The 6GC Nerds Thread, For anyone that considers themselves a 'nerd' Options

[rentaspace]

Soooo, I am not sure if we have one here or not, I did a search and nothing came up, so I decided to make this thread....
Not sure how well it will go, but I thought maybe we can get everyone that considers themselves a 'nerd' to post why they believe that? Maybe some How-to's and such
There should be no bias here, you may post anything from you love playing Saxophone, Love technology to model building.
I will start, basically I am a Tech-Nerd, I love technology... I work in an Online PC store, I build and test computers whenever I can... I also love Aviation and aircraft, I have a model plane collection of around 120+ models, I also have model cars and yeah

So here we go, the first How-To video, How to install an SSD into a PS3:
Anyway, lately I have been
My PS3 Story:
Well, over the past three days my PS3 has been unusable.
I will begin my story, with the sudden and dramatic speed decrease in my Playstaion. Basically, to load the console, took ten minutes for the XMB to show on screen, and then it would take a minute or more for EVERY movement.
Then, GTAV wouldn't load, took ten minutes to get the starting siren sequence, and rockstar logo and then it went into an infinite 'Loading Story Mode'. All the while the HDD LED was 100% on.
And finally, the PSN would no longer connect, it connected to Internet fine but PSN failed. I jumped onto PlayStation Aus and sure enough a new update was available which fixed "stability issues" so downloaded that instantly....
My troubles really began now, the download got to 99% then took 40minutes to complete the last 1%. Then installation got to 99% before the console crashed and shut off... Upon restarting, the infinite 99% brick started.... (You CANNOT access the safe mode)
Fixed the issue with a workaround of installing my GFs spare laptop HDD and then swapping it out for the original HDD...
To my surprise, the PS3 was still as slow as ever and GTAV still didn't load.... So, I booted into safe mode and did all the non-destructive restores I could... All to no avail.
I decided to backup my and my GFs saves onto a spare External HDD I had. After waiting 5 hours for it to copy 6 measly GB, I formatted the HDD and started again.... Tried to load the backup and it took 40minutes per 1%.... I was sick of its s**t and pulled the plug.
Then it hit me, I had a spare 120GB SSD laying around upstairs so here is a quick guide to installing and configuring an SSD in your PS3:

BEFORE YOU START THIS:
If you have CRITICAL save games, then backup your HDD save files by going to the "Backup Utility" in the XMB menu. You will have to use a PC to format an external/portable HDD with the FAT32 Filesystem, the PS3 ONLY reads the FAT32 system. NOT NTFS.

First Off, What will you will need?:
- Your PS3 Console, mine is a 320GB 'Slim'


- A USB stick configured with the latest PS3 firmware.
If you do not know how to do this, it is very simple, on windows, go to the Australian PS website, and download the latest firmware to the desktop.
Plug in your USB, and make a new folder called "PS3" then create a folder called "UPDATE"
These folders MUST be in upper case.
Then copy the downloaded .pup into the UPDATE folder.
Your USB is now ready.


- The Solid State Drive (Mine is a 120GB Samsung 840)
You do NOT need a state-of-the-art SSD, the PS3 doesn't have Sata3 speeds and also has no TRIM function, so even a 2 year old SSD would be fine


- You will also need a small screwdriver set, I used a Clock/Jewelers Set. You literally only need 1 screwdriver...

Now we get to business.
Step 1: Flip the PS3 console over and remove the plastic covering the first screw:


Slide the Plastic front panel down the PS3 to reveal the HDD cage:


Now, remove the HDD cage by unscrewing the four screws and then install it on the SSD in the correct way:

Step 1 complete....



Step 2: Configuring the new SSD:
Plug your pre-configured USB stick into the PS3 and make sure your controller is connected via a cable.


Turn the PS3 on, and be greeted by this ominous message:

Press the start and select button simultaneously.

The USB will be checked and you will be greeted with another ominous message;

Press and Hold the START and SELECT button for at least 5 seconds.


The SSD will be formatted, a hell of a lot quicker than the old HDD:



Then after the console restarts, the new Firmware will be installed, This took me ages as my USB is USB1.0 standard []


Your PS3 is now SSD powered

If you are like me and like the best and fastest in everything, then this is a great update...
My PS3 is now going great, the console loads to the XMB menu in 5 seconds, The XMB menu loads everything instantly, moves with 0 lag, Loads GTAV from disk insert to playing in 2 minutes and now no longer has to buffer and render the games while you are driving/flying around the city fast.


So, there is the first "nerd" how-to What have you guys got to share and broaden everyone knowledge

[cardshark525]

Nice.

Don't have anything of my own but last year I did something I've wanted to since I was probably 10 and that's build my own PC.

We've relied on my laptop for a while now but it's about 3 years old and just a base i3 with nothing special going for it.
My wife (it was her school computer for the last 2 years) would get annoyed at how slow it runs and how it takes forever to boot etc. Now that I have the PC it almost enrages her how slow the laptop is.

Rig:
24" Asus monitor
Rosewil Thor II Case
Rosewil 800W PSU
Asus P9X79LE Motherboard
i7 3930k hex-core processor
H100i 240mm Liquid cooling
MSI Nvidia GTX670 (2gb) graphics card
16gb Corsair Vengence 1600 ram (will probably up to 32 or 64 next year)
120gb Corsair SSD
2TB Hitachi HDD

Primarily used for gaming, play a lot of Starcraft 2, Arma 3 and Race Room Racing Experience.

I'll probably get a second 670 GPU next year as well since they'll probably be around $150 by then.


Not exactly a how-to like your excellent write up (which I will share with my friend since he has a PS), but I just wanted to share my first PC build. Build your own and buy on black friday / cyber monday and you can't go wrong.

[PegGTS]

Nice.

Don't have anything of my own but last year I did something I've wanted to since I was probably 10 and that's build my own PC.

We've relied on my laptop for a while now but it's about 3 years old and just a base i3 with nothing special going for it.
My wife (it was her school computer for the last 2 years) would get annoyed at how slow it runs and how it takes forever to boot etc. Now that I have the PC it almost enrages her how slow the laptop is.

Rig:
24" Asus monitor
Rosewil Thor II Case
Rosewil 800W PSU
Asus P9X79LE Motherboard
i7 3930k hex-core processor
H100i 240mm Liquid cooling
MSI Nvidia GTX670 (2gb) graphics card
16gb Corsair Vengence 1600 ram (will probably up to 32 or 64 next year)
120gb Corsair SSD
2TB Hitachi HDD

Primarily used for gaming, play a lot of Starcraft 2, Arma 3 and Race Room Racing Experience.

I'll probably get a second 670 GPU next year as well since they'll probably be around $150 by then.


Not exactly a how-to like your excellent write up (which I will share with my friend since he has a PS), but I just wanted to share my first PC build. Build your own and buy on black friday / cyber monday and you can't go wrong.

Nice! Yeah I built my own around 3 or 4 years ago and I think it's about time to start upgrading some things.
64 gigs of ram?? Holy I still only have 4...lol

[RabidTRD]

I'm a console gamer... Grew up on the PC with Quake, Unreal and Tribes, but the controller is my friend and I got sick of having to update my PC all the time because it wasn't fast enough to run anything at high graphics. I stopped playing PC games all together when my old PC got a virus and I became too lazy to reformat and re-do everything since I didn't have a ghost file saved. New PC is strictly for PC stuff and some media.

PC Specs:

3.2 Ghz intel E6300
8gb ram
1 terabyte hdd
Nvidia Graphics card (can't remember the power)
And some ****ty power supply.

Reason I prefer a console: it has one purpose, to play games or to play media specifically made for it. I don't have to update hardware and I don't have to worry about any viruses or spyware. It also always does what I want it to.

That being said, I've owned every console to date except for the PS3, PS4 and Wii U. Sony lost me as a gamer when they released the PS3 and I realized how much more comfortable the Xbox 360 controller was and how much nicer their stable network was. I have the Xbox One now and have no regrets.

[rentaspace]

hehe, My pc specs are as follows:
Desktop:
- i7 2600k @ 5.1GHz (Quad Core, 8 Threads, Hyper-threaded) with Corsair H100i Liquid Cooler and x2 Corsair SP120 fans
- AsRock MiniITX form factor Motherboard
- 16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro RAM (8GB X2)
- 3GB Gigabyte Radeon HD7970
- 128GB Samsung 840 Pro
- 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM HDD
- Bitfenix Prodigy MiniITX case
- Win 8.1 Pro
- Razer Black Widow 2014 Stealth Edition Mechanical Keyboard
- Razer Deathadder 2013 Edition
- Razer Vespula Mousepad + Razer Goliathus Mousepad >.<
- 27" Full HD BenQ Gaming Monitor + 24 Full HD Acer Screen

This was taken at a LAN Party/Tafe work party that I had earlier this year, Mine is the PC on the chair


My GPU:


Laptop:
- i7 2670QM @2.2GHz (Quad Core)
- 8GB Corsair Vengeance RAM
- 1GB dedicated GT 550M GPU + Intel Graphics 3000
- 120GB Kingston Hyper X SSD
- 700GB Western Digital HDD
- Win 8.1 Pro
- 15.6" HD Screen




And console wise, I own:

+ Nintendo NES, Nintendo 64, original xbox, another Xbox 360, Playstation 1, Playstation 2 and Wii.

This post has been edited by rentaspace: Dec 30, 2013 - 5:11 AM

[cardshark525]

hehe, My pc specs are as follows:
Desktop:
- i7 2600k @ 5.1GHz (Quad Core, 8 Threads, Hyper-threaded) with Corsair H100i Liquid Cooler and x2 Corsair SP120 fans
- AsRock MiniITX form factor Motherboard
- 16GB Corsair Vengeance Pro RAM (8GB X2)
- 3GB Gigabyte Radeon HD7970
- 128GB Samsung 840 Pro
- 1TB Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM HDD
- Bitfenix Prodigy MiniITX case
- Win 8.1 Pro
- Razer Black Widow 2014 Stealth Edition Mechanical Keyboard
- Razer Deathadder 2013 Edition
- Razer Vespula Mousepad + Razer Goliathus Mousepad >.<
- 27" Full HD BenQ Gaming Monitor + 24 Full HD Acer Screen

This was taken at a LAN Party/Tafe work party that I had earlier this year, Mine is the PC on the chair


My GPU:


Laptop:
- i7 2670QM @2.2GHz (Quad Core)
- 8GB Corsair Vengeance RAM
- 1GB dedicated GT 550M GPU + Intel Graphics 3000
- 120GB Kingston Hyper X SSD
- 700GB Western Digital HDD
- Win 8.1 Pro
- 15.6" HD Screen




And console wise, I own:

+ Nintendo NES, Nintendo 64, original xbox, another Xbox 360, Playstation 1, Playstation 2 and Wii.

Seems with a few exceptions we have a similar setup so I'm sure you're just as happy as I am with it.

I haven't overclocked my CPU yet (don't see a need so far), but that 3930k is the one thing I wasn't compromising on when building my system. Ive seen as high as 18% CPU usage and 42C with 24C ambient (I like to be in my house in shorts lol).

This post has been edited by cardshark525: Dec 30, 2013 - 11:28 AM

[rentaspace]

Very happy with it


And now another one of my hobbies:
Found the 7th gen at a local hobby shop and the other was my Christmas present

[cardshark525]

Ah yes... the ever popular 7th gen to 6th gen conversion... lol

[rentaspace]

Ah yes... the ever popular 7th gen to 6th gen conversion... lol

[Bitter]

Nerds? Pfft.

I'm getting a busted Mark Levinson sub out of a GS430 and replacing the surround then I'm going to match it to a box and plate amp and making a home subwoofer out of it. They run them IB in the rear deck as OEM so they like BIG volume and have excellent low frequency reproduction at relatively low power levels, so I need a box/tube/etc that will let it work it's magic correctly. I may end up with it in a large tube several feet long and a big port with a pretty small amp.

[rentaspace]

Got given a bunch of model planes from a long time friend I recently caught up with in Northern NSW, gonna have a bit of fun in the new year completing these

[rentaspace]

Traded in one of my Xbox 360 consoles, some games, my wii and all its games, plus a PS3 game and some DS and 3DS games and outright swapped them for an Xbox One.
The got a second controller, Forza 5 and COD: Ghosts.

Only got Ghosts cause I already have BF4 on PC.

Pretty happy with it so far

[RoadRage]

I'm not huge on tech, but I do have an Xbox one

[sandusky1977]

Here you go, nice nerd setup for you...



Quad Video running dual NVidia Qaudro FX 380 Cards,.
I7 Processor
8GB Ram

Debian Linux OS,. with Virtual Box running Windows 7, 8, XP, Droid etc...

[mkernz22]

Here you go, nice nerd setup for you...



Quad Video running dual NVidia Qaudro FX 380 Cards,.
I7 Processor
8GB Ram

Debian Linux OS,. with Virtual Box running Windows 7, 8, XP, Droid etc...

are you f!cking kidding me....

This post has been edited by mkernz22: Feb 3, 2014 - 2:17 PM

[rentaspace]

Here you go, nice nerd setup for you...



Quad Video running dual NVidia Qaudro FX 380 Cards,.
I7 Processor
8GB Ram

Debian Linux OS,. with Virtual Box running Windows 7, 8, XP, Droid etc...

That is an awesome setup!


Well, this is my setup:




Recently just got the second 27" Screen and am in the process of getting a third and an active display adapter to use it

[VavAlephVav]

I say the trick to building a custom system when you are ordering it piece by piece is to Read the recommended parts list from the manufacturer of the Motherboard you choose.
for example I bought a ASUS mother board from TigerDirect.com, and If you go to the ASUS website and look up the Motherboard you want They will have a list of
tested/approved components that they are Certain will work with the Board you have chosen. Then you can be sure that there will be No issues with the
Ram/Video card/sound card/ ect. This is the way to be sure you get something stable that works properly and doesn't give you any trouble.

Here you go, nice nerd setup for you...



Quad Video running dual NVidia Qaudro FX 380 Cards,.
I7 Processor
8GB Ram

Debian Linux OS,. with Virtual Box running Windows 7, 8, XP, Droid etc...

That is an awesome setup!


Well, this is my setup:




Recently just got the second 27" Screen and am in the process of getting a third and an active display adapter to use it

but I can only FAP to one vid at a time, don't even like 3some stuff...

[rentaspace]

I say the trick to building a custom system when you are ordering it piece by piece is to Read the recommended parts list from the manufacturer of the Motherboard you choose.
for example I bought a ASUS mother board from TigerDirect.com, and If you go to the ASUS website and look up the Motherboard you want They will have a list of
tested/approved components that they are Certain will work with the Board you have chosen. Then you can be sure that there will be No issues with the
Ram/Video card/sound card/ ect. This is the way to be sure you get something stable that works properly and doesn't give you any trouble.

Here you go, nice nerd setup for you...



Quad Video running dual NVidia Qaudro FX 380 Cards,.
I7 Processor
8GB Ram

Debian Linux OS,. with Virtual Box running Windows 7, 8, XP, Droid etc...

That is an awesome setup!


Well, this is my setup:




Recently just got the second 27" Screen and am in the process of getting a third and an active display adapter to use it

but I can only FAP to one vid at a time, don't even like 3some stuff...

FAP on one screen, but game on 3!

[Poonicus]

Love the calendars in the back ground, I missed the deadline on paying for mine so I'm just going to wait till next year.

[PegGTS]

I bought this the other day

[rentaspace]

mmmm N64, Mine is sadly neglected atm... Along with my NES...



Anyway, In nerd news;
I recently sold my second BenQ 27" screen and my HD7970 GPU and got $570 for both ($400 for GPU and $170 for screen), both are more than I actually paid for them lols... Anyway, I then used that money and purchased a reference Sapphire AMD Radeon R9 290X GPU from work and now my pc is:
Size comparison with my ITX Motherboard


In the case:




I am now making a Custom water loop for the PC which will have a 240mm Radiator in the top, 200mm radiator in the front, 100Ml res and pump (In one unit) and XSPC CPU and GPU block Going to be mad.
Working out the fittings and piping at the moment

This post has been edited by rentaspace: Mar 21, 2014 - 8:49 PM

[Bitter]

I built this today.

[rentaspace]

I built this today.

Down Light or?

[Bitter]

Just playing around with a COB. It's a 10W warm white running at 6W, that tube is the heat sink. I've got some plans for rebuilding the 7G 3rd brake light with a red COB strip instead of the individual LED's, assuming I can heat sink it well enough. It should make for a nice bright red bar instead of points of light. Oh and be blindingly bright. This white one was $7 so I nabbed it and am doing some learning, just ordered a variable voltage variable current buck/boost as a driver. It's capable of handling 2 amps so driving a 10W LED is no problem, the COB in the 3rd brake light will obviously be red but it will also be smaller, probably a 7W unit. For comparison sake, the 10W running at 6W is like a 40w frosted incandescent bulb. Heat sinking inside the brake light housing could be a challenge, but I have some room behind the housing inside the head liner area and I can tie the heat sink to the body of the car to add cooling capacity or even a tiny fan to increase efficiency. I'm going for BRIGHT AS **** here, if I can. If a COB won't work I'll rebuild with an array of high intensity single emitters on a copper or aluminum heat spreader and heat sinking. Either way I want to double the light from it.

Ok, I need a hit from my inhaler and where did my retainer get to? LOL

This post has been edited by Bitter: Mar 21, 2014 - 10:33 PM

[rentaspace]

Nice, might even be able to make a few and sell some for profit!


Anyway, this will be all the parts going into my build:

[Bitter]

Meh, nah, not unless you want a BITCHING case light. The stuff I make is usually one off stuff for myself, especially for my cars. I don't want a bunch of people around with the same cool stuff.

[Bitter]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261223679770?ssPag...984.m1439.l2649

Waiting...waiting...waiting... Shipping from China is slow.

So in the mean time to keep myself amused...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/161230192367?ssPag...984.m1439.l2649 Eh, $20 down the hole but I'll be able to really point at **** good!

[Box]

All I saw was Pokemon Stadium, so yeah.

[Bitter]

Wut?

[Box]

I bought this the other day

That.

[rentaspace]

I sold Pokemon Blue for $35 the other day, not bad for an old Colour game
Anyway, I bought my water loop and its being shipped to me right now
Here is how my computer is sitting right now:





I also found this the other day, pretty amazing how far we have come:

[Bitter]

Damn, 28 amps! That's some serious 12V rail! Hell, the CPU probably ran at 12V in that thing, wafer so thick you could eat it for breakfast and have leftovers for lunch.

[rentaspace]

Ten megabyte hard drive man; that's one whole image I can store!

[Box]

It is, even in the last ten or so years. I remember a time when the internet and computers was usually something you only had access to while at school or the library. Now a days just about everyone has a computer. What's really astounding is how fast phones have become what they are. Video games have made leaps and bounds as well. It's just all amazing when you sit back and look at it all. At one point computers took up an entire laboratory, now they fit into your pocket. Just makes you wonder what the next ten years will bring.

Anyhow, I have my nerdy side. ESPECIALLY with synthesizers, if it weren't for them I might build a computer. Though one of these days it'd be nice to have one to integrate into a DAW/recording suite.

[PegGTS]

I love me some pokemon stadium. It's always a good time having some friends over and playing mini games

[rentaspace]

Awwwwwwwwww yeahhhhhhh:

[Box]

Just run liquid nitrogen, that'll keep things running cool.

[rentaspace]

Just run liquid nitrogen, that'll keep things running cool.

all that effort and money to keep it running

[Box]

DAT COOLING though.

[rentaspace]

Getting there:

[rentaspace]

Waiting for more fittings:

[Bitter]

Nice.

[rentaspace]

Fittings arrived and now leak testing/cleaning the loop:

[Box]

Cool!

[Bitter]

Makes me want to get my Koolance case up and going again...but I lack anything worthy of such cooling.

[rentaspace]

Makes me want to get my Koolance case up and going again...but I lack anything worthy of such cooling.

Do it
Mines only a second generation i7 2600k, nothing too fancy

[Bitter]

My main PC is an E8400, my spare is an i3. I lack anything that needs water cooling or would benefit from it. Both those run so cool on air that I can kill the heatsink fan on their tower coolers and they run fine. The i3 can run full load on it's tower cooler with just the case fans moving air.

[PegGTS]

I need to upgrade my PC. I built it quite a while ago.

Gigabyte P55A-UD3 motherboard
i5 750
4 GB of G.SKILL Ripjaw ram
Used to have a Radeon HD 5850 but my brother just gave me his old GTX 570
Antec 900 case

[cardshark525]

I love liquid cooling. I'm sitting here at 26c on my CPU and 22c on my motherboard right now. Basically idling besides the site being up and typing right now.

i7 hex core running very chilly.


What did the whole loop run you? I was thinking about making a custom loop but I couldn't pass up a Corsair H100i (240mm closed loop) for $89 after all rebates when I purchased my build.


The GPU gets up to 70c+ when gaming I'd like to chill that puppy out a bit.

[rentaspace]

Well, I had a H100i but the LEDs died and Corsair Link never worked... So I took it back to work for a refund. Getting a 2TB HDD and a Corsair RM650.


The main components in the loop cost $640 including almost $50 in shipping. I then had to buy a pump top and two more fittings which cost a further $60. And I will have to also get a 180mm Phobya Fan and I was considering a proper fan controller as well...
So, my build isn't finished yet haha >.<




And, I am not sure if it is because the thermal compound needs to settle (The manufacturer says 200 hours), but my idle temps are:
34-5C on the CPU
38-39C on the GPU

Given, I am running a Radeon R9 290x GPU, which on the air cooler ran IDLE at 70-80C... (Peaked at 99-101C when gamine >.< )

This post has been edited by rentaspace: Apr 3, 2014 - 5:40 PM

[PegGTS]

Anybody play Titanfall on PC?

[RoadRage]

No, Xbone

[PegGTS]

No, Xbone

Damn you and your fancy new technology

[rentaspace]

Got this today:

[Bitter]

http://www.gigabyte.com/products/product-p...spx?pid=4164#ov $37.35 shipped
Case with 120W PSU, slim DVD, power cable, and 2 SATA cable for $44 shipped
4GB DDR3 for $36 shipped new from Newegg
Just need a hard drive for it and it'll be ready to setup dual boot or just Xubuntu for web use and sell to someone, I have a customer in mind already that I'd sell to at parts cost.
Not bad for about $120 to my door.

[rentaspace]

Sounds pretty good,
One of my mates recently upgraded to 4th gen CPU/Mobo. He offered me his old board and CPU for $75.
The board is an Intel Board, and unfortunately he bent 3 pins removing the CPU. I'm not risking the CPU in it so I purchased a basic Gigabyte board second hand for $50.
The CPU on the other hand, is a PERFECT condition I7 3770. So it alone is worth more than $75AU.
I already had a spare 1TB HDD laying around when I updated to 2TB along with my old Widetech 750watt PSU and a Radeon HD5670.
I threw all these into my old NZXT Lexa S Mid tower, and bam an operational PC.

I've lent it to my GF atm since she plays sims3 a lot and it maxes that. Not sure if I am gonna sell it sometime or not.

[Special_Edy]

Anyone ever considered dunking the entire system into a fish tank full of mineral oil or vegetable oil? Ive seen some videos of people doing this, since both are nonconductive they wont short out the electronics and it will have 1000-2000 times the thermal capacity of air. You could use normal heat sinks with fans, the fans would aid in circulation but the only issue I can see is whether or not there is enough heat to warm the entire tank of oil. Then you would have to figure out a way to cool the oil in the tank, but it would probably be easy to build some sort of radiator system for the oil in the tank. Heck, you could even use a coolant system to cool the oil below room temperature, so long as the oil doesnt solidify.
Next time I upgrade my system, Im going to test this on my old computer. I want to see if the parts actually last long term immersed in oil or if it may break down some of the petroleum based products in the electronics.

Oh and 28 amps is only ~340watts at 12volts, or 140watts at 5volts which half of the computer operates at. That old computer probably only had like two or three hundred watts of juice total.

This post has been edited by Special_Edy: May 31, 2014 - 9:59 PM

[Bitter]

The mini itx is up and running just fine, the 60mm case fan and 40mm cpu fan are a little noisy so I ordered a quieter cpu heatsink and fan to see if I can fit them, if not then I'll just fit the fan. I'm going to work on the case fan to make something quieter, I may hack up an old C2D heatsink fan (cut the legs off) and glue it to the case to suck air in to aid in cooling across the board and the HDD at the other end. I'm using an OLDE OLDE slow SATA drive that's got Xubuntu 14.04 and 12.04 on it that I use to test all my systems. Memtest86+ for 48 hours and then a solid 24 hours of mprime at full load, if nothing catches fire then it's good to go!

The 120W PSU may be a little small, it's spitting out some heat running full load, I can get a 160W unit but screw it. I'd rather get a better case,board, etc. and do a little i3 setup or something. I've got a snipe on an old Dell board with a i3 and some ram, it should go cheap cheap. I'll throw it in my old mATX dell case and make a little htpc or guest computer or something. Nothing like a Dimension 2400 case with a 3.2Ghz i3 inside!

[rentaspace]

Anyone ever considered dunking the entire system into a fish tank full of mineral oil or vegetable oil? Ive seen some videos of people doing this, since both are nonconductive they wont short out the electronics and it will have 1000-2000 times the thermal capacity of air. You could use normal heat sinks with fans, the fans would aid in circulation but the only issue I can see is whether or not there is enough heat to warm the entire tank of oil. Then you would have to figure out a way to cool the oil in the tank, but it would probably be easy to build some sort of radiator system for the oil in the tank. Heck, you could even use a coolant system to cool the oil below room temperature, so long as the oil doesnt solidify.
Next time I upgrade my system, Im going to test this on my old computer. I want to see if the parts actually last long term immersed in oil or if it may break down some of the petroleum based products in the electronics.

I have seen quite a few, only very few that actually are using modern parts though. Mostly old P4s.
Hard Drives cannot be submersed because of extra resistance and also fans will burn out quicker due to the extra push the motor has to provide, you also have to have movement of the oil through the tank.
Some people have gone over the top and added a pump flowing through external radiators, but personally this is over the top since they may as well just made an Open loop liquid cooler...

I've always wanted to do it, but much effort for not much gain...
Without that heat dissipating out of the oil, it will just heat up the whole tank and eventually turn off... Also, the oil picks up minute particles off anything metal (circuit boards, radiators etc...) and this slowly makes the oil able to short out. It needs to be replaced every 6-12months.

Personally, they are really cool but pretty impractical haha, but hey, I'd do it if I had the space and time just because

[Bitter]

I'd rather do a water loop with a massive passive radiator, that's much cooler.

If you add some ethylene glycol antifreeze to the cooling water it becomes more efficient by a noticable amount. I noted a 5-8c drop in all temps with the addition of a slight amount, about 4:1 water:eg. It was about 8 months after I installed the water block with arctic silver under it so it wasn't coincidental temp drop from the AS setting up or anything, cpu temp and coolant temp's both dropped, the eg added a little viscosity and made the water a little 'stickier' so it dropped heat better in the radiator I think. I used plain green, but you toyota freaks may want to use Toyota Red.

[Bitter]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Inspiron-570-...=p2047675.l2557

Sniper strikes again!

[rentaspace]

I'd rather do a water loop with a massive passive radiator, that's much cooler.

If you add some ethylene glycol antifreeze to the cooling water it becomes more efficient by a noticable amount. I noted a 5-8c drop in all temps with the addition of a slight amount, about 4:1 water:eg. It was about 8 months after I installed the water block with arctic silver under it so it wasn't coincidental temp drop from the AS setting up or anything, cpu temp and coolant temp's both dropped, the eg added a little viscosity and made the water a little 'stickier' so it dropped heat better in the radiator I think. I used plain green, but you toyota freaks may want to use Toyota Red.

I use a pre mixed formula from XSPC, it has all the chemicals for it already mixed. I also used some flush formula to begin to make sure that the loop had no debris in it. The coolant in my res is still nice coloured, so I think the washout helped, and some debris did come out with the wash.

My temps were around 45-50C at first, but after the AS5 settled (It officially takes 200 hours, but mine settled in around 110), and after settling it now sits at 30C on both GPU and CPU at idle.
My loop runs as follows:
Res/pump -> CPU -> GPU -> Front 200MM Radiator with no fan -> Top 240mm Radiator with x2 SP120mm fans -> Res/pump
Under full load, 40C.

CPU: i7 2600K
GPU: AMD Radeon R9-290X

[Bitter]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820208972 Going to give that a whirl, not blazing fast but cheap. It's just going into that Atom system so anything faster (or even that fast) is a waste since it's going to be limited by the SATA controllers (lack of) speed.

[rentaspace]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820208972 Going to give that a whirl, not blazing fast but cheap. It's just going into that Atom system so anything faster (or even that fast) is a waste since it's going to be limited by the SATA controllers (lack of) speed.

We have sold a bunch of these at work, no RMAs that I am aware of either. I would have to say: good purchase.

[Bitter]

I'm happy to hear that! I'm excited to see how the jmicron controller performs,I wasn't too impressed with the sandforce in my first SSD a few years ago. Raw numbers only tell you so much, but I saw a review that showed it handles uncompressable data and compressable the same but they complained the write speeds were low for it being synch memory and that it behaved more like asynch. Well nuts to that, any system here it's going into is only SATAII so it'll peg out the port before it pegs out the drive, the high iops mean more to me when it comes to real word 'click a bunch of **** and it all opens fast' performance. Booting Xubuntu 14.04 is going to be blazing fast even on the wimpy Atom D525. I may grab a second one for my i3 in sheeps clothing Dell setup that's going to be my cheapy cheap HTPC, instant on or near to it. Sadly, also SATAII on that board. I may see if I can find a good nix friendly PCI-e SATAIII card somewhere for cheap.

[rentaspace]

So today I spent painting up a Nintendo 64 controller for the GF,
Before:




During:



Got some runs and the spray can paint was really thick for some reason...
Once fully cured I will sand back the runs, give one final pink coat, then going to paint the 'nintendo' satin black and then a final clear coat over the top...

[Bitter]

Cute! I'm sure it'll turn out nice, maybe mask off and put some textured paint on the grip areas?

[rentaspace]

Cute! I'm sure it'll turn out nice, maybe mask off and put some textured paint on the grip areas?

Might do that on a future controller


Got the controller back together, but the Left Bumper isn't activating properly so I don;t think I put the contact board in properly lol...

[Bitter]

Anyone here play with FreeNAS? I'm thinking about using it here to manage backups of my stuff and serve media to my PC's so I don't need huge drives with redundant copies of all my stuff on each PC or could even access it when I'm away from home to download or stream movies from myself to myself.

[rentaspace]

Anyone here play with FreeNAS? I'm thinking about using it here to manage backups of my stuff and serve media to my PC's so I don't need huge drives with redundant copies of all my stuff on each PC or could even access it when I'm away from home to download or stream movies from myself to myself.

I had a play with it at Tafe, but never really used it too seriously... Heard good things about it though

[Bitter]

I did some reading and it seems that...
If I don't use ECC RAM, I'll loose all my data.
If I have less than 8GB of RAM and use ZFS the best file system ever, I'll loose all my data.
If I use UFS, I'll loose all my data.
If I use ZFS, I'll loose all my data.
If I use FreeNAS, I'll loose all my data.
If I don't use expensive sever class hardware and disk drives, I'll loose all my data.
If I use ZFS and the pool crashes, I'll loose all my data an ZFS recovery software doesn't exist.

[rentaspace]

I did some reading and it seems that...
If I don't use ECC RAM, I'll loose all my data.
If I have less than 8GB of RAM and use ZFS the best file system ever, I'll loose all my data.
If I use UFS, I'll loose all my data.
If I use ZFS, I'll loose all my data.
If I use FreeNAS, I'll loose all my data.
If I don't use expensive sever class hardware and disk drives, I'll loose all my data.
If I use ZFS and the pool crashes, I'll loose all my data an ZFS recovery software doesn't exist.

Just keep an external 3TB HDD laying around and put everything on it, They were or sale here in Australia for $120delivered the other day lol.

[mkernz22]

Forgot about this thread, but a few weeks ago I purchased an Asus ROG G750J.
Absolutely amazing laptop.

17.3" Screen with 1920x1080 res.
i7-4700HQ
12GB of DDR3L memory (expandable to 32GB)
1TB HD
Nvidia GTX 860M graphics - 2GB GDDR5 memory
HDMI and Thunderbolt outputs
4 USB 3.0 ports
And a bunch of other crap, but that's the most important part hahaha

Now to just get a second monitor for it.

[rentaspace]

Any reason why external monitors on a laptop?

[Bitter]

I did some reading and it seems that...
If I don't use ECC RAM, I'll loose all my data.
If I have less than 8GB of RAM and use ZFS the best file system ever, I'll loose all my data.
If I use UFS, I'll loose all my data.
If I use ZFS, I'll loose all my data.
If I use FreeNAS, I'll loose all my data.
If I don't use expensive sever class hardware and disk drives, I'll loose all my data.
If I use ZFS and the pool crashes, I'll loose all my data an ZFS recovery software doesn't exist.

Just keep an external 3TB HDD laying around and put everything on it, They were or sale here in Australia for $120delivered the other day lol.

Bitrot, I've been bitten by it once before.

[Bitter]

Got a free laptop, was failing randomly, it would black screen, not post, loop cycling on/off before post, etc.
I let a guy take a stab at it for $40 he told me it needed a new motherboard. I declined his repair as the price was way too high, I took it home and opened it up to just double check everything and I found that. So I ordered a new stick of memory and took a good look at the memory socket and found 3 pins on the bottom row on one end and 2 on the top row on the other end that were corroded and pushed flush with the plastic socket. I made a special tool out of a safety pin, scraped them clean, and pulled them back up, socketed the memory, and I'm running Memtest86+ for 24 hours and then going to run Prime95 blend for another 24 hours.

This post has been edited by Bitter: Jun 25, 2014 - 9:17 PM

[rentaspace]

Sounds like a score if it pulls off...

I carbon wrapped my 3DSxL top case today, looks alright, could of done better but hey, first attempt

[Bitter]

Yea, I was pretty excited when it posted with both memory installed. It's nothing special but it's decent. P6200, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, integrated graphics which are teh suck. I can drop in an i5 480M for like $60 and a 256GB SSD for about $100 and then it'll be somewhat decent except for the weak graphics. All I really care about is 1080P playback since I watch a lot of anime and stuff on my laptop.

[rentaspace]

Not the best, but first time I've ever wrapped anything:




Now gotta get another small sheet and do the bottom

[Bitter]

Looks good to me.

[mkernz22]

Any reason why external monitors on a laptop?

Mainly for photo and video editing. I just got a job doing product photography and I need the bigger screen for editing purposes.
The 17" is big enough for now, but it'd be nice to have something bigger since you have to zoom in for all the detailed editing.
I opted for a laptop since it's portable and I can take it with me to a shoot and whatnot. Then I can at least review my photos while I'm at the shoot.

[VavAlephVav]

When I built my desktop it was so I could Play wow
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/bone...alephvav/simple

IDK if that's nerdy enough for ya or not :E
I haven't actually been on a raid team since Dragon Soul, and that was 2 years ago. I don't even pay for a subscription anymore I just wait for them to send me an inv for free 7 days. then Ill log in and dick around for a while, I don't even want to play the game I just like hanging out in the city and messing with people in trade chat.

[Bitter]

virtualbox Windows7 install up and running. woot. pretty smooth for the lame hardware.

[rentaspace]

Another hobby of mine; Aquarium.
Spent the past week re-setting up an old tank that had some CoryDoras and a Pleco Catfish.
Cleaned it out, rearranged it and cleaned the filter.

Let it run for a day and reintroduced the fish and today introduced two Queensland Kreffts turtles.

[rentaspace]

Some photos of the hatchlings:

[VavAlephVav]

wow those are super cool looking and different from the ones we have, here's some shots from when mine were hatchlings



and not long after...


I also had a sporty soft-shell
he was a bit too aggressive to handle and liked to burrow under the gravel and chill with just his nose poking out

[rentaspace]

They look cute!

Mine always chill around the reed end side of my tank (I set it up especially for them) and my fish just chill at the rocky end haha, occasionally one of the turtles will go and chill with the fish but he always tries to sit on top of the fish and then the fish moves and then the turtle swims off, almost as if he is just trying to piss the fish off haha

[Bitter]

I had a female painted for about 10 years, it ate the fish we put in with it, couple of blue gill...it also ate the crayfish but we didn't mind that one bit...that crayfish was kind of an asshole. It took a long time before it was big enough to get the blue gills, which we got to eat the feeder guppies the turtle didn't eat but who were eating all the turtle pellets.

[rentaspace]

I had a female painted for about 10 years, it ate the fish we put in with it, couple of blue gill...it also ate the crayfish but we didn't mind that one bit...that crayfish was kind of an asshole. It took a long time before it was big enough to get the blue gills, which we got to eat the feeder guppies the turtle didn't eat but who were eating all the turtle pellets.

Yeah, guppies are way to small and slow to keep with a turtle. I've got:
Two Leopard Cory Dora at 3cm long:


One Bronze Cory Dora at 4cm long:


One Albino Cory Dora at 5cm long:


And a single 22cm Pleco:

[Bitter]

Yea, nothing that fancy for us when we had it. Thinking back, they weren't even bluegill but pumpkinseed! We thought the feeder guppies would make a good snack for the turtle but it didn't even bother with them, the guppies multiplied into a big school of fish that would eat all the turtles pellets before it could even get them, so I caught a pumpkinseed from the local pond and dropped it in the pond with the turtle and guppies. After about 3 days there were no guppies and a very fat pumpkinseed. A few years later I caught another pumpkinseed and introduced it as well, and about 4 years later the turtle had grown large enough to overturn the rocks the fish hid under and was able to eat one, then the other a couple weeks later. It would drive them into the shallow and get them, leaving just a floating head in the morning. All it left of the large crayfish was a pair of claws and the head, it dispatched of it within a week, which was good because the crayfish kept trying to pick fights with the turtle which was pretty suicidal...and it ate the big apple snail we bought so we were glad when the turtle made a snack of it.

[Box]

My mom and grandmother owned a tropical pet store back when I was a kid, and for the longest time we had an aquarium if not two or three in the house. Actually my earliest memory I have was back when I was one or two and looking out of my crib at the small aquarium on the other side of the nursery. I remember the fish were vertically striped white and black. Later on I asked to have some ropefish, which they did. I love fish and the ocean. I like sharks, though definitely have a healthy amount of respect for them.

[VavAlephVav]

lol the turtle likes to play it cool, she's not chasing those little fish around just acts like theyre no big deal, in fact makes friends with them till one day once they think it's all cool SNAP!
little fiddler crabs and snails once I put a chiclid that was a little to big for her in and she just ate his fins off and left him wobbling around the tank.

[rentaspace]

My mom and grandmother owned a tropical pet store back when I was a kid, and for the longest time we had an aquarium if not two or three in the house. Actually my earliest memory I have was back when I was one or two and looking out of my crib at the small aquarium on the other side of the nursery. I remember the fish were vertically striped white and black. Later on I asked to have some ropefish, which they did. I love fish and the ocean. I like sharks, though definitely have a healthy amount of respect for them.

White and black striped sounds like a Convict, I had them, one started breeding and killed ALL of my other fish, and a Yabbie (Crayfish). I had African Cichlid's, American Cichlid's, a 65CM Bala shark and 20cm Silver Dollars. Only the Bala and Silver dollars survived...

[Box]

Did some searching and I think they were whitetail damsel fish.

[rentaspace]

Did some searching and I think they were whitetail damsel fish.

Never owned nor heard of them lol

[Box]

[rentaspace]

They look pretty cool. What was there temperament? Aggressive or Complacent?

[Box]

From what I can remember they were in a tank themselves, but this is something from when I was one or two so I only remember them and not much else. I guess since they visually stick out so much.

[rentaspace]

Fair enough, convicts are a pain in the ass.

[Box]

Fair enough, convicts are a pain in the ass.

Wardens agree.