Solving a HOT HOT Laptop Problem.

Having a laptop next to you can get pretty toasty over prolonged usage. That's normally a common issue. And for mine, it's a big big problem. Every time a laptop gets too hot, it'll automatically force my system shutdown, and have to let it cool down for a bit before restarting the system again.

Now as you know I extensively use my laptop for Facebook and YouTube if my bro's using my rig outside my room. Games are done there. However not to disturb my parents in the wee hours of the morning, I game with it. Problem is that system heats up alot during gaming. Even the free laptop cooler that came with it just barely able to hold it.

So currently my setup is like that and with another fan next to me for cooling when I use my laptop on the bed. 

The big limitation of the cooler is that the USB Connection is powered up to only 9 volts, and isn't  really optimized like that for cooling, not at that stage. So Dad stepped into the challenge and we're actually going to DIY our own Laptop Cooling table that will draw Full power off the wall.

Fortunately, my old 2005 now-dead rig is still lying around in front of my new rig, where the old one used to be. So we're gonna salvage the 450W power supply which from the outside still looks new. We'll rip out 2 case fans at the back of the chassis. We are gonna add more fans to that and we're gonna make a flat meshed platform that's going to be the mount for my laptop. We are targeting to whack 6 fans (we're gonna add more) Underneath the surface will be the fans and we'll use the power supply to draw power from the 12 volt rails.

As soon as we're done we're gonna test this bad boy and compare the difference.

DIABLO III: 15th-May-2012

Heya Tech Junkies out there, as many gamers may be aware, that Diablo III will be released on 15th May 2012. So, I'm heading down to Qisahn early in the morning to get in line for the queue so hope to see many of you guys there. In particular, SC2SEA and / or past and present SAF Band members who bought the game.

Now concerning how this game will be benchmarked by me, I aim to use the following rigs that my family have around the house:

My Laptop Rig:
(Low End Testing)
Core i7-740QM 1.73 GHz, Turbo 2.93GHz
8GB DDR3 1333 MHz RAM
1GB GDDR3 ATI Mobility Radeon 5470
DVD / RW Drive
Windows 7 Home Premium

There'll be 2 tests on this Setup. The first will be testing with the GPU at default 750MHz in Core / Memory Clocks and will be overclocked to 800 / 850 to see what sort of improvement I can get.


Dad's Laptop / Older Bro's Laptop Rigs (Same Spec)
(Mid End Testing)
Core i7 2620QM Sandy Bridge
8GB DDR3 RAM
2GB GDDR3 nVidia GeForce GT 540M
DVD / RW Drive
Windows 7 Home Premium

My Own Rig
(High End Testing)
Core i5 2500K OC to 4.5GHz Sandy Bridge
Asus P8P67 PRO Mobo
16 GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM (4x4GB DDR3 Corsair Vengeance)
2GB GDDR5 Sapphire Radeon 6970
DVD RW Drive
Windows 7 Home Premium

Overhauled Rig (TBC)
(Enthusiast Testing)
Specs Same save:
2 x 2GB GDDR5 Radeon 6970

All benchmarks will be done with FRAPS. This will probably give a good gauge how CPU or GPU heavy does the game require. But I still need a Radeon 6970 from somewhere, but it's out of production and needs to be gotten second hand. I know there are some reviews but nobody has benchmarked laptop Diablo 3 Gameplay yet.

Dang!

Ah dang, can't post on Facebook in Chiang Mai. Use blog lor....

It's PC Upgrading Time!

Okay, Prior to my ORD, I plan to gear my Super Gaming Rig that cost about 1200 when I bought to something that's what I really can call worthy of a Gaming Machine. My plan is to have it fully upgraded and ready by the time I ORD while trying to conserve as much money as possible.

As it stands now, here is the specs of my Current Rig.

Core I5 2500K, Overclocked to 4.5 GHz
ASUS P8P67 PRO Motherboard
8GB Corsair Vengeance PC12800 1600MHz DDR3 RAM
AMD Radeon 6970 Sapphire Dual Fan/BIOS (After Upgrade) from GTX 550 TI
Enermax ENP AWT 600W PSU 80+ BRONZE Power Supply Unit
ThermalTake SpaceCraft VF-I Mid Tower Chassis.



Here are the following parts which I am changing or adding Plus the extra cost incurred.


Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) Kit PC 12800 1600MHz DDR3 RAM

The motherboard I'm using can go beyond 16. Sure, the newer Z77 Motherboards can take in even more. But sad to say, the limitation of the OS will cap my max RAM at 16 and I'll have to upgrade to Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate to further increase my RAM Cap. I got the RAM modules on Sunday for 70 dollars.

CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Cooler (Latest Gen) OR Corsair Hydro Series - PRIMARY PRIORITY

This upgrade is to address the heat issues in my CPU. Because, currently I'm using the stock Intel Cooler fan that came with the Core i5 2500K. Ain't pretty but still it wasn't the end of the world yet. However come testing on the Torture tests on Prime 95, The CPU went so hot that can literally boil egg le. I'm debating whether I should go with the Corsair H60 or H70 if I should go for water cooling. Because the H60 comes with a fan abit more expensive that the H70 (which I can install together to the cooler with the Current 120mm Exhaust fan), but the H70, cheaper but needs you to pick your 2 fans :/

Well at the end of the day, I managed to get the CoolerMaster Hyper 212 Plus Cooler from VR-Zone. The Dealer also threw in another fan for Push Pull. I have also bought a 140mm ThermalTake Fan from him. Total cost: 50 SGD.

Power Supply Unit with at least 850W: Corsair HX-1000 80+ Certified Modular Power Supply.

It is highly probable that I'm going to go CrossFire for this system and the Enermax 600Watts can't handle it. So yea.... and even when I am going single card, I still need headroom if I go for alot of other parts. So what I did settle eventually on a Corsair HX-1000 1 Kilowatt (1000W) Power Supply which is 80+ Certified. I got it from a fellow VR-Zone user who lives just a few minutes walk away from Nee Soon Camp.

This power supply is near full modular save just the primary 24-pin cable and a couple others which are needed Anyway. It still has 3 years of Warranty. What would have cost nearly 400 bucks on the market? Only costed me 110 SGD. Overkill? Probably. But cost wise? Hell worth it.

AMD 6970 ANY BRAND OR MODEL ** Secondary Priority

I Upgraded my Graphics Card from my MSI Cyclone II NVidia GTX 550 TI to Sapphire's Version of the AMD Radeon 6970 with Dual Fan and BIOS earlier in March for that already freaking considerable boost to the card. Offers me more performance than what SLIed GTX 550 TIs offers. However if you have a High End Graphics Card, might as well go for 2.

It is going to be very hard to find this card in most hardware shops even in Sim Lim Square because this card is no longer in production in favor of the 7000 Series Graphics Card. If I were to have any hope of finding one for CrossFire, It'll have to be bought Second Hand from HardwareZone or VR-Zone and prices for most graphics cards of the 6000 series would have hit rock bottom prices anyway. For now, I already spent 420 on the Sapphire Dual Fan Card which was a good price compared to the actual retail pricing.

If you guys have any Radeon 6970s to sell for around 300 SGD (and even able to ship to Singapore) please PM me at Either pschopin18@hotmail.com or udeepex@gmail.com

Heya, It's about time I repost again!

Tonnes of Updates to be had;

First of all, is that I now have a PC replacement for the Dead Pentium 4 and to supplement my Laptop. This will be my platform to make games and render HD Video. It's been some early trying out and migration of alot of data from laptop to desktop. That also includes abit of tweaking here and there.

Encountered a very strange odd "Addition?" to our Genesis 2 family and also a very shocking incident involving him. Now if you are somewhat under the rock is that for the last 4-5 weeks before Christmas, we celebrate Advent BEFORE we celebrate Christmas. Ezekiel, that guy, entered the Church wearing da Santa Hat. Mel went and told him off, and he flung his hat high and dropping onto the Holy grounds of the Church. And he did it right in front of eyes where the hat dropped next to the Electone.

Not only he left it there for Mel to pick it up, he kicked the pew before sitting down. And when he asks for his hat he's like near shouting: Can I have my Hat back please? Also, he whack the pew again the next day for Combined Choir with his umbrella this time. Already tahan-ed his antics for 2 months and also for the sake of our young ones already feeling threatened by his presence, he got the boot. St. Davids Choir already aware of him, already denied him entry before coming into G2. It was Bryan's intervention and his observations to Darren and the rest of the leaders including me that led to leave G2.

GG....Holy shit.

Ultimate Reviews: Path Of Exile (Closed Beta Testing)

Release date: Open Beta, January 2012

Genre: Hack & Slash RPG

Developer: Grinding Gear Games, Indie

Current Version: October 2011, 0.9.3

Status: Closed Beta

System Requirements: TBA

Heya, giving another Ultimate Review today on an Indie Game that I feel that is well worth taking a look and to keep up with.

So this game, Path Of Exile is a Hack and Slash RPG game very much like the style of Diablo 2. It's currently in a Closed Beta Testing Stage right now and is scheduled to go Open Beta early next year. Now this game took quite a long while to develop and design, but it looks very promising judging by the looks and the amount of content already available in the Closed Beta. It incorporates a unique levelling system, an updated graphics engine and some other tweaks which will make the gameplay fun and enjoyable.

The mechanics work similarly to the Diablo Series. But it's the skill tree which is scary. Also All items are socketed and only gems corresponding to the color socket in the gear can be inserted. These gems grant additional abilities and spells, rather than learning.

Compare with similar style games, Torchlight, another similar style has graphics which are somewhat more cartoony, and brighter. Path Of Exile's Graphics Engine makes the world a lot darker and dangerous while Diablo 2 and 3 has a mix of both.

Although it's still a work in progress, Grinding Gear Games has always ensured to keep working on the game and improving it as time goes on, with an upcoming patch to the game later this month, to do significant refinements and fixes. It's not perfect, but who cares. This game boasts in quality which will put itself as a direct rival to the upcoming Blizzard's major title, Diablo 3.

This game is expected to go Open Beta before Diablo 3's release after Blizzard revealed that there has been yet a further delay.

I can safely say that even with all the stuff already there, it's worth so much hype as an indie Major title. And also, did I mention yet that Path Of Exile will be FREE?!!! Yes, I am dead serious, this game will be free to play upon Open Beta Period.

Summary:

"Great Indie, Direct D3 Rival"

9.6 / 10

Undoubtedly a great game though still needs tweaking. However a lot of stuff has already been planned. Register for the forums and be active and you'll get a chance to get the Key Needed for the BETA till the Open Beta. Feel free to drop by. More details and further updates are always posted there.

*HIGHLY RECOMMENDED GAME!*

Need some serious Help on a few things.

Okay, there are some things I wanna ask of you guys for help:

1. YouTube Channel: MOAR SUBSCRIBERS! (http://youtube.com/UDeep)

I definitely need more subscribers after already hitting 250K views, I now have close to 265K now. I don't want to resort to SUB 4 SUB. Let's be honest people, people whore out subscribers because of SUB 4 SUB where the channel has almost absolutely Nothing. There's like no content, crappy content or with stolen content (Quoted by IdeoProductions, now Jogwheel Productions Jonathan Paula) on those Channels. That's cheating dude. I got my 265K Views the hard way.

By the way, the upcoming series of Gamers' Haven will be shifted to a new channel: UDeepGamersHaven so do subscribe in future. Episode 1 is already in my Main Channel which NEEDS subscribers. Future Gameplay videos will be in GamersHaven, Music Videos in my Main Channel.

2. Computer 2 Options:

Part A: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 Overclocking Help.

Well I have two Options here. The first option is that I want to get more juice coming out from the weak ATI Mobility Radeon 1GB HD5470. I hear of some tips for Overclocking but doesn't seem to work for me. It would be better if I have somebody personally come down to my place in Singapore to analyze my Laptop whether I can overclock or not. I tried MSI Afterburner, RivaTuner but sucks balls really. Even my Catalyst Control Center DOESN'T have ATI Overdrive, WTF is that?? So I would appreciate if somebody for that expertise can give some assistance.

If it doesn't work, how about Part B?

Part B: Computer Build, Gaming rig for Budget.

Well, big big issue with my Current Desktop. It died on me earlier in the year. Dad Reckon it's the Video card problem, so we swap out the old GeForce 7300LE 256MB for the new ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB GDDR5. Thing is that didn't solve the frigging Problem so it was left for dead idling inside the Pentium 4 Chassis. To me it's time for a new Build since 2005. Now what I am planning is use the HD 5750 and some parts we can still salvage from the PC for a new build to give my HD 5750 a new lease of Life. This is what I'm salvaging:

The Monitor (pretty recent one), the HD 5750 (obviously), DVD Writer (still good Condition), Hard Disk, Keyboard and Mouse. (Of course the Razor Black Widow Ultimate will be nice).

So what I need now for cheap are the following parts:

A good Motherboard, CPU with at least a Core i5 or even better i7, RAM preferbly 8GB all the way to 16GB, New Power Supply and a Case. Dunno whether I can find such stripped down models but please share with me places that can do that as well as the cheap but powerful stuff that I can similarly get in Singapore. Total Budget shouldn't be more than a thousand bucks.

3. Path Of Exile BETA Key Request

Now in connection with No. 1, I am requesting for a Path of Exile Closed BETA Key so I can cast some Gameplay videos for my future Gamers' Haven Channel. Anybody who has it, I would really appreciate it. You can find me (UltimateDeep) at pathofexile.com. Cause I really want to do some casting for the next couple of weeks. After watching TotalBiscuit's Channel, I thought WOW this is a freaking good replacement for Diablo 3! What's more, it's INDIE!!!!!! Can you believe that?!

It might look as though I'm whining here, but this is for the sake of my YouTube Channels so I'll have a better chance going for Partnership even, so apart from my Current Pay, at least with Partnership i could get abit more cash flowing.

4. Request from me to SAF Band.

Any concerts coming up? I would gladly play for one than staying under pressure in the office. Nuff' Said.