Cool

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Overclocking day, again

Posted by zdravko on 28 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: Cool, Tech

Hi there! Again, Overclocking day post. Its has been a while since my last OC day, but I have great news for you:

First, ASUS had released new BIOS versions (for various boards) with improved OC features which refine AMD Core unlocking! Yes, indeed, my AMD Phenom X2 550 processor was recognized as X4 with 4 cores working and unlocked. Pity, Windows always stopped with BSOD no matter what I did. But ASUS did their job well, and in BIOS settings under Unleashed more, you can specify which cores to be unlocked. In my case the faulty core was #3 (starting from zero). So, I was able to boot and load in Windows successfully with 3 working cores: #0, #1 and #2.

Second, I needed a better OC tool to stress the 3 cores. It happened that Orthos is running on 2 cores only, and Prime95 I don’t like since it downloads some data chunks to process, then uploads results. So, a new OC tool was born, and it’s named FFT-z! You can see it in action on the screenshots bellow, next to CPU-z, HWMonitor, FurMark, K10stat and TaskManager applications. FFT-z is not released yet officially, but you can grab a public preview release from here. Expect some new cool features added to it In the next releases.

Cleaning up corporate temporary files

Posted by zdravko on 07 Jan 2010 | Tagged as: Cool, Tech

Imagine your company has hundreds if not thousands of computers. Imagine they are running for at least of a year. How many applications, updates, SP-s were installed meanwhile? How many unused files are left after that? How many temporary files were placed anywhere on those computers? Are your users complaining their computers are getting slow, or that their system drive is full? You want to cleanup! But how?

First of all you download Cleanup Temporary Files (shortly “Cle”) tool. The you setup Logon script for your Active Directory’s users (or OU-s, if you prefer) as this:

REM -- Startup script "user.bat"
REM -- Cleanups the PC temporary and unused files from
REM -- various (hidden) places.
\\SRV-DFS\Files\Audit\cleanup\Cle.exe /custom 32839 /p

then on each user Logon this will happen in the top left corner of the Desktop:

Of course all this could be managed from Cle Configuration application, which brings lots of settings and allows you to cleanup custom specified folders. You can tune up the GUI as well, even you can disable the visuals at all, so Cle would work quietly in the background. Corporate admins could deploy a company-wide Cleanup Policy easily using command-line switches as shows above, and force it to computers using “/s” option.

Noted the magic number parameter after the “/custom”? Well it could be easily obtained from Windows Registry (using regedit.exe) once you have run Cle Configuration. It should be specified as a decimal and not hexadecimal number. Here is its location in the Registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\5GROUP\Cle]
“Selection”=dword:00008047 (32839)

and here is a screenshot of Cle’s Configuration dialog:

OC game day

Posted by zdravko on 17 May 2009 | Tagged as: Cool

I woke up, feeling like some Overclocking should be done today, so I fired my rig’s Power button and started few tools to help me out. The result is my AMD cpu OC from 2700 to 3200 MHz (+18.5%), and my ATI 3870 video card OC from 775/1125 to 837/1215 MHz (+8%). The latest could seems to be not a big deal, but it really helps gaming, I am sure.
Check out the screenshot above. You can click on image to expand it. Now, the Crysis64.exe is calling me…

Edit: Note that CPU OC is using stock voltage of 1.25V. By increasing it to 1.45V you can easily reach 3400 MHz. Quite impressive on air cooling. As for ATI 3870 OC, expect some interesting news next week when I will do ATI 4770 Crossfire testing, so until then.

Double Driver - backup and restore installed drivers

Posted by zdravko on 15 Apr 2009 | Tagged as: Cool

I came across a very nice tool which could be quite handy when you upgrade your PC. Check it out:

Double Driver is a very simple and useful tool which not only allows you to view all the drivers installed on your system but also allows you to backup, restore, save and print all chosen drivers simply and reliably.

Double Driver

Testing Mac OS X

Posted by zdravko on 07 Jan 2009 | Tagged as: Cool

Hi there! I just completed my Intel rig and loaded it with Mac OS 10.5.5 without any issues. Now, that is a GUI (Graphical User Interface) and that’s how it should be done. Also I can tell you it starts in 10 seconds, and shuts-down in 5! Compare that with Windows Vista and you’ll definitely see the difference! I love BSD, so I’m going back to Mac OS exploration…

5 years Fedora Project!

Posted by zdravko on 24 Sep 2008 | Tagged as: Cool

Fedora Project is a Linux-based operating system that showcases the latest in free and open source software. Fedora is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute. It is built by people across the globe who work together as a community: the Fedora Project. The Fedora Project is open and anyone is welcome to join. Thank you Fedora! I am using it since Fedora Core 2 and I am a happy user.

Suunto Core

Posted by zdravko on 03 Sep 2008 | Tagged as: Cool

Wow! I am waiting my new Suunto Core watch to arrive next morning! I just can’t wait until then. If you a fan of ABC watches and outdoor activities, check this out:

http://www.futurelooks.com/suunto-core-green-light-advanced-outdoor-sports-watch-review/

Update: I have created a Flickr group about Suunto Core, and have uploaded a few images there:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/suunto-core/