Kingston HyperX SH100S3B/120G SSD review
Partially due to the rising of hard drive prices that I discussed in a previous post, I decided to go with a solid state drive (SSD) as my main drive in my new build. I've heard about a lot of performance benefits from switching to a SSD, especially for installing your OS on and running system intensive resources. You can find stats referring to this such as 500mb/s sequential read times, 300mb/s sequential write times, etc. This all sounds great, but when you actually see a SSD based system in action - it'll blow your nerdy little mind.
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Unlocking the Sapphire Toxic Radeon HD 6950 (100312TXSR)
If you're lucky enough to own one of these Toxic 6950 cards by Sapphire Tech that Newegg occasionally has in stock...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-102-951&SortField=1&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Keywords=%28keywords%29&Page=1#scrollFullInfo
There's actually an incredibly easy method to unlock the additional shaders on this card to effectively make it a 6970. Not every one of these cards can be unlocked using this method, but it worked great for mine. The Newegg commenter LA_Kings_Fan (go Calgary Flames, by the way) maps out a number of simple steps to unlock this card.
- Install card, turn on computer, windows likely installs drivers before you install included CD software.
- Make sure Drivers installed, either off CD software, or from WIN 7 auto load.
- While running, install GPU-Z /or TriXX software ... Open Program, review Factory Defaults of card, Note shaders & core clocks, etc.
- In GPU-Z /or TriXX SAVE your factory BIOS Position #1. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. You might need it in case something goes wrong & need to reinstall factory BIOS, better SAFE & SAVED than sorry!
- Shut Down Windows, turn off Computer.
- Flip Dual BIOS switch near Back Plate/SLI Bridge area to position #2.
- Turn on Computer & reboot up.
- Re-open TriXX /or GPU-Z, check Shaders ... if 1536, CONGRAT’S card UNLOCKED & No BIOS FLASH required ... if still 1408, Bummer No Factory Un-Lock, you could still try FLASHING, but it’s Risky, Voids Warranty & can BRICK card, remember NOT 100%
Thanks again to LA_Kings_Fan for this. The 100312TXSR is a simply amazing video card for the price (around $260 after MIR when I got it), so I'd recommend that you keep watch of Newegg's inventory for this card to come back in stock.
Internal hard drive prices rising (and when they might fall)
This might be a little bit of old news at this point.
Due to tragic flooding in Thailand, prices for hard drives (and especially internal hard drives) have escalated through the roof. They're basically at - I'd say - 2006 levels as far as dollars per GB goes. I'm putting together a new build for my wife at the moment, so - this news sucks, to say the least. I'm equipping her computer with a SSD that I already bought for her routine programs and basic operation (such as Photoshop and Illustrator) - however, she needs a massive storage drive to go along with this. As far as an ETA on when the prices will normalize again, I've heard anything from 2 months to 2 years. It really won't be until the flooding lets up until anyone can really accurately speculate when prices will change. My thoughts are with the people of Thailand - good luck and I look forward to your future production!