Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by Eldanor

Building a new pc questions.

Eldanor — Mon, 18 Jun 2012 01:08:23 +0800

Hey lowyat peeps, whaddup!

I'm planning to build a reasonable gaming machine but there are some uncertainties that i can't seem to recall from my previous experience in building a pc

here are my desired specs atm :

i5-3450 ivy bridge
sapphire hd7770 graphic card
1TB HDD (Seagate/WD)

2x4GB ddr3 ram*
asus or gigabyte mobo*
silverstone strider 500w* & casing*

Those with an asterisk are stuff that are actually puzzling me;

the perspective i have on motherboards nowadays is that they're generally very made and reliable with plenty of features like ASUS and Gigabyte. so on that note, im not too fussy on choosing a motherboard in fact i would keep the price at minimal for anything that would not bottleneck the system. i've been looking at ASUS P8H77 and Gigabyte GA-H77M-D3H MB but I don't really see a big difference between those two, in fact i think that I could do with something cheaper compared to those two motherboards

secondly, does DDR3 1600 require your processor to have ivy bridge in order to be compatible with the system? --> "Support for DDR3 1600/1333/1066 MHz memory modules. To support DDR3 1600 MHz, you must install an Intel 22nm CPU. " @ gigabyte.com on specifications. Does Asus motherboards have those conditions as well?

does my new pc power consumption even need 500w to operate? how much do I actually need? is it sufficient to just stick to a coolermaster casing inclusive of a 420w PSU? are those generic PSU even reliable?

btw, im in aussieland at the moment which is why i didn't mention the prices because some stuff are really cheap and some are not but the prices generally do not convert directly back to malaysian ringgit so i don't want to confuse anyone but FYI my budget stands around 800 $AUD.

thanks in advance!

Australian computer peripherals pricing

Eldanor — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 08:18:43 +0800

sorry to ask a stupid question guys, but i cant seem to find a proper website which gives me pricing like how lowyat.net does.

im studying in australia now so i was wondering if anyone had come across soemthing like an australian lowyat?

No windows 7 cd provided?

Eldanor — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 13:37:42 +0800

don't asus laptops provide the win7 cd for you in case you need to reformat?

just the "burn a backup" function and you burn your backup on a dvd is sufficient?

Asus availability?

Eldanor — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 18:51:54 +0800

Finally, i made my decision on which Asus laptop i wanted.
It was between just mainly 2 laptops i have my eyes on.

Asus A42JA-VX061V RM3299

IMO : great graphics card, optimal processor/ram (i7, 4gb ddr3)

Asus U41JF-WX041V RM3099

IMO : satisfying graphics card, decent processor (i5) but only 2gb of ram <-- i dun understand this

Are these considered older models or sort of like the present ones?

I'm not too sure of availability too though, and the price also looks like it can go lower depending on where am I getting the laptop from.

Most importantly I'm not all too sure how solid is the build but knowing ASUS, their laptop are usually made with quality materials.

Anyone who owns any of the above laptop or have any opinion/alternative suggestions critics or comments are free to post it on this thread!

I will need all the help I can get!

Pretty good deal?

Eldanor — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 05:12:03 +0800

Hey lowyat forumers!

I will be pursuing my studies in Australia and have not decided where should I buy my notebook.

I've got a few options, well in my opinion, pretty good ones and it will be from harvey norman australia because the warranty would be easy to handle.

I usually care most about the processor and the graphics engine, but thats about it.

HP Pavilion DV6-3131TX Laptop
http://www.harveynorman.com.au/product/125...on-dv-tx-laptop

- i5 2.53ghz
- Ati Radeon 5650

AUD1099 = APPROX RM3290

Toshiba Satellite L650/017 Laptop
http://www.harveynorman.com.au/product/125...ellite-l-laptop

- i5 2.53ghz
- ATI radeon 5650
- With Bluray Rom

AUD996 = APPROX RM2988

Toshiba Satellite L650/0ED Laptop
http://www.harveynorman.com.au/product/125...lite-led-laptop

-same as the previous one just without bluray rom

AUD987 = APPROX RM2961

well there are a few more but these are the few that caught my attention

by the way this is the website i refer to when i need to compare notebook graphic cards, i'm not sure how accurate it is but apparently ati 5650 is considered as "Class 2" type of graphics card which seems pretty good to me.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-...50.23697.0.html

only downside is that the notebooks that are sold in harvey norman australia only covers warranty for a year, anymore would mean extra charges and i'm not sure how much that is.

It'll be great if theres anyone from Aussieland that can provide me some information/advice/opinion but what im looking forward to is the competitive alternatives.

Are there notebooks that are more competitive in prices in Malaysia?

thanks in advance people!

Upgrading Firmware and Brand lockdown

Eldanor — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 21:41:39 +0800

Hey guys, not really sure if this is the right place to post this so sorry to the mods and thank you for transferring my thread to the correct place (if it ever occurs

my old sony ericsson recently just died and I am now using my sister's phone from australia

its an n95 8gb and the firmware is really out of date (20.0.601 )

i was thinking of upgrading the firmware but i think i should be aware of the "branding" system programmed by the company that may or may not cause the phone to be locked under these conditions

the phone is branded under the company 3mobile and its unlocked i guess, because it accepts my sim card and i could use it normally without any problems

are my speculations any good?

BLACKBERRY / IPHONE / PLANS / ETC

Eldanor — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 19:50:34 +0800

Hey guys, I haven't been catching up with the mobiles nowadays so I don't really know the market price of phones like iphone and blackberry.

i need someone to enlighten me on some of these info

Right, i've a budget of around 2000 malaysian ringgit, give or take

how much is it for the retail price for iphone 3gs now?

how much is it for the blackberry 9700?

are there any plans provided by any companies which are actually worth it in the long run?

even if the phones of my choices are out of my budget i would still like information regarding pricing, plans and stuff that are currently offered.

i'd prefer buying my goods at a retail rather than from a person

not everyone scams, but its safer to eliminate that possibility

your contributions are ENORMOUSLY appreciated

Faulty graphic cards? Or...?

Eldanor — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 01:35:43 +0800

Alright, heres what. I had a XFX Geforce 9800 GT which after 1 1/4 years of usage of all sudden displayed screwed up graphics, like really distorted for 5 minutes and then all of the sudden crashes and I was unable to reboot my computer after that.

So I sent it for a "check up" and gone on warranty-leave for 2 weeks already.

I couldn't stand not being able to use my computer so I borrowed my friend's 7600 GS to use at the mean time.

Problem is, my friend haven't been using his card for over 4 years so... here's how I'm gonna sum it up

The moment I plugged in the GC, everything was alright until I noticed that my monitor flickers (errr how do I put it, like flickering occasionally -> you know those refresh rate lines that you see when you try to take a picture of your monitor with a camera or something? yeah, that. well at least thats how i picture "flickering" is.)

Anyhow, my friends GC just went on overheat mode and then everything hang'ed so I have to shutdown the system but it was usable again after cooling it down a while. However, flickering symptoms persists.

Now that you get the scenario, my question is that was it such a coincidence that my friends GC happened to be faulty or is it my motherboard thats causing me some problems. Aside from that, I run a voltage regulator from the socket before it actually connected to my system, needless to say the voltage regulator was well over 4-5 years old, maybe?

I have some thoughts if it were my motherboard which became the cause of all these malfunctions. Assuming my motherboard is faulty, my RAMs and processor have no problems whatsoever, neither are the fans.

Is it possible for JUST the PCI-Express slot to be faulty?

Thanks for reading, please speak your mind as every single bit of information and diagnosis could be a missing puzzle in this mystery.

Streamyx cooking up a deal?

Eldanor — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 03:07:56 +0800

Upgrade deals

and more on

» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «

i wonder how true is that, there must be some kinda catch behind this too good to be true deal.
any rants anyone?

ps : sorry if someone had already posted about this already, i was searching through and i couldn't find anything regarding this promotion. i just needed to discuss thats all.

Reboot looping after winxp loading screen

Eldanor — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:50:20 +0800

I was just innocently surfing the web so of all sudden this blue screen came up for like half a second and then my whole cpu rebooted! So i was like WTF?

When it was rebooting at the Windows XP loading screen (the one with the squares that keeps going right) after it was done loading in the loading screen then that exact same blue screen came out again! but it was still too fast for me to read. Well i'm not very sure if its the same one but it was definitely a blue screen.

I thought my HDD was done for so i immediately brought my IDE HDD from downstairs and tried to boot with it. Just when i thought i had it figured, even my other HDD received the same thing when i chose it to be the primary hard disk!

And then the same old , Reboot, Windows loading screen, blue screen and then reboot again it just keeps looping.

I need some pointers

Router Problems?

Eldanor — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:49:17 +0800

I recently bought a Belkin Router N150 to replace my old fuse tripping prolink adsl modem. Is it me or streamyx have been dropping out alot recently? Not only that, i notice a severe dropback in bandwidth too, i have 1024/512 connection but the 1024 in the data downstream never stays, after the router is switched off and on the bandwidth will be back at full speed for awhile then after that it starts dropping to any number like 886, 384, 256, 160 or sometimes 86 but the upload remains the same!

Any ideas? Should I just bring it to Belkin and make a big scene because i've been given a defected product?
Or has streamyx broken another "international optic fibre cable" in god knows which ocean this time?

I don't wanna scold the wrong people.

Stock Heatsinks & Coolers

Eldanor — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:28:15 +0800

More and more heatsink and cooler fans brands are beginning to emerge.

This could only mean one thing right?!

Stock heatsinks do not provide the satisfactory performance needed by people today.

How can that be? Take Intel for example, they are in charge of manufacturing processors so why can't they provide high-end heatsinks?

Or

Are the stock heatsinks actually supposed to be performing at par while other companies just took advantage of your "wanting more" demands that made stock heatsinks look bad?

I don't know, I just wanna hear some opinions

Is my GPU Temp considered normal?

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 07:30:00 +0800

It's getting hot in here?

Eldanor — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:22:08 +0800

Alright,

Specifications :

CM Elite 335
CM Real Power Pro 550W
XFX 9800 GT
2GB Kingston DDR II
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.00 GHz

Most of the time my GPU idles around 78-80°C, EasyTuner6 always tells me my CPU and System Temp are in RED ZONE, my cores idling temp is around 58°C to 61°C.

I haven't added any fans to my rig, should I? I think its kinda hot in there but even with my air conditioner on, I barely see 3-4°C of difference in temperature. Is that good enough?

Maybe I should get a 200mm Fan to suck out all my miseries... if i could only find the place to put it.

Someone help me please!

Is my GPU Temp considered normal?

Eldanor — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:30:25 +0800

My XFX 9800 GT idles at 75°C when my room is air conditioned and around 78-80°C when my air conditioner is turned off.

I use Rivatuner to turn my GPU's fan up to maximum but I could only get the temperature to around 64°C (air conditioned) and 71°C (normal room temp).

Is this supposed to be normal? Because I read a few webbies and mostly stated even above 65°C is not a normal idling temperature?

Help

Internet Connection stop responding

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 07:30:00 +0800

Internet Connection stop responding

Eldanor — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:10:20 +0800

Heya guys, have you all ever get this when you leave your computer on to allow your downloads to complete overnight? Well not just one night, a few nights and when you come back to your computer it seems as though the internet connection stops responding.

I don't know if you ever get those but i have issues with my being that way. The connection seems solid it's just that there aren't any transfer in data although i still have my downloads on.

Did i mention typing the default router address (10.0.0.2 for me) brings nothing up?

I don't know if this is because of the isp's fault or what just wondering how do i stop this because sometimes in the morning my downloads weren't complete because my connection kind of "stopped" halfway overnight

Choosing the right Laptop?

Thu, 01 Jan 1970 07:30:00 +0800

Choosing the right Laptop?

Eldanor — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 02:40:26 +0800

Heya once again guys... i've got some questions regarding choosing the right laptop.

I wonder, since I'm going to study abroad overseas soon I should start saving money for my future laptop. It's just that i'm not really sure what to look out for in a laptop based on what i need and what i want.

For example, a basic and simple laptop even at the lowest end of technology could be used just to do assignments and go online whatsoever.

Problem is, simple and basic is never enough for most of us as we need some form of entertainment to keep us motivated to study hard.

So I'm thinking maybe I should get a laptop which I could get well.. minimal requirements for gaming like for warcraft just to keep me entertained a little when i'm studying overseas and possibly watch any movies without difficulty.

And all i know about lappies is that ASUS is probably the world's leading brand for laptops but i'm keep my options open for any brands just as well their known for producing laptops that are mostly problem-free.

So, I wish for you all who are experienced to provide me some insight in how should I choose my laptop.

PS. Its not that i dont have a budget but i'll take any price reasonable as a figure so i could start gathering the money for it.

Thanks a bunch!

Printer confusion!

Eldanor — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:31:55 +0800

Bundle of questions! :

What are the top brands of the printers industry?

Why is it when i take a look at all-in-one printer catalogs the price happens to increase but the only thing thats getting better is PPM and that little LCD screen?

How are lasershot printers different compared to usual all in one printers?

What are the most common breakdowns (malfunction) of the all in one printers today?

Is it necessary to go over a RM300 budget for an everyday use all in one printer?

Can someone suggest me some good printers within the range of RM300-350? (All-in-one printer)

Thanks! =D