Pros of Cons of Computer Forums in General
Hey guys, Icarus here. I go around many computer forums these days, looking for new things to learn about specific current products, and I’ve noticed a general trend, so I’m gonna talk about forums in general tonight.
So, if you’ve ever joined a computer forum, there’s one obvious advantage: they’ll treat you well. Any good computer forum will treat you as they would want to be treated, and with the number of people registered in popular computer forums, there’s always someone there to answer your questions with their own expertise.
This leads to my next advantage: the wealth of information in a forum. In almost all forums, you can read messages that were out a week ago or a month, or even further back, and read those for some reviews on older products. Or, if you’re looking for people’s opinions on a newer product, you just post the thread on the forum, and wallah, you have a review there for you, or a link that leads you to one. Popular computer forums have so many people registered now-a-days that there’s always going to be at least one person who will have a solution to your problem. This means UNLIMITED resources… yes you saw right. UNLIMITED.
However, nothing is perfect, so I will now state one large con to computer forums in general. Having more people in a computer forum to answer your questions is an awesome thing, but it also brings one large disadvantage: the general comments. A popular computer forum does not mean that every member will have statistics to back their claims up, and most members, now-a-days, will simply post an answer to your question without benchmarks or stats to back his or her claim up. So how do you know that the person’s statement is true. You don’t. You’ll have to hope that someone more knowledgeable in that field will see your post and correct the post above with statistics and benchmarks. Without stats or benchmarks, you won’t have a clue if what the person is saying is right. Even the statements that seem so right may be critically wrong.
Well, that’s all for tonight. Good night everyone!
Icarus
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NVidia’s Hybrid SLI
Hey guys, Icarus here. Tonight, I’ll be talking about the basics of NVidia’s new tool, Hyrbid SLI.
Hybrid SLI basically allows you to run your GPU up to speed when you need it, and when you don’t need it, the program will automatically tune down the energy that the GPU uses for you. So, for a pro, Hybrid SLI allows you to utilize energy more efficiently, since when you just leave your computer on, Hybrid SLI will automatically reduce energy going to the GPU and you use less energy.
Another pro is the sound. As the GPU is tuned down by reducing the energy going to the GPU, the fan speed is also reduced at the same time, since the GPU core in the GPU won’t be running as hot as when it’s running at full load. This means more quiet, and noisy fans only when you need to use your GPU to its full potential. If you think that annoying GPU fan is still too loud… well, let NVidia worry about that. They’ll have to notice that all of us are annoyed by some of the stock GPU fans that come with the GPU… sooner or later(please please, be sooner).
There aren’t that many cons to Hybrid SLI, except that it may seem kind of useless considering that it all depends on which GPU you’re using. If you’re using a cheap GPU like the 8500GT, then you won’t be saving much energy. Although things get done in small steps, tuning down an 8500GT for the night won’t save much energy, or much money, if you’re money-oriented. Also, the Hybrid SLI’s advertisements tend to lean towards increased performance, which many of NVidia’s advertisements do. However, it doesn’t increase performance; if it does, it’s extremely minute. It just saves some energy. Woohoo, make the Earth become green again! One step at a time.
Well, that’s all for now. Good night everyone!
Icarus
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The Ultimate Buyer’s Guide: Desktop Memory
Hey guys, Icarus here. Today I’ll be talking about how to pick out the memory for you for your new custom computer, or simply for upgrading purposes.
Picking memory now a days is quite easy because DDR2 800 RAM is generally everyone’s favorite. However, people are also biased in that that’s the ONLY RAM they recommend because other people tell them that other RAM, like DDR2 1066, isn’t as cost effective. Well, there are actually certain situations where RAM other than DDR2 800 is more cost effective.
First is the price of the RAM. Now-a-days, a lot of the DDR2 800 desktop RAM is on large rebates, typically anywhere from 10 dollars to 30 dollars. DDR2 800 is usually sold around $70 to $80, and considering that you’re getting 2GB of RAM for $40 to $50 after rebate, this is an awesome deal. However, this isn’t the case only for DDR2 800. RAM is becoming so cheap and abundant today that a lot of DDR2 1066 modules are also getting very very low in price, some coming down to the price level of DDR2 800 memory sets. In this case, grab the DDR2 1066 RAM: it’s clocked faster, and most likely, you will be able to overclock more if you want to.
The next is how much RAM you get for the single set. Today more and more users have begun to use Microsoft Windows XP and Vista X64 versions, and in this version, the OS reads over the traditional 3.25GB limit that the x32 OS’s present. If you’re in need for LOTS and LOTS of RAM for extreme multi-tasking, then take a look at 2×2GB sets. These will serve you extremely well, and when you need to, you can always buy a new set that’s clocked faster, for more speed and power.
The final factor is the speed of the memory. If you’re going to use your computer for daily use only, you won’t need DDR2 1200 RAM that breaks your wallet for the speed you won’t be needing. The speed of the memory is also, most of the time, telling you that it is extremely overclockable. So take a look at the clock speeds and the price to see if your RAM set is right for you, and also cost efficient.
Well, that’s all for tonight. Have a great night everyone!
Icarus
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Introduction of Water Cooling, and its Pros and Cons
Hey guys! Icarus here, with a new topic: liquid cooling.
Liquid cooling is basically what the name says: you’re cooling your components with a liquid. How? Well, here’s the simplest summary possible: you have tubes going all around inside your computer case, attached to your computer components by water blocks, and giving your components more cooling power than air-cooling.
The advantages of having a water-cooling system is that your components are cooled extremely well. Depending on which water blocks you use, the type of coolant, and number of components you need to cool, water cooling can cool your components better than the standard air-cooling setup. This means that you won’t need to worry about over-working your GPU in graphics-intensive games, over-heating your CPU by overclocking too much, or letting your motherboard chipset melt due to the chipset cooler’s malfunction. More cooling power also means more overclocking. This means that with more cooling power, you can toy around with your components more than a standard air-cooling setup. You can push your components all the way to the edge.
However, no one component is perfect, and water cooling has its own disadvantages. One con is the fact that you must clean and replace all of the coolant for the recommended month-to-month basis. As your coolant ages, there will be many bacteria trying to form a solid, observable lump from the warm environment around it, and in no time will begin to clog your tubes and coolant pathway. To prevent this, you must clean your tubes and replace the coolant every month. On top of this, you must test your tubes and connections to water blocks to check for any leaks, which takes anywhere from a couple hours to overnight. This takes a lot of time.
Another con is the fact that water cooling components vary so much and are so abundant that it is hard to choose the right combination of water cooling components. Sure, there’re similar recommendations out there and the pump you buy tells you the diameter of tubing you need, but not all components work well with each other. Some water-cooling components are so bad that you might as well stick to standard air-cooling.
Well, that’s all for tonight. Hope my introduction to water-cooling helped you all. See you all later!
Icarus
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Looking Back to SLI
Hey guys, Icarus here. Since I’ve talked about justifying the use of SLI for a large monitor, a lot of things have changed, including the prices of the current video cards and the awaiting release of the NVIdia 9900 series GPU’s, and most of all, the increasing price-to-performance ratio as time passes by. So I will talk about the proper time to use SLI.
Monitor prices are also slowly decreasing, which makes larger monitors more pleasing to the eye and the piggy bank. A couple of months ago when I wrote this article, I based off the whole rule on the fact that the 24″ monitor was the dividing line between inefficient use of SLI, and efficient use of SLI. That rule will still hold, but now that 24″ monitors are more abundant, more people will be able to use SLI and a 24″ monitor successfully.
All right, so back to the basic rules of SLI. One key factor to keep in mind is that our eyes cannot see the difference past 45FPS. That means that if you’re running a high-end 8800 series GPU on a 19″ monitor and getting an average of 85FPS, then your GPU is being used inefficiently. You don’t want to waste too much power on a small monitor, since you can’t see the difference past 45FPS, so why use a high-end card on a 19″ monitor?
Another key factor is how you’re going to use your computer. If you use your computer for daily needs and things that do not require much graphics power, like watching videos or movies, or playing low-graphics games, then you won’t need SLI. There’s no point in getting 281302FPS on a low-graphics game if it doesn’t have much graphics in the first place, and plus, using SLI on that computer will put a lot of money to waste.
The last factor is your budget. If you have enough money to provide a 24″ + monitor and 2 GPU’s, still use the 2 GPU’s in SLI efficiently, and also have the applications to use the GPU’s to its full potential, then you have the right purpose for SLI. Generally, if you’re playing high-end games like Crysis, or have a huge 26″ monitor, then you should look to use SLI. Although NVidia released its 9800 series GPU’s, they won’t be able to withstand Crysis on max, or even be efficient enough to be used properly for the proper applications.
Well hope that helps. See you all later!
Icarus
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