172 replies to this topic

[sobank]

Salam everyone.

There have been so many pc related topics that come up and die after less than a page. So taking a hint from Cricket thread, this topic will serve as your one point to post all your game, hardware and software related news that you to share.

From this point on, all of new topics regarding PC or gaming etc. will be deleted without notice.

Thanks for your cooperation in this matter.

[sobank]

I just bought sapphire vapor-x hd5770 and Ordered Bad company 2 from futureshop. now from the looks of it, futureshop people are selling the limited version for 29 bucks. if you download from steam, they give you regular version for 29 bucks US. will let you guys know if i do get the limited edition that futureshop image says or the same regular edition. will be here by post on monday or tuesday.

I wanted to play this one. Loved battlefield 2 and lets see how good is this one. I hope its a worthy replacement for my ghost recon (original) which I cant seem to let go.

[sobank]

I was looking at the new gaming titles and suddenly it hit me............. the stupid consoles have killed the gaming. From here onwards, the massive multiplayer FPS future is bleak. With less content and more and more paid DLC console and casual gamers have finally succeeded in doing what has been done to hollywood i.e. dumb down everything. prime examples are fps developed for consoles. I looked at medal of honor and I frankly dont see anything different than MW2. I look at MW2 then it is essentially an expansion pack of MW. oh well. bad company which should have been essentially developed for pc was dumbed down to make it more attractive for consoles i.e. smaller maps and sh|t load of brainless fight. but again still 100 times smarter than MW on consoles where they have essentially killed the soul of warfare gaming........ i.e. having a plan of doing something. as of now you just run around and shoot people regardless of what mode you are playing cause essentially that what it all end as.

at this point I will end my rant with a big hats off to battlefield 2 for being the last true game changer for and a hope that battlefield 3 improves on it.

[waz]

Call of Duty Black Ops! It's the Cold War baby!

[sobank]

from the looks of it, its just another MW expansion.

[sobank]

How not to be a noob.

[waz]

from the looks of it, its just another MW expansion.

No bro, different game with plenty of balancing issues addressed. It will be far better than Infinity Ward's MW2 rubbish.

[sobank]

well lets see................on a different note........... I miss the days when two different shooters were actually different in feels. I am playing bad company 2 and its not much different than modern warfare...... its better but not different.

Hey lets play together. who else has bad company 2?

[sobank]

the recommended hardware for cod

* Operating System: Windows Vista (SP2), Windows 7
* Processor: Quad core 2.0 GHz
* Memory: 2 GB RAM+
* Video Card: A video card with 512 MB of VRAM and one of the following chipsets: Nvidia GeForce GTX260; ATI Radeon 4870
* HDD Space: 2 GB
* Soundcard: Soundcard with DirectX 10 compatibility
* DirectX: DirectX 10
* Disc Drive: 16X CD/DVD Drive

thats a $400 "teeka" for pc players Though considering that for bad company pc player didnt have to pay for any dlc, if the same goes for cod, it will still be worth if the price is at 30.

[sobank]

sorry........ i kept calling it COD. It is medal of honor. PC beta test can be downloaded here on 4th october.

http://www.medalofhonor.com/pcopenbeta

[blueazure]

for overclocking enthusiasts this site is a must ,,, everything you need to know about OCing,,


http://overclock.net/




this so far has to be the most comprehensive and complete website for GPU's

http://www.gpureview.com/

[sobank]

gpu guru is good site........ going straight to bookmarks

but my weapon of choice is Tom's hardware. They have this series of articles called best for your money. This series have cut my work of finding good stuff from week to nothing. In good old days when we had only nvidia and ati fighting out, we had only one model of everything. so all I had to do is just pick the best from article in the price range and buy it. And this time around I didnt have to waste tons of hours in figuring out which is the best

some of the best reviews, I have read here. It is a huge resource for pc hardware. Even when I dont like their present arrangement of the site, it is still the one of the most amazing sites out there.

http://www.tomshardw...0-gpu,2732.html

Oh and gpu charts are much better as there are sh}t load of different benchmarks.
http://www.tomshardw...ature,2400.html

they have cpu charts too.

[sobank]

I personally do not favor ocing. reason for that is simply economics for a good oc'd graphic card, I have to add a $50 cooler. I can spend that 50 on the card and get a much better card. For example.......... I just bought sapphire vapor-x hd 5770 juniper (I am a b\tch when it comes to noise so this looked like the best silent card I could afford). now if I have to spend extra 50 on cooler, I would rather buy 5830 for that money

[blueazure]

OCing a GPU > i certainly wont recommend that ,, the performance gains are not so linear IMO

however with a CPU , one can get more performance without spending too much on upgrades,, i love my E 4500 core 2 duo 2.2Ghz chip,, have OCed to 3.0 Ghz ( mobo is MSI ) and just love to play around with the multipliers,, IMO, as long as the core voltage is under-check , it'll be all fine, as for reliability and heating issues, i dont mind the temp at 50c , ( normal ~ 44 C ) ,, but then again, only if you push it too hard

[sobank]

what fan do you have for your cpu?

[blueazure]

^^ the one cpu came with

[waz]

well lets see................on a different note........... I miss the days when two different shooters were actually different in feels. I am playing bad company 2 and its not much different than modern warfare...... its better but not different.

Hey lets play together. who else has bad company 2?

I couldn't get into BD2 and hence won't be getting medal of honour. I just don't think the play is very fluid. Do you have an X Box Sobank? I don't play on my PC anymore.

[sobank]

I couldn't get into BD2 and hence won't be getting medal of honour. I just don't think the play is very fluid. Do you have an X Box Sobank? I don't play on my PC anymore.

and i cant play on game pad


----------------------------------------------------------------------------

blueazure............ you are one messed up dude man

[sobank]

i just got 4 dog tags and 12 medals/pins/achievements in one game of bad company 2....... final score was like 5000

[blueazure]

waz ,,, cod7 black ops ?



sobank,, im all out hardcore with gadgets ,, once i messed up the cooler of my P4 3.0 HT processor ......... ran it @ 70 deg C for a whole month,, i kid you not

[sobank]

waz ,,, cod7 black ops ?



sobank,, im all out hardcore with gadgets ,, once i messed up the cooler of my P4 3.0 HT processor ......... ran it @ 70 deg C for a whole month,, i kid you not

in winter, I used my home made liquid cooling. pipe going out the window in through a big a$$ AC radiator sitting in balcony. considering the canadian cold it was pretty amazing. beat that

but that stock fan is crazy man. I wouldnt take that risk.

[platinum786]

Does anyone still play counterstrike? It's still a class act as far as i'm concerned. I also think first person shooters are best on PC than on a console.

[sobank]

+1

and yes I agree. Though I personally was not fan of counterstrike but I admit, it is a class. I was and still am more of ghost recon type

================================================

OK. I have some serious problems.

i have a c partition of 30gb which is getting very small for windows 7. I am installing another Hard drive from a different brand. Now does anyone knows that if i make an image of C: and restore on different drive, will it work?

If so then what tool to use................. I wanted to use simply partition magic and enlarge the partition but I am afraid that some sh|t gonna happen and I am gonna lose everything. I have done image making and restoring but never on different drive so I need info from someone who has done it.

so an image that I can restore on another drive............ that i want......... any solution?...........any suggestion?

[maglomanic]

System rescue CD:
http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

This includes the following two useful tools:
GParted: GUI implementation using the GNU Parted library.
Partimage: popular opensource disk image software which works at the disk block level


I have extensively used GParted and have done partition resizes much more reliably than partition magic. In fact i have almost always had problems with partition magic. However please please backup before doing any resize operations.

The other software should help you with block level image creation. I have never used it but it seems it can do what you are trying to accomplish.
http://www.partimage.org/Main_Page


Lastly, really man you want windows-7? Try Ubuntu 10.10 the latest version. You'll love it. The installation CD also includes the same GParted for partition resizing.

Oh did i say please take back up?

[blueazure]

any one out there using android 1.6?

have some issuew with my HTC dream

[maglomanic]

I have 1.5.

For HTC Phones this is the best community forum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/

However looking at how descriptive you have been in your last post, i don't think even they can help you.

[blueazure]

I have 1.5.

For HTC Phones this is the best community forum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/

However looking at how descriptive you have been in your last post, i don't think even they can help you.

ok..


but why cant they help me?

[blueazure]

have been using htc rogers dream with android 1.6 for the last month and have to say, ITS WAY BETTER then the iPhone 3Gs nonsense which i was using earlier ,,

1) the android can multi-task far better,, i was downloading apps, INSTALLING apps, making calls, fiddling with the setup,, texting ,, all at the same time... lets not even talk about the iPhone

2) the android market might be small in the number of apps it offers, but overall, the market experience is way better and simple,, just give your gmail info and rest is smooth sailing,,, in the iPhone, many apps require you to RESTART the phone ,,, deleting apps , widgets etc is also a LOT better in the android

3) worst thing about the iphone, you cant fiddle with it, no room for customizations, core software changes, upgrading of ROM etc,, in the android, its a lot easier moving from 1.5 to 1.6 to 2.0 to 2.1 2.2 etc,,,, a dedicated community of android system software developers ,coupled with the open source code makes the android LOT MORE fun to play with and to do PANGAS with,,,


BOTTOM LINE >>> the iPhone is good, but its like a big expensive car with automatic transmission requiring no input from the driver,, the android on the other hand is like a fast, totally customizable , manual transmission sports car,, like the Mitsubishi evo X


--------------------------------------------

now here come the iPhone fanboys to bash me

[sobank]

System rescue CD:
http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

This includes the following two useful tools:
GParted: GUI implementation using the GNU Parted library.
Partimage: popular opensource disk image software which works at the disk block level


I have extensively used GParted and have done partition resizes much more reliably than partition magic. In fact i have almost always had problems with partition magic. However please please backup before doing any resize operations.

The other software should help you with block level image creation. I have never used it but it seems it can do what you are trying to accomplish.
http://www.partimage.org/Main_Page


Lastly, really man you want windows-7? Try Ubuntu 10.10 the latest version. You'll love it. The installation CD also includes the same GParted for partition resizing.

Oh did i say please take back up?

I will try that. partition magic was my fav until they stop making it. never had a problem with it.

I had to go to extreme of transferring data manually as my pc got infected by some really sh|tty virus. so restoring was not an option. but I will try it from here on.

As far as OS goes, I am primarily a gamer. Linux does not count in that world.

personally I think the OS have been failure since windows 2000. And my approach to it is simple, without any exception they hog resources for useless purposes. Rather than going faster and better, they are growing bigger and bigger. All the advantages that faster components could have brought to pc, all are undone by these resource eating monsters.

So why W7? cause this is the latest platform for gaming. why i still use xp and think its better? well many reasons:

1. Its faster.
2. supports the largest pool of utilities and software.
3. Hardware are better supported.
4. loads of free utilities from programmers are available.
5. sh|t load of tech support.
6. And finally, my audio cards works along with all of its bells and whistles. (auzentech forte)

In my software development time, used linux and still was not that much fan of it. To be exact, I was not much fan of suse. Though I thought that it was the best looking OS at that time. Any ways it was a little too demanding and we all know the linux support was nowhere 5 years ago. I mean it was there but not enough community support for problems. So after finishing the classes I never touched it. and one of the main reason behind it was the fact that it was much faster to write a program in xp then linux. I just couldnt go through the torture of compiling every time before running. get that visual and run the damn thing in a one click. (Still think borland 4 was the daddy of quick program writing cause i didnt have to worry about project libraries and all that crap. Just quick write the program include the library and everything gets done)

You know what, I have another hard drive sitting around. I will install ubuntu on it for kicks. Who knows, maybe i will stick to it.

[blueazure]

Still think borland 4 was the daddy of quick program writing cause i didnt have to worry about project libraries and all that crap. Just quick write the program include the library and everything gets done

ahh, borland , specifically the turbo C editor ,,!! the ak 47 of all programming tools,, no fuss, no frills, no BS, sledge and hammer, never had a crash once


good old days in the microprocessor lab+ laptops

[from5to7]

+1

and yes I agree. Though I personally was not fan of counterstrike but I admit, it is a class. I was and still am more of ghost recon type

================================================

OK. I have some serious problems.

i have a c partition of 30gb which is getting very small for windows 7. I am installing another Hard drive from a different brand. Now does anyone knows that if i make an image of C: and restore on different drive, will it work?

If so then what tool to use................. I wanted to use simply partition magic and enlarge the partition but I am afraid that some sh|t gonna happen and I am gonna lose everything. I have done image making and restoring but never on different drive so I need info from someone who has done it.

so an image that I can restore on another drive............ that i want......... any solution?...........any suggestion?

30gb is fine for an OS as long as there is some free room on it. Just put your new drive in and partition that to two partitions. On the first partition move all of your personal data from your C drive here. When you have cleared your "main c" drive of data, then use the second partition as a backup for system or data. (also keep a copy of really important stuff on your C drive).
This will speed up your system and keep a copy of valuable data on two seperate physical drives if one dies.
Check out the excellent free paragon system backup and partition software. http://www.paragon-software.com/free/
Seperating system data from personal data (eg mp3s) is a great way of speeding up your system.

[sobank]

Thanks. Its good that you posted all the preparation. Some people might get some light from this and start setting up their system like that.

I personally have set up system like this way since win 2000 so what you just said is what i cannot live without doing. But my problem was far more serious. both of my drives, the original and the back up got screwed on partition level. I could not boot from any though I could access the data if I used them as an external drive. all those boot repair utilities (windows own and third party) did not work.

Anyways here is the new method that I have never used before, i am trying now.

Three physical drives 1,2 and 3. 1 and two has two paritions each of 100 and 300. 3 is one partition.

xp on drive 1 partition size 100 gb....... programs on drive 2 300gb partition -data storage on 3 along with my document folder.
w7 on drive 2 partition size 100 gb....... programs on drive 1 300gb partition -data storage on 3 along with user folder

my 4th drive is only for image storage of the drive 1 and 2. Also it will carry ubuntu partiion.

now lets see how far we can go with it. beauty of it will be the fact that on all occasions, two windows will be using separate drives for os and third party softwares

[sobank]

and i forgot why i actually came to thread.

Just used a utility called "bulk rename utility". very good stuff. I used ken rename too but its old and is not 64 bit and i guess that is why it was crashing in w7 but was fine in xp.

[from5to7]

Thanks. Its good that you posted all the preparation. Some people might get some light from this and start setting up their system like that.

I personally have set up system like this way since win 2000 so what you just said is what i cannot live without doing. But my problem was far more serious. both of my drives, the original and the back up got screwed on partition level. I could not boot from any though I could access the data if I used them as an external drive. all those boot repair utilities (windows own and third party) did not work.

Anyways here is the new method that I have never used before, i am trying now.

Three physical drives 1,2 and 3. 1 and two has two paritions each of 100 and 300. 3 is one partition.

xp on drive 1 partition size 100 gb....... programs on drive 2 300gb partition -data storage on 3 along with my document folder.
w7 on drive 2 partition size 100 gb....... programs on drive 1 300gb partition -data storage on 3 along with user folder

my 4th drive is only for image storage of the drive 1 and 2. Also it will carry ubuntu partiion.

now lets see how far we can go with it. beauty of it will be the fact that on all occasions, two windows will be using separate drives for os and third party softwares

Looks like a cunning plan but be warned if one of your OS disks breaks then you wont have a functioning XP or W7 for immediat use with your apps.

Your way will work but i would consider using the two smallest drives for the OS, both with 2 partitions (an extra place to store vital backups). Then give each OS its own hard drive with 2 or 3 partitions for apps/data/backup. Still have the seperate drives for speed plus if one of the OS drives goes down you still have one fully functioning system.

[sobank]

I have been up whole night so no long story for now.

do not install norton ghost if your user name has a space in it. make a admin account without space in (e.g. "admin") and then install. I am talking about a trial version of norton ghost.

Do not use avg antivirus.................. it will ###### your utorrent up big time. no file will be downloaded properly and you will be wasting 6 hours of precious time thinking that your ram has screwed up and running memtest and what not.

Shut up tipu.......... i know you are lauging your sick a$$ off the second you gonna read this.

[blueazure]

^^ eset security nod 4 anti virus ......

[sobank]

ok. I am on setting up windows 7 now. going pretty good so far. Couple of things wanted to share with you guys.

7stacks for taskbar and small software (you need to run it only one time and then you can delete it) for adjusting the size of windows peek view.

[Magnus]

A Hacker's Story: Let me tell you just how easily I can steal your personal data

A little bird told me people are pissed at Google. According to some sources the streetview cars roaming the country have been recording private data from people's routers. By private they mean usernames, passwords, websites visited and more. Because of this story I decided to show all of you just how easy it is for me to get all that same information.

Tonight, I grabbed my laptop and went on a mission. Wearing pyjama pants and an ironic t-shirt, I headed towards a large apartment building near where I live. I choose it because a lot of students live there and I could easily blend in.

That and I knew there would be lots of targets. I used to be a door to door salesman, so I know a few unique ways to get into a building, but I didn't need them. As I walked up to the door, someone else was leaving. They held the door open for me and I was in. As soon as I entered, I noticed a video camera. What I planned to do would look weird on camera and I didn't want security on my butt, so I was more careful from there onwards. I went to the elevators and clicked the button.

After a few minutes of waiting, I got on. Two other people joined me and I stood uncomfortably. I had to wait for them to click their floors so I didn't get off on the same floor as them. When I finally made it to my floor a camera greeted me. I ducked my head low and walked over to the staircase. If security was watching me, I didn't want them knowing where I was. After dropping down a few floors and switching to the other staircase I decided to do my dirty work on the 18th floor.



The building was huge and it would take hours for them to search the entire thing. I opened up my laptop and lo and behold, there were eight insecure networks. I picked one at random and hit the mother-load. If you look at the screenshot you can see 5 IP address. That means 5 people were connected to the network. It could be a bunch of roommates but because of what I found later I decided it was probably a few people stealing the same internet.

The program you see those IP's in is called Ettercap. It's no longer in development and I don't want to go over everything it does, lets just say it makes it so I can steal usernames and passwords among other things.




All I had to do was install the program and run it. I then opened a program called WireShark (you can see it in the second screenshot).

Using this program I can easily see the websites these four people were browsing. As you can see this person is browsing IMDb. And in the next screenshot the person is... err...




I'd been watching these people browse the web for a while when I decided to go a little deeper. I did a search for MSN. It's interesting what I found.




That's mostly msn telling Microsoft's server that it's still alive but a little later on I was able to read the guys entire msn conversation.

I also got his e-mail and the address of the guy he was talking too. It made for an interesting read. I'm was just doing a little creepy stalking in the name of journalism but it would be incredibly easy for someone to use this info as blackmail or to hack into people's accounts.

The information was being publicly broadcasted and was easy enough to get access too. The person who set up the router didn't bother to use a password and other people decided to steal it. Not only this, a lot of the seemingly 'secure' networks in the building were protected with WEP encoding. Which, with a few simple tools found online, is hackable within seconds.

In fact, our friends at Lifehacker.com just posted a tutorial on how to do it. I did it one way but there are thousands of other ways to get this information. Any public network (such as at Starbucks or at your university) has this information floating around for anyone to read it. Remember that next time your chatting on MSN while at school, someone nearby could be reading the conversation.

Your best defense against people like me is to password protect your router using WPA encoding. If you don't know how to do this contact your internet service provider. They will give you step by step instructions. Also, don't browse hardcore porn on a public network.

[blueazure]

^^ wireless networks have definitely added a new dimension to cyber spying and hacking,

commercial, easily available softwares ( NAT32 etc ) enable your laptop to act a wi-fi hot spot , rest is just you being clever, go to an airport or a place similar , open up ur machine and turn on the internet,, 4,5 idiots will definitely connect to an unsecured "network" just to check Facebook....

[sobank]

I absolutely hate social networks.

any ways. any suggestion on mp3 p2p software. I used limewire long time ago. so what is the best now? I tried it yesterday and lots of crap is coming through.