View Full Version : Episode 103 - Block WoW, Video Card Picks, Free Hard Drive Backup, Double USB Bandwidth! [Discussion]
serafina
08-27-2009, 11:52 PM
Are Shure's SRH840 Headphones as good as their Earphones? Jason Cross has graphics card reccomendations from under $100 to price is no object. Free Backup Software, Discover music with CitySounds.fm, Stop World of Warcraft Obssessions At The Router...
Watch or download this episode here (http://revision3.com/tekzilla/shure)
Great episode, I really enjoyed the GPU talk!
ghelyar
08-28-2009, 02:40 AM
The guy who abuses USB was asking about PCI controllers. Here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124007) is an example of one.
The correct answer is Yes, all PCI controllers share bandwidth on the PCI bus. There isn't even that much for 1 card anyway. However, each PCI-E has its own bandwidth to the motherboard and even an x1 slot on PCI-E 1.1 probably has more bandwidth than a normal 32bit PCI slot.
On a related note, USB 3 controllers may offer much more bandwidth for an obviously heavy user but only for USB 3 devices. It has the USB 1 and 2 pins but also some additional ones. I don't know if the controllers are out yet but I have never seen any device at all that uses it anyway.
mrflawless
08-28-2009, 05:11 AM
good episode i was just looking up on some back up options too :)
ryanhayn
08-28-2009, 07:40 AM
good job reviewing more high(er) end headphones...it's obvious Patrick wants to get more people exposed to better audio quality, which is never a bad thing. Did you guys review the Sony MDR-V6 in a previous episode? If not, you should. It's the perfect headphone for us high audio quality music addicts with almost empty bank accounts.
davmoo
08-28-2009, 07:55 AM
Fantastic show! I hope Jason takes Pat's advice and uses his web site to point us to his current work. And have him on the show more often :)
Veronica, did you also try the other two pairs of Shures with the lower price tags, or did they just send you the expensive pair? And I can't quite put my finger on exactly what it is, but in this episode you look like you could be the older sister of my teenage next door neighbor...the resemblance is downright spooky.
nav13eh
08-28-2009, 05:07 PM
iv've been wating for this, but diskcopy cannot zap the partition back like carbon copy. is there a windows version for that? Great show!
ajzzz
08-28-2009, 05:21 PM
Great episode, loved the reviews of gpus and headphones. Patrick and Veronica were in a humourous mood. I'd like whatever they're taking.
nferno
08-28-2009, 07:51 PM
I recently built me an ultimate bang-for-your-buck computing machine and at first I considered getting an ATI HD4850 GPU, which was recommended as the sub $100-card on this episode.
Instead, I ended up getting the more recent HD4770 (more specifically, the XFX ATI Radeon HD4770). While Jason said the 4850 was better than the 4770, it's really only marginally better than the 4770; in some benchmarks the 4770 even beats the 4850, so you could say their performance is pretty much equivalent. The reason I preferred the 4770 is because it's produced at the smaller 40nm process, which has a couple of significant advantages attached to it: less power consumption (especially under full load), therefore a little cooler and therefore quiter.
Just wanted to mention this in case you were considering a sub-$100 card; I definitely recommend getting the 4770; I'm very happy with mine :)
ghelyar
08-28-2009, 11:29 PM
iv've been wating for this, but diskcopy cannot zap the partition back like carbon copy. is there a windows version for that? Great show!
You can always just burn a Linux live CD such as Ubuntu or possibly gparted and run "dd". Partitions are partitions so dd can back up the raw partitions even if it doesn't understand the filesystem being used inside that partition. This requires some knowledge of how to use the command line but anyone who has ever used the terminal in OS X should have no problem with it. It generally looks something like this:
dd if=/dev/sdc2 of=out.img
Where sdc2 is the Linux name for the 2nd (2) partition of the 3rd (c) sata/scsi/sas disk (sd). This example also assumes you have mounted the drive that you want to save the image to and that your current directory is the folder you want to save the image to.
if means input file and of means output file. To restore an image, just switch the two around (so the input file is the .img file and the output file is the drive partition)
You can add more layers of complication such as gzip compressing the image on the fly but compressing an entire image would be incredibly slow (useful for backing up an image to a smaller drive though). It's already going to take a long time to take an image of a hard drive in the first place.
nav13eh
08-29-2009, 12:30 AM
thnaks ghelyar, never thought of that. but i also found another that i have recently tested both ways and the Windows still boots. It is called Macrium Reflect Free. it has a linux based restore CD option.
computoman
08-29-2009, 02:08 AM
live clonezilla cd might be easier, if your not linux saavy. osx should have dd also.
fishtoprecords
08-29-2009, 06:10 PM
Dear Bearonica,
Do you really wear your headphones over your lovely hair so you get no seal between your head and ears? Or was that just so you would look good on TV? (Not that I'm complaining)
Did the big cans make your ears sweaty? My old Koss Pro-4A sure did
Great episode, I really enjoyed the GPU talk!
Same! Love the GPU stuff
Tekzilla should also discuss more about good headphones, such as the AD900 :)
http://media.photobucket.com/image/ad900/Kernmac/4961310081461.jpg
www.audiotechnica-headphones.com.au/products/ad900.htm
evods
08-30-2009, 03:12 PM
I think the Nvidia ION-based computer is a good idea, but i dun know how good it perform.
I know now there is one product out there, is The Acer AspireRevo.
They say is a 'outstanding value' product. May be u can go to Nvidia website to find out more about Nvidia ION-based computer or Acer website to find out more about the product.
P/S : May be Tekzilla can do a review or talk about Nvidia ION, b'cos by next year i'll hav a new house and i also planing to make a HTPC so i also want to how about how u guys thinks about it.
veronicazilla
08-31-2009, 07:33 AM
Dear Bearonica,
Do you really wear your headphones over your lovely hair so you get no seal between your head and ears? Or was that just so you would look good on TV? (Not that I'm complaining)
Did the big cans make your ears sweaty? My old Koss Pro-4A sure did
No, I usually push my hair back, it was a TV thing. My ears only get hot (but not sweaty, that I recall) when I wear my Creative Fatal1ty headset, because it's like... velour-lined or something.
fishtoprecords
08-31-2009, 05:55 PM
it was a TV thing. My ears only get hot ... because it's like... velour-lined or something.
I love the sound of closed cans that can seal against the head. I'm sure some are warmer than others.
bjkrautk
09-01-2009, 08:23 PM
My ears only get hot (but not sweaty, that I recall) when I wear my Creative Fatal1ty headset, because it's like... velour-lined or something.
As someone who finally caved in and bought the Fatal1ty (USB) headset last weekend, after they earned the Bearonica Seal of Approval, I can vouch for the non-sweatyness. I don't have much gaming time with them, yet, but it's easily the most comfortable headset I've ever purchased.
veronicazilla
09-01-2009, 08:26 PM
As someone who finally caved in and bought the Fatal1ty (USB) headset last weekend, after they earned the Bearonica Seal of Approval, I can vouch for the non-sweatyness. I don't have much gaming time with them, yet, but it's easily the most comfortable headset I've ever purchased.
Good, glad you like them! They are quite comfy.