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• Raid 5 with hot spare or RAID 10 with no hot spare?

  - by Boden

  Yes, this is on of those "do my job for me" questions, have some pity:) I'm at the limit for what I can do with the number of hard drives in a server without spending a substantial amount of money. I have four drives left to configure, and I can either set them up as a RAID 5 and dedicate a hot spare, or a RAID 10 with no hot spare. The size of each will be the same, and the RAID 5 will offer enough performance. I'm RAID 5 shy, but I also don't like the idea of running without a hot spare. I'm not so interested in degraded performance, but the amount of time the system is without adequate redundancy. The server and drives are under a 13x5 4 hour response contract (although I happen to know that the nearest service provider is at least 2-3 hours away by car in the winter). I should note that the server also has two RAID 1 arrays which would also be protected by the hot spare. Why don't they make drive cages with 9 bays! Heh.

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• Linux virtualization choices with graphic acceleration / video card support

  - by Urbn

  I am in the process of building a new desktop machine for work and fun. I am looking to run a undecided flavor of Linux (guessing Ubuntu) as my primary OS and several Windows installs with a Windows 7 install for .net development and gaming as virtualized environments. From my previous experiences with virtualization software in Linux I was never able to find an application that offered descent video card support / graphic acceleration etc. to be capable of playing any games within one of the virtualized environments. And since I will be investing quite a bit of money into this system for gaming I would naturally want to find the best option available to achieve this setup. So Onto my question: Is there any virtualization software available for Linux that has full video card support, graphic acceleration and capable of taking advantage of everything the video cards have to offer within the virtualized environments? Or am I stuck with running Windows 7 as my primary OS and using virtualization for Linux and the other OS's? Also I have no preference on open/closed source and price range would be up to $175.00 to support at least 3 virtualized environments.

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• Smart card driven membership and door entry system

  - by Rob G

  I'm looking at putting in a smart card driven system at my local sports club (which doesn't have oodles of money), and since they're willing to pay for hardware, and I'm willing to do the technical setup, I was wondering if anyone had any experience in setting something like this up. Writing any software needed is not the problem, I've pretty much got that covered with various open source projects out there and custom code I'll write, but it's more the hardware side I'm not too sure about and I'm looking for advice from people out there. I'm sure there are numerous complications, but on the surface it looks fairly simple. I'd basically like to enable members to swipe/touch a smart card at the door to gain entry to the club, walk up to a touch screen PC and swipe/touch a card reader there to "login" to the system I create, which will allow them to book club facilities etc. I may even want that same card to then activate things like lights or music when they enter the room they've booked. Pretty Eutopian I know, but still, we'd like to get as close as we can. As I said, the software shouldn't be a problem, and on the hardware side, so far I'm looking at: All in one touch screen PC running Windows 7 or Ubuntu USB card reader (not sure which one to buy) Smart Cards (again, never bought these before) Door/lighting hardware that could be triggered (not sure here either) If anyone has any advice on implementing something like this - especially the items I'm not sure about above, and of course anything I've missed out that's crucial, I'd be most grateful. Recommended hardware that you've used for something like this would be fantastic!

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• Alfa AWUSO36H 1W dysfunctional driver

  - by BrainStorm

  I recently purchased an Alfa AWUSO36H 1W wireless USB adapter for my notebook, in order to improve signal strength and quality. I'm currently using Linux Mint 11, and the it uses the RTL8187 driver for this adapter, I'm also using a 4dbi antenna, though I have others. The problem is that this adapter does exactly the opposite of what it should, actually my internal Broadcom BCM4313 adapter works way better than the alfa. Browsing is slow, some network applications don't even work, pings against Google.com on the internal adapter runs smooth, while in the alfa it gets like 25% packets lost or more! I'm less them 50 feet from my AP, the internal adapter gets 44/70 link quality, and the alfa gets around 60/70 (iwconfig output). Also the system always sets alfa power to 20dbm(100mw), then I have to do sudo iw set reg B0 to make it 30dbm(1000mw), but apparently no significant change. I've installed wireless-compat drivers, no change either. And worst of all, in Windows 7 it works way more smoothly for browsing, though I couldn't test it properly there. I hope its a driver problem, even if it's a pain to find/compile Linux drivers for a starter, I prefer it to a hardware problem where I would need to buy another adapter, since I have no money left (except for the cantenna pieces).

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• ATI firepro will not detect a second DVI-D monitor

  - by John

  OK so weird issue here. I have previously been running 6 screens off of 3 of the older ATI firepro graphics cards but they had a problem with the heat sink getting too hot and warping the PCB resulting in total failure of the card, to replace my three dead cards I purchased a new-type ATI firepro with the newer heat sink design. I'm only using one at the moment to make sure they've fixed the problem before I waste more money on 2 more cards but this is where things start to get weird. The Firepro's only have one port on them, they connect to two monitors via a splitter cable going from the one port to two DVI connectors for the screens. When I plug two identical monitors in via their DVI inputs not matter what I do windows and Catalyst will only detect one screen. However if I use the VGA input on one of the screens with a VGA - DVI adaptor to plug it in to the card it works fine. This confuses me greatly. I'm currently using the ATI Firepro 2270 Graphics card with identical DELL U2311H screens. I can post the rest of the system spec as well if needed but I wouldn't have thought it would make much difference as it had no problem handling 6 screens before the graphics cards failed. Naturally both catalyst and ATI drivers are the most current version. ATI tech support has been absolutely zero help, they seemed to get stumped as soon as I verified that both screens were plugged in and connected properly. Anyone have any ideas?

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• Looking to get a small server – need web, PHP, PostgreSQL.

  - by Javawag

  Hi all! I'm looking to get a cheap (low end) server to serve web pages (xHTML/PHP), but I also need to be able to set up PostGreSQL on the system too. Ideally the server would have low power consumption, run Linux (I prefer Mac OS X but a Mac Mini, although the size I'm looking for, is too much money!) and be around £100 (~$160US). EDIT: Just to make it clearer, I'm looking to purchase the server hardware myself – but I want something about Mac Mini sized. I don't want to pay for hosting! Also, quick question – if it's to serve web pages from my home (standard ISP connection, no static IP!), what do I need in place to get this working. I'm guessing I would sign up with some service like no-ip, and register a domain to point to my no-ip address (then install the no-ip software on the server to update that with the current IP). I know the idea of running a server behind a normal ISP connection isn't very elegant, but I'd prefer to have the server where I can see it then pay over the odds for a hosting service where I have little to no control over what happens. Also, I could write my own server software for apps/etc to connect to as well. Anyways I'm rambling! What do you guys think?! Javawag

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• Implementing an isolated guest WLAN via IPSec VPN on Windows

  - by sysadmin1138

  We are attempting to set up a guest WLAN network that is isolated from the rest of our network. This is proving difficult due to a couple of technical reasons. My first choice was to use a separate VLAN, on which our Firewall's handy WLAN port would handle DHCP, DNS and the network isolation we need. Unfortunately, due to the fact that our main office and our Internet connection itself are in different locations connected by way of a Metro Ethernet connection, I'm at the mercy of our ISP for VLAN transit. They won't pass a second VLAN between our two sites. And my hardware doesn't support 802.1ad "Q-in-Q", which would also solve this problem. So I can't use the VLAN method for isolation. At least not without spending money. As our Firewall can handle IPSec site-to-site VPN connections, I hope it is possible to connect a Server 2008R2 (standard) server I have in the office location to the WLAN and provide gateway services to the firewall. Thusly: Unfortunately, I don't know if it is possible to connect the two this way. The firewall has a pretty flexible IPSec/L2TP implementation (I've used it to connect iPads in the wild), but is neither Kerberized or supports NTLM. The Connection Security Rules view on the Windows server seems to get close to what I think needs to be done, but I'm failing on figuring out how to get it to do what I need it to do. Is this even possible, or do I need to pursue alternate solution?

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• Is Ubuntu a viable replacement of Windows XP for small enterprise environments?

  - by Alex. S.

  Hi all, I'm a newbie systems administrator, so any advice would be great. I would like to setup ubuntu 8.04 lts in a small office of consulting in management (around 50 workstations) instead of Windows XP. I would install MS Office 2007 via WINE (*). It would be a fresh installation, so the migration would be less of a pain. The new setup would also include a small server as document repository and a backup server by now. Later, I would install another goodies like a IM server, a document management solution, and whatnot collaborative tool. What do you advice in this scenario? Do you think is viable? Should I try to convince my managers this is a good idea? I consider myself as a fair experienced user in both systems, and I'm the only guy in charge of everything. I need to cut costs down, and I think that antivirus and antimalware software are a waste of money and time. Is this good idea?, or should I resign and try to lock down the Windows systems and install AV software? Is there anything else in this setup I'm not foreseeing? (*) The only catch in my test machine until now had been that Office SmartArt doesn't work properly, the rest of Office 2007 may seem ok.

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• Is reliability reputation of mechanical keyboards overblown?

  - by Rarst

  A while back I worked up to finally buying mechanical keyboard (~$100 range, "black" switches) and was initially quite content with purchase. However just outside first year (read it - as soon as warranty expired) it started to develop repeat issues (press once, get chain of letter repeated) on multiple keys. It doesn't react to generic cleaning (up to compressed air) and searching Internet shows noticeable amount of people with similar-to-identical issues, spanning years. This makes me severely hesitant to buy another mechanical keyboard, considering: every other keyboard I ever owned, including ultra-cheap crap managed to last longer than that typing experience is nice, but not lifechanging-fan-forever nice for me my choice of mechanical keyboards is severely limited not many brands represented in local market and primarily crazy looking gamer models russian (not to mention russian and ukrainian if possible) layout excludes international ordering price tag for a meek year of use I got our of it is plain demoralizing It is obvious mechanical keyboards have their fans, but shopping around for "best fit" or getting into multiple hundreds price tags is probably not something I am highly interested in. Considering my constraints and bad experience with reliability, is it practical for me to sink more money into buying mechanical keyboard(s) again? In other words - manufacturers are beaming about how crazy reliable mechanical keyboards are. Are active long time users of such keyboards confidently of same opinion?

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• Replacing the LCD panel in a netbook (Asus Eee PC 1005)

  - by neilfein

  Yesterday, I was cleaning up and dropped my Asus Eee 1005PE. The screen is cracked inside (i.e., cracks are visible only when on), and no longer works properly. I booted up with another monitor attached, and the computer itself is fine, but needs a new screen. Best Buy wants at least $250 to repair it (that includes their $150 fee to breathe in the same room as the unit), and Asus was of no help at all. (They're incredibly cagey and won't provide any money numbers at all, not even the cost of the part.) If replacing the LCD is no more trouble than replacing memory or a hard drive, I can do that. It's within my means to buy the part (18G241010402, a TFT LCD), but I'd like to know more about the procedure involved. My question: How does one replace the screen in this unit? Do I simply open the case and swap out the unit, or do I need to disassemble anything else to get to the screen? I don't want to order the part and then end up in a situation like this. Is the case screwed shut, or is it like an iPod where they glue things closed? I know enough about my abilities with a soldering gun to not attempt to solder tiny wires, would any of that be involved?

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• Juniper NetScreen NS-5GT traffic monitoring

  - by blah

  I've done casual research into the subject and am truly dismayed at the lack of compatible tools for such a simple task. Maybe someone can provide assistance. We have a NetScreen NS-5GT in the office. I need to be able to get a glance of current traffic per endpoint -- I think the equivalent of 'get sessions' with byte counts/rates. I don't care about bars, graphs, and reports. Something as simple as a classic software firewall display would be perfect. I can't shell out money on something real like SolarWinds products, so a free solution is essential. I'm willing to do a little work but refuse to program something from scratch. It's not prudent right now for me to install a hub or otherwise mess around physically. There must be something out there I can use, maybe in combination. I don't believe I'm asking too much. Specific answers only please, e.g. monitoring software you know will actually work with this antiquated device. I've read about general approaches to the broader problem dozens of times already.

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• Error in mysql "max_allowed_packet" VPS godaddy

  - by focusmantra

  I am getting error "Serious session error detected. Please notify administrator, this problem is most probably caused by small value in max_allowed_packet MySQL setting. " This error generally comes after every 20-25 minutes and when it comes , it logs out the user and then logs in again, starts again and then after sometime the same issue occurs again. I tried changing max_allowed_packet setting but getting error "access denied; You need SUPER privilege for this operation'. I even tried SET SESSION too but error "SESSION variable 'max_allowed_packet' is read-only. Use SET GLOBAL to assign the value" I have hosted the website on godaddy VPS centos and access it via putty or cpanel. Website is made in moodle 2.0.3 i.e. php. My developers use to fix this but warned will occur when server restart. As godaddy ppl say move to dedicated and then i can do but as I don't have any money so can't at present. I trying to find how developers used to do for temporary fix that is until server restart.

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• Could I use Windows 7 instead of Windows SBS 2008 for this server?

  - by Ecyrb

  First off, I'm not a sys admin. I'm just a software developer trying to help out my parents' small business. Right now they have one server, a domain controller with a P4 processor running SBS 2003. They also have this machine hosting QuickBooks, MySQL for the old version of an app, and SQL Server 2008 Express for the new version of the app (which will replace the old eventually). They've been complaining about the workstations being slow so I figured it might help if they bought a new server and moved QuickBooks, MySQL, and SQL Server to the new server, leaving the old server as just a DC. In trying to pick an operating system for their new server, I was thinking about Windows SBS 2008 Standard with enough licenses for seven machines. But that's a lot more money than they're going to want to spend. So then I wondered if there's any real advantage to having a server OS as opposed to just throwing Windows 7 on the new server. It's a lot cheaper and I can't think of any SBS features that it would need if it's just hosting QuickBooks, MySQL, and SQL Server. Would it be okay to use Windows 7 for a server like this? Are there any advantages to using SBS 2008 that I would be missing out on? Any additional tips are much appreciated!

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• Application Virtualization

  - by Peter Versnee

  I have been looking for a solution to virtualize my desktop application as a SaaS. After picking Citrix XenApp as the best solution for my case and trying for ever to get it to work (with some more experienced people) I can't help but to conclude that Citrix has too much problems for my case. Every time I fix one thing some other thing pops up. As I can't imagine Citrix XenApp is the only way to deliver my application to my clients, I'd like to ask you experienced guys if you think there is an other way to deliver it whilst meeting my requirements. I've got no money issues - time on the other hand... My requirements: My application must run on a windows server; The application should be virtualized with the application window only (no desktop); Content Redirection (my application is the only one virtualized, so PDF, DOC(X) etc. is on the users' system); Easy user management; SSO;* Cross platform (Windows, Linux, Mac OSX).* I truly hope I don't annoy you with another of the same question. I've tried to find the same question here and - obviously - didn't found it. *) these I can live without, however very much appreciated

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• Imac g5 with no OS nor CD drive

  - by sinekonata

  What I want: Ubuntu on a g5 Imac. What I have: An empty PC (Intel g5 17" Imac) with broken CD drive. Its model is A1173. This PC with Ubuntu 12.04 and an old Vista partition. a usb flash drive. Problems: No CD means the only boot Drive I could use is USB. There are no BIOS on Macs so I can't set boot settings or even see if it detects my USB drive. When I start the machine and press ALT the first and only thing I see is an old corrupted winXP partition and not a single option or additional information. So assuming blindly that the Mac hardware/firmware works normally, I don't have any Mac OS to use any of the tools that I found on different tutorials for building a bootable .img drive for macs. I can't find much software on Linux/Windows to substitute to those tools, for example among others converting an .iso file (win/linux) to .img (mac I guess). Which makes me think that the scenario where someone like me has Mac hardware but no Mac OS is extremely rare. So other than finding someone that has a Mac I have no solution. So I ask what would you do? the only thing is it should not involve any money (I know mac soft is rarely free) which also excludes getting any MacOS unless I can use a free macos.img for VM or restore the original Mac for free. Thank you

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• explanation of RAM specs, and what do I need for a Gaming rig

  - by ewok

  I am looking into upgrading my custom built PC's RAM. I use the machine mostly for gaming, but I don't really know a ton about RAM, so I wanted to ask a few questions. The research I've done tells me there is a negligible increase in speed for anything above 1600 MHz. is this true or is it worth the extra money to go higher? Other than drawing more power from the PSU, is there any real difference in performance with different voltages (1.5V vs 1.65V)? most of the kits I've found in the 2x4 1600 range have a CAS latency of 9 and timing of 9-9-9-24. For a significant increase in price (usually about 1.5x), I can get either 8 or 7 and lower timing. Is it worth the cost? What I am looking for here is someone to give a good explanation of what the different specs represent, and how that relates to the performance of the machine. Specifically, I'm looking for what specs I need to focus on for a good gaming rig. I am NOT looking for a "buy this, it's the best RAM" without an explanation of why. The information will be much more valuable as it will allow me to make my own informed decision. As they say, give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. teach a man to fish, and he'll eat for the rest of his life.

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• Can I autoregister my servers hostname in my local DNS? [on hold]

  - by Christian Wattengård

  We have evaluated a W2k12 server as a domain controller at work. This has the extra benefit of registering every "subordinate" computers name in it's DNS so that I don't have to go around remembering IP's all the time. (And it let's me easily run dhcp also on my "pop-up" dev-servers). We need to rework our work network for several odd reasons, and in this new scenario there was no money for an extra Windows 2012 license. We have at our disposal several old boxes that run linux quite well. Is it possible to set up a DNS-server-"appliance" that somehow autoregisters it's own hostname.. Scenario: Router (N66u) on 172.20.20.1. Runs DHCP on 172.20.20.100-200 range. Server [verdant] of a *nix flavor on 172.20.20.2 Laptop [speedy] of W8 flavor on DHCP assigned Laptop [canary] of W8 flavor on DHCP assigned Desktop [lianyu] of Ubuntu flavor on DHCP assigned What I would like is that all of the above servers (except possibly the router) would be available on verdant.starling.lan and canary.starling.lan and so on. This is how it works right now (except the Ubuntu box... I haven't cracked that one yet) because Windows just does this for you.. I would also be able to do this without any manual labor on the server. When I tell my box it's name is smoak it should "immediately" be available as smoak.starling.lan without any extra configuration on my part. How can I do this in a Linux (Ubuntu) environment?

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• Assembly Level Language? Unlock iPhone 3GS with latest Baseband. Need Opinion

  - by getkenny

  Hi Guys, So its more like advice i need. I got 2 iPhone 3GS (Bootloader 06.02 and BB 05.11) which are lying around useless cause it was bought it from US and now i am in Dubai. Cannot use the phone because there is no unlock. Now rather than waiting and relying on other people to provide a unlock for the baseband , i was thinking of learning what it takes to unlock a iPhone. I currently don't even know what i got to learn to do this. I understand from soem reading around that i will need to learn ARM to understand the baseband and try to find a exploit: is it correct? I really want to help people out in getting their iPhones working. Also the iPhones cost was $645 each (16GB) so its not like Apple is going to loose any money of it, the person who bought it for me thought that if your not buying with an AT&T contract it means that it is unlocked but it is not true. I need help, i am willing to learn and you guys are the best bunch around to give me advice. Regards.

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• I have a perl script that is supposed to run indefinitely. It's being killed... how do I determine who or what kills it?

  - by John O

  I run the perl script in screen (I can log in and check debug output). Nothing in the logic of the script should be capable of killing it quite this dead. I'm one of only two people with access to the server, and the other guy swears that it isn't him (and we both have quite a bit of money riding on it continuing to run without a hitch). I have no reason to believe that some hacker has managed to get a shell or anything like that. I have very little reason to suspect the admins of the host operation (bandwidth/cpu-wise, this script is pretty lightweight). Screen continues to run, but at the end of the output of the perl script I see "Killed" and it has dropped back to a prompt. How do I go about testing what is whacking the damn thing? I've checked crontab, nothing in there that would kill random/non-random processes. Nothing in any of the log files gives any hint. It will run from 2 to 8 hours, it would seem (and on my mac at home, it will run well over 24 hours without a problem). The server is running Ubuntu version something or other, I can look that up if it matters.

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• At what point does the performance gap between GPU & CPU become so great that the CPU is holding back a system?

  - by Matthew Galloway

  I know that generally speaking for gaming performance the GPU is the primary factor which holds back performance, with everything else such as RAM/motherboard/PSU/CPU being secondary in importance to the graphics card. But at some point the other components ARE going to be significant in holding back the whole system! For instance nobody would be silly enough to play modern games with 512MB RAM and the very latest graphics cards (such as an HD7970) as I bet the performance increase over such a system with only 512MB but a mid range card would be non-existent! Thus it would be a "waste" for such a person to buy any high end graphics card without resolving first the system's other problems. The same point applies to other components, such as if it only had a Pentium II a current high end graphics card would be wasted on it! So my core question is how do you determine at what point for your system is spending on extra GPU power be completely "wasted"? (also, a slightly more nuanced question is trying work out at what point might the extra graphics power not be "wasted" but would be "sub optimal" value for money, when the expenditure should then be split around graphics card and other components. As obviously a gamer shouldn't always just spend on upgrading the graphics card! But needs to balance it out)

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• Disable internal display on Macbook Pro without closed lid mode?

  - by jslaker

  I have an early 2007 Macbook Pro running 10.5 that I've recently set up on a KVM with my primary desktop system. The problem I've run into is that I have a 20" 1680x1050 LCD, and OS X only provides options to mirror at the resolution of the built-in display or to span. Since the built-in display runs at 1440x900, this leads to running my LCD at non-native res and a fuzzy picture. There isn't any option that I can find to simply disable the built-in display entirely and run the external LCD at its native resolution. I am aware of closed lid mode, but the MBP was disassembled while in storage for about 6 months (took it apart to pull the HDD) and the cable to the touchpad, which controls the sleep sensor was damaged, meaning closed lid mode won't work. I've looked into replacing the cable, but the cheapest I've been able to find it is $75-100, and I'm trying not to invest any more money into this computer as it also has a completely dead battery and a few other minor problems. I've found the app SwitchResX which appears to allow you to do what I need, but it has a lot of functionality I don't need and a ~$20 registration charge attached to it. An odd set of circumstances, I'm aware, but I was hoping somebody might know of an OS hack that would let me just disable the internal display and be done with it. :)

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• Upgrade to Q9550 or i7 920 on a budget?

  - by evan

  I'm planning to upgrade my computer and torn between maxing out the system I have or investing in the X58 architecture. I'm currently using a E6600 Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM (800mhz) on an Asus PK5-E motherboard which I built two years ago. My original plan was that one day I'd upgrade machine to 8GB (1066mhz, the max the PK5-E allows) and to the Core 2 QuadQ9550 to give the machine a good four years of life. However, that was before the i7 came out. I use my computer mainly for software development , which I do inside Virtual Machines, and the i7 seems ideal for that because it no longer is limited by the speed of the FSB? And when I looked into it, getting 8GB DDR3 RAM isn't much more expensive than the 8GB of DDR2 and the i7 920 is comparable in price to the Q9550, which doesn't make much sense to me? So the question is it worth swapping the motherboard out for around $250 and upgrading all three components or using that money on SSD or 10rpm drive for the existing system's OS/Apps/Virtual Machine drive? Or just put the $250 towards a completely new machine in a year or two? Would the i7 really give that much of boost compared to the Q9550 for what I'd be using it for? Thanks in advance for your input!!!

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• What to do about old MacBook

  - by John

  I have a White MacBook version 10.5.8. I accidentally dropped it and about an inch of the most right side of the screen is blacked out. I can't see the clock and Trash Can because of this. I checked how much it would cost to repair, and the cost of repairing is a flat rate of $300. I thought that was kind of expensive, like a third of the cost of the MacBook itself. accidentally dropping a notebook is something that would happen sooner or later, so I think getting a Lenovo is the best. I ended up getting a MacBook pro 15 inch, but do you think it's worth the money to fix my old MacBook? I even saw some used MacBooks available on Ebay for about $400. Anyways I don't know what to do with it. I do like its screen and keyboard better than the MacBook Pro ones, because the screen is less glare-y and the keyboard is more crisp and fun to type on, and its more wieldy when I'm using it while lying down.

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• Servers - Buying New vs Buying Second-hand

  - by Django Reinhardt

  We're currently in the process of adding additional servers to our website. We have a pretty simple topology planned: A Firewall/Router Server infront of a Web Application Server and Database Server. Here's a simple (and technically incorrect) diagram that I used in a previous question to illustrate what I mean: We're now wondering about the specs of our two new machines (the Web App and Firewall servers) and whether we can get away with buying a couple of old servers. (Note: Both machines will be running Windows Server 2008 R2.) We're not too concerned about our Firewall/Router server as we're pretty sure it won't be taxed too heavily, but we are interested in our Web App server. I realise that answering this type of question is really difficult without a ton of specifics on users, bandwidth, concurrent sessions, etc, etc., so I just want to focus on the general wisdom on buying old versus new. I had originally specced a new Dell PowerEdge R300 (1U Rack) for our company. In short, because we're going to be caching as much data as possible, I focussed on Processor Speed and Memory: Quad-Core Intel Xeon X3323 2.5Ghz (2x3M Cache) 1333Mhz FSB 16GB DDR2 667Mhz But when I was looking for a cheap second-hand machine for our Firewall/Router, I came across several machines that made our engineer ask a very reasonable question: If we stuck a boat load of RAM in this thing, wouldn't it do for the Web App Server and save us a ton of money in the process? For example, what about a second-hand machine with the following specs: 2x Dual-Core AMD Opteron 2218 2.6Ghz (2MB Cache) 1000Mhz HT 16GB DDR2 667Mhz Would it really be comparable with the more expensive (new) server above? Our engineer postulated that the reason companies upgrade their servers to newer processors is often because they want to reduce their power costs, and that a 2.6Ghz processor was still a 2.6Ghz processor, no matter when it was made. Benchmarks on various sites don't really support this theory, but I was wondering what server admin thought. Thanks for any advice.

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• Intel HD Graphics vs NVIDIA Quadro FX 380 PCI-E

  - by Michael

  I recently purchased an Acer Veriton which has an i5-650 processor, Windows 7 Pro (64 bit) and Intel HD Graphics listed as the video card. I also purchased a PNY nVIDIA Quadro FX 380 PCI-E card for improved picture and home video viewing and editing. I have already replaced the original 300 wattt power supply to a 430 watt Antec Truepower I had on hand and boosted the RAM to 8 gigs from the original 4. Question 1) Am I getting any improvement in visual quality or system speed with the Quadro or is it a waste of money and I should just save up to buy a bigger video card? This card was on sale for $115. If I am getting improvement then I need to ask another question. Question 2) Instructions for the Quadro installation are as follows... 1--Uninstall the existing VGA driver. -Remove the existing Display Driver via "Add or Remove Porgrams". -Shut down your computer. 2--Remove your Existing Graphics Board (or Disable Integrated 3D Graphics Controller). skipping instructions on how to remove existing graphics board -Systems with integrated (also know as on-board) 3D graphics may require you to disable the integrated 3D graphics system. Consult the owners or vendor manual that came with your PC on how to properly do this. So is the Intel HD Graphics considered a 3D graphics controller? If so should I just contact Acer or can anyone give me instructions? Thanks in advance for any help.

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