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

[QUOTE=Fourm Shark;38455352]Should I use my promo code to get windows 8 now or later for $15? Also, should I upgrade my laptop to windows 8 from 7?[/QUOTE] Are you happy with Windows 7? If yes, don't get 8. That's my experience, at least.

Get Windows 8, it's a complete upgrade.

[QUOTE=TehWhale;38455559]Get Windows 8, it's a complete upgrade.[/QUOTE] I'm sorry, but what exactly does "it's a complete upgrade" entail?

[QUOTE=Rayjingstorm;38456333]I'm sorry, but what exactly does "it's a complete upgrade" entail?[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.pcworld.com/article/2012834/windows-7-to-windows-8-the-systems-biggest-improvements.html[/url] Google is your friend, so is Windows 8 once you get used to it. [editline]15th November 2012[/editline] It's also cheaper to get 8 than 7 if you get it right now.

[QUOTE=reevezy67;38456398][url]http://www.pcworld.com/article/2012834/windows-7-to-windows-8-the-systems-biggest-improvements.html[/url] Google is your friend, so is Windows 8 once you get used to it. [editline]15th November 2012[/editline] It's also cheaper to get 8 than 7 if you get it right now.[/QUOTE] Thank you for the link. The only problem I have with labeling this a "complete upgrade" is that, once all the smoke and mirrors are cleared, almost every change I see boils down to minor convenience additions (which should simply be added to Windows 7 free of charge) or "novel" UI changes. I'm saying all of this without having used it, so my real question isn't where to find a "top X list of features", but rather I want a couple of specific examples describing why the update is worth it from someone who is using it. I no longer use windows day to day, so I'm not even in a position to benefit. I'm asking out of idle curiosity.

[QUOTE=Rayjingstorm;38456774]Thank you for the link. The only problem I have with labeling this a "complete upgrade" is that, once all the smoke and mirrors are cleared, almost every change I see boils down to minor convenience additions (which should simply be added to Windows 7 free of charge) or "novel" UI changes. I'm saying all of this without having used it, so my real question isn't where to find a "top X list of features", but rather I want a couple of specific examples describing why the update is worth it from someone who is using it. I no longer use windows day to day, so I'm not even in a position to benefit. I'm asking out of idle curiosity.[/QUOTE] I don't know why you think these improvements should be free, we have already gotten a ton of updates on Windows 7 for nothing.

So i have a strange predicament, I updated my BIOS to the newest version, which happens to be AwardBIOS-made and not AMI like all the previous ones. Now it seems i can't overclock my 2500K past it's turbo boost speed, at all, I haven't tried using any windows-based tools yet. [t]http://i.imgur.com/Gjkxp.png[/t] Note the lack of brackets around Auto for cpu ratio. (Also enabling "Adjust CPU Ratio in OS" locks it to 3.7GHz which i suppose is better than no OC, disabling brings it back to 3.3, the fuck?) [t]http://i.imgur.com/n6M5y.png[/t] Further snooping led me to this, which looks like my CPU ratio is being limited somehow by the board. Disabling "Power Technology" completely hides all the info you see below C-State. i am confus (edit: sorry for the .bmp files) [url=http://puu.sh/1qlfp]MSI Control Center works, but saving my OC setting crashed it, piece of shit...[/url]

[QUOTE=Shadaez;38426750]What laptop? Maybe you could get a mSata SSD?[/QUOTE] My laptop doesn't support mSATA but has a mini PCI-E port. There are SSDs out there that support mini-PCIe but read speeds are only 200 MB/s compared to other SSDs which can go 300-500 Mb/s, so I don't think it may be worth it.

my computer doesn't detect my mic wat do [editline]15th November 2012[/editline] i want to punch cute animals

[QUOTE=Clio;38461856]my computer doesn't detect my mic wat do [editline]15th November 2012[/editline] i want to punch cute animals[/QUOTE] Details, man.

How much is my PeeCee worth? [img]http://i.imgur.com/m7bvH.png[/img] I want to sell it and get a new one that is hopefully better 5770 and a Cooler Master 310 [img]http://www.computergoodies.ca/usrimage/coolermasterrc310.jpg[/img] But with a CYBERPOWER logo on the top.

[QUOTE=The freeman;38466278]How much is my PeeCee worth? [img]http://i.imgur.com/m7bvH.png[/img] I want to sell it and get a new one that is hopefully better 5770 and a Cooler Master 310 [img]http://www.computergoodies.ca/usrimage/coolermasterrc310.jpg[/img] But with a CYBERPOWER logo on the top.[/QUOTE] I'd keep that and overclock that 920 and get a new GPU.

What's the most powerful nVidia card I could slap in a PCIe 1.1 slot without losing an absurd amount of performance?

[QUOTE=Forumaster;38470633]What's the most powerful nVidia card I could slap in a PCIe 1.1 slot without losing an absurd amount of performance?[/QUOTE] gtx 690

Well shit, I might not have to do a computer overhaul for years then.

I don't really have proof that a 690 will work around the same, but there have been tests with 480s where they run them in 8x PCIe 2.0 lanes which is the same bandwidth as 16x PCIe 1.0 lanes, and there's only a 2% loss. At 4x lanes there's only a 7% loss (same performance as PCIe x 8) It's likely a 690 would lose a little more performance, but it hasn't been tested. You're probably running a old CPU if you're still using a motherboard with 1.1 PCIe slots, which would hurt performance a lot more than any bandwidth limitations on your PCIe lanes.

It also depends a bit on what you're doing. Stuff that uses video memory a lot, like Rage, will be fucked. On the flip side, if there are any games that use GPGPU code to procedurally generate textures, you could run that pretty trivially.

[QUOTE=Forumaster;38470633]What's the most powerful nVidia card I could slap in a PCIe 1.1 slot without losing an absurd amount of performance?[/QUOTE] [url]http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Intel/Ivy_Bridge_PCI-Express_Scaling/23.html[/url] the real problem is the bottleneck caused by whatever CPU fits into a board with PCI-E 1.1

[QUOTE=Shadaez;38470830]I don't really have proof that a 690 will work around the same, but there have been tests with 480s where they run them in 8x PCIe 2.0 lanes which is the same bandwidth as 16x PCIe 1.0 lanes, and there's only a 2% loss. At 4x lanes there's only a 7% loss (same performance as PCIe x 8) It's likely a 690 would lose a little more performance, but it hasn't been tested. You're probably running a old CPU if you're still using a motherboard with 1.1 PCIe slots, which would hurt performance a lot more than any bandwidth limitations on your PCIe lanes.[/QUOTE] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/pw5p6.png[/IMG] Gotta love surplus auctions.

Mix and matched IDE and SATA drives. Haven't seen that in a while.

Is there a hotkey for changing folder layout?

[QUOTE=Zephyrs;38474072]Mix and matched IDE and SATA drives. Haven't seen that in a while.[/QUOTE] That's just part of their name. All my hard drives use SATA, except the top two which are SAS drives.

I have an i5 3570K and I wanted to know if It'd be worth getting the Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro as a replacement, because it's cheap or if it wouldn't benefit be over the stock cooler at all.

[QUOTE=Zephyrs;38474072]Mix and matched IDE and SATA drives. Haven't seen that in a while.[/QUOTE] my internal optical drive is IDE it also is CD only

I had to finally get rid of my IDE DVD drive when my new motherboard didn't have IDE. But I upgraded from an Athlon X2 6400+ to an i5 2500k and 2x the RAM so it was worth it

Is this a good SSD to get? Capacity isn't an issue anymore since I decided to use my optical drive bay for my current HDD [url]http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211595[/url]

Would a 650w Coolermaster PSU handle a 660 Ti and a 560 Ti with the 560 as just a PhysX processor and nothing more? It's also powering 2 HDDs, a 2500k @ 4.5 ghz, and 7 fans w/a controller.

[QUOTE=Angry Pineapple;38479178]Would a 650w Coolermaster PSU handle a 660 Ti and a 560 Ti with the 560 as just a PhysX processor and nothing more? It's also powering 2 HDDs, a 2500k @ 4.5 ghz, and 7 fans w/a controller.[/QUOTE] It will probably be fine. I'd be interested if the 560 aiding the 660 would provide more than a meagre (or perhaps less) performance boost over just the 660 doing rendering and physx.

Don't even bother using the other card for dedicated Physx.

Remember when PhysX was owned by Ageia and it was a major gimmick?