Sony VGX-XL3 - Page 108

Checking out the link as we speak, thanks.

Background: SSDs come in two flavors, Single Level Cell and Multi Level Cell hence SLC/MLC. An SLC uses bits; an MLC uses a logic circuit that is two bits long (think "really short byte" or, if they still use this term from my early computing days of 4KB Radio Shack computers, half a "nibble"). Just like in a spanned RAID where the loss of one drive loses you the other, the loss of one bit in an MLC loses the other. There is only one way to screw up a bit on an SLC and that's to screw up the bit. With an MLC there are three ways: screw up the bit, screw up its partner, or screw up both.

But MLCs hold essentially twice the data in the same amount of electronics, so they're cheaper. SLCs continue to be more reliable than MLCs, a fact that will always be true; but as you correctly observed the reliability of SSDs (of both kinds) continues to improve. So SLCs have all but disappeared except in certain high-risk areas such as manufacturing machines and aircraft controllers where reliability is paramount; any SSD you find on Newegg will now be an MLC unless it specifically says otherwise and costs thousands of dollars. RAID-5 three SLCs together and your data is basically safe beyond the ability to estimate on your pocket calculator. Off to read your link...

...okay, I'm back. Mostly what I expected (except the sidebar about how to set up a crash dump file in lieu of a regular pagefile was baffling, it has to be at least the size of available RAM so what's the point?) but I still don't know whether a swapfile gets written to while there's available memory. Does anybody know of a log of pagefile writes? Task Manager displays Pagefile use (but AFAIK doesn't distinguish between writes and reads) so that information is in there someplace. Meanwhile, my experience is that when Windows 7 runs out of RAM and doesn't have a permanent pagefile it displays a message like "Windows has set up a temporary swapfile to keep the Earth from melting" so I'll just be looking out for that.

REPLY: Yes, Jeff, I found that 'crash dump file' set-up info a bit baffling as well. But I think I grasp the reason the Microsoft engineer says it's important to have that (if you are running without a swap-file/page-file).
But when I read that I was thinking that maybe the 'crash dump' file could be created on a separate drive (such as one of the internal HDDs)? Maybe I misread that, or maybe that's not possible?

That article sure seems to suggest however (based on the benchmarks), that anyone running more than 4GBs of RAM is unlikely to ever have any reason to need a swap-file/page-file; and even those running with 4GB of RAM are likely to get equal or slightly better Windows 7 Boot and Shutdown times by running without a swap-file/page-file?

The thought occured to me that perhaps the better choice might be to just download and install (and auto-start and run in the background) a good, free "RAM Optimizer" application such as the one that comes with free Glary Utilities. It would automatically free-up RAM whenever the system resources demand calls for it, thusly always guaranteeing that there would be excess RAM available for volatile swap-file/page-file use (and avoid the little annoying Windows "Low Memory" pop-up screen)

Cheers!
Robert.


UPDATE: Here's a pretty good article by Ed Bott of ZD Net:

Windows 7 memory usage: What's the best way to measure?
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/windo...o-measure/1786

Anybody have any opinions on hatachi's new >>>3 TB<<< drive?

Talks a lot about drivers, unclear whether this thing works natively under Win7 64 bit or not or how one's BIOS might affect it. But at apparently as little as $179, a whole lot of storage possibly without having to do a RAID or JFSA. I did note the reviews complaining about noise however.

REPLY: Here's some interesting review info on the 3TB drives, including some performance benchmark bar charts, and a review of the newest Seagate 4TB drive:

http://bestharddrive.wordpress.com/best-3tb-hard-drive/

http://bestharddrive.wordpress.com/best-4tb-hard-drive/

Cheers!
Robert.

PS. Note the "Final Words" below the performance charts (if used just for storage (rather than as a boot drive) when a 5400 RPM 'Green' drive has advantages):

"WD Caviar Green is not the fastest drive in line, but, rather the best backup you can have. This is design to have a cool, quiet, energy saver drive and large enough to handle those huge files of yours. Also a very dependable drive with the lowest price you can get."

Thanks Ren, about what I figured.

4TB: "However, a newly EFI BIOS only can support this huge capacity"

3TB Seagate: "you can’t use the single drive in one partition" (even after using Seagate's drivers)

3TB Hatachi: you'll need "a newer motherboard with UEFI BIOS"

3TB WD: "Western Digital hard drives with more than 2TB provide an Advanced Host Controller Interface"..."windows 7 users can take full advantage on the HBA to properly recognize the 3TB drive"

Although I'm nervous about using anything other than an IDE or SATA drive for boot, it sounds like the WD approach might be a great solution for an XLx's recorded TV drive booting off SSD?

REPLY: I am not at all impressed by the poor quality of the writing and editing in those articles, but the information is certainly worthwhile. Up until now, Jeff, I couldn't think of any reason other than the desire to install more than 4GB of RAM, for installing 64-bit Windows 7 in one of these VGX-XL* systems. That is until I read that article about 64-bit support for the large capacity hard drives (those exceeding 2TB or 2.2TB).

The more than 4GB RAM argument is moot for my XL2 system, because the chipset on my motherboard won't support more than 4GB RAM regardless of the OS. BUT, .... the 3TB WD 'Green" HDD support with 64-bit changes my thinking.

As you may have gleaned from my earlier questions (post #3214 on 02-24-12) about how you set up of your new SSD (recovery partitions, imaging, backup, etc.), I have been giving some thought to reinstalling 64-bit Windows 7 (and hard wiring the eject button for the optical drive). I have been running the 32-bit version for more than a year now, after originally installing 64-bit. I got frustrated with some of the persistent 64-bit gremlins (gremlins with have since been resolved and overcome by more knowledgeable contributors to this thread, including yourself) and of course the eject button issue (fixable with the hard wire workaround).

I do like the idea of having the ability to use those 3TB WD 'Green' drives, because I have read several good reviews, and their patented/proprietary "No touch ramp load technology"(the recording head never touches the disk) is proving to greatly reduce the failure rate of those new 5400 RPM WD 'Green' HDDs of all sizes, compared to their competition.

By the way, you can presently buy those 3TB WD 'Green' drives, new, full retail boxed kits (not OEM bare drives) for just $142.99 at LeapVine, with free shipping. And if you don't like LeapVine, do a "Google Shopping" search and you'll find there are quite a few retail sellers listing them at around $170.00 or a bit less; even with today's inflated prices in the wake of the SE Asian floods.

Here's the LeapVine link/URL:
http://leapvine.com/p/150/Western%20...4LADXET99.html



There is some good additional information about those drives on the Amazon site; copied below:

WD Caviar Green Hard Drives – Cool, quiet.
WD Caviar Green 3 TB desktop SATA hard drives give you the most available capacity for enormous amounts of software, photos and videos. These drives make it possible to build high capacity, cool and quiet systems, while delivering the right balance of system performance and energy conservation.

Why you should choose WD Caviar Green:
WD Caviar Green hard drives provide high capacity storage while using up to 40% less power than traditional 7200 RPM drives. In addition, these hard drives are quieter and cooler than traditional 7200 RPM drives.

Cool and quiet.
WD GreenPower Technology yields lower operating temperatures for increased reliability and low acoustics perfect for ultra-quiet PCs and external drives.

Reduced power consumption.
WD's IntelliPower technology delivers both significant power savings and solid performance. Additionally, WD Caviar Green drives consume less current during startup allowing lower peak loads on systems as they are booted.

Massive capacity.
Store up to an amazing 3 TB of photos, videos, music and files on a single drive.

Ideal for:
Adding lots of storage in desktop PCs or external drives and NAS devices
Adding extra storage space for photos, videos and music
Environmentally-conscious individuals seeking reduced power consumption
Features:
SATA 6 Gb/s interface - Twice the interface speed with backwards compatibility to legacy SATA standards.

NoTouch ramp load technology - The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection in transit.

IntelliSeek - Calculates optimum seek speeds to lower power consumption, noise and vibration.

Advanced Format (AF) - Technology being adopted by WD and other drive manufacturers to continue growing hard drive capacities.

New drives featuring AF are optimized for operation with Windows 7, Windows Vista and Mac OS X Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard. For older operating systems such as Windows XP, users must run the free WD Align software utility to achieve the full performance of the drive.

Desktop / Consumer RAID environments - WD Caviar Green Hard Drives are tested and recommended for use in consumer-type RAID applications. (RAID-0 / RAID-1)*

*Business Critical RAID Environments – WD Caviar Green Hard Drives are not recommended for and are not warranted for use in RAID environments utilizing Enterprise HBAs and/or expanders and in multi-bay chassis, as they are not designed for, nor tested in, these specific types of RAID applications. For all Business Critical RAID applications, please consider WD's Enterprise Hard Drives that are specifically designed with RAID-specific, time-limited error recovery (TLER), are tested extensively in 24x7 RAID applications, and include features like enhanced RAFF technology and thermal extended burn-in testing.

Leading the way to green hard drives - WD led the industry in creating a new category of hard drives that use less power and help reduce the world's energy demands one computer user at a time. These drives consume significantly less power than standard drives spinning at 7200 RPM. All WD Caviar Green drives are lead and halogen free, resulting in less pollutants getting into our environment. Beyond the product level, WD's green initiative goes even further focusing on recycling and improving the cleanliness of the air, water and land in the locations surrounding WD facilities.

Upgrading your drive is easy - WD Acronis TrueImage, available as a free download on the WD Support site, enables you to copy all your data to a new drive so you don't have to reinstall your operating system to get all the benefits of a new drive. Note: Bare drive does not include any cables or mounting hardware.

The WD advantage - WD puts our products through extensive Functional Integrity Testing (F.I.T.) prior to any product launch. On average, each new product goes through 600,000 hours of testing. WD also has a detailed Knowledge Base with more than 1,000 helpful articles. You can also call toll-free support 7 days per week in the U.S. and Canada. See the WD Support site for full details.


I'm presently running three (3) internal 1.5TB 'Green' drives ('RAID-5' array) GUID Partition Table (GPT)-formatted instead of Master Boot Record (MBR)-formatted, and mounted in the XL2 HDD rack and using the on-board Intel RAID controller with that new "Intel Rapid Storage Technology 10.8.0.1003" driver & utilities upgrade.

The three 1.5TB HDDs are connected to three of the four 3.0GB/s SATA ports on the motherboard (the fourth SATA port used for the 128GB Crucial SSD Boot/OS/applications drive), and the array provides a total of 3TB of data storage (after subtracting 1.5TB - the capacity of one drive - for the 'RAID-5' block-level striping (distributed parity blocks).

The drives are matched, 5400 RPM 'Green' drives, and the Intel RAID controller upgrade actually spins them down to idle when they are not in read/write use. I actually can't hear the drives at all, even when in write mode (they are quiter than the two case fans on the backside of the heatsink assembly for the CPU, ....and those fans, which replaced the OEM case fans, are ball-bearing hub fans which are almost inaudible). What I'm saying is, the 5400 RPM 'Green' drives are quiet.

They are used for media and data storage only; no applications.


Cheers!
Robert.

PS: Here's the link for the free download of "Acronis True Image WD Edition Software" from the Western Digital support website
http://support.wdc.com/product/downl...l.asp?swid=119

Acronis True Image WD Edition Software helps you to completely clone your current system drive onto your new WD hard drive. Cloning makes an exact copy of your old system drive on your new WD hard drive, including the operating system, applications, data, preferences, and email settings. Everything will be present and operate exactly as it did on your old hard drive. Acronis True Image WD Edition now supports WD Advanced Format Drives and ensures that all partitions are optimally aligned.

Thanks for everyones information on what is possible with these XL3s. I was having trouble playing the new starwars bluray saga, so I upgraded the video card to a Asus ATI Radeon HD5450. fixed the playback problem. (dvdfab and playing back from the harddrive also fixed the problem).

I also ordered 4GB and a Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz Processor to buy it a few more years. I have an extra pair of 1Gig OEM DIMMS if anyone is interested PM me. They might be worth a six pack of beer if Im lucky.

Dang! Now I've got competition for beer in exchange for my 1Gig sticks!

I just bought a LaserJet CP1525nw color laser - Staples had it on sale for $225 plus another $50 for my broken Epson - great little printer once you hook it up to a network and go into its web interface and set it up properly (turning off automatic calibration, for starters, so it doesn't wake you up at 3AM). Anyway, it takes a little short 256MB RAM module for upgrades...maybe if I just snap my 512MB XL3 module in half...

Is anyone here having problems logging into Netflix through WMC in Windows 7? I just noticed this problem last night. What happens is that when i go to play a movie it goes through the motions but then the screen turns black and I get a dialog "failure to authenticate". HUH? I'm signed in and can see my queue.

I looked around and it seems as if it's either a IE9 problem or SP1 Update bug
but I'm not sure.

REPLY: Hi Den. Looks like this is a recurrent issue between Netflix and IE.

First, create a System Restore point, and then give this a try and see if you can get past the hiccup:

•Exit Media Center
•Open Internet Explorer and click Tools and then Internet Options.
•Click the Delete button – check all of the check-boxes and then click the Delete button. Click OK. This will get rid of all of your old cookies and temporary internet files, saved passwords, auto complete data, etc.
•Type the following URL into your IE browser http://www.netflix.com enter and sign in.
•Close Internet Explorer

Then open Internet Explorer again and open the Netflix site again.

Open Media Center again – and you should get a pop-up from the Netflix application regarding authentication – Click OK.

Let us know if this works for you.

Cheers!
Robert.

Windows 7 helpfully popped up a message that a new version of CCC was available for my 4550. I now cannot boot into Windows in 1080 but must and boot in low-res mode. Well, off to Acronis I go, I go.

Thank you Robert! It worked like a charm! Funny thing though, When I opened Internet explorer The home page wouldn't load. What's even weirder,
is that I don't even use the Vaio to surf the web!

And to think...I was just gonna update my CCC Driver! Thanks for the info Jeff!

An economical alternative HTPC?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi

I'm sure Jeff & Robert could find a way to soup it up.

Kate

Yep, updates for our Sapphire/ATi/AMD cards from Windows Update are the kiss of death. Best to always use the AMD site (or use the update utility in the "information" tab in Catalyst Control Center) and ALWAYS use the ENTIRE Catalyst Software Suite update download rather than individual components and drivers updates (I posted the link for the version 12.1 update in February. It is the latest version).

Cheers!
Robert.

AMD Autodetect: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/auto_detect.aspx

or ...

AMD Graphics Drivers & software: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

REPLY: Wow, that's unreal, Kate! And priced at just US$25 to $35 (~GB£16 to ~£22)!!!!

You don't get a sense from the photo for how small it actually is until you compare the circuit-board size to the integrated USB connection.

If I ruled the world I would have all the large screen LED-LCD and Plasma manufacturers build that little board into their Picture-In-Picture flat panel sets, integrate a 128GB SSD for applications, and ship it with a compact Blutooth or RF wireless keyboard with touchpad (like those which came with our XL* systems) and a separate Bluetooth or RF lazer mouse. They could build in two or three bezel-edge load hot-swap Plug & Play 2-1/2" HDD slots for 1TB+ size 2-1/2" storage drives.

Goodbye separate desktop or laptop computer, and hello all-in-one large screen Full-HDTV "couch potato" computing!

Cheers!
Robert.

Wow, I can't wait to run Windows 8 on that with a Blu-Ray!

I actually bought one of those now-defunct Fit-PCs (about the same size board with an HDMI output, but around $80) and it's a decent little box running Media Center 2005 (remember that?) on an SSD. I don't record HD it but I suppose it could.

REPLY: Check out the specifications and architecture of the latest, announced just last week:

http://www.fit-pc.com/IntensePC/docs/intensepc-pr.pdf

http://www.fit-pc.com/web/intensepc/

That thing is actually smaller than my Sony SMP-N100 Network
Media Players!

Cheers!
Robert.

The problem with Fit is not/was not their machine, it was their corporate attitude of ignoring an obvious problem. In the case of the Fit, their WAN had a serious issue documented up the wazoo by innumerable owners (including me) - send more than a few megabytes contiguouly and it disconnected. Their response was to publicly deny, deny, deny and on Amazon I took them to task when they responded to my (initially favorable) review by saying I didn't know what I was was talking about (challenge!) when I had figured out a simple algorithm that would bomb their wireless every single time. I rearranged the location of my router so the Fit was hooked up via ethernet instead of wirelessly and since then it's been a real little champ and we're very happy with it. But denial in the face of overwhelming evidence is never a good corporate trait - just ask B.P.

But assuming no hidden technical problems, that new Fit looks like a fantastic HDTV solution, so small you could velcro it to the back of your flat screen (it is in fact the same size as my Fit but a whole lot more capable) with a descreetly hidden eSATA drive for movies and a Ceton or Happauge cablecard tuner. I won't be the first purchaser but I will be keeping an eye on it - and the reviews of the manufacturer.

I've decided to turn off automatic update/update notification for Catalyst. After all, we all know to turn off Windows' updating to prevent fubaring our machines. Should be easy enough...


...hmm, here's that pesky notice again. Update, remind me later, web site...where's the option to make it stop?

Open Catalyst, go into Options. WTF? Where IS IT?

Here's where: on the left-hand side of the CCC window, click on "Information." Sure enough, there's a checkbox for automatic updating that can now be unticked.

Well the good news is that I just took delivery of a couple of these Sapphire low-profile 6670 cards after quite a bit of searching. Bad news is my XLs are stashed at my Dads while I'm working away! Doh, might take a while before I can report on its performance...

REPLY: Darran, I am SOOOOOOOO envious!
You epitomize "bravery" to have purchased TWO, count'em, TWO of those cards before actually installing one to see if it works. Although the wattage draw was the chief concern and I have read several positive reviews recently from people who were using the card in their low profile systems equipped with 150 watt - 200 watt power supplies. And I also read a professional review that said the unit ran at around 8-9 watts draw in typical use, and only maxed-out at 19 watts draw (that was during intense gaming overclocked in CCC). In fact, the reviews suggest it draws less power than the Sapphire HD4550 and HD5450 cards many of us are running.

Darran, I have just been waiting out a 'rebate' offer or price drop; seems to be hovering around $100 (US). Did you find a good deal?

Please report back to us your opinion of the performance (and of course the ducted-fan noise, if any). I am INTENSELY interested in what you discover, as that certainly seems to be the current "E-Ticket" ride for our systems, just based on specifications.

Cheers!
Robert.

I did wonder about that until I got a voltage meter on the XL302 to measure how much it was pulling with a 5450 Link to previous post and it never topped 140W draw. The Sapphire card reviews show little power requirements so well within the PSU limitations.


With the bulk of cards being dual-slot versions nowadays, this may well be the last of the low-profile, PCIex-powered cards to be made. Ironically, I just checked back to the website I got the cards from to find they are no longer listed so hopefully fortune favours the brave for these £70 cards! There are a few sellers on Amazon UK showing the card for sale.


The favourable review I read, amongst others from the Sapphire product page:
http://www.hardwareheaven.com/review...roduction.html
also shows low overall power consumption. Fingers crossed when I get back home, I can install this new card and all will be well!

I can't comment on the Hitachi drive but have both the Seagate XT 3TB and WD Green (EZRX) 3TB drives in use. They are in external NAS units though. Nice and quiet drives with Seagate being the faster of the two.

Why the fanatical aversion to RAID? Host-based mirrors have saved me on two occasions

No no, not at all adverse to RAID - I invented JFSA because I could not get more than 2TB under Windows in a RAID 0 or JBOD whether internally to the XL3 or in an external enclosure. But here I'm talking about recorded TV...I suspect it's not the end of the world if last night's rerun of Fawlty Towers got lost. My objective was massive amounts of storage over fault protection, and the Hitachi scheme looks offhand to be the most painless solution.

Ironically, JFSA does actually offer more fault tolerance than RAID0: if a RAID0 drive fails you lose everything, but if a JFSA drive fails I lose half of everything.

My Public drive with all my important stuff I do regular backups of, and had in RAID mirror until that enclosure recently failed. I'm currently in the market for a cheap, simple, pain-free RAID1 NAS box.

>do you already know which manufacturer and model# NAS box that you desire

I'm looking at the Synology DS212, great reviews. NewEgg had it on Shellshocker for $185 but they're sold out.

BTW Newegg has a Shellshocker this weekend only for $79 on OEM Windows 7, didn't note what version.

This doesn't seem to be available here in Europe, where it's already 2nd. April...