get a new router and separate the VOIP Home Phone box and the modem?[/QUOTE] What speed are you getting?

[QUOTE=ArgvCompany;37688726]If it's unused, why would it have stuff on it?[/QUOTE] Could have been used in the past, don't ask stupid questions.

This is a strange question but for nostalgia sake, did HL2 or CS:S ( or any other source game) ever run on Windows 98 or ME?

[QUOTE=RoboChimp;37689298]This is a strange question but for nostalgia sake, did HL2 or CS:S ( or any other source game) ever run on Windows 98 or ME?[/QUOTE] No.

My dad wants a tablet of some sort because he's the only one in the house without his own electronic plaything (he uses his crappy work laptop when he really needs to). My mom and I are thinking about getting him one for his birthday; any suggestions?

[QUOTE=Zerokateo;37689000]What speed are you getting?[/QUOTE] Anywhere from 12 to 18Mbps

[QUOTE=Alan Ninja!;37689873]My dad wants a tablet of some sort because he's the only one in the house without his own electronic plaything (he uses his crappy work laptop when he really needs to). My mom and I are thinking about getting him one for his birthday; any suggestions?[/QUOTE]nexus 7

[QUOTE=Noss;37687587]Ah, alright then thanks. I was just wondering because I was planning on giving away an unused 1TB HD, how long would dban typically take to wipe one?[/QUOTE] I know a wipe on a 80GB SATA drive at work takes like half an hour. 1TB might be much faster, but still consider maybe a few hours since it's writing each block. Imagine recording video on it nonstop.

[QUOTE=Brt5470;37690924]I know a wipe on a 80GB SATA drive at work takes like half an hour. 1TB might be much faster, but still consider maybe a few hours since it's writing each block. Imagine recording video on it nonstop.[/QUOTE] It really depends on the specific drive. A 5400RPM drive is going to take much longer compared to a 7200RPM drive, or a 10000RPM drive, or a 15000RPM drive. But, given the same rotational speed, a three-platter drive should take roughly the same amount of time, no matter what data density it has. Assuming, of course, that it isn't being slowed down by anything.

Alright thanks for the advice guys. In response to an earlier question, I used it before to run Windows 7 on but I do not use it any more. I'll try it out but if it takes too long I probably just won't sell it.

Just got a cheap-o used computer to browse around on if someone is on the good one, it's got 512MB ram, 32 WHOLE MEGABYTES OF RAGE GRAPHICS CARD FURY, and Win XP. Should I keep XP or try a Linux distro? Oh and also, it doesn't have a DVD drive, so livedvds wont work.

[QUOTE=RedStar;37691265]Just got a cheap-o used computer to browse around on if someone is on the good one, it's got 512MB ram, 32 WHOLE MEGABYTES OF RAGE GRAPHICS CARD FURY, and Win XP. Should I keep XP or try a Linux distro? Oh and also, it doesn't have a DVD drive, so livedvds wont work.[/QUOTE] I would actually recommend using Linux on it - it works much better in memory-limited, crap-computer situations. Or rather, give Linux a shot before going through the full installation, just in case. If it has a CD drive, you can use a Live CD - many Linux distros are small enough to fit in 700MB. If it has USB, that's a better option - just set up a bootable USB drive and have at it. I would recommend starting with either Debian or Ubuntu, both fairly user-friendly distros.

Thanks! My brother put Ubuntu on my dad's old laptop, so I've used it before, but he put it on a DVD, so I can't use it. I'll try Debian too, it's not like I need this stack of CDs anyways. What am I gonna do, put music on em? :v:

[QUOTE=gman003-main;37691647]I would actually recommend using Linux on it - it works much better in memory-limited, crap-computer situations. Or rather, give Linux a shot before going through the full installation, just in case. If it has a CD drive, you can use a Live CD - many Linux distros are small enough to fit in 700MB. If it has USB, that's a better option - just set up a bootable USB drive and have at it. I would recommend starting with either Debian or Ubuntu, both fairly user-friendly distros.[/QUOTE] I heard the latest version of Ubuntu is breaking free from the 700MB CD limit.

[QUOTE=gman003-main;37691647]I would actually recommend using Linux on it - it works much better in memory-limited, crap-computer situations. Or rather, give Linux a shot before going through the full installation, just in case. If it has a CD drive, you can use a Live CD - many Linux distros are small enough to fit in 700MB. If it has USB, that's a better option - just set up a bootable USB drive and have at it. I would recommend starting with either Debian or Ubuntu, both fairly user-friendly distros.[/QUOTE] Yep. Even if you do need a windows application (you probably won't) Winetricks should more often than not allow you to use those applications pretty much flawlessly. Steam works like a breeze, and even if you don't want wine you can use Pidgin for steam chat Also, if you need to break that 700MB barrier you can always make a bootable USB with something like unetbootin.