possibly the most powerful pc you have ever seen... [Archive]

Ebola

12-22-2006, 05:24 PM

THREE screens...

FIVE hard drives...

TWO 8800's

WTF?!

* Intel® Core™2 Extreme QX6700
(4x2,66GHz, 4MB L2-Cache)
* 2x GeForce® 8800 GTX SLI Mode
(768MB GDDR3 RAM)
* 4x 1024MB DDR2-1000 OCZ
(PC2-8000, CL3)
* 5x 73GB SAS Festplatten
(15.000 U/Min., RAID)
* 4GB RAM-Disk OCZ
(4x 1024MB DDR-400)
* Blue Ray DVD- Brenner
(2x BS, Philips)
* 3x BenQ FP93GX 19" TFT
(300cd/q, 700:1, 2ms, DVI)

link (http://www.ultraforce.de/product_info.php/info/p47_AeonFlow-INTEL-Core2-Extreme-8800GTX-SLI.html/XTCsid/1688b95a8bf20ba023a33041fd3516dd)

Not terribly impressed. Thats an awful lot for a "low" end pc:)

Here's something more to my liking and I work on these:

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantdl585/images/dl585-prod-shot.gif

HP proliant DL 585 Server
And yes, it's a server but it's still configured to run WinblowZ which means you could use it as a PC.

1. Eight 64-bit PCI-X I/O Slots (Six 100 MHz, two 133 MHz) 2. 2 or 4 processors/memory boards 3. 2 or 4 AMD Opteron 800 Series Processors 4. Up to 128 GB of PC2700 DDR SDRAM with Advanced ECC, running at 266 MHz, 64 GB of PC2700 running at 333 MHz or 32 GB of PC3200 running at 400 MHz 5. Hot Plug Redundant Fans (standard) 6. 4U (7" Height) Rack Form Factor 7. Tool-less "Snap In" rail solution
8. Server Lifting Handle 9. Front Panel LED Display (internal and external health, Unit ID light) and Power Button 10. Ultra320 Drive Cage, capable of simplex or duplex configuration, upgradeable to Small Form Factor (SFF) Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) drive technology 11. Dual 870-Watt Hot Plug Redundant Power Supplies (hi/lo line auto-sensing 12. Two Universal Media Bays: 24X CD-ROM IDE and 1.44 MB Diskette Drive (standard) 13. Multi-Bay floppy and CD-ROM drives, standard on most models 14. QuickFind Diagnostic Display (viewable through the Top Access Panel) 15. Removable Top Access Panel 16. Integrated Lights-Out (iLO)- not shown
17. Dual Port NC7782 embedded NIC - not shown
The machine holds 12 drives internally and they are all U320 SCSI Hot pluggable and Hot swappable drives.

You can attach a nice little array as well. The standard on-board config is around 1.6 TB but you could easily add an additional 5-6 TB of storage with no problems at all.

Processors:
AMD Opteron 800 series up to 2.6 GHz Dual-Core processors OR
AMD Opteron 800 series up to 2.8 GHz single core processors
Two or four total processors supported
AMD Opteron 8000 chipset supporting up to 1 GHz HyperTransport
Memory:
4 GB of PC3200 DDR SDRAM, running at 400 MHz, expandable to 32 GB
2 GB of PC2700 DDR SDRAM, running at 333 MHz, expandable to 128 GB with support for PC2700 DDR with Advanced ECC SDRAM (64 GB running at 333 MHz or 128 GB running at 266 MHz)
Storage Controller:
Integrated Smart Array 5i Plus Controller (Dual Channel, Ultra3) with 64 MB total memory on 5i Plus Memory Module
Transportable Battery-Backed Write Cache Enabler module
Internal Drive Support:
Choice of Internal Hot Plug Drive Storage:
Up to 1.20TB (4 x 300GB Ultra320 SCSI hard drives)
Up to 1.168TB (8 x 146GB SFF SAS hot plug drives)
Or support for one DAT hot plug tape drive and two hot plug hard drives
Multi-Bay floppy and CD-ROM drives
Network Controller:
Embedded NC7782 PCI-X Gigabit Server Adapter
Expansion Slots:
Eight total full length slots: six 64-bit/100 MHz PCI-X; two 64-bit/133 MHz PCI-X
USB 1.0 Ports:
Two total: 2 rear ports
Redundancy:
Redundant hot plug power supplies and fans
Management:
Integrated Lights-Out Standard Management (iLO) on system board
Innovative diagnostic lighting (QuickFind Diagnostic Display) for rapid response to service events Crap, I have 3.2 TB of storage here on this system at home. Storage is dirt cheap....and 2, 21 inch LCD monitors:) I'm looking at getting a third but I need a bigger desk...soon, very soon:)

bigearth

12-23-2006, 02:49 PM

Ebola

01-01-2007, 02:25 AM

that's a server!

not a "pc"...btw, you did notice the quadro cpu?

that's FOUR-core, in case you didn't notice...

what about access times and bandwith figures for that storage, never mind how big it is, i can get sata2 250gb drives for £50 these days...as you say storage is cheap...even if disk sub systems have not kept pace with other components, performance-wise...

run 3dmark06, tell me what you get?

i can just about break 5,000...

Yeah, just kidding about the low end PC.

That really is a nice system but my home system is partially comprised of the following: Asus A8n-SLI Premium board, 4 GB of DDR 3200 ram, AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 dual core socket 939, 2 BFG Tech 7950 GT 512 mb video cards, 650 watt ps, 3 onboard sata 250 gb drives, and the system connects to an HP Storage Works disk array with 10 250 gb scsi drives. I'm tired of upgrading every year so I planned this out and the CPU I am using is the last of the 939's.

The only reason I have that array was because it was a demo and I got it for essentially nothing through my day to day dealings with HP. Otherwise it would run in the thousands of thousands of $$$ to purchase. All the drives are Ultra 320 scsi. Fast as hell and I have 4 bays open for more disks! Unfortunately I can't use the Smart Array card or I could worry less about data loss. Right now I am storing my entire DVD collection on the array and I am running out of room.

We stream movies and videos wirelessly to 2 TV's in the house and I don't feel like carting discs around. I will probably need another TB or 2 to complete the dvd cataloging. I compressed them to 4.7 gb and ditched the titles and menus unless absolutely needed. I needed a reasonably fast PC to do this and I know it's a bit excessive but so what:) I could always add another HP enclosure or two....but that's pushing it. My next endeavour is to upgrade the monitors. I can get decent 27 inch monitors now for a reasonable price but I need a bigger desk! A friend of mine is using an HD ceiling projector to a motorized drop down screen for his PC. Nice as hell but I don't have the walls space available.

:)

Funny you should mention 3dmark. I downloaded it today and ran it with a 10,200 score. It has to be the dual SLI video cards that helped things along. I found a bottleneck with these monitors running at a 60 Hz refresh rate so I upped them to 85 Hz and that got my score up.

bigearth

01-01-2007, 09:35 AM

Yeah, just kidding about the low end PC.

That really is a nice system but my home system is partially comprised of the following: Asus A8n-SLI Premium board, 4 GB of DDR 3200 ram, AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 dual core socket 939, 2 BFG Tech 7950 GT 512 mb video cards, 650 watt ps, 3 onboard sata 250 gb drives, and the system connects to an HP Storage Works disk array with 10 250 gb scsi drives. I'm tired of upgrading every year so I planned this out and the CPU I am using is the last of the 939's.
aha...looks a nice system...

i'm going for a core 2 duo, E6600 (it's got the 4mb of L2 cache), based system in the spring...getting four of them for me and my brothers...

i got a mate who's got one, with a pony old 6800gt card in it...he says it flies...

i recently got a 7900GTO kinda cheap GTX stop-gap, until i upgrade to a 8800GTX in the summer...it's fantastic value for £180 in vat and delivery...

prices are still a bit mad for the 880 atm...

the 8800 is the first DX10 card,which you will need for crysis...

here's a new vid for crysis...

http://rapidshare.com/files/5797717/crysisdx10b_hd_pcfreaksworld.de.rar.html

it's a bit fiddly, but you can git it without registering...

The only reason I have that array was because it was a demo and I got it for essentially nothing through my day to day dealings with HP. Otherwise it would run in the thousands of thousands of $$$ to purchase. All the drives are Ultra 320 scsi. Fast as hell and I have 4 bays open for more disks! Unfortunately I can't use the Smart Array card or I could worry less about data loss. Right now I am storing my entire DVD collection on the array and I am running out of room.
wow, storage junky!

We stream movies and videos wirelessly to 2 TV's in the house and I don't feel like carting discs around. I will probably need another TB or 2 to complete the dvd cataloging. I compressed them to 4.7 gb and ditched the titles and menus unless absolutely needed. I needed a reasonably fast PC to do this and I know it's a bit excessive but so what:) I could always add another HP enclosure or two....but that's pushing it. My next endeavour is to upgrade the monitors. I can get decent 27 inch monitors now for a reasonable price but I need a bigger desk! A friend of mine is using an HD ceiling projector to a motorized drop down screen for his PC. Nice as hell but I don't have the walls space available.

:)
yeah projectors, you nutcase!

funny thing is about storage, is that dvd's ARE a form of disc based storage...

instead of all the dvd crunching and ripping, why not just by a dvd jukebox?!

shove them all in there, access from wherever?

serve up via local broadcast even?!

sure beats all that processing...:rolleyes:

Funny you should mention 3dmark. I downloaded it today and ran it with a 10,200 score. It has to be the dual SLI video cards that helped things along. I found a bottleneck with these monitors running at a 60 Hz refresh rate so I upped them to 85 Hz and that got my score up.
3dmark06 actually..

you don't improve performance by changing your refresh rate, btw...practically every time you run it you get a different score, albeit very close to each other...

that just affects how the monitor displays the image...not how quickly the 'puter can render it...it will be less flickery on higher refresh rates...of which you should be careful you don't exceed the recommended settings, otherwise you can fry your toob...d00d...

Ebola

01-01-2007, 12:15 PM

aha...looks a nice system...

i'm going for a core 2 duo, E6600 (it's got the 4mb of L2 cache), based system in the spring...getting four of them for me and my brothers...

i got a mate who's got one, with a pony old 6800gt card in it...he says it flies...

i recently got a 7900GTO kinda cheap GTX stop-gap, until i upgrade to a 8800GTX in the summer...it's fantastic value for £180 in vat and delivery...

prices are still a bit mad for the 880 atm...

the 8800 is the first DX10 card,which you will need for crysis...

here's a new vid for crysis...

http://rapidshare.com/files/5797717/crysisdx10b_hd_pcfreaksworld.de.rar.html

it's a bit fiddly, but you can git it without registering...

wow, storage junky!

yeah projectors, you nutcase!

funny thing is about storage, is that dvd's ARE a form of disc based storage...

instead of all the dvd crunching and ripping, why not just by a dvd jukebox?!

shove them all in there, access from wherever?

serve up via local broadcast even?!

sure beats all that processing...:rolleyes:

3dmark06 actually..

you don't improve performance by changing your refresh rate, btw...practically every time you run it you get a different score, albeit very close to each other...

that just affects how the monitor displays the image...not how quickly the 'puter can render it...it will be less flickery on higher refresh rates...of which you should be careful you don't exceed the recommended settings, otherwise you can fry your toob...d00d...

I thought about the new Intel cpu's and AMD for that matter but I have life left in this pc and it works well. Plus i've sunk a ton of $$ into it so why bother:)

I know the dvd's are a form of storage but it's nice to be able to hit a couple of buttons on a remote control and pop goes the movie in seconds:) Plus throw in about 1.5 tb worth of mp3's and we're set! Besides, it only takes a minute or so to rip a dvd apart. And they're being served wirelessly through 2 media centers.

I actually saw a slight improvement by upping the refresh rate mostly in the form of smoother frames. The monitors both support the rate I am at and they won't go out of specs. I hit the auto config buttons on each one and if they can't handle it they tell me.

I checked prices on the 8800 the other day and they're simply not worth it for me now. The 2 7950's are linked together and they fly. I run FSX at max everything and it does fine.

Gotta start trolling for the next best thing...or maybe more storage:)

bigearth

01-02-2007, 12:34 PM

I thought about the new Intel cpu's and AMD for that matter but I have life left in this pc and it works well. Plus i've sunk a ton of $$ into it so why bother:)

I know the dvd's are a form of storage but it's nice to be able to hit a couple of buttons on a remote control and pop goes the movie in seconds:) Plus throw in about 1.5 tb worth of mp3's and we're set! Besides, it only takes a minute or so to rip a dvd apart. And they're being served wirelessly through 2 media centers.
imo it would be easier to have a dvd jukebox...

ok i know dvd's won't last forever, but be honest, how many times can you watch the same movie?!

ok, if it's a classic like "stir crazy", fair enough, but how many films that you personally could watch again and again are you going to benefit from serving up via a storage solution?

then there's the cost of running it?

how much electricity does a dvd jukebox take up, compared to 1.5tb of storage system?

it's nice to have the facility and to play with it, but in the real world, is it REALLY a benefit?

I actually saw a slight improvement by upping the refresh rate mostly in the form of smoother frames. The monitors both support the rate I am at and they won't go out of specs. I hit the auto config buttons on each one and if they can't handle it they tell me.
yeah sure , of course it will look good, the higher the better, definitely...but it won't impact on 3dmark score...

what's probably happening is that ytou are running it a 2nd or 3rd time and things are being cached, so it looks like a better score...

you should run any benchmark app, at least 3 times and average out the score, imo :)

I checked prices on the 8800 the other day and they're simply not worth it for me now. The 2 7950's are linked together and they fly.
yeah, sure...

2x7950's is pretty awesome graphics power, actually...

dual-cards come into their own, at res's above 1280x1024...btw...at 1024x768, from what i've seen, bizarrely, the top single cards beat dual card solutions...

btw, the R600 details are beginning to leak, with the phrase "8-42 per cent" improvement over the 8800GTX, so i heard, today (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/01/02/amd_ati_r600_spec_leak/)...

I run FSX at max everything and it does fine.
fsx?

Gotta start trolling for the next best thing...or maybe more storage:)
MORE storage?!

you is a storage junkie, my mayan...!

well, i think DX10/crysis, is A 'next big thing' or at least the hype is pointing towards that...

not much else on the gaming front...it's gonna take a while for DX10 to take off anyway, imo...

medieval2 is a great game, try that?

you can git the demo, needs some POWER to run it, but that shouldn't bother you?!

the full game rocks, i just havn't had a chance to really get into it, as i'm delivering a website, on friday morning...so i hope it all fires up like it looks on my dev pc!

i'm actually looking to set up an online game with medieval2...should achieve that soon...

...and i'm moving, have to be out by friday week...:rolleyes:

(moving home is a pain in the ass)

Ebola

01-02-2007, 01:33 PM

imo it would be easier to have a dvd jukebox...

ok i know dvd's won't last forever, but be honest, how many times can you watch the same movie?!

ok, if it's a classic like "stir crazy", fair enough, but how many films that you personally could watch again and again are you going to benefit from serving up via a storage solution?

then there's the cost of running it?

how much electricity does a dvd jukebox take up, compared to 1.5tb of storage system?

it's nice to have the facility and to play with it, but in the real world, is it REALLY a benefit?

Actually it doesn't use much power since all it's doing is running drives. And they, of course, aren't in use all the time. Also it serves movies almost instantly and with the disc's useable bandwidth I could probably serve 3 or more at a time on my 802.11 G network. Not to mention I can instantly pause, back up, advance, etc.... faster and easier than using a DVD. Yeah, I know it's a bit extreme but since I got the array for such a good price i couldn't pass it up:)

Looks are as important to me as high scores. If a game is more visually appealing or an app looks better and it's easier for me to see the colors as they are supposed to be then I'm ok with that:)

yeah sure , of course it will look good, the higher the better, definitely...but it won't impact on 3dmark score...

what's probably happening is that ytou are running it a 2nd or 3rd time and things are being cached, so it looks like a better score...

you should run any benchmark app, at least 3 times and average out the score, imo :)

yeah, sure...

2x7950's is pretty awesome graphics power, actually...

dual-cards come into their own, at res's above 1280x1024...btw...at 1024x768, from what i've seen, bizarrely, the top single cards beat dual card solutions...

btw, the R600 details are beginning to leak, with the phrase "8-42 per cent" improvement over the 8800GTX, so i heard, today (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/01/02/amd_ati_r600_spec_leak/)...
Looks are as important to me as high scores. If a game is more visually appealing or an app looks better and it's easier for me to see the colors as they are supposed to be then I'm ok with that.

Just for shits and giggles I ran the 3dmark 06 test again after a reboot and it scored 12,377.

I read that about single cards at lower resolutions too. It seems you aren't taxing the system enough to gain anything. I run my monitors at 1280X1024 minimum anyway. I run other apps above that resolution if I need the space.

fsx?
Flight Simulator 10..axa FSX

MORE storage?!

you is a storage junkie, my mayan...!

Correct sir, I am a storage junkie:)

What i'd really like is a Net App array but thats tens of thousands of $$$ although it can handle more than 10 TB of storage and it uses an innovative method to protect data. I'm working on scoring another Storage Works array anyway so I think I am good to go

well, i think DX10/crysis, is A 'next big thing' or at least the hype is pointing towards that...

not much else on the gaming front...it's gonna take a while for DX10 to take off anyway, imo...

medieval2 is a great game, try that?

you can git the demo, needs some POWER to run it, but that shouldn't bother you?!

the full game rocks, i just havn't had a chance to really get into it, as i'm delivering a website, on friday morning...so i hope it all fires up like it looks on my dev pc!

i'm actually looking to set up an online game with medieval2...should achieve that soon...

...and i'm moving, have to be out by friday week...:rolleyes:

(moving home is a pain in the ass)
I'm not yet convinced dx10 is "the" next big thing but if M$ is pushing it others must follow to be on top. It's all centered around Vista anyway....

Haven't tried Medieval yet. Might need to take a look at that.

I might be picking up the family in a few months as well. Got a potential oppurtunity I simply can't pass up and I have a large house to pack up which sucks!

Oh well, back to shopping for a big LCD monitor

bigearth

01-02-2007, 07:09 PM

Actually it doesn't use much power since all it's doing is running drives. And they, of course, aren't in use all the time. Also it serves movies almost instantly and with the disc's useable bandwidth I could probably serve 3 or more at a time on my 802.11 G network. Not to mention I can instantly pause, back up, advance, etc.... faster and easier than using a DVD. Yeah, I know it's a bit extreme but since I got the array for such a good price i couldn't pass it up
of course, disc access times are lower and bandwidth rates are higher with disk subsystems, but as long as it's enough to serve up the movie, wtf?

still think it will actually be of little use...to you, in your life...

maybe if you were storing new tv on it, before editing it and creating your on dvd's or something (like i'm always running out of space, keeping the source files onm disk etc), that's a bit different, but just using a storage array like that for a few films you may or may not watch, just seems a waste...

oh and btw, if you use power saving "schemes", this could mean that the disk will spin down, thereby requiring a start up time and kinda wiping out the speed thing...it's one or the other on that front...

Looks are as important to me as high scores. If a game is more visually appealing or an app looks better and it's easier for me to see the colors as they are supposed to be then I'm ok with that.

well, all that's nice, but frames per second is the be all and end all of FPS's, certainly...and a decent RTS will suffer from you not being able to spin round quick enough...the "eye candy" is nice to look at tho, that far cry vid, gives me goosebumps...it just makes me think what games after that are gonna look like!

i must admit, since i got my stop-gap 7900GTO, about 3 months ago...i regularly stop mid game, just to go "coo!"...it still hasn't warn off yet...

BF2 in 1280x1024 with everything on max is so cool...

Just for shits and giggles I ran the 3dmark 06 test again after a reboot and it scored 12,377.
holy crap...:rolleyes:

that core 2 duo, maybe be arriving a little earlier...

I read that about single cards at lower resolutions too. It seems you aren't taxing the system enough to gain anything. I run my monitors at 1280X1024 minimum anyway. I run other apps above that resolution if I need the space.
yeah, my LCD monitor native res is 1280x1024, so i oblige!

Flight Simulator 10..axa FSX
aaah, M$

Correct sir, I am a storage junkie:)
;)

What i'd really like is a Net App array but thats tens of thousands of $$$ although it can handle more than 10 TB of storage and it uses an innovative method to protect data. I'm working on scoring another Storage Works array anyway so I think I am good to go
wtf...storage megolomanic!

I'm not yet convinced dx10 is "the" next big thing but if M$ is pushing it others must follow to be on top. It's all centered around Vista anyway...
sure that's part of it, but the games sure riding piggy-back...!

Haven't tried Medieval yet. Might need to take a look at that.
seriously, the demo is good, could have done with a few more battles tho...

you get two battles, padia and agincourt...

if you play agincourt, watch out for the french they try and ride round the back and attack you from behind :rolleyes:

just get 2 squads of heavy infantry and face them backwards...and 1 x archers, behind them...

I might be picking up the family in a few months as well. Got a potential oppurtunity I simply can't pass up and I have a large house to pack up which sucks!
yup :rolleyes:

Oh well, back to shopping for a big LCD monitor

viewsonix VX924 i can recommend...not the best or the cheapest, but dam nice...

19" 4ms panel...

Ebola

01-03-2007, 10:05 AM

of course, disc access times are lower and bandwidth rates are higher with disk subsystems, but as long as it's enough to serve up the movie, wtf?

still think it will actually be of little use...to you, in your life...

maybe if you were storing new tv on it, before editing it and creating your on dvd's or something (like i'm always running out of space, keeping the source files onm disk etc), that's a bit different, but just using a storage array like that for a few films you may or may not watch, just seems a waste...

oh and btw, if you use power saving "schemes", this could mean that the disk will spin down, thereby requiring a start up time and kinda wiping out the speed thing...it's one or the other on that front...

Believe it or not I have about 500 dvd's right now. Plus all of my daughters dvd's and educational programming too. Not every dvd requires the full 4.7 gb of storage and some require more, if I want them preserved in their original state plus a couple thousand mp3's, etc....and you can see why I need the storage. The disk will spin up and serve the movie in roughly 3 seconds. There's no dvd jukebox that I know that can do it that fast. Not knocking the jukebox, just saying. Plus I am accessing the drive to search for a movie so I have to be hitting a disk and making it spin. And we serve 2 movies to 2 different tv's at a time.

well, all that's nice, but frames per second is the be all and end all of FPS's, certainly...and a decent RTS will suffer from you not being able to spin round quick enough...the "eye candy" is nice to look at tho, that far cry vid, gives me goosebumps...it just makes me think what games after that are gonna look like!

i must admit, since i got my stop-gap 7900GTO, about 3 months ago...i regularly stop mid game, just to go "coo!"...it still hasn't warn off yet...

BF2 in 1280x1024 with everything on max is so cool...
It's hard to explain. It smooths out that frames you do see. It doesn't necessarily speed anything along it just makes it a bit more pleasing.

holy crap...:rolleyes:

that core 2 duo, maybe be arriving a little earlier...

Yeah I was kinda surprised too but I guess thats both cards churning and the CPU. Problem is the dual core cpu's that AMD and Intel offer don't give us any advantage in gaming since the games aren't written to take advantage of the second core. I can't wait until the companies start producing games that utilize both cores.

yeah, my LCD monitor native res is 1280x1024, so i oblige!

aaah, M$

;)

wtf...storage megolomanic!

sure that's part of it, but the games sure riding piggy-back...!

seriously, the demo is good, could have done with a few more battles tho...

you get two battles, padia and agincourt...

if you play agincourt, watch out for the french they try and ride round the back and attack you from behind :rolleyes:

just get 2 squads of heavy infantry and face them backwards...and 1 x archers, behind them...

yup :rolleyes:

viewsonix VX924 i can recommend...not the best or the cheapest, but dam nice...

19" 4ms panel...

Yep, as I said before you can't have too much storage!

Goddamn French! I'll have to check out the game.

Believe it or not FSX is a well written game, even for M$ :)

bigearth

01-04-2007, 02:19 PM

Believe it or not I have about 500 dvd's right now. Plus all of my daughters dvd's and educational programming too. Not every dvd requires the full 4.7 gb of storage and some require more, if I want them preserved in their original state plus a couple thousand mp3's, etc....and you can see why I need the storage. The disk will spin up and serve the movie in roughly 3 seconds. There's no dvd jukebox that I know that can do it that fast. Not knocking the jukebox, just saying. Plus I am accessing the drive to search for a movie so I have to be hitting a disk and making it spin. And we serve 2 movies to 2 different tv's at a time.
mm, i'm gonna stick to my guns about real world benefits, tho...

It's hard to explain. It smooths out that frames you do see. It doesn't necessarily speed anything along it just makes it a bit more pleasing.
nyers...higher verticle refresh rates will make for a better image, sure...

Yeah I was kinda surprised too but I guess thats both cards churning and the CPU. Problem is the dual core cpu's that AMD and Intel offer don't give us any advantage in gaming since the games aren't written to take advantage of the second core. I can't wait until the companies start producing games that utilize both cores.
true, in theory..., but 2 cores can be used by the OS if it has load-balancing enabled...i.e. if one cpu is loaded, it will begin threads in the other...

did you know that even the lowly E5300 beats AMD top chip?!

which is about $500+, yet the E6300 is about $200...coool!

intel, actully doing leading edge, instead of catch-up for a change...!

Yep, as I said before you can't have too much storage!
you're a pervert ;)

Goddamn French! I'll have to check out the game.
lol!

trust me, that's EXACTLY what you think the first time you play the map...even when you know what's coming and you arrange a welcoming party for them, you still think that!

try it (the demo), it's very good...the full game is even better...

Believe it or not FSX is a well written game, even for M$ :)
actually i got no probs with M$ games...i played the original age of empires so gotdayam much...

i used to like the early bits...the stone age...i'd try and get an archery up asap and get 4-6 archers off to enemy camps and start wiping out their civilians, MUHAHAHAHA!

so funny seeing them all turn on you and try and beat your archers to death with bones, lol!

Ebola

01-05-2007, 11:59 AM

mm, i'm gonna stick to my guns about real world benefits, tho...

Gotta try it to understand what I am getting at.

nyers...higher verticle refresh rates will make for a better image, sure...

Everything is thrown out the window with FSX. With most every other game the horizon is fixed, there's a finite amout of things you can do. Not so with FSX, hence the need for absurd amounts of computing power.

true, in theory..., but 2 cores can be used by the OS if it has load-balancing enabled...i.e. if one cpu is loaded, it will begin threads in the other...

Actually, in fact it doesn't matter if there is load balancing since the app determines which CPU it uses. The app can't take full advantage unless it's written to address both cpu's. It's the parallel computing that makes a difference.

did you know that even the lowly E5300 beats AMD top chip?!

which is about $500+, yet the E6300 is about $200...coool!

intel, actully doing leading edge, instead of catch-up for a change...!

Since my board is a socket 939 and I don't feel like upgrading to a new AM2 socket board this works for me. Besides the CPU doesn't sweat at all when playing FSX. As a matter of fact the core temp is no higher than 35-41 C when churning along. It's also dual core and runs well. For me it isn't about the absolute fastest CPU since thats a bit more involved than replacing a video card.

you're a pervert ;)

lol!

Yep, and you're point is? :)

trust me, that's EXACTLY what you think the first time you play the map...even when you know what's coming and you arrange a welcoming party for them, you still think that!

try it (the demo), it's very good...the full game is even better...

actually i got no probs with M$ games...i played the original age of empires so gotdayam much...

i used to like the early bits...the stone age...i'd try and get an archery up asap and get 4-6 archers off to enemy camps and start wiping out their civilians, MUHAHAHAHA!

so funny seeing them all turn on you and try and beat your archers to death with bones, lol!

See? goddamn French!! hahaha

hahaha that would be funny to see.

bigearth

01-05-2007, 04:38 PM

here ya go, pervert!

Hitachi hails 'industry first' 1TB desktop hard drive
[Print][Mobile]
By Tony Smith [More by this author]
5th January 2007 10:09 GMT

Hitachi has announced what it claims is the world's first 1TB desktop hard drive, pledging to ship the beast later this quarter, with enterprise- and consumer electronics-oriented versions to follow in Q2.

The 3.5in Desktar 7K1000 will cost $399 at retail, but Hitachi will also offer a cheaper, 750GB model too. The drive spins at 7,200rpm and connects across a 3Gbps SATA bus, though the media data rate peaks at just over 1Gbps. It has 32MB of on-board buffer memory, a 8.7ms average seek time and a 4.17ms average latency.

Hitachi's announcement is the first formal introduction of a 1TB desktop drive. That said, Seagte is expected to announce a 1TB unit of its own next week at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Like the Hitachi drive, Seagate's product will use the perpendicular recording technique. Seagate is indicating an H1 shipping window, but it may well narrow that down next week in light of the Hitachi announcement today. ®

link (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/01/05/hitachi_unveils_first_1tb_hdd/)

bigearth

01-05-2007, 04:47 PM

Gotta try it to understand what I am getting at.
:\

i've been in i.t. since 1979...i was a system analyst on DEC alpha/VMS systems configuring, running monitoring and maintaining redundant clusters OVER TEN YEARS AGO...complete with shadowed disks...until they sunk without trace...

now i do webdev...and fart about with pc's, since the first 4.77mhz 8086...in the mid 80's...

my next system will be core 2 duo, with sata2...sometime in the spring...

i understand, believe me...

Everything is thrown out the window with FSX. With most every other game the horizon is fixed, there's a finite amout of things you can do. Not so with FSX, hence the need for absurd amounts of computing power.
have you ever tried to run f.e.a.r.?

or armed assault? (which is an absolutely terrible game)

look for the f.e.a.r. extraction point demo, it's a bit short, but you should be able to run it on full detail...it's a scream...

if you get the original f.e.a.r demo...play it and see if the hairs on the back of your neck don't stand up...i nearly shit myself...

bbbbbbut, the DADDY of them all will be crysis...you betcha i'm gonna start screaming when it's FINALLY released (we were promised it fall 2006), but that's a DX10 game...(with DX9 compatibility...)

that will test your sys, fer surrre...!

anyway computing power is not related to refresh rates...higher refresh rates will NOT affect 3dmark06 scores...

Actually, in fact it doesn't matter if there is load balancing since the app determines which CPU it uses. The app can't take full advantage unless it's written to address both cpu's. It's the parallel computing that makes a difference.
fully and efficiently, fer surre...

but core 2 duo's spank amd's, so that's all i need to know...

...and that's at stock clocks...the core 2 duo OC to fuck...

Since my board is a socket 939 and I don't feel like upgrading to a new AM2 socket board this works for me. Besides the CPU doesn't sweat at all when playing FSX. As a matter of fact the core temp is no higher than 35-41 C when churning along. It's also dual core and runs well. For me it isn't about the absolute fastest CPU since thats a bit more involved than replacing a video card.
cpu does have an effect on power of cpu to render frames...but the graphics card is the main thing...

have you actually tried having your system monitor running in the background when you play FSX?

try it, play for a bit, 5 mins or so, then quickly switch out or exit and see what your cpu chart looks like?

Yep, and you're point is? :)
;)

See? goddamn French!! hahaha

hahaha that would be funny to see.
just get the demo and try it...

i think you'll like it, esp as you will be able to run it in full detail...it's an awesome engine...

i've just today, held a presentation for delivering a website...NOW i'm gonna have some time off and do some serious gaming for about a week...:D

Ebola

01-05-2007, 11:31 PM

:\

i've been in i.t. since 1979...i was a system analyst on DEC alpha/VMS systems configuring, running monitoring and maintaining redundant clusters OVER TEN YEARS AGO...complete with shadowed disks...until they sunk without trace...

now i do webdev...and fart about with pc's, since the first 4.77mhz 8086...in the mid 80's...

So....we do have something in common:) I used to work on and service Alpha's, 4100's, 800's, etc... to be exact. Clusters in the hundreds and hundreds. Then Compaq came along and changed all that. Goodbye to the wonderful Motorola RISC cpu's and hello crappy intel style processors. All 3000+ of our systems needed new CPU trays and cpu's to go with them. 12,000+ cpu replacements! I loved the 4100's because they booted up and we're ready in about 2 minutes. That and ASE was nice because the clustering environment gave us some much needed redundancy. We migrated away from them when ISS's became the norm but we had all the old E, K, L, M, N class HP's servers. The K's were monsters. They sometimes took as much as 45 minutes to boot because they'd do a full system test every time they came up. Fortunately they regularly had uptimes of 2-3 years so our only problem was them being behind 20 or more patch bundles!

We did the Sun route too. Something from nearly every product line they have all the way up to the monster Sunfire 15,000's. talk about power consumption!

my next system will be core 2 duo, with sata2...sometime in the spring...

i understand, believe me...

have you ever tried to run f.e.a.r.?

or armed assault? (which is an absolutely terrible game)

look for the f.e.a.r. extraction point demo, it's a bit short, but you should be able to run it on full detail...it's a scream...

if you get the original f.e.a.r demo...play it and see if the hairs on the back of your neck don't stand up...i nearly shit myself...

bbbbbbut, the DADDY of them all will be crysis...you betcha i'm gonna start screaming when it's FINALLY released (we were promised it fall 2006), but that's a DX10 game...(with DX9 compatibility...)

that will test your sys, fer surrre...!

anyway computing power is not related to refresh rates...higher refresh rates will NOT affect 3dmark06 scores...

fully and efficiently, fer surre...

but core 2 duo's spank amd's, so that's all i need to know...

...and that's at stock clocks...the core 2 duo OC to fuck...

cpu does have an effect on power of cpu to render frames...but the graphics card is the main thing...

have you actually tried having your system monitor running in the background when you play FSX?

try it, play for a bit, 5 mins or so, then quickly switch out or exit and see what your cpu chart looks like?

I'll look for the f.e.a.r. demo and see if it runs.

My graphics cards shouldn't be an issue. I have 2 of them with 512 mb of ddr2 ram each linked in SLI configuration so...dunno. I think it's just the software. The CPU never sees more than 55% utilization when playing. I've run the performance graph in TM and it's not being taxed. I think the sys board is the bottleneck but it's damned fast too....in any event I think M$ is jacking with us for DX10 and future enhancements.

I'll try not to shit myself:)

just get the demo and try it...

i think you'll like it, esp as you will be able to run it in full detail...it's an awesome engine...

i've just today, held a presentation for delivering a website...NOW i'm gonna have some time off and do some serious gaming for about a week...:D

Hmmm.....1TB desktop drives???....hmmmm....I just saw some 500 mb external drives available for $199 today. $399 is not a bad price for 1 TB. I think the storage piggy needs to belly up to the trough again:)

Oh...FYI. We streamed 3 movies simultaneously tonight. JUST to see how it would do. It did fine! Try doing that with a dvd jukebox :P

bigearth

01-06-2007, 12:27 PM

So....we do have something in common:) I used to work on and service Alpha's, 4100's, 800's, etc... to be exact. Clusters in the hundreds and hundreds. Then Compaq came along and changed all that. Goodbye to the wonderful Motorola RISC cpu's and hello crappy intel style processors. All 3000+ of our systems needed new CPU trays and cpu's to go with them. 12,000+ cpu replacements! I loved the 4100's because they booted up and we're ready in about 2 minutes. That and ASE was nice because the clustering environment gave us some much needed redundancy. We migrated away from them when ISS's became the norm but we had all the old E, K, L, M, N class HP's servers. The K's were monsters. They sometimes took as much as 45 minutes to boot because they'd do a full system test every time they came up. Fortunately they regularly had uptimes of 2-3 years so our only problem was them being behind 20 or more patch bundles!
aah, the days of the 80's data centers!

that was one BIG FAT gravy train, fer surrre...

yeah, VMS is practically unhackable...with a "5 9's reliability" (i.e. 99.999%)...the Alpha was 64bit cpu in 1992 (!) (that's not motorola, btw, digital's own) and digital boxes had (like Tandems) full redundancy, erm, like 15 years ago...

personally, i think M$ killed DEC by getting compaq to buy them for $7bn...M$ will never be able to produce something as reliable as VMS.

Wolfpack or MSCS as it became known, was not, and, i believe is STILL not anywhere near what Olsens boys did...

did you know dave cutler who did a LOT of work on vms, was one of the main guys behind NT?

We did the Sun route too. Something from nearly every product line they have all the way up to the monster Sunfire 15,000's. talk about power consumption!
yeah, but i stayed away from the IX's because of their pluralism...

i thought to myself unix will never "take over the world" because of it's so many different flavors...i was sort of right, but wrong that VMS would!

I'll look for the f.e.a.r. demo and see if it runs.
oh it will, or should, at least...

see if it gave you the willies like it did me...the original demo is the worst one, but the extracttion point demo is less spooky but more fun...both are too short really, so play them on harder settings...there's also a MP demo, which i had a go of...quite cool...

My graphics cards shouldn't be an issue. I have 2 of them with 512 mb of ddr2 ram each linked in SLI configuration so...dunno. I think it's just the software. The CPU never sees more than 55% utilization when playing. I've run the performance graph in TM and it's not being taxed. I think the sys board is the bottleneck but it's damned fast too....in any event I think M$ is jacking with us for DX10 and future enhancements.
mm :\

I'll try not to shit myself:)
i'm sure you w't, i get spooked easy...fertile imagination an all that :rolleyes:

my bro has played doom3 and he said there were times, in his home, on his own, where he had to stop playing it!

Hmmm.....1TB desktop drives???....hmmmm....I just saw some 500 mb external drives available for $199 today. $399 is not a bad price for 1 TB. I think the storage piggy needs to belly up to the trough again:)
lol!

Oh...FYI. We streamed 3 movies simultaneously tonight. JUST to see how it would do. It did fine! Try doing that with a dvd jukebox :P
:rolleyes:

did you watch all three at once?!

Ebola

01-06-2007, 12:58 PM

aah, the days of the 80's data centers!

that was one BIG FAT gravy train, fer surrre...

yeah, VMS is practically unhackable...with a "5 9's reliability" (i.e. 99.999%)...the Alpha was 64bit cpu in 1992 (!) (that's not motorola, btw, digital's own) and digital boxes had (like Tandems) full redundancy, erm, like 15 years ago...

personally, i think M$ killed DEC by getting compaq to buy them for $7bn...M$ will never be able to produce something as reliable as VMS.

Wolfpack or MSCS as it became known, was not, and, i believe is STILL not anywhere near what Olsens boys did...

did you know dave cutler who did a LOT of work on vms, was one of the main guys behind NT?

Believe it or not it was 90's thing too, into the late 90's as well. We had them scattered all over the world. Same with the Tandem's, and Stratus's (atlantic and himalaya's) The CPU's I pulled out of the Compaq 4100's were Motorola RISC cpu's.

The sheer gutsy nature of the alpha's is what sold me on them but computing had to take a different turn given power, space and cooling requirements.

Compaq chose to buy out DEC because they wanted into the high end server market and they had no assets in that segment. Now HP owns Tandem, what used to be Compaq and DEC as well. I still work with a couple of folks that were engineers for DEC but stayed on with Compaq through HP's buyout. I think we may have an old 4U alpha 800 or two in use still doing work. Even though the current ISS crop is nice it still can't touch the robustness of the older proprietary hardware and it never will.

The name dave Cutler rings a bell...not sure where I heard about him.

yeah, but i stayed away from the IX's because of their pluralism...

i thought to myself unix will never "take over the world" because of it's so many different flavors...i was sort of right, but wrong that VMS would!

oh it will, or should, at least...

I still haven't seen much that can touch the Sunfire 15K in terms of sheer parallel processing and survivability. You can migrate domains to other unused hardware inside the cabinet in real time then replace a defective board and migrate it all back with no downtime and thats all in one enclosure. I recall setting up a 15K a few years ago and it refused to power on. The Sun engineers were scratching their heads that a USD 1,500,000 server refused to power on. So, i did the next best thing, I kicked the shit out of it and it energized! They cringed! :) Needless to say they replaced the power backplane but it was only a poor connection. Not sure if they appreciated my method of percussive maintenance but it was effective.

see if it gave you the willies like it did me...the original demo is the worst one, but the extracttion point demo is less spooky but more fun...both are too short really, so play them on harder settings...there's also a MP demo, which i had a go of...quite cool...

[quote]

I'll definitely check it out soon

mm :\

[quote]
i'm sure you w't, i get spooked easy...fertile imagination an all that :rolleyes:

my bro has played doom3 and he said there were times, in his home, on his own, where he had to stop playing it!

lol!

:rolleyes:

did you watch all three at once?!

I'm wprking on some tweaks I found online that I can make to config files to get better performance because I am not taxing the system at all. I just got an aircraft carrier expansion pack so i'm going to shoot some carrier landings and takeoffs. Damn thing has a catapult and arresting wires! I find it fascinating because I have a private pilots license with instrument ratings and this is pretty good. I can file an IFR flight plan and fly from say, BUF to IAD using ATC to guide me and put me on the proper flight levels. The realism is quite good.

Haven't yet and even though my imagination is sometimes fertile I don't get spooked easily. I will bring depends just in case:)