RippinDragon9000

Hmmm...might run a few virtual machines with it.

Okay, now I've found more problems.... I just went to spin up a virtual machine and it tells me there is not enough memory. I look in Task Manager and 'Catalyst Control Center: Host application' is using over 14GB of my 16GB of RAM! So I rebooted and have been watching Youtube for an hour and the RAM use is at 2.8GB and climbing consistently. Catalyst version is 2014.0417.2226.38446 downloaded direct from AMD a few days ago. Something is definitely wrong here. AMD's driver is crap, my card doesn't run at its advertised speeds, one fan is weird, and performance is sub par.

Installed a XFX R9 280X Black Edition model R9-280X-TDBD a few days ago and just got around to benchmarking. Additionally my system has: Motherboard: Gigabyte 990FX AMD board CPU: AMD FX-8350 running at stock 4.0 GHz Memory: 16GB 1866 MHz Triple monitors with total resolution of 5120 x 1200 Have a few questions I could not find solid answers to by searching... My old card was a GTX 650 (and only 2 monitors), and it always ran cool. The 280X idles about 57C, I know AMDs run hotter but I hear people getting low 40s at idle. Maybe my triple monitors? This specific card is advertised with a core clock of 1080MHz and GPU-Z shows this accurately, but MSi Afterburner and Unigine Valley says that it never exceeds 850MHz even on max load...the heck? Only one fan spins (fan farthest from ports), until fan speed reaches 60%, then both spin. Not sure if this is a fan problem or a software feature to keep noise down? Other than that, load temps seem to be around 70C which is good I think. Here is a Unigine Valley Extreme HD preset score, I feel like it's too low?

Gaming on just one of the monitors.

I am switching over to 3 monitors, all 1920x1200 resolution, all DVI only. As most cards only have at most 2 DVI ports, I am looking for suggestions on the best way to drive three 1200p monitors. I am willing to go with a single card with 3 DVI ports, dual cards in SLI/Crossfire, or a single card with the 3rd monitor on a passive adapter cable. I am NOT interested in using "active" converters for HDMI/DP to DVI-D, so any setup must be natively capable of three 1200p 60Hz. My budget is $250, I am willing to buy everything used, and likely will due to this low budget. Also what I have learned, correct me if I am wrong: Simple "passive" DP/HDMI to DVI-D adapter cables allow a max of 1080p, I need 1200p. SLI only allows 2 monitors, If the 3rd monitor is connected to a DVI on the 2nd card, they will not run in SLI. Thanks.

Current system has a single GTX 650, and need to upgrade b/c I have 3 monitors now. Budget is around $250, looking at used cards on eBay. Considering either 2x GTX 660s in SLI, or 2x R9 270Xs in CrossFire. The AMD cards are cheaper on eBay, many cards formerly used for mining, does anyone advise against getting these old mining cards? Probably the PowerColor PCS+ AXR9. Assuming they weren't overclocked of course. Also, would you recommend the 270s or the 660s? Or another option all together? My new-to-me monitors are all 1920x1200 DVI only, so I either need 3 total DVI-D ports (2 cards), or an HDMI to DVI adapter cable to drive all 3 monitors on one card. Thoughts? Thanks.

A lightning strike on the tree next to my house caused a power surge through the phone line drop, into the house,ultimately through every Ethernet cable, and either completely or partially destroying any Ethernet connected device in my house. Specific to my computer, at a minimum the Ethernet port and some of the USB ports on the motherboard do not work anymore. They are not in device manager anymore. Also Microsoft Office is no longer activated. To my knowledge everything else still works, but uncertain if they will in the future. I plan on replacing the motherboard with an exact model replacement, but I am looking for specifics on Windows reactivation. Will I have to/not have to reactivate because it is the exact same model and all other components are the same? Can Windows activation detect different individual boards that are the same model? Anything else I should consider when replacing a defective board, or dealing with a lightning strike on a computer? I welcome any advice/personal experiences, especially when dealing with Windows Server reactivation. Quick Specs: Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5, FX-8350, Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter Edition. Thanks.

I am trying to determine if the i7-4770K supports Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d). Every site I read says that the K versions do not support VT-d, yet Intel ARK says that it does: http://ark.intel.com/products/75123 Does anyone know for sure?

I have a Tripp Lite SMART1000RM2U 700W rackmount UPS with 1 server plugged into it. That server is: HP ProLiant DL380 Windows Server 2012 Java version 7 update 51 Tripp Lite's PowerAlert Console 12.04 UPS plugged in through USB Previously I installed the PowerAlert, configured it to shut down the server when the power goes out, and tested to make sure it worked. Now last week we had a long power outage at 1am, I wake up the next day to find that the software had failed to shutdown the server. It simply says the UPS is inactive, no alerts, no log. WTF! I can "scan for new devices" and the UPS comes back up like everything is fine and dandy, but within hours it once again says it is offline. This UPS is not that old, and IT IS ABSOLUTELY IMPERATIVE that this server shutdown properly every time the power goes out. Has anyone else ever experienced anything like this? Should I buy an APC, should I complain to Tripp Lite?

I have had 5 of the Unifi UAP-LR (long range, non-AC) units installed in a large fitness facility for over 8 months now. I regularly have over 75 clients connected at any given time (across all 5 units), and once had over 250 clients during a special event. They are always rock solid. I am running the controller software on a Linux server and I feel it has a pretty good web interface. I will say that the controller software is required for setting up the Unifi APs, they are not plug-and-play. You can shut down the controller server after configuring them however, assuming you are not using the guest portal feature. So far my only major issue has been with the guest portal feature. While it seems very nice to have built into the AP controller, I have found it completely unreliable, to the point where I no longer try using it. Of course, you wouldn't need the portal if you are using these APs at home. While I do not have any of the 802.11ac units, but do not have any reason to believe they are not as good as the 802.11n models.

Awesome giveaway! Twitter: https://twitter.com/RippinDragon9k/status/315979241688793090