Category: General Computing

Categories
Cases Water Cooling

Water Cooling an Antec 300 – Q9550

So, I have decided to water cool my Antec 300 case….which acts as my 24/7 HTPC workhorse.

Specs :

Antec 300
Q9550
2GBx4 DDR2
3 x 2TB Samsung HDD
2 x 2TB WD Drives (backups)
Asus P5N-D

I started with an RS240 XSPC kit, but found the pump to be far too loud and not adequate for my set up, so I am moving to the following build :

Water Cooling specs :

Reservoir : RS240 pump/res combo – Koolance RP-402X2 Dual 5.25 Reservoir for 1-2 DDC Pumps + Swiftech MCP 350’s
Radiator : RS240 from the RS240 Kit/Combo
Tubing : rimoFlex Pro LRT UV Red Tubing – 1/2in. ID X 3/4in. OD
Barbs : What came with the kit
Fans : 4 x SCythe SFF21G
90 Degree Fitting : 4 x Koolance G1/4 Swivel 90° Angled Barb
45 Degree Fitting : 2 x Koolance Swiveling G1/4 Threaded 45 Degree Low Profile Angle Fitting
CPU Block : Came with the kit – XSPC CPU block
Northbridge block : Custom fabbed block from a guy on overclock.net
PCI Tube G1/4 Slot : Koolance L-Bracket with Dual G 1/4 Socket Fittings (BKT-PCI-G)
Radblock Mount : Swiftech MCB-120™ “Radbox”

I have changed a few things from when I started,so I will post new pictures once completed again. The pumps will run serial, with that little koolance res kit.

Categories
Software

Enabling “Unofficial Overclocking” in MSI Afterburner 2.1

I was looking for the proper way to enable overclocking in MSI Afterburner 2.1, and found a guide for an old version, but figured out how to do it in 2.1.

go to where your MSI Afterburner is installed, for me/default it’s :

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner
open MSIAfterburner.cfg with wordpad or notepad
There are 2 lines we need to add to :

under the line [ATIADLHAL]
We need to replace UnofficialOverclockingEULA = and UnofficialOverclockingMode = 0 with :

UnofficialOverclockingEULA = I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overclocking limitations and fully understand that MSI will not provide me any support on it
UnofficialOverclockingMode = 1

Save it, and you are good to go!

This is what it looks like afterwards … OC options open right up.

[zp src=”msi.jpg” album=”blog/etc” width=”500″]

Categories
Linux

Installing ImageMagick/Imagick on a cPanel Server

I was having issues with my Zen install not being able to handle large images, so I read around and decided to move image cache’ing over to ImageMagick, instead of the GD library. This is what you need to do to install/enble ImageMagick on your cPanel server :

You’ll need to be logged in as root on your VPS/Server :

1. Log into your server as root
2. Create a new directory as below :
mkdir /home/cpimins
3. cd /home/cpimins
4. wget http://layer1.cpanel.net/magick.tar.gz
5. tar zxvf magick.tar.gz
6. cd magick
7. /scripts/installrpm ImageMagick
8. /scripts/installrpm ImageMagick-devel
9. sh ./install

Now we need to get the module for PHP installed :

Log into WHM >> Software >> Module Installers >> PHP Pecl and install imagick to get it binding to PHP properly.

After you do that, restart HTTPD/Apache service and you’re golden!

known issue with transferred domains :

If you do not see this in your php.ini file, or it not functioning properly, then you should go to the directory of the issue’d domain example : /home/domainuser/ and rename php.ini to php.ini.bak

Enjoy!

Categories
Operating Systems Printers

0x00000006 error (cannot connect to server) when trying to add printers

Scenario :

Dell E6410 with windows 7 PRO trying to add printer(s) – HP, from server xyz, returns error : Cannot Connect To Printer, when you expand you receive this code : 0x00000006

[zp src=”printerror.jpg” album=”blog/etc” width=”500″]

What I tried :

Removing everything related to the printer in registry (F3 is your friend)
Adding other printers from other print server (this worked)
Re-adding computer to domain (was listed, but thought i’d try)

Rebooted after each attempt as well.

What finally worked :

Going to :
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Print\Providers\Client Side Rendering Print Provider\Servers
and removing anything related to the xyz server, and it worked, did not even have to reboot. Connected, and started downloading drivers as it is supposed to.

Hopefully this helps!

Categories
Computer Hardware General Computing

Dell D630 – 8 beeps after post

I had this issue come across my desk, after pulling everything out, found out it was the keyboard.

symptom :

laptop beeped 8 times after post

troubleshooting :

pulled optical drive
swapped memory – tested memtest
pulled PCMIA card
swapped keyboard – winner!

hopefully this can help someone :).

Categories
Computer Hardware Gaming

How to unlock shaders on 6950

I recently purchased 2 XFX 6950’s. They are great cards, and doing some research, I found this forum post :

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=137136

It talks on how to unlock the shaders on the reference 6950 cards. I have an XFX so I used this modified bios :

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showpost.php?p=2137536&postcount=343

These are my personal numbers :

before :

[zp src=”xfx-stock.gif” album=”vivi/6950″ width=”500″]
[zp src=”xfx-stock2.gif” album=”vivi/6950″ width=”500″]

after (unlocked shaders, NO OC):

[zp src=”xfx-flashed6950-1.gif” album=”vivi/6950″ width=”500″]
[zp src=”xfx-flashed6950-2.gif” album=”vivi/6950″ width=”500″]

Now for fun, this is the spec of my new computer :

i5 2500k
Asus P8P67 Pro
Corsair 600T
Corsair 1000HX
2 x XFX 6950 2GB in xfire
2 x Asus DVD/CD/RW/R
Corsair H70
OCZ Solid 2 120GB SSD

[zp src=”P1000014.JPG” album=”vivi/600T” width=”500″]

Specific How To for XFX 6950 Shader unlock :

What you’ll need to download before we start :

GPU-Z : http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1921/TechPowerUp_GPU-Z_v0.5.0.html
ATI WinFlash : http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/1919/ATI_Winflash_2.0.1.13.html
VGA BiOS to unlock : http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/index.php?page=1&architecture=&manufacturer=&model=HD+6950&interface=&memSize=0

This is the one I used for my XFX : http://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/89673/XFX.HD6950.2048.101206.html

They have other BIOS’s listed, for other manufacturers, but i’ve read that they should all work with the HIS BIOS.

1 – Grab ATI Winflash (32 & 64-bit).
2 – Download HD 6950 BIOS (we’ll be using the specific XFX bios). It should work with other vendor’s, but this one is specifically for XFX 6950 REFERENCE cards.
3 – Make sure the BIOS switch on the card is set to the 1 position (pictured further down if you don’t know where it is).
4 – Run ATI Winflash, click Save to save your BIOS, so you have a backup in case something goes wrong.
5 – Load the HD 6970 BIOS into Winflash by clicking Load Image, followed by Program.
6 – Let the flashing process complete and reboot your system.
7 – Check the shader count using GPU-Z, it should show 1536. Make sure you use version 0.5.0 or newer, the official 0.4.9 version does not support HD 6900 Series properly. If you see a shader count of 1600, your GPU-Z version is outdated.
8 – To ensure maximized performance open Catalyst Control Center, go to the Overdrive tab and set the PowerTune slider to the +20% setting. The “Testing” section of this article has more data on that.
9 – Check stability in Windows desktop applications and games, with an application like OCCT/Prime95

I modified the how-to a bit, but this is the article that helped me get started : http://www.techpowerup.com/articles/overclocking/vidcard/159

Categories
Software

Looking to make a few bucks on your wordpress blog?

I was looking for a nice way to implement Google AdSense, well, I looked through about 6 of them, and found my favorite.

Quick AdSense by TechMilieu! www.techmilieu.com/quick-adsense

The guys at Quick AdSense are not giving me anything, nor do they know I am posting this. I just wanted to say what my favorite AdSense implementation plugin for WordPress was.

It allows you to easily put ads where you want, how you want. I especially loved the ease of widget use. I have it running on my site now, see for yourself!

Categories
Hard Drives

OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD2-2AGTE60G Benchmarks IDE vs AHCI

I just purchased an OCZ Agility 2 OCZSSD2-2AGTE60G for my server, and got rid of my 2x320GB RE3 WD drives. I made sure it had the latest 1.24 firmware on it.

These first marks are AHCI
[zp src=”agility2-AHCI.jpg” album=”blog/OCZAgility2″ width=”500″]

These are IDE
[zp src=”agility2-IDE.jpg” album=”blog/OCZAgility2″ width=”500″]

you can definitely see an improvement over AHCI. As usual, short and sweet post, with raw numbers, enjoy. If you want me to test something else, let me know.

Categories
Software

Test your typing skills!

I found this site : typingtest.com, it’s a fun way of testing how quickly you can read, and type what you read. It’s not really a true test, because you do not typically type what you are reading, more of what you type is what you are thinking. This is the score I got :

[zenphoto src=”typingownage.jpg” album=”blog/etc/” width=”500″ /]

Now try and beat it :).

Categories
Hard Drives

Western Digital Elements 2TB/1TB USB 2.0 speed test

I had someone ask me to benchmark my WD 2TB elements drive. It might be useful to someone else, this is running on USB 2.0.

[zenphoto src=”1TBexternal.jpg” album=”blog/etc/” width=”500″ /]