What will be your next upgrade?

[Arkan]

Games appear sucky only if you do not play at your LCD's native resolution (usually the highest resolution your monitor supports). However, do keep in mind that I am pathologically allergic to "teh jaggies". Several of my friends do not find teh jaggies distracting, and a lot of them aren't bothered by non-native LCD resolutions either. Me, I feel as if every atom in my eye is being excruciatingly plucked out one-by-one when I am looking at a screen full of teh jaggies. An LCD panel running at non-native resolution, to me feels like teh jaggies with quad-damage.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

"Teh Jaggies," huh? AA and other options seem to handle that problem pretty well. I certainly don't see any jaggies when I play games.

[Kaftan Barlast]

Start with some noise-removal, do a Lanczos resize, and add a slick sharpening filter like LimitedSharpen, and you've achieved some really high-quality upscaling. The best part is that pretty much all of the software you'll need for this is open source (GPL/LGPL). In case you're interested in giving it a shot, let me know and I'll post links to some excellent online tutorials and fora.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Give plz.

 

 

And I cant say if my monitors are TN or IPS, that info is not listed in the specs.

[Judge Hades]

Well, I ended up getting the 20 inch LCD flat panel moniter. The Widescreen I wanted was out of stock so I took the next best monitor they had in my price range. Not a bad monitor so far.

[Darque]

My next upgrade will be......... ram. And lots of it

[WinterSun]

I'm thinking about buying these.

I don't know if surround sound's worth the extra cost though, since I'll mostly be using it for games. Plus, the sub-woofer will probably piss off the people downstairs.

 

Hmmm. Maybe I should go with this and some headphones. Or perhaps both.

[angshuman]

Check out these guides.

[metadigital]

hould go with this and some headphones[?]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes.

 

 

Better result, cheaper total outlay.

[Bokishi]

19" Widescreen LCD flat panel moniter or the 20" LCD flat anel monitor.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

I would go for the 20" without a second thought. Widescreen is for televisons, not monitors, because the only thing theyre good for is to watch widescreen films and film on an LCD screen is badness because it completely screws up the quality unless the film happens to be in the exact same resolution as the screens native resolution (which it wont)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You can play many PC games in widescreen.

[WinterSun]

hould go with this and some headphones[?]

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes.

 

 

Better result, cheaper total outlay.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was reading up on these and some people seem to be having trouble running X-fi cards on nForce4 mobos. Is this a universal issue, or are they just unlucky?

[Bokishi]

Universal and in need of a BIOS update.

[WinterSun]

Bugger. I ordered one a few hours ago. It seemed like it was the Extreme Music rather than the Fatal1ty that were having problems.

 

EDIT: I just cancelled the order since I don't know how to update a BIOS, or even what it is. Can anyone recommend a decent sound card that will work with my mobo?

Edited August 12, 2006 by WinterSun

[Bokishi]

I dunno but here's come more info on X-fi on an nForce

 

http://xfi.blogspot.com/2006/08/x-fi-crack...-continues.html

[WinterSun]

Looks like it's a matter of luck; heads you're fine, tails you're screwed.

[metadigital]

Updating BIOS is easy to do, once the update is available. (The hardest it can be is using a floppy disk.)

 

It can be risky, though, because the Built-In Operating System is what starts the PC, so if it gets corrupted, you have a large paperweight. (This is a fractional risk, though.)

 

I am not trying to scare you, just making you aware of the risks. I have updated my BIOS on my critical laptop many times, so I find it a managable risk.

 

FWIIW, I thought the main hurdle with the X-Fi soundcard was that it took up the only remaining PCI-E slot, so one had to upgrade the mobo (to a new model not yet available) when trying to cram in dual GPU, X-Fi and a PPU, later ...

[mkreku]

Quick question (and I know mkreku will say I'm nuts ): Did any of the LCD's you tested happen to have TN panels? TN panels will kill your color, contrast and viewing angles *and* give you the scaling-to-native problems, but a true 8-bit panel (PVA, S-PVA, S-IPS) will at least get the richness of your colors somewhat close to a CRT, and the only things left for you to deal with will be the aliasing and native-resolution issues.

Gaah! You're a nut.

 

Anyhow, I am trying to upgrade my PSU to a test winner to get my system ready for the big Conroe upgrade this autumn. It's proven more difficult than I thought as I've been sent the wrong item from an online shop (took 10 days to localize the fault and return the item), bought it from a local shop and is now in waiting for it to arrive, even though they promised it several days ago. Grr.

[taks]

woohoo!!!

 

i got my new hdd and the promise controller recognizes it (i'd put it on the via controller, but the second channel is whacked).

 

then i installed fedora core 5 without a hitch! yay!

 

then i booted and... no linux. ugh. turns out there is an installer bug with grub (the linux bootloader). i was up till 4 a.m. getting the danged thing configured properly to insert itself into the master boot record on /dev/sda (the master drive on the via controller).

 

anyway, i got that working (if anyone needs help with this, send me a PM), and the next task was to upgrade to nvidia drivers. oh boy, another rats nest of crap to do. after updating the linux stuff, i'll next need to boot into a command shell (init 3), and then install the drivers, and then try booting back into an x server (init 5). if it does not hang, then i can configure to always boot into my gnome shell (which is init 5).

 

maybe, just maybe it'll all work tonight...

 

taks

[mkreku]

Sounds like you're having a blast, taks.

 

Myself, I'm still waiting for my new PSU. It's supposed to come tomorrow or the day after that. Like it has been "supposed to" for the last two weeks. It's annoying.

[angshuman]

What's that GRUB bug you were talking about? I really hate having to mess with bootloaders. I was planning to upgrade to FC5 sometime (currently using FC4). By the way, are you using the x86-64 version or the x86 version? I tried the 64-bit distribution for FC4 when it was released and X11 just plain didn't work... neither the default DRI drivers nor the Nvidia proprietary ones, and I tried a bunch of different kernels and Xorg releases. Decided to stick to 32-bit for the time being.

[taks]

What's that GRUB bug you were talking about? I really hate having to mess with bootloaders.

it does not deal well with a 2nd hard drive if the MBR is on the first. i think this is primarily due to SATA, btw.

 

I was planning to upgrade to FC5 sometime (currently using FC4). By the way, are you using the x86-64 version or the x86 version?

x86-64. i have an AMD64 3200+ (getting an X2 soon, probably 4800+).

 

I tried the 64-bit distribution for FC4 when it was released and X11 just plain didn't work... neither the default DRI drivers nor the Nvidia proprietary ones, and I tried a bunch of different kernels and Xorg releases. Decided to stick to 32-bit for the time being.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i have FC4 on my office box, but it is a 32-bit version. 64-bit seems to be working fine at home though i'm not done setting it up. i'll finish the nvidia stuff and work on some other driver issues tonight (sound card, etc.).

 

i installed everything plus the yum updates so i'm into an 8-10 GB mess, btw. fortunately, i've learned quite a bit here at work, so i'm not too bad rooting around in the mess. i think i'm going to start doing my remaining school work in C, so this will be a great platform for development (the primary reason i went to linux is for the 64-bit matlab support, but C is faster, so why not use both!)

 

taks

Edited August 15, 2006 by taks

[widozed]

New computer:

 

NEXUS MEDIUM TOWER CASE 500W FAN FILTER

Processor: 5000+ X2 AM2 DDR2 800 mhzsupport

Motherboard: MSI K9N SLI DIAMOND Audigy

Memory: 2 x 1024 667 mhz Kingston

Graphic card: GF 7900GT 256 MB

Harddisk: 320 GB SATA II

[taks]

well, all problems have been solved. i am officially a home-linux user now. i still prefer the display in windows mode, however. for some reason, in linux mode the fonts are semi-sort of screwed up. and yes, i have DL'd the actual Nvidia drivers. the graphics otherwise look fine... now we just need some games in this world and i'll dump the winders OS.

 

taks

[Judge Hades]

Or use Wine.

[angshuman]

well, all problems have been solved.  i am officially a home-linux user now.  i still prefer the display in windows mode, however.  for some reason, in linux mode the fonts are semi-sort of screwed up.  and yes, i have DL'd the actual Nvidia drivers.  the graphics otherwise look fine... now we just need some games in this world and i'll dump the winders OS.

 

taks

There are a bunch of guides and forum posts on the internet about how to adjust the display DPI so that your fonts look okay. I've tweaked and re-tweaked them, but I'm still not 100% happy with the results. Try typing "nvidia", "linux", "fonts" and "DPI" into google and see where that gets you.

[Pidesco]

A new optical rat. My current one is on the verge of dying on me.