-Hawkeye-

Your 6 is upside-down.....

Happy New Year, Baron and All!!

SS, hope your recovery is full and you are able to return to RoF whenever you feel like it. Best of luck in 2016 and beyond!

Will do! Thanks!! EDIT: You have a PM Dudley!

Too bad it's hosted on a junk website that tries to get your email addresses because "link not found, sign up to subscribe" etc., etc. At that site it only shows 4 users and 0 comments. Are you sure it's safe? If you still have the source file (a zip file?) could you email it to me?

Nice, I love watching the videos. Good old RB3D music too

For SATA Express, it uses a cable which plugs into the MB. The socket looks like a "normal" SATA socket, I guess the cable is a little more "robust" (better shielding?). On the board that I ordered, it has about 8 standard SATA ports, and just the one SATA Express port. As for replacing your current drives someday, not to worry, LOL In a standard SATA III interface and 2.5 inch internal form factor, there are still over 1,000 choices on Newegg alone.... I already altered my memory choice, narrowed down to 2. The cheaper one is particularly a good deal, a "limited time" offer. The more expensive one has pretty lights on it and somewhat different cooling, but otherwise is the same: Memory choice 1 Memory choice 2 As you can see, 16GB, but a faster speed and quad channel for much less money than I had before. Those speeds are misleading though, if you just plug them in and play they are only going to run at 2133 MHz I believe; anything higher and you have to overclock, but they are supposedly rated to do that in those kits. These X99 motherboards have a thing called "XMP" which, if turned on, will automatically set the memory speed to the fastest safe speed that it can do. The problem is that the MB has to increase certain clock speeds to do that, and I've heard that it sometimes causes problems with the CPU clock, even though they're supposed to be two separate things. We'll see- EDIT 01/05/16: So far......with memory choice 1, which I got for $25 less than the current price. Sweet! Still waiting on CPU cooler, later this week.

No, it isn't needed really; but in the end I want Corsair memory, and the limitations of what you can actually buy is a factor. One reason though is apparently the software that comes with some of these SSDs (like Samsung) can use excess memory in an advantageous way to improve speed (don't ask me how that works). For me, it's more about the type, speed and quality of the memory more than the amount. Also that amount (probably even less) would safely allow no caching, but I'm so far behind in that knowledge that I wouldn't be surprised if that kind of setting is automatic now instead of something you can configure. I haven't ordered the memory yet, and I do need to try to understand the memory channel thing better before I do. For instance 2 X 16GB would allow dual channel configuration; but would 4 X 8GB in a four channel configuration be faster, given the exact same type of memory in both cases (other than DIMM size)? Yes 32GB is excessive, but it seems like what is useful always changes over time, and you have to think about how long I keep the same machine (nearly 8 years for the one I'm currently using!) when everything is working well. In any case I'm subject to change if there is an equal or better performance alternative for less money. As for the SATA Express (I guess it has also been called SATAe [not to be confused with e-SATA]), I think you might be confused (I know I was). SATA Express is different than regular SATA (such as SATA III). Theoretically it's faster, and the 6GB/s SATAs have pretty much reached their speed limit within practicality, and doubling it would be too hard within that interface, so SATA Express was an alternative somebody thought up that made more sense. But just because you build it doesn't mean anybody will come; MB manufacturers have added it's capability, but SSD manufacturers have ignored it and skipped directly to the PCIe interfaces which are much faster, instead of just incrementally faster (32GB/s compared to about 10 GB/s for SATA Express [theoretical]).

Yup, that was my joke. I guess if you have to tell a person that it's a joke, it's not that good at all In any case, installing/working on a garage door opener is way more my speed, compared to what you two are doing. Keep up the awesome work!!

You got 7 positive votes now

So you've got the new, cutting-edge "Liftmaster" overhead 3D Camera/Projector unit! Awesome!!

Well, I found a pretty decent video that helps a lot in explaining the particulars of different SSD form factors: video However, it didn't say anything about SATA Express. I need to start looking at the prices of those that are available. One worry that I have is that the M.2 drive might not be bootable, or at least might be more problematic getting it to boot. Since the SATA Express is basically an improvement or extension of regular SATA, I'm getting a feeling that it might be better suited to being the boot drive. Obviously everything depends on the MB and it's BIOS so that will be harder to pin down. The good part it that the MB is already on it's way, so I can take a close look at the manual and see what it has to say. EDIT: Update. OK apparently SATA Express is sort of a dead interface; nobody (or almost nobody) sells them. M.2 or PCIe are the two main newer form factors. Of those, M.2 can be SATA, PCIe, or PCIe X4 (up to 32 GB/S). What it seems to come down to is anything other than SATA III gets very expensive. However I did find a 512 MB Samsung 950 Pro for just over $320.00. Expensive yes, but not anywhere near Intel's PCIe models; and it has the ultra speed (up to about 5 X faster than regular SATA III reads). Is it worth it? Can you tell that much? It seems most guidance says that for regular users, you won't notice the difference that much. Mean time between failures is equal.

I started gathering components for a new build; ordered MB and processor. I'll order the memory and SSD after I pay the CC bill at the end of this month. This is what I've decided upon: Processor Intel Core i7-5930K Haswell-E 6-core 3.5 GHz Motherboard MSI X99S SLI Krait Edition Memory Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2 X 16GB) DDR4 2666 MHz Hard Drive Samsung 850 EVO M.2 500 GB SATA III I'll be reusing my case (CoolerMaster HAF), my power supply (1200 watt Thermaltake modular), my video card (MSI GTX 680 Twin Frozr 2GB GDDR5), and my sound card (Creative Sound Blaster Fatal1ty Champion series PCIe). I went with the 5930 processor because it has 40 PCIe lanes as opposed to 28. What that does is allow both PCIe slots to run in X16 mode when using dual SLI. I'm not sure if I'll bother with SLI at first....later I may be able to procure another 680 for fairly cheap, or just upgrade to a single 900 series. The 680 actually runs RoF very well at high settings so there is no huge hurry on that. My real question is concerning the SSD. That item is not really fully decided yet. I want at least 500 GB, but don't really know what the best form factor is. The MB allows using the M.2 form factor, but obviously PCIe could also be used, as well as SATA Express. I'm trying for the highest quality (Samsung) and the largest size, for a reasonable price. I want to use the best form factor out of what is available to me on this MB, without the price getting ridiculous (those $1,000 dollar and up models). I thought the SATA III was still limited to 6 GB/S but it's hard to really get a clear picture when the specs are talking about Read/Write speeds in excess of 500 MB. Obviously this isn't a leading edge drive because the price isn't outrageous, but it does seem to have some good software features which allow it to use free DRAM, which I'll have plenty of. Anyway there's a lot to understand in this area, and if you guys have any thoughts please post them. Thanks!

Voted

Wow, Jackpot! Thanks Mox!

I need to do the same thing (upgrade hardware). I'd like to see other people's thoughts and opinions as to what they think would be a good rig, if money wasn't really a concern. Ideas on the most reliable/best performing motherboards, Intel processor, amount and type of memory, best SSD's, etc. I would keep my current case, and transfer the video card and maybe sound card at first, because that stuff can be easily upgraded later; but I want to see what a good starting point would be for the core of a new system. The last thing I built was quite a while ago; my son got an ASUS motherboard that was pretty high quality and made for gaming, which supported a Core i7 Quad processor with a pretty good speed. I suppose that getting a new 6-core processor would be the way to go, but I haven't really researched anything and don't know the best rigs anymore. The idea would be "what would be your dream gaming rig right now if you could afford it" type of informal poll.

No, I believe what I stated was correct. I was not talking about his book at all, which I do have a copy of ("The Red Fighter Pilot"). "Der Rote Baron" is the German language version of "The Red Baron" movie that we were talking about. Here is an excerpt from the Wiki article: "To improve its chances on the international market, The Red Baron was filmed in the English language, although it is a German production depicting Germans. With an estimated budget of 18 million euros, it is one of the most expensive and at the same time lowest-grossing films in German history. It premiered on 31 March 2008 in Berlin and was released a week later in the German cinemas. Fewer than 100,000 movie-goers saw the film in the first week, causing the film to miss the Top 3. In the second week it dropped to No. 10. In the third week the film was gone from the top ten." ​ARTICLE ​​​ ​

Klaiber, just wondering if you're aware that an upgrade to Win10 from Vista is not free. You can buy a boxed copy licensed version for $119.00 . Here is some guidance on that; it suggests that you might as well do it if and when you upgrade your hardware. Win10 for Vista

Well, I am glad to hear that the article might not be all that accurate. From what Hardy has said above, the article seems a bit misleading to me; the implication that came across to me was that very few in Germany even knew who the "Red Baron" was, or even what he was. It is good to know it's not as bad as all that, or at least that I completely misinterpreted the article. As for Hardy's questions regarding Americans from bygone eras, I would say a LOT of people would know the name of George S. Patton and at least some of his history; I would say fewer might know the name of Eddie Rickenbacker or the details of his fame, but it would still be a very large number of people. That I would attribute to the generations that grew up knowing about these famous men are now all older and fewer, and the effect they had on world history is slowly becoming less significant to current society.

Thanks! Voted them all in....great work. Wish it would do some good, eventually. At least you can still submit new work.

Say what you will about Frank Luke, but Hotlead is my film making idol

I also had dug out "Flyboys" and "The Red Baron" recently and re-watched them. Obviously they both are full of inaccuracies, but the vast majority of them only enthusiasts like us would notice; yet to us some were so blatant as to make you wonder why they neglected what they did. I enjoyed the flying scenes nevertheless, especially since most of them were very game-like in their portrayals of how the airplanes flew "Der Rote Baron" was the German language version, which I believe was released quite a while earlier than the English language version. I think the German version did so poorly that there was a grave doubt as to whether it was going to be released at all in English, which was quite agonizing to me at the time. The Irish certainly have nothing against the Germans, especially since such a large percentage of the country is against English rule. In WWI the Germans sent thousands of rifles to Ireland, which they used in an uprising against G.B. The French tried the same thing in Napoleon's time. Obviously the uprisings were failures but they do illustrate the different views that Ireland had of Great Britain's enemies. The enemy of my enemy is my friend!!

Couldn't find them, but found some for Kempf, & Kartoffel. Any way to direct link?

It is interesting; thanks for the link. I would not have thought it could be true, until reminded that Germans, post-WWII through today, are taught first and foremost to avoid glorifying war. Although the loss of history is sad, I respect them for those views.

Well, I got a "little" long-winded. A point by point critique for my Win7 to Win10 upgrade: 1) Big-time sound card driver problems. Eventually solved. 2) Problems upgrading from TrackIR v. 5.1 to v 5.2.2 (final). Install shield program locked up before completion. Reboot after x64 drivers installed but before new program installation allowed installation to complete properly. Lucky guess. 3) Much work getting RoF back to it's previous functionality. Joystick 0 became Joystick 1 and vice-versa; had to redo every controls map in every area with any reference to either joystick device; every axis, button and control. X4 maps! 3) Initially, longer boot times than Win7 with same programs. Booting faster now, unknown reasons. 4) Change for the sake of change. Hybrid of Win8.1 and Win7. Some illogical organization of tools IMO. Control of some areas easier (Startup items), some areas harder. Will get used to it. In the end, it works again; probability that future updates will improve the interface. S!