[H] AMD Zacate

[CW]

Nice little showing, an 18W CPU in a netbook demolishing an Intel I5-520M in a 
notebook.  A sign of things in the future, as smaller and more tightly 
integrated comes in CPUs that will get you 10+ hours on a charge...

http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/14/amd-throws-down-gauntlet-pits-zacate-netbook-chip-against-intel/

[H] Insane method for protecting an ethernet join in a hole of water

[CW]

Ok, have a location where a 1000' splice of ethernet runs and makes a turn.  
Due to a really poorly cut conduit by the client, this has never been right 
since the beginning.  So, wire people out, we're trying to think of a unique 
solution.  We had a wild brainstorm today.

Here's the deal.  At 600', a box in the ground (about 2' down) joins.  Cable 
comes in both ways.  Joins there (just couplers basically).  But the box fills 
with water every single night all the way.  

The wire installer tried a weathertight box (still leaked in once submerged, 
more designed to resist rain) and they've tried wrapping with electrical tape, 
etc.. in the end, same thing happens, short across live wires and down she goes.

So, a guy at the meeting, the sprinkler systems person proposed something I 
thought was ridiculous but I've thought about since all day.   Get a can of 
Crisco, wrap the wires, and run them down into the crisco can, seal the top, 
let go.  Crisco would hold out the water and it's non-conductive.   This is 
after they suggested peanutbutter.

We all laughed like crazy when these were suggested.   Now I'm wondering how 
dumb of an idea this would actually be...  worst case, you're just out the $5 
to try...

[H] How bad will this get for Dell?

[CW]

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9178671/Update_Dell_knew_thousands_of_PCs_were_faulty_court_papers_say

So, the suit alleges deceptive practices, etc.

I'm wondering how bad this works out or if this turns into a major class action.

Re: [H] Win7 Ent 32-bit vs 64-bit?

[CW]

I'm not sure how this changes anything about the original post.  The reason for 
those figures is all based on how things like BIOS handles shadowing, higher 
memory registers, PCI-E segments (for the 2.5G) etc.  

The 3.5G can -show- but it's because of the way the memory controller works 
there.. which would make me think it's far more likely you saw that on either a 
server board or using an AMD chip, which has the memory controller onboard.

Some good explanation here:

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2007/03/dude-wheres-my-4-gigabytes-of-ram.html


-Original message-
From: Bryan Seitz se...@bsd-unix.net
Date: Sat, 01 May 2010 06:28:26 -0700
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] Win7 Ent 32-bit vs 64-bit?

> Well no, I've seen systems with 4G of memory show:
> 
> 2.5G
> 2.8G
> 3.5G
> 
> with /PAE 
> 
> :)
> 
> On Sat, May 01, 2010 at 12:30:54AM -0700, maccrawj wrote:
> > Not a bug, that's the Microsoft artificial memory map limit on 32bit OS to 
> > (ostensibly) prevent driver issues caused by brain dead drivers writing to 
> > 64bit 
> > addresses as if they were 32bit which is also why x64 is so draconian about 
> > signed 
> > drivers! In other words despite PAE MS prevents working outside 32bit/4GB 
> > memory 
> > space on32bit OS. This was the subject of much discussion a few months ago 
> > here and 
> > someone posted a link to the conspiracy guy who "outed" M$' secret agenda, 
> > LOL.
> > 
> > Now assuming x64 hardware, switch to a x64 OS (caveat "The BIOS must 
> > support the 
> > memory remapping feature") to get 4GB+ addressable w/ device memory mapped 
> > above that.
> > 
> > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929605
> > 
> > On 4/30/2010 3:35 PM, Bryan Seitz wrote:
> > > Yeah I've seen that bug too, even with /PAE etc still doesn't fix it.
> > > You should upgrade to Win7-64 :)
> > >
> > > On Fri, Apr 30, 2010 at 06:32:30PM -0400, Jason Carson wrote:
> > >> I have 6 GB of RAM and a GeForce 295 with 1.7 GB of memory but am running
> > >> WinXP 32 bit and my system only shows that I have 2.49 GB of RAM.
> > >>
> > >>> Well, it does sort of sound like that.  I have Win 7 ultimate with 6GB
> > >>> RAM.
> > >>> When I right-click on My Computer and select properties, it says I have
> > >>> 6.0GB.  On my work machine (4GB RAM) with XP and 2 graphic cards, it 
> > >>> says
> > >>> I
> > >>> have about 2.89GB RAM.
> > >>>
> 
> -- 
>  
> Bryan G. Seitz

Re: [H] Bing Maps..

[CW]

I've kind of come to the same conclusion.  The Adobe Flash plugin for Firefox 
was the bane of my existance.. with it in, memory leak in Firefox was insane, 
I'd get up to 500Mb in the task manager (and over) for a firefox instance in a 
few hours.   Pulled it out, and Firefox went back to reasonable.  

The silverlight plugin thing doesn't seem to have an issue that I can find that 
way.  And, to be honest, it actually just works the way I expect it to.  I 
don't really ask a lot of a thing like silverlight except: don't screw up.  
Watched the NCAA's on ESPN (silverlight) and I use Netflix in mediacenter.. 
both like a charm.  And since they are coming out with 720p/5.1 audio 
Silverlight from Netflix this summer...

Somewhere along the line, Adobe just completely screwed their product, they 
either didn't grow it, didn't do something.. because right now, the flash 
plugin just sucks.  Meanwhile, Silverlight freaking can use video cards for 
hardware acceleration (DXVA) so CPU usage is less, memory usage is less..  
Hell, MS even went out and helps with a Linux/Unix version (Moonlight) that 
they work with.. Adobe? Yeah, not so much. ( 
http://www.go-mono.com/moonlight/prerelease.aspx )   

Sometimes MS is an easy target to bash.. a bit too easy.  So, when they 
actually get something right, it either gets overlooked, or it has to be enough 
of a dead-on that adoption happens (win7).  

I've ripped Flash off of several PCs and just went Silverlight.  So far, I 
haven't found a site I care about I don't see in either H264 or Silverlight.


-Original message-
From: "Greg Sevart" ad...@xfury.net
Date: Sat, 01 May 2010 04:09:57 -0700
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] Bing Maps..

> I'm personally not a huge fan of either Flash or Silverlight technologies, 
> but I feel a lot more comfortable with SL than Flash on my managed systems...
> 
> Adobe products, especially Flash and Acrobat/Reader, have become 
> extraordinarily common attack vectors. I think that's attributable to both a 
> poor or broken software security methodology and lack of a good centralized 
> patch management system without bolting on another product.
> 
> The SL maps really are quite impressive. Kinda steals some thunder out of 
> Channel 9's video showing the Direct2D GPU-rendered IE9 navigating through 
> Bing Maps.
> 
> > -Original Message-
> > From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware-
> > boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of maccrawj
> > Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2010 2:50 AM
> > To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> > Subject: Re: [H] Bing Maps..
> > 
> > Could be greatest thing since sliced bread but that's not going to get
> > SilverLight on any of my boxes! Hell I'm still battling fraking M$ adding 
> > their
> > other dren to Firefox without warning.
> > 
> > On 4/30/2010 11:16 PM, CW wrote:
> > > Has anyone played with the new one?  Holy cow..
> > >
> > > http://bing.com/maps/explore/
> > >
> > > (requires silverlight) but jeez.. outside of insanely fluid, the modes to 
> > > show
> > different shots of locals from their db vs. flickr geotagged vs. time 
> > stamped
> > and relative.. outside of minute-by-minute starmaps visibile from location..
> > >
> > > Pretty wild stuff.
> > >
> 
> 
> 

[H] Bing Maps..

[CW]

Has anyone played with the new one?  Holy cow..

http://bing.com/maps/explore/

(requires silverlight) but jeez.. outside of insanely fluid, the modes to show 
different shots of locals from their db vs. flickr geotagged vs. time stamped 
and relative.. outside of minute-by-minute starmaps visibile from location.. 

Pretty wild stuff.

[H] If you own a PS3 and it connects to the net DO NOT TURN ON

[CW]

http://ps3.ign.com/articles/107/1073007p1.html

Sony has bricked their PSN Network.  Talk about screwup on a mammoth scale.  If 
your PS3 connects, you'll lose all your trophies, save points, and oh yes the 
ability to get online.

Great!  Sony expects a solution in 24 hours.

[H] Windows 7 "God Mode"

[CW]

Really, just a script ready folder, but one of the neater tricks I've seen 
online for Win7.

http://windows7center.com/windows-7-feature/unleash-god-mode-on-windows-7/

[H] Good source for SDHC to IDE adapters?

[CW]

Ok, while it's still easy to get IDE to CF, CF are becoming harder to grab 
decent ones.  But IDE to Flash (like 1GB or 2GB) is perfect for a firewall/nas 
install.

I've been looking for a good source for IDE to SDHC, but haven't come up with 
any.. Addonics has one, but wow spendy ($40) which makes it not as worthwhile 
(you can get SATA HDD for less).

Just branching out from the SSD with a much slower, less space, cheap flash 
option :)

[H] -N- AMD & Intel Settle

[CW]

AMD and Intel Settle Nov 12.


==

Settlement Summary From AMD PDF Print   E-mail
News - AMD
Written by Chris Tom   
Thursday, 12 November 2009 10:23
AMD summarizes todays settlement as follows.

* First, Intel has agreed to an important set of ground rules that we hope will 
define the path to a free and open market in the microprocessor industry;
* Second, we have agreed to a new patent cross-license agreement that gives AMD 
broad rights and the freedom to operate a business utilizing multiple foundries,
* And third, GLOBALFOUNDRIES has agreed to terms that allow them the freedom to 
operate as an independent world-class leading-edge foundry company, going 
forward, without being a subsidiary of AMD.
* In addition, Intel has agreed to pay AMD $1.25 billion in cash within the 
next 30 days.

So Intel will have to change business practices in CPU sales, they can not 
terminate AMD's license if AMD uses 3rd part fabs, they can not object to 
Globalfoundries fully being spun off from AMD, and they agree to pay cash. That 
basically settles everything.

===

Intel basically agrees it owes back licensing on AMD64 archetecture and 
practiced bad faith marketting.. and will pay $1.25B in cash, plus provide a 
full release of all instruction set and a crss-license agreemet to move forward 
allowing AMD Open use of 3rd Party fabs.

This is a significant victory for AMD/

[H] Useful tip.. (Installing Win7 to VHD)

[CW]

I admit, I visit WinCert and other forums often, and I've meant to post this 
tip for a while, but wanted to wait until I confirmed it works with Win7 final. 
 Did a test run, and yep, still works.  This in some instances works out pretty 
slick.



1. Install Windows 7 to VHD from DVD
-

With Windows 7, you now have the option to boot the OS from a VHD, a virtual 
disk file, instead of a partition. This way, you don't have to reconfigure your 
hard drive partitions.

Limitations: Hibernate is not supported.

Here are the simplified instructions:
1) Start Windows 7 installation from DVD.
2) Press Shift+F10 to start the command prompt.
3) Start diskpart.
4) Use the "create vdisk file=D:\Win7.vhd maximum=x" to create a virtual 
hard disk. Choose your drive and filename accordingly. x is in MB.
5) Type "select vdisk file=D:\Win7.vhd".
6) Type "attach vdisk". You will get a confirmation that it was attached.
7) Type "exit" to exit diskpart. And then close the command prompt.
8) Click on "Install Now" and install as you would normally by clicking on 
"Custom Install". Choose your attached vdisk as the location.

The installation takes care of adding the boot option to bcd. You don't have to 
do anything.

See Virtual Hard Disk Booting on a tutorial for VHD booting.

also check this out: Install Windows 7 to a VHD and add boot option to Vista's 
menu.

Basically, instead of installing windows 7 to your physical HDD by getting rid 
of Vista or even dual booting off another partition, you can install to a 
virtual HDD (in VHD format), and boot off the VHD so you actually get the 
hardware functionality to play with!!

Re: [H] bootable flash and DVDs

[CW]

The acronis for Bart comes in handy for instances where Acronis doesn't find 
the appropriate net driver, or if the RAID controller isn't supported.. or if 
you plan on doing image casting.  It's most useful if you're using TI Echo.

CW

-Original message-
From: "Rick Glazier" rickglaz...@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:40:25 -0800
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: [Spam] Re: [H] bootable flash and DVDs

> The easiest thing for JUST the Acronis Restore is to use their
> media builder to make its own boot CD.
> Acronis distributes a plug-in for a BartPE CD (but why bother).
> 
> As far as your other questions, USB has flaky support some
> times generally, but especially for use as a bootable device.
> It may settle down eventually.
> 
> Remember, the main things you want to accomplish "may"
> require constant care (and updating). I got tired of the hassle...
> 
> Rick Glazier
> 
> 
> > One thing I have yet to do is create some kind of windows bootable 
> > media that I can boot into when I need to repair a windows 
> > installation, or run a Acronis restore, delete a stubborn file when 
> > it refuses to delete on a running windows, or a virus scan on a non 
> > running windows. Something similar to booting from a dual boot 
> > windows PC... only not from my hard drive and able to use it with any 
> > PC. Is there an easy way to create such a thing, and how do I go about it?

Re: [H] Unusual Active Directory Q

[CW]

What is it you are trying to do with the rules that you can't/couldn't?  
PFSense is a great product, I like it too.. then again, you can't get a 
monitoring complaince notice from them for your CC Company's/Banks who require 
it, so it's not an option for several.. (and if Clark is anemic, try Watchguard 
Firewalls which, IMHO, are worthless)

Surprisingly, I've found most of the rules I need to implement and content 
management pretty easy.  Clark5 is a significant improvement, but even 4.3 
addressed most of the needs I had.

CW

> -Original Message-
> From: Greg Sevart 
> To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> Date: 11/04/09 06:13
> Subject: Re: [H] Unusual Active Directory Q
> 
> What finally pushed me to try something else was that CC's firewall rules 
> were just so anemic. CC's firewall rules engine, even with 
> cc-advanced-firewall, doesn't offer much more than a Linksys. pfSense, on the 
> other hand, somehow reminds me of a CheckPoint every time I use it--and 
> that's a very good thing to me. :)
> 
> > -Original Message-
> > From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware-
> > boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of tmse...@rlrnews.com
> > Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 11:00 PM
> > To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> > Subject: Re: [H] Unusual Active Directory Q
> > 
> > There are things I like about pfsense.  However, as a paid product, the
> > thing I like about clark is the ability to get system monitoring for
> > credit card acceptance compliance statements... Which you can't get
> > with pfsense.  That, and tiered blacklist and filter groups to deny
> > content to people or specific workstations.
> >

Re: [H] Unusual Active Directory Q

[CW]

You know, I spent today after we got done with solving the AD doing their new 
Point of sales.. little units that handle their software (it's Jonas if anyone 
is familiar: http://www.jonasclub.com/ )  Anyway, outside of the fact their 
touch screens are old school (COM port driven) and Chit printer technology 
still is crap, we spent the day converting boxes and putting in new POS systems 
that run off Mini-ITX Intel Atom 330 MB.  

I'm not saying I'd use it for my desktop, but the Atom 330/board combo is 
decently faster, a better choice then most microatx/cheap celeron combos, and I 
have nothing bad to say about it.  You can find those boards for like $80 
945G+Atom330 onboard.  One of the best bangs/buck out there, period.  I'm going 
to use another one, slap a USB Mediareader in it, boot to USB for a 
ClarkConnect Firewall.  

We get so focused on the high end, but I can't think of anything at all bad to 
say about this board.  Nothing, absolutely nothing.


-Original message-
From: Stan Zaske swza...@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:59:33 -0800
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] Unusual Active Directory Q

> Dude it is still an overclocking list! I do it every day and will never 
> stop trying to get the best bang for my buck. Buy, use for awhile then 
> sell on Ebay and get something newer and better. Next year is looking 
> real good for AMD. InHell, who dat?
> 

[H] Unusual Active Directory Q

[CW]

Ok, I've got an unusual active directory problem, that at 5AM is still keeping 
me up thinking about options.

Have a machine that is dying, running Windows 2000 Server.  It's a stand alone 
PDC.  But this machine also has a specific piece of software that may never be 
replicated and so we have to preserve it.  The hardware just won't stand for 
that, though.

So, we virtualized the drives, etc. and all is good.  Boots up fine in HyperV 
server, software starts, etc.

Issue: it took about a week and a half to get this all back on track with the 
help of some vendors on some specific pieces of hardware.  In the meantime, we 
left the dying box run, thinking we'd do this as a test to then merge over just 
the changed data as we finished.

Except they've added a few new users and PCs, which I didn't count on happening 
:(

So, I can't run a "System State" restore in Win2k, because it will bomb 
(registry is changed since this has been repair installed to make work on a VM) 
tried that with a copy of a VHD.  

The machine name it has (SERVER1) is the same as the physical machine name, 
etc.. in all purposes it's a clone.

Has anyone tried to just manually copy only the NTDS folder from one to another 
assuming machine names and IDs are the same?  This technically should work in 
this goofy circumstance in win2k, but I can't find anyone who has tried such a 
feat..

[H] -OT- Can anyone explain Norton's new ad campaign?

[CW]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOsgqG5OOlM&feature=channel

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRnPbSKUMEs&feature=channel


Imagine a hard drive is a chicken?  Imagine your identity is a catepillar?  
Protect your Catepillar from Kimbo Slice?

Who the hell is running marketing at Symantec?

[H] Does Norton Internet Security lead to the rise of Cobra?

[CW]

A quick question as asked by movie buffs, thanks to awkward product placement:

http://blog.laptopmag.com/norton-internet-security-causes-the-rise-of-cobra

Ah, if only Rex had known to disable Norton Internet Security! But now you 
know. And knowing is half the battle.

Re: [H] Windows 7 RTM available on TechNet and MSDN

[CW]

Yeah, I'm getting 180k.. SUCKS.
 

> -Original Message- 
> From: Julian Zottl  
> To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com 
> Date: 08/06/09 13:14 
> Subject: Re: [H] Windows 7 RTM available on TechNet and MSDN 
> 
> Grabbing it now :)  ~230kB/s here..  I'm guessing people are whoring them.
> 
> Julian
> 
> 
> On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 1:25 PM, Greg Sevart  wrote:
> 
> > Get it while it's hot. Not getting much speed though...
> >
> >
> >

[H] So, who all is prepped for Monday?

[CW]

For those TechNet/MSDN subscribers, supposedly monday we get access to the RTM 
Windows 7.  I'm interested to see how well their servers hold up.

Re: [H] 3dRealms/Apogee/ duke nukem forever.. now all dead

[CW]

Hilarious blogged update.

http://duke.a-13.net/


-Original message-
From: CW tmse...@rlrnews.com
Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 20:53:59 -0700
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: [H] 3dRealms/Apogee/ duke nukem forever.. now all dead

> Who knew this was coming? 
> 
> http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1127
> 
> in a surprise shutdown, 3dRealms, Apogee and of course, all development on 
> DNF is over.  The developers were handed their pink slips, websites shut 
> down.. (apogee1.com and 3drealms.com no longer respond or point elsewhere now)
> 
> Wonder if at least some sort of betas will ever leak.

[H] 3dRealms/Apogee/ duke nukem forever.. now all dead

[CW]

Who knew this was coming? 

http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1127

in a surprise shutdown, 3dRealms, Apogee and of course, all development on DNF 
is over.  The developers were handed their pink slips, websites shut down.. 
(apogee1.com and 3drealms.com no longer respond or point elsewhere now)

Wonder if at least some sort of betas will ever leak.

Re: [H] Microsoft's terrible heat management in XBOX360..

[CW]

Warranty is three years.  And, while it covers a true RROD (3 lights) MS will 
do nothing about the Two-Light Red Problem (overheat) which is specifically not 
covered unless you want to shell $125.  The RROD warranty is also only within 
the 3 years, and only covers original registered boxes.  So, if you saved money 
and bought at a second hand place (like Gamestop, etc.) prepare for a lot of 
headaches.


-Original message-
From: "Rick Glazier" rickglaz...@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:30:12 -0700
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: [Spam] Re: [H] Microsoft's terrible heat management in XBOX360..

> I thought the $billion$ they threw at the RROD meant free
> fixes. I've heard of people getting it fixed more than once free.
> 
> Rick Glazier
> 
> From: "CW" 
> 
> > Ok, I spent the evening rebuilding our XBOX360.  This makes basically the 
> > second one I've had to recover from the stupid RROD.
> 

[H] Microsoft's terrible heat management in XBOX360..

[CW]

Ok, I spent the evening rebuilding our XBOX360.  This makes basically the 
second one I've had to recover from the stupid RROD.

The thing that kills me everytime I pull one of these f'ing things apart is how 
absolutely disasterous Microsoft's cooling system for this thing is.  If you 
haven't seen the guts of the XBOX360, and you take a look, you almost wonder 
how this thing doesn't blow up right off the bat.

There are of course options; at this point you can go grab something like a 
Whisper fan set, etc. which helps - by replacing the rear internal fans.  But 
what really needs to happen is that at some point, someone should come out with 
a complete replacement HSF solution for MS's piece of complete trash.  

Last year, there was some talk about this from Thermalright, but it hasn't 
appeared.  I can grasp that MS is concerned that a solution that focused on a 
CPU-fan setup could result in fan failure and instant machine death.  But, the 
rear fan assembly they currently use is not much better.. and as it starts, 
it's a far worse cooling solution.

Just a rant.

Re: [H] Network Storage

[CW]

I've been using ZFS in FreeNas, and have been pretty happy with it's support; 
I've tried that and marking drives as an iSCSI target, which seems to be the 
fastest option, but not always the easiest, though Windows7 seems to click with 
it quickly enough.

CW
-Original message-
From: "Greg Sevart" ad...@xfury.net
Date: Sat, 04 Apr 2009 15:25:38 -0700
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] Network Storage

> I never got much benefit from jumbo frames either. With SMB2 in Windows 6,
> however, I always get >110MB/s if the disks on both sides can handle it. I
> was about to build a NAS solution using FreeNAS or OpenFiler with an older
> box and some spare drives (X2 4400+ and 9x 250GB WD PATA disks), but decided
> to wait until Samba supports SMB2. ZFS would be nice too...
> 
> > -Original Message-
> > From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware-
> > boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of Winterlight
> > Sent: Saturday, April 04, 2009 5:51 PM
> > To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> > Subject: Re: [H] Network Storage
> > 
> > At 01:53 PM 4/4/2009, you wrote:
> > >You might want to check that the gigabit switch that you got supports
> > jumbo
> > >frames as that can speed PC-to-PC transfers by  a lot (WinXP and other
> > OSes
> > >should just default support
> > >it);BINO
> > 
> > You often have to turn Jumbo Frames on, in the NIC driver in order to
> > use it. This is particularly true with older boards and NICs. Go to
> > device manager, your NIC >>> Properties Advanced settings.  And you
> > have to know what Jumbo Frame setting your switch will accommodate.
> > Also both NICs and the switch must support Jumbo frames in order to
> > support it. I played around with this a lot when I first got my SMC
> > GB switch back in 2004, a good one, rack mount that is still
> > available, and although there has been a lot of hoopla about Jumbo
> > Frames lately I was never able to realize any significant improvement
> > in transfer speeds between two boards with Intel GB NICs transferring
> > large video ISO files.
> > 
> 
> 
> 

[H] Craziest item I've seen in a while anywhere...

[CW]

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=CL-TPTCA-01&cat=CPU

Socket 478 CPU to Socket 775 CPU Transfer Card - Use your Socket 478 CPU in a 
Socket 775 Motherboard!

wow.  Really?  I've got stacks of Socket 478, but no real desire to waste a 775 
board on any of them.

Re: [H] Restoring an lvm raid-0 set

[CW]

I finally got it the hard way; took about 3 freaking days of ghosting the set 
to different drives and then trying different settings with LVM based and 
retrieving the files from the embed.. what a PITA.  

-Original message-
From: Christopher Fisk chr...@mhonline.net
Date: Mon, 02 Mar 2009 11:18:23 -0800
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] Restoring an lvm raid-0 set

> On Sat, 28 Feb 2009, tmse...@rlrnews.com wrote:
> 
> > Anyone have any tricks?  Have a maxtor shared storage ii (giant piece 
> > of shit) that had the circuit board die.  Anyway, mini-linux on both 
> > drives (500gb) ala raid-1, but a software raid-0 (lvm I assume) 
> > partition.  Knoppix and mandriva see the 'software raid' segment, but 
> > can't reconnect them and so far, mdadm doesn't detect any uid's for me 
> > to try and manually do it.
> 
> In the mini-linux is there an LVM configuration file?  There might be 
> other information there, maybe it's actually a hardware raid on the board 
> and that's why you can't see it.  You might be able to tell by the modules 
> being loaded by mini-linux
> 
> 
> Christopher Fisk
> -- 
> Kaylee: Up until the punching, it was a real nice party.
>   --Episode #4, "Shindig"
> 
> -- 
> This message has been scanned for viruses and
> dangerous content by MailScanner, and is
> believed to be clean.
> 

[H] Goodbye, Abit

[CW]

Abit officially wiped themselves off the market today, closing up all 
operations.. so, no more Abit MB or product, just an FYI for those of us who 
remember them from "Way back when"   (Come on, some of us probably still have a 
BP6 somewhere in a drawer)

[H] Show me... Directory Sizes

[CW]

Ok, I used to have a neat little Windows Explorer replacement that would show 
me all the directory sizes (how many MB/GB were contained in the folder) 
however, it doesn't want to function in Vista, damnit. 

Anyone have anything that does something similar to this that they would 
recommend?  I'd rather get a recommendation then spend time downloading 
craploads of shareware to find it ;)

Re: [H] Windows 7 ?

[CW]

I wondered, couldn't get into technet all day.

-Original message-
From: "Brian Weeden" brian.wee...@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2009 16:20:35 -0800
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] Windows 7 ?

> Public download link and the latest on when Microsoft will release the keys
> is here:
> 
> http://lifehacker.com/5127558/windows-7-beta-available-pulled-no-eta-on-product-keys
> 
> ---
> Brian Weeden
> Technical Consultant
> Secure World Foundation 
> +1 (514) 466-2756 Canada
> +1 (202) 683-8534 US
> 
> 
> On Fri, Jan 9, 2009 at 4:12 PM, Gary VanderMolen 
> wrote:
> 
> > Actually, I think you have to be a MSDN or TechNet subscriber to
> > get it from that link. The public download is supposed to be from
> > the following site, although there's no download link yet:
> > http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/
> >
> > Gary VanderMolen, MS-MVP
> >
> > --
> > From: "Bryan Seitz" 
> >
> >  can't even access the download, server too busy :(
> >>
> >> On Fri, Jan 09, 2009 at 11:54:26AM -0800, Gary VanderMolen wrote:
> >>
> >>> After running Windows 7 for one day, I have to agree. It is much
> >>> snappier and responsive than Vista. The public download is supposed to
> >>> begin at noon (Pacific time) today, see
> >>> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/dd353205.aspx
> >>>
> >>
> >

[H] City of San Fran hacked

[CW]

http://gizmodo.com/5025449/disgruntled-computer-engineer-hijacks-san-frans-new-computer-network-jail-not-an-obstacle

Wow.  Well, that's one way to make an impression I assume.

[H] -N- Nehalem delayed .. maybe Christmas?

[CW]

http://www.streetinsider.com/Analyst+Comments/Intel+(INTC)+Nehalem+Delay+Could+Open+Door+for+AMD+-AmTech/3726891.html

At issue:  the recently reviewed chip, which has garned tons of good press, is 
now pushed back from summer '08 to -maybe- by Christmas, due to an apparent 
errata related to production issue (at least that's teh contention of 
distribution) whether the issue is with chipset or chip itself is unsure, but 
it's dropped totally off the table for the summer.


CW

Re: [H] BBC, you got to be kidding

[CW]

The century of self is an older documentary - I've seen it, so let me say 
something, though.. the problem with a documentary in which the documentarian 
is iased is that it stops being a documentary and becomes, largely, propaganda.
 
Now, this is an interesting documentary, and it's aired on PBS here in the 
states (I wonder what Jeremy Clarkson would say of this, though.. maybe he's 
too busy testing out the new Bugati, which came not from the states ;)
 
The thing is, though, not that some mass conspiracy brainwashed the public, 
including those not born - somehow this documentary seems to intone that the 
titans of industry warped people and repressed alternatives, etc.
 
What it fails to neglect is that the human experience also empowers people to 
seek what they believe is "better" and that is different for every person, 
true.. but there are some things in which, titans or no, people generally 
agreed on. 

People tended to like the idea of "damn, I can get cool liquid", I'll take a 
refridgerator!
 
By using Freud and others to evaluate how society works, the documentary 
devolves into a one-sided arguement of human reaction based on psychological 
forces and holds this standard true.

But this in no way equates with newer, and different psychological thought 
since the passing of Freud.
 
Then again, I guess we could dig up Carl Jung and Jean Piaget, both scholars in 
their field, wrote alternative theories and thoughts about the impact of our 
subconcious and how it renders what we perceive as primary needs.
 
In his case, the documentary uses a fairly self-fulfilling method, by which 
interviewees are put forward that are known to agree with the heart of his 
theory, and basically none who provide alternative viewpoints on what compels 
human desires in the west or anywhere else in the world.
 
Then again, i guess I"ll just go inside, set the thermostat at 72 and enjoy the 
cool after mowing the lawn (though I use a Reel mower, the Brill, so at least 
he can "take that!")
 
It's a decent documentary.. as to games and computers.. it's the nature of the 
world.  Look, the best computer game I've ever played is still Sid Mier 
Civilization II.  I enjoy the sequels (IV is very good), but for sheer fun, I'd 
take CivII.  

That having been said, there is nothing at work from a psychology standpoint of 
people wanting something that they perceive of as 'more fun".  I suppose we 
could all go back and make different choices.  And society has had moments 
where it has repeatedly proven that a high-ticket item doesn't necessarily 
succeed on the "bigger is better" philosophy.. look at the Nintendo Wii.  In 
every sense, the other competing consoles (PS3, XBOX360) have more graphic 
power and push to them.. but which console gets the most play in my house?  The 
Wii.  What game is the most popular?  Right now it's the WiiWare "Defending 
Your Castle" which, I have to tell you is a riot with the WiiMote.  
 
We aren't brainwashed into these things by a grand corporate scheme, and if we 
were, General Motors and Ford would not be worried about having vehicles that 
are too big while global competitors eat up US marketspace with smaller 
vehicles.
 
That's the problem with documentaries such as this; it, like Freud, assign too 
much power to the concept that individuals can be controlled by subconcious 
cues, whereas, like Jung and others believe, there is a subconcious standing 
within the id that helps define how we want things.
 
Just as a counterpoint.
 

CW
> -Original Message- 
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com 
> Date: 05/25/08 14:04 
> Subject: Re: [H] BBC, you got to be kidding 
> 
> On Sun, 25 May 2008 11:37:17 -0700
> FORC5 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> > Why would anybody of even normal intelligence want to watch anything from 
> > the prejudiced BBC ?
> > 
> > Sounds like jealousy or just plain ignorance to me
> > fp
> Hi Fred,
> 
> You pre-judge the documentary on the grounds the producer is prejudiced?
> 
> You can't open your mouth without shooting yourself in the foot.
> 
> Best,
> Al

Re: [H] another recommendation

[CW]

Seriously, save money and you can do something like this for very cheap:

E2160 
965P Board
8400GT Video
500G HDD
DVDRW
Basic Case..

You've spent less then $500.

CW

> -Original Message-
> From: Harvey Best <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: Alt Cpu 
> Date: 04/17/08 21:48
> Subject: [H] another recommendation
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Need to build 2 systems. 
> 
> 1. Strictly business. Don't need fancy graphics, or sound, so onboard 
> video/sound is fine. (I will up the RAM) Dual HDD that are Raid Mirrors are 
> needed.
> 
> 2. System 2 can be almost like the one above, but needs a better video card. 
> My wife is a Medical Transcriptionist. This will be her work system and her 
> "playing with digital pics" system. I want dual hdd, and a raid mirror on 
> this as well. I have a Raptor SATA drive that I am going to put in along with 
> another Raptor of same size. Speed is important to her as she is paid on 
> production.
> 
> Both systems will be using 19 inch basic flat screen monitors. Both systems 
> will be running XP. System 2 will be XP Pro. (Hospital requirement) and a 
> medical version of Word. Speed is important here, but nothing that has to be 
> ripping fast.  (also, as the hospital upgrades she needs to be at least 
> close, so at least dual core if not quad if I can swing it)
> 
> 1st system will be running XP home. So XP drivers for both systems will be 
> important.
> 
> Both systems will be on networks. System 1 wireless and system 2 wired.
> 
> I have looked on Tiger and Geeks and haven't quite seen what I need. Budget 
> is 800 for system 1, though I can go to 1k if needed. About 1000 - 1400 for 
> system 2.
> 
> Any and all help appreciated.
> 
> BTW, I have the legit copies of XP so that doesn't have to be part of the 
> expense. And, I can put my own systems together, so individual components, if 
> a better deal, is not a problem.
> 
> Thanks all,
> 
> Harvey 
> 
> hbest
> 
> 
> 
> _
> More immediate than e-mail? Get instant access with Windows Live Messenger.
> http://www.windowslive.com/messenger/overview.html?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_Refresh_instantaccess_042008

Re: [H] Need AMD XP Sempron CPU

[CW]

Yes, I'm being serious.  Ok, let's say $78 is the max you want to spend, and 
you have a new AGP video card you want to use.  Fine, you can grab an AM2 with 
AGP (they exist, SIS) for about $33.  Grab an AM2 Processor for $35, and a 
stick of 1G for $10.  Bam.  You just spent $78.  And you ended up with a 
LE-1150, yeah, a "blah" board but you support your video card, and off you go.  

Sure, you'd still be cooked to find out it was your power supply, which is a 
given, but on the other end, your DDR and other components (like the Asus 
board) would sell to make up about 1/2 the distance.

:)

I'm not talking about spending a ton of money.. but an LE-1150, a chip you can 
grab OEM for less then $35, would be easily the equal and superior to a Sempron 
whatever SocketA, the board wouldn't be, but you'd keep the AGP card so who 
cares, and you'd get better SATA, USB, etc. support.  

Just saying, if your budget was $78, the combo is out there ;)

CW

-Original message-
From: j maccraw [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:51:34 -0700
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] Need AMD XP Sempron CPU

> "Bite the bullet?" thanks Chris, you writing the check
> on that new system for 
> me? AM2, Are you serious? Personally I'm waiting for
> the Asus Rampage to ship & 
> I will build a Q6600 Intel system, screw AMD.
> 
> Meanwhile the XP box is more than capable of playing
> HL2 at decent frame rates 
> and has a brand new AGP video card (had to replace
> that dead 9800) useless on a 
> PCI-E system. In other words perfect for the kids to
> game on, hell it's been 
> enough for me.
> 
> So no I did not want to spend $75 on a CPU only to
> find it was another shit 
> Antec PSU that is now out of warranty. Certainly did
> not want to then have to 
> spend another $50-60 on the seemingly no longer made
> by any quality company ATX 
> 1.3 PSU. To dump an otherwise functional system over
> $150 in repairs to keep it 
> running vs. $1000+ for new makes no sense to me esp.
> with two kids and only one 
> other game pc in the house.
> 
> Saving grace, I may be able to resell the XP-M that is
> not the problem after 
> all. I know I could resell the Sempron & break even
> despite Chris' surprise. ;)
> 
> Chris Reeves wrote:
> > $78?!?!?!  Seriously a le-1640 at $25 less would
> wipe the floors.  Just bute the bullet go am2 and be
> done. :)
> > Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
> > 
> > -Original Message-
> > From: j maccraw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > 
> > Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:46:55 
> > To:hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> > Subject: Re: [H] Need AMD XP Sempron CPU
> > 
> > 
> > Yes, silly me! Picked up a new Sempron 3300+ for $75
> > which is essentially a XP
> > 3200+ Barton. Unfortunately it ended up being my
> (2nd)
> > shit Antec TruePower 480W
> > toasting caps on the 5V rail which is what Asus
> A7N8X
> > uses for vcore causing the
> > problem.
> > 
> 
> 
> 
>   
> 
> Looking for last minute shopping deals?  
> Find them fast with Yahoo! Search.  
> http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping

[H] Comment: 780G Continued

[CW]

Damn, I haven't tried this, but TomsHardware pretty well flushes it out.  Using 
the 780G, they get 1080P playback using a Sempron 3200+ (which is total crap)

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/03/04/amd_780g_chipset/page3.html

Using a 3800+ X2, available many places sub $65, Blue Ray decoding at 20% CPU 
Usage.

Ding Ding.

Actually, from  our playing with it, the Athlon LE-1620 works like a song on it 
with nary a hiccup.

CW

Re: [H] Brief comment: 780G

[CW]

Yeah, um, that's the point.  None of those is the 780G.

It's a 690G, a 7100, and a G35.

Benchmarks show the 780G is roughly 4 times faster then the G35, and more then 
double the 7100.

And, having tested it, using 1080P, I get nothing but extremely fluid blueray 
playback.

That's the whole reason why I started the thread, to point out that the 780G 
significantly alters the way people think about onboard video solutions.


Others seem to agree: 
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/03/05/780g-changes-graphics-game

Example:

http://www.hothardware.com/articles/AMD_780G_Chipset_and_Athlon_X2_4850e_Preview_/?page=8

Using a 4850e AMD Chip (their new low voltage CPU, so think about it around a 
4000+ or so)

Whereas the G35 is at 95% CPU usage to try and pull off 1080P, the 780G is 
around 50%, which is more then passable, because it means that you're almost 
never going to have flubs in your video.

Thus, the game changes.


-Original message-
From: "Brian Weeden" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:30:01 -0800
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] Brief comment: 780G

> Bit-tech.net did a roundup of micro-ATX mobos for HTPC use with
> built-in video.  While the boards were fine, unfortunately the results
> showed that none of the on-board solutions could handle Blu-Ray or
> HD-DVD decoding.  So basically, either wait for the next gen, buy a
> video card, or just use a set top box:
> 
> http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2008/02/05/home_theatre_pc_motherboards_feb_08/1
> 
> On Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 1:19 PM, Hayes Elkins <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> >
> >  If this is accurate, this is by far the best IGP for HTPC: 
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMD_700_chipset_series#Integrated_graphics
> >
> >  AMD/ATI right now clearly has the superior IGP for hardware accelerated 
> > H.264 and VC-1, plus superior post processing vs NVidia's VP2 generation. 
> > Intel may as well just scrap the G35 and rethink their plans for G45.
> >
> >  I like the direction these things are going - these are now legit players 
> > in a growing market and they can focus on HTPC and abandon the idea of 
> > trying to get an IGP to play Crysis at reasonable FPS :)
> >
> >  > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >  > To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> >  > Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2008 11:24:15 -0600
> >  > Subject: [H] Brief comment: 780G
> >
> >
> > >
> >  > Ok, so now that it's out, I can say a few things:
> >  >
> >  > (1) The 780G on AMD's end is maybe one of the more impressive chipsets 
> > I've
> >  > seen in a very long time. We've been giving it a run on a few of our
> >  > monitors using the Asus MB, and have found it pretty stunning what kind 
> > of
> >  > performance you can get. Even using a simple (read: CHEAP) 3800+ X2, we 
> > had
> >  > no problems running BlueRay discs at full acceleration to a 61" Samsung 
> > DLP.
> >  > Video is fast, smooth, and power usage is very low..
> >  >
> >  > (2) Putting this thing in a micro case works, which is an advantage.
> >  >
> >  > (3) I'm not sure about the market for "Oh, combine to a 3450 and do 
> > Hybrid
> >  > SLI. First, it only works under Vista SP1, which will be primarily new 
> > PCS
> >  > (fine, and BTW, when it is available to public download it's worth it)
> >  >
> >  > (4) Now we have to see what Intel responds with. Nvidia's already kind of
> >  > boned themselves, the 9800 series is delayed (AGAIN), and the 8200 IGP is
> >  > both behind and, by their projections will be at least 15% slower then 
> > the
> >  > 780G. Intel's G35 looks particularly putrid in comparison
> >  >
> >  > For those looking to do a Media Center box, this is the best combo I've
> >  > seen. The chipset has it all - Full HDMI 1.3 support with DTS Master 
> > Audio,
> >  > TrueHD capability, Blueray decoding at low CPU usage on even a cheap ass
> >  > CPU, and tons of SATA ports for drives.
> >  >
> >  > While AMD has been in the doldrums on their CPU side, it's good to see
> >  > something positive over there going on.
> >  >
> >  > CW
> >  >
> >  >
> >
> >  _
> >  Climb to the top of the charts! Play the word scramble challenge with star 
> > power.
> >  http://club.live.com/star_shuffle.aspx?icid=starshuffle_wlmailtextlink_jan

[H] HTPC World prepares for a sea change

[CW]

As HDTV becomes the big issue, new devices were issued at CES that were things 
we told we'd never see.
 
Auzentech introduces HDMI 1.3 -CAPTURE CARD- 
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/audio/3992-auzen-hdmi-1-3-board-pics-info.html#post33688
 
Hauppauge announces Component Video Capture Card
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20080110006038&newsLang=en
 
Prepare for home-based HTPCs that can capture HDTV ala cable ;) :)

[H] Greatest software I've tried in a while (Utility.. Acronis TI Echo)

[CW]

 If just for this one feature: universal restore to restore an image taken out 
to a VM.. and have the bastard boot.  So far, the one time I've tried it, 
worked like a charm.  VERY impressive stuff.  Hell, if the Universal restore 
works, moving an install from machine to machine could be snappy, I'll have to 
give it a few more tests, but so far, the whole product is a great upgrade from 
TI.  Still very fast, still a solid performer, nice new feature set, what more 
could I want?
 

[H] AMD Ready to strike back?

[CW]

Well, after spending a year of getting their hat handed to them, AMD is finally 
about ready to roll out Barcelona and Phenom.  Existing in (nearly current) 
AM2+ Sockets and FX socket, AMD is finally going to make an attempt to get back 
at Intel.  Whether you love Intel or AMD, competition in the marketplace is a 
good thing.

We've got quite a few people running the FX-74 duals for Virtual Servers, where 
they do work out very effectively... but other then that, the FX-70/72/74 are 
kind of a bust for end users.  So, it's good to see something show up with 
solid to fairly nice numbers.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=41970

This kind of confirms what I saw recently (though I did not take any test 
scores or do anything but look at the AMD Roadshow).  Will be interesting to 
see it play out.

:)

[H] The Disaster that is BioShock

[CW]

Thank goodness someone else had these thoughts and put them to pen:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=41921

Let me add what is not in the above:

Running Vista 64 bit?  Prepare for wild, uncontrollable crashes at random.
Have K-Lite or other CODEC packs installed?  Good luck avoiding blue screens.
Run AVG Antispyware or Ad-Aware 2007?  Prepare for the software to not run.

What garbage

[H] Unlocking a blackberry

[CW]

Well, now that it's all been decided (legally) that unlocking a phone is 
totally legit, I have a pair of blackberries I would -love- to unlock to move 
from old service to new.   I see lots of people charging to do this 
(ridiculous) isn't there just software somewhere that will generate the darn 
key code?

Re: [H] What a difference drivers make

[CW]

Wong link, meant to put up the one using 7.6 drivers.

-Original message-
From: CW [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007 20:51:32 -0700
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: [H] What a difference drivers make

> http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1122/7/page_6_benchmarks_3dmark06/index.html
> 
> Cons:  Still expensive.  Still too much powewer.
> Pros: Now beats the 8800GTX in many games, though not the Ultra, at 
> considerably lower cost.
> 
> CW

[H] What a difference drivers make

[CW]

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1122/7/page_6_benchmarks_3dmark06/index.html

Cons:  Still expensive.  Still too much powewer.
Pros: Now beats the 8800GTX in many games, though not the Ultra, at 
considerably lower cost.

CW

[H] -N- MicroITX.. sweet

[CW]

Sweet.  I don't know how this supports data storage, but this concept ROCKS.  
Anymore I find almost all I give a crap about is email/web/office apps, and 
super fast doesn't mean squat.. but size is something that intrigues me.

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40132

A PC board smaller then a 1 dollar bill?  Sweet.  Get me something like this 
with pen-drive boot capability and we're set.

A different look with connectors:

http://www.epiacenter.com/pictures/news/2007/computex2007/via_booth/100_0761.JPG


Smaller the better!  :)

[H] -N- OCZ buys PC Power & Cooling

[CW]

Wait for the announcements to start coming, because all channel partners got 
the heads up.

This could be a good thing or not.  Who knows yet.  PC P&C's 750W Quad-SLI 
Support PSU is one of the best bangs on the market.  OCZ needed to shore up 
their support in this area as their PSUs are basically redone Athenas.  

Not a bad fit.

We'll see how it actually comes together.

[H] Finally, a big game announced I'm after :)

[CW]

Ok, outside of Civilization IV expansion packs, Blizzard announced StarCraft II:


http://www.starcraft2.com

Re: [H] OT: Microsoft takes on the free world

[CW]

I think that's because that's the print issue it iwll appear in.

-Original message-
From: "Steve" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sun, 13 May 2007 17:26:39 -0700
To: "The Hardware List" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: [H] OT: Microsoft takes on the free world

> http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/index.htm
> 
> Aside from the story, look at the url. Either I'm still hung over and 
> senseless or is that back to the future i.e "2007/05/28" 

RE: [H] Seagate drive died

[CW]

In general, people who are saving up $3-$10 on a $50 HDD are putting drives in 
a bad condition (MBs, PSUs, etc.) and generally cheap out across the board.

A JB HDD combined with a "Deer 355W" PSU is probably more likely to fail then 
say, a BB combined with an Antec PSU and a good MB/cooling solution.

Just my general observation.

-Original message-
From: Thane Sherrington [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sun, 13 May 2007 15:25:40 -0700
To: The Hardware List hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: RE: [H] Seagate drive died

> At 03:41 PM 13/05/2007, Greg Sevart wrote:
> >for a given model, there is no difference in reliability or quality between
> >a drive sold with a 1 year warranty vs. one sold with a 3 or 5 year
> >warranty. A good example is WD: internal retail packaged drives, regardless
> >of model*, carry a one-year warranty, where the OEM models carry a
> >three-year warranty.
> 
> That should be true.  Assuming that the JB retail really is the same 
> model as the JB OEM.  One would assume so, but there is no way of being sure.
> 
> >And just for clarification...as of July 2005, WD's OEM BB drives carry a 3
> >year warranty, same as JB, JD, KS, AAxx, etc.
> 
> Well, don't buy one, regardless . :)
> 
> >Thane, you also mentioned that most of the failures you see are in
> >big-vendor boxes...is it possible that those machines outfitted with WD's JB
> >series drives are also mounted better, or ventilated better, or are fitted
> >with a better PSU? I don't know one way or another, just suggesting the
> >possibility that there could be additional variables at play here.
> 
> We carried (for about three months) the BB line for people who wanted 
> a cheaper drive.  We had about a 50% failure rate on these (out of 
> about 40 drives.)  Perhaps it was lack of surge protection, poor 
> cooling (although Google's reports discounts overheating as a failure 
> factor) or mounting, but I'd still be concerned.
> 
> T 
> 

RE: [H] ATI/AMD's upcoming flagship HD 2900 XTX will most likely suck

[CW]

I see TONS of SLI-8800GTX every day.  

Second, don't think the HDMI w/audio is exclusive to the ultra high end.  In 
fact, let's just say, a fanless, midrange card with it and a low end basic card 
with this option and HD support is.. more then likely :)

There are quiet 8800GTX options (liquid) or you can go with a passively cooled 
7950GT

-Original message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 03:09:23 -0700
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: RE: [H] ATI/AMD's upcoming flagship HD 2900 XTX will most likely suck

> While the Vista 8800GTX drivers may be bad for SLI, who in their right mind 
> would be SLI'ing a pair of them already? (Apart from the 3D Mark e-peen 
> crowd) There is nothing that would need that power. I have the Dell 30" 
> screen and play everything I have at default resolution and never dip below 
> 50 fps in any game I play, with a single 8800GTX. I think nVidia should be 
> allowed some grace in that area TBH.
> 
> As for the ATIs HDMI features. Its 100% useless on those cards. They are hot 
> and noisy, i.e. not HTPC material.
> 
> Both manufacturers cards will play all current games with top-notch visuals, 
> a handful of FPS either-way isn't going to make that much of a difference. 
> But what we really need to see is the gfx card market taking a leaf out of 
> the CPU market and redesigning their parts to be a lot more efficient and a 
> lot cooler then they are currently. I personally would love to go back to the 
> days when you could have a passively-cooled top-end gfx card. Hell, I'd even 
> love one with a fan that didn't sound like a vacuum-cleaner.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Jason Tozer
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of CW
> Sent: 26 April 2007 23:13
> To: The Hardware List
> Subject: Re: [H] ATI/AMD's upcoming flagship HD 2900 XTX will most
> likely suck
> 
> On the other end, I would say this:  The one thing that ATI has figured out 
> that is bigtime is that they are ushering out true HDMI cards, with HD-Audio 
> on the interface.  This is a HUGE deal as it makes all the difference for 
> Mediacenter boxes, meaning one card for a point of connection via an HDMI 1.3 
> compliant connector.  
> 
> 
> -Original message-
> From: "Hayes Elkins" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:36:30 -0700
> To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> Subject: [H] ATI/AMD's upcoming flagship HD 2900 XTX will most likely suck
> 
> > So here we have the two powerhouses of PC gaming both falling flat on their 
> > faces as far as their DX10 parts go. NVidia's 8800 series may be the better 
> > performer, but their smelly turd drivers for vista are 
> > inexcusable
> ***
> 
> This message and any attachment are confidential and may be privileged or 
> otherwise protected from 
> disclosure.  If you are not the intended recipient, please telephone or email 
> the sender and delete
> this message and any attachment from your system. If you are not the intended 
> recipient you must not
> copy this message or attachment or disclose the contents to any other person.
> 
> For further information about Clifford Chance please see our website at 
> http://www.cliffordchance.com or refer
> to any Clifford Chance office.
> 
> Clifford Chance LLP is a limited liability partnership registered in England 
> & Wales under number OC323571. 
> The firm's registered office and principal place of business is at 10 Upper 
> Bank Street, London, E14 5JJ. 
> For further details, including a list of members and their professional 
> qualifications, see our website 
> at www.cliffordchance.com. The firm uses the word 'partner' to refer to a 
> member of Clifford Chance LLP or 
> an employee or consultant with equivalent standing and qualifications. The 
> firm is regulated by the Law Society 
> of England & Wales.
> 

RE: [H] Upgrade questions

[CW]

Yeah, that's especially true.  If you're using an inverted case, like a Lian 
Li, etc. then this is the ONLY board I would consider.

-Original message-
From: "Greg Sevart" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:35:30 -0700
To: "'The Hardware List'" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: RE: [H] Upgrade questions

> Looks like a nice board. Too bad I didn't see it before--might have saved me 
> about $600. :) I've been wanting to go watercooling for a while, but chipset 
> heat problems due to heatpipe effectiveness in an inverted-motherboard case 
> design finally pushed me over the edge, to the tune of about $450. That, 
> coupled with the $350 I gave for my GA-N680SLI-DQ6...heh.
> 
> Don't get me wrong, I'm quite fond of the board, and my temps are incredible. 
> Nice that I don't have to use any add-in cards for 10 SATA ports. I had the 
> eVGA 680i prior to the Gigabyte, and it would give intermittent problems with 
> two PCIe SATA cards installed.
> 
> Greg
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of CW
> Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 5:47 PM
> To: The Hardware List
> Subject: RE: [H] Upgrade questions
> 
> I'll throw out another recommend for a different 680i board (the Gigabyte one 
> is nice) most 680i boards though are using the Realtek HD, which has 
> DTS-Connect and DD-Live, so you're covered there.  I've become pretty fond of 
> the FoxConn entry.  the N68S7AA-8EKRS2H.  First, everyone is so enamored with 
> heat pipes, etc. but I've played with the Asus Striker and P5N32-E and I just 
> have not been impressed with how freaking hot the chipsets get with their 
> passive solution.  While it looks neat, the longterm impact is poor, it just 
> means you have to have incredible ventilation in a case.  
> 
> The Foxconn solution is more old school, but it absolutely works.  The heat 
> scores on the northbridge and southbridge are INSANELY cooler then on any of 
> the others, and if you're going to do water cooling, the fact that they use 
> standard blocks means you aren't having to rip a board apart, removing them 
> to add Water cooling blocks is much easier.
> 
> The layout is clean, all aluminum capacitors is a plus, and for overclockers, 
> it OC's better then any board I've seen stable.  It's not the most spendy, 
> but it's a great bang for the buck.
> 
> 
> CW
> 
> -Original message-
> From: "Hunter, Gary" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 10:53:27 -0700
> To: "The Hardware List" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> Subject: RE: [H] Upgrade questions
> 
> > Thanks Greg, initially I probablly wont overclock but I have overclocked
> > every system I have owned so I guess I will eventually.
> > 
> > I've seen a few mentions on the list of Gigabyte boards lately and was
> > going to look at them but I have had Asus for at least the last 8 years
> > and they haven't let me down yet so that was my preference. 
> > 
> > I was unaware that 2.2v was high for the the RAM, what is the standard
> > voltage for these chips?  
> > 
> > -Original Message-
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Greg Sevart
> > Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 6:32 AM
> > To: 'The Hardware List'
> > Subject: RE: [H] Upgrade questions
> > 
> > Are you looking to overclock? If so, take a look at 680i based boards,
> > such as the Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6. Absolutely wonderful board--I have
> > one--but they're about impossible to find right now. The first
> > production run sold out much faster than expected; stock isn't expected
> > to return for another couple weeks. I love the fact that it has 10
> > on-board SATA ports and the onboard sound has DTS Connect--I was able to
> > eliminate 3 expansion cards on those features alone.
> > 
> > The onboard passive cooling solution works pretty well, though I removed
> > all of it to cool with water.
> > 
> > I'd also strongly suggest looking for memory that doesn't require
> > 2.2vdimm+ to meet rated speed. Almost all high-performance memory uses
> > Micron D9GMH ICs, and these do not seem to handle high voltages (2.2v+)
> > for long periods of time. Ideally, though, you would run a 1:1 FSB:MEM
> > ratio and undervolt the memory.
> > 
> > -Original Message-
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hunter, Gary
> > Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 11:53 PM
> > To: The Hardware Lis

RE: [H] Upgrade questions

[CW]

I'll throw out another recommend for a different 680i board (the Gigabyte one 
is nice) most 680i boards though are using the Realtek HD, which has 
DTS-Connect and DD-Live, so you're covered there.  I've become pretty fond of 
the FoxConn entry.  the N68S7AA-8EKRS2H.  First, everyone is so enamored with 
heat pipes, etc. but I've played with the Asus Striker and P5N32-E and I just 
have not been impressed with how freaking hot the chipsets get with their 
passive solution.  While it looks neat, the longterm impact is poor, it just 
means you have to have incredible ventilation in a case.  

The Foxconn solution is more old school, but it absolutely works.  The heat 
scores on the northbridge and southbridge are INSANELY cooler then on any of 
the others, and if you're going to do water cooling, the fact that they use 
standard blocks means you aren't having to rip a board apart, removing them to 
add Water cooling blocks is much easier.

The layout is clean, all aluminum capacitors is a plus, and for overclockers, 
it OC's better then any board I've seen stable.  It's not the most spendy, but 
it's a great bang for the buck.


CW

-Original message-
From: "Hunter, Gary" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 10:53:27 -0700
To: "The Hardware List" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: RE: [H] Upgrade questions

> Thanks Greg, initially I probablly wont overclock but I have overclocked
> every system I have owned so I guess I will eventually.
> 
> I've seen a few mentions on the list of Gigabyte boards lately and was
> going to look at them but I have had Asus for at least the last 8 years
> and they haven't let me down yet so that was my preference. 
> 
> I was unaware that 2.2v was high for the the RAM, what is the standard
> voltage for these chips?  
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Greg Sevart
> Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 6:32 AM
> To: 'The Hardware List'
> Subject: RE: [H] Upgrade questions
> 
> Are you looking to overclock? If so, take a look at 680i based boards,
> such as the Gigabyte GA-N680SLI-DQ6. Absolutely wonderful board--I have
> one--but they're about impossible to find right now. The first
> production run sold out much faster than expected; stock isn't expected
> to return for another couple weeks. I love the fact that it has 10
> on-board SATA ports and the onboard sound has DTS Connect--I was able to
> eliminate 3 expansion cards on those features alone.
> 
> The onboard passive cooling solution works pretty well, though I removed
> all of it to cool with water.
> 
> I'd also strongly suggest looking for memory that doesn't require
> 2.2vdimm+ to meet rated speed. Almost all high-performance memory uses
> Micron D9GMH ICs, and these do not seem to handle high voltages (2.2v+)
> for long periods of time. Ideally, though, you would run a 1:1 FSB:MEM
> ratio and undervolt the memory.
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hunter, Gary
> Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 11:53 PM
> To: The Hardware List
> Subject: [H] Upgrade questions
> 
> Hi,
> 
> I'm after some advice, upgrading my old Asus A7n8x deluxe and XP2100. So
> far I'm sure I will go for:
> 
> PSU: Thermaltake W0116RU 750W
> http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817153038
> 
> RAM: Mushkin Redline 2GB
> http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820146114 (I like
> Mushkin as they are based in Denver and I can just go to their office if
> I have any issues).
> 
> CPU: E6600
> http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819115003
> 
> 
> 
> What I am unsure of is the motherboard, I want a feature filled board
> similar to my A7n8X deluxe so I was looking at:
> 
> Asus P5B Deluxe
> http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131045
> 
> But there are some much more expensive boards that I can't really work
> out what practical extras I'm getting, are they really better? One of
> them is the Asus Striker board
> http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813131074 it looks
> very cool but does it cost so much more just because of the lights and
> gimmicky things? Does that fancy cooling system really work or is it
> just for show.
> 
> Money is not really a problem (for the first time ever)so I want to get
> the best but I don't want to waste money.
> 
> All opinions are welcome.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Gary
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The information in this electronic mail message is sender's 
> business Confidential and may be legally privileged.  It is 
> intend

[Spam] Re: [H] SATA controller

[CW]

Here are the big advantages of NasLite over FreeNAS:

(1) Considerably, and I mean -CONSIDERABLY- faster data transfers.

How much faster?  Here's some Disc Wriggler scores:

---
Here's a snippet from my Diskwriggler tests using 500 HD frames under NFS. 
NASLite v2 is twice as fast as Freenas. Results are consistant with Samba as 
well.

Server Protocol Test Timing "+/-" (lower is better)

Naslite v2 NFS DW HD 500 Frames Write 78.58 Seconds
FreeNAS 0.64 NFS DW HD 500 Frames Write 181.51 Seconds +102.93

Naslite v2 NFS DW HD 500 Frames Read 66.44 Seconds
FreeNAS 0.64 NFS DW HD 500 Frames Read 147.22 Seconds+80.78



Naslite v2 Samba DW HD 500 Frames Write 180.42 Seconds
FreeNAS 0.64 Samba DW HD 500 Frames Write 342.14 Seconds +161.72

Naslite v2 Samba DW HD 500 Frames Read 66.44 Seconds
FreeNAS 0.64 Samba DW HD 500 Frames Read 394.53 Seconds +328.09

---

Another link look at it:
http://dan.bcapro.com/naspeed/index.htm


(2) way better UI to have easier web based management.

(3)   This is the MOST important one:  PORTABILITY.  NasLite totally bypasses 
controller BIOS.  I have picked up 1TB out of a PC that was a POC (Pentium 
II/400) which ran my NAS, and that machine shot crap.  I moved it over to a 
Sempron 2500 Socket A, which is doing it now.  All of my data stayed perfectly 
fine.  

I tried this with FreeNAS once, I had a machine I had setup with 400GB, and it 
shot craps.  moved the drive over.. and all of the data was LOST.  This is 
because FreeNAS works more on BIOS level trickery then a total bypass.. so your 
data is 100% portable on NasLite.  Now, before I get comments of "hey, if it's 
crucial data, use better boxes.." that's true to a point, if I lose everything 
on my NAS right now, I'd really only lose TV shows.  So I wouldn't be 
destroyed.  Still, I wouldn't be happy.  If it was something truly critical 
though, where I was investing a ton of money, I would still want NASLite just 
for the fact that if I'm going to do something where I want great read/write 
performance, I might as well shell the $20 for the right software to do it.

I've played with a lot of NAS distros and firewalls with NAS attached, and I 
haven't found any that handle as much hardware or run nearly as fast as NASLite.

Re: [H] ATI/AMD's upcoming flagship HD 2900 XTX will most likely suck

[CW]

I have not laid hands on the XTX.  Unless I am very wrong, we are not allowed 
to say anything on the XT as it is, because it's still an NDA covered property.

All I will say is:  I do not understand their benchmarks.

That is all.

On the other end, I would say this:  The one thing that ATI has figured out 
that is bigtime is that they are ushering out true HDMI cards, with HD-Audio on 
the interface.  This is a HUGE deal as it makes all the difference for 
Mediacenter boxes, meaning one card for a point of connection via an HDMI 1.3 
compliant connector.  

While everyone loves to talk the high end stuff, it's the middle and low range 
stuff that sells big.  Right now, Nvidia's SLI vista drivers are such utter 
garbage (and their chipset drivers just as much a mess) that if ATI just comes 
out with something stable in the middle market they will do OK.  Especially 
considering how poor the 8600GT/GTS is.

That having been said, without breaking NDA:  I do not understand how they 
reached the benchmark scores they have.  

CW

-Original message-
From: "Hayes Elkins" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 15:36:30 -0700
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: [H] ATI/AMD's upcoming flagship HD 2900 XTX will most likely suck

> http://www.dailytech.com/ATI+Radeon+HD+2900+XTX+Doomed+from+the+Start/article7052.htm
> 
> Ouch. Doesn't even approach the performance of a NVIDIA 8800 GTX.
> 
> So here we have the two powerhouses of PC gaming both falling flat on their 
> faces as far as their DX10 parts go. NVidia's 8800 series may be the better 
> performer, but their smelly turd drivers for vista are 
> inexcusable...speaking of inexcusable, ATI releasing a counterpunch GPU 6 
> months later with a spec sheet that should eat a pair SLI 8800GTX's alive - 
> only to have it lay an egg is outright embarrassing. Shareholders should be 
> concerned. This is not the news they want to hear in wake of their GREAT Q1 
> reporting.
> 
> So who is going to step up and release a powerhouse DX10 part? Is Intel the 
> answer? (I'm not joking) I'm referring to the Larrabee: 
> http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37548
> 
> _
> MSN is giving away a trip to Vegas to see Elton 
> John.http://msnconcertcontest.com?icid-nceltontagline
> 

[H] -OT- (Humor) Most sought after game for '07

[CW]

Ok, I admit, for me it's probably going to be something Wii, right now there 
are several in contention.  

But this game looks like it could be a winner :)

http://www.homestarrunner.com/pqtrailer.html

[H] Google Introduces TiSP service

[CW]

:)

http://www.google.com/tisp/

Hilarious.

[H] Ha Ha.. MS Vista faces Key problems..

[CW]

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37941

Makes me both laugh and cringe.  I wonder when the point comes where valid keys 
generated by this and activated are the same as keys someone will buy.. and 
then people buying won't be able to activate... 

Re: [H] Mac OS X - Browser

[CW]

-Original message-
From: Joe User [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 18:42:16 -0600
To: "'The Hardware List'" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: [H] Mac OS X - Browser

>  Is there a browser that is available for OSX other then Safari?
> 
> Wife has problems with the Safari browser crashing at Old Navy when
> she looks at items in detail. I can't figure it out.
>   
> 
> -- 
> Regards,
>  joeuser - Still looking for the 'any' key...
> 
> Using The Bat! v3.98.1
> 
> 

Re: [H] Mac OS X - Browser

[CW]

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html

FireFox.

CW

-Original message-
From: Joe User [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 18:42:16 -0600
To: "'The Hardware List'" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: [H] Mac OS X - Browser

>  Is there a browser that is available for OSX other then Safari?
> 
> Wife has problems with the Safari browser crashing at Old Navy when
> she looks at items in detail. I can't figure it out.
>   
> 
> -- 
> Regards,
>  joeuser - Still looking for the 'any' key...
> 
> Using The Bat! v3.98.1
> 
> 

Re: [H] PC Picture Links

[CW]

That case, which is the Quad one, normally goes like, $170 or so.

-Original message-
From: "Raul Limos" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:31:22 -0600
To: "The Hardware List" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] PC Picture Links

> On 2/20/07, CW <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 
> > The Thermaltake Armor & Kandalf are the most popular cases we stock at the 
> > moment.  *shrug* lots of expandability.  I tend to like thier styling, for 
> > what it's worth ;)
> 
> I'm impressed by its roominess, does not get swallowed up those big
> ass HSFs and long video cards.  How much does this go around today?
> Might buy one also.
> 

RE: [H] PC Picture Links

[CW]

The way that fan mounts down is actually really solid.  It's a four point bolt 
mount to the motherboard.  And the fan itself is incredibly light.  Using the 
bump pads on the top, it braces against the outer case door, so it's not going 
anywhere.  Shipped seven, and I've had less problems with that fan then almost 
anything else ;)

-Original message-
From: DHSinclair [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 17:48:21 -0600
To: The Hardware List hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: RE: [H] PC Picture Links

> Nice answer, but what about the HS/Cooler?
> RU NOT getting my noise?
> Best,
> Duncan
> At 17:03 02/19/2007 -0500, you wrote:
> 
> >High demand on that case, actually.. we mostly build to order, so whatever 
> >the customer wants, it's what they get.
> >
> >The Thermaltake Armor & Kandalf are the most popular cases we stock at the 
> >moment.  *shrug* lots of expandability.  I tend to like thier styling, for 
> >what it's worth ;)
> >
> >CW
> >
> >-Original message-
> >From: "Tim \"The Beave\" Lider" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:12:45 -0600
> >To: "'The Hardware List'" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> >Subject: RE: [H] PC Picture Links
> >
> > > Nice computer.  Kind of curious on why the Thermaltake case?  Putting that
> > > much gear in a case and do not get a case that will hide most of your
> > > wiring. If you guys like I will take pictures of my current Gaming 
> > Computer.
> > >
> > >
> > > Tim "The Beave" Lider
> > > E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > >
> > > -Original Message-
> > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of CW
> > > Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 6:28 AM
> > > To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> > > Subject: Re: [H] PC Picture Links
> > >
> > > The armor fully weighted (2 drives, 2 opticals, board, 2 GTX, etc.) is
> > > 66lbs.  So, heavy so & so.
> > >
> > > It's not really that much of a dust magnet.  We sent one to NY a while 
> > > back
> > > that was a dead silent 8800GTX build; water cooled CPU; water cooled
> > > SLI-8800GTX.
> > >
> > > Bad thing about it: had to be Vista 64, and right now, Nvidia's driver
> > > support for Vista, and especially Vista 64 SUCKS.  Absolutely SUCKS.
> > >
> > > It's just one of those things.. in XP, he gets full SLI.  In Vista 64, 
> > Vista
> > > only sees 1 card, and he gets way slower performance.  The 680i 
> > chipset, for
> > > all of it's pros, has some issues still.  Asus came out with the P5N32-E
> > > Plus, which is a hybrid chipset, the 650 northbridge and the AMD 590
> > > southbridge.. so you get full x32 SLI, but it's so much more stable under
> > > Vista 64 that it's sickening.  Nothing wrong under Vista 32 or XP with the
> > > 680i, but under Vista 64, the P5N32-E just slices and dices everything out
> > > there.
> > >
> > > I'm going to try to take a lot of pictures today and post links, get this
> > > list back on hardware.  I checked the benches for what's being built and 
> > > at
> > > least I can get some good pics of an AMD Quad system, and a few other
> > > oddballs I can get some pictures of to post and get some hardware 
> > discussion
> > > going :)
> > >
> > > FYI-
> > >
> > > I am piling up in the backchannel and have now heard from 12 people who 
> > > say
> > > they can't post and keep getting bumped.  Jim, my email to you bounces..
> > > things OK?
> > >
> > > CW
> > >
> > > -Original message-
> > > From: "Raul Limos" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 07:53:42 -0600
> > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > Subject: Re: [H] PC Picture Links
> > >
> > > > On 2/19/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > > > Yeah its an armor. We've been doing most lately in them. It is 
> > roomy and
> > > easy to work with. I like the psu mount a lot
> > > > >
> > > > > We just sent out one in a silverstone tj09. Great case. But even 
> > for all
> > > the pros going for it I still think the armor is the most functional
> > > >
> > > > Roomy case, but will dust collection be a problem?  It says at the
> > > > website there are filters for the grills.
> > > >
> > > > How about the weight with everything installed?
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >__ NOD32 2070 (20070219) Information __
> >
> >This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system.
> >http://www.eset.com
> 
> 
> This email scanned for Viruses and Spam by ZCloud.net 
> 
> 

[H] Then again...

[CW]

I may have plenty of time to take pictures and notes on the FX-72 Quad (two 
processor) build.  What a welcher; I always hate building up a high end box 
just for some shill.  ;(  Completely ruins my day :(

But, it is pretty :)

Maybe I'll run some benchmarks.

RE: [H] February AutoPatcher Updates

[CW]

No, if you "install" the Autopatcher Nov., it really just unzips to a folder in 
c:\program files\autopatcher.  The updater just appends to that folder.  You 
can then take that folder and burn it off to a CD or whatever, and you have a 
full.

Yes, I like RyanVM, BTS, etc. but those are before the fact utility 
slipstreamers.  It's not every month that you're formatting with a slipstreamed 
disc ;)  The ability to have all patches and everything with you on CD for when 
you travel to the numerous people who don't have any internet access.

-Original message-
From: "Hayes Elkins" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 14:07:54 -0600
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: RE: [H] February AutoPatcher Updates

> You are saying that you should install the last "full" version, dated 
> November 2006, over the top?
> 
> 
> >From: "Neil Davidson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >Reply-To: The Hardware List 
> >To: "'The Hardware List'" 
> >Subject: RE: [H] February AutoPatcher Updates
> >Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:45:42 -
> >
> >If you don't want to download all the updates between your last download 
> >and
> >the current one, then just get the full version and install over the top.
> >
> >Easy.
> >
> >-Original Message-
> >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hayes Elkins
> >Sent: 19 February 2007 18:52
> >To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> >Subject: Re: [H] February AutoPatcher Updates
> >
> >Patently stupid.
> >
> >Something like this in the age of practically free bandwidth should be
> >cumilative, ala ryanvm.net
> >
> >
> > >From: Al Anger <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > >Reply-To: The Hardware List 
> > >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED],The Hardware List
> > >
> > >Subject: Re: [H] February AutoPatcher Updates Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007
> > >13:26:50 -0700
> > >
> > >
> > ><[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > > The latest Full version I have is November, 2006. I have that 
> >installed
> > >and
> > > > have ran it. Do I have to run the December update, then the January
> > >update
> > > > and then the current February update?
> > >
> > >Yes.
> > >
> > > > Or can I just run the February update
> > > > and it covers everything since November?
> > >
> > >Nope
> > >
> > >HTH,
> > >al
> >
> >_
> >Find a local pizza place, movie theater, and more..then map the best route!
> >http://maps.live.com/?icid=hmtag1&FORM=MGAC01
> >
> 
> _
> With tax season right around the corner, make sure to follow these few 
> simple tips. 
> http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Taxes/PreparationTips/PreparationTips.aspx?icid=HMFebtagline
> 
> 

RE: [H] PC Picture Links

[CW]

High demand on that case, actually.. we mostly build to order, so whatever the 
customer wants, it's what they get.

The Thermaltake Armor & Kandalf are the most popular cases we stock at the 
moment.  *shrug* lots of expandability.  I tend to like thier styling, for what 
it's worth ;)

CW

-Original message-
From: "Tim \"The Beave\" Lider" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 10:12:45 -0600
To: "'The Hardware List'" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: RE: [H] PC Picture Links

> Nice computer.  Kind of curious on why the Thermaltake case?  Putting that
> much gear in a case and do not get a case that will hide most of your
> wiring. If you guys like I will take pictures of my current Gaming Computer.
>  
> 
> Tim "The Beave" Lider
> E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> -----Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of CW
> Sent: Monday, February 19, 2007 6:28 AM
> To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> Subject: Re: [H] PC Picture Links
> 
> The armor fully weighted (2 drives, 2 opticals, board, 2 GTX, etc.) is
> 66lbs.  So, heavy so & so.  
> 
> It's not really that much of a dust magnet.  We sent one to NY a while back
> that was a dead silent 8800GTX build; water cooled CPU; water cooled
> SLI-8800GTX.  
> 
> Bad thing about it: had to be Vista 64, and right now, Nvidia's driver
> support for Vista, and especially Vista 64 SUCKS.  Absolutely SUCKS.  
> 
> It's just one of those things.. in XP, he gets full SLI.  In Vista 64, Vista
> only sees 1 card, and he gets way slower performance.  The 680i chipset, for
> all of it's pros, has some issues still.  Asus came out with the P5N32-E
> Plus, which is a hybrid chipset, the 650 northbridge and the AMD 590
> southbridge.. so you get full x32 SLI, but it's so much more stable under
> Vista 64 that it's sickening.  Nothing wrong under Vista 32 or XP with the
> 680i, but under Vista 64, the P5N32-E just slices and dices everything out
> there.
> 
> I'm going to try to take a lot of pictures today and post links, get this
> list back on hardware.  I checked the benches for what's being built and at
> least I can get some good pics of an AMD Quad system, and a few other
> oddballs I can get some pictures of to post and get some hardware discussion
> going :)
> 
> FYI-
> 
> I am piling up in the backchannel and have now heard from 12 people who say
> they can't post and keep getting bumped.  Jim, my email to you bounces..
> things OK?
> 
> CW
> 
> -Original message-
> From: "Raul Limos" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 07:53:42 -0600
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: [H] PC Picture Links
> 
> > On 2/19/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > Yeah its an armor. We've been doing most lately in them. It is roomy and
> easy to work with. I like the psu mount a lot
> > >
> > > We just sent out one in a silverstone tj09. Great case. But even for all
> the pros going for it I still think the armor is the most functional
> > 
> > Roomy case, but will dust collection be a problem?  It says at the
> > website there are filters for the grills.
> > 
> > How about the weight with everything installed?
> > 
> 
> 
> 

Re: [H] PC Picture Links

[CW]

The armor fully weighted (2 drives, 2 opticals, board, 2 GTX, etc.) is 66lbs.  
So, heavy so & so.  

It's not really that much of a dust magnet.  We sent one to NY a while back 
that was a dead silent 8800GTX build; water cooled CPU; water cooled 
SLI-8800GTX.  

Bad thing about it: had to be Vista 64, and right now, Nvidia's driver support 
for Vista, and especially Vista 64 SUCKS.  Absolutely SUCKS.  

It's just one of those things.. in XP, he gets full SLI.  In Vista 64, Vista 
only sees 1 card, and he gets way slower performance.  The 680i chipset, for 
all of it's pros, has some issues still.  Asus came out with the P5N32-E Plus, 
which is a hybrid chipset, the 650 northbridge and the AMD 590 southbridge.. so 
you get full x32 SLI, but it's so much more stable under Vista 64 that it's 
sickening.  Nothing wrong under Vista 32 or XP with the 680i, but under Vista 
64, the P5N32-E just slices and dices everything out there.

I'm going to try to take a lot of pictures today and post links, get this list 
back on hardware.  I checked the benches for what's being built and at least I 
can get some good pics of an AMD Quad system, and a few other oddballs I can 
get some pictures of to post and get some hardware discussion going :)

FYI-

I am piling up in the backchannel and have now heard from 12 people who say 
they can't post and keep getting bumped.  Jim, my email to you bounces.. things 
OK?

CW

-Original message-
From: "Raul Limos" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 07:53:42 -0600
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [H] PC Picture Links

> On 2/19/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Yeah its an armor. We've been doing most lately in them. It is roomy and 
> > easy to work with. I like the psu mount a lot
> >
> > We just sent out one in a silverstone tj09. Great case. But even for all 
> > the pros going for it I still think the armor is the most functional
> 
> Roomy case, but will dust collection be a problem?  It says at the
> website there are filters for the grills.
> 
> How about the weight with everything installed?
> 

Re: [H] CW <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

[CW]

That's what you get for hiring out your web work :)  Actually, I've got someone 
new who's supposed to be re-working the whole thing now.


CW

Re: [H] PC Picture Links

[CW]

Not sure ;)  I'll message Jim, I think he's running the server at a colo or 
somewhere.  I spoke to him a while back and I think he was telling me it was 
several revisions back on Linux.

Yeah, I really like those kind of builds; I've got about four of them going at 
the moment.  Everyone keeps talking to me about Watercooling, and we've done 
some of that, but man.. talk about a hastle.  The tuniq may be the best thing 
I've seen for cooling.. it does a better job then most of the water cooling 
systems we've tried (Thermaltake Tribe / Zalman 1 / 2 / Gigabyte) and outside 
of a custom danger den kit, it's the best solution I've seen.  

And it's a hell of a lot less hassle and risk.  And so quiet.  

I should take some pictures of the AMD 4X4 box we've got up.. FX72*2 on a 
board.  That's a strange solution.. here's one thing to be said about it:  XP 
Performance on it SUCKS but Vista-64 performance with enough memory is pretty 
impressive.  The board is still too big, but as a server board, it's about 
everything you could ask for.

CW

-Original message-
From: "Jeff Lane" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 18:08:27 -0600
To: "The Hardware List" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] PC Picture Links

> How did everyone get knocked off, Chris? I think I am getting everything 
> that has been sent, although not very much.
> 
> BTW that new PC is really impressive.wow... what a CPU cooler!
> 
> Jeff
> 
> 
> 
> > Whew!  Ok, I'll contact everyone who emailed me, if they've been bumped 
> > from the list (JRS, Veech, etc.) then we'll need to re-ad them.
> >
> > Sending through another, just some pictures of a system build...
> >
> > http://www.kctechheads.com/pcbuild/928.jpg
> > http://www.kctechheads.com/pcbuild/929.jpg
> > http://www.kctechheads.com/pcbuild/934.jpg
> >
> > Not totally done, but one I thought was nice.. two already OC'd 
> > 8800GTX/SLI QX6700/Tuniq/1kW PSU.. pretty.  Still need to put three more 
> > burners in it and a media reader, but it's coming along nice ;)
> >
> > (figured I'd throw out more then just a test test)
> > 
> 
> 

[H] PC Picture Links

[CW]

Whew!  Ok, I'll contact everyone who emailed me, if they've been bumped from 
the list (JRS, Veech, etc.) then we'll need to re-ad them.

Sending through another, just some pictures of a system build...

http://www.kctechheads.com/pcbuild/928.jpg
http://www.kctechheads.com/pcbuild/929.jpg
http://www.kctechheads.com/pcbuild/934.jpg

Not totally done, but one I thought was nice.. two already OC'd 8800GTX/SLI 
QX6700/Tuniq/1kW PSU.. pretty.  Still need to put three more burners in it and 
a media reader, but it's coming along nice ;)

(figured I'd throw out more then just a test test)

[H] Test Test

[CW]

Jim-

If we're having serious problems (this has gone on for weeks now) I can move 
the list temporarily until we get it sorted out.  

[H] Hosting Torrent files

[CW]

Ok, I have an interesting issue, I'm sure someone here may know how to resolve.

I have a client who keeps video files which they post out for about 200/300 
clients.  Right now, when they release updates, everyone hits there server and 
beats it to hell grabbing the files. 

I was thinking it might be simpler if we could setup a system that would just 
have a .torrent they could download, and then clients can get from them, of 
course, but instead of 300 seperate connections, some would be getting some of 
the data from their peers, etc.

Their server is a VPS Win2k3 box.  Is there any software out there that allows 
them to host a torrent tracker?  Or, can they just use some client and leave it 
running on the VPS and publish their own tracker?

I'd love something that was database linked, but that's hard to find.  If this 
could work, though, wow could we lower their monthly bandwidth cost.

Re: [H] Memory Question

[CW]

Good link.  Some of  the talkback hits the nail on the head with regards to the 
fact that some things will not accept being pushed above the 4GB point, so it 
becomes moot.  All of it is relegated to meaningless through a 64bit OS.


-Original message-
From: Thane Sherrington [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2007 11:41:32 -0600
To: The Hardware List hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] Memory Question

> At 08:02 PM 26/01/2007, rls wrote:
> >I read somewhere that in order for XP to truly run flat out that you needed
> >4 gb of memory.  I no longer have the reference, but would like to re-read
> >like types of articles.
> 
> More on RAM:
> 
> http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2006/08/14/699521.aspx
> 
> T 
> 
> 

[H] -N- -LO- ATI/AMD's next GPU..

[CW]

The RD600 benched.  So, now they just have to see how well it sells.

http://level505.com/2006/12/30/the-full-ati-r600-test/1/

RE: [H] Free or Cheap AV Software

[CW]

n that marketspace, I would much prefer to give them the lure of "you get 
a good product, and it's free" because FREE can trump all when it comes to the 
mind of a consumer.

I have no problem with ESET.  I stock it in our store.  I also stock NIS, 
McAfee, Onecare.  I can tell you that despite my thoughts on which I prefer, 
Norton/McAfee outsell ESET something like 20:1.  (if it's that close).   But 
free makes up a fair lion share as well.

In regards to the BOOT scan, you might take a look at how AVAST does it.  It is 
very impressive.  Basically, AVAST stops the boot process and does a 
command-prompt scan (even in XP) before the GUI loads.  This is one of those 
things that I really, really like about the software, and something I consider 
very unique.  There have been times I've been to a client, whipped out a 
pen-drive, done an Avast install and installed the updates, told it to do a 
boot scan, and cleaned a PC before I left their building.  That's something I 
haven't seen any other AV software do (period).   I'm not sure exactly how they 
insert it in as a boottime scane, but it works, and it's text-mode prompts to 
delete/remove virus, etc. and keep a log file while it's at it create a 
brilliant paper trail that shows the client that the product worked.

CW

RE: [H] Free or Cheap AV Software

[CW]

Thane, I think your line of reasoning is ridiculous.  Who's doing the testing?  
Let me make a p air of arguments.

First, as far as most research I can find, Avast! does quite well:

http://www.virusbtn.com/virusbulletin/archive/2006/06/vb200606-comparative

But here's the real test, one I call the real world.

The problem is, most of us make the invalid assumption that the lab tests equal 
the real world.   They don't.  They are conditions in which viruses are 
subjected to a scanner, yes, but they also make the assumption that users are 
always up to date and have bandiwdth to support the updates.

I know this sounds ridiculous, but we have to remember that more then 50% of 
the internet users in the US still connect via dialup, not broadband.  Lots of 
of people still use AOL dialup, or whatever dialup because of one basic reason: 
it's super cheap.  People who want to pay $15 or less a month stick with dialup 
and find it just fine because all they want is email.

And that's all well and good.  Here's the problem this creates for Antivirus 
software.

Out of the box, first install:

Avast! daily update:  85k (about a minute or so on dialup)
Norton Internet Security 2007 out of box first update (as of yesterday):  73MB. 
 Over a dialup connection:  HOURS

So, who do I think has more up to date antivirus?  I seriously doubt it's the 
person with the norton.  Hell, even Symantec gets this and in their corporate 
product, the MicroDefs downloads are small and daily.

Antivirus software is only as good as it's ability to quickly update and 
recover.  Avast! has small updates that can be retrieved or quickly inserted 
even into a screwed up box.  And it's boot-time-scan provides it an outside of 
windows utility that does an effective job of wiping out virus before windows 
restarts.

Outside of  a well updated BART, Avast provides one of the more effective 
solutions to fixing a virus infected PC. 

If you have a PC you know is infected, and you run out and buy NIS or McAfee to 
save you, I wish you luck because you're going to end up totally hosed.  
Because both of the products require a reboot before they update, by the time 
you get back up into windows both products tend to be pooched before you get a 
chance.  And sustaining a large download while you're infected, even on a 
broadband connection is nigh impossible.  Neither offer effective pre-boot 
execution, and even if they did, since both of  them shipped with massive 
engine flaws (both have entirely new engines available for download since they 
went out in retail box) even if you could get a scan how accurate would it be?

The problem with many lab tests is they take a great, fully updated PC and then 
run AV at it.  

Not enough people do that.

The reality is:

(1) Is this an AV that can stay current with updates on it's own?  An AV that 
isn't current is worthless (to use your condom example: a condom may be 98% or 
whatever, but leave one sit in a hot wallet for weeks and it's worthless)
(2) Is this an AV that can effectively recover from being subject to a virus?
(3) Is this an AV that the end  user can understand and will not turn off due 
to bells/whistles?  (You don't know how many people turn of McAfee or Norton 
altogether because of constant pop-ups and reminders from their software 
offering them "other software" from NAI/Symantec)

Your fundamental argument is: if you aren't using the best, you might as well 
use nothing.

By that token, I could argue that anyone who isn't using a Packet-Level 
Antivirus Firewall scanner is completely wasting their time.

There are tons of people who pay for AV software I don't consider very good.  
And tons of AV software out there for pay that isn't very good (even in lab 
tests).  Is Avast! etc. constantly "#1" no.  But is it real world effective?  
Far moreso then most of the over-the-counter for purchase crap people run into 
at their local stores ;)

-Original message-
From: Thane Sherrington [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2006 06:58:46 -0600
To: The Hardware List hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: RE: [H] Free or Cheap AV Software

> At 08:33 AM 28/12/2006, Anthony Q. Martin wrote:
> >Wait a minuteyou cannot prove that any one AV software is the 
> >"best solution" in the real world.  Your logic of having the ability 
> >to complain to someone is specious at best.  Now your argument goes 
> >over to the POV of paying for the "best solution" rather than just 
> >paying for AV software.  The question should be whether or not one 
> >can get adequate protection from any AV software.  If it is not 
> >possible to do with a free version, than I agree that one should pay 
> >(as I have done for years, but that hasn't prevented 
> >inflections).  However, if any acceptable good free AV prog exists, 
> >then the color of the sky changes.
> 
> Maybe one can't prove a "best" solution (too many variables) but one 
> can prove which AV gives the highest level of protection in 
> testi

[H] 650i boards get their due

[CW]

A few weeks ago, we carried on a conversation in which I said:  The Asus P5N-E 
is the best value board I've seen for Core2.  Turns out someone else has done 
the reviews and concurs:

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2894&p=5

CW

RE: [H] Trapped in a hostage situation

[CW]

Yes.

Our office is at: 5101 Merriam Dr.

Look at where this happened:


---
Two men shot, suspect sought in Merriam carjacking attempts

Two men were shot at separate Merriam businesses this morning by a man 
apparently trying to steal a vehicle.

The first shooting happened shortly after 9 a.m.

Police said a man tried to steal a truck from Stone Solutions, a paving company 
in the 5100 block of Merriam Drive. In the course of that attempted theft, one 
man was shot in the shoulder at the business, said Lt. Mike Daniels with the 
Merriam Police Department. It was not known if he was an employee of the 
business.

The man then tried to steal a car from in front of another business, Ryukyu 
Martial Arts, 5005 Merriam Drive. A second man was shot at that business. The 
suspect fled in the car.
---

Right across the street.  Talk about a way to f*(& up my day!  We're still 
semi-boxed in, though police are allowing some traffic through.

-Original message-
From: "Hayes Elkins" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 11:45:33 -0600
To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: RE: [H] Trapped in a hostage situation

> http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/16248963.htm
> 
> This?
> 
> 
> >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], The Hardware List 
> >
> >To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> >Subject: [H] Trapped in a hostage situation
> >Date: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 15:57:30 +
> >
> >Not me but 1 block from me. Totally shut off from the world. At least 80 
> >cop cars. Sharpshooters here. Man carjacks car shoots two holed up next me 
> >us.  What a day in kc!!
> >Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless
> 
> _
> WIN up to $10,000 in cash or prizes – enter the Microsoft Office Live 
> Sweepstakes http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/aub0050001581mrt/direct/01/
> 
> 

[H] PS3 Vs. Wii... (Humor)

[CW]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9136575504838642038&hl=en

Having played both, I tend to agree.  I'd take the Wii everytime.

CW

Re: [H] OK, I'm impressed

[CW]

Read "How to Survive the Robot Uprising: Tips for Defending Yourself Against 
the Coming Robot Rebellion"

http://www.amazon.com/How-Survive-Robot-Uprising-Defending/dp/1582345929/sr=8-1/qid=1165609949/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-1714515-9564929?ie=UTF8&s=books

Hilarious. 


Call me impressed:

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1728017

CW

-Original message-
From: FORC5 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2006 13:06:33 -0600
To: The Hardware List hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] OK, I'm impressed

> you know the robot is controlled by someone
> fp
> 
> At 10:51 AM 12/8/2006, Jason Carson Poked the stick with:
> >Wow, that is impressive.
> >> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vf2-gJvOSOI
> >> --
> >>
> >> --
> >> --
> >>
> >> G. Waleed Kavalec
> >> -
> >>
> 
> -- 
> Tallyho ! ]:8)
> Taglines below !
> --
> If I have no mouth but I must scream what should I do?
> 
> 
> 

[H] Mounting a drive in SCO 3.2

[CW]

OK, covered this briefly before.

Have a client (new client) who has a SCO 3.2 box running on a Cyrix 40MHz 486 
which has been their server for the last 12 years.  (This is a trucking 
company) powering dumb terminals.  

We have a new box ready to go in it's place, but we need to copy data off of 
old.  Since it's EFS File system (not SYSV or HURD) we can't mount it through 
Linux.  So, our plan was to login to the SCO box, and mount a 2GB FAT16 SCSI 
drive.  OS sees it, but it won't mount.

Tried 

mkdev hd
mkdev dos  (which starts a kernel recompile for second HDD support and gives 
DOS support.. done this)

The root drive, ID0 which is the drive that was in it, the 2G we put in is ID2. 
 Preformatted FAT16.  

The trick is, we are struggling to figure out what SCO 3.2 calls SCSI ID2, so 
we're unsure of what the hell the mount command is, as normal l inux mount 
commands fall on def ears in SCO 3.2.  

Anyone have some thoughts?

Re: [H] Best Core2 Duo mobo?

[CW]

A lot of people chose these boards for other reasons also.  Since you've got 3 
x8/x16 lane PCI-E slots, you've got optional support for future physics cards, 
capture cards, etc.  It's a good bit of future proofing.

Though, having a pair of 8800GTS is more a matter of making sure you whip up at 
games.

I've got a box in right now where someone is spending $250 on a NIC.  
(KillerNIC).  I just don't get it.  Supposedly lowers ping.  I don't even see 
how that's possible.  Maybe it could -kinda- lower ping between you and your 
router in your house, but what power does it have at all over the latency 
between your cable modem and your provider?  I can't think of any.  If someone 
has any good logic on this that I'm missing, I'd love to hear it, but it seems 
to me I should just put a big heatsink on a 3COM, re-write the BIOS and market 
it as "DESTROY3R NIC"   I wonder how many people would line up to buy it.

CW

-Original message-
From: "Veech" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sun, 03 Dec 2006 16:23:55 -0600
To: "The Hardware List" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] Best Core2 Duo mobo?

> The SLI was a major part of my decision to go with it..
> 
> 
> - Original Message - 
> From: "JRS" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: "The Hardware List" 
> Sent: Saturday, December 02, 2006 9:06 PM
> Subject: Re: [H] Best Core2 Duo mobo?
> 
> 
> >I don't need or want SLI though. and the cheapest i680 board at Newegg is a
> > whopping 250 bucks.  ouch..
> >
> >
> >
> >>>OK :)
> >>>
> >>>Those are valid points.  The more I play with the 680i, though, the more 
> >>>that it's hard to argue with it being the definitive "it" board.
> >>>
> >>>CW
> > -- 
> >
> > JRS<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Please remove  **X**  to reply...
> >
> > ...Cleverly Disguised As A Responsible Adult...
> >
> >
> > -- 
> > No virus found in this incoming message.
> > Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> > Version: 7.1.409 / Virus Database: 268.15.6/566 - Release Date: 12/3/2006
> >
> > 
> 
> 

RE: [H] Best Core2 Duo mobo?

[CW]

OK :)

Those are valid points.  The more I play with the 680i, though, the more that 
it's hard to argue with it being the definitive "it" board.  

CW

-Original message-
From: "Greg Sevart" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sat, 02 Dec 2006 18:22:21 -0600
To: "'The Hardware List'" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: RE: [H] Best Core2 Duo mobo?

> You and Chris are misinterpreting what I wrote. I never once stated I was
> comparing the 965 to the 975. I'm comparing the 965 (and ICH8/R) to the
> competing 680i, RD600, AND to an enthusiast-grade chipset that Intel SHOULD
> have that is native for C2D/C2Q. They simply don't have one; that's the
> problem.
> 
> And overclocking is very much dependent upon the chipset...not sure where
> you got that idea.
> 
> PATA on 965 boards is handled by a separate controller, as ICH8/R make no
> provision for them. To me, that's a big strike.
> 
> The same problem exists with Ethernet. The ICH8/R lacks any onboard Ethernet
> controller, so it has to be provided by an add-on chip. That's why most 965
> boards only have one Ethernet port. Another strike.
> 
> Greg
> 
> > -Original Message-
> > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware-
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hayes Elkins
> > Sent: Saturday, December 02, 2006 4:49 PM
> > To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> > Subject: RE: [H] Best Core2 Duo mobo?
> > 
> > You mean more than one x16 PCIe lane, right? That's the one edge a 975
> board
> > has over a 965.
> > 
> > As far as the rest, that is simply not correct. Performance? It's the only
> > intel chipset that officially supports DDR2-800. Overclocking headroom?
> > That's completely based on the manufacturer's design, nothing to do with
> the
> > chipset. ICH8 is only found on 965 and NOT the 975. PATA is an option on
> > many 965 boards. And find me a 965 that *doesnt* have ethernet.
> > 
> > >From: "Greg Sevart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > >Reply-To: The Hardware List 
> > >To: "'The Hardware List'" 
> > >Subject: RE: [H] Best Core2 Duo mobo?
> > >Date: Sat, 2 Dec 2006 16:42:36 -0600
> > >
> > >More than 16 PCIe lanes, performance, overclocking headroom... (the rest
> > >are
> > >really ICH8/R:) any PATA channels, Ethernet...
> > >
> > > > -Original Message-
> > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:hardware-
> > > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Hayes Elkins
> > > > Sent: Saturday, December 02, 2006 4:28 PM
> > > > To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> > > > Subject: RE: [H] Best Core2 Duo mobo?
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > >From: "Greg Sevart" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > > >Reply-To: The Hardware List 
> > > > >To: "'The Hardware List'" 
> > > > >Subject: RE: [H] Best Core2 Duo mobo?
> > > > >Date: Sat, 2 Dec 2006 14:33:09 -0600
> > > > >
> > > > >The big problem with Intel's offerings is that only the 965 is really
> > > > >designed for C2D, but the 965 is a mid-level (non-enthusiast)
> chipset.
> > >It's
> > > > >solid, but lacks some features.
> > > >
> > > > Like what?
> > > >
> > > > _
> > > > Stay up-to-date with your friends through the Windows Live Spaces
> > >friends
> > > > list.
> > > >
> >
> >http://clk.atdmt.com/MSN/go/msnnkwsp007001msn/direct/01/?href=http://sp
> > a
> > >c
> > > > es.live.com/spacesapi.aspx?wx_action=create&wx_url=/friends.aspx&mk
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > 
> > _
> > Get free, personalized commercial-free online radio with MSN Radio powered
> > by Pandora http://radio.msn.com/?icid=T002MSN03A07001
> 
> 
> 
> 

[H] SCO Unix to Linux Question

[CW]

Ok, here's one that will be an oddball.

Have a client who's a trucking company.  They use tracking software to 
calculate loads and arrivals.  It powers three VT100 terminals.  It's running 
on a 486-Cyrix, and has worked out for them for 12 years.  (they've had this 
unit since 1994).  They have decided to upgrade.. somewhat, don't want it to 
change, but they want the workstations as windows and to connect in, and they 
figure they should replace the unit so they will have more space, reliability, 
etc.

Now, the PC is currently running SCO System 3.  (HURD filesystem).   The 
software that runs on it is written in COBOL and manages a flat file database 
system.  

There have been people who have made thsi work in redhat, purportedly.. but 
that's a different issue for later.  Right now, we're having a bitch of a time 
even mounting the filesystem with bootable linux CDs.  Trying to mount /hda as 
a sysv type fails.  

The software provider still supports this software, no changes.  And they are 
willing to work with us.. but they want him to buy Sco Unix V as part of the 
deal and they will just copy all the file structures over.

He would prefer not to do that, if possible.

So here's a few different ways I'm thinking about this:

(1) Anyone know of a bootable linux distro that may grab a HURD system and 
allow us to extract data?  We can get a COBOL interpreter for any Linux 
distro.. but getting the file off is the bitch.

(2) Or, does anyone know of an Open-Source SCO compatible Linux so we'd keep 
system basically in tact without shooting SCO a $1,800 check they want.

(3) If anyone has another solution, I'm interested in that too :)

CW

[H] OK, is something going around (spam)

[CW]

Suddently, I've got a few clients who are getting tons (I mean hundreds a day) 
of emails that read:

Hi it's 

And then a message purporting to sell stock.  They all seem to originate from 
randomized IPs.  WTF is the deal?  :)

Re: [H] Recoradable DVD / Recordable VCR

[CW]

They've been out for a while.

They won't dupe copy protected works.

CW

-Original message-
From: "RLS" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2006 12:07:36 -0600
To: "'The Hardware List'" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: [H] Recoradable DVD / Recordable VCR

> Was at Sams yesterday and spotted a Sony recordable DVD / recordable VCR
> ALL-IN-ONE unit. 
> 
> It claimed 1 button dubbing from DVD to VCR and
> 1 button dubbing from VCR to DVD
> 
> We must have a 100 old VCR tapes - Disney Classics etc.
> 
> CAN THIS BE TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?
> 
> Easy conversion of our library, or does it prohibit copying commercially
> obtained movies?
> 
> Thanks,
> Bob
> 
> 

[H] PureDNS hijack?

[CW]

Anyone run into this?

I have a domain (HSCGKC.ORG) which is fine, setup OK, etc.  When I log into 
thier account at Dotster, all DNS entries are correct.

But root servers show their DNS as some goofball (ns1.puredns.com) who 
basically doesn't exist and can't be contacted.  Dotster says the domain is 
fine, doesn't renew until 2007, but when I check with NetSol, etc. in their 
whois, they show this other rummy outfit with control over DNS.. what gives?  
Anyone run into this before?  This is a non-for-profit homeless group, not like 
they have anything that should have ticked people off to hijack a domain...

Re: [H] Normalizing volume in xvid files

[CW]

Version 6, especially newer versions, are considerably better then the past.  
I've always considered Xvid to have a slightly sharper image, and if you use 
DiVX's inbuilt encoder.. it still stays that way - though it's much closer.  
but using DrDivx 2, you can pretty much make them indistinguishable.  And the 
ability to keep AC3 streams and adjust volume levels,  etc. is nice.

That having been said, I spent a big time converting a lot of my series discs 
to MP4 via Nero Recode because it was simple, fast, and to be honest, I found 
it's handling of 16:9 material to be better then either XViD or DiVX, and it's 
ability to keep AC3 stream, keep chapter points, and have subtitle options work 
out.  Plus, to be honest, it's a lot less hastle then either of the other two 
to do.  

But, YMMV.  

While I like XVid, AutoGK and other apps like it just pissed me off after a 
while.  All it takes is one f*(& up and you've got out of sync audio, audio 
that's too quiet, etc.  I prefer the one piece - you know it works out in the 
end bit.

CW

-Original message-
From: "Brian Weeden" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Thu, 09 Nov 2006 20:18:52 -0600
To: "The Hardware List" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] Normalizing volume in xvid files

> I was avoiding Divx because I had a bad experience with earlier
> versions in performance, quality, and quality of the app.  Is version
> 6 pretty good?
> 
> On 11/9/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Screw xvid just use real divx (dr divx) which has normalization or use nero 
> > recode to mp4 and keep the ac3 stream in place
> >
> > CW
> >
> > Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless
> >
> > -Original Message-
> > From: "Brian Weeden" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > Date: Thu, 9 Nov 2006 19:01:55
> > To:hwg 
> > Subject: [H] Normalizing volume in xvid files
> >
> > I am going through all the DVDs I own and putting them on my HTPC in
> > xvid form using AutoGK.  It works great except that the volume levels
> > seem to be really, really low in the end files.
> >
> > I can use Goldwave to extract out the audio, normalize it, save as a
> > wav, re-encode to ac3, then remux but that is a lot of work.  Can
> > anyone think of an easier solution?
> >
> > --
> > Brian
> >
> >
> 
> 
> -- 
> Brian
> 

[H] -OT- anyone with spare SCA drives ?

[CW]

Ok, I rarely do this but:

I have a non-for-profit that has a bit of a disaster.  They have a server 
that's crippled at the moment that stores all of their data.  While I'm 
debating just running out and switching everything overr to a new box and 
donating a box to them, I figured I'd check and see if anyone here had any SCA  
(LVD) HDDs you'd like to spare or barter with.  Outside of being paid what they 
are worth, we can probably get you a non-for-profit donation letter if you have 
a few to spare.

Hey, it's a good cause :0

(and for those who are throwing out "just go get SATA" this is a Compaq server, 
and the beauty is: no IDE controller at all, as well as the fact it still boots 
to SCSI, so pututing in a SATA controller is a mixed bag; some concern as to 
whether or not that's going to scramble up drive order, be functional, etc.  )

:)

Thanks!

Re: [H] Direct3D 10

[CW]

It will work fine.  While there are no graphic controllers right now that 
support all of DX10s features, DX10 runs fine on almost all current DX9.1 
cards, and games that use DX10 run on them too.  Cards like the 
7950GX2/7950GT/1950XTX are not going to be quickly dustbinned.

:)

-Original message-
From: "Veech" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2006 02:43:03 -0500
To: "The Hardware List" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: [H] Direct3D 10

> Anyone have an idea how D3D10 will work with current or new systems?  Since 
> apparently it won't be back-compatable and require Vista and new hardware to 
> work, is it worth holding out for?  nVidia apparently has hardware ready to 
> release for Christmas 06, but will it play older games?  *confused*
> 
> 
> 

[H] -LO- IE7 Goes Final

[CW]

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/default.mspx?mg_ID=10010

The official non-beta release of IE7 out today.

On a side note, there are expectations with this announcement that an 
announcement of Vista (Gold) will happen shortly.

[H] -LO- MS Releases RC2 of Vista

[CW]

http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/rc2/en/download.htm

Links.   Still uses same key as 5600.

Re: [H] MS gets serious about activation

[CW]

They talked about this at a recent TS2 in the Q&A.   This is the way I 
understand the new method:

Shop A builds PCs, and they run Sysprep on them before they ship (obviously) so 
that the customer puts in the key, etc.

When Sysprep runs, it requires a "shop" key, which stays universal, it's not a 
Windows key, it just identifies the partner.

If that user needs to get a major hardware change (warranty) it needs to be 
done by that shop, as if it goes anywhere else, they won't have the matching 
partner key.

So, when something goes wrong with HP, HP or an HP Authorized shop can get the 
matching key, and do the repair.  But otherwise, any repair would require a 
completely new licence because the key will not match the partner ID key which 
is rquired during the install.

MS's argument basically boils down to: hey, it helps your shop in that you know 
people will come back, and it protects us against piracy and shops doing work 
while stealing your software for nothing, making their build cost less.

On the other hand, it means that a lot of small shops will be in deep s*(& if 
they get asked to do any real work on say a tier-1 vendor (ala HP, etc.).  

The argument is: hey, it will help you sell an all new machine.  Maybe, but it 
might just as easily piss off people that it's harder to get work done.







-Original message-
From: "Anthony Q. Martin" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Thu, 05 Oct 2006 15:13:46 -0500
To: The Hardware List hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] MS gets serious about activation

> why? I bought a copy with a PC...my hardware, I own it.  I don't need 
> vendor support after i know the system works.  why should anything be 
> tied to hardware and what makes hardware unique?  Do we now consider a 
> PC to be a disposable unit...don't fix it, change it, or upgrade 
> itjust toss it out (OS and all) and get a new one?
> 
> Ben Ruset wrote:
> > Why should you? You didn't pay retail price for that copy of XP. It's 
> > sold at a discount and tied to the hardware. And the hardware vendor 
> > is the person who has to support the OS, not Microsoft.
> >
> > You want to shift your OS around to new PC's? Spend the $199 and buy 
> > the boxed copy of XP.
> >
> > Anthony Q. Martin wrote:
> >> I kinda think this sucks, though.  If I bought an OEM computer and I 
> >> decide to trash it, I feel as though I ought to be able to use the OS 
> >> on a new system. Is that unfair to MS?
> >
> 

[H] -OT- Suspicious Looking Device

[CW]

http://junkfunnel.com/sld/

Hmm.  Well, I guess it might get you some attention.

[H] For those playing with Vista

[CW]

If you're still running 5600, MS has 5728 as a free download for you:

http://download.windowsvista.com/preview/rc1/en/download-5728.htm

Just thought you might appreciate the heads up :)

Works with the same keys.

[H] OK, CardReaders

[CW]

I've got an issue.

XP Pro with an itnernal card reader.  The card reader is fine, tested it on 
anothe rmachine, and it works within Bart.  So the machine itself is OK.

But within Windows XP, all we get is "Insert Disc" when we click on any of the 
card reader drives.  

Any suggestion of a good fix?  Need one sooner rather then later ;)  Tried a 
new card today (Internal USB) no go.  This just doesn't make a lot of sense, 
especially when the thing works inside of Bart.

??

[H] -N- AMD Prices Slashed

[CW]

CHIP FIRM AMD has kicked into price cuts today by slashing prices on 939 and 
AM2 sockets.

Distributor prices seen by the INQ show that the Athlon 64 3000 will cost $89, 
the 3200 $99, the 3500 $109, and the 3800 $139. In the last case, that's a 50 
per cent drop.

(From The Inquirer).  

Confirmed.


CW

[H] I'm convinced, Vista is garbage.

[CW]

 is laughable.  By maximizing the start menu 
real estate the "hibernate" button takes, and having a swing out present 
reset/shutdown, it is just confusing.  The swing out menu is started by a small 
sliver - less then 1/4 the size of the large "hibernate" button, which, as a 
nice touch, looks exactly like the "shutdown" button from WindowsXP.

* DRM.  Enough said.

I'm glad that Microsoft danced us up and talked to us about how great Vista 
would be, and how it would really drive the market.  Right now, based on what I 
have in front of me, I don't see it.  With Windows XP betas, Win2k, even 
Windows 95, you walked out of it saying "There are at least 5-10 features that 
are fundamental OS changes that significantly impact work".  Vista isn't any of 
those.  Unlike XP which really changed the way for USB connectivity, brought 
NTFS home, as well as significant improvements in networking and drive 
management.. Vista just doesn't seem to bring a single "functionality" change 
to Windows that makes you say "this is a must have".

I keep getting email from MS that intones that hey, it's not functionally 
complete.  Ok, fine.  But unless the functionality is a total scrap of the UI 
as well as a change in the file structure, mapping and networking functionality 
which right now seem like a throwback in usability, I don't know how adding 
more things helps this frankenstein.

CW

[H] %program files% variable all hosed

[CW]

Had to do a repair install of WindowsXP 64 on a machine in the house.  Now, the 
%program files% variable is wonky.. it basically doesn't find it.  (ie, go to a 
prompt, cd %program files% gets nothing) and programs, as a result, also are 
unable to find their icons, etc. or start quite right.  Blah!  

I've used RegCrawler to fix all drive letter changes (K:\ to G:\) which 
occurred for god knows what reason, but now I'm sitting here wondering if I 
just need to blow this thing away and start over, or if there is an easy way to 
reset the %program files% variable permenantly.

CW

[H] Tricky one: GWBasic under.. anything..

[CW]

Ok, I have a client that is a hotel.  They have their entire accounting 
software package written in 1992 in GW Basic.  Because it was written by the 
person who owns the hotel, they refuse to switch.  Up until now, they have been 
"dual booting" between Windows98 and their software.  We would like to change 
that. 

So, I made an image of their HDD, and put it in virtualPC, and DOSBox, etc... 
but their program never shows anything to the screen no matter what we try.. 

Do I just need to give up and setup dual boot?

RE: [H] Nero 7.2 Update

[CW]

OK, the new menu templates in Smart3D are very, very slick.  New DolbyDigital 
5.1 Upconvert is better, and the new import into NeroVision is VERY slick.  

Don't like what they did with NeroScout making it like GoogleDesktop (which I 
also dislike).  But can't have it all, just eliminate both of them.

CW
-Original message-
From: "Bobby Heid" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Mon, 01 May 2006 21:29:01 -0500
To: "'The Hardware List'" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: RE: [H] Nero 7.2 Update

> Man, that thing takes forever to install.
> 
> Thanks for the heads-up.
> 
> Bobby 
> 
> -Original Message-
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of CW
> Sent: Monday, May 01, 2006 11:08 PM
> To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com
> Subject: [H] Nero 7.2 Update
> 
> Most notable are several fixes, including those to Lightscribe, as well as a
> major update to Nero Visions/Nero Showtime.
> 
> 

[H] Nero 7.2 Update

[CW]

Most notable are several fixes, including those to Lightscribe, as well as a 
major update to Nero Visions/Nero Showtime.

Re: [H] Regurgitation on the list?

[CW]

*laugh* well, I only got a spate of emails regarding Soundblaster PCI128 (5 of 
them) that I would have sworn I had seen before, but nothing outside of that.  
Strange.  I'll just write it off.

-Original message-
From: Julian Hale [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 22:57:18 -0500
To: "'The Hardware List'" hardware@hardwaregroup.com
Subject: Re: [H] Regurgitation on the list?

> Sorry about that... I think I've got one of those 24 hour email viruses.  Do 
> you need a towel?
> 
> Julian
> 
> At 06:29 PM 4/12/2006, Chris Reeves wrote:
> >Anyone else seemingly getting repeats of days old emails from HWL?
> 
>