Computer tech blog

[Dr. Mario]

You can spill the bean on whether you like or dislike, what was your projects - I mean, anything about CPU, RAM, hard drive - anything about computer!

I figured that it would be a bit better to squawk about tech here, since some of us were not on topic. (mostly me, I admit.. ;  )

[Red-Machine]

Do you actally need two PCI-e slots to have SLI or CrossFire?  Cos as far as I can tell, everything I've seen only has one.

[Smokey]

SLI or crossfire consists of a mainboard with two PCI-e x16 slots and an identical videocard in each of those two slots... nowadays it has more tolerances but basically it needs the same GPUs and preferably the same RAM, otherwise it would disable the extra RAM... (example if you use 1 GF8500GT 256MB and one GF8500GT 512MB you would have a total of 512MB of video memory, since the second 256MB on the second card is disabled...
Also nowadays, SLI and Crossfire have expanded to three or four videocards... i don't quite know how nVidia has named it but ATI speaks of Crossfire-x wich means you can now have up to 4GPUs  (or even 8, but i don't know how the support of dualcore videocards is on SLI/Crossfire, maybe Dr mario knows) on your system, and to top it off there is also a hybrid version, wich allows you to use your onboard GPU along with one or more videocards (those videocards may differ from the onboard chip, but i suggest you still buy an identical pair of videocards, if you place more than one)...

So to use SLI/Crossfire, you will need a motherboard wich supports it by having at least 2 full speed PCI-e x16 slots or onboard VGA and an PCI-e x16 slot... so when buying watch for that SLI/Crossfire and also see to it it has enough full-speed PCI-e16 slots for your needs...

And as a final note, beware that ATI cards will not work on an SLI board and Nvidia cards will not work on a Crossfire board... So pick wisely... (i recommend AMD/ATI combination)

Pfew, long time since i had a rant... ^_^

[NejinOniwa]

That is in fact not entirely true.
The Intel X58 chipsets support BOTH SLI and Crossfire.
Ganbare~ -w-

[Dr. Mario]

NejinOniwa, you're correct. The SLI and Crossfire both are the same, the only difference are: codes being fired out of PCI-e, firmware on video card and motherboard, AND the OS / driver used. The only best bet is: Still, be careful. They're still tricky to use.

And, for Octo SLI, it's only feasible if you have large case, and have at least 4 PCI-e slots (best bet is to grab a mobo with all 7 PCI-e 16x slot.) AND huge 1.0 kW power supply (they'll suck 70 amps peak when rendering advanced 3D mathematic)

Added after 14 minutes:

Oh, and watch what you're doing to your cooling system, Octo SLI get hot easily, because there are four fans sucking handful of air at fast clip, so use few larger and faster-spinning fan, to ease vacuum problem a bit.

Now, Red_Machine, to your question. Yes, you need two PCI-e 16x ports. If you don't have that kind of motherboard, and if you're in USA, you can try www.newegg.com and www.tigerdirect.com - they're cheap over there. (I have personally used Newegg, pretty cheap and very good.)

[Smokey]

Red_machine is over in the UK...
And i have basically typed from my personal experience, wich was with earlier boards and that SLI chipset absolutely refused to boot with an ATI videocard...

Also if you have the cash to run octo SLI/Crossfire, i assume you'll also have the money for liquid cooling, wich is in that case the preferred option...

[NejinOniwa]

SO GUISE.

As I was saying in topicless I'm getting a laptop.
Family's gonna back me up, and I've got resources, so I thought I might as well go all out on this one.

Question - What should I get?
I have absolutely no clue on laptops. I mean, I know what I want - some hard stuff that can handle some gaming and HD MKV and so on, and also I want some awesome battery life. Also good keyboard since I'll be mostly using it for writing (I heard somewhere Acer has big keyboards).
Then. Brand, model, everything else, I've no clue.

Halp plz?

[Smokey]

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=proddesc&prod_no=1517

Maybe this?

That's the only one i could find so fast...

It has a Turion X2 @2,4GHz (of course it's AMD i refuse to look at intel stuff ^_^)
320GB HDD
And a ATi Mobility Radeon HD 3850 with 512MB dedicated RAM (dedicated is important since shared is slow and for gaming, fail)
plus all the rest; HDMI-out, WLAN etc...

I know it's no Acer, but i couldn't find one with dedicated vidmem so quickly...

Added after 6 minutes:

http://www.acer.fi/acer/product.do?link=oln23g.redirect&changedAlts=&kcond5e.c2att92=17&CRC=3508704899

Or this Acer...

It has an Intel Core 2 duo  ;273
But it also has a nVidia Mobile Geforce 9700 with 512MB ram (also dedicated)

[Dr. Mario]

True. True, Smokey. And, IBM Thinkpad is also good but too expensive. Sometime making your own laptop (custom barebone) may help, but also expensive if you're not as careful in looking for one with dirt cheap deal.

If you're looking for horsepower, stick with AMD for a while, before going for Core i7, Mobile Core i5 / i7 is still in development (to be paired with Centrino 3)

BTW, NejinOniwa - it's alright, you're not really off-topic. ;

Added after 15 minutes:

And, Mobile GeForce 9, AMD Radeon HD 3k / 4k, both are equally good for MKV post-processing (MKV is similar to Blu-ray Disc file, M2TS.) To ensure smoother BD video playback (stutter-free gaming including), try getting larger dedicated RAM too.

Also, avoid Dâ,¬ll, they don't last long nowaday.

[NejinOniwa]

Well, hell, most things on the market today have somewhere between 2 and 4 gigs of RAM, so memory isnt normally an issue...I'm having a hard time finding good graphics cards though (stupid sites without good filters!) so yeah. I'll be looking around for a while...and Smokey, that MSI model didn't even exist here ^^

[Smokey]

Oh, oopsie... At least that acer does, and that can also steal your normal RAM if it needs more video RAM...

But, yes if you want a good processor, get an AMD...

[Dr. Mario]

Yeah, I didn't except the chosen GPU to be so hard to find. And of course, some AMD 7-series do have Radeon HD 3200 (Good for BD, bad for Crysis) - I have a Gigabyte MA78GM-S25HP (AMD 780G) - I know it's not laptop, but they do use the same chip in the laptop. I may be planning on getting either Radeon HD 5k or Larrabee for my computer, though.

[Red-Machine]

Larrabee?  Isn't that the in-the-works Intel one?

INTEL!!! *crosses himself*

[Dr. Mario]

Well, I'm not a big fan of Intel. But it left me with no choice, because I needed a GPU that a Anime3D (GreenOmega executible - more of GIMP, Blender, FASM tossed in a mixer) now need a GPU that it can program that itself with special 3D aspect data. AMD did their own Larrabee, I don't know if this project survives or not, anymore. (Supposedly Radeon HD5k - might use modified Athlon 64 as a streaming coprocessor..)

Added after 9 minutes:

As far as I know, both AMD Radeon HD5k and Intel Larrabee use XDR2 memory, mainly to handle heavy bandwidth. They're like the angry mule, only silicon-based nowaday!

Also, Larrabee is only to be left off as a optional part. It will be decided later once I get my thermal paste-covered hands on Radeon HD5k.

[Smokey]

Gawd, and i'm still using a pair of GF8500s...This stuff is seriously outdated...