Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread

[GoodGame]

You can buy a mini Shop-Vac for $30, and a micro-cleaning kit (has nifty tiny brushes for screens and keyboards) for another $13. Infinitely reusable until the motor breaks or you can't afford your electricity. Add another $5-10 for a washable dust bag (if you're a baby). No need for compressed gas.

Sounds like something a pro might use as well.

 

[Souron]

I'm not really sure there is such a thing as professional computer cleaners. A repair shop might be willing to do it for you, but they probably don't do it much. The only advantage of having them do it is they know how to put it back together. Which for a desktop doesn't mean much. For a laptop, it's pretty strait forward too, if you only detach the frame.

Just by an air can and a mini-vac, and do it yourself. Much cheaper, and the result is the same.

Don't detach the cooling fan, if you can avoid it. If you do, you will need to replace the thermal compound.

 

[Bigfoot3814]

Posting on behalf of CFC's own Salty Mud.

"A Trojan tried to change my DNS settings on my router, I'm not sure if it was successful, how do I check and fully eradicate apart from full system scan, and is there any possibility of important details being leaked etc. Also, first time I tried the Trojan couldn't be deleted, is this bad and will it get deleted now?"

 

[Cutlass]

Trojan on the router? That doesn't really make sense. Some routers have some configurations. A newer router shouldn't be vulnerable to that. And in any case, if the router is taken down, there's probably a reset button on it somewhere. So do that. If the trojan is on the computer, and it resists being removed, try another removal program. He may be able to start the PC in safe mode and back up the data.

 

[GoodGame]

I was trying to get back to researching energy efficient computer parts for a home DIY setup, but then I came across this cite:

The primary trade-off for individuals is the direct cost of upgrading or replacing an existing system to a less power-hungry one: you may never recoup the upgrade cost, even if the computer is run continuously. At $0.14/kWh, going from a computer that consumes 100W to one that consumes 60W would save $50 a year—which is many times less than what it would cost to upgrade the computer.

If your existing system is a power-hungry Netburst-era Pentium 4, the savings may be more dramatic than the example above, but even if you save $100 a year, upgrading a perfectly adequate computer for the sake of lower power probably doesn't make financial sense. At $300 for a minimal box, that's still three years to pay it off, which is a long time for a computer.

From: http://arstechnica.com/hardware/guides/2008/02/guide-200802-green.ars

Amusing, no?

But still dedicated and marching:
Seems like the CPU upgrade is the way to go, since there's significant watt improvements from old P4 prescotts to the E8xxx dual cores. And also because CPUs are the heart that is probably underutilized to begin with.

Load numbers have seen similar reductions, from 90W to 100W+ in Pentium 4s at load down to around 50W for an early 65nm Core 2 Duo E6600, to sub-35W load for the latest Core 2 Duo E8500. AMD CPUs never peaked quite high as Pentium 4s and Pentium Ds, but they too have seem similar reductions.

Also, NOT upgrading to DD3, but sticking with DDR2 saves a little watts.

And NOT upgrading the video card, or accepting tepid performance.

Gamers and other users who demand decent 3D performance will probably find the best combination of low power and performance with the AMD Radeon HD 3850, which draws only 13.5W at idle, or the Radeon HD 3870 at 18.7W—compared to 34.6W of the NVIDIA 8800 GT 512MB.

And for the HDD, go with the larger, 'laptop' speed drives @ 5400rpm. Or laptop-sized drives 2.5".

And for the power supply, go with a 80plus rated power source. And also don't buy more power supply than the system really needs (~150-200 Watts + video card).

The source article has some worked examples at the end, btw.

 

[Cutlass]

Energy efficient home upgrades mostly take years to recoup the costs. Same with vehicles. So it's not surprising. Since few people run the same comp more than 4 years or so. Could be better to just wait for your next comp.

 

[Zelig]

Energy efficient home upgrades mostly take years to recoup the costs. Same with vehicles. So it's not surprising. Since few people run the same comp more than 4 years or so. Could be better to just wait for your next comp.

Pretty much. Energy efficiency will factor into my component choices when I buy/build a computer, but not into my timeline for upgrading.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

At most, the only things id look for energy efficiency in are the GPU and CPU. HDD's consume so little power that the savings is literally a couple of dollars per year. I wouldnt sacrifice performance for that. Most modern GPU's downclock well to save power, but even then, the enthusiast class ones hover at 100W+ just sitting there. Unless you need one of those GPU's go for something a little smaller.

YOu also have to consider some other external factors. So your new pc may be eating up electricity, but if you live in the cooler parts of the world, notice your winter heating costs go down a little, especially if you live alone. The heat put out by the pc will lessen the need for central or space heating to a degree saving some electricity there.

Better yet, invest in a few solar panels. Those recoup costs much faster, especially if you sell back spare power to the grid.

 

[Zelig]

At most, the only things id look for energy efficiency in are the GPU and CPU.

And power supplies and monitors.

YOu also have to consider some other external factors. So your new pc may be eating up electricity, but if you live in the cooler parts of the world, notice your winter heating costs go down a little, especially if you live alone. The heat put out by the pc will lessen the need for central or space heating to a degree saving some electricity there.

And if you live in a warmer part of the world, the hotter your PC runs, the higher your electricity bill for the A/C will be.

Those recoup costs much faster, especially if you sell back spare power to the grid.

Well, it's not an either/or situation.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

And power supplies and monitors.

Right, but I usually dont even bother to look at PSU's that are less than the bronze efficiency.

As for the monitor, im sure mine draws quite a bit of power, but its not even close to my PC and the big tv.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I always turn off my monitor when I'm not right at the computer. It's also set to turn off after 15 minutes. So if I'm running some media encoding or something and reading a newspaper sometimes the monitor turns off on me.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

It will still draw power. In order to completely remove standby draw you gotta unplug your stuff.

 

[Ulyaoth]

What exactly does an ISP do? Like, why couldn't I get on the internet without them? How do they turn off my service if I don't pay? Do they disconnect my wire to the internet somewhere? Also, do they know(is there a way to monitor) what someone does online through the isp? I mean how do they know that people are downloading music and movies and things to get them in trouble?

 

[Genocidicbunny]

They pretty much provide access to their network, and other networks which allows you to connect to a web server. Thats their basic function. Most of them have actual wiring laid down which they maintain and upgrade. You in turn pay them for the right to use them, and their wiring to get onto the big network.
How do they turn off your service? It depends. Cable ISP's sometimes have to send out a truck and put a filter onto the line coming into your residence. DSL ISP's can use PPPoE to cut you off.

And yes, they can monitor what you do online if you wanted to. As long as your connection isnt heavily encrypted, they can actually inspect the packets being sent to and from your IP address ( to them, you arent a person but merely a set of numbers) and thus they can determine what the content of the packets are. Now, this whole thing is in a gray area legally, as technically you have some expectation of privacy which they are breaking into. At the same time, it is their network and they can do whatever they want.
The biggest problem, and the big reason ISP's generally do not do deep packet inspection is because it opens them up to liability. Suddenly, if they monitor everyone, they are responsible for all illegal material passing though. They become the internet police, and that costs money and personnel, as well as carries with it significant legal burden.

 

[Cutlass]

It will still draw power. In order to completely remove standby draw you gotta unplug your stuff.

Or attach them to a power strip or UPS and just hit the off button/switch. That's what I do.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Thats essentially unplugging it. Id do that too, but I hid the mess of wires out of sight behind my desk so its sorta hard to get to the power strip. Then again, my pc is running at full load 24/7 so a few watts from the monitor and sound system dont really make much of a difference.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I have a very small video (resolution-wise). I'd like to resize it so it's a bit bigger, but it makes the picture look "blobby," especially around edges. Is there a VirtualDub filter that will correct this a bit?

Or better resizing options? (I stick with the default -- last time I tried changing it came out WORSE.)

Will also use other free programs if needed.

 

[Cutlass]

A picture or video file only includes just so much information. Nothing can really be done to enhance it. All those enhancements you see on tv and movies are faked.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Thanks anyways.

 

[Souron]

Yeah, you can change the filter used to resize it to make things look fuzzy instead of blocky, but there is no way to add detail.

I think hypothetically a smarter resize is possible, but I've never heard of one that works to make images bigger.

I don't know anything for video, and which players use what methods for low resolution images, but any professional photoshop tool should do the trick for images.