gpumedo

From: graphitone15 Jul 2015 16:17
To: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX) 8 of 53
Heh.

I used to side on AMD's benches, but they fell out of favour with me with their early dodgy crossfire implementations.

The 560ti's been solid as a rock in the 4 years I've had it.

Any idea yet what the budget is for the whole upgrade or what parts you're gonna get?
 
From: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)15 Jul 2015 16:52
To: graphitone 9 of 53
I'd like to get it < $Can.400. May not be doable  :'-( 

IME 'barebone' kits usually work out the best on total cost, but sometimes bundled components are dodgy, in this case the psu:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9687607&CatId=11842

(also no discreet grafx)
EDITED: 15 Jul 2015 16:57 by DSMITHHFX
From: Chris (CHRISSS)16 Jul 2015 08:21
To: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX) 10 of 53
My two most recent graphics cards have been Radeons. I've owned more Nvidia cards over the years though, 4 I think, including one I bought for my HTPC which has been replaced by my Pi.
From: koswix16 Jul 2015 09:01
To: Chris (CHRISSS) 11 of 53
Are you using the Pi in the AGP or PCIe slot?
From: Chris (CHRISSS)16 Jul 2015 10:07
To: koswix 12 of 53
The Pie Cooking Interface extra-virgin, of course.
EDITED: 16 Jul 2015 10:07 by CHRISSS
From: koswix16 Jul 2015 15:55
To: Chris (CHRISSS) 13 of 53
Smokin'!
From: koswix16 Jul 2015 15:55
To: Chris (CHRISSS) 14 of 53
Smokin'!
From: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)17 Jul 2015 15:48
To: ALL15 of 53
So I chickened out on the $.5K new pc ask, and decided to give my aging creaky old system another kick at the can with a new psu and hdd.

Been having intermittent problems with the drive for literally months, and the latest dvd fail (whatever the underlying cause) seems to have pushed it over the edge into a somewhat precipitous decline.

It was still bootable into linux last night, but slow and apt to lock up -- symptoms that have occurred often enough to suspect the issue is mb / psu related. xp hasn't been usable since the last optical drive fail, and for that matter its partition hasn't passed a chkdsk in recovery console even though all other ntfs volumes came up clean. The disk ominously fails all SMART tests** run from linux (smart data shows the drive as ok). FWIW, it's not made any clicking sounds so far.

If it turns out there's been mb damage then I can at least make use of the new components. I'm going up a grade from the usual dirt-cheap, minimally adequate psu to this, which could actually work with a more power-sucking gpu should it come to that and, who knows, may even 'fix' some of the issues with current system.

**Edit: And it just passed a SMART test. Go figger. (still gonna replace it, bought the new drive already)
EDITED: 17 Jul 2015 22:56 by DSMITHHFX
From: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)17 Jul 2015 19:06
To: ALL16 of 53
Just got back from the store. The psu is a heavy sucker @ 5.8 lbs!
From: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)19 Jul 2015 22:10
To: ALL17 of 53
The beast is in. It is huge and I honestly didn't think it would fit, but it did (NJ). The ginormous cooling fan is really quiet. The PATA dvd burner and floppy drives appear to be working (before, using either made it freeze up). Next step is to connect the old hdd drive and see if that boots. If it does, see if xp works any better (but I think it's damaged), asuming it doesn't, or work well enough, essay a repair install (so I don't have to reinstall drivers & apps). If that fails, reformat the partition and clean install.

I might have found a cause for some of my hdd woes: http://www.wdc.com/global/products/features/?id=7&language=1

I'd never even heard of this, but apparently after formatting a new sata hdd from xp, you need to run an alignment utility (wich explains why I always get 'partition doesn't align with cylinders' reports in fdisk -l).

The utility probably won't work too well on my existing layout (numerous ntfs & ext4 partitions, though the table was made in xp) and there's a risk nuking the data on it, so I won't try it there.
EDITED: 19 Jul 2015 22:15 by DSMITHHFX
From: koswix19 Jul 2015 22:27
To: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX) 18 of 53
XP? 8-O
From: ANT_THOMAS19 Jul 2015 23:06
To: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX) 19 of 53
Bloody hell, drive alignment, I remember having to do that years ago with a large drive and XP. It really was years ago, because that's how old XP is!!! Stop using it.
EDITED: 20 Jul 2015 07:21 by ANT_THOMAS
From: 99% of gargoyles look like (MR_BASTARD)20 Jul 2015 06:25
To: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX) 20 of 53
Bloody hell, XP? The world moved down to Vista, up to W7, down to W8, noodled around for W8.1, and then on up to W7 years ago.

Get with the times daddy-o. Currently I'm nursing a boner over W10.
From: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)20 Jul 2015 10:24
To: ANT_THOMAS 21 of 53
My pc still has agp, ide and a floppy drive, all in use. I can' t use half the connectors on the new psu. It's like a vintage car.
From: ANT_THOMAS20 Jul 2015 10:26
To: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX) 22 of 53
And they'll all work with Windows 7.
From: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)20 Jul 2015 13:13
To: ANT_THOMAS 23 of 53
I don't have Windows 7.
From: ANT_THOMAS20 Jul 2015 13:16
To: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX) 24 of 53
Speak to Jim.
From: koswix20 Jul 2015 13:58
To: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX) 25 of 53
Bull /shit/ you still use the floppy drive. Whatever response you come back with I'm refusing to believe it.
From: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)20 Jul 2015 14:27
To: koswix 26 of 53
Mainly for a backup mbr pointing to my bootloader. I touch it so rarely I have to dive into the rubbish tip that is my real desktop to find the boot floppy I made last September.
EDITED: 20 Jul 2015 14:28 by DSMITHHFX
From: CHYRON (DSMITHHFX)20 Jul 2015 14:30
To: ANT_THOMAS 27 of 53
I probably will be getting a legit copy sometime in the next 3-6 months, along with new components. At least I can cross a psu and hdd off the bottom line when it comes to that.