Root Access

DragonLord

00:07

Verizon High Speed Internet is proving to be extremely unreliable. I'm finding it necessary to restart the DSL modem on a daily basis.

This is absolutely not acceptable.

Bob

@DragonLord It runs as JS client-side code in a headless browser. Valgrind would be anywhere from "far too much trouble" to "completely useless".

DragonLord

Then what memory profiling tools exist for this?

Bob

@DragonLord The point is that it's simply far too much trouble to go and debug memory leaks in a whole browser (+JS engine) for a chatbot.

For all we know, the leaks could be in SE's chat script.

DragonLord

Seems to be a problem with PhantomJS itself.

13

Q: Phantomjs dies by high memory consumption

We are using phantomjs to run our qunit tests page on our TFS build server. Our version of test runner is built from below example https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/examples/run-qunit.js Over a period of time number of tests increased from hundreds to couple of thousands and on a ...

Bob

@DragonLord Note that that's actually a completely different version.

IIRC 2.x was a major rewrite.

Still, not much we can do.

If you have the time to spare, feel free to go hunt for and fix the bugs.

DragonLord

00:20

JavaScript is everywhere, and yet I can't stay focused on learning the language :/

Bob

But telling @allquixotic to use Valgrind won't help much - I'm sure he knows the available tools, but having the time and will to use them is a different matter entirely.

DragonLord

Running a major server update. Downtime should be expected.

A reboot should sort it out, though, a process which takes less than five minutes.

Guess what? No reboot required.

zypper ps turns up absolutely nothing.

Up 13 days 3:13 right now.

Jul 18 at 5:45, by DragonLord

The next server upgrade is likely to be a nightmare.

Jul 18 at 5:45, by DragonLord

openSUSE is getting a massive overhaul, the next version is Leap 42.1.

Jul 18 at 5:49, by DragonLord

This is likely to result in incompatible changes which could necessitate a complete server rebuild.

Jul 18 at 5:51, by DragonLord

This could mean several days of disruption, including downtime or unavailability.

allquixotic

00:36

@DragonLord Had that for years. It's trash. They are not maintaining their DSL network at all anymore. Just running the equip until it dies.

Bob

I've heard Telstra described as "worse than Comcast" o.O

allquixotic

Being stuck with Verizon DSL is the 2015 equivalent to being on 56k while everyone else had cable or DSL, back in the early 2000s.

I'm lucky to have two unlimited data plans on Verizon Wireless, so we actually get between double and quadruple the max theoretical speed of Verizon DSL (7 Mbps) depending on weather, congestion, location, handset model, etc.

And it's way more reliable.

DragonLord

We're looking at Time Warner Cable Everyday Low Price.

3/1 Mbps at a lower cost than our slow-as-hell DSL service.

It's not fast by any means, but it's far better than what we're currently using.

Coax cabling is also more reliable and less susceptible to interference than POTS cabling.

Bob

00:52

Wow.

bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=647010

That was a massively breaking change taken with just about no warning.

@allquixotic Heh. My ADSL connection is fairly reliable with reasonable downstream, but the LTE upstream is just so much better. Too bad about data costs.

Journeyman Geek

;p

Fibre. Its a shitty plan, in comparison to others, but its rock solid 20/20 most of the time ;p

DragonLord

Jun 13 at 0:00, by DragonLord

The cable ISP recently rolled out upgrades, so now even the cheapest plan is about 4x as fast as our DSL connection

@JourneymanGeek Fibre has been an option here for a while, but it's too expensive for our taste.

Bob

@JourneymanGeek Lucky you :P

Fibre isn't even an option.

DragonLord

@Bob We have access to Verizon FiOS but the pricing just isn't palatable to us.

Bob

01:20

heh

andrewvos.com/2011/02/21/…

@DragonLord No. No it's not.

C is great for low-level code.

C++ typically isn't.

Or, not as low-level.

DragonLord

@Bob C++ is hard to work with.

Python is rarely hard to understand.

Bob

Classes, virtual methods, the STL, etc., impose a significant performance (speed) and code size penalty for embedded systems.

It also doesn't map particularly well to raw assembly as used in kernels and drivers.

Once you drop those, you're mostly left with the C-like subset of C++.

DragonLord

JS is problematic due to significant portability issues especially when the code is expected to run on IE.

I'm not going to even bother with targeting any version of IE. All of my future Web code will assume Firefox, Chrome, or Edge.

Bob

@DragonLord Good for you. Until you start withing in a non-startup company.

I'm still supporting IE8.

Thank god we've mostly dropped IE7 by now.

Though, CSS tends to be a bigger issue than the JS.

DragonLord

May 1 at 21:44, by DragonLord

<footer><!--[if lt IE 9]><span style="font-size: smaller"><![endif]-->
<!-- Insert footer content here -->
</footer><!--[if lt IE 9]></span><![endif]-->

That's part of the common footer on my main website.

@studiohack: It's been a long time since I've seen you.

I'm wondering why you've been so inactive lately. We need a mod in the US East time zone.

studiohack

01:35

@DragonLord: I'm not in chat very much anymore, so my visibility isn't as high.

DragonLord

The amount of recent activity on your profile is very limited. I'm wondering what's going on or if you're not able to find the time to contribute more.

We used to chat a lot with each other.

(That was years ago...)

studiohack

Life and schedules ebb and flow, @DragonLord. Also, my profile shows limited activity for a reason - I do mostly behind the scenes work when I am here.

One can argue I don't comment enough or interact on Meta as much, but I do what I do.

DragonLord

Well, I still see activity on your account, so at least you're not gone, but it concerns me that I don't often see you deleting the posts I flag.

studiohack

@DragonLord There's a mod team. I don't follow particular users...You may be flagging when other diamonds are on, or I may not see them in time, or whatever.

DragonLord

The amount of mod activity in the afternoon Eastern time is pretty low. Flags seem to take considerably longer to clear when flagged around 3-7 PM ET than during other times. Our current moderator base is concentrated in Europe and Asia, with one or two in US West.

If only you were more active...

I do understand you're a lot busier than you used to be, though.

studiohack

01:49

@DragonLord all in all, SU is handling itself very well. Thanks for the understanding, I appreciate that.

Doing stuff like looking at views

DragonLord

@studiohack Out of curiosity, what kind of camera equipment do you use?

I'm a photographer at heart.

studiohack

@DragonLord all kinds. Nokia cameras, Nikon, Canon. That one was a Nikon D80 DSLR (not my camera - but my shot).

DragonLord

Ah...

I shoot Pentax but haven't found a lot of time to do any serious photography.

studiohack

@DragonLord How good is Pentax? Am not very familiar with them. Do you spend any time at photo.SE?

DragonLord

@studiohack I'm no longer as active on Photography, but I still take a peek there once in a while.

DragonLord, New York, United States

3.3k 1 13 53

lens autofocus pentax equipment-damage focus terminology sensor

I am, however, the maintainer of this question and its canonical answers:

40

Q: What apertures are required to enable autofocus, including cross-type or high-precision focusing, on Canon DSLR cameras?

This is a follow-up to Why does Canon and Nikon limit or disable autofocus beyond certain f-numbers? I'm doing this to separate the AF aperture requirements from the linked question above. My goal here is to create a canonical answer for Canon AF aperture limits, with complete information for e...

canon autofocus aperture performance

Considering that you're a mod on The Great Outdoors, are you familiar with Osprey backpacks? I have one (Meridian 22) due to arrive tomorrow.

I'm a college student and I've given up on the High Sierra Freewheel pack, which I've replaced twice in about 30 months due to the wheels wearing out.

@studiohack Pentax has gotten a lot better lately since the acquisition by Ricoh.

The K-3 (and its recently released successor K-3 II) are very impressive cameras with lots of innovative features.

Ever heard of simulating the effect of an optical low-pass filter by microscopically vibrating the sensor? Or using an in-body image stabilization system together with a GPS and electronic compass to track stars and eliminate star trails in astrophotography?

I own a K-3 II and it lives up to the hype. It's sad that the Pentax system doesn't get a lot of attention...

studiohack

02:02

@DragonLord: sorry, writing a paper on

amazon.com/The-Long-Tail-Business-Selling/dp/1401309666

@DragonLord That looks fascinating. I'll have to check that out.

@DragonLord I hear good things about Osprey. They seem really expensive, but well regarded.

@DragonLord Ricoh makes printers, scanners, I believe, right?

DragonLord

@studiohack dpreview.com/articles/6383771138/ricohbuyspentax

studiohack

@DragonLord no, I've not heard of that. Been looking to get into star trails though.

DragonLord

@studiohack imaging-resource.com/PRODS/pentax-k3/pentax-k3SELECTIVE_LPF.HTM

Sheer genius.

Any word on whether you would be able to contribute more? We sorely need a mod in the afternoon.

@studiohack You run a business?

Journeyman Geek

or is studying something related ;p

DragonLord

Will be AFK for a bit, will be right back. Feel free to ping me.

studiohack

02:22

;) there ya go.

The basic premise is that because it is so efficient to sell stuff online, we're selling more stuff than ever.

Journeyman Geek

02:32

lol

All this has happened before....

studiohack

@JourneymanGeek lolz, the book is by the editor of Wired Mag. Written in '06 though. School be schoolz.

DragonLord

Okay.

Journeyman Geek

@studiohack: Oh, was thinking about the effects that industrialsation and better transport have had

;p

And I'm old enough to remember a time before the internet, and it still amazes me how widespread, affordable and common courier services have become

(and wee, my mod swag should be arriving today)

DragonLord

Aug 16 at 0:57, by Journeyman Geek

When you listen to the community and they say you are.

What am I missing, out of curiosity?

Is it a matter of my lack of patience and self-control, or are there other issues?

Aug 16 at 0:53, by DragonLord

> Bill has been the archetype for what a moderator on Stack Exchange should be. His patient, fair and calm demeanor even in the face of criticism is legendary; his diligence and skill in handling the numerous difficult problems that face Stack Overflow users are inspiring. For the past 6 years, Bill has been an example for new moderators to follow, his impressive record a lofty goal to strive for.

What do I need to change to get there?

Bob

I see community mods more as a natural evolution - things you were already doing anyway because you want to do them. If you want to be a mod simply to have a title, just for the sake of being a mod - then I would not vote for you.

Don't see being a mod as a goal. See it as a tool to aid in what you are already doing.

DragonLord

02:44

The idea at the heart of my work is that I want to expand my contributions.

Bob

With that view, it doesn't matter if you become a mod or not.

DragonLord

I want to make the most of the time I spend here.

Take action directly instead of waiting on flags.

Bob

It's not a competition. It's not something to stress over. If you aren't elected, you can still do most mod-actions.

@DragonLord Remember, mods are exception handlers. They take care of the edge cases. Actually, according to the SE view of moderation, the mod-hammer ("taking action directly") should be rare.

studiohack

@Bob I agree with this,

@Bob also very true.

DragonLord

@Bob Then why can't we make it easier for high-reputation users to eliminate not-an-answer posts?

> patient, fair and calm demeanor even in the face of criticism

Bob

02:47

@DragonLord You can already vote-to-delete, if you want.

DragonLord

That's not who I am.

@Bob Not until I reach 20k.

Bob

But the simple answer is most high-rep users don't bother to do so.

DragonLord

Just a tad short.

I do look into voting to delete.

Bob

And most of the time they should probably be dealt with by downvoting, actually.

DragonLord

But not-an-answer posts are not usually deleted by high-reputation users!

Bob

02:48

(I do flag as NAA, and the flag reason is there... though now that I think about it, does it really require special handling? Don't repeated downvotes reinforce the message strongly enough? I guess for the sake of cleaning up clutter a bit...)

DragonLord

@Bob Does this mean I'm not an ideal candidate?

Bob

@DragonLord True. Then the answer might be to lower the rep requirement. Or make the VtD option more obvious.

I have enough rep to VtD, but I don't spend that much time reviewing.

DragonLord

I think I've been doing everything wrong.

Bob

Perhaps I should spend more.

Journeyman Geek

@DragonLord Yeah. That's pretty much it

DragonLord

02:50

I've had constant trouble understanding the SE moderation philosophy.

The community needs to play its role in moderating the site.

Journeyman Geek

@DragonLord: Automate as much as possible. Then let the community handle a bunch of that. Then mods handle what's left over.

DragonLord

Concentrating power in the hands of a few is not conducive to the way things work here.

Bob

@DragonLord I'm not judging you on that - that's more my personal view, with the general 'you', not you specifically.

DragonLord

I have this feeling I shouldn't run in the next election...

Bob

But I do see you leaning that way a bit.

You put a lot of effort into helping the site. That's great.

But if your end goal is to be a mod - what next? What happens when you are a mod?

Does that motivation disappear?

DragonLord

02:52

@Bob The pace will slow down a bit, but I'll mostly be participating as normal.

I'm still committed to serving the community. The diamond only reinforces that commitment.

Bob

And if the motivation does not disappear - are you pushing yourself overly much for this goal, and to maintain it?

Burn-out is a real issue.

DragonLord

It's for the love of the community.

@Bob There have been some very real scares involving burnout. The most recent one nearly cost me my entire Stack Exchange career.

Aug 8 at 12:52, by DragonLord

To the community: I'm very sorry to say that I am leaving Stack Exchange for an indefinite period of time. I am unable to perform my usual moderation work in a controlled fashion. Unless and until I become a truly calm, cool, and collected person IRL, I cannot contribute any longer without risking harm to the community. Farewell...

At least I'm still here.

I do this because I like to act as a "vigilante" of sorts, cleaning up content that shouldn't be here. I like to position myself as a leader in spam fighting.

Spam has always been a pet peeve of mine.

Bob

I'll be back in a couple hours.

studiohack

@DragonLord what happened? Why are you still here if you said you're leaving?

DragonLord

@studiohack It was a brief crisis. For context:

Aug 8 at 12:47, by DragonLord

I'm going to withdraw from my usual community moderation work until I sort out my (admittedly very serious) self-control issues. This could take years, and may never happen at all.

Comparing myself to the very best mods and realizing that I'm nowhere near the standards they set.

Apr 30 at 5:45, by DragonLord

> Bill has been the archetype for what a moderator on Stack Exchange should be. His patient, fair and calm demeanor even in the face of criticism is legendary; his diligence and skill in handling the numerous difficult problems that face Stack Overflow users are inspiring.

1179

Q: April 2015 Community Moderator Election Results

Stack Overflow's 6th moderator election has come to a close, the votes have been tallied, and the 3 new moderators are: They'll be joining the existing crew shortly — please thank them for volunteering, and share your assistance and advice with them as they learn the ropes! For details on ...

discussion election

allquixotic

02:58

@DragonLord No offense, but you do that... a lot. Like, probably close to 8 or 9 times now. It makes you come off as a bit of a drama queen. When you're feeling like posting something like that in the future, just take a deep breath, sleep on it, and come back tomorrow and keep grinding. You'll probably feel better after you sleep on it. You seem to overreact to your own feelings.

DragonLord

It was a foolish mistake on my end.

random

Cannot remember any other user vying for a moderator position to be this much into pointing out how much they can't handle whatever is going on

allquixotic

If you sleep on it and you don't feel any differently, then maybe it's time to discuss the issue.

DragonLord

I've established making myself a better person my life goal and I seem to be trying too hard it at it.

The key here is to take it easy and enjoy the journey. Don't force it.

random

If you hated the site these comments would be signs of a rage quit, but you don't hate the site, but it's like that still

DragonLord

03:01

As human beings, we're always improving. Forcing it is counterproductive.

Yeah, I reread it and it looked like a ragequit to me.

Doesn't make sense for someone with more than 2000 flags on record and a long history of spamfighting.

I only need to look back briefly to see that I've gone well beyond the call of duty to improve the site.

Once again, I shouldn't be forcing it.

Just keep doing what I enjoy doing as an established, high-rep user.

My gratitude to everyone here with their kind words.

I've always enjoyed participating on Super User and I'll simply continue contributing as I normally do.

random

Election starts tomorrow if you're interested

DragonLord

@random Wait, what?

That's a bit unexpected. Thought elections start on Mondays...

A mod did step down, though, so it does make sense.

When I started here, I had some bad questions that were quickly closed.

I struggled to get started, but as I learned the ropes, I fell in love with Super User when I learned that I had the ability to work with the mods through flagging and in chat to eliminate bad content.

That's the beauty of the Stack Exchange model. Anyone can contribute.

...and coming from Wikipedia, where I've spent some time reverting vandalism edits because I enjoy doing it, and it's been a fun journey.

random

Election is planned for 14 September

DragonLord

@random Are you in touch with the community team on this, or are you making up things?

If I do get the diamond, it will only be the beginning of an even grander journey.

random

So now you're back to wanting the diamond?

DragonLord

03:13

It doesn't matter. I'll contribute as I always have.

@random What's the point with these messages?

I don't need to be manipulated like this.

Just tell me the point you're trying to make.

(Not trying to start an argument, but why do you need to do this?)

As I said, if you're making up things, just tell me what the point is. I'll understand, you don't need to make an example out of me.

random

There are two different streams going on

DragonLord

@random Just tell me the truth. I'll understand.

random

Which truth do you want?

DragonLord

@random About the point you're trying to express with the seemingly fake mod election date messages.

random

Come 14 September

DragonLord

03:20

Is anyone else able to confirm? I can't make sense out of this.

@random, can you not play around with me about any future mod elections? Like I said, I'll understand if you just tell me what you're trying to express. I can't really accept this as true.

This information is not normally disclosed by anyone outside the community team.

I'm the kind of person who understands things better if you cut to the chase rather than be made an example of. I understand that the latter is often a lot more salient, but I do understand simple truths, even if they're hard to accept otherwise.

I have to get to bed, so just tell me what the point is.

3

Q: Do metaphors make the best answers?

My style of answering questions has always about clear, easy-to-understand explanations that describe the problem and solution in detail without relying primarily on metaphors. However, the community seems to strongly prefer metaphoric answers, as illustrated in these questions. Why does the com...

discussion answers best-practices

Psycogeek

@DragonLord this one :-) You have to go to bed.

Paul Vargas

Hello to all!

I have one question.

How much watts take the Intel Core i7 4790k from the power supply?

DragonLord

@PaulVargas TDP is 88 watts.

Psycogeek

And if you OC the heck out of it, it can take as much as 160Watts :-0

DragonLord

03:35

@random: I'm starting to understand what you're trying to do, so I'll say this: regardless of whether I get the diamond, what I do here is a hobby of mine and I will continue to contribute for the foreseeable future.

Paul Vargas

Related question: how about the amps? That is using the stock 4.0 GHz.

@DragonLord What is TDP?

DragonLord

@PaulVargas Thermal design power, the amount of heat which must be removed by a thermal solution (such as a heatsink/fan assembly) to maintain normal operation. Usually representative of power consumption.

Paul Vargas

@DragonLord As the same required watt from the power supply?

Ah! Humm... OK.

Do you have some reference about that claim?

DragonLord

Thermal design power

The thermal design power (TDP), sometimes called thermal design point, is the maximum amount of heat generated by the CPU that the cooling system in a computer is required to dissipate in typical operation. Rather than specifying CPU's real power dissipation, TDP serves as the nominal value for designing CPU cooling systems. The TDP is typically not the largest amount of heat the CPU could ever generate (peak power), such as by running a power virus, but rather the maximum amount of heat that it would generate when running "real applications." This ensures the computer will be able to handl...

Psycogeek

@PaulVargas about 70 amps required at the cpu connection pins to get the low voltage power across to it. (based on about 1.25v at full 88Watt load) . About 10 amps from the 12V line going to the voltage regulation to convert to this low power. adding in general losses at the conversion.

People always freak out when i say 125 amps can be pumped into the CPU core when overclocked. Cause that is enough "amperage" to start your car (but not enough actual wattage). But it is at very very low voltages, and through literally multiple hundreds of pins that the power is delivered.

Paul Vargas

03:47

@Psycogeek Yup. Ha!

Journeyman Geek

@PaulVargas: most of us grab an online power supply calculator and let it do the hard work ;p

Unless you need the information for something else.

usually tho, on a gaming box, the processor isn't the big power consumer.

Psycogeek

JMG knows this as his lights dim when he fires up his new GPU to do 4K gaming :-)

Journeyman Geek

lol

I use the same PSU as my original build

I slightly overspeced it, but got a broze efficiency one

the 980ti is rated for 250W and should have at least a 600W PSU

Psycogeek

I actually under did my last supply a bit, instead of going all 800-1000W (crasy) because the gold efficency was only exisiting on the graph at the 60-80% usage area. with a 630w gaming thing, that the PS testers claim could pull at least that.

Bob

@PaulVargas @DragonLord Keep in mind that TDP is not necessarily peak.

Peak power consumption can exceed TDP for short bursts.

Journeyman Geek

04:03

@PaulVargas: so it comes down to... why do you need to know?

Paul Vargas

I bought a power supply of 500 watts.

Journeyman Geek

ahh

What's your GPU?

(or planned GPU?)

Paul Vargas

evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=100-W1-0500-KR

@JourneymanGeek No GPU. Integrated.

Journeyman Geek

That's an odd build

Probably good enough then

Paul Vargas

@JourneymanGeek I'm not fan of games. Ha! Sorry!

Journeyman Geek

04:14

@PaulVargas: what do you use the computer for then? ;p

(oh, literally. Curious what sorts of stuff use systems with highish core/thread counts for)

Paul Vargas

@JourneymanGeek the task more claimant is conversation videos (photoslide)

Bob

@PaulVargas GPUs are actually very good at transcoding :P

Journeyman Geek

You need a overclocked quad core system for ....

0_0

Paul Vargas

And I'm a Java programmer. Tomcat, Websphere, Oracle and some virtualization.

Bob

Wait, conversation? Or conversion?

allquixotic

04:18

@Bob provided you have fixed function parts for the codecs in question, yes

Bob

@allquixotic Even GPGPU is better than CPU

Paul Vargas

Typo. >.<

Bob

@PaulVargas You're gonna want more RAM. Lots more RAM.

allquixotic

@Bob in my experience, state-of-the-art GPGPU video encoding is much less efficient power-wise than doing it on the CPU, and only about 2x faster than an Ivy i7

Journeyman Geek

@Bob: all the ram

Paul Vargas

04:19

16 GB or more....

allquixotic

and this is on Tahiti, which is one of the fastest OpenCL platforms out there, competing well with Nvidia Maxwell

Journeyman Geek

Java is prolly a good reason

or compiling.

I think 16gb is pretty common here ;p

(even if we politely disagree on a great many things)

DragonLord

@Bob yes, I know that, I've seen my "47 W" i7-4800MQ report 50+ watts of peak power.

Bob

@PaulVargas If you want to do virt and Tomcat, I'd say 24 or 32 :P

Paul Vargas

@JourneymanGeek Where is here?

DragonLord

04:21

Gotta sleep.

Journeyman Geek

Oh, channel users

;p

Paul Vargas

@DragonLord Oh!

allquixotic

I have 16 GB on my (modded) work laptop, 16 GB on my personal laptop, and 32 on my desktop

Journeyman Geek

modern core processors have turbo boost.

allquixotic

my next phone will have 4... lol

Paul Vargas

04:23

I don't have much money.

Journeyman Geek

@allquixotic: most of my boxes have 4. 8 would be what I'd consider a minimum on a new laptop.

heh

Paul Vargas

I should not use the credit card. :-P

The pay rate in Mexico is very low. :'(

Journeyman Geek

@PaulVargas: heh. I built my current rig (core i7, 16 gb of ram etc etc) on 300 dollars a month.

Hardware's reasonably priced here tho

(well, not really my current current rig. Done a few major upgrades since then)

@PaulVargas: for me, I ~~plan~~ planned 2-3 generations ahead ;p

Paul Vargas

Huh? Here the Core i7 4790k -> $ 345 us dollar

Sathya

been meaning to get a 970 but about takes 1/3rd of my salary

sobs

Journeyman Geek

04:27

and since I'm "down" to incremental upgrades , things get easier

heh

Sathya

currently on a 7750

Journeyman Geek

@Sathya: heh. Its about 1/4 mine here. My current card is somewhat less than half.

Sathya

what do you have currently? 980?

Journeyman Geek

980ti

(or as I call it, a baby titan ;p)

Paul Vargas

What are than numbers? Video cards?

Journeyman Geek

04:29

zotac.com/products/graphics-cards/geforce-900-series/gtx-980-ti/… one of these

Paul Vargas

(Sorry, I'm on mobile)

Journeyman Geek

@PaulVargas: nvidia uses 3 digits. AMD used 4, now its generation + numbers.

@PaulVargas: zotac card, not reference cooling, slightly overclocked.

Dead silent when not gaming

Paul Vargas

My mobo supports crosswire and ... I forgot the name. SLI?

Journeyman Geek

crossfire and SLI

Sathya

@JourneymanGeek nice

Journeyman Geek

04:32

I prefer to have a single card, cause reasons

@Sathya: heh, that and my monitor ate up my whole tech + junk food budget ;p

Sathya

I can buy it and keep paying via EMIs, would prefer to buy outright.. control..

Paul Vargas

@JourneymanGeek auto complete issue

Journeyman Geek

EMI?

ahh

Psycogeek

@Sathya what are EMIs? frequent flyer miles ? :0)

Journeyman Geek

I just put aside money until I can afford it. The video card's chewing into reserves a bit, but I figured, meh ;p

Sathya

04:34

Equated Monthly Installment

basically you split the full amount across x months and pay them monthly

Journeyman Geek

@Sathya: I quite literally used to put money in a jar ;p

Sathya

@JourneymanGeek I need to do that :p

Journeyman Geek

(I use a spreadsheet now)

Psycogeek

Payment plans, in tech gear that means it is paid off the day it is obsolete?

Sathya

problem with EMi is with Interest accrues over time and adds a significant bit

Journeyman Geek

04:35

yup

(I don't like debt)

Sathya

yeah, same..

Paul Vargas

@JourneymanGeek I have that in Amazon Mexico. Amazon US, nope.

Journeyman Geek

I mean for a house, or in theory a car here, maybe.

Paul Vargas

@JourneymanGeek for that reason, I don't have GPU.

Psycogeek

Elongated Monthy Interest :-)

Paul Vargas

04:37

And only 500 watts.

The pay rate in Mexico is 1/4 of US.

Journeyman Geek

@PaulVargas: I saved for somewhat over a year for my last full system ;p

Paul Vargas

@JourneymanGeek Can you share the specs?

Journeyman Geek

Were I at home, yeah. Its a core i7 3770, 16gb ram, asus gforce 660, samsung 840 ssd when I built it. Upgraded the video card, and SSD (to a 850 pro), and added a 3tb storage drive in the meanwhile

Paul Vargas

OC? And the PSU?

Journeyman Geek

04:55

No OC, its a non K model, and I don't believe in OC. Also, I may move this to being a VM host so VT-D support seemed more sensible, and it was cheaper

620W seasonic MII

its bronze efficiency but it handles my current setup (with the 980ti, and 3 drives) with no fuss.

a 500W PSU should be fine up to a low/mid range discrete card, or better

hm.

You can run anything up to a 980 with your PSU ;p

single card of course

video cards are typically factory overclocked for me

(by choice. And the cards I happened to like at the time were ;p)

Paul Vargas

What about the RAM? The CPU support 1600 MHz.

Journeyman Geek

(I built my boxes typically to be good primary boxes for 4-5 years, then run em till they break)

er...

wasn't picky. Went with low voltage, boring kingston ram

Paul Vargas

05:11

I could get Kingston

I could get DDR 2400 MHz. What do you recommend?

Ah! Sorry! Since you don't believe in OC. :)

Psycogeek

a 10% overclock will get you more real overall performace speed increase than going from 1600 to 2400 , because of many factors. ram is not any sort of bottleneck. the big numbers do not mean as much as all the wait states, car ras junk and all, both seen and internal . so big ram speed numbers with low cas ras rates get you a bit of extra ram throughput.

For me the CPU connecting to the ram (cpu is now ram controller) direct change, back from 775 socket was a Huge massive ram speed change.

Playing with 2800 style speed chips that also took much extra power/heat to run at thier higher voltage need , which is common for the really big number stuff and XMP was so un fulfilling to Overall performaces, I actually tweaked mine down a bit to run at not as high voltage as the OC suggested.

Paul Vargas

@Psycogeek Humm... So, what should I buy?

Psycogeek

05:28

buy a balanced price level, for the capability of your CPU and MB (some CPU MB stuff does not support the big numbers) and dont bother overdoing it , check the required voltages needed to run the high faluting numbers. Watch those cas ras numbers 10-10-10 or 9-9-9 cause that can mean a lot to speed. and most of all Check really freaking well (memtest86, or prime custom ram) that everything works 110% at any speed you set it to, before assuming.

Which at the regular prices, and ways it is made were getting does mean that some 2400 is fine

Journeyman Geek

05:41

@PaulVargas: especially for ram

there's some situations where high frequency ram is good

If you're relying on a fast IGP (AMD's APUs seem to do well here) hell yes

I'd rather get cheaper ram, and maybe more of it.

@PaulVargas: older article but pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/… was what I relied on when I built my box

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