Xross

http://map.ipviking.com/ https://cybermap.kaspersky.com/ Caveat: I've seen others and can't attest to the objectivity of the above as they may, or may not, offer 'solutions' to fend off such intrusions. Provided for anxiety provoking only. No other purpose intended or implied.

Greetz I just got ED installed and still sorting out which controller(s) to use. Luv the look and feel of the game but I'm getting a royal arse kicking in the 'dog fight' training missions. Actually I was hoping to do a bit of exploring, some 'mining' (or whatever it's called), and just enjoy relaxing while zooming about the galaxy. So, my question is; just how proficient does one need to be in terms of dog fighting before being able to hop on a server for a laugh without getting annihilated each time? If it's dog fighting I must learn, then that's where I will concentrate my efforts. If not, sweet! I'm still sorting out the HIDs so no rush at all. Just thinking out loud as it were in terms of what the skill set priorities might be. Hope everyone is enjoying their sims of choice and looking forward to catching up most soonest. Cheers

Hey Zath .. I could not possibly agree more with your endorsement of the MalwareBytes two app suite! After running the free version of their anti-malware s/w for a while (years ago) to test it's capabilities I purchased the 'premium' ($) version a few years back. I've never regretted the decision as it's saved my bacon more than a few times and as you rightfully point out it's a cheap price to pay to avoid the nightmare of a malware infestation. Just within the past few months I purchased it for my brother's rig as well. (more as a gift to me, the one who gets the call .. if you know what I mean. ;) I run ESET A/V which has earned it's keep as well. However, MalwareBytes has intercepted evilware nearly instantaneously so the two in tandem is, for my needs, provide a near perfect solution. Admittedly I either wasn't aware, or mentally blocked out, the Anti-Exploit offering. I just remedied that and am now running all three. (ie ESET, MWB Anti-Malware, and MWB Anti-Exploit). The above along with a reasonably robust router and (I think) Windows Firewall offers a failry secure environment and the peace of mind that goes with it. I stuck with ESET due to (a) it works, and works well +( the few times I needed a helping hand a knowledgeable human answered the phone and resolved whatever the issue(s) may have been in very short order. That ranks well high on my list, knowledgeable and available support that is. Good post and I second the recommendation. Yes, it's a bit over $50 for both the Anti-Malware and the Anti-Exploit (both of which have free trials available btw) but the first time someone needs to due major hoop jumping due to a missed exploit it will seem like the price was too low to have been able to avoid such calamities. To each their own and I realize everyone here is well above average when it comes to being tech savvy, This particular recommendation really resonated with me, their product(s) have never left me down, so again I just wanted to add my endorsement to Zath's. Enjoy and .. Cheers

I get what you're saying Zath and you've given me a lot to think about. Very much appreciated. You're right that the physical structure would seem to make it apparent that internal heat transfer very well may be compromised as the shrinking continues. I've got plenty of other things to contend with currently so I'm just going to let it run at stock settings for now. As an office computer it's plenty quick enough. TBD on the gaming and how much time I'll actually have to try to get some in. lol .. I get it, I should have gotten a 980. ☺ If it turns out I can put one to use, I'll get one .. perhaps two. I ran into a guy on the Corsair forums when I was trying to figure out wtf was wrong with CorsairLink that was running 4 980s on X99 5960 build. Not even sure he was a gamer but he is a s/w developer so he built the beast to sort his code out on. When I got the 780FTW the only 980 I could have traded for was the initial reference design. That, my non-gaming phase, G-Sync/Free Sync musings, plus wondering why such a card 'only' had 3 GB of GRam not yet knowing how it had been optimized, and lastly my absolute nightmarish rush to get 'something' reasonably powered up and running as quickly as possible simply found me using a 780 .. for now. If you saw the mess my office was still in after the epic lightning strike perhaps it would be more evident why a GPU is not currently at the top of the list. lol I don't even have audio sorted yet. Losing that discontinued Medusa which had served me forever has left me scrambling. It made it very convenient to switch between my headset and my monitors. I 'think' there may be light at the end of the tunnel .. likely a train coming my way though. ;) I'll be pretty busy until the weekend but I've got TS downloaded so I'm hoping by maybe Friday evening or thereabouts I'll be able to drop in to say hello. I'm looking at 3 or 4 games it seems are popular at the moment but I'm not sure if I'll be able to get that far by this weekend. It's officially on the list though. ☺ Thanks again for giving me some solid food for thought before I just crank this rig to the hilt for no apparent reason .. other than it's hard to stop myself. ;( Cheers and catch up soonest!

Zath, that's quite interesting and I admit to not knowing about that thermal problem. I'm a little confused so perhaps you can help me sort this out in my mind. Intel had an issue, if I understand correctly, with the TIM (thermal goop) between the die and the heat spreader for quite some time which was wreaking havoc with the cooling. Is that related to what you're referring to or is it strictly due to the die density? One of the reasons I ask is this TIM issue, which Intel was very slow to acknowledge, was reportedly corrected on the Devil's Canyon chips which include the 4790K and I'm not sure what, if any, others it was corrected on. I was reading a bit about people de-lidding their CPUs by brute forcing the heat spreader to separate from the die. This was risky to say the least but it seems some accomplished. They would then clean everything and apply a quality TIM, re-attach the heat spreader, and when successful the temps reported were markedly better. This was a primary reason I went with a 4790K as Intel had finally fessed up and corrected it. Actually, the point of diminishing returns in overclocking seems to be upon us. I could get a 50% overclock on an x58 cooled by air but now going from 4 to 4.4 Ghz and locking it there is a mere 10% OC. Hardly worth the risk imo. 4.8 Ghz is still only a 20% OC. That's why it seems, at least to me, the returns are diminishing rapidly in terms of percentage gains which I feel is a more fair comparison than just raw speed. But, all of that aside, with the diminishing die sizes, on-die GPU (that really bugged me), there certainly are a lot more junctions per cubic area than in generations past so I definitely see your point. Also a great point regarding the data centers wanting/demanding more efficient power consumption which you point out left the enthusiast market as an after thought. Whether this applies to the 2011 chips or not, I don't know. But your point is well made and while I have seen people reach 5 Ghz without anything more than maybe an H100 or equivalent doing the cooling. I think you've convinced me to just wait and see how the games actually run, let this kit burn in for the time being, and take it from there. Really appreciate you making me aware of what you've come across, the undefeatable on die throttling, et al. I'm not going to say it makes an old tinkerer very happy, but it's certainly good information and thank you for taking the time to elaborate on it. As an aside to Panic .. the other reason, actually a primary reason, I didn't really get too excited about not getting a 980 and going with the 780 for now is the G-Sync vs Free Sync arrangements and the associated monitors. I don't know a thing about any of that and since my monitors are getting pretty long in the tooth plus I wasn't doing much, if any, gaming I just decided to stick with the 780 until I could get my head around the aforementioned kit. You lads have been a great help and I'm very appreciative of your insight. Thanks for taking the time. Targeting this weekend to be able to join you on TS. Looking very much forward to it. Cheers

Hey Zath .. Yea the 4790K is a 4/4.4 setup as Panic pointed out. I hear ya though and as I'm not (yet) pushing it I'll let it cook at stock .. for now. ;) I'm so far behind on the tech I've got some studying to do so that will slow me down considerably. Star Citizen? I 'think' I may have seen that in it's beta days. Planetside 2 I am not familiar with but I'll give it a look. Something I can drop in and out of is what would best fit my schedule currently. Thanks for the head's up! @Panic Hey mate! Yes I've seen these hit 5 Ghz with a fortunate die draw but since I'm still recovering perhaps I should take it slow and steady for a bit. I want to get the H100i installed before I do anything too foolish. Plus if the games simply don't need the horsepower that will take any perceived pressure off to pour the coals to it too early. I've just got some tinkering in my blood so it's difficult to toss them around a bit. You're spot on regarding the 970. That was just pitiful timing and zero research on my part. I had been running an old 580 so the 780 is a step up. I could have gone through the return process and swapped it for a 980. I just was rushed for time. No regrets as the 780 seems to be a good card but I haven't really tested it yet. Cheers for the link! I'll give that a look, much appreciated.

Custard! Hey mate .. very good to hear you can run Elite Dangerous on Ultra. I couldn't recall the name but that's the one which caught my eye. It looks like something I could just hop on as time permitted and have a bit of a romp which would fit my limited schedule quite well. I don't begrudge anyone running X99 and more power to them (literally ;). It just was uber overkill for my current needs so I opted out. That said, I would like to move this box of bits of to a more secondary duty at some future point. It seems the intervals for releases are getting shorter, perhaps it's just my perception. It's pretty remarkable how quickly the tech continues to evolve so the premium for the new stuff is getting more difficult to justify as my needs simply aren't that haughty. I'm installing TS so hopefully, perhaps by this weekend, we can catch up a bit. Would be a treat my friend, truly a treat. @Zath bud so you're in Az? Sounds like you're staying pretty current on all of this tech. Yea, I have a tendency to push my hardware a wee bit. lol Old habits ya know. The x58 was rock steady at 4 Ghz for what seemed like an eternity. At least five years. But you're right, sooner or later it will bite ya. I took a massive lighting strike to a tree not far from the house not long ago and it just took everything out. I'm still sorting through the smoldering remnants. The Z97 and Devil's Canyon processor are totally foreign to me. I think I'll take your advice and maybe just run it at stock for now. What's more important to me is to get the services load down and keep the snappiness up. It's just difficult for this old dog to keep my mitts out of the BIOS. Glad to hear you say the Sabertooth was to your liking. I'm still a bit on the fence about it but it's installed so I doubt it's going anywhere. The massive failure caught me well behind on the current h/w so I was scanning forums/sites/reviews as quickly as I could. I kind of like, but am not yet convinced, of any advantage in terms of air flow in this ST setup. Theoretically it should help and the probe temps are well to my liking so, fingers crossed. Time will tell I suppose. I know the x58 had the longest life I ever got out of a build but since I wasn't gaming much it's not very accurate data. What bugs me is that it's never the CPUs .. it's the Voltage Regulators that are ultimately going except for one case of a botched BIOS update that bricked a board but that goes back quite some time.. That makes my head hurt a bit as the VRs should not be the weak link. Which brings me back to why I opted, albeit hastily, to try a Sabertooth board instead of my preferred RoG variant. Are you doing any gaming these days bud? If not, I understand, lots to do. If so, what are you into these days? I've got to run and I'm shooting for this weekend to be up and running with TS and have some audio sorted. Really hope to catch up with everyone soon. Thanks for the insight and while I still want to know what's going on with all the new bits in the Z97 UEFI I'll try to behave. lol Yea, that'll happen. ;) Cheers!!

Greetz All I am currently running the following and reused as many bits and pieces as I could as I was in a bit of panic mode after lightning wiped me out. Asterisk (*) indicates parts salvaged from x58. Case: Silverstone TJ-10 * PSU: PC Power&Cooling 860 * Mobo: ASUS Z97 Sabertooth 1 CPU: i7 4790K GPU: EVGA GTX780FTW 3GB APU: SB-Z RAM: 16 GB of Corsair 1866 * OS: Win7U x64 SB SSD: 1 TB Samsung 840 EVO SSD: 512 MB Toshiba * HDD: 1 TB WD Velociraptor * HDD: 1 TB WD Black * ODD: 2 x ASUS DVD * Mons: Dell U3011 2560x1600 + ASUS 28" 1920x1080 (# escapes me) * Cooling: Corsair H80i installed with H100i on hand. Had to order rails from Silverstone to mount the H100i and haven't yet installed it. Corsair Link has been a mess (see their forums for more) so I'm controlling fans from BIOS for now. I had been running a simple 4.5 Ghz OC (45x100) but it was far from optimal. My tinkering with it resulted in a full reset to default in BIOS last night (3/2/15). I went with a Sabertooth board due to the purported component quality. Testing indicated that the mobos I've toasted over the years have all been due to VReg failures. I needed dependability over performance but have been second guessing myself ever since I made the choice. This build was an exercise in crisis/time management so it is what it is. Resisting the urge to go with an X99 was the toughest part I think. There is a significant performance increase over the old OC'd x58. A pleasant 'surprise' as I was building just to get back to business so the performance bump was a bonus. The SSD, quicker I/O, et al helped a lot. Haven't been doing any gaming but it would be nice once in a while. I've got TS installation on my to-do list so hopefully I'll be able to drop if it's not a bother and say hello, perhaps pick some brains. ;) Great to hear from everyone and truly hope you and yours are doing very well. Cheers

Hey Zath! Great to hear from you bud! I'm going to put a response note in the computer section regarding my build, the good and not yet good. I apologize for getting this thread completely off topic. It was just so good to see the lads again I got a bit swept away. ;( Hope to catch you in the computer section. Now about those Fords ;)

Thanks for the kind words my friends. Halli, how've you been bud? I'll have a look at the current favs to see what everyone is into these days. Custard, so you built a new rig? Sounds like a speed demon! There's some new(ish) space game I was thinking about, the name escapes me but it's quite vast with various ships and mission set option. It's been so long since I've played Arma but have some fond memories so I'll put it on the to-do list. I probably would have been content with my old x58 but I took a very near proximity lightning strike which just wreaked havoc on all my gear. And I run 4 or 5 UPS setups .. oh well. I don't have everything sorted yet, are you running a Z87/97, X99, AMD? Z97 BIOS is sooo different I feel like a total newb. May just run stock for now and shorten my list a bit. I'll try to make a point to hop on TS if I wouldn't be interrupting once I get TS re-installed. Be well everyone and I'll hope to be able to drop in before too terribly long. Thanks again Zeno for the assist. Amazing how much I've forgotten and I'm only getting younger so it can't be that, right? lol Cheers!

Nice pistol Cy! Hard (impossible?) to go wrong with a Springfield Armory, excellent choice. Hope you've been very well. You may be familiar with the man in the vid below but if not he's earned the right to offer some good tips/advice. There are, of course, others. This video happens to be specific to Action Pistol competition which imho is a good, and fun, way to log some trigger time plus a good 'excuse' to go to the range. ;) Have a look if you like .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_W2w0oBwb8 Always my best .. edit: I suppose the right link would help ;(

Well look at all these old friends talking shop about trucks et al! Hope everyone is well and long time no see! Very nice looking Bronco Halli! My personal favorite color scheme on that model. My wife had a Bronco II in that same color. I'm back in the Midwest (don't ask ;) about 30-40 miles from Kansas City. The up side is the soil here is awesome, particularly coming from the clay fields of North Georgia, and I'm enjoying the peace and quiet of no neighbors within hearing distance, starry skies from no, or very low, light pollution, deer in my back yard, huge old trees, and within reasonable distance to family and friends. Home is where you make it, or so they tell me. Anyway, my brother is a certified crane operator and he was just working on the retrofit of the Ford plant in Kansas City where the trucks (150s anyway) are made. This year's model are, if I understand correctly, using aluminum (likely an alloy) for the body parts. Not sure why it took them so long to shift to a rust-free material as the salt they throw down on the roads around here in the winter is just brutal on everything metal it comes into contact with. Not too much fun going to the car wash in the winter and using the first few dollars to blast the ice off the drains before you can get to washing/rinsing that salt compound off. But if you don't you'll be able to see daylight though your wheel wells in a 'few' years. == on a very sad note their was a fatal accident at the plant a month or four ago. The various trades were coming and going so it was a bit of organized chaos as I understand it. A 'young' man (~35-40) violated safety protocol and took a 'short cut' under a small crane (not sure) but the rigging failed *and* a safety pin intended to prevent such an accident also failed and he lost his life leaving behind a wife, two children, and extended family/friends. All because he wanted to save the 2-3 seconds it would have taken to walk around the load instead of under it. Again, RIP. On the roll over risks .. I drove around in a 1986 CJ-7 through the 'twisties' of No. Ga. for years, fortunately without incident. I luv'd that Jeep, Laredo package in black with gold masking tape and it was the last year before the 'Wranglers' rolled off the line and another era came to a screeching halt. I didn't run huge tires on it but dodging idiots on the highways at ~70 (lol .. more like 85) certainly required a bit of maintaining focus. As to the 'kids' out driving these days .. wtf!! Texting or even having a cellphone within arm's reach should be a free ride to beneath the jail. People can barely drive these days when they are paying attention. There was a young kid (~20) sober as a stone riding his bike back home from his girlfriend's when 'someone' (still unknown) switched lanes to make an exit they were about to miss and clipped the front of the kid's bike .. RIP. Not even sure how to discuss something like that. I rarely ride anymore. Have taken a few weekend runs on various Harley Ultras (baggers) that I can rent (brother owns one) not far from here but dodging cars just took all the fun out of it so I am 'retired' from riding, at least for a while. On a more pleasant note .. I'm ironing the bugs out of a new build I literally just threw together when my trusty, and ancient in computer years, x58 bricked on me. I switched from RoG to a Sabertooth and an i7 4790K with a couple SSDs this time around. I was tempted (greatly) to get an x99 but I just couldn't rationalize it and for what I'm doing this box has more than enough juice. I just set it to run at a modest 4.5 Ghz and 2 Ghz on the old RAM out of the x58 and it seems to be behaving nicely. Also using my first water cooled setup in the form of a cheap all-in-one. Jury is still out on how I feel about it but so far so good. As my 'luck' would have it I also bought a GTX780FTW about 15 minutes before the 980s came out. I thought about jumping through the hoops to swap them out but I've got more horsepower than I will likely use, for now, so didn't bother. Probably a mistake but the 780 is quite a beast and runs a 30" 2560x1600 via Display Port and a 28" 1920x1080 via DVI and never even breaks a sweat. Amazing how quickly the tech continues to progress. When I saw the 4790K had a built in GPU (on die) I felt like I was downgrading to a laptop chip. Wow .. when I'm wrong, I go all the way. These things are quite quick .. I'm impressed and kinda liking the ST board. UEFI now instead of BIOS. Can't blink without the tech flying past ya it seems. Zeno, if you see this thank you for the hint about disabling a few unwanted, and uninvited, services on my brother's PC some time back. Between that and the Group Policy Editor I'm finally learning how to get this boxes of bits to understand who's running the show. ;) I hope everyone is very, very, well and I've got some fantastic memories of all of you and the many romps we had on this or that game du jour. Be well and my best to all, always, to you and yours. Belated Happy 2015. March already .. somebody slow this ride down a bit will ya? lol Cheers!!

Thank You Zeno! My brother lives quite a distance from me so we've been trying to sort this out by telephone. I'm sure you can imagine how well that's going. Very much appreciate your insight and will try (again) to sort out kid brother's computer woes. I've already sent out the memo that I am not personally responsible for the computers of everyone I know but surprisingly few have read it apparently .. lol .. ugh All my best old friend and thanks again for the tip. Cheers, X

Sorry it's been an age since I've been able to do anything remotely resembling gaming but the RW tends to do that to ya. Short version .. My 'kid' brother somehow got caught up in the MS Solution Center quagmire and now every time he fires up his modest Win7 Home Premium rig a nuisance window pops up regarding the SolutionCenter stating the following: =-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable. Click OK to try again, or enter alternate path to a folder containing the installation package 'SolutionCenter.msi in the box below. Use Source: C:\Users\Brother\AppData\Local\Temp\7zS2A2F\solutioncenter.msi =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= The file (solutioncenter,msi) is not on his rig .. anywhere. I've tried to find a remedy but have come up empty. Might anyone here know how to stop this annoying window from popping up on every warm/cold start up? Any insight into this nuisance is much appreciated. Best Regards, Xross edit: Late night typos