My good friends they have over the past 6 years since they lost their first child, have put together a non-profit organization and have a rally every year. They usually pull in around $8-10K and give all the donations to charities that helped them when they lost their child.
My wife and I generally donate around $300 every year on various things at rally; such as raffle tickets, live auction items and general money donation. Every year they have $5 raffle tickets and give out two prizes: 1 Kindle Fire HD or Apple iPad and a TV.
The TV isn't anything super exciting or high end, but they're nice enough. This year my name was drawn for the TV; 50" TCL Roku.
The only problem I have now that my receiver is so old that I can't run audio through it to my really nice tower Bose speakers (see right side of above pic). I have to get a new receiver that actually has HDMI capabilities. Thankfully the speakers on the TV are pretty decent.
I have been looking around for some time now to mount my monitors. I've seen various products in person and online and I settled on the Inland 05328-L. Claims to support 3 monitors from 13" up to 27".
I read reviews on folks mentioning they mounted their 27" screens, but had no room for play so the monitors had to go straight across - they couldn't angle the side monitors in at all.
Cons:
I figured with my 3 24" ASUS VE248H monitors, I'd get some wiggle room to swing the side monitors in some.....sadly, that's not the case. I get almost no play with the side monitors to angle them in (they might have a 3-5 degree angle on them, but you can't really tell when sitting at the desk).
Also, there is an ever so slight sag on the side monitors (it's almost non-existent, but it is there) that keeps the bezels from being flush with the middle monitor, but it's not noticeable when sitting at the desk unless I lean left or right, so it's not really an issue.
My tower is on the floor to the left of the desk, my DVI cable that I use for my left screen isn't long enough to run up the post and back to the left screen - so there is a cable hanging below the left monitor and the power cords aren't long enough so those cables hang under the right monitor and center monitor. I suppose this is something kind of out of my control unless I buy some longer cables. This isn't a con against the monitor stand, just a slight irritation.
Pros:
A lot of open desk space now. The bulky monitor bases aren't taking up 1/3 of my desk space.
Monitors sit higher so they provide a better viewing field and just feels more natural to look at them when higher up.
Installation was easy. It would have been really easy if my desk didn't weigh a lot and could have been moved from the wall to get everything installed.
If anyone has 3 monitors for 2D Surround (Nvidia) or Eyefinity (AMD) and you're monitors (full width, this includes the bezel) don't exceed 22.4 inches (this is the width of my monitors), you're golden. This would be a good item if you wanted to mount the monitors.
I did look at a lot of wall mounts, but in the end, I didn't want to have to drill holes in the wall and then have to worry about filling them should we move or rearrange furniture. This meant a desk mount would be ideal and there you have it. Here's the end result:
I tested and confirmed working an old GTX 280 video card. I sold it off for $50. The card comes in the original box with all of the original cables and contents of the box. I packaged it up nicely, plenty of packing material to ensure the GPU got to its destination unscathed.
A few days after the package was delivered, the buyer demands a refund because the card was defective and wouldn't display anything. He didn't ask anything - didn't request any troubleshooting from me to try and resolve the issue. I gave him my return address and told him he would be refunded once the item is back and tested.
The day before I got the card back the buy blasted me in a poor review on site I used. He said I sent him a defective product and was mad I didn't pay for the return of the item. He never asked me anything about the card or requested any assistance in troubleshooting the card.
I got the card back today. I took everything out of the box and made sure the card was the original one I sent out - everything matched up. I installed the card and she booted right up into Windows. I could see my desktop as clear as day. I installed the latest driver that supports a GTX 280 and I ran it through 3D Mark Vantage to ensure it doesn't crash. I ran a GPU-Z validation on the card (http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/details.php?id=nd3v) and I even submitted the 3D Mark Vantage results (http://www.3dmark.com/3dmv/5395691).
I took pictures of the card installed on my computer and it being in use. I sent these images and the links to the buyer and asked him to remove the negative review since it was a lie about my card being faulty. The buyer was just a stupid, ass-hat that clearly knows nothing about computers or GPUs.
My guess he lacked a powerful enough PSU to run the card and claimed it was defective because he's too fucking stupid to figure it out.
My last birthday the wife and I had to make a decision to put one of our family dogs down. She had massive internal bleeding and was painfully dying a slow death. She didn't scavenge the garbage or eat odd things and she wasn't really a chewer, like our male husky, so I don't think it was something she ate that ruptured her intestines. It could have been a tumor that ruptured or perhaps her spleen. It was a sad birthday and it still bothers me to this day, nearly 3 months later.
Anyway, to the dream part. I don't remember my dreams very often and they come in two varieties for me.
My dreams are like deja vu - the things that happen in my dreams happen in real life at a later time in the future. They're not usually exciting things, but they do come true - like one of the kids being sick or one time that I found money. In my dream the bill I found was folded up in a manner that you knew it was currency, but you couldn't see the denomination of it and I stuck it in my pocket. That very morning I stepped outside to let the dogs out and I found a bill folded up in such a manner you couldn't see the denomination, I stuck it in my pocket. After I got back inside with the dogs I unfolded it to find it was $10. I knew it wasn't mine because I haven't carried any cash the past few weeks and the small dusting of snow on the ground showed no footprints for anyone to have recently dropped it.
I realize I'm dreaming and I can control my dream.
About a month ago I had troubles sleeping - this usually isn't an issue with me, I tend to be out as soon as I shut my eyes and lay my head down. I was up until about 2am before I feel asleep. I ended up having a #2 dream about Bailey and it went like this....
I was downstairs watching a movie and the kids were being loud, so I told them to go upstairs to play. They leave and go up the stairs. What felt like a good chunk of time later, I hear the kids being very loud and playing too rough. So I head up the stairs and I see the kids playing with their over sized car toys, pushing them back and forth to each other and getting mad about stupid things....as soon as I reached the top of the stairs I see a flash of white fur in my bedroom, it moved from the foot of the bed into the doorway to the bathroom.
I immediately think that's odd....Bailey passed away and I must be seeing things. A second later I see Bailey come out of the bathroom chasing a bouncing ball (she didn't really play with tennis balls or squeaky toy balls very much) and she caught it out of the air during a bounce. She looked up at me and started wagging her tail and I exclaimed, "Babes! Come here, sweetie!" (this was the point I realized I was dreaming and I knew this wouldn't last forever, but I wanted to enjoy my time with her as much as possible.) She came running over, wagging her tail. I got to hug her and pet her and I could feel my hands run through her soft fur, it felt real even though I knew it wasn't. She wanted to play! I tossed the ball and she ran after it to get it.
All of a sudden my 3 year old, who was playing behind me, started screaming bloody murder because he somehow hurt himself. He did the whole, I hurt myself so bad that I can't breath for 20 seconds and then screamed like he was dying. I told him to knock if off and that he wasn't hurt - I knew this was a dream and I wouldn't get another chance to spend time with Bailey so as selfish as it sounds, I basically blew off my kid to spend time with the dog. Bailey came back and dropped the ball again and I got to pet her one more time and I tossed the ball...the whole time the 3 year old is screaming and making me irritated. I could feel myself, my actual body, becoming annoyed and my dream was broken and I woke up about 4:30am.
I slept for about 2 hours and I was pissed when I woke up. My time with Bailey was yanked away. I got up, went downstairs and turned on the computer so I could watch a movie with my headphones. I ended up playing a few games, watched a movie.....the kids and wife got up around 8:30 that morning.
I wasn't mad at my kid in real life for causing me to wake up due to his actions in my dream, but I was still irritated nonetheless about how my dream ended. I still think about it to this day and it makes me annoyed. I wish I could have had more time, but I'm grateful for the visit in the dream.
My wife has bugged me over and over again about what I'm going to do with all the old PC parts and games I have stored away in boxes. For the longest time I've never wanted to do anything, other than keep them.
As I get older and less possessive over my things and I've started selling them off. I don't need old GPUs and multiple aftermarket heatsinks or PC, PS3 and PS2 (have the console for this) games that I don't play or will never get around to playing.
I threw things up on Amazon last week and within a week I've sold off 10 items so far - kind of surprised me - heck, Star Wars Battlefront (PS2) sold within 4 hours of listing. I've listed PC games that I haven't even opened, older games that don't require some kind of online activation (such as Steam), so the key codes can be used to install the games. I've listed some PC parts and I might add some DVDs in the near future and I have my PS2 console, a few games left for it and last couple of PS3 games I own.
I've been contemplating if I want to break down the old PC I have and sell the parts as well - that would include the following:
MB: ASRock K10N780SLIX3-WiFi
CPU: Phenom II x4 940 (I can get her to 3.71, up from 3.0)
RAM: Corsair XMS DDR2 800 2x2GB
PSU: Corsair CX 430W
GPU: GT 730 2GB 384Cuda (performance would be around a 8800 GT)
H/F: Zalman 9500A
The PC works, I just haven't used it in about a year. It was meant for the daughter to have, but she shown me she really doesn't want to take care of it or show us she can listen and behave well enough to warrant her keeping it. Oh well....
I'm not sure if anyone actually reads my blogs, but I thought I'd just post what I've been up to recently. If anyone wants to see what I'm offering for sale you can check on amazon by clicking here. If anyone does have questions, feel free to ask. Otherwise, thanks for reading (if anyone even does).
I recently made the move from two GTX 570s in SLI to a single GTX 980Ti from Zotac. One of the best upgrades I've ever experienced, even more so than moving from my Phenom II x4 940 to an i5-4670K.
I play some games across 5760x1080 and the 570s, while able to run games at that resolution, they lacked the power to provide a constant fluid performance. I had to sacrifice some settings (not really a big deal, usually I turned shadows down/off and took off any AA or AF). I benched some games I've recently (over the past few years) played across 5760x1080 on my 570s and then compared them to the GTX 980Ti.
Here are the configurations of the PC:
ASRock Extreme4 Z87
Intel i5-4670k @ 4.4GHz
ADATA 2x4GB DDR3 1600
250GB Crucial MX200 SSD
1TB WD Black Caviar (all games installed here)
1000W CoolerMaster Silent Pro
3x ASUS VE248H (2D Surround 5760x1080) (1 connected with DVI, 1 connected with HDMI, 1 connected with DP to HDMI adapter)
GPUs used
GTX 570 in SLI OC'ed to 882/2050 (stock was 732/1900) on driver 344.48
GTX 980Ti (1178/1755 w/ boost to 1279) on driver 353.30
Here you can see the cards - the 980Ti makes the 570s look small. The 980Ti AMP! Omega Edition is a beast of a card!Here she is installed. Takes up just over 2 slot spaces.
Here are the benchmark results. I tested the following benchmark program and games:
Benchmark program: 3DMark Fire Strike
Games: Batman - Arkham Origins, Borderlands 2, FarCry 3, Just Cause 2 and Sniper Elite 3
As you can see, as expected, the 980Ti blows the 570s out of the water. The combined test, the 570s ran at about 11.5fps, it was a painful slide show while the 980Ti runs around 38fps. This was the first time I've seen the combined test run at a smooth level and not a horrid slideshow.
Batman: Arkham Origins
While the game was certainly playable with the settings maxed out on the 570s, there was the slight hiccup here and there as you'd run around - most likely due to the low VRAM of 1.25GB the 570s have. The 980Ti ran the game smooth, no hiccups and it also provides at 87% performance boost over the 570s.
Borderlands 2
Here's another game that ran fine on the 570s with the settings maxed, but just like in Batman, the hiccup from time to time would happen. The 980Ti performance jump of 62% isn't as large here, but the extra VRAM and power gave a smooth performance.
FarCry3
FarCry 3 was one of the more demanding games I ran on the 570s at 5760x1080. I had to sacrifice settings to get a playable level of 30-40fps, but I still enjoyed the game. The low VRAM at this high resolution, just like in Batman, had the hiccups from time to time. The 980Ti, crushed the 570s and gave a silk smooth performance. An almost 300% in performance on the 980Ti made the gameplay flow and put the 570s to shame.
Just Cause 2
This game is a bit older, but still one I enjoyed playing across my 3 monitors. The 570s ran the game without any issues, no hiccups and held a good frame rate. The 980Ti just makes it look easier. A 220% increase in overall performance is impressive. It wasn't needed to enjoy this game, but it is nice to see just how powerful the 980Ti is.
Sniper Elite III
This game was a bit odd - it worked the 570s hard and I had to tone down the game settings because the 570s were running 90-95C. With the settings used in the benchmark, the 570s only hit about 85C. As you can see they ran the game well and could have had the settings pushed more, but they just ran too hot. The 980Ti gives about a 62% boost in performance, plus it only hit around 62C.
Overall, I'm greatly impressed with just the sheer power that one card can provide at 5760x1080. The 570s performed well for me over the past 4 years and 1 month, but I needed to move on if I wanted to keep gaming across my 3 monitors. If I were strictly to stay with 1920x1080p, I wouldn't have upgraded. The 570s can max most games across 1080p.
I went with Zotac since I've always had good experience with them. In the US, you can only get a 2 year + 1 year extended (3 year total if you register the card online) warranty. I personally don't see this as an issue, most of us upgrade every 3 years or so....it would be nice if it was 5 years, but oh well. My Zotac GTX 570 has been going strong for just over 4 years and an old 7600 GT card that gave to someone, still works in their web-surfing computer I built them to this day. I've seen posts about people complaining bad coil whine on the AMP! editions from Zotac or people complain that these factory OC'ed cards can only have the max power limit up to 111%. Let's get real here.....this card, as it stands, is powerful as hell. I see no reason to worry about bumping the clocks up another 100-150MHz, you won't gain much of a performance gain that'll be worthwhile.
For those on the fence about what card to get if you're on 1440p or gaming across 3 monitors like I do for 5760x1080, this is the card to get.
Please forgive any layout issues - not the most user friendly forums to post on sometimes
The entire build is not new, but there is a big cosmetic change. My current PC (that's in the process of being taken apart and things moved over to the new case) specs are listed below.
CoolerMaster Cosmos 1000
Case: CoolerMaster Cosmos 1000
Heatsink: Corsair H50
CPU: i5-4670k (stock speed)
MB: ASRock Extreme4 z87
RAM: ADATA XPG 8GB (4GB x 2) DDR3 1600
GPU: 2x GTX 570
HDD: WD 500GB Blue Caviar & WD 1TB Black Caviar
PSU: CoolerMaster 1000W Silent Pro 80+ Bronze
Fractal Design Arc XL
I recently picked up a new case (Fractal Design Arc XL). While I love the sleek look and design of my Cosmos 1000 case, it has limited air flow and it weighs a lot (even empty), almost 38 pounds when empty. Once everything is installed, you're looking at a full tower case that weighs about 55+ pounds.
I spent nearly 20 hours sanding and painting the tower - doing a full tower sand/paint job is a daunting task and not for the faint of heart. 6 cans of spray paint, 4 cans of primer, 3 cans of clear coat protection.....it was a bigger job than I thought it would be. However, I'm happy with the end results.
When I finish the task of moving hardware to the new tower and taking a few more pictures, I'll post updates when I can. Hopefully by tomorrow, I'll have updates ready.
Update:
Here are the specs of my new build:
Case: Fractal Design Arc XL (sanded and repainted. Original colors were black/white)
Heatsink: Corsair H100i
CPU: i5-4670k (currently stock speed)
MB: ASRock Extreme4 z87
RAM ADATA XPG 8GB (4GB x 2) DDR3 1600
GPU: 2x GTX 570
SSD: 250GB Crucial MX200
HDD: WD 500GB Blue Caviar & WD 1TB Black Caviar
PSU: CoolerMaster 1000W Silent Pro 80+ Bronze (I'm going to change to Seasonic 750W Modular 80+ Gold soon)
Here's the tower after all the sanding and painting.
Metallic blue and gold/yellow. I just like the blue color and the gold/yellow goes with the gold caps on the MB, the yellow on my Zotac GTX 570 and the gold/yellow heat spreaders on my ADATA RAM.
Having had my GTX 570s for nearly 4 years now (June 2011), I added new thermal paste. I never pulled the cover off a GPU before, it was interesting to see the different heatsinks used between my Zotac and EVGA cards.
Here's the Zotac:
Here's the EVGA:
This was the build in progess:
You can see the two HDDs mounted in the 5.25" bays. I used a couple of HDD mounting brackets.
Here's everything installed (SSD is located on backside of the case, behind the MB). I had to do a bit of cable management still:
Everything in there looks good with the color scheme, except the EVGA card....stupid red. I'm just not that bored to paint new decal for it to fit in better.
Here's the completed setup:
Cody, there in the background, he's clearly thrilled at my accomplishment.
Here's the side window on the case, with the flash from the camera you get a little glare, but you can see inside how it all looks:
So that's it. My new setup is pretty much done. I just need to swap the PSUs when I get the new one and then sometime in the near future I'll get a new GPU....probably when Pascal comes out.
The sound difference is also amazing. The 120mm fans always running 100% (no fan controller) made the Cosmos case sound like a small plan taking off. The new case and fans, whisper quiet. It's so nice.
A while back I stepped up to an Intel i5-4670k from my Phenom II x4 940. I benched a few games before the change over to see exactly what kind of differences in performance I was getting.
Hardware that stayed the same:
GTX 570 in SLI
500GB & 1 TB WD Black Caviar HDDs
1000W CoolerMaster PSU
Windows 7 64bit
AMD Build:
Phenom II x4 940 OC'ed from 3.0 to 3.6
ASRock K10N780SLIX3-WiFi
8GB DDR2 800
Intel Build:
i5-4670k - stock speed
ASRock Extreme 4 z87
8GB DDR3 1600
I ran a couple of games: Metro 2033, Crysis and Just Cause 2. Each benchmark shows the results of the Phenom II x4 940 using 1 GTX 570 at stock speed (light purple), 1 GTX 570 OC'ed to 890/2050 (deep purple/maroon) and with two GTX 570s in SLI at stock speeds (light yellow). I ran each game again against the i5-4670k (light blue).
As you can see, the overall performance jump is simply amazing. I'll let you take it all in and judge for yourself.
Not sure how much traffic I see come through here, but my wife has designed and is selling "I will fight you for bacon" t-shirts on etsy.com. Full link to the shirts can be found by clicking here I will fight you for bacon t-shirts
They're really nice t-shirts, high quality and the image is screen printed so you shouldn't have to worry about the image fading, rubbing or flaking off.
If you enjoy bacon and like witty shirts and want to let others know you mean business when it comes to bacon, then look no further.
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