Re: Anecdotal accounts of Windows 7 on dual Tualatin rigs for everyday computing

Posted on 2014-06-12, 19:20

by

by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So...yeah. Go ahead and download Flash 14. It actually sucks a bit less! Thanks for the heads-up Standard Def Steve. I will test it on my system when I get back in a few days. Fortunately I have some earlier test results on Win XP, FF 28(probably flash 13) which I can compare with Flash 14. Clip …

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Re: Anecdotal accounts of Windows 7 on dual Tualatin rigs for everyday computing

Posted on 2014-06-12, 18:40

by

by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Actually that 12% load is probably dead-on; decoding/acceleration video playback is "nothing" to a modern USM GPU (consider the floating point power of a USM GPU - decoding of a 2-4Mbit 720p stream is relatively nothing). ATi cards, if I remember right, tend not to report "video engine load" like …

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Re: Anecdotal accounts of Windows 7 on dual Tualatin rigs for everyday computing

Posted on 2014-06-12, 02:23

by

by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

One thing I observed is flash fideo playback stutters on single core CPUs when doing something such as scroll or switch tabs. For example on a 3.4GHz P4 it will stutter and on a 1.8GHz C2D it will not As the anomaly rears its ugly head, this brings us to the fundamental question. Does the casually/ …

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Re: Anecdotal accounts of Windows 7 on dual Tualatin rigs for everyday computing

Posted on 2014-06-11, 19:06

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by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My HD4350 does get some GPU load at around 12% when playing windowed Flash videos in Firefox/IE, the combined yield of the processors is around 50%. On the other hand, my other dual PIII with Parhelia graphics card also got around 50% CPU yield watching the same Youtube video. I might need to …

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Re: Scavenging for assembling a temporary Desktop PC(dirt cheap)

Posted on 2014-06-09, 17:12

by

by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The pins can be hard to see clearly without good lighting and decent magnification. But If you paid very little for the board or can't return it - flea market - I'd give it a shot. You are right, tincup. I guess, magnification is needed more than the light in my case, however(phone LED flash is …

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Re: Scavenging for assembling a temporary Desktop PC(dirt cheap)

Posted on 2014-06-09, 15:53

by

by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

While it may be possible to try and fix that socket on the Asus, personally I'd return the board if that's possible - for exactly the reason you worry about "what if someone blew this up trying to start it up like this." I know, not very adventurous of me. :blush: I tried to return it, but he would …

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Re: Scavenging for assembling a temporary Desktop PC(dirt cheap)

Posted on 2014-06-09, 05:15

by

by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A friend has the same problem and will be attempting to bend pins back into position. Damage appears to be about the same and looks fixable if none of the pins are broken. There are quite a number of helpful how-to videos on Youtube - here's one... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhOYEQ65a94 The …

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Re: Anecdotal accounts of Windows 7 on dual Tualatin rigs for everyday computing

Posted on 2014-06-08, 21:09

by

by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

fyy, how are you enabling/disabling hardware acceleration? gandhib, I will look into that other video player a little later. I will be a grease monkey for a few days while I get my [vintage] 1979 Mercedes up and running. Were you able to get Youtube videos which use the HTML5 player to accelerate, …

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Re: Scavenging for assembling a temporary Desktop PC(dirt cheap)

Posted on 2014-06-08, 20:58

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by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So, I selected 2 motherboards out of the lot after careful scrutiny(looked that way at that time) and to cover a broader range of processors. Asus P5KPL AM/PS - G31 Chipset with solid caps, FSB 1600(OC), DDR2 1066 Gigabyte GA 8I865GME 775 - P4 with HT, FSB 800, DDR 400 Poor Quality Pics courtesy of …

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Re: Scavenging for assembling a temporary Desktop PC(dirt cheap)

Posted on 2014-06-08, 20:19

by

by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

This might be common sense, but I'd look for scratches across the traces if your getting the boards out of a haphazard pile of them. That's the biggest problem with getting parts from junk piles. Top boards scratch the bottom ones, so gotta be careful. Don't they have protective coating which helps …

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Re: Anecdotal accounts of Windows 7 on dual Tualatin rigs for everyday computing

Posted on 2014-06-08, 20:13

by

by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The whole thing with relation to Flash and hardware/software decoding is really dumb. I prefer to use Firefox. When I watch YouTube HD videos in windowed mode , they will be choppy if Flash's "Hardware Acceleration" is enabled, this is because in Firefox the Flash videos in Windowed mode aren't …

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Re: Scavenging for assembling a temporary Desktop PC(dirt cheap)

Posted on 2014-06-08, 20:00

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by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

In addition to what others have said, I would also make sure to check around the battery/battery socket on the motherboards to make sure the battery hasn't leaked. Sometimes the damage is fixable with a little vinegar, but if the battery acid has sat on the board for a long time, it can eat right …

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Re: Scavenging for assembling a temporary Desktop PC(dirt cheap)

Posted on 2014-06-08, 19:58

by

by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Buying an OEM desktop is usually cheaper because everything already comes with it. That is what I typically do. Plus it typically comes with manuals / drivers online. :) That approach would be OK if you could get it cheap, which is not the case here, coupled with the absolutely poor refurbished …

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Re: Scavenging for assembling a temporary Desktop PC(dirt cheap)

Posted on 2014-06-08, 19:46

by

by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I never remember SiS chipsets being highly regarded back in the day, but I haven't had occasion to encounter many of them, and the ones I have tended to produce usable systems. In general if you're going with an Intel CPU, I'd go with an Intel chipset (that's just me). In general, I'm completely …

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Re: Anecdotal accounts of Windows 7 on dual Tualatin rigs for everyday computing

Posted on 2014-06-08, 18:38

by

by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I will try the Catalyst 13.9 drivers and some 12.x versions before I give up on the prospect of onboard video decoding. The offline video playback test revealed that 1080i videos are being accelerated, but only when played with Windows Media Player. GPU load is at 30% in this case as indicated by …

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Re: Scavenging for assembling a temporary Desktop PC(dirt cheap)

Posted on 2014-06-08, 11:01

by

by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Thanks for the advice and inputs, obobskivich. It's always a pleasure to read yours and some other vogoner's posts. I can't reply now to your post(later tonight, I will) as I'm leaving for the market, hopefully to buy something if it turns out OK. I can only keep my fingers crossed and hope to get …

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Re: Scavenging for assembling a temporary Desktop PC(dirt cheap)

Posted on 2014-06-07, 22:29

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by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I can't offer any tricks to ferret out a good motherboard at a flea market besides what you've done, but you have ram so now all you need is a processor, cooler, PSU and a monitor so you can just test each out to see which ones POST. Good hunting. I already have a PSU and monitor. But the RAM I …

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Scavenging for assembling a temporary Desktop PC(dirt cheap)

Posted on 2014-06-07, 20:33

by

by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

So after the GT520 PCI + P3 fiasco(on hold temporarily), I decided to assemble a temporary PC (for gaming era 1998-2005)and was on an ON and OFF intermittent hunt for dirt cheap parts. My ground rules for this are based on my current mental block towards online buying and the fact that most of the …

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Re: Anecdotal accounts of Windows 7 on dual Tualatin rigs for everyday computing

Posted on 2014-06-07, 18:21

by

by gandhig

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Tests using the AMD HD4350 in, both, Windows XP Pro and Windows 7 Pro indicate no change in processor utilisation when playing Youtube videos (HTML5 and Flash). Fullscreen and non-fullscreen modes were tested in, both, Firefox 19 and Chrome 34. Some videos had "HD" on them, while others did not. I …

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Re: Google Chrome no longer allows for installation on PIII's

Posted on 2014-06-05, 20:45

by

by gandhig

in Milliways

in Milliways

I have the impression that what the OP finds particularly upsetting is the conspicuous removal of previous versions from oldapps.com . I would not say that I will be upset by the removal of old versions by Google or the websites themselves(no clue as to which it is or something else) as it is free …

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