Yeah, I'd say that's why. Also, toss me a link if you don't mind.
I was worried about the effect being jarring if you used the GOUT for the Imperial fleet... At the same time, do you think that any of the Negative 1 work would help out with scenes like that?
Actually, once one goes SSD, you should pretty much forget about using any swap space (both because it is bad for the SSD and because it'd be slow if you set it to be on an extra HDD as well as bog that drive down for no reason). Extra RAM is really the way to go anymore.
The best case scenario, yes, empty, though I believe there is a non-destructive version, but I don't know much about if it would take longer for it to function (does it move your existing data around as it tests the places that are occupied?), and there are other things about that method I'm not sure about...
If you're willing to start over, I highly recommend the test. On that note, you might as well start over since a boot drive (be it SSD or a small HDD) would likely be the preferable way to build this encoding system. Nice big data drives that don't have any system files also being accessed, and less danger of accidentally wiping them or screwing up partitioning if you have to reinstall the OS... Also no GPT booting weirdness for you to have to deal with (GPT being the obvious best way to handle the large, non-boot data drives, though).
My recommendation is to play around with the system a bit as is, but get a boot drive and test every hard drive and run a mem test (I can walk you through that, too, it is also on the same LiveCD you'd be using) before any return/replacement policies run out from the place you bought your stuff from.
3TB HDDs, will probably take a day and a half each to test, btw.
That's the sort of thing the HDD test I recommended would let you know about.
Harmy said:
We'll start building tonight :-)
I decided to forgo a DVD ROM in favor of a better case and power supply :-) I have an external BD-RW, so I have no need for an internal DVD-RW.
BTW, what were the tests someone suggested I ran on the HDDs? And is there a tutorial on how to do it?
That person was me, I've been in Japan till just recently so I was unaware you'd made it this far. I haven't caught back up on the thread yet to see where you are with the computer now, but if you're still wanting to do some thorough testing on your drives, let me know.
Be it Linux or Windows 7 as an alternative, no man is truly stuck with Windows 8 unless they choose to be...
Mind you, even Bill Gates failed to install Windows8 and is sticking with Windows7.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2014/02/gates-spends-entire-first-day-back-in-office-trying-to-install-windows-81.html
What is your stance on Windows7 vs Windows8 when it comes to the computer you're building for use with this project?
Probably my last Japanese question for a while, but since you seem to be knowledgeable about these things, might you be able to say how long after Star Wars came out in American theaters did it take to get into foreign markets such as Japan? While Star Wars undoubtedly swept the globe in its day, I don't know how long it really took to reach most non-US markets, since I don't think they expected it to be a hit, so I have doubts that they had many dubs or subtitle translations prepared by the time of the US release. I could be wrong, but I imagine there was quite a scramble to disseminate it globally after premiered so strongly.
Side note: dear God I leave for Japan a week from today! Somebody pinch me (not you Frink).
Oh, that makes more sense, thanks CatBus. I was thinking it was surprisingly, almost impossibly good for something churned out quickly for a theatrical release ~'78. I wonder if back in VHS days they offered an English with subtitles version as well as this dubbed version. The dub I could see being good for children, but it would have sucked for anyone older to be the only way to watch it until the SE DVD's came out (just remembered there was also LaserDisc... I wonder how audio and subtitles were handled on that).
As I mentioned quickly earlier, I've actually been making my way through the original Japanese dub, and while I'm generally [make that "genuinely"] never a fan of dubbing (of any kind), I'm truly impressed with the effort of this early dub. In no way can it compete with the original audio, of course, but it is amazing how complete the dub is for the time, every non-articulated bit is spot on, from music through wookie, and boy does the translation seem to be accurate (from what my limited skills can discern), plus the voices aren't all that off, and the performances are spirited. This has gotten me to think of what an amazing language tool the DeEd can represent. For anyone who knows what SHOULD be said [by heart], if the translation is at all accurate [like the Japanese is], then watching the DeEd in that chosen language should be a good test of one's progress in interpreting the spoken dialect.
What do you all think? Great test of learned language skills or what?
(Mala approves, shouldn't you?)
Green I mostly use on my fileserver for stuff I infrequently access, not sure how great they'd be for more demanding work. They run mostly about 5400rpm, which is fine but not amazing, and will never scale up to 7200rpm speeds even with "intelipower". They're about the most mainstream consumer drive WD offers, and you'd absolutely have to run an endurance test on it before trusting data to it. They stay darned cool, though, which should not be easily dismissed.
Red seems to be built for reliable 24/7 operation, and should be a decent option, it also uses "intelipower", so it won't be as consistently fast as Black, but probably a step up in speed from Green, and probably a little better built.
Black is 7200rpm all the time and prioritizes reads or writes on the fly to whatever it detects you're trying to do, they are performance oriented and cost more (I was confused earlier about whether black or red cost more, now I know), they're fast but do run darned hot if your case cooling isn't really well thought out.
One thing to consider about all of these drives is whether there's a difference in warranty between them.
In the end, Green is nice for storage/backups, and can be used just fine for your encodes, but isn't the best designed drive for it (maybe pick one up on the cheap to back everything up to; redundancy is good).
Red might be the best bet, be it for storage or encoding, as it is cheaper than Black, but still performance oriented and possibly better constructed than consumer drives. Red may be better warrantied than Green, too, though, classically, Black has been better warrantied than Red.
Oh, looking forward, if the programs you use come to really take advantage of nvidia's CUDA processing, you might want to look into getting a computer case that will allow for particularly long cards, as some of the higher-end ones can be pretty massive.
Well, far be it for me to say not to get a nice DVD-RW drive, I know I don't tend to build a serious encoding machine without at least a dedicated DVD-RW drive in addition to whatever else, like a nice BD drive. If you're liking what you've got, then I'm sure it will be fine (if you ever need to replace it, it can easily be one of those upgrades this new build will allow for), especially since BD burning isn't exactly the most frequently done thing.
I didn't notice a Blu-ray burner in your list of components, are you planning on getting one or just use an external? You'll probably be happier with the performance of an internal, with the cost of the internal DVD-RW drive put toward a BD drive, just my two cents. Also, I've been happy with the performance and compatibility I've had so far with LG BD drives.
While I think an nvidia card being present for CUDA is a good thing, I can see it not being all that useful to you for this project and being left out. The Intel graphics starting from 4000 are actually quite decent and should do you for most all cases you're looking at using it for.
An SSD used just for booting and containing your programs, with spinning HDDs for all storage and processing needs, would be a pretty good thing overall, and I do like a small, efficient boot drive... but go with what you want on that.
And yes, if WD Black is cheaper than Red, and you plan to do the badblocks test I HIGHLY recommend, then I'd say you might as well go Black.
Anyone telling you to get less RAM is just wrong, but I think you know that already.
Mostly just want to say that, with my quickly approaching Japan trip, I've begun watching v2.5 tonight with Japanese audio, and that is quite something for a comprehension test... I KNOW what should be said, and I have to match what I'm hearing with it... It is interesting, and thank you for making it possible.
While probably somewhat true, you can't just take those results at face value.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/01/29/233259/hard-drive-reliability-study-flawed
Whenever you do find yourself with new hard drives, I highly encourage you to do a stress test on them, preferably in the form of a badblocks test, before putting any data on them. The test does four passes and writes and reads back a different pattern per test to the ENTIRE drive (last pass being all zeros, so it is essentially zero wiped when done). Benefits to this are that you find out (while still easily returnable) if there are any bad sectors on the drive, and you'll know you're more likely to be on the good side of the hard drive failure bell curve, since they will all die at some point, it is just a matter of when. Very often people will just start using a hard drive and when they eventually get to and try to write to an area that's been bad the entire time, all hell breaks loose. If it doesn't kick back any errors and if you look at the S.M.A.R.T. data and make sure the drive didn't hide any errors from the test (by default hard drives reallocate the first few bad spots), you should have a good drive on your hands.
Easiest way to do the test is to burn and boot up a Linux LiveCD (like Ubuntu or, my preference, Lubuntu) (a LiveCD runs completely in RAM, so it does not affect your computer at all unless you command it to), open up a terminal window and type: sudo badblocks -vw /dev/sda
This is assuming that /dev/sda is the path to the device you want to run this test on and completely wipe, I can help you figure out the right device when you come to that.
S.M.A.R.T. data can easily be looked at by using "disc utility" in the system menu (which can also be one place to let you know the path of the device you're testing).
I can't encourage you enough to test your hard drives when you get them. This goes for everyone.
Not to mention, if you build it yourself you have much more choice as to what OS(s) get put on it. That HP, for example, comes with Windows 8, which I wouldn't wish on anyone wanting to do any serious work. Oh, and as far as these OEM computers go, most any brand will give you sub par parts, unless you fork over more money for their server class stuff (which can be quite nice, actually). Overall, if you want to make a cheapo/budget computer, like for ones parents, it is hard to undercut an OEM, but if you want to build a powerful workstation or gaming rig, you can find pretty good savings in building it yourself, and with better parts.
Quick correction to something I said a few posts back, I wrote that stuff about getting a good monitor before your post came up mentioning that you already got an external monitor. If you were in the market for one, then that stuff about looking for accurate color, etc. would have been relevant to the project.
Donated! Now to eat cheap for a week or so...
I don't frequently do PayPal transactions, so can anyone more experienced answer a question I have? I know that PayPal likes to take a cut from most all transactions they process, but a few years back I paid someone using some option worded along the lines of "personal transaction" or "debt payment"... something like that, and it let me transfer an exact amount to the other person without PayPal taking anything. Is that option still available? It'd be nice for Harmy to get all of the money we donate to him.
He'd definitely want a monitor with accurate colors (and presumably higher than 1920x1080 resolution)... so I hope that's been factored into the price, as that'll cost a decent amount extra than a run of the mill monitor.
Still, a really good desktop could be pieced together affordably from some less than brand new parts. Are you or your friend looking to build this from scratch?
When are you hoping to get your donations by? I'm going to Japan in a few weeks and would better know my finances when I get back in mid/late-March, but I can pitch in before I go if need be.
Stuff came up for me, so I doubt I'll meet that deadline. I'll try to be more prompt the next time.
EDIT: Unless... Would you like to put out a version of the script with the compiled changes included? If so, we could sign off on a nearer to complete version, making sure all the changes sound good together and no new issues slipped in, etc.