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Post by Sollo on Sept 22, 2007 1:13:42 GMT -5
Is this thread in English? Does someone have a computer to english dictionary I could borrow? Do we need to start a tech thread somewhere? Careful what you ask for. RAID is actually a fairly easy concept to grasp. I'll break it down to it's simplest components. RAID 0, or striping, is the idea of combining 2 or more drives virtually so that your system only sees one large drive. For example, if I use RAID 0 on two 100gb drives, my system will see a single 200gb drive. The advantage of this is speed. When you write data to this volume, the data is split up so that each drive is taking some of the data. This means that both drives are working together to move as much data across your system as the bus is capable of handling. The drawback is that if any single drive fails, you lose everything. RAID 1, or mirroring. Imagine your typical computer with its one hard drive. What if that drive fails? Unless you have your data backed up, you lose all your files. But backing up can be such a bother and take so much time. Wouldn't it be nice if your system just did that for you? Well, that's what RAID 1 is for. If you have two 100gb drives on a RAID 1 configuration, your system only sees a single 100gb volume, but anything written to it goes to both drives at the same time. That way if one of the drives fails, the other still has your data. The next concept combines both of them. It's usually referred to as RAID 0+1 or RAID 10. It requires at least 4 drives. Two of your drives are striped to form volume 1 and the other drives are striped to form volume 2. Then Volume 1 and Volume 2 are combined in a RAID 1 so that anything written is spread out across all 4 drives. It's as fast as a striped set with the data protection of a mirrored set. You can lose any single drive and your data is safe, and if you are lucky, you can lose half of your drives if they are the right drives, and still not lose your data. So in my case I have four 750gb drives. They are paired up to form two 1500gb volumes, then each volume is mirrored together. There is actually 3000gb of storage but half is used for redundant storage to protect my data, leaving me with 1.5 terabytes of usable space. The other common RAID is RAID 5. This one is a bit more complex. It requires 3 or more drives. In a 3 drive RAID5 configuration, the first two drives are basically a striped set, like in RAID1. The third drive is called a parity drive. This is the tricky part. I don't know the exact math but basically if drive 1 contains a 1 and drive 2 contains a 0, then drive 3 will contain a 1 because the bits are different. If the bits are the same then drive 3 contains a 0. Knowing this rule, if any one drive from the system fails I can mathematically reconstruct the data with the two remaining drives. So in this example, if drive 2 fails but I know that drive 1 has a 1 and drive 3 says that the bits are different, then drive 2 MUST have a 0. So there you have it, Aeron. You are now an expert with RAID technology.
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Post by Tremor on Sept 22, 2007 8:49:08 GMT -5
Well I don't know about Aeron...... but you just confused the hell out of me. Actually i understand all of it except the last one.
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Post by Sollo on Sept 22, 2007 12:40:36 GMT -5
That's OK, turns out that I don't understand RAID5 as much as I thought I did. It's a bit more complex than I was describing. In its simplest terms, data written to a RAID5 volume is striped across all the drives, but there is a parity bit involved. If any one drive fails, the missing data can be determined with a calculation. When you replace the drive, the data is reconstructed and restored on the replacement drive.
The advantage is that you have more total space available. Had I selected a RAID5 instead of RAID 10, I would have just over 2 tb of space instead of 1.5 tb. The downside is that there is some overhead in read/write times due to having to calculate the parity bit.
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Post by Quintare on Sept 22, 2007 12:40:59 GMT -5
So think of striping as encrypting if you will. The data is put on each individual drive in a way that doesn't make sense unless you have both drives working together. However with RAID 5 you have a third drive which acts as the encryption key so that if one striped drive fails, then you can decipher the data on the remaining drive. That is the only role that third drive serves though, as no usable data gets stored on it, so it's not a terribly efficient use of hardware in my opinion. It is however more affordable than 4 drives if both speed and data protection are mission critical.
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Post by Fate on Sept 22, 2007 18:25:09 GMT -5
Thanks for starting the thread Solo. I was gong to add one.
the 6100 on board video is like really slow so I asked my wife if I could get a geforce 8800 gts thinking I would go for it first then ask for a 8600. I first asked for the top end 8800 at near $800. Then asked for the low end 8800. And she said yes! Going to order it next week.
p.s. Switched to Firefox web browser on my new box. Love the built in spell check!
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Post by Eldarion on Sept 22, 2007 22:37:54 GMT -5
Firefox ftw! Welcome to the club. Be sure to get the Googlebar add-on (not Google's official one) and Adblock Plus. They'll make Firefox even better.
There may be an 8800GTS/Core 2 Duo upgrade in my future as well, Fate. The wife wants something, too. I'm waiting for that shoe to drop.
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Post by Sollo on Sept 22, 2007 23:02:53 GMT -5
The 8800 is a truely awesome board. You guys will love it!
The other IT guys in my department hate firefox so I'll probably never try it. They have too many horror stories about how it screws up peoples computers to the point that they need an O/S reinstall.
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Post by Fate on Sept 23, 2007 15:10:45 GMT -5
Well so far Firefox has been really easy. I always wanted to us e IE cause it was on all the computers. However when MS broke the Open Office plugin with service pack 2 for XP (unintentionally I'm sure) I said enough is enough. Firefox was an easy download and I was able to import all my bookmarks from IE into it. It is a different animal but Viva Open Source Revolution and down with the Man (whoever that is now that Bill is gone....)!
\
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Post by Aeron Serabien on Sept 24, 2007 9:43:07 GMT -5
I've been so happy with firefox. Especially the foxmarks extension that syncs the bookmarks on my home and work pc. So no matter where i'm doing the research I can get it both places. It's been such a lifesaver now that I have a desktop for work! And Nightpearl now works for Microsoft, so I'm a total traitor. Viva la revolution!
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Post by Quintare on Sept 24, 2007 11:55:05 GMT -5
We may be in for another computer upgrade here as well.
A couple of days ago I noticed a noisy fan in Aangy's computer. She blew out the exhaust fan with some canned air and the noise went away for the evening, but next day it was there, and sounded distinctly like a bearing rattle. I have been pretty busy at work so I told her to get in the case and figure out just which fan it is, but she didn't.
Last night she got the Blue Screen of Death, with a message that there was something wrong with her secondary processor. Her AMD Dual Core is about a year old now, really don't want to replace it yet. Especially since even a year old it's faster than the one I just put in my computer 3 months ago.
Also not in the budget, but I suppose we won't need a whole $900 rebuild to fix a year old system. We were hoping to get her a new monitor though, so that may be out and the processsor in. :/
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Post by Fate on Sept 24, 2007 12:08:25 GMT -5
It could jsut be the fan on the CPU. If it is retail they should replace the fan. If not yo ucan get custom cpu coolers.
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Post by Quintare on Sept 24, 2007 20:38:53 GMT -5
Turns out it's one of her SLI video cards with the noisy fan. And the thing isn't all of 4 months old yet so probably a warranty issue. Yay
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Post by Sollo on Sept 25, 2007 18:53:39 GMT -5
One of my drives crashed this past Saturday. Thanks to the RAID, I was still up and running until today when I got the replacement from Dell. I swapped it out and now it's rebuilding the data onto the new drive even as I type this message.
"Now that's strength boy! That's power!" -Thusa Doom
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Post by Fate on Sept 27, 2007 12:18:12 GMT -5
"Now that's strength boy! That's power!" -Thusa Doom No my 8800 GTS video card is. 150 fps in GW with everything turned up!.
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Post by TheUncleanOne on Sept 27, 2007 20:04:07 GMT -5
"Now that's strength boy! That's power!" -Thusa Doom No my 8800 GTS video card is. 150 fps in GW with everything turned up!. Shhh... I got Inda to 60 fps at moderate settings... don't let her know that anything above 90 fps exits... (meanwhile, I'm happy with my 15-20)...
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Post by Sollo on Sept 28, 2007 12:32:34 GMT -5
"Now that's strength boy! That's power!" -Thusa Doom No my 8800 GTS video card is. 150 fps in GW with everything turned up!. What resolution are you running? My 8800 Ultra runs steady at 60fps with everything turned up and 1920x1200 resolution.
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Post by Fate on Sept 28, 2007 14:24:44 GMT -5
No my 8800 GTS video card is. 150 fps in GW with everything turned up!. What resolution are you running? My 8800 Ultra runs steady at 60fps with everything turned up and 1920x1200 resolution. Solo turn off you vertical sync. I was pegged at 60 too. Now I have heard there is some artifact problems if you move real fast but I haven't noticed any.
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Post by Asya on Sept 28, 2007 14:25:19 GMT -5
The 'wait for vsync' option caps the FPS at the screen refresh Hz. Turn off vsync and watch those FPS goes through the roof. By turning off vsync you may notice some screen tearing associated with frame paints between the display.
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Post by Sollo on Sept 28, 2007 22:35:15 GMT -5
Whoa! Holy ****! 260fps! If I Reduce the quality I can get it up over 350fps! I also noticed that I get a higher FPS if I zoom in all the way.
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Post by Xaja on Sept 29, 2007 11:57:42 GMT -5
That's neat, I can get around 320 fps with all the graphics settings turned down, 140 with everything at max.
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Post by Aeron Serabien on Oct 22, 2007 9:55:50 GMT -5
gah! I'm taking the day off and was all excited to squeeze in some GW. But my display looks like poo for no reason i can think of. My resolution is fine but everything is grainy and wacky. I downloaded a new video driver and upon running the exe get the message "NVIDiA cannot find drvers that match your hardware." Which is a big fat lie. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling drivers as well. Any ideas?! Help!!!!
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Post by Fate on Oct 22, 2007 18:24:50 GMT -5
Someone (surely not NP) stole your video card?
Maybe not. But something sounds fishy. The message sounds like you are trying to install the wrong drivers. I would A) uninstall all video drivers. B) install the drivers that came with your card on the cd. I guess it is possible that your card is failing.
Have you installed anything new lately?
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Post by Eldarion on Oct 22, 2007 21:48:03 GMT -5
Also try booting in safe mode (hold down F8 as Windows boots, and select Safe Mode from the meny). It'll come up in 640x480. Does the display look okay that way? (And you'll have to reboot to get out of safe mode.)
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Post by Asya on Oct 23, 2007 9:48:13 GMT -5
If it is a laptop, typically the nvidia site drivers don't support laptops. The drivers must be obtained from the laptop manufacturer.
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Post by Aeron Serabien on Oct 23, 2007 11:28:31 GMT -5
So, I contacted HP tech support yesterday and I got the drivers from them . But it didn't work. NP booted me into safe mode and it looks crappy there too. Interestingly enough when you jostle the laptop, it sometimes goes back to normal, but it doesn't last very long. We're hoping that there's some kind of a connection problem that can be easily fixed by an HP authorized service center (Radio Shack or Best Buy) and not that I did a whole new display or driver. HP was going to charge me $400 to fix the problem (new video card I assume) and I'm hoping Radio Shack will be kinder to me.
Booooo is what I have to say! Boooooo!
Thanks for the trouble shooting tips everyone!
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Post by Fate on Oct 23, 2007 11:42:42 GMT -5
Good call Asya. I forgot she had a laptop.
$400? You could almost buy a brand new laptop for that.
Basically that is why I don't buy HP stuff. Once it out of warranty it is either really expensive to get it fixed or they won't fix it at all. Had a bad run in with an HP camera.
On a laptop I would get the 4yr extended warranty from Best Buy or Sam's. I think the Sam's is like 29.99 but I like Best Buys automatic replacement guarantee but it is a little more expensive.
Sorry your having problems. Can't NP take the cover off the laptop and look for a loose connection? Hope Radio Shack fixes it.
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Post by Aeron Serabien on Oct 23, 2007 12:29:14 GMT -5
NP has always had desktops except for his work computers. I supposed we could open the cover, but don't really know what we're doing. I should bring it into work and test it with a monitor too.
All in all, I've been REALLY happy with my HP. And I definitely couldn't replace it for $400. Not with the nice screen and video card. This is the first problem I've had with it. In contrasts, the dell laptops I've had have all needed multiple motherboard replacements, 1 even needed a hard drive replacement and have been super buggy. Maybe I need to find yet another new brand. <sigh>
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Post by kelkhil on Oct 23, 2007 15:25:11 GMT -5
HP is definatly the better of 2 evils (HP or Dell) I wish there was a reliable 3rd option. We have HPs here at work because we tried Dell for a year and every single one we bought from them either had a HDD failure or a motherboard issue and some even had both! I have a Dell at home and will never own another one! (that is also what Laurelin uses to game with ;D) If it is (Just) the monitor going you could always use a regular Monitor until you can afford the repairs.
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Post by laurelin on Oct 23, 2007 22:33:28 GMT -5
I have a Dell at home and will never own another one! (that is also what Laurelin uses to game with ;D) and those of you who have had to wait for my load times and lag will understand that comment Had a bad run in with an HP camera. Speaking as someone who sold cameras for over 6 years: Never never never never buy a HP camera! Crap! Absolute crap! Vivitar is the only brand that we had more issues with. And never never never use PNY memory cards. 80% of our image recoveries were for faulty PNY cards (Wal-Mart likes to give these out when you buy a camera from them). Sorry for the hijack....
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Post by Fate on Oct 24, 2007 13:46:00 GMT -5
Boo to PNY as well. Booo! Booo!
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