PC gaming hardware thread.
Takes down the torture rack.
Reply
Atrocity Exhibition wrote:

NO SALE!

How did Nvidia end up in this back alley then? No company designs and releases a product like this deliberately, surely?


It began with the 200 series. Ever since the end of the 8800 series they have been struggling to compete whilst keeping temps in check.

As an ex 280 owner I can safely say that yes, keeping the 480 alive given the temps it runs at will be close to impossible. My 280 ran at those temps. On one occasion it finally reached 107 and from there it was downhill all the way. I think it lasted about two more weeks before it refused to boot.

Yes some of the benchmarks look decent but they're very very confusing. And at those temps they could be ten times better, I would still take a performance hit for lower noise levels, heat, and power consumption.
Might sound a really daft question, why push a graphics card to distruction?
KovacsC wrote:
Might sound a really daft question, why push a graphics card to distruction?


I own a 280 also. It's not about deliberately pushing the card to it's death, it's about the fact that just trying to do some regular gaming for a few hours, something the card is designed for, causes it to get ridiculously hot and keeping it at that temperature over time is not going to be doing the card's lifespan any favours. Even when idle, ie just browsing the web in Windows, my 280 runs at just under 60 deg C. That's ludicrous.

I've actually got an old 8800GT lying around which I was hoping to use as a PhysX accelerator, but the temps inside my case go through the roof when both cards are in there so I don't dare until I've got enough spare cash to justify getting a case with better thermal properties.
:this: Wot 'e said.

It comes about from nothing more than loading a game and playing it.

The 200 series and 400 series heat problems are not intentional, they simply come from bad design and money thrown at them that cannot be ignored and changed.

Nvidia have made their bed with the 400 series and now will have to lie (in more ways that one) in it.

That article was actually bang on the money (the one I posted ages ago). Sure, the cards may well be faster than the prototypes but 98c? as a normal operating temp?

There's just no way those cards are going to last more than a year.

Crazy.
Atrocity Exhibition wrote:
JohnCoffey wrote:
98C
851W is insane, that's into electric heater Vimto boiling territory.
:attitude:
Well, apart from being the budding plumber and being dead proud of myself I also finished something else today ;)

It.Is.Alive...

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And just check out my cable work. Seriously, the best I've ever done. It's absolutely immaculate.

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It's also whisper quiet thanks to some resistor work and the water cooling.

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Those rolling stands look rather small with a beast propped up on them.

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And the Alienware Superman XP MCE.

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Bring on the desk :metul:
Hmm I thought I'd posted pics of it all finished. Weird. Any way, here they are happily beating away :)

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And the FX with the lights out.

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That resistor worked a treat :)

And some SLI

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Which actually works very well indeed for Fallout 3 which is the only game I use the media box for :)

And, last but not least I can unveil Alienware 3 - The final chapter. This one is going to be painted in a booth. I've not decided whether it will be diamond white or Ferrari red yet though but it's highly likely my main system will end up in here if I am happy with it. It's not costing me much, something like £20 as my friend is a pro painter and will use leftover paint when he paints a car :)

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Stripping it down was a bit of a git though. Here are the parts that'll be painted :)

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Well it's a risky one shot deal but fuck it, you only live once.
In a move that will shock some and stun others I have decided to -

A. chuck the spare case in the bin before I throw heaps of money at it.

B. Use the plain silver panels and remove all of he bling from my ALX.

This works well given that the chrome ones had cracks and a damaged head and the silver ones are perfect. It also helps me becuase I'm fucking sick of cleaning the chrome.

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Spares.

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This is sort of FAO Atrocity really. Or any one who knows anything about sound cards/boards.

A year or so ago a friend of mine in the USA began building a PC. Well not strictly building it, but buying parts. His aim? get the most expensive one of everything. Sadly he ran short of cash when it came GPU time and then found out he'd be dealt a bum motherboard by EVGA (rev 1 790 ultra sli that was fucked from the off and never got a bios update due to fuckage, lesson learned never buy EVGA again) and the sound card just sat in a box whilst he tried to make do with this woefully unstable Bsod of a slag computer.

Fast forward to a couple of months ago and he brought a new board and cpu and a 5850. With my assistance he built a decent gaming PC and then he went to fit the sound card. Well he didn't realise it needed a floppy drive plug and by that time he had had enough of tinkering so last week he packed it up and sent it to me.

This is the card as a standalone here

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The card itself is a Xonar D2X but he got the HDA package with the midi controllers and 8.1 channel add in card and everything. The standard stand alone card is over £100. I'm trying to decide if it's worth keeping it and actually using it or to sell it on.

He also sent a brand new Phenom X4 9950. We think it might be fucked but it could have been other things (old bios, 140w support etc) so I am most interested in that (if it works) to replace my £28 Sempron.

So, the Asus. Keep it? flog it?

I know absolutely bugger all about sound cards, but I do know that decked out that is the most expensive one money can buy.
Really? My friend paid £500 for his sound card.

I would sell it as you don't need it's capabilities.
Nemmie wrote:
Really? My friend paid £500 for his sound card.

I would sell it as you don't need it's capabilities.


I'm beginning to think that now tbh. Also, don't forget things are cheaper in the states...

It won't fit the gaming machine I know that much (as it has one 1x PCIE slot and it's obscured by the northbridge cooler.. Slot was obs designed for small cards) and I fear it would be a bit wasted in the media PC (though more fitting perhaps?) seeing as I only use 2 channels.

I suppose if the Phenom works then I will keep it and use it but if it's buggered I can just sell the D2X and buy a half decent CPU. I just want the media PC to boot a little faster as I hate sitting there waiting to use the TV (yes I'm an impatient twat :D )
One down one to go.
Just took the sound card out of the box and immediately figured it out. Asus are fucking wankers. Now I know why it kept working and then shutting off. The power connector is pretty buggered as is and I bet the power plug kept fouling contact.

Easy fix but poor of them to send it out like this in the first place. I'll give it a go later.
That wasn't too hard. Had to put a bit of pressure on the socket to get it to move back but nothing that bad.

This is a nice touch. Makes it really easy to get things plugged in once it's harder to get to. You have an LED for each socket :)
The funny things is, I cannot disassociate people from their avatars, so my brain tells me that it's Sid James bombarding me with LED and overclocking information.

"Look at the coolers on that one! Yak yak yak!" 8)
I like the idea of those LEDs, probably one of the few times that adding a load of LEDs to a product has actually increased its functionality, or at least, ease of use.
Atrocity Exhibition wrote:
I like the idea of those LEDs, probably one of the few times that adding a load of LEDs to a product has actually increased its functionality, or at least, ease of use.


The entire back side is gold plate, including the sockets themselves. So tbh it would be a complete nightmare if not for the LEDs to help you out.

After some head scratching I have deciphered the problem with the Phenom. Basically when he ordered all of the stuff he got this cooler called a Vigor Monsoon III. It was half the price of a Noctua and was the same spec (dual 120mm fans). I've never EVER seen such a ghetto piece of shit in my fucking life.

The manual made no sense whatsoever and was full of typos and everything. I went to Youtube and found their channel and took on the owner of the company (who looks like a fucking monkey) and in the end Ryan fitted it. It was such a pile of shit that it bent the CPU. Not the pins but the actual surface heat spreader of the CPU. On a stock Phenom the center of the spreader is lifted so that it makes full contact with the sink that goes on top. In this pic here you can see a stock Phenom. I have put some red arrows on to show the bit I am talking about.

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Any way when his arrived this morning they were all pushed flat and the corners of the spreader (that top bit with the model and Phenom written on) were lifted. I gave it a good push flat and mounted it and it was bombing out in Orthos after about ten minutes. After about half an hour (I would imagine my Corsair H50 had straightened it) it was fine. I mean, it didn't reboot or shut down or anything like it was doing with him. In the end I got a two hour and ten minute Orthos pass out of it and three 3dmark06 CPU thrashes.

It's fine.

The sound card was easily fixed too but I can see why owners of them complain. The power socket is shakey at best. Still, all in and running now. Sounds quite amazing too through my stereo but god damn is it unforgiving should you play a shitty Divx through it. I can hear my tweeters shit themselves lol.
NervousPete wrote:
The funny things is, I cannot disassociate people from their avatars, so my brain tells me that it's Sid James bombarding me with LED and overclocking information.

"Look at the coolers on that one! Yak yak yak!" 8)

:this:
Well I decided it was time for a new mouse. I've had the Salmosa for quite a while now and it's pretty knackered. The skid feet are worn out and it looks pretty shafted. More annoyingly when my cousin was here last he was browsing and the squeak (that had seemed to bugger off) has now come back. And it's driving me insane.

I must want my fuckin noggin examined but I just ordered one of these.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprod ... =KB-042-RA

I so nearly got the Alienware TACTX but I don't rate the kb very highly.

So I am prepared to give Razer another try. I must say I was kind of bribed by the fact that it's the best singlemost expensive mouse they ever made. In 07 on release it was £99.
From somewhere else:

How EvE runs. Or something.I got confused and lost interest.

Max Teranous wrote:
Linky: http://www.eveonline.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid=769

Quote:
What makes up the live EVE Cluster and how it's all done is something of a mystery to many who have speculated what it's made of and how it's all connected together.

As you may know the Tranquility (TQ) cluster will be down for maintenance on Wednesday, June 23, 2010 from 0900 to 1500 UTC.

With a migration and a bit of a redesign on the way I thought it was about time to deliver the facts on what it is and will be.

Step one: A cozy new home

TQ has morphed and adjusted over the years as much as EVE Online has. It's gotten to the point were a couple of cabinets simply don't handle it anymore. So, this first step is to move TQ to a bigger place. We'll still be in the same datacenter and connecting to you from multiple networks to ensure the best performance, but this time with a lot more space and power and room to grow.

The new space is a whopping 79kW of power across 12 cabinets. With the larger space and added power, we can now aggregate TQ, Singularity, and the ancillary EVE Services (web, forums, account management, etc.) into a single location in the datacenter. This will provide better network connectivity, fewer intermediary devices and increased capacity.

As with any dense computer solution like our blade servers, heat is always a major concern. Sure, we get great management tools and reduced physical space requirements, but we still have to cool the servers. To do this we've moved from an ambient cooled system (basically the open room temperature is managed but not funneled direct to server intakes) to a completely self-contained, closed aisle cooling system. Cold air from the center of the aisle is force-fed into the cabinets reducing the loss or wasted cool air significantly and helping to focus cold air where it's needed most. This takes the industry standard "hot aisle/cold aisle" designs a step further without having to do anything crazy like running servers under nitrogen pools (although that is pretty cool).

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Step two: Networking to 9000

Most of the traffic on the network in TQ is happening between the servers on the internal network. While the routers we use are quite powerful (Cisco 7600's with the RSP720 route processors), our internal switching needed a kick in the pants. With the move we are going to be adding about 800% capacity to our side to side network along with some really nice Cisco Distributed Forwarding Cards (DFC3) to the network blades themselves to help reduce the latency and reduce burden on the supervisor cards that run the switches.

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Step three: Pics or it didn't happen

We are going to continue the information sharing about the infrastructure that makes EVE work on the next installment. Although not everyone gets excited about cabinets and a datacenter, there are a few that do. I personally keep them posted on my wall at home. This is meant to be the first of many installments as we continue to improve the infastructure that EVE runs on.

Step four: But, how does this help me get my ship back?

The increase in Layer 2 switching capacity, reducing in latency through Distributed Forwarding, and the extra cold hamsters will have an impact on the ability to reduce overall latency in EVE. It is not a single solution, but a good foundation where core infrastructure can be eliminated as a possible concern.

The next tech installment will have more details on Remapping EVE, the next level of Fleet Fighting and better prediction of hot spots for dedicated nodes.

TQ Tech Details: (Not the whole system, just what runs TQ)

Servers
64 x IBM HS21
2x Dual Core 3.33GHz CPU's
32GB of RAM Each
1x72GB HDD Each

2 x IBM X3850 M2's
2x Six Core 2.66GHz
128GB of RAM
4 x 146GB HDD

Cores
- 280 total Cores
- ~1 THz

RAM
- 2.3TB of Total RAM

Storage
- 4.8TB of Local Storage
- 2TB of SSD SAN
- 256GB of RAM SAN

Network
- Gigabit Ethernet
- 4Gb/s Fiber Channel

So what will June 23 look like?

Here's our current downtime schedule for when TQ will be offline:


0900: All EVE Services go offline. (Web, Forums, Test Servers, EVE Gate, TQ, basically everything hosted in London)

1200: EVE Online web, secure and Test Servers come back online. (all network services reestablished in London. Only TQ should still be down at this time)

1500: TQ back online


Max 88)
JohnCoffey wrote:
Well I decided it was time for a new mouse. I've had the Salmosa for quite a while now and it's pretty knackered. The skid feet are worn out and it looks pretty shafted. More annoyingly when my cousin was here last he was browsing and the squeak (that had seemed to bugger off) has now come back. And it's driving me insane.

I must want my fuckin noggin examined but I just ordered one of these.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprod ... =KB-042-RA

I so nearly got the Alienware TACTX but I don't rate the kb very highly.

So I am prepared to give Razer another try. I must say I was kind of bribed by the fact that it's the best singlemost expensive mouse they ever made. In 07 on release it was £99.


Your link goes to the Razer Boomslang, but with the price you're talking about, you must be on about the Mamba, right?

I... um... own a Razer Mamba.

It's lush. :luv:
The Boomslang was released in 07 as a 10,000 ltd ed worldwide supply. It obviously didn't sell very well. Firstly a lot of gamers wouldn't even remember the original (released in 98.. I think Trousers used to have one the jammy swine) and secondly it cost £99. Which now days isn't considered bad as all of the other manus make mice for that much but three years ago it was insane.

You also didn't get a Tshirt so that will be another bonus being I only paid £35 + £3 shipping first class.

TBH I am really really hoping that the quality is better than the Salmosa. I like the way it works but the quality is dreadful. At least with the Boomslang they send you a spare teflon feet kit thinger.

Those alone are about £5. And the Salmosa only cost around £18 del IIRC.

Oh I'm also gonna switch keyboards to the Reclusa whilst I'm at it and give that a go :)
Yawn.

Before I write this I will tell you where to get this from for the price I paid. Otherwise? Well the closest you will get is play doing it for £49.99 at 50% off.

http://overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.p ... =KB-042-RA

In the beginning.

Razer started out at the end of the 90s. They began with one product and one product only ; the Boomslang. If you weren't aware of what a Boomslang is then let me enlighten you.

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Pretty little fellow isn't he? You wouldn't think he was very dangerous at all. Well he is. What makes him different however is the way he is constructed. Instead of having fangs at the front of his mouth the Boomslang has them at the back. Making it notoriously hard to be bitten and invenomated. However, if you are bitten and he does get those fangs in? Brother, you are in all kinds of trouble. Drop for drop the Boomslang's venom is right up there. The Boomslang's venom is a hemotoxin. This means that if you are bitten your blood will not clot and become thin and watery. You will likely die as a result of internal and external bleeding.

God I love snakes. If there is one thing man has had trouble messing with on this planet it is snakes.

So there you go, you can now consider yourself of Steve Irwin status.

Moving on then it's clear to see that Razer are into snakes. Maybe as much as I am? maybe not. Looking at their product lineup over the past few years I would say yes.

The Boomslang was what was considered the first real gaming mouse. From what I recall it was the first mouse ever packaged labelled and sold with the title gaming mouse.

This was a very bold claim from Razer who at the time no one had heard of. Also this was way back in the day when our mice had balls in and you constantly had to take them apart, clean the ball and scrape the gank and fluff from the little roller wheels.

Did I have a Boomslang? no !. But then back then £100+ for a mouse was ludicrous. I know a couple of people who did however and they said and still say that the Boomslang is simply the best mouse they have ever used. Pretty high acclaim eh? Up until 2007 Razer had made the Boomslang in two variants. The original and the one that was launched around 2001.

Back then most of us simply found the nicest mice we could find (usually M$) and mess with the settings in windows to make it go faster (at a loss of accuracy). The Boomslang changed all of that and pretty much tipped it on its head.

That was then, this is now.

Fast forward to 2007. Razer could have quite simply left the Boomslang where it was with its almost legendary status and forgotten about it. But no, they were going to not only remake the Boomslang but redesign and make it better than ever before. Gone would be the ball that was at the bottom of the mouse under your palm (revolutionary at the time) and would be replaced by a lazer. Other than that though the design was going to remain pretty much the same but the finish would be changed. They also decided that they were only going to make 10,000 units. I suppose they figured they would sell faster than hot cakes but the main problem was that the original Boomslang cost £100. In 1999. That would buy you a Voodoo 3 3000 (well, almost, they were £130 at the time).

So what do I get?

Taken from Razer's site

The Razer Boomslang™ Collector's Edition 2007 - the original gaming mouse that took the world by storm - is now back by popular demand. Coming to you this fall, the Razer Boomslang™ Collector's Edition 2007 has everything you loved in the original Razer Boomslang™ and more.

1800dpi 3G Infrared Sensor

The 3G infrared sensor in the Razer Boomslang CE enables movement speeds at 2.25 times faster when compared to a standard 800dpi optical sensor. Before the enemy sees you, he's been fragged.

32KB Onboard Memory

With a 32KB onboard memory, you can store up to five unique gaming profiles.

1000Hz Ultrapolling™

A response time of 1ms, as compared to that of 125Hz / 8ms found in conventional gaming mice, gives you the competitive edge over your opponents.

Sounds good. Now let's have a look shall we?

The box is a nice black cardboard type affair with a pretty thick clump of brushed alu on the end keeping it closed. It has the Razer logo stamped in it and must have cost them a pretty penny to have done it this way. You can tell they loved the original Boomslang and (even if you had never had one) want you to love the new one.

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Taking that off and opening up the top (and peeling back a cloth cover to protect the card) you can then see your credit card style ID number. Yes, they really care so much about this mouse that they are going to have these cards pressed and made with unique numbers on. They could have simply gone for paper or card but they actually went to the trouble (and expense) of having proper credit card like ID cards made.

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So by now we are beginning to realise the quality and workmanship on the packaging. So, we delve a little further and then we get to this.

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It's a tin made of metal with the Razer logo on ! Opening it you will find -

Lots of foam protection.

A Boomslang 2007 mouse.

Spare teflon skid feet for the mouse (these are about £6 a set !)

Manuals and product sheet.

Installation CD.

The cable on it is just long. Really really long (7 feet). Plugged in and put on the desktop you are greeted with this.

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If we look toward the bottom we can see one of the side buttons (one each side of the body) and one of the green light ring on the mouse. Contrary to what I had read before hand you can see it and see it well. I would imagine it depends on mouse mats though.

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The body of the mouse is made up of that wonderful velvetty like rubber stuff that every one seems to be using now and a titanium coloured shell.

Build quality

Incase you missed it go back and look at how this thing comes packaged. TBH I would have no problem stating that the £35 you can get this mouse for now would have been for the packing at the original price of £99. The mouse doesn't dissapoint either. It's firm, sturdy and incredibly solid. I had a Salmosa before and it felt light tacky and cheap. But then, it was. That was a £15 mouse and this is a £99 mouse and you really can tell the difference.

The software

Normally I wouldn't bother with this but the mouse was really slow. With the Salmosa it had switches on the underside so I didn't need to bother with the CD. This time however I had to install it. The software is nice and simple and very easy to use and looks like this.

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Pretty self explanatory.

The feel

This is quite a big mouse and I have small hands. At first it seemed a little strange but within ten minutes I was browsing the web like never before. Instead of moving my mouse to the forward and back buttons on my browser and clicking on them I was simply pressing the left side button with my thumb to go back and the right side button with my little (pinky) finger to go forward. I was quite set aback by how quickly I took to this, especially when you consider I began my PC career building 286SX units for Samsung.

The glide of the mouse is also quite lovely. It's slick and requires just the right ammount of movement to get it where you want it to go.

However, it is incredibly fussy about the surface You can see my mouse pad in the pics. I got it free from Dell on a promotion but they used to charge about £30 for it. It's a darn good mouse pad but sadly it's not good enough for the Razer. If you move the mouse slowly it seems to read the pattern in the mat and get a bit juddery. So I shall be ordering a Razer mat to go with it shortly.

The outcome

Well colour me impressed. I guess this is the first time I have ever had a £99 computer mouse in my sweaty mitt and it will probably be the last unless when it wears out I find another mega bargain. I really like the Boomslang 2007 and gaming with it seems snappier and cleaner. Due to the nice weight of the body it's incredibly accurate and really does show me just how poor the Salmosa was in comparrison. Hats off to Razer for trying to make a budget mouse with the Salmosa but it really doesn't show off what they are all about. The Boomslang is a class apart from pretty much anything I have used before (and that's easy to understand when you realise that it cost £99 at launch).

However I also accept that this mouse may not be for everyone. It's a very marmite product and I would imagine that is why not only can you still get one from the 10,000 units that were distributed world wide but also why it is in the bargain bin. Gamers are usually young and thus would have no idea of Razer's history or heritage. If it wasn't for the original Boomslang and its loyal following though? well, you wouldn't have your Razer mouse, keyboard or headseat etc today.

So I think a fair summary of the Boomslang would be to give it the classic car status. Sure there are newer, faster, sleeker models but you just can not deny it's charm and build quality.

The good

This thing screams quality right down your eardrum until you get that horrid piercing pain in the side of your neck. The build quality is just ridiculous and I actually quiver when I think about how much they threw into the R&D and packing. You can just tell that this wasn't done to make money but to celebrate the Boomslang. And in my eyes that makes it fabulous. You can get one for £35. TBH even if you were not going to ever get it out and use it it's worth that just to take it out now and then and look at it.

The bad

Call me critical but I will always find bad with something. I'm never blindsided enough not to notice flaws. The Boomslang was obviously designed for men. Real men with massive hands and fingers like bananas. That doesn't rule you out if you have smaller more delicate hands but it does make it a little harder to get used to. Once used to it you will love or hate it. As I mentioned before this is the mouse version of Marmite. It also does not like all of the surfaces I have tried it on and can be a bit fussy. TBH at this level I am not surprised. It's kinda like buying a Ferrari and running it on watered down low octane petrol.

Final thoughts.

Get one now.

EDIT.

This mouse is advertised with a Tshirt (a free one). I did not recieve one and tbh I wasn't expecting it because it did not come as a part of the original package. However I did email OCUK and explained that whilst I wasn't bothered about it (I wanted a mouse not a fashion statement) that they might want to change the description. I received a very timely response from OCUK who apologised profusely and said that I was indeed supposed to get it. I was then pointed to here -

http://eu.razerzone.com/razer-gear/losi ... itude-tee/

And given a choice of colour and style. Both are very large however (white XXL and black is XXXL) but hey, if it arrives I get another 20E worth for my £35.
I'm not sure I could get on with that - it's a really odd shape round by the buttons. I'd be the first to admit though that Razer make some damn fine PC accessories. As mentioned earlier, my own mouse at home is the Razer Mamba and not only is the build quality superb and the ergonmic design on it spectacular, the sensitivity and smoothness of it (admittedly I've paired it with a Razer hard mousemat, which helps) are out of this world. You can also alter the sensitivity from buttons on the mouse itself, so no matter what you're doing, you can quickly change the DPI settings so that you need the whole of the mousemat to move a tiny amount to swiping the cursor across whole screens with just a tiny movement. It is fucking excellent.

I've been increasingly giving thoughts to buying one of their keyboards, such is my detestation for the Logitech horror that I'm currently using. I genuinely find I don't get on with any Logitech keyboards - I'm sure they're fine for most but the actual action on the keys feels just nasty to me.
Zio wrote:
You can also alter the sensitivity from buttons on the mouse itself, so no matter what you're doing, you can quickly change the DPI settings so that you need the whole of the mousemat to move a tiny amount to swiping the cursor across whole screens with just a tiny movement.

My little Logi MX518 has that, too. It's handy for sniping.
Heh, that's pretty much what I use the function for on mine! It is certainly very handy.
Grim... wrote:
My little Logi MX518 has that, too. It's handy for sniping.
I was just about to say that. I have to say, I'm very impressed with the 518 I bought for the office -- I'll get another for home at some point.
I like my gigabyte gm-m6800 for the office it was only £8.00 from play so worth a punt
Zio wrote:
I'm not sure I could get on with that - it's a really odd shape round by the buttons..


That is honestly one of the best parts of this mouse. The layout is genius. Here is a shot of my hand on the mouse with my thumb (completely naturally) ending up on the side button.

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And here is the other side with my pinky falling right onto the other side button.

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I have incredibly small hands and fingers and my hand just falls right into place. As I mentioned in the review the side buttons are just so natural and it all happens so quickly. Normally when I try and adapt to something new it takes me ages but I was back and fwding web pages after about ten minutes. Quite cleverly all the big end part is there to do is have the buttons on. The actual grip is taken care of very cleverly with the small front part. The large back part just gives it balance and stops you from tipping it. My Salmosa used to tip when I was in a panic situ in a FPS. It was very narrow.

Zio wrote:
I'd be the first to admit though that Razer make some damn fine PC accessories. As mentioned earlier, my own mouse at home is the Razer Mamba and not only is the build quality superb and the ergonmic design on it spectacular, the sensitivity and smoothness of it (admittedly I've paired it with a Razer hard mousemat, which helps) are out of this world. You can also alter the sensitivity from buttons on the mouse itself, so no matter what you're doing, you can quickly change the DPI settings so that you need the whole of the mousemat to move a tiny amount to swiping the cursor across whole screens with just a tiny movement. It is fucking excellent.


I've not looked into the button sensitivity tbh. I doubt it does that. It's an older design and I suppose in a way more 'no frills' than some newer mice. But I've never used anything like it before. The grip glide and precision are just incredible.I want to get a Razer mat but the Steelseries are a lot cheaper for the same thing really. Still, I'm sure if I poke hard enough I will find myself a bargain :) Talking of bargains though, IMO the Boomslang is worth the £35 even if you just got it out and looked at it once in a while. I'm almost gutted to have to use it and wear it lol.

Zio wrote:
I've been increasingly giving thoughts to buying one of their keyboards, such is my detestation for the Logitech horror that I'm currently using. I genuinely find I don't get on with any Logitech keyboards - I'm sure they're fine for most but the actual action on the keys feels just nasty to me.


In reviews at least the Razer boards do not match up to the Roccats. The Roccat mice would be better too apparently if they did not come with problems. The Kone is notorious for the scroll wheel breaking and collapsing into the mouse. Fair dos to Roccat they did replace all of their faulty mice and send people £5 but still, not something I would want to throw £60 at.

As for Logitech? Gone down the toilet IMO. I was expecting stupendous results from my TACTX board. Two months in and the keys were clacking and the space bar wobbling. I admit I am really heavy handed on my boards and I smack the space bar around like a pimp slaps his bitches, but the $30 Logitech I had in the USA for about five years did no such thing. Changing it for this Reclusa I can see that the Reclusa is like the red M$/Alienware board I had. The keys are a lot more solid.

Whether it will stay that way of course? I don't know, but if M$ are unlike Logitech (finding ways to do it cheaper whilst sacrificing the quality) and this M$ board is anything like the others I have used then it will win hands down.
I won a boomslang when I was a pro gaymer.

It was ok, but not as nice as my logitech laser mouse.

Malc
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
Grim... wrote:
My little Logi MX518 has that, too. It's handy for sniping.
I was just about to say that. I have to say, I'm very impressed with the 518 I bought for the office -- I'll get another for home at some point.


Good ol' trusty 518. I wouldn't hesitate to get another if this one conks out.
Well it's been a day full of pleasant surprises so far :)

Postie came at 9am with the card. He had actually posted mine out when he said he did (before I even sent the sound card). Card came very well packed.

Opened it up and got pleasant surprise 1. Card is an EVGA 8800 Ultra KO edition. It has a whacking great fin sink on the back of the card and is overclocked quite hard. It's a;so in very good condition.

Pleasant surprise number 2. It uses two 6 pin so I don't need to use an adapter or break down the case to get to the 8 pin power plugs.

Pleasant surprise 3. It hasn't been 'baked'. Basically a lot of people on Ebay refurb cards by baking them in the oven with some flux spray. I mean, baking works, but I wouldn't have been best pleased. I also found out last night that it's highly likely that a display driver (physical) has broken giving the DVI1 problem. This is far from terminal as it runs on its own circuitry so DVI2 should be good to go. It's caused by ESD when plugging in your monitor :)

Pleasant surprise 4. It does exactly what he said it does. Here it is fitted. It's an absolute beast.

Image

Pleasant surprise 5. It's quieter than my 8600gts-es. I knew it would be as it uses a larger fan. The 8600s have those horrid little whiny fans.

Once the driver was installed I ran GPUZ and got this.

Image

So it was time for some fun. Here is a 3DMV from when I had the 8600GTS in SLI mode. Note the CPU and GPU scores.

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And now note the scores on this puppy. I had a strong feeling this would happen and now understand why Custom PC said that if you already had an 8800u/GTX that it wasn't worth going 2 series unless you absolutely couldn't help yourself.

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What's really bizarre is the CPU score, but I have that figured out in theory. I remember doing a test with Zio a while back and he scored 40 odd thousand on the CPU score. I scored 12,000 or so with my Phenom 2. Well, I can now safely assume that it's because of Cuda cores. The 8600GTS do not have any and are not DX10 compatible. The 8800u does. I managed to score almost 30k with a 65nm 2.66ghz Phenom 1. Orsum :D

Now it was time for the acid test, and the one that scares me ; Furmark.

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That is the benchmark. The absolute hottest I could get it was 90c after half an hour. So all told I am absolutely delighted. The whole card has just been repasted with thermal paste and obviously has made it this far (due to the extra cooling I would imagine) so hopefully it will last into the future. For sound I just refitted the Terratec as I have always had a soft spot for that one :)
Because when some one you never met sends you Dominator for a review you wrote that made him smile? that's Impulse.

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My XFX 4890 keeps overheating...

Is there a way I can make it not? Either through software or an aftermarket cooler?
Airflow.

What case are you using Lew? The only time I have ever had my card/s run hot is when they are being starved of cool air..

Maybe it might be time to go with a new case mate?

If so then this thing is absolutely unbeatable for the price and cooling. You're looking about £32 all in and it has a, wait for it, thirty six cm fan on the side bringing in cold air :o

Sure it's not the prettiest girl on the street but man, cold air will be in abundance.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Xclio-Pr ... ne-w-o-PSU
Before you go spending money, open the case up, leave the side off, and point a desk fan or something at the innards. If that fixes the problem it's airflow. If it doesn't, it's something else.
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
Before you go spending money, open the case up, leave the side off, and point a desk fan or something at the innards. If that fixes the problem it's airflow. If it doesn't, it's something else.


Reavers?
If it were reavers, we'd already be dead.
Thanks, I'll give that a try.
Check for the latest drivers, too.
LewieP wrote:
My XFX 4890 keeps overheating...

Is there a way I can make it not? Either through software or an aftermarket cooler?


Have you tried vacuuming the fluff out of its heatsink?
It could be a rare case of thermal grease degradation if it isn't poor airflow. The card is quite new though isn't it? Do you have a front fan bringing air in?

Also consider that lately it's been very hot. My CPU has gone from idling @ 39c to idling at 45 and a friend of mine almost sent back his 5770 because he thought there was something wrong with it.

If it is airflow (highly likely, depending on your case of course and how it is made up) and you don't fancy buying a new case you can always do something creative :) I did this mod recently to my cousin's computer because he was idling quite high. Reduced the idle by 9c and the max temps were well under 80c (which is apparently how you keep an 8800GTX alive for ages).

Image

Simple mod really. 120mm fan and a couple of plastic corner brackets.

Also never ever ever take a vacuum cleaner anywhere near your PC. You will regret it. ESD is 99.9% possible and will kill your components. Canned air is the solution to that, but I think your card was recent so it shouldn't be built up yet.
JohnCoffey wrote:
Also never ever ever take a vacuum cleaner anywhere near your PC. You will regret it. ESD is 99.9% possible and will kill your components.


LOL! :D
I regularly vacuum my computerator.
Ex wife and I brought a load of Dell Optiplex from a school auction. Very very cheap. Brought them home and tested, all working.

Got out the vacuum cleaner and two of the three we vacuumed out were zapped.

Last year a friend of mine did the same thing, ended up having to buy a new computer.

If the hoover pipe is plastic it generates static as fluff and crap fly up the tube. This in turn generates static.

But hey, if you are prepared to go for it BMG :) Just know there are risks.
MaliA wrote:
I regularly vacuum my computerator.


Ditto. Well, not regularly, but I do vacuum it.
JohnCoffey wrote:
Ex wife and I brought a load of Dell Optiplex from a school auction. Very very cheap. Brought them home and tested, all working.

Got out the vacuum cleaner and two of the three we vacuumed out were zapped.

Last year a friend of mine did the same thing, ended up having to buy a new computer.

If the hoover pipe is plastic it generates static as fluff and crap fly up the tube. This in turn generates static.

But hey, if you are prepared to go for it BMG :) Just know there are risks.


How is it that you're the inly one who ever seems to suffer from these problems?
What were you doing? Shoving the nozzle actually into the fan?
Mr Dave wrote:
JohnCoffey wrote:
Ex wife and I brought a load of Dell Optiplex from a school auction. Very very cheap. Brought them home and tested, all working.

Got out the vacuum cleaner and two of the three we vacuumed out were zapped.

Last year a friend of mine did the same thing, ended up having to buy a new computer.

If the hoover pipe is plastic it generates static as fluff and crap fly up the tube. This in turn generates static.

But hey, if you are prepared to go for it BMG :) Just know there are risks.


How is it that you're the inly one who ever seems to suffer from these problems?
What were you doing? Shoving the nozzle actually into the fan?


No just vacuuming them out. Thankfully they owed us about 2p each so it wasn't a problem.

The worst case I saw was a mate of mine last year. He actually had a decent PC. Killed it stone dead.
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