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Computers - What have you tweaked today?
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stupar
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Finally got my hands on a Dell Ultrasharp monitor to use as the main screen with my HP laptop for photo editing so a wee shuffle round of the work space to accommodate it
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That's a bit of a beast of a graphics card, what are you using it for if you don't mind me asking?
(tell me to get lost if you want, I don't mind)
Gaming at 2560x1600. Will add another 980 and go SLI when I upgrade to 4k.
Setup the Raspberry Pi again. Added an Energenie PiMote controller and plugged the lab switch into a remote control socket. Now I can switch the switch on and off remotely via VPN. Painless to setup and works flawlessly.
Hopefully the Dell server will respond to a wake on lan packet and then I can start up the lab from anywhere.
Hopefully the Dell server will respond to a wake on lan packet and then I can start up the lab from anywhere.
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Cool, please tell me that's for a racing sim or is it shooters your into. For that price you could have a whole xbox one or ps4
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Cool, please tell me that's for a racing sim or is it shooters your into. For that price you could have a whole xbox one or ps4
I could, yes... but an Xbox will be limited to 1080p, and actually not have the physics processing, ability to stream and cache 20 minutes of 60fps video available to dump at the press of a button, the complex shaders and procedures that make PC games sing, nor would be be upgradeable until Sony can be arsed launching a new Xbox
I'd also have to use a game controller... which sucks for 1st person stuff compared to WASD + Mouse.It's for a multitude of games, from racing sims to 1st person shooters.
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Snap, and the same re Consoles.
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Almost done securely storing sensitive data and slowly readying for Windows 10 (even though it probably won't be available for a few more months). I just have lots of data and a good part of it is (was?) unsorted and untidy. Going to completely wipe my HDDs before Windows 10 with no sensitive data on them whatsoever. By wiping I mean low-level formatting.
Fiddling with all this data took me about a month. Some of it I just got rid of though, it was too old to be of any use.
Fiddling with all this data took me about a month. Some of it I just got rid of though, it was too old to be of any use.
Why do you need to low level format drives unless you are selling them on?
Wasted two hours resolving a network problem that turned out to be a port on my switch which had just decided to be "down". The fix was turning it off and on again. Weird.
Oh and PFSense 2.2 on 32 bit hardware + IPSec = kernal panic. I maybe on the hunt for a 64 bit Atom with at least two on-board NICs then.
Wasted two hours resolving a network problem that turned out to be a port on my switch which had just decided to be "down". The fix was turning it off and on again. Weird.
Oh and PFSense 2.2 on 32 bit hardware + IPSec = kernal panic. I maybe on the hunt for a 64 bit Atom with at least two on-board NICs then.
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I may be leaving my computer (I don't own a laptop, and this one's a PC (obviously)) sometime this year if all goes well and I'll have enough to go to another country for a while (you can live cheap when you're not used to eating or sleeping much). I don't want my drives to be accessible to two nosy relatives, one of whom is a comp wiz and would be willing to go far to see what I've here. I never leave my computer otherwise, and anyway, it's protected well enough for them to not be able to access it in a matter of couple of hours.
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When my pfSense was a separate machine (it is a VM on my server now) I used a micro ATX with PCIe slot and then bought a low profile Intel network card.
BTW: I did reinstall from scratch - all back working now and only took just over an hour - except the MythTV backend is playing a bit funny!
If they have physical access to the machine, the only way to stop them accessing your data will be by encrypting it.
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Unless it involves a big general slowdown in performance (and I'm short on performance as it is, I use mechanical HDDs from mid/late-2000s, for starters), encryption can be broken, especially given time. The files are securely encrypted in the cloud now, and I'm not worried much about them, as unless someone will figure out my multiple logins and passwords, and steal my authenticator, they aren't getting access to anything. Well, after the low-level-formatting is done. That, however, if zeroes are written a few times over, renders the data pretty much unrecoverable. At best, a few scrambled files could be dug up after days of effort.
At first I thought I'd bring the HDDs with me, but then I thought it'd be extra clutter, and may not look good when stepping on the plane (assuming I'd be flying). Besides, mechanical HDDs shouldn't experience too much physical stress, especially after many years of continuous use, like mine. So I thought of a different sure solution instead.
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What do you play on that resolution? Far as I know, you wouldn't get 60fps on most games with a 980 on 1440p (or, uhm, 1600p...? That's a very peculiar resolution!).
I've worked on some projects from which I still have the data, some of which is highly classified. Not government level or anything, but still. That's part of it. Another part is plans for inventions for when I can afford to make an investment (believe it or not, I had Google Glass drawn up since a decade ago!). I also had some scans of various documents that shouldn't be seen by those particular people but wouldn't bother me if someone else saw them. I also had source code for software that I don't want anyone getting their hands on. Oh, I also have some pictures from places that I don't want those particular people to know I've been at ...As well as some other things. Note for the suspicious: everything's legal and I own all of it. Does that answer your question?
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Why is it peculiar? All 30" 16x10 monitors are 2560x1600. 1400p is the 16:9 equivalent for 27" monitors. 16:9 is for girls
Loads of games can run at way more than 60fps at this res with a 980. I get around 135fps in Skyrim, and that's with 16x AA and all settings on Ultra. I get around 70fps with BF4 with "ultra" settings too. Elite: Dangerous runs around 90fps with all settings maxxed out and SMAA anti-aliasing on. Assuming I have vsync off... which I generally don't. It's normally on, and nothing, as a result, ever goes below 60fps... ever. Even Crysis 3. No idea what you've been reading
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Why is it peculiar? All 30" 16x10 monitors are 2560x1600. 1400p is the 16:9 equivalent for 27" monitors. 16:9 is for girls
Loads of games can run at way more than 60fps at this res with a 980. I get around 135fps in Skyrim, and that's with 16x AA and all settings on Ultra. I get around 70fps with BF4 with "ultra" settings too. Elite: Dangerous runs around 90fps with all settings maxxed out and SMAA anti-aliasing on. Assuming I have vsync off... which I generally don't. It's normally on, and nothing, as a result, ever goes below 60fps... ever. Even Crysis 3. No idea what you've been reading
I just never heard of that resolution before beyond general technical information. I'm getting old for this........ Haha.
Hmm, Skyrim is quite old though, and even back then it wasn't very demanding from what I remember. Well, if your hardware is up-to-date.
Anyway, what I had in mind was more resource-demanding games, like Metro: Last Light or Thief or Crysis 3, for that matter. And I had in mind max graphics. What I have been reading were stuff for 2560x1440p, which is an even lower resolution, which should result in even lower performance on 1600p. If you don't set graphics to the max, of course it's gonna perform well, but I prefer gaming on max or not at all.
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@OldPic
I mentioned Crysis 3.... seems to hover around 75fps... which is in keeping with what reviewers got from the 980 at 1600P. It's the EVGA SC version, so it's OCed as standard anyway.... and I've pushed it a bit harder. Shadow of Mordor is VERY resource heavy... it actually maxxes out the VRAM... and it runs at around 80fps with "very high" settings, and around 65fps with maxxed out settings.
I mentioned Crysis 3.... seems to hover around 75fps... which is in keeping with what reviewers got from the 980 at 1600P. It's the EVGA SC version, so it's OCed as standard anyway.... and I've pushed it a bit harder. Shadow of Mordor is VERY resource heavy... it actually maxxes out the VRAM... and it runs at around 80fps with "very high" settings, and around 65fps with maxxed out settings.
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Ah, well that explains everything, overclocked editions cost more but perform much better. I've bought an OCed 7970 (which cost extra $10 or $15 for much more performance) and after adding a bit of extra juice myself, all that added extra 10-20(!)FPS to what you'd normally found on reviews. I also didn't touch voltage at all, though I probably should've... But I couldn't afford to replace it if anything happened, so I just went with stable OC without voltage increment instead. Now I do wonder, how far could I push it if I increase the voltage? Currently temps don't rise beyond 85C with ~30-35C room temperature (I don't own an air conditioner) during the summer, which I consider real good. But anyway, I should replace it with a 970, ATI doesn't support PhysX and the card can't run the latest games on max anymore, nor could it run older games on max if I'd tune up supersampling and CFAA... Say Dirt 3 looked beautiful with those, but it ran on 10FPS. But I'd prefer to go with a camera for now, I haven't been gaming much lately anyway for different reasons.
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I reckon a stock 980 would cope too. In all honesty you're only looking at single figure % improvements when overclocked.
Here's a link to 3D Mark "Fire Strike" comparing stock speeds to OCed speeds. Not that dramatic.
http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/4139681/fs/4118868
Scroll down to the frame rates.
It helps, but at the frame rates I'm seeing with the games I play, a stock, reference 980 would be able to play the same games at 1600P with no problems. It's a fantastic card.
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While I do trust your info that aforementioned games run smoothly on this card, I disagree with looking at synthetic tests for performance reference. In my experience, synthetics never proved to be any good at all, not even to compare performance proportionally.
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No. appreciate that it's only a benchmark. I didn't post it as an absolute reference to expected frame rates in games, but as a like for like test it shows the scaling you can expect from overclocking. I see similar differences when actually gaming.
The frame rates for games I've posted are obtained from the actual frame rates displayed when using the shadowplay overlay (confirmed with MSI afterburner overlay) while actually playing.
In fact... to save power, I may well just reset the card to stock values. I have vsync on when gaming anyway, and as I've not yet seen a dip below 60fps (I'm sure there may be the odd one now and then, but never actually visually seen it) I'm wasting power for nothing.
4K will be another matter though.. LOL. I fully expect to have to add another 980 for that.
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I'm curious, which model of 980 did you buy? Curious because it runs so well, so it's good for reference when someone asks as well as general curiosity.
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Any 980 will run as well... there's not really much difference between brands/models. I just always buy EVGA because they have great warranty.
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Actually, Sapphire and Zotac (sometimes also MSI) tend to deliver better performance as well as reliability. Sapphire and Gigabyte usually delivers more decent cooling solution, and EVGA is - of course - famous for its insane warranty. I stick with Gigabyte due to their lower prices and availability in Eastern Europe. Then again, I rarely buy parts. Though if I had more money, I'd ship Zotac or Sapphire (with a strong consideration for EVGA and MSI) using Ebay or Amazon instead, leaving Gigabyte behind due to their seemingly lower quality (in general, in my experience). Also, Sapphire oftentimes seems to offer highest performance, also in my experience. Oh, and since experience contradicts with rare purchases, I'm talking about people asking me for help related to hardware and various systems I've had my hands on throughout the years.
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The cooling system was one of the reasons I bought this. The ACX 2.0 system is awesome. Passive below 60C, so silent, and even at 80C being kicked by a benchmark while over-clocked the fans are only at 40% and still completely silent!
Take any review you like and you'll not see a massive difference between them, and the differences you do see are based around clock speed, and all cards can be overclocked to some degree.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/11/17/galax-geforce-gtx-980-soc-review/5
Reliability is of course a factor... and to be honest... you can't get an objective view on this as there are far too many brand loyal fanboys.. so just get the one with the best warranty.
Take any review you like and you'll not see a massive difference between them, and the differences you do see are based around clock speed, and all cards can be overclocked to some degree.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/graphics/2014/11/17/galax-geforce-gtx-980-soc-review/5
Reliability is of course a factor... and to be honest... you can't get an objective view on this as there are far too many brand loyal fanboys.. so just get the one with the best warranty.
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ACX 2.0 is the best available, I believe. I'm not sure about that though, just guessing about this one. I also like Windforce, but it's way louder from what I have laid my hands (or ears) on. Very nice results with yours, temp-wise, though!
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Wow if those relatives will go through those lengths, I think you've got either some very interesting stuff sorted on that or you require some new relatives.
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I upgraded my monitor to an AOC 28" 4K one and had an Nvidia GTX760 which couldn't really cope very well and also had issues with the DisplayPort connecting properly so I upgraded my graphics card to an Nvidia GTX970 Jetstream and it's lovely. I can run BF4 at full 4K resolution, although I do turn the settings down as I prefer to play that way anyway. I find fonts in Windows and apps at 4K resolution a little too small and unfortunately if you scale them up through Windows it can mess up your mouse positioning in some applications and games so I run Windows at 2560x1440 and only use 4K for BF4.
My only dislike of AOC monitors is the soft touch buttons. I also think I'm at the maximum juice that I can extract from my PSU so it will be a while before I upgrade again. Of all the upgrades I do on computers I've always found running an SSD drive instead of a regular one gives you the best immediate results in general operations.
My only dislike of AOC monitors is the soft touch buttons. I also think I'm at the maximum juice that I can extract from my PSU so it will be a while before I upgrade again. Of all the upgrades I do on computers I've always found running an SSD drive instead of a regular one gives you the best immediate results in general operations.
Well, slight change of topic .. (as much as I'd love a good gaming rig, I'm not going to be in the market to buy a GTX 980 or even find time to play any games that would justify such a purchase for quite some time)
Decided to set-up an Open VPN client connection on the pfSense firewall and route all WAN bound traffic from one of the machines on the network over it. Really pleased to say that works a treat.
As for my issues with IPSec, I'm still deciding whether or not to refresh the firewall hardware, downgrade to 2.1.5 or cross fingers that it's fixed in 2.2.1.
I'm in the process of doing clean reinstalls on a few PCs. As these have been given to me, I tend to connect them into a different network - which has a an old Gigabit Managed 24-port switch and a Dell Poweredge 2950 running a virtualised DNS/DHCP server. The intention is to use this network as a lab primarily for learning stuff. Anyway, plugged the power meter into the loop and I'm suprised to discover that the whole setup is using ~400 watts. That's £517 in electricity over a year. As it stands, I'd reckon on using it for 10 hours a week on average, which reduces the bill down to ~£25 year.
And that's 10x the rest of my network infrastructure, which includes a Xeon server, firewall, 8 port managed switch, ethernet modem, and wireless access point.
Decided to set-up an Open VPN client connection on the pfSense firewall and route all WAN bound traffic from one of the machines on the network over it. Really pleased to say that works a treat.
As for my issues with IPSec, I'm still deciding whether or not to refresh the firewall hardware, downgrade to 2.1.5 or cross fingers that it's fixed in 2.2.1.
I'm in the process of doing clean reinstalls on a few PCs. As these have been given to me, I tend to connect them into a different network - which has a an old Gigabit Managed 24-port switch and a Dell Poweredge 2950 running a virtualised DNS/DHCP server. The intention is to use this network as a lab primarily for learning stuff. Anyway, plugged the power meter into the loop and I'm suprised to discover that the whole setup is using ~400 watts. That's £517 in electricity over a year. As it stands, I'd reckon on using it for 10 hours a week on average, which reduces the bill down to ~£25 year.
And that's 10x the rest of my network infrastructure, which includes a Xeon server, firewall, 8 port managed switch, ethernet modem, and wireless access point.
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Wow if those relatives will go through those lengths, I think you've got either some very interesting stuff sorted on that or you require some new relatives.
Well, it's both, but mainly the latter, haha! It's a beyond-movie-type of nosiness that you see in people. Except I'm not as meek as the "victims" you see in the movies, so the only way for them to access my stuff would be if I was away.
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I've been gaming at 2560 x1600 for the last 8 years. My old tin had 8800 Ultras in SLI, then 250 GTs in the same config. the 980 copes solo. Prior the that I ran 3 CRTs, which one 30" monitor (HP LP3065) replaced.
I'm intending to upgrade this year, but I see no reason to go multi monitor again, the main problem is either they are too small or the vertical resolution isn't what I am used to eg. 1440 this is a nice looking monitor but too short LG 34UC97.
Anything larger than 30" seems to be 1080p or ultra-wide as above and I don't intent to lose vertical resolution. All the 4K stuff seems to be maxed out at 27"
I'm intending to upgrade this year, but I see no reason to go multi monitor again, the main problem is either they are too small or the vertical resolution isn't what I am used to eg. 1440 this is a nice looking monitor but too short LG 34UC97.
Anything larger than 30" seems to be 1080p or ultra-wide as above and I don't intent to lose vertical resolution. All the 4K stuff seems to be maxed out at 27"
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Wow if those relatives will go through those lengths, I think you've got either some very interesting stuff sorted on that or you require some new relatives.
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You'll get used to it. I find my 30" rather small nowadays.
But what I really tweaked today is my new toy. A Microsoft Surface Pro. I really like it so far, albeit certain things already annoy me. Why can't I update the firmware whilst plugged into power unless the battery is 100% charged. Who came up with that daft bit of user experience.
But what I really tweaked today is my new toy. A Microsoft Surface Pro. I really like it so far, albeit certain things already annoy me. Why can't I update the firmware whilst plugged into power unless the battery is 100% charged. Who came up with that daft bit of user experience.
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Woah!! How big is your "usual" screen(s) then? I haven't even seen a 30" in real life, haha!