>>9552

Single core CPUs?

>>9560 Yes.

>>9552
I assume that these CPUs are 32 bit. In that case, Windows limits you to using ~3 GB RAM (as the rest of the address space is reserved for shared memory and the like and therefore is virtual). RAM isn't really expensive, so buy 3 GB and be done with it.

>>9562 Are you sure? The reason for this thread is that I seem to remember being told at some point that the amount of ram used is limited by how much the processor is doing, therefore throwing ram at an old system doesn't achieve very much. The same with GPU.

Am I wrong?

>>9566
Yes. RAM is rarely in active use, i.e. it's not usually used in processor-intensive calculations but simply to store program data that might be called upon at any second (where the hard drive would be too slow). You should however check whether your old motherboards can support 3 GB RAM.

>>9550

Op here, i've bought components from various online retailers as finding local decently priced computer shops near me is impossible.

Some of the online places i have used are: www.ebuyer.com , www.scan.co.uk , www.aria.co.uk , www.overclock.co.uk : There's no real newegg for us englishman, sadly.

>>9553

Most studios will do the obvious and put the computer at the back of a control room where it doesn't matter, but I have been in live rooms with computers too, often when they are recording a full setup live in one take, which is always fun. Anyway, the best solution to that I have seen is putting the computers in an isolation chamber, or in English, a sealed or mostly sealed wooden box. They work wonders for keeping the noise out. With something small like a laptop it's often enough to just keep the mic far enough away or keep the computer in the mic's blind spot, but you're still going to get a bit of noise there.

In my own experiments though, I have found a BIG fan (10, 12 inches) is almost silent because it doesn't have to spin as fast, and does a better job of airflow because of the size. You can spend a lot these days on peltier cooling or similar too.

Just stick to a good old C=64. No need for fans there! I'm ahead of the game.

Not to hijack but I've been thinking today that I might like to buy an old laptop (probably a macbook, I know them inside out) stick an SSD in there and replace the single small fan with some sort of passive system. I know you can get little Peltier units - no moving parts, absolute silence. Thoughts?

>>9564
Peltier devices do not work that way.
They're woefully inefficient heat pumps. Where are you planning to pump the heat to?

>>9507 Ah, cheers. Tempting, but my car already has too many bits of comms gear. I was hoping it could also pretend to be a PMR446 rig.

On projectors: Buy for lamp life. Lamps often cost more than second hand projectors, so either treat cheap ebay ones as disposable, or make damn sure you get either a spare lamp (note that dead lamps look identical to new ones, and hour counters can be reset), or make sure you can source a replacement. Nothing screws a film like watching the second half on a 14" telly or laptop screen.

>>9509
>On projectors: Buy for lamp life.

Totally agreed. I once made the mistake of using a projector as my "main" source of television, it varies, but you should budget on 1500 hours of life for most of the bulbs. As you say, the replacement bulbs are often up to half the cost of the original projector.

The company I would buy lamps (light bulbs) from if I had a projector:

http://www.cp-lighting.co.uk/

They have an unbelievably large selection and are generally a decent price. They also get bonus points for having a hilarious name.

I'd advise against using a projector in the garden.It's usually bright outside, and projectors don't display well if there is a lot of external light.

>>9539
I'd agree with this and add that most projectors (especially cheap ones) will look like shit unless they're projected onto a nice surface in a very dark room. A cheap/old projector outside will just make people moan about how they can't see anything.

>>9543

Currently in the same situation, I previously had a Panasonic NV GS180 until one day it decided that it'd had enough and died. Never to work again. It doesn't seem like a reoccurring problem that a lot of people experience, i can't find any clues as to why it did break on the Internet.

I think i might buy another one, it was good quality and did everything that i wanted it to do. I welcome anyone to show me an alternative option though, but it must be Mini-DV. Can't stand the thought of not having a physical backup.

There are several models in the Canon Legria range in your price bracket, though personally I agree with >>9544, I'm a mini DV man, and I haven't seen a mini DV that does HD yet, at least not for less than £800 on the HDV Sony stuff.

If you're happy with standard definition, check out a second hand Sony Handycam.

>>9540

You can get dual sim adaptors for many phones, but I think to switch between them you must power off the phone, which might not be ideal for you.

No problem here, and from the picture I'm going to assume you're using OS X, and from which I will assume you're using Safari - so, the same as me, and I have no such problems.

Fine for me also. 0.0%

>>9448
This sounds like two of your plugins are fighting over something. If you're using Firefox, you should get a message suggesting to stop the CPU hoarding script after a few seconds, though I don't know if that is the case when there's rapid context switching between to scripts running at the same time in the same tab.

>>9458

Excuse my ignorance, but is that just a wanky skin for the task manager?

>>9516
Nah its a terminal.

>>9460

Got to be fun to rush in there, yank out half of them and run away. Now there's a way to say "I quit" when the stress becomes too much.

Or you could torment them by just easing out one end of a cable buried in the mass. Hours of fun.

>>9460
That looks a lot more typical to me rather than these OCD versions in the other pictures. Many of the other ones in this thread have been taken just after installation, that's what a patch panel looks like after a few years of use.

I think in terms of nicest rack: I win.

>>9481
Hurr.

>>9460

Oh god, the horror. that which has been seen cannot be unseen.

>>9517 If not entirely sure, but I can suggest that you should allways use parts to fit.

>>9497

Do you get the bleeps from the onboard speaker? That will tell you if it's booting without display, or simply not booting at all.

>>9500 I don't think I did. I'll try again in the morning.

The reason I thought it might not be a problem with the motherboard was because I previously stuck the graphics card in a perfectly good computer that also had onboard graphics. It booted as usual but didn't recognise the graphics card. Any idea here?

>>9502 It didn't beep, but then neither did the working pc.

>>9492
I can't help you on the transmitter suggestion, but for the wideband receiver I have an ICOM PCR. They're external mains-powered radio units that use a Windows front-end to control them. I have the PCR-2500 which has two receivers and I love it very much. Second-hand ones are all over eBay.

>>9496
That looks pretty magnificent, I'm definitely getting one of those.

>>9501
http://www.hamradio.co.uk/pdf/Icom/IC-R1500.pdf
http://www.hamradio.co.uk/pdf/Icom/IC-R2500.pdf

I can't recommend it highly enough. They sell it with a "remote head" now so you don't actually need Windows to be running to operate it - I believe they had issues with Windows 7. You can install little daughterboards in them for extra DSP goodness or reception of various kinds of digital data.

The frequency coverage is very wide too, goes right up to 3Ghz, so I guess in theory you could point it at satellites and all sorts.

I have it connected to one of these active antennae - it picks up everything I've ever tried, but it works well with just a long wire (or your discone) too.
http://www.hamradio.co.uk/pdf/dx500.pdf

The PCR is probably one of the best gadgets I've ever bought. (!) I buy all my gear from Martin Lynch & Sons. They're very knowledgeable and very kind to newcomers.

>>9504
£400 for the cheapest model though. Looks like I'll be saving for it, I don't mind spending that much on that receiver though.

>>9422

Someone is selling an antigravity lab and not a single post in reply? Such a shame. This is one of these holy grail technologies. I am rather sceptical of most claims (not seen any that worked out yet, like water-powered cars). I can only imagine this chap is a liar or else someone would have jumped on this offer right away (unless someone already has made a breakthrough or has their own lab and research developed far enough not to need assistance).

He's just another scammer, attempting to extract cash from idiots. What's to discuss?
If you've got antigrav, then make something fly, dammit. A lab full of 1960s test gear is not really worth anything.

>>9495

>A lab full of 1960s test gear is not really worth anything.

Everything is worth what you can sell it for, if someone is stupid enough to buy into it, then fuck em'

Vintage lab gear often does rather well on eBay.

>>9468

I'm guessing the little flame is a bad sign.

>>9468
I'll think you'll find Cpuid's Hwmonitor is the best software out there for monitoring temperatures and voltages ect.

>>9469
Not necessarily, It just depends what piece of hardware has that temperature, (Hwmonitor would display the type of hardware alongside the temperature). Speedfan always displays little flames next to almost all my temperatures which happen to be there normal operating temperature.

Well I cracked the thing open, I removed the ram and the fans, I didn't remove the CPU or video card because I'm not certain what I'm doing. I used an air compressor and managed to remove a metric ton of dust, and now my PC is running far quieter and my temperature has much improved. Hopefully that will be the end of it.

>>9472 That looks profoundly better. I'd not do anything more unless you still have problems. Dusty PCs are sad PCs.

(I went and fetched HWmonitor - looks fine, but doesn't play nearly as nicely on my Dell hardware as Speedfan (which does give me names, not 'temp1', and speedfan finds a load of sensors that HWmonitor doesn't). Life's too short to investigate or care - it looks like having both in the toolkit is worthwhile.)

>>9486 Also, I take it that this early warning of possible doom reminded you that BACKUPS ARE A GOOD THING.

they've had more negative press recently than ever before, if not over their product faults, then over their questionable manufacturing. Hell, they were on the front page of the Independent saying that it's all gone tits up for them.

I'm not saying Apple is going bankrupt anytime soon, but certainly the ipod honeymoon period is over.

>>9480

There's no point trying to say anything like that here because the Apple fanboys will just foam at the mouth and rage in return.

>>9483
Too right. We don't allow rageposts about Linux or Windows either, I don't see why we should allow Apple-bashing. If we allow one type, then we allow all types, and that ends up in a /g/ full of religious wars. V tedious and not very helpful. We want a good /g/.

Use whatever platform you like, be happy with it and be free to tell others how great your experiences are. Don't try and bash other people because they use a different one. Too much of the Apple bashing comes out as jealousy/insults. You don't like Apple products, fine, but spare us your bile, plenty of us do.

>>9485

If bashing isn't allowed then are at least equally pointless gushing love-fests allowed or is a blind eye turned to it when it is the other side of the coin?

Seems that the Apple fanboyism is a special case more than anything.

>>9493
>Use whatever platform you like, be happy with it and be free to tell others how great your experiences are

I was looking at getting one of those Linux-based consoles for homebrew fun.

For a phone I'd prefer something simpler though. The excessively complicated phones like this is too much for my tastes. The first time I saw a phone crash was a bad sign for me.

Complex phones are not my thing. Don't get me wrong, I like a powerful phone, but I think trying to make a phone act like a PC is never going to work. Let it compliment your PC, not try to replace it.

He's been paid off by Apple.

>>9444

and Google.

The nightmare scenario for me would be trying to dial because of an emergency and the phone software crashing or locking up instead.