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Watercooling and RAM

2010-03-11T06:09:03Z

Well, I've been wondering why my CPU/RAM usage meter is only showing 2 out of my 3 gigabytes of DDR3 triple-channel memory. Well, as it turns out one of my sticks of RAM is bad and I need to RMA it. I called customer service, and after struggling over a language barrier I have decided to try to find the forms on the website. It just pains me to think that customer service has gone so wrong. I mean, I paid for the RAM that comes with a lifetime warranty. However, not all my customer service experiences are bad. ASUS customer service were all native speakers of English. I wouldn't have called, but I wanted to make sure I could just send back the bad RAM. My PC can run fine with two sticks, so I wanted to just end back the bad RAM. Hopefully, I'll have better luck with the website.

It's product review time! I'm reviewing the Corsair H50, which is an all-in-one, pre-assembled, pre-filled, and pre-cooked water cooling kit. O.K. I was joking about pre-cooked. So, to start I want to tell you this isn't for the faint of heart. First of all, you are putting water in your PC no matter how you look at it. This can be dangerous, so be careful when trying to cram the conduit inside the case. It is going to be a tight fit in some cases. I would also like to mention that chances are you are going to have to remove your motherboard unless you have a way to access the back of you CPU slot to put in a piece of plastic with adhesive strips. The installation took me a while for me to put in a retention ring for the water-block. Overall, the installation was made as easy as possible by Corsair and if your building a new PC this should be one of the first steps because it's easier that way. Most semi-advanced users should be able to install it. I'm just going to reiterate that you should be careful. You don't want it to leak on your brand-new Core i7 975 or anything like that. That being said, it hasn't leaked thus far. It's been on my PC since yesterday. The room my PC happens to be was at 80 degrees ferenheit, and running Prime95 the temperatures didn't go above 45 or so degrees celcius. I checked the temperatures using Real Temp. I'd say that is pretty good considering. It's also very quiet, even with all the other fans in my case it's still only a light hum. I can't review it for overclocking until tomorrow. This is the preliminary review.

PC Problems

2010-03-09T05:33:20Z

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been fixing my desktop computer. Yes, that's right, my gaming rig has had a temporary failure. I thought it was hardware, but after Memtest86+, SMART Disk Utilities, and some temperature monitoring I have come to find out that the probable suspect was my antivirus program. Although it is possible that it was a bad update, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that my antivirus program was causing my PC to crash. Apparently AVG was having some sort of compatibility issue with Windows 7. Now don't freak out if your running AVG on a Windows 7 system. I said it was the most probable source of error because I did two things before I restarted my machine and made sure it was working. I did a system restore from the last update in case the update had somehow caused problems, and I also uninstalled AVG. I uninstalled it because I had read on some various forums that many people were having crashing issues with AVG and Windows 7, but I don't believe this applies to everyone in that category. If AVG doesn't work with every Windows 7 install, then I think there would already be an update to fix it. I think it is more likely that a specific combination of software is conflicting somehow, but I'm really just guessing. Just to be clear, don't uninstall AVG just because I said there was an issue with it on my machine. Anyway, that about sums up why I haven't posted in a while.

Now, I just want to add some extra writing to this post that isn't about antivirus software. I have two GPUs in my possession because I have one in my HTPC and one in my gaming rig, and they are the same model. Well, the one in the HTPC is a newer version of the same model from the same manufacturer. Well, I've decided to dismantle my HTPC for various reasons and replace it with a box like the Boxee Box coming out later this year. I wanted to create an SLI setup with my two GPUs, but apparently my motherboard didn't come with an SLI cable. I was more than a little angry that neither my motherboard nor my graphics cards came with an SLI cable. I was then told to go buy one by customer service. Which is rather annoying because the general consensus from people I know is that is supposed to come in the box. Which kind of drives me crazy that I have to buy a cable and pay for shipping for something that should have come with my motherboard. I went to Best Buy and they don't carry that sort of thing, and they told me that it should have come in the box. I then went down to my only local mom and pop computer shop to find that they don't have them either. So, I still have to buy one online for 8 dollars and have it shipped for another 7 or 8. It's more than a little infuriating. That's really all I have to say, one rant a day is probably enough for anyone reading this anyway.

Home Theater PC

2010-02-12T17:09:48Z

I finnally set up my HTPC with a good media library. I'm running Ubuntu 9.10 and Boxee media center. Which is running smoothly. I ran into a few issues playing certain file types, but with some re-encoding everything should be O.K. Right now, it's basically a giant podcatcher with my iTunes library on it. However, I have big plans for it. The new PC cable tuners with suppor for Cable Cards should help out. I'm going to set it up with the MythTV front end, then I'm going to incorporate everything so that MythTV runs in the background. That way, I can view all my recorded content through Boxee. However, for that price I could simply get a Tivo and archive my shows on my HTPC. I still think the Cable tuner is the best idea because there is no subscription fee. In any case, my HTPC will be running great. The specs are: 3Ghz Core 2 Duo, Gigabyte EP45-UD3P, BFG Tech 9800GT, 2GB of RAM, and a 500GB WD Caviar Green SATA drive.

Social Networking

2010-02-01T04:08:32Z

Almost everybody networks in the social world. I thought I would create a place for tech pros and enthusiasts to gather. Do you love tech? I do, so I made a tech community. Anybody is welcome to join. Our doors are always open.

The iPad

2010-01-29T16:11:34Z

Almost everyone was expecting a tablet to be announced, but I stil had my doubts. I was hoping for (but not expecting) a tablet with full Mac OSX. I was wrong. The tablet is really just a big iPod Touch in terms of functionality. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I wouldn't mind having one for couch web browsing because the battery would last longer than my netbook. However, the device is missing some key features: USB ports, Adobe Flash, a webcam, and the ability to multi-task. A device this size should be able to multi-task, especially since my phone can multi-task quite well. In a web-centric device a webcam is a necessity. One feature that I'm happy to say it has is Bluetooth, but I'm unclear about using a Bluetooth keyboard. Unfortunately, a Bluetooth keyboard is probably not an option without some sort of extra program. I like the device, but they could have done so much more with this format of a smartbook style computer.

The Open Pandora

2010-01-22T04:50:27Z

The Open Pandora is an open-source computing/gaming platform. It has a nice fast processor with wi-fi and bluetooth. Which is really peaking my interest. I've never been much into portable gaming because I got rid of my Nintendo DS Lite and PSP. I didn't like them. However, a portable computer with a touchscreen and Linux really peaks my interest.

The Alienware M11X

2010-01-16T03:30:00Z

I love this thing. This was shown off at CES. An 11 inch ultra-portable sized gaming laptop. This thing is very nice, and I might add the price is nice too. It's MSRP will be $999. Also, all of the lights can change colors to whatever color you want.

The Nexus One (Google Phone)

2010-01-13T23:22:09Z

This phone's specs alone make me want one. This thing is wafer thing and has a 1Ghz processor backing it up, which should offer some serious performance on apps and games. A nice large touch screen along with the fact that it is an Android phone shapes up a beautiful product, with a 5 megapixel camera. However, I do have a few complaints. No keyboard. I'm O.K. with no keyboard as long as the screen is large enough, but I can only imagine that this is shutting people out. Why the Nexus One? Is there going to be a Nexus 2? If not, then they should have called it the Nexus instead of the Nexus One. Overall, this phone is seriously impressive. The processor being the most impressive feature in my opinion. I hope to see what kind of attention it attracts. Given that it is safe to say that Google is the highest traffic site on the web. I think that the small link we've seen on Google for the past few days will get to a lot of people.

CES

2010-01-11T22:59:51Z

Intel's Wireless Display Technology or WiDi, looks very interesting. It seems to be pretty much the same as the wireless HD standard coming soon to a TV near you. I like the idea because the transmitter is built into the laptop. In the video the screen is cut-off at the left and right side, which is probably a limitation of the laptop's dual monitor ability. This looks to be extremely interesting, and I'll be looking out for it later this year.

CES

2010-01-11T22:46:39Z

Apparently this thing is running on a regular desktop with a Core i7 processor. This is a huge amount of content being processed. I am impressed. I should also note that it is not supposed to be a commercial product, but simply a demonstration of the shear power of a Core i7 desktop. It makes me proud to own my home-built Core i7 desktop.