Computers And Video Games

[bluevolt]

Hey I came across these VGA coolers which one could attach to an existing graphics card. How effective are they while gaming? Going by the looks, they have these two fans and a heat sink with copper tubes and all.

I saw something similar for the CPU too - liquid cooling with small radiator and all.

Can anyone shed light on how well these things work?

[abhichotu.abhi]

Guys, my 6 months old Seagate 500GB HDD went kaput. The SC guys told that it had developed bad sectors. Got the new one under warranty replacement. But, what about 400GB of data that i had. Lost!
Are there problems with Seagate 500GB's.
What HDD do you guys prefer. I personally prefer SEAGATE only.

[EL LOCO DIABLO]

Guys, my 6 months old Seagate 500GB HDD went kaput. The SC guys told that it had developed bad sectors. Got the new one under warranty replacement. But, what about 400GB of data that i had. Lost!
Are there problems with Seagate 500GB's.
What HDD do you guys prefer. I personally prefer SEAGATE only.

Yeah that happened to me once, I too had a Seagate 7200.12 Barracuda 500Gb, and one fine day it just decided to jump on it's own ass and kill itself . It seems they have some inherent problem or something because I was actually advised to go for WD over Seagate. Anyway it helps to run SeaTools a HDD diagnostic tool from Seagate once in a while to keep track of any anomaly. Get them here SeaTools | Seagate

[abhichotu.abhi]

Yeah that happened to me once, I too had a Seagate 7200.12 Barracuda 500Gb, and one fine day it just decided to jump on it's own ass and kill itself . It seems they have some inherent problem or something because I was actually advised to go for WD over Seagate. Anyway it helps to run SeaTools a HDD diagnostic tool from Seagate once in a while to keep track of any anomaly. Get them here SeaTools | Seagate

Thanks. I will use that from now onwards, it might take time but it's good to have precaution. BTW, Which HDD you are on now?

+ I saw firmeware's for HDD's on that website, how does they help on a PC>

[Aryan]

@Abhi: Many of my friends had their Seagate 500GB hard-drives crash on them! I guess it must be some inherent issue with the 500GB capacity HDDs of Seagate or something. I personally use WD (Western Digital) 2x500GB HDDs and NEVER ever had any issues with them.

[chicane1879]

@Abhi: Many of my friends had their Seagate 500GB hard-drives crash on them! I guess it must be some inherent issue with the 500GB capacity HDDs of Seagate or something. I personally use WD (Western Digital) 2x500GB HDDs and NEVER ever had any issues with them.

Yes the 7200.11 versions of 500GB Seagate suffer from the problem of crashing

[abhichotu.abhi]

^^ and i call them one of the best HDD manufacturers in the market.



I checked Seagate official website, they have firmware update for ST3500410AS but my HDD is ST3500418AS. Both have same specs, now should i go for the update of the former HDD i mentioned. For specs check below, the 418AS is my HDD:
Model # Model Name Interface Capacity RPM

ST3500410AS Barracuda 7200.12 SATA 3Gb/s 500GB Hard Drive Barracuda 7200.12 SATA 3Gb/s 500GB Hard Drive SATA 3Gb/s 500GB 500000 7200 7200

ST3500418AS Barracuda 7200.12 SATA 3Gb/s 500GB Hard Drive Barracuda 7200.12 SATA 3Gb/s 500GB Hard Drive SATA 3Gb/s 500GB 500000 7200 7200

[tanay]

A particular batch of the Seagate 500 gig HDD's had this problem. Since then they have fixed the subsequent batches. So the quality is not that bad, just that sometimes a faulty product batch is released.

[EL LOCO DIABLO]

Thanks. I will use that from now onwards, it might take time but it's good to have precaution. BTW, Which HDD you are on now?

+ I saw firmeware's for HDD's on that website, how does they help on a PC>

Still on Seagate 7200.12 , It's much more easily available here both to purchase and service after and at least fails within its warranty period so I'm not shelling out 2 grand every time there's a CRC Error or Bad Sectors.

[riot]

@Riot: I agree about Ubuntu looking gorgeous! Not only does it look good, it functions REALLY well. I am already hooked!

Great to know that you also liked it bro. Its rock stable and Compiz looks drop dead gorgeous + 3d Cube is very good . Sill learning to use it though and Wine really helps run Windows Applications in it, Doom 3 works even better than it does in Windows .

Yeah.......but at 2,500 a pop for a wireless one, I think my money is better spent on another 2Gb RAM module, and I never quite liked playing on a controller, it's so claustrophobic.

You can get a wired one bro. Its around 1500bux. I too use a wired one , its a lot more fun with racing games and hack and slash games like Ninja Blade and Devil may Cry. But Keyboard/Mouse combo anyday rocks for FPS and RTS games.

************************************************** *

And guys, anyone knows a good X360 repair guy? My 360 has RROD and its collecting dust from quite some time now. I feel palika guys will just repair it with the Old towel trick and it will brick in few months. So need someone who can actually repair it.
My PC with 9400GT cant run anything . I cant afford a new GFX card as saving up for my next bike.

[EL LOCO DIABLO]

You can get a wired one bro. Its around 1500bux. I too use a wired one , its a lot more fun with racing games and hack and slash games like Ninja Blade and Devil may Cry. But Keyboard/Mouse combo anyday rocks for FPS and RTS games.

Hmm still I'm never comfortable without the usual WSAD+mouse combo and I've nearly played like forty-fifty games till now, on my trusty and humble Logitech Keyboard and Mouse, and even if I break one its still only a matter of 275 INR! And that's kinda awesome.

[abhichotu.abhi]

Finally, i have been financed by my father for a new HDD. I am trying to avoid Seagate this time. Can anybody suggest me a good over 1TB HDD(1.5 or 2TB or 3TB). I certainly need one now to cop up with gaming.I already have 3GB RAM and 512MB graphics card which does the job well, so no replacement for them for increasing speed of gaming + softwares. Also i would like to have a 10000-12000RPM HDD this time for faster data processing speed. Can anybody tell me a good range available in India?

[ajslave]

Yeah.......but at 2,500 a pop for a wireless one, I think my money is better spent on another 2Gb RAM module, and I never quite liked playing on a controller, it's so claustrophobic.

just in case u changed your mind and decided to get the x360 controller, its available here in bangalore for 1.3k.
now i need to get blur and try it out on my logitech momo. dont think it will be fun though

Hey I came across these VGA coolers which one could attach to an existing graphics card. How effective are they while gaming? Going by the looks, they have these two fans and a heat sink with copper tubes and all.

I saw something similar for the CPU too - liquid cooling with small radiator and all.

Can anyone shed light on how well these things work?

they do work pretty well of course, but they consume a lot of power, so an uprated and a more stable PSU is a must. Plus they usually warrant a large number of case fans to circulate the hot air out.
As for the liquid cooling, its not really necessary unless you are into extreme Ocing, in which case even an air cooler with a nice heatsink will do(somethin like the cooler master hyper)

[EL LOCO DIABLO]

just in case u changed your mind and decided to get the x360 controller, its available here in bangalore for 1.3k.
now i need to get blur and try it out on my logitech momo. dont think it will be fun though

Well as I said before, there isn't a joystick option available for the Blur, but you can give it a shot with this Download JoyToKey 3.7.4 Free - It is a keyboard emulator for joysticks - Softpedia, and it's pretty all-purpose, you can probably try emulating keystrokes onto your MOMO, btw Split-Second supports joystick option.

[Puneet1]

can anyone tell me how to change order of user profiles in Win XP welcome screen ? i want my user profile on top oflist and other one below mine . presently mine is at bottom of the list ?