Jump to content

Bladeblunter

Members
  • Posts

    59
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Bladeblunter's Achievements

Newbie

Newbie (1/14)

  1. OK, I've been soaktesting now for a couple of nights and I have to say I'm pretty pleased with these new TD1's. I've been able to Memtest for 14 hours with out any errors at 250 2.8v (I'll do my best to get all the settings typed out over the weekend). The first thing I've noticed is just how much cooler these DIMM's run. The old ones were far to hot to touch after about 30 minutes, even with a 120mm fan blowing over them! These are actually pretty cool, even with this mini heatwave we've got here in East Anglia. I'm sitting in my computer room at the back of the garage and normally I was reading about general system temps of 39-42c when playing Oblivion for a few hours. So far the readings haven't gone above 33c. I've not had any lockups, BSOD's or crash/reboots but I've still got a few more intensive tests I want to run on the system but so far I'm impressed. Performance wise I'm back to where I was with the old set, but I guess the proof of the pudding is going to be in a few weeks time running these settings as it would appear that the old sets used fail after about 3-4 months (if they didn't break sooner). I'll try to post my settings, for anyone interested, later this weekend. Might not get too much out tomorrow as I'm off down the pub to watch the FA Cup Final with my mates, Up the Happy Hammers! ( Angry_games, this is the equivalent of the Stanley Cup to us "soccer" fans) Cheers BB
  2. Woot! Just got my RMA's Ballistix back from Crucial UK (great turnaround, less than a week). Going to try this evening and run the soak tests and see how they go before I start messing with overclocks. What is the general consensus with the new TD1's, are they better? I've running a 3700+ SD and with my old set I was able to run at 250x11 at stock voltage for over 5 months, using settings I picked up from other Ballistix threads (thanks Sharp). I'd like to be able to go back to these settings soon, once testing is completed but I'm reluctant to do so if they're going to fail again after a few months. Any info or advice greatly appreciated. BB P.S. they are BL12864Z503-16TD1 CL1116F.LF modules, matched pair.
  3. I don't know for sure but the Crucial Lady said that she hopes to turn mine around with 7 days so I should have them back by next weekend I hope. Maybe they are the TD1's I've seen mentioned elsewhere in this thread?
  4. I've just RMA'd mine to Crucial today. :sad: I've had them since November last year and after getting a fine optimum setup for them, I was running 250x11 on my SD3700+ without any problems. Until about 10 days ago, when I started getting the occasional startup hang up on powering on, then the occasional lockup of WinXP then BSOD's at no particular time, sometimes referring to a video card driver, sometimes ntldr.dll, other various drivers/system files. Put my old faithful Corsair XMS pair in and all smooth as a nut, apart from playing games when the 2gb really sped up level loading, starting etc. Part info BL2KIT12864Z503 11154.NR Crucial are sending me out a replacement set. Does anyone know if they hav improved the Ballistix range or are they going to be inferior units they return? I was pretty pleased with my set, felt a bit guilty because of the problems others were having but whilst mine were working I thought they really made a difference. It'll be interesting to see what the replacements perform like. BB
  5. I've been looking into upgrading my cooling solution on my PC (see sig) and the Zalman Reserator 1+Plus seems like a good candidate. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience installing this setup, CPU, VGA and NB cooler, on to a NF4 SLI-DR mobo and a 7800GTX 512. I'm a bit concerned about the NB cooler snagging on the graphics card and also the size of the VGA cooler on the graphics card. The GTX uses the big double-heat pipe cooler and this looks a bit puny for keeping the card cool. Also, looking at the CPU cooler, it looks like you need to remove the retaining bracket and replace with the Zalman one: http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.a...dx=160&code=021 If anyone can help me out on this I would be very grateful. Cheers BB
  6. If you right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties, click on the Advanced tab then click on the Settings button under Startup and Recovery. Remove the tick from the Automatically Restart box. That should then allow you to see the BSOD. Cheers BB
  7. I used to play the original NfS series, at the time they weren't too bad but so far I've not got into the newer ones, but NfSMW looks pretty good. Another blast from the past is Stunt Car Racer, by Geoff Crammond on the Microprose label I think. Can you imagine if someone did an update or sequel to that now, with the graphics capabilities available now? I remember playing on the Spectrum, clenching my butt cheeks going round some of the bends on that, what a laugh that was! BB
  8. Apparently Overclockers UK are still selling them, saying they've got them in stock as well. http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Onl...ek_Only_25.html I've had mine for a few months now and apart from some initial setting up and BIOS memory timings, I've not had any problems (I know that's probably NOT what some people want to here but there you go, I was lucky) but I am a bit confused about the long term availability of the Ballistix as it's looking more and more likely that I will be moving to XP 64-bit and/or Vista later this year and as such I would like to go to 4gb. I can't really afford to get another 2gb at the moment but it sounds like unless I do so now, I'm not going to be able to in the future. Guess I'm going to have to bite the bullet or stay as I am. I'm sorry to hear about peoples problems with this memory, I'm really pleased but I can easily understand their frustration as I've felt similar feelings with other bits of kit when there was no real logical reason for the problems I encountered. BB
  9. I've been having great fun getting my system together over the past few months and have really enjoyed playing the latest games at high resolution at enormous frame rates. However, every now and then I keep going back to old(er) games for a touch of nostalgia or when I'm bored with current games. So I got to thinking about what were my favourite games I've played and which came out on top? From the wide spread of users and age groups on this forum, I thought it might be fun just to see what people remember and their thoughts on what made their top game top? Here are my nominees: From the bowels of time I would have to say: Driller on the Spectrum 48k Midwinter 1 and 2 on Spectrum 48/128k Starglider 1 and 2 on Spectrum 48/128k Elite on the BBC Micro Silent Service on Tandy 8086 EVGA PC Ultima Underworld 1 + 2 on 386DX PC Ultima VII Black Gate and Serpent Isle on 486DX PC X-Com TFTD on Pentium PC System Shock on Pentium II PC More recently: Far Cry Thief 2 Metal Age Half Life 1 and 2 System Shock 2 F.E.A.R. Deus Ex But the all-time favourite has to be Ultima Underworld, so ignored by the gaming public but critically acclaimed. It offered so much originality and innovation, provided you had the hardware and could get as much free memory out of 640kb, it set standards that soon became the norm. I still go back to it today, even on my current rig (using DosBox) but I've got an old 486DX in the loft with a special boot disk that I get out when the nostalgia nerve kicks in! Those were the days kids........ BB
  10. In no particular order but very similar to Cythrawl's list: Aliens (scarier than Alien, better story) Casino (again Pesci steals De Niro thunder) Shawshank Redemption (truly inspired cinema, best "feelgood" movie ever) The Green Mile (moved to tears, excellent story) Saving Private Ryan (beach landing is a landmark in cinema) Blade Runner (loved the replicants, dove scene moved me) Das Boot (awesome cinematic experience, SuperBit version is the best) Excalibur (a bit trippy but good tale) Good Fellas (Liotta is great, De Niro superb but Pesci steals it) H.E.A.T. (awesome set pieces, copied by real robbers) The Abyss (great story and the DC version is so much better) LoTR Trilogy (the best book ever done the best way) Star Wars Ep. 4, 5, 6 (nothing like it at the time) Platoon (Stone at his best) Memento (clever story but needs to be watched 2 or 3 times to make sense) Usual Suspects (superb twist) Lawrence of Arabia (awesome and spectacular) Magnolia (Cruise swearing like a trooper!) JFK (a bit too long but worth it, can't believe the "magic bullet") Wherever possible I always go for the Directors Cut/Extended Edition, especially when they're older films as they such a better idea of what was originally intended rather than what the Studio/Bean Counters wanted put out. There's one missing from the list that stars Beniccio del Torro, Catherine Zeta Jones, Dennis Quaid, Michael Douglas and loads of other stars, about drug trafficing and the impact it has on so many lives, all connected through loads of different characters. I think it was called Traffic but I may be wrong but I was hooked on the whole story, totally rivetting if slightly long. Have to go through my collection at home as I always buy what I know I'll want to see over and over again. Going back through my 'Nam collection, Hamburger Hill, FMJ, Platoon, Born on 1st July etc.
  11. After my divorce from my first wife, I went straight out and bought a Kawasaki ZX7R (in green, of course, they're the fastest). It wasn't the trickest or quickest bike out there at the time, Yamaha R1's and Honda Fireblades were the bikes to have. But as I was doing a bit of "mid-life crisis" rampaging at the time and was a bit of a nutter. The mates I hung around with all had these R1's, Fireblade's and GSXR750's so son but I was nearly always the fastest, got to wherever we were going first and so on so they gave me the nickname BladeBlunter. That was until I crashed spectaculary when a muppet in a Vitara jeep took me and the bike out for trip into a field and ditch, just 2 miles from home! Still hanker after getting another one so I keep the name to remind me of why the hell I put up with work, bills, muppets at the work place and Man Utd playing bl**dy awful at the moment! Cheers BB
  12. I've been using my Ballistix for about three months now, @250 with 2.7v and after some initial instability, they've settled now pretty well. My question is though, how do I tell if they are from a bad batch if they are likely to fail soon (as is suggested by some of the posts in this thread)? Would it be an idea to get the batch and serial numbers and check in with Crucial or should I just wait to RMA them if or when they go t*ts up? It would be interesting to see if there is a specific sequence that has been causing these problems. BB
  13. Are you using a VGA to DVI converter? I had similar problems with my old 6800GT's but when I drove the screen using the VGA-DVI converter, I could see everything OK. My monitor has DVI and VGA so I just switched when everything had booted up. It worked every time I needed to do this but I never managed to find a suitable fix for the problem. Hope this helps. BB
  14. I believe that, depending on the composition of the dust/debris, it can lead to a build up static which, if laying on sensitive components, can cause problems. I would get hold of a can of compressed air with a tube attached and carefully blow the dust/debris out, preferably out through the air flow path (front air intakes then across the mobo and components out through the rear outlets). In my experience it tended to be older components and cards that were susceptable to static build up but I always err on the side of caution and regularly blow out any dust on my rig, as above. Hope this is useful. Cheers BB
  15. Price slash ///// Both cards for £250 or £125 each........... or I'll eBay them
×
×
  • Create New...