you should also run spybot search and destroy

Following on Oeuvre's build, I threw together this ridiculous system out of parts I had kicking around. Mostly because it's easier to store or sell a built system than a pile of components, but that doesn't mean I'm not gonna have my fun benchmarking the hell out of it first:

Stats:
EVGA nForce 780i SLI board
Core 2 Quad Q6600
6GB bling-tastic OCZ Platinum PC2-6400 (@ 5-4-4-15-20-1T)
Antec BIG-ASS 1000W PSU
2 x MSI GeForce GTX460
1 x GeForce 605 (for PhysX)
No cable management
Many, many decibels

Can I get a hell yes?

I haven't tried overclocking because it's just running a lackluster stock Intel cooler with those stupid LGA775 push-pin mounts. That actually caused me a bit of trouble at first, as the CPU would immediately shoot up to 80-90° before Windows even loaded & then throttle like crazy. After tearing my hair out over the BIOS settings (voltage, speedstep, etc.) I figured out the top two pins of the cooler had just popped loose when I was building the thing and it wasn't even touching the CPU. 😠 What a crap design! Anyway it runs great with that sorted.

And yes, that is a 5.25" floppy. I wanted to test if it worked (it does), and if this board supported dual floppies (it doesn't.) Still, I am way too amused by this:

I got the board out of a parts machine that had a 40GB IDE HDD with a fresh install of Windows 7 Pro already set up. I am lazy, so that's what I used. Unfortunately the previous owner used the 32-bit Win7 for some reason. Running 3 x 1GB GPUs on a 32-bit OS meant only 2.25 of my 6GB RAM was available, which sucks. Again, I am lazy, so instead of reinstalling Windows I decided to try this PAE patch, which seems to work well:

I've seen discussion that some drivers (especially Intel graphics) don't work with 32b PAE, but I've had no problems so far in this thing.

Hell yes. Awesome that you have a 5.25" floppy drive in there!

gtx 280 tri-sli on the bench. finally got it working. hooray!!!

Updated my OpenEmu library with old games.
I am now in the process of reorganizing my iTunes library and adding some songs.
My works mbp at office next monday will go crazy syncing with OneDrive when I turn it on 🙁

wirerogue wrote:

gtx 280 tri-sli on the bench. finally got it working. hooray!!!

Goddamn that's a sandwich. How hot does the middle card run?

I thought the two 460s in my thing were bad enough...

Was asked if I had any spare kit for a basic small build for home theatre & media use, so put this together

Specs:

Powercool T-01B slim case
ASRock 985GM-GS3 FX AM3+ motherboard (AMD 785G / SB710)
Athlon II X4 610e (45W Propus)
8GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer DDR3-1866
60GB Corsair Force LS SSD for OS
1.5TB AMD RAID 0 array (3 x 500GB) for storage
Onboard AMD Radeon HD 4200 iGPU
Onboard Realtek ALC662 5.1 HD Audio

I currently have a W7 x64 licence on it, but the board seems to have decent support for Vista, XP & W7/W8 so I'll let them decide.

xjas wrote:

wirerogue wrote:

gtx 280 tri-sli on the bench. finally got it working. hooray!!!

Goddamn that's a sandwich. How hot does the middle card run?

I thought the two 460s in my thing were bad enough...

Actually, it's the top one that gets the warmest since it's doing most of the work.

If SLI scaled 100% across each GPU then it would probably be an issue.

Got the cards stripped down and cleaned.

Time for some fresh thermal pads, tim and new coolers.

xjas wrote:

I've seen discussion that some drivers (especially Intel graphics) don't work with 32b PAE, but I've had no problems so far in this thing.

I'd like to point out that on 32-bit Windows 7 the PAE mode is always enabled (but with a 4 GB limit), so "PAE patch" is to be understood as "patch for PAE", not "a patch which enables PAE".

Anyways, I think I've never seen a 486 with 5.25" drive, not to mention Core 2 Quad... 😁

I installed Windows 10 on my modern PC today. It's the first time since maybe 1995, when I last purchased a retail PC, that I have a -- let's just say -- legitimate copy of Windows, and it was Windows For Workgroups 3.11!

Interesting (to me), I did a clean install of "Windows 10 Home" and the only key I had was for Windows 8 Pro (which MS gave me a few years ago and I never used), so I put it in, and not only was it accepted, it upgraded my install to "Windows 10 Pro". Nice. I guess.

Honestly, the on boarding with what's effectively a retail (i.e., no OEM slipstreams) OS install is simply horrendous. I don't know how people put up with it. I used the tron script to unscrew that pooch but man, there's just so much crap still in there.

So long, Windows 7. It was nice knowin' ya.

Upgraded the PSU in my main desktop from the 650W to a new 850W (RGB fan) so that I can install the LS-120 drive along with the ATA/133 PCI IDE controller card. So far, so good.

The Fans on my GTX 980ti were starting to get a little loud at a certain RPM , I had a Corsair H75 doing nothing so decided to put it to some use. Picked up a NZXT G12 kit and fitted the H75 to it. Its now silent and shaved 15°C of temps.

bjwil1991 wrote:

Upgraded the PSU in my main desktop from the 650W to a new 850W (RGB fan) so that I can install the LS-120 drive along with the ATA/133 PCI IDE controller card. So far, so good.

Rly? that update demanded an extra of 200+ watts?

The video card alone takes 450W, plus, I have 2 optical drives, 3 storage drives (SSD, SSHD, and HDD), CPU, and a PCI-e Wireless AC/Bluetooth card. Those take close to 650W (about 645W).

Don't know how to classify this, as a retro or modern activity. But I installed WinAmp 5.8 on my Windows 10 Enterprise VM, along with the classic skin running on it. Oh, memories...

bfcastello wrote:

Don't know how to classify this, as a retro or modern activity. But I installed WinAmp 5.8 on my Windows 10 Enterprise VM, along with the classic skin running on it. Oh, memories...

I'm sure this is a modern activity, because Windows 10 is modern. But WinAmp is retro, so maybe this situation could be a little bit of both (retro and modern)...

JonathonWyble wrote:

bfcastello wrote:

Don't know how to classify this, as a retro or modern activity. But I installed WinAmp 5.8 on my Windows 10 Enterprise VM, along with the classic skin running on it. Oh, memories...

I'm sure this is a modern activity, because Windows 10 is modern. But WinAmp is retro, so maybe this situation could be a little bit of both (retro and modern)...

Yeah, we might need a new topic for both. (lol)

While I installed WinAmp, I thought... “why stop here?” So I got OTVDM, and managed to install and run SimTower, Bang Bang, Pipe Dream, and since I didn’t need OTVDM for newer 32 bit versions of Solitaire, Minesweeper and Freecell... I got the XP versions on Windows 10. (Yes I know Microsoft does some modern versions on their Windows Store, but I don’t want them). I also have Full Throttle Remastered, Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis, Grand Prix Manager 2, Flight Simulator 9 (2004) all running well. And have mIRC running - Christ, I still cannot believe some people is still using IRC!

My childhood is still intact on Windows 10. Good. My 37 year-old self is a happy young kid now (again).

ayy are you on freenode?

bfcastello wrote:

Don't know how to classify this, as a retro or modern activity. But I installed WinAmp 5.8 on my Windows 10 Enterprise VM, along with the classic skin running on it. Oh, memories...

I also still use winamp today, and I don't see any need to change that 😀 it really whips the llama's ass.

bfcastello wrote:

Yeah, we might need a new topic for both. (lol)

If we were to create a new topic like that, maybe we could call it "What modern activity (along with a retro situation) did you get up to today?" 🤣

Nah, I don't think we would need a thread like that, we already have this modern tech thread and the retro tech thread for posting our computing fun.