Is nVidia's SLI really worth it? Buy an Ultra!

I was in the middle of a game and guess what...my SLI plastic clip broke and my game froze at a crucial part which has taken me the last 30 minutes to get as far as I got. I call that weird! Fortunately I did the free upgrade with MSI and they had sent me lots of extras including a replacement plastic clip that keeps the SLI switch card in place between the 2 pci-e slots.
Anyway! I just dont think SLI is worth it. I got a cheap second msi 6600gt vid card on eBay to go to SLI but a single 7800gtx whomps anything out in the marketplace. In fact, you need a 21 inch LCD monitor to get the full benefit of a single 7800gtx (according to Anandtech). Second, the 2 6600gt's that I have take up more power than a single 7800gtx so IMO SLI is not worth it cause it will force me to upgrade to a more powerful psu! What a waste of money!
I think it is simply a marketing gimmick by nVidia and so if anyone reads this - buy an Ultra! Is there any real benefit to SLI - I say its bull@#$%! Anyone else want to add 2 cents?

I've seen benchmarks online where they compared several cards, including 6600GT and 6800 in both single and SLI mode. As was observed by ChakkaSol, SLI 'advantages' only seemed to make a big difference at very high resolutions with AA/AF on. Seems like most mainstream cards now are strong enough to handle what most games throw at them, it's only when being really extreme that they need that extra edge.
Wether it's worth it or not is up to the user. I've seen some impressive numbers from two overclocked 6800 (not even GT or Ultra), but you need to have the setup to use it to its full potential to benefit from it. When you looked at FPS / $, it would give a rather impressive value deal. But unless you're really extreme, you could buy a single 6800 and last until the prices on bigger cards comes down, I don't believe any gaming company is gonna release a game that *requires* that much video processing for a while, since they would be losing sales as those 7800 cards aren't in the price range of most people.
I bought a SLI motherboard in order to have the option to choose later on, but right now a single 6800 seems to be sufficient. I would agree that for most people, buying an nForce 4 SLI chipset could be a waste of money when an Ultra would do just as well. You really need to have one heck of a gaming rig to take advantage of SLI, and the bigger the graphic card, the bigger the rig needs to be before you notice the difference (it has to be enough to 'saturate' one card, so dual 7800 for example would be pretty much a waste of money until the 7800 is no longer sufficient).

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Is X1 really worth to buy?

Hi.
I'm planning to buy a 13inch laptop before the end of this year. Sorry for my English first, I'm a Korean, typing this post from Korea.
I almost decided to purchase x1, but now I am holding it on my mind because of few issues that have raised from
my own research. (Perhaps some of them are wrong, verify them plz!)
1. Corning Gorilla Glass
I appreciate its durability which is contrastingly durable and hard than any other laptpop in the market.
But i have heard that it's TOO REFLECTIVE as it is not obviously matte screen.
Is this true? If not, how is it like? Do the colors look better on Gorilla screen? Or do colors look just same as
other cheaper laptops but just more eye-strain?
2. Weight
From the information I have it is 1.68kg, and I cannot really get the idea of how light it would be.
Can any x1 user tell me how the weight of x1 feels like when carrying it on the backpak?
3. Heat and Noise
I'm majoring in history so I write a lot of papers, probably typing on average 5hours when I have assignments.
So it would be bad if there's overheating on the palm rest area or on the keyboard along with making noises.
I usually open 8~10 explore tabs and 5 word files when using laptop. Based on the degree of my use,
would there be overheating and noise problem?
P.S
X1 costs 2500 us dollars when converting from the Korean price for i7 model.

It's a cliche, but for the best screen quality in terms of colors and viewing angles, the best ultraportables seem to be Thinkpad X220, Sony VAIO Z series, or...you know...13-inch MacBook Pro. I'd also suggest an 11-inch Samsung Series 3 with its anti glare semigloss screen.
Notebookcheck has a good review of the X1's LCD screen here:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Lenovo-ThinkPad-X1-Subnotebook.55370.0.html
Also, while the display is super-glossy, the glass is also edge-to-edge, making it easy to apply an anti glare screen protector across the front glass. It's something. [You won't have to sqeeze it through a bezel opeining.]
If viewing angles aren't a big deal to you, the X1's excellent 319-nit brightness might be worth it if you add an anti glare screen protector.

Is a nforce4 mobo really worth it?

My specs are as follows:
athlon fx-55 processor
2x74g raptors raid 0 hard drives
1gb (512x2) OCZ el rev 2 ram
K8N Neo2 Nforce3 Motherboard
X800 pro agp 8x vid card
Is getting a Nforce4 mobo and buying another video card really worth it for me? If yes, how much of a improvement will I see?

Quote from: [T-A]_Super_10 on 17-March-05, 03:57:54
I have mine unlocked a little a normal 6800 is 12x 1, 5vp and i have 12x1,6vp i unlock the extra pixel shader, i tried the extra 4 pipes but they are damaged i can run normal operations fine but the minute i play a game or run a bench the card locks up. Thats why they sold the card as a 6800 it couldn't run ultra specs
I got lucky... I was able to enable all "hidden" hardware on my BFG 6800OC. It doesn't OC all that well but the enable HW more than makes up for it.
I agree with the others on the upgrade thing though - I've had my present rig for about 3 1/2 months & I don't see any good reason to go nf4 yet unless I just HAD $1K burning a hole in my pocket to go SLI...!
Which I don't.

Is iSkin's Protouch XT worth to buy?

Anyone has iSkin's Protouch XT?
Is it good?
Does it worth to buy?

I've seen benchmarks online where they compared several cards, including 6600GT and 6800 in both single and SLI mode. As was observed by ChakkaSol, SLI 'advantages' only seemed to make a big difference at very high resolutions with AA/AF on. Seems like most mainstream cards now are strong enough to handle what most games throw at them, it's only when being really extreme that they need that extra edge.
Wether it's worth it or not is up to the user. I've seen some impressive numbers from two overclocked 6800 (not even GT or Ultra), but you need to have the setup to use it to its full potential to benefit from it. When you looked at FPS / $, it would give a rather impressive value deal. But unless you're really extreme, you could buy a single 6800 and last until the prices on bigger cards comes down, I don't believe any gaming company is gonna release a game that *requires* that much video processing for a while, since they would be losing sales as those 7800 cards aren't in the price range of most people.
I bought a SLI motherboard in order to have the option to choose later on, but right now a single 6800 seems to be sufficient. I would agree that for most people, buying an nForce 4 SLI chipset could be a waste of money when an Ultra would do just as well. You really need to have one heck of a gaming rig to take advantage of SLI, and the bigger the graphic card, the bigger the rig needs to be before you notice the difference (it has to be enough to 'saturate' one card, so dual 7800 for example would be pretty much a waste of money until the 7800 is no longer sufficient).

Is The iPhone 5 Really Worth It?

Hopefully I do not get bombarded by hardcore Apple fans but is the iPhone 5 really worth it. I used to have the iPhone 4S, but upgraded it to a Samsung Galaxy S3 and here is what I think of the iPhone 5. With phones like the Galaxy Note 2, Galaxy S3, and the Nokia Lumia 920, I find it hard for the iPhone to win but some people are just brainwashed in Apple's company. The phone is like a iPod Touch 5G but the difference is that you can talk and text but with apps like Free SMS, in theory the only difference is the talk. iMean it is the same thing every year of realease, new hardware and design and new look, but the same interface. Personally I think that the 2 Samsungs and the Nokia are better phones but because of the people who don't realise Apple's products are the same every year one will sell more but it is not about how much it sells, it is about the overall phone. They even rip us off by changing the slot smaller so we have to pay EXTRA to get a converter or get a new dock. Anyway, any thoughts on this?

That's why there is choice in the marketplace - you buy whatever suits your needs/preferences best.
If you want to waste time learning where everything is in constantly changing interfaces every year, then that's your choice.
Many people like familiarity, and don't have time or inclination to re-learn how to use a phone every few months.
it is the same thing every year of realease, new hardware and design and new look
Huh? Either it is the same, or it is new - it can't be both.

Is the apple router really worth it?

it is time to upgrade my router. I have an older linksys 802llb. Originally I had my heart set on going all apple but at almost $200 vs about $50 for a non apple version I am wondering if it makes a difference and if the apple router is worth the more $$$ and why.

sseligson wrote:
is the apple router really worth it?
Yes.
or
No.
Depends on your personal needs and perspectives.
Personally I love the style and ease of configuration of the Apple base stations.
However non-Apple routers are relatively easy to configure as well.
Printing and sharing hard drives certainly adds value to the 802.11n Airport Extreme, whilst AirTunes is a nice feature on the Airport Express.
In the end only you can decide.
Question, did you buy the cheapest computer you could buy, or were there other factors which influenced your purchasing decision?
iFelix

Is it really worth 300 dollars?

I am looking at getting the new iPod touch and want to know if it is really worth paying $300 for 8gb of memory. Is it durable? easy to use? does it screen scratch easy? anything really good or really bad about it? thanks much

soccer57 wrote:
I am looking at getting the new iPod touch and want to know if it is really worth paying $300 for 8gb of memory. Is it durable? easy to use? does it screen scratch easy? anything really good or really bad about it? thanks much
I would recommend spending the extra $100 to get the 16GB model. (Yes, I know one's budget may not allow that luxury.)
Not sure how "durable" it is; I've had mine for almost two weeks and I haven't dropped it yet. My plan is to avoid dropping it, but I'm sure I'll not manage to avoid that eventuality.
The screen seems to be pretty scratch resistant, the metal back less so.
Very easy to use. The UI has no competition, right now, methinks. The kybd takes some getting used to, and while no one will write the great american email on it, it's better than my old Treo kybd. (Wrote this post on it.)
YouTube matters not a whit to me. If.that's important to you I'd check some of the posts here.
I like the Wi-fi, myself. I admit I haven't used in public yet, although I have taken it out with me, just haven't found a public network yet. And I do use it around the house. (And I've got 11 PC's here.) I use it when I'm watching TV in the family room, use it when I'm on the throne, use it when I'm on a PC but don't want to surf at that specific time on the PC I'm using. I'll freely admit that at least some of this use is based on the IPT being a new toy and me wanting to master the keyboard. That said, I am mastering the IPT kybd to the point where I'd feel comfortable leaving the laptop at home when I hit the road for personal reasons. No more dragging along the laptop bag.
Safari has crashed on me a few times in the last 12 days, but that hasn't freaked me out. This is the longest post/emal I've written and editing can, apparently, be cumbersome on longer compositions, i.e., no cursor key movement, one must move the insertion point via touch and that can be a frustrating exercize. When in editing mode, one cannot open another Safari page to, say, look up a word on a dictionary site.
Music and videos are super. I much prefer the music UI over the non-Touch models and I'm not even talking about coverflow, which I don't use. I'm pretty ambivalient about the other apps. If Apple changes the Calendar so one could create appointments then I would consider using it.
The alarm has possibility, but currently has problems.
All in all, I am -very- happy with my IPT. But whether you'd be happy with it is a question I cannot answer, so I will not make a buy/don't buy recommendation.
In any event, good luck with your voyage.
Lang

I buy all of our movies on our apple TV that is associated with my apple ID. I want to put a movie on my wife's new iPad but it gives me a 90 day warning that she won't be able to download anything. Do we really have to buy two copies of the same movie?

I buy all of our movies on our apple TV that is associated with my apple ID. I want to put a movie on my wife's new iPad but it gives me a 90 day warning that she won't be able to download anything. Do we really have to buy two copies of the same movie? There has to be a way for one family to share movies on all of our devices.

Ahh, thank you! What a pain in the neck. I figure I must have been signed into his account at some other point in time, maybe after... watching a movie..? [Though, that'd be the iTunes store, right? Not the App Store.] Anyway, some situation must've occured where I absentmindedly updated and iPhoto is now tied up with his account.
I'll go ahead and contact support to see if they can get me sorted. I suppose I can just ask him for his password, but.. oh, you know, it's a temporary solution and I guess I was just hoping to easily get iPhoto properly associated with myself again. Thank you!

Do I really need to buy an external drive to burn DVDs on my eMac (10.4)?

I have been trying to burn DVDs (using DVD-Rs, not DVD+Rs) on my eMac (OS 10.4) without success. The machine just acts as if nothing has been put in the drive; it whirrs and whirrs, no icon appears, no error message, nothing, until after half an hour or so I have to just eject it. On another forum, I was told that the problem was probably that my eMac can't recognize blank DVD-Rs, let alone burn them, without an external drive that has to be purchased separately. I want to be sure that's really true before buying anything, needless to say!
Another string on this forum suggested looking under "optical drive" under "About This Mac" to find out this kind of thing. I see nothing that specifically says "optical drive," but under Hardware and Disc Burning, it says:
HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4481B:
Firmware Revision: 2.05
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2048 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw
Media: No
Is this enough information for someone to please be able to tell me whether I do indeed need to buy an external disc drive before I can burn DVDs?
(And, if so, what kind of drive is recommended?)
Thanks in advance for any help.
Chris Roth
[email protected]

While you can replace the intenal drive, opening up an eMac is not a trivial process and it's far easier to add an external drive. Go with Firewire rather than USB, even if your eMac is USB 2.0; support for Firewire under OS X is better and more stable.You can get a Firewire enclosure for around US$30 to $40 and a bare DVD-RW/CD-RW for about the same; or buy a complete system for around US$130 to $200 depending on features such as third-party burning software (Toast) or built-in label making with special DVD-R or CD-R blanks (LightScribe). OS X 10.3.3 and higher (which of course includes the 10.4 in your profile) includes native support for DVD-R burning, so you don't strictly need third-party software such as Toast, but Toast is more flexible than the built-in burner and allows for packing more data on a disc since Toast has better control over the disc's directory size. LightScribe is an appealing idea, but slow, and the blanks are expensive. When consideringf whether to roll your own, so to speak, with an enclosure and bare drive, don't overlook that you'll need a good-quality Firewire cable; cheap cables can cause a surprising amount of grief. Unless you have a bare DVD-RW drive handy, I persoanlly find the convenience of a commercial drive, with cable and power supply/cord already packaged together, outweighs the savings of assembling a drive yourself. I'm partial to LaCie D2 Firewire drives myself, but there are other models that work fine.

I have an old file with an .A4P video from 1999. I don't own any Adobe products (and don't really want to buy any). I just want to be able to convert the file to something that I can actually view. Any help?

I have an old file with an .A4P video from 1999. I don't own any Adobe products (and don't really want to buy any). I just want to be able to convert the file to something that I can actually view. Any help?
I was a kid when I made a documentary for a school project. I've been trying to figure out how to retrieve the file. 4 years ago, I was able to get the files off the Iomega Zip drive (finally), but I now see the file is saved as a .A4P. There is also a file saved as a .PKG as well, but I don't know how to open this with my Windows 8 COmputer.

.a4p is an Authorware v.4 (Windows) project.
Interesting you have it as a .pkg...usually that's a published-on-a- Mac extension, if I recall.
At any rate, can you put the file up on a Box, Dropbox, FTP, etc...and send me a URL?
I should be able to published it so you can view the project (it would be an .exe).
It can't be converted to anything though - not without manual effort.

Really want to buy an IQ800 - but wait until Windows 7?

Hi,
I REALLY want to buy a TouchSmart IQ800, but I was told to wait until Windows 7 comes out - that won't be for another 8 months!
I was also told that by that time, they probably will offer bigger CPU's, Memory, and Video Cards...
Any input would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!

I've got the IQ810 TS, which is the United Kingdom version i presume, and have played with it so much despited being a novist with PC's, i can tell thats its a beauty to have one of these babies, and to retirate i'll call her my baby, its like a new toy or mobile phone you configure to a very satisfactory taste. I manager to creat a dual boot OS containing the Original Os that came from the manufacture, mirroring each other, reason is siimply to upgrade one of the OS to Window 7 whlie retainning the original sorfwares and drivers, my joy isn't just having the TS and what it potentially could do but the journey it took me to getting to where i am.
My advise would be, depending how urgently you like to have one, weigh the positive against the negative, having in mind when it come to computers, elctronics or TECHNOLOGY, its ALWAYS CHANGING, and as for window 7 RC if you decide to upgrade to, Window 7 will expire next year, by then MS would have released the window 7 for consumers to everyone.
Even with the wall mount i got as additional kit, i've left mine on a coffee table, better experience, accessiblity and conviences, to be honest i ffind it difficult to use anything smaller than a 25" screen or Window 7 with the multi touch, split screen for comparison, multimedia i.e t.v, 2D & 3D designs programs.
I think i've said enough, have fun like i did mate.......
Message Edited by Muteman on 05-23-2009 01:50 PM

Read all the hype, but is Lion really worth getting unless you need to link up several devices???

Read all the hype, but is Lion really worth getting unless you need to link up several devices?? e.g. is it worthwhile for a standalone iMac??

There's a million places on the 'net where you can find opinons on that (have a look here, for example http://applehelpwriter.com/2011/08/01/os-x-lion-10-7-%E2%80%94-the-jurys-verdict / ) and at least several long running threads on this forum too dealing with various opinions.
As for me, I've reverted to Snow Leopard.

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I have the 1st generation iphone and wanted to upgrade to the 2.0 firmware but i have been reading all the problems you guys have been dealing with after upgrading. So it it really worth. I am really thinking about getting a blackberry. I have been doing some research on blackberries and most of their models do everything and more that the iphone 3g does. Has anyone ever had a blackberry and could tell me any problems they had with using one? Thank You and good luck to you guys that are having problems.

2.0 applications are nice, I also noticed the battery draining faster,however I have been using the poker game alot and IM. just turned push off as others suggested.I guess if you just want a phone for calls, and you cant charge in your car or elsewhere you might not update the software.My phone is over a year old (day one) and the battery is losing its edge a bit?

Just updated my Apple TV and all it shows now Is a picture of it needing to be plugged into iTunes, do I really need to buy a micro USB cord? This seems absurd!

Just updated my Apple TV and all it shows now Is a picture of it needing to be plugged into iTunes, do I really need to buy a micro USB cord? This seems absurd!

This indicates the device is in recovery mode.
Connect it to a computer running iTunes and restore it.

I really want to buy an album from the Australian iTunes, but I live in America

I really want to buy this album that is not on the American iTunes, I'm considering the option of setting up an account on the Aussie store, putting in my card (which would be American), and gifting the album to myself. Or if I must, I'd have to drain my $12USD in the American store... First world problems? :/
Any other suggestions or anyone willing to like... help? haha any input is appreciated.

The copyright holders don't like cross border sales. Not only would you need a to clear out your current credit, but you would also need a credit card attached to an Australian address and for your initial purchase you might even find that you need to be working form a computer physically located in Australia.
tt2.

Is nVidia's SLI really worth it? Buy an Ultra!

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