Originally Posted by adotEngine
...My father also said that I might get this ATi HD 5970 or HD 5870 if I could get a good grade this year.
I wish I got graphics cards for good grades. =O
Hey, I have a question, why don't I see or hear of any RAID 2/3/4... setups anywhere? I've heard of them on wiki, but never have I seen a rig with them.
-Graboy
Okay, Just a couple things I'd like to mention here.
First off, you CANNOT use SLi on a motherboard that supports Crossfire without modifying your drivers and/or BIOS, and if you're using modified drivers and/or a modified BIOS, you'll get no support from your motherboard manufacturer when things screw up, as well as running the risk of bricking your motherboard.
Secondly, don't stick to a brand just because you like it. I used to do it, and it's really not worth the extra money sometimes. ATI cards are cheaper and more powerful at this point in time, and there's no reason not to get your money's worth. Eyefinity is pretty damn awesome too, if you've got three monitors and a displayport adapter. Hopefully Nvidia will get their shit together for the next generation of cards, and come up with something that'll blow ATI's pants off.
Wireless mice are okay for gaming, but sometimes it can get annoying. If you forget to charge your batteries for a while, or if your cellphone, cordless landline, or microwave happens to interfere with your mouse, you're screwed. Wired mice avoid these problems, but it all boils down to person preference, I suppose.
Using RAID in a desktop system is almost entirely useless. Not totally, but almost.
A small RAID0 array, maybe 100-250GB is good for installing your operating system to, and whatever games and programs that you use the most. The extra speed will make the system boot faster, games load faster, and generally perform better.
RAID1 is useful if you've got a gigantic storage drive that you don't want to lose. A Pair of 1TB drives in RAID1 might not be the fastest thing around, but it's great for long-term storage of movies, music, photos, and whatever other important files you have. The extra layer of security means that even if one of the drives in the array dies, you've still got the data safely on the other.
RAID2 isn't used at all anymore, It's equivalent to RAID0, but splits the data into even smaller chunks to distribute across the drives.
Anything higher is essentially useless in a desktop system. The higher RAID levels are only really useful in large storage servers, for data security.
First off, you CANNOT use SLi on a motherboard that supports Crossfire without modifying your drivers and/or BIOS, and if you're using modified drivers and/or a modified BIOS, you'll get no support from your motherboard manufacturer when things screw up, as well as running the risk of bricking your motherboard.
Secondly, don't stick to a brand just because you like it. I used to do it, and it's really not worth the extra money sometimes. ATI cards are cheaper and more powerful at this point in time, and there's no reason not to get your money's worth. Eyefinity is pretty damn awesome too, if you've got three monitors and a displayport adapter. Hopefully Nvidia will get their shit together for the next generation of cards, and come up with something that'll blow ATI's pants off.
Wireless mice are okay for gaming, but sometimes it can get annoying. If you forget to charge your batteries for a while, or if your cellphone, cordless landline, or microwave happens to interfere with your mouse, you're screwed. Wired mice avoid these problems, but it all boils down to person preference, I suppose.
Originally Posted by graboy
Hey, I have a question, why don't I see or hear of any RAID 2/3/4... setups anywhere? I've heard of them on wiki, but never have I seen a rig with them.
Using RAID in a desktop system is almost entirely useless. Not totally, but almost.
A small RAID0 array, maybe 100-250GB is good for installing your operating system to, and whatever games and programs that you use the most. The extra speed will make the system boot faster, games load faster, and generally perform better.
RAID1 is useful if you've got a gigantic storage drive that you don't want to lose. A Pair of 1TB drives in RAID1 might not be the fastest thing around, but it's great for long-term storage of movies, music, photos, and whatever other important files you have. The extra layer of security means that even if one of the drives in the array dies, you've still got the data safely on the other.
RAID2 isn't used at all anymore, It's equivalent to RAID0, but splits the data into even smaller chunks to distribute across the drives.
Anything higher is essentially useless in a desktop system. The higher RAID levels are only really useful in large storage servers, for data security.
<+veb> dude___________________._____________________<hampa> the hosting center decided to raise the price
<+veb> I am to durnk to pu6t in the wriute commmand lol ___<hampa> and we only run irc on this machine which is a bit of a waste
<+veb> and u suxc u cant od it gfro me ______|______._____<Lapsus> How much power is behind the IRC server?
<+veb> ;oml?________________________________________<hampa> it is like delivering pizza using an airplane
<+veb> I am to durnk to pu6t in the wriute commmand lol ___<hampa> and we only run irc on this machine which is a bit of a waste
<+veb> and u suxc u cant od it gfro me ______|______._____<Lapsus> How much power is behind the IRC server?
<+veb> ;oml?________________________________________<hampa> it is like delivering pizza using an airplane
Thanks lapsus.
Another thing, why cant we use a version of RAID0 with 3 drives instead of 2? We can do something like that with CPUs... which brings up another question, how do CPU's equally divide the processes between 3 cores? And.... I've heard microprocessors can calculate numbers using the power of 3, (12, 24, 4
instead of the powers of 2 (16, 32, 64). How does that work?
-Graboy
Another thing, why cant we use a version of RAID0 with 3 drives instead of 2? We can do something like that with CPUs... which brings up another question, how do CPU's equally divide the processes between 3 cores? And.... I've heard microprocessors can calculate numbers using the power of 3, (12, 24, 4
instead of the powers of 2 (16, 32, 64). How does that work? -Graboy
Originally Posted by graboy
Thanks lapsus.
Another thing, why cant we use a version of RAID0 with 3 drives instead of 2? We can do something like that with CPUs... which brings up another question, how do CPU's equally divide the processes between 3 cores? And.... I've heard microprocessors can calculate numbers using the power of 3, (12, 24, 4
-Graboy
well, the fact is, most current programs CANT spit it up. The game/program must be coded so that it designates different parts of the processor to do different things. it isnt just automatically distributed. And you can use RAID0 with 3 drives(I believe) however for that money, it is probably better to just buy an SSD or something(just my 2 cents)
<Shlimby> lol, no Ad, just stop seeing those melons
<ADTerminal> Sure
<Shlimby> and dont take them into ur bed at night
<ADTerminal> But it's where I keep them warm
<ADTerminal> Sure
<Shlimby> and dont take them into ur bed at night
<ADTerminal> But it's where I keep them warm
CPU's dividing the processing is something that requires additional coding. In many applications, there may only be one core active, while the other three just sit there doing nothing. Or in gaming, maybe only two.
Iirc, crysis is mostly on the first two cores, although you CAN set their physics to run on the third or fourth one to free up some cycles. But this is why you don't always see twice the speed in a lot of applications vs a dual core.
Oversimplifying, each processor gets assigned different tasks.
Thankfully, more and more applications are supporting quads now!
I wonder how many support hexacores....
Iirc, crysis is mostly on the first two cores, although you CAN set their physics to run on the third or fourth one to free up some cycles. But this is why you don't always see twice the speed in a lot of applications vs a dual core.
Oversimplifying, each processor gets assigned different tasks.
Thankfully, more and more applications are supporting quads now!
I wonder how many support hexacores....
