What Have You Done Today - (Computer Version)

  • Thread starter tlowr4
  • 4,211 comments
  • 289,659 views
I've realized today just how cool the CIR header on an ASRock board is. I've followed this guide, and simply cabled up a standard TSOP4838 receiver directly to the CIR header, using an old cdrom audio cable, and it works like a charm. Can fully control my HTPC with my MCE remote, including power on by remote, and all that with a receiver that cost me less than a dollar to make. That CIR header is so worth it. :)
 
I spent the better part of a week writing a little calculator that totals up how much it would cost to get a comic book graded by CGC.

I had initially done this in Google Docs and shared it in an iframe to remove all the extraneous and ugly buttons, columns and the option to add more rows, etc. However, when you lock cells from people it gives it that hard to read stripe over the text.

So I started from scratch and did the new calculator in javascript and html and replaced the old google doc caclulator.

I don't know if anyone here gets their comic books graded by CGC, but if you do and want to know how much the whole ball of wax will cost you when it's all said and done, visit:

http://cgc.atsapce.co.uk

As per the norm, the site works best in Firefox, Chrome or Safari on the Mac. Linux with Firefox and especially IE don't look as nice.


Jerome
 
I've been having an issue with my PC and the front panel headphone jack, whenever I plug headphones into the computer, I'd get an annoying buzzing and electrical static noise regardless of whether or not I was listening to any music/playing a game etc. I emailed the customer support department at Fractal Design, and what I ended up getting advised to do was take out the PCB that the microphone, headphone, and USB ports are on and make a cut between the USB and audio ports with a sharp knife (cut through the green to the base metal). I got the sharpest knife out of the kitchen and made a cut in the PCB, and now the issue is completely resolved.
 
I've done a bunch of stuff over the last week or so:
  • Replaced my MSI GTX 560 Ti OC Twin Frozr II with an EVGA GTX 780 SC with ACX cooler.
  • Thanks to the above, also had to update my BIOS and the GTX 780 firmware.
  • Installed a Samsung SSD 830 512GB and migrated all my data. Went without a hitch.
  • Adjusted fan and CPU cooler layout resulting in several degrees of improvement in both CPU and GPU temps without an increase in noise.
  • Replaced my CM Storm QuickFire Pro (red backlight, brown switch) keyboard with a QuickFire TK LE (white shell and backlight, brown switches).
  • Finally RMAed my R.A.T. 9 mouse and received the replacement.
  • Applied this mouse acceleration tweak, thumbs way up.
  • Disabled CPU core parking and noted much smoother gameplay in certain titles (Metro 2033 benchmarks exposed this).

And Noob616, that USB/audio grounding issue certainly isn't exclusive to Fractal Design. My Lian-Li case has the exact same issue. I never bothered to fix it since I use the rear jack on my X-Fi Titanium HD.
 
My external HDD has crashed or formatted or something. I dunno, it will never show up on my PC and when it does, it's empty. I'm guessing it's dead. Great. :grumpy:

I'll be ordering another one off Amazon, it seems..
 
Today I bought compressed air to clean out my fans.

I also found the source of the annoying buzzing sound when my computer was under heavy load. Turns out a cable was hitting one of three GPU fans. Tied that down lower and now my computer is as quiet as can be!
 
12thgear
[*]Replaced my MSI GTX 560 Ti OC Twin Frozr II with an EVGA GTX 780 SC with ACX cooler.
Click to expand...

I play way too much Borderlands 2, when I read that I heard the 'ding!' sound that plays when you level up. In my mind.

So I got my new router - you may have seen the thread I started about it - and so far I'm very impressed. Mainly because it hasn't cut out once. There were some teething issues though, my sister's iMac refused to connect to the 2.4GHz network so she's on the 5GHz, and almost every machine has an IP conflict message whenever a new device connects to the network. When I can be bothered I'll probably assign static IPs to each MAC but for now that's way too much effort, I've got at least four hours of lost internet to catch up on (that's a joke).
 
Last edited:
I just batch processed 208 pictures from RAW to 900x600 jpeg then uploaded them for the rest of the kids' soccer team to view. If they then want any higher res images, I'll address that then. I certainly wasn't going to tackle 200+ 25 meg tifs.
 
neema_t
I play way too much Borderlands 2, when I read that I heard the 'ding!' sound that plays when you level up. In my mind.
Click to expand...

Been playing a fair amount of Borderlands 2 myself. Finally got Maya up to level 50 and have been trying out the DLC. I can say that a GTX 780 is overkill for this game. It only really flexes its muscle with PhysX maxed out if you're, say, shooting a shock barrel at point blank with an exploding shotgun, BUT I DON'T RECOMMEND DOING THAT.
 
I was curious as to how much PSU power I have. So what I did today was simply take off my PC's cover and look at the PSU to see how much wattage it has, and my *aging* PC has a PSU with 250 watts. Part of the reason why I did this was my research of what I'd need if I were to buy a new graphics card. Most of the newer ones require about 350 or more watts minimum.


So that's what I did today- research my PSU.
 
You don't necessarily need the minimum wattage, but from a 250 watt PSU you won't have any headroom at all to upgrade. If you have a standard case just grab a Corsair CX500/650 and don't worry about it.
 
John I personally would consider investing into a new computer such as this one(Huge deal for the product. However it might not come with the keyboard or mouse due to the fact open box items are returned products. Which means it's a used PC. It's a risk but you have a 30 day refund period) if or this one(This is new and will do everything that you need).

I'd avoid upgrading the old computer as it's a money pit compared to the price of a new computer(33% of the cost to get a new GPU and PSU against the gateway PC I linked) and then you have to worry about the other older parts failing down the line.
 
nick09
John I personally would consider investing into a new computer such as this one(Huge deal for the product. However it might not come with the keyboard or mouse due to the fact open box items are returned products. Which means it's a used PC. It's a risk but you have a 30 day refund period) if or this one(This is new and will do everything that you need).

I'd avoid upgrading the old computer as it's a money pit compared to the price of a new computer(33% of the cost to get a new GPU and PSU against the gateway PC I linked) and then you have to worry about the other older parts failing down the line.
Click to expand...

$400? :drool:
I would've gotten that over my laptop if that were the case.
 
What I did today was install this new USB sound card (Diamond Xtreme Sound 7.1 USB sound card) to my PC and will hopefully enjoy this long-term fix for my sound issues.

If I had the money to get a new computer, I'd get one and be happy. But for now, I'm making the most with what I have. This PC isn't THAT aging even though it is a 2005 PC. It's been working pretty damn well for an aging PC. I do have an idea of a PC I am looking towards if I were to get a new one, and this is more a cost-cutting measure for me. Some of the cheapest newer computers are the lower-spec Gateway SX series PCs. The ones in question do not come with a PC monitor. They come with a super-slim unit, a wireless USB keyboard, and a wireless mouse. I don't need the wireless material. If I did get one of those Gateway SX PCs, I would probably use the wireless keyboard to work with my PS3 as an alternate keyboard. I initially had my current USB keyboard to use as a keyboard to use for my PS3 before eventually having this replace my PS/2 keyboard.

A few things about some of those lower-spec Gateway PCs... I think the cheapest of the range has a 1.4 GHz processor, but it is a dual-core 1.4 GHz processor. I am not sure if this means worse or better performance than the 1.8 GHz single-core processor to my PC. They also have a 220 watt PSU compared to my current PC's 250 watt PSU. I'm probably not going to need any advanced graphics card for the low-spec Gateway SX PCs if I were to get one.


The main thing I wanted to express is that I have a[nother] new sound card. Hopefully it will be much better to use than the onboard audio and the two PCI sound cards I've used in my history with this PC.
 
Got a Samsung 840 120gb for my PC. Later tonight I'll defrag my HDD, backup to my external drive and transfer Windows and a few games to the SSD.
 
Last edited:
JohnBM01
A few things about some of those lower-spec Gateway PCs... I think the cheapest of the range has a 1.4 GHz processor, but it is a dual-core 1.4 GHz processor. I am not sure if this means worse or better performance than the 1.8 GHz single-core processor to my PC. They also have a 220 watt PSU compared to my current PC's 250 watt PSU. I'm probably not going to need any advanced graphics card for the low-spec Gateway SX PCs if I were to get one.
Click to expand...

Which model are you looking at? Most dual cores that are clocked lower than a single core are faster with a game like minecraft because the game is made for dual or quad cores.
 
Got a free PIII computer with the CRT monitor and the included Polk Audio stereo speakers from a garage sale. I have already cleaned the dust out and now I'm installing Ubuntu on it. So far it has been an extremely slow process with 384MB of memory. I may just change a 128MB stick to an 256MB to make it 512MB. I plan on giving this computer out to a charity when I'm done.

Edit: So far I've upgraded it to 512MB of RAM and it's actually installing.
 
Last edited:
Today I've ordered a couple of parts for my Dad - an 8GB RAM kit and a Samsung 840 Pro 256MB SSD - and at the same time, a 'little' something for myself... My second MSI GTX 680 Twin Frozr III/OC. Unfortunately Scan are out of stock at the moment but I've preordered it from them anyway, I'd rather wait than a) spend more or b) order it from elsewhere. With any luck they'll make good on the free copy of Metro: Last Light regardless of whether the deal expires before they're back in stock or not.
 
I'd hope so, it's an awesome game.

As for me, fresh install of Windows 8 on the SSD last night, tonight I'll work on putting applications and a few games on it. Boot times are absurd, Windows 8 boots in literally 6 to 7 seconds.
 
Noob616
Boot times are absurd, Windows 8 boots in literally 6 to 7 seconds.
Click to expand...

It's nice, isn't it? I think I should take advantage of all the space I saved on my SSD a month or two ago and install a game on there... At the moment I only have BF3 and I haven't played that for some time.

I think I'll send Scan an email and ask if I'll eventually get Metro: Last Light and if they have any idea when they'll have my card in stock. I mean I guess if they knew they weren't getting any more they'd update the site to say so, but what do I know?

Also, quick question: If a game doesn't have an SLI profile, does that mean SLI will make no difference in that game? Is it as simple as that?
 
Yeah, think I'll put Oblivion and Skyrim on there when I eventually buy Skyrim, and then I'll still have room for a couple more games. Most other games load fast enough on my HDD that I don't mind.

As for SLI profiles, I'm not really too well versed on the subject but I would assume you'd be limited to one card. However, as far as Metro Last Light goes that's not going to be a huge issue. I play on just a hair under ultra settings and get ~50 fps with a single 670. With what I assume to be an overclocked 680 you should be getting good performance. It's not like Metro 2033 either where the GPU is working hard and the graphics are somewhat underwhelming, it's an incredibly detailed and taxing game, but at least when your $500 card is struggling to run it at 60fps on ultra, it looks spectacular.

The other aspect is that Metro LL is just a better game in general. 2033 was plagued by bad gunplay that made the game unfair at times, Last Light has gunplay that's just as competent as any Call of Honor Duty Field game.
 
So I just 'spoke' to Scan - I sent an email at about 10am and they've just sent me an automated reply about out of stock enquiries, which was only half of my original question... It'll be about 1-2 weeks before they get more stock, which is fine (I do need to do college work and all that), but they ignored the bit where I asked if I'd get the free game or not. I might try again later.
 
Had some issues with windows so I decided to just do a clean install on the SSD instead of transferring files over. I just timed it, and it was 17 seconds from desktop to desktop on a restart. Ludicrous.
 
Today, nothing, as I'm over trying to get my new AMD A10-6800K to work. As soon as I install the display driver, the display just keeps dropping out. All I can do is a hard reboot. No issues with the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter (using Windows 8), so I really don't know what to do anymore. :(
 
nick09
Get it replaced. Sometimes a bad batch goes through the system.
Click to expand...

First thought it was a bad chip, so got it replaced. Same issue. So figured might be a bad batch, returned it, and got another from a different place. Still, same issue. Either they've both used the same supplier and these really came from the same bad batch (unfortunately, I didn't make note of the serial numbers of the first two), or something else is wrong. I'm all out of ideas as to what, though. Right now, I'm very tempted to return that one as well, and get myself a new Haswell MB and CPU. Already wasted way too much time on this. :irked:
 

Similar threads

Timm Sheehan
What did you do in ACC today?
2
Replies
49
Views
5K
Timm Sheehan
Timm Sheehan
Rallywagon
What did you see today/Guess the machine IT edition
Replies
2
Views
622
Rallywagon
Rallywagon
M
BTCC Volvo 850 skins for the "re-worked" FSR version
Replies
0
Views
403
maximeerkat
M
Jezza819
Bigger computer monitor or tv as a monitor?
Replies
13
Views
3K
wheelhp
wheelhp
flair1111
switched to PS5 today on my 10 month old oled
Replies
2
Views
815
i386
I

Latest Posts

Back