The Overheating Machine

I received a call from my friend the other day stating that his computer had been acting up since installing the second video card.  I told him I would come out and visit soon, and take a look.  He said the biggest issue he was having was that the screen would lag and the game would shut itself down shortly afterwards – a classic sign of overheating.

When I visited him and took a look at the setup, I did realize heat was still an issue.  He could get the computer to run fine, but upon heavy graphic load it would not react well.  I decided the best thing to do for him would be to get him a computer case with better airflow.  His current case was built for two smaller graphics cards that didn’t take up as much space.  With his new cards, they were taking up a lot of space and sitting in a stale environment without much airflow.

We decided to go with the Antec Three Hundred case – the same one I have at home for my computer.  The case doesn’t cost much, but is built for good airflow.  It comes with two big fans, as well as locations on the top, back, side, and front to blow around air.  I’m sure there are better looking cases, and some with better features, but for what we need to do, I doubt we’d find anything better for as good of a price.

Dual Graphics Card Upgrade

The other day I was approached by my friend to help him with upgrading his computer yet again.  In the past I had helped him set up a second monitor, upgrade his video card, and look at another computer he had been working on.  This time he was planning to go all-out with dual graphics cards, because if you do have the ability to run two, why would you not run two?

                The last time I upgraded his graphics card, we went from two Radeon 4800’s that came with his machine, and switched him to one 6950.  The new card was better than the other two, and he wasn’t’ really running anything too powerful to warrant a second card, but it was his money and his machine.  I advised him if he wanted to run the two powerful cards, he would probably need a new power supply too in order to be safe, so we looked into his options.

                For the power supply, we decided on a Rosewill 750W gold rated power supply, that was designed to run SLI/Crossfire setups, and had good reviews.  It was also on sale, so we saved some money on it.  The biggest problem was picking out the graphics card.  We had ordered an HIS 6950 from Newegg, which had since been discontinued.  We found a similar sized XFX 6950 on Newegg, which would work.  While I could probably have done some sleuth work to find another HIS model sold through a different site, I decided buying a model currently being manufactured would allow for better customer support if any returns or replacements would need to be handled.  The parts were ordered and arrived a week later.

The parts arrived without issue and I stopped over to install the components.  The old 650W power supply uninstalled easily enough, and the new one fit in without much issue.  I did have to double-check the connections were snug, as the new connections were more loose than I would have thought.  I also had to route a wire behind the side panel of the case behind the motherboard to connect to where the manufacturer had placed the hard drive.  The graphics card slid right into the open slot.  So the biggest concerns with the upgrades were not in installing the components, but rather came afterwards once everything was in place.

Once I had first hooked everything up and plugged in the computer, the first thing I did was watch and listen for anything abnormal, which thankfully didn’t happen.  The fans came on and slowed down to normal speed, the lights flashed normally, the hard drive was ticking away as it should be, and the computer beeped once signaling everything was OK.  I tested the CD drives to make sure the power connection was good and they could open and close, which they did.  I was pretty confident that everything would be OK.

Murphy has a law for situations like this, which states “If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.”  This turned out to be true, as I noticed the monitors were not coming on.  However, I did hear the sound of Windows starting, so I knew it wasn't as bad as it could have been.  I tried switching the monitor cables in the back, and I discovered that the new card had actually taken over the video output, and not the original card.  I did not expect the old card would no longer display video by default, but I decided to roll with it. 

I went into the control panel and saw that with the Crossfire cable connected, it was detecting that the two cards were installed, and I did see Crossfire was enabled in the ATI graphics control panel.  Everything looked to be good.  But then I heard a noise, like something was ticking that should be ticking, and then as I checked out the video cards, I felt one was overheating pretty badly for what we were doing with just being at Windows.

I was going to shut down Windows normally, but because of the noise and the heat, I had decided it would be best to turn the computer off as quickly as I could to reduce the risk of damaging any parts.  I held in the power switch and let the computer turn completely off, and turned my attention to the card and the source of the noise.  It took me a while to get the card out (it was burning me fingers) but when I did I saw that what was happening was the fans on the bottom of the card were actually hitting the wires on the bottom of the case, causing them to not spin, which would explain the noise and the heat.  This wasn’t good to discover, but I stepped back and looked at the situation. 

I checked the other card, and saw that the fan on this one was actually recessed into the card, rather than flush with the cover as the second card had been designed for.  If this first card was on the bottom, it would probably not hit the wires as the second card had.  So, it was either try switching the cards around, or break the bad news that the card may need to be returned.  But, we were in it this far, and I was going to see if we could finish the job.  If the motherboard was designed for dual cards, and the case was designed for gaming, well then there is no reason they shouldn’t be expected to work.

I swapped the cards and tested again, it seemed that this resolved the issue.  I kept the case open and left the computer on for a while, all while still monitoring the heat of the cards.  The card that was overheating was now running nice and cool to the touch, and the bottom card wasn’t hitting the wires or making any noise, so this was good.  The only step left was to test the computer with my friend’s latest and greatest game: Battlefield 3.

Now, the mixed results of the upgrade are that the card he originally had installed was already enough to run Battlefield 3 at high settings, so there wasn’t much of a difference we could see with the two cards.  His initial reason for installing the second card was to be able to run everything at ultra-settings without having to worry about any lag or performance issues.  We did set it to ultra, and the cards could handle it, but the frame rate was pretty low.  I tried to explain to him the difference between high and ultra-settings would not be too noticeable, and would still put a lot of stress on his machine even with the two cards because of how much more information and resources are needed to run this.  I was sort of hoping ultra-settings would handle flawlessly also, so I can understand his disappointment, but also understand why it would be an issue.

We were able to run the game with high-settings without any lag and in my opinion the cards ran smoothly on the game.  If nothing else we did get better FPS, and the cards had less stress on each than it would have with just the one card.  I did also decide to install a fan on the side of the case to blow cool air directly on the cards to alleviate some heat, as with the additional hardware this would be an issue.  Once everything was set up, it seemed to be working as OK as can be expected. 

Over the next few days there weren’t any reported issues from his end.  I am going to call the project a success, however I still do wish ultra-settings would have been an achievable goal for him.  I know there are still things we can try with his machine as far as upgrading the processor, maxing out the RAM, changing the case, going from Vista to Windows 7, etc.  But that would essentially require a new build, and cost quite a bit.  With what he has though, there shouldn’t be an issue with his machine for quite some time.  It would be awesome to have him green-flag building a new computer with his existing hardware and new technology, but we’ll see.

New iPad 2

I finally broke down and bought that new iPad I've been eying up for a while now. I haven't been wanting one for too long, but a tablet device has always been interesting to look at, and now with Steve Jobs gone, I thought I'd snatch up one of his last remaining creations before we're bombarded with so many cheap knockoffs that don't work nearly as well. I read some reviews and debated in my mind if I should get this, or save up for a laptop or a netbook. I had come across a couple iPads in person, and after playing with them for a while, I decided it would be best to get the iPad instead.

So, what is so good about an iPad over a laptop? And what is so good about an iPad instead of any of the other tablets out there? Well for one thing the iPad is a very well built device - it has a large display and works very well for viewing content. It was made by Apple, so I know it will be reliable and high quality. One thing I enjoy doing on a tablet vs a laptop is reading books, magazines, news articles, and browsing the web. The touch display makes it easy to scroll through, click links, and view information. Today's technology does this seamlessly. I also enjoy how the iPad 2 is very portable compared to a normal full-sized laptop.

Now, I do need to admit there is not a keyboard, which is annoying - especially when I can still browse to all the sites (such as this blog) and not being able to type as I would like. The on-screen keyboard doesn't have the same key layout or size, so it takes longer to get to the characters I often use. I feel with the display, while good for viewing content, is very small when the keyboard is up. I also feel the display is too small for some applications built for the iPad 2. For example, I bought the GarageBand application, and while the drums are easy to beat on and make noise, the keyboard instrument is very small for the fingers. Clicking and dragging items is also hard to do without a mouse.

Social media on the other hand - it is very easy to do with the iPad. In just a few taps I can share a video or picture from the iPad to Facebook. I can enter status updates and view other articles or picture people have on their wall seamlessly. I also enjoy how the iPad does one task at a time, but remembers where you just were, so you don't have to keep toggling between windows or keep several applications open. For example: if you click on a link, the web browser opens full screen to display that article. If you close the browser and click the Facebook app again, you'll be right where you left off. This is done almost instantly without having to wait for the program to load again.

The camera on the iPad is crappy, but much nicer than not having a camera. My old iPod touch didn't have a camera, or a microphone, or all this processing power and battery life - and I still thought that thing was cool. You can imagine how much nicer the iPad feels to me. I also like how easy it is to play games such as Angry Birds on the larger display. One thing I didn't like is how iPod/iPhone apps have to be stretched out on the iPad to fill the screen and lose that crisp resolution, but still very playable. Everything that the iPod/iPhone had on it is much bigger and easier to browse on the iPad - such as the app store and the iTunes store.

The iPad was not meant to create a lot of content, but more to view content. This I am OK with, as i do enjoy all that can be done with a touch screen and enough room and processing power. I can't imagine a better tablet or a better use for touch screen technology. This device syncs up with all the photos, documents, music, and such on my home PC and really feels like a good accessory to have around. Would I trade it for a laptop? Nope. Not even a nice laptop. Would I like it to have a keyboard? Maybe, but then again if I did, that would take away some of the novelty of it being a tablet and ruin the sleek form factor and portability.

One thing I am really using the iPad for a lot these days is reading books. I thought it would be difficult for a book to get my attention on a device that also had games and movies and music available - but something about having a nice page of simple, clean text in front of me is very appealing. I like the feeling that the iPad can be use for a number of purposes, and it doesn't do just one thing. I can tweak it to be whatever kind of device I want. I can do something as simple as read a book, or I can be doing something as complex as making a music video to share with someone halfway around the world. This is an exciting time we're living in - where we can combine the simplicity of everyday life with the complexities of technology and make it work for us and not us having to work for it.

SOPA

So, today is January 18th - the official biggest day of protesting against the SOPA act being submitted for the government to vote on later this month. News of this is all over the...well the news. And some sites have blocked service for the day, others are posting images and links to draw attention to the SOPA protests. It was all over the public news, all over the local news, all over the national news, all over the radio and TV and internet. You'd have to be living under a rock to not have heard of it as of late. I'm sure people are still talking about it - I know I am.

So, what is it I can say about SOPA that hasn't already been said? Not much. I am sure you've all heard how SOPA was created to solve a large problem over the internet today, which is media piracy. I understand the need for action too - especially when everything is going digital. We're looking at a not-too-distant world where everything is stored on the cloud and a world where everyone is connected to the same line that every bit of information ever written down, broadcast, thought, or drawn resides. Intellectual property is more online than ever, easier to obtain, and harder to police. So there is a relevant need to lay some laws down on this lawless internet landscape we're currently living in.

SOPA itself is not a bad idea. It is a good idea to protect intellectual property and protect people's right to create and own their works. It's a good idea to crack down on sites providing illegal downloads, provide more strict penalties to offenders, flag harmful or illegal sites, and really reveal this monster on the internet for what it is. I am all for intentional and unrelenting pursuit of sites that are themselves purposely and knowingly participating in piracy an other illegal acts online. What I am against, and what I believe the majority of anti-SOPA movement members would agree upon, is the fact that SOPA would lay the groundwork to take down companies on bogus claims, on the smallest technicality, and from posts from users they can't always police themselves.

The internet has so many sites and tools available to it and the users, there is no way that a large site such as Google or Facebook or Wikipedia is going to be able to always monitor everything that is going on with their sites at all times. If they were to comply with laws that required this, it would take away a lot of user generated content - both currently in existence and in the future. Many items already out there may need to be removed and new items would be more difficult to submit and share. People wouldn't be able to post links, videos, blogs, articles, music, forums - none of this unless it was either all personally approved by a company before submitting, and even then many features would need to be disabled just to be safe. People would become very paranoid and the internet would no longer be about free speech.

And that's the thing - the internet is made up of privately owned computers, servers, switches, routers, hubs, ports, and addresses. These are not owned by the government. The government has their own information posted on the internet and they own their own equipment, but they don't own the internet. If I want to email my friend, the government does not and can not own that. If I want to share a video clip link to my cousin - that is between me and my cousin. If I want to post something on a web site, that is between me and the site owners. As long as I am not stealing any copyrighted material, claiming someone else's work as my own, or distributing pirated content - then what business is it of anyone what I post, share, or view online? What part of anti-piracy would play into information completely unrelated to piracy?

If we want to control the internet, we can do this on our own dime, as we see fit. We can set up firewalls, create anti-virus programs, use the right tools, block sites on a personal level, and choose what we will allow into our computers. Companies can restrict content as they wish, but it shouldn't be mandated. What we can't feasibly stop the internet from doing is allowing people to create their own content, share their thoughts, post their links, and do whatever they feel they want to use the internet for. We can't control this anymore than we can control what shoes someone chooses to buy, what tie they want to wear, which car they want to drive, and who they want their friends to be. At the heart of the internet is that thing that makes us human - the freedom to be and act and express ourselves in the way we choose. To take that away from us, it's inhuman and very anti-American.