SIIG USB 3.0 card

[doctorhardware]

Yes Miles I know what you mean about keeping the online purchases at at certain dollar amount. But some times there is now to do that. I am looking at the new asus motherboard. The cross hair VI it has the USB 3.0 chipset. It is kind of pricey at $239. But it has a push button that unlocks the other cores on the AMD CPUs.

[MilesAhead]

It must be a fun time to be into hw these days. Just saw a thing about AMD coming out with a 6 core processor. About $300 and change? I don't know if that expensive or cheap.

[doctorhardware]

Actually I think that is not a bad price at all. I might get that CPU with the new motherboard.

[MilesAhead]

There's a guy on another board with an Intel OctoCore machine. I asked him to post a screen shot of DVD-RB with 8 copies of HC encoder running just to live vicariously. That thing must really chew through the video input!!

[doctorhardware]

That is why I want that AMD CPU with 6 cores. I want to see how the box will scream.

[MilesAhead]

It should be fun.

[dr_ml422]

You're making the right move Miles. One thing I learned w/anything especially with computers since that's what we deal with is that usually once something is bad it's bad. It worked as far as the speed etc... except you did notice from the beginning that the switch or w/e was flimsy more or less.

Right there you prolly knew it might go some time. Anyhow right now USB 3.0 is coming out on a lot of mobos. I know Asus has a couple already. Just a thought and I know we posted about this before, but why not buy some parts piece meal until you have a nice build for yourself. It doesn't have to be done all at once. Start w/a nice mobo w/3.0 USB ports and maybe even a e-sata port thrown in. See what the reviews are first the n pull the trigger. After the mobo and the CPU the rest is gravy. Mattaer of fact AMD just came out w/6 core CPUs.

You'll know what you have and tbh the chances of anything going wrong are prolly the same or even less than a prebuilt. I almost got the itch to start a new build but I'm good right now.

Otn the SIIG might be just as good as they make excellent cards.

I just got a free cam from Logitech after the tech said he'll just send me another one and not to bother sending back the one I have. Since according to him they just recycle them. That's service! Got it today. So now both my builds will have cams. Funny it's like I not only have clones of my HDDs for each build, but each build is a clone of the other software wise. Lol...

After the PS3 soon here I'm getting a decent LT.

[MilesAhead]

Yeah, I wish there was some way to know ahead of time which sales outfits make it easy to correct a problem and which try to break your aggies. Last email I got the rep. said he'd give me a label to send the dock back with them paying the shipping. At least that cuts down on some of the collateral damage from getting a bad unit.

Not much choice though. There's no brick and mortar for most stuff anymore. To get a bargain you have to buy online. I've saved 10 times more than the occasional burn from a defect.

Afa the build goes, I can see the appeal but I enjoyed hitting things with hammers and using pneumatic tools more than a soldering iron. Twisting a Philips doesn't make enough noise.

[doctorhardware]

Most places will not send you a return lable to return a defective item. Most if not all time you have to pay the return item.

[MilesAhead]

Most places will not send you a return lable to return a defective item. Most if not all time you have to pay the return item.

Yeah, I talked 'em into it. Got the label. I already ordered an SIIG dock so I'll just tell 'em to send a replacement for the Sharkoon. Assuming the SIIG works at least as well, I'll keep the Sharkoon in reserve.

I'm scheduled to get the SIIG tomorrow. It will be interesting if I can hear this fan running and how well it cools the drive. afaik there's no power button on this model. I would assume the drive stays spinning the whole time since it has a fan. It will be nice to get back up to full speed.

[doctorhardware]

Well got a email yesterday from Zipzoomfly and they have the 6 core AMD CPU in stock and it is $208.99. Not a bad price for it either. I will be ordering the CPU and the Asus crosshair motherboard next week. I already have 8 gigs of memory, a Thermaltake 850 watt power supply and a nice CPU heatsink. But I am thinking that I should go with one of the thermo-electric CPU heatsink. It is similar to the electronic coolers that you plug into the car. Or maybe get the case that actually has an air conditioner built into the case. It would keep the CPU nice and cold and it will also work on the video cards too. I think I will get a bluray drive for the system too. I read that the CPUs weren't going to out until August. It is going to be a fun time in the next couple of week building the new computer.
They also have the black edition listed but it is not in stock yet, that CPU is $299.99 for that on so I will wait and get that one. This new build is going to scream. I just can't wait.

[MilesAhead]

When you get it together post some numbers. Pretty soon instead of an oil truck going around filling our tanks with heating oil, it will be an LN2 truck topping off our cooling tanks so we can keep on super computin'.

[MilesAhead]

Got the SIIG Dock today. The performance is identical to the Sharkoon. Some interesting differences though. For one thing, it does have a power button. It's set off by a quarter circle of blue LEDs. One of which is the HD activity. They must have a dual drive version that uses the same injection mold because this has another section but with no connector. Guess you can stand a drive up in it instead of putting the drive in a box.

It has a fan that's always on. Afaict it does not spin down due to idle time out. It takes up a bit more space than the Sharkoon due to the "dual drive" design. But it seems to run smooth and quiet.

The USB 3.0 cable that comes with looks to be 3 feet long.

The major difference is in the instuction booklet it warns against removing a drive or plugging one in with the power on. Plus there is no Eject Button. You are supposed to eject the USB drive using the OS or something like USB Safely Remove.. power off, then just pull the drive out. It's not hot swappable according to the booklet at least.

Hmmmmm, it will take some time to see how it pans out but this SIIG dock might be a good approach if you are concerned about long term HD life. The drive seems to get blood warm, but never hot. It does take up some additional space. Remains to be seen if the "no eject button" approach is better or worse. I suppose no moving parts is generally better all other things being equal. But then of course too you have a fan that my wear out. But it seems low rpm type. Just meandering.

[doctorhardware]

Well the price on the AMD black edition 6 core CPU went up to $329.99, and also ordered the Asus crosshair IV motherboard for $234.99.

[MilesAhead]

It will be interesting to see how it performs.

On the SIIG side I'm thinking if I had it to do over I'd probably go with their docks as well as their USB 3.0 card. The power switch seems to be higher quality. The fan keeps the drive cool so I can just leave my fastest drive in all day for intermediate copying. About the only thing I don't like about it is it has 4 really bright blue LEDs. Not so bad when I'm at the computer because it's at an angle but when I watch TV they are right at eye level. Eventually I have to get around to covering them with tape.

The other consideration, with the fan I guess it uses more power. Instead of the usual power adapter with the small connector it has this ballast thing and the connector has 4 contacts. Looks almost like a PS/2 keyboard connection. So far it's running great though.