Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with core

The mother of all boards

Crotalus — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 15:50:33 -0800

Help me pick out a motherboard for a Core i7 Processor! I'm a computer novice, and I need advice on buying a motherboard. I'm looking to upgrade my main rig to a Core i7 920. I am not interested in playing games, nor will I be overclocking. I don't need fancy RAID stuff. The primary task for this machine is running a 64-bit data analysis package that I use for work. My wife and son play with the camcorder a lot, and do lots of video editing and video conversion, so they'll appreciate the faster machine as well. I'm interested in something stable and standard that will play well with Windows 7 out of the box. No need for SLI or Crossfire stuff. I'd like to have 12GB RAM, so six triple channel RAM sockets would be nice. I'd also like a board that supports DDR3 1600 without overclocking. Finally, I buy from Newegg whenever possible, because they've earned my business. What are you using? What would you buy?

How can I help my coworkers create XML documents to store metadata?

gryftir — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:50:44 -0800

Generating XML documents help? I work with the county health department, and have been asked to come up with a way to create, store and manipulate metadata for various datasets we store internally on a network drive. Basically I think the simplest thing to do is to create an xml file stored in the same directory with any dataset. Preferably I can do this with infopath 2003 or free software, and using the Dublin Core standard for metadata. I've seen the 5 year old answers on Dublin Core Metadata from this Ask, but I need to let my coworkers create the data first, and that mostly covers storage/database solutions. Looking through various DC list archives hasn't been helpful. I realize that having an xml file for each dataset may make it hard to actually search and manipulate the data, but at least we'd be storing it somewhere in a standard form.

We have Office 2003 on all the relevant machines, to the best of my knowledge, and I think Infopath 2003 should be able to create forms which create xml compliant with dublin core (either simple or qualified, preferably the later). It would be rather difficult to have our IT department roll out any sort of complex IT solution or have a server setup with the authority I have. I could however use some sort of database file stored on the network drive.

I'd really prefer to have forms or generate the XML programatically, rather then having them hand edit a template or something. The idea is to make storing the data as smooth as possible.

Does anybody have any suggestions for me or strong useful resources that you can point me too? I'm not exactly sure how to take the XML schemas for Dublin Core and create a compliant form from it.

I'm not married to Dublin Core if there is another standard or to infopath 2003 if there is a better program that won't cost anything.

Real-world microprocessor performance based on specs.

brenton — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:14:20 -0800

Help me understand Intel Core 2 Duo processors. Wikipedia has a confusing chart that seems to indicate matching processor to the RAM is more important than the actual specs of the RAM or processor. I'm buying a laptop on the Dell Outlet. But trying to do research for which one to pick has led me to the wikipedia page on Core 2 Duo processors. Several things confuse me.

1. What is the meaning of this "GB/s" unit of measure under the "Matched memory and maximum bandwidth" column? Is this a reliable indicator of generic processing power?

2. For DDR2 RAM, is the chart saying that the processors with only 533 FSB are always faster than the 800mhz processors? It seems so since they have more "GB/s". But that makes no sense! The processors with faster FSB should always be better... right?

3. Is a "Core 2 Duo" most likely better than a "Core Duo" or even a "Pentium Dual Core"? It would be helpful if I could narrow it down to just one processor type.

What should I be looking at when choosing a processor? I had it in my head that Core 2 Duo was the best dual core processor out today. If I choose the Core 2 Duo with the fastest FSB I can find, (assuming a reasonable clock speeed,) is that the way to go?

Looking for CPU die core prints

SouthCNorthNY — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:17:24 -0800

I would love a huge poster of something like this. But I can't find anything like it on sites that sell posters. Does anyone know where I could find very high resolution images of die cores?

Building a uber powerful gaming pc, need your help

spinko — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:03:44 -0800

Building a uber powerful gaming pc, what parts to buy as I don't want to be a sucker. Need your help. Intel Core i7 I currently own a Mac (macbook pro 4gb) for business, even through it is fast in bootcamp. I want better for MMO's and FPS games. This is strictly a gaming machine, and needs to be future proof. I haven't built a computer in 2 years, so I have gone abit rusty.

My budget is £2000 (~$3500) just for the box. I already have a 30inch Cinema display, so I want to play games at the natural resolution (2560 x 1600) with a good 60+ fps.

Here is my list of what I want.

CPU:
Core i7 940 (2.93ghz quad + hyperthreading) ~£470
I want to overclock this cpu as much as I can. I have seen this processor get to 3.4ghz with no problems. I will need a good Motherboard or fan to do this.

The extreme version, is it worth it?

Should I wait for a faster processor coming out in a few months?

HDD:
Raptor 300gb (10k rpm)
or
SAS Hdd's (15k rpm) I dont know too much about this, is it worth it?

Is their any benefit of having a solid state hard drive for bootup OS?

Im not too bothered about size, I don't need 1tb as I only need it for games (300gb max)

PSU:
750, 1000 or 1500 watt? do I need more power for overclocking? or is it just money down the drain.

Video card/s:
The new cards confuse me

SLI cards x2: Does this actually improve gaming performance, or shall I keep with a single 1gb graphics card? Nvidia or ATI?

Others:
Need a good Motherboard, memory (to match the mb) and video card.

Motherboard needs to be good for overclocking.

Also, I may go with Vista 64bit dual boot with XP 32bit. I have heard about something better than software dual boot. Cannot remember what it was.

Memory is limited to 3gb on XP 32bit, however can handle more that 3gb on Vista 64bit. Is it worth going for 64bit Vista for gaming or stick to 32bit non dx10 XP? (I went over to Mac due to Vista, last year for business).

Memory will have to match the top FSB if possible. Unless you cannot see any difference.

Anything extra that will improve performance?

Instead of building my own, could you recommend a pre-built spec. I live in Spain but go to the UK frequently. I know Falcon NW will ship to Spain for $400, but the benefit is the warranty, negatives are the power supply. However building it myself each equipment piece has warranty.

Thanks if you can help.

Which ferrite cores are the best ones to stop GSM buzz in my speakers?

twiggy — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:06:02 -0800

Electricity and Magnetism geeks - help me! I would like to stop the GSM interference from my iPhone to my speakers with ferrite chokes. I imagine a bit of information would help me get the best ones... So, it has become somewhat common knowledge at this point that gsm noise is irritating lots and lots of people. While the hack of cutting these ferrite beads out of USB cables is cute, and all, I figured I'd order just the parts I need from digikey, where I've bought some electronics stuff in the past.

The issue is -- these little buggers come in a variety of sizes, with a variety of impedance levels and frequencies (frequencies? what?). I would link to a DigiKey search results page, but they seem to use POST in their forms, so I can't get you a URL with search results....

First of all, I'm pretty sure GSM is 850mhz with AT&T in the united states. All of the ferrite core snaps I've found on DigiKey have a "Frequency" of either 100mhz or 300mhz ... how can a little ferrite bead have a "frequency"?

Their impedance levels vary wildly -- from 35 ohms to as high as 572 ohms.

So, my question: If we know what frequency AT&T's GSM is that's causing my interference issues with my stereo speakers -- how do I choose the ferrite cores that will be most effective in stopping it? Does it even matter which ones I get?

They're all reasonably priced, ranging between about $0.95 and $2.50... and since I'm only buying maybe 6 or 8 of the things, I'm more than happy to shell out the extra bucks if it means less noise getting through.

Thanks!

Who would have thought I'd miss windows?

hector horace — Thu, 22 May 2008 12:06:34 -0800

Why can't I connect to the internet when using the XP partition of my Macbook? Ok, so I managed to successfully run windows XP on my Macbook, (running leopard) using BootCamp. Unfortunetly I can't seem to access the internet on the windows side of the partition, (which is vital since I have to varify my copy of XP). Any ideas what I might have done wrong or might I'll have to do to correct this?

The internet connecton is running through a router, but connectivity does not occur even when I plug the modem in directly. To be clear I have no problem connecting when using OS X.

thanks

help me strengthen my core

Koko — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 11:51:35 -0800

I need some very gentle core exercises. I've been unable to properly exercise for about a year and a half, due to late stage endometriosis and surgeries. I have been on Lupron Depot for the past 6 months following my most recent surgery; my last shot was a month ago and the pain is back almost as bad as before. I'm thinking it either didn't work, or this is a side effect, or that there's something else wrong. In any case, I want to try to build up my core muscles. In my more physically fit days, I was able to weather the pain a lot better, and I feel its because my core muscles were stronger. I feel that now, since they're so weak, bad posture and lifting and moving wrong makes things worse. I can't do crunches because my lower back and neck muscles are tensed up. I can't get a massage or physio because the last time I did, it made things a million times worse because of adhesions (endo causes things to stick together inside). I'll be seeing my doctor in 2 weeks, and there will probably be an ultrasound in a month or two, but in the meantime I'm going to have to assume that my insides are stuck together again, and be as gentle with them as possible.

Are there other, very gentle core exercises I can do (besides crunches) to build a little strength, so I'm not having to pop so many pills? Excercises I can do without equipment on my living room floor would be ideal, but I could probably get a physio ball if that was the best thing. Anything that doesn't actually involve putting pressure on the lower abdomen or lower back would be best.

Also, if anyone's had experience with Lupron where it didn't work, or caused pain in the pelvic region, I'd like to hear from you as well.

Thanks in advance!

Quad-core - what is it good for?

tobtoh — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 16:43:19 -0800

I'm thinking of buying a quad-core PC and want to check that my understanding of what a quad-core PC could do for me is correct. In simple terms, my understanding of a quad-core PC is that it's effectively 4 CPUs on the one chip. Now I understand that quad-core does not equal to 4x performance because many/most applications are not (currently) designed to utilise multiple cores.

However, my main reason for thinking of getting a quad core is so I can do the following scenario: One core for 'normal' stuff like surfing the Net, using Office, playing World of Warcraft :). Another core to permanently run VMWare or other virtualisation software running Linux. The remaining two cores to be ripping a DVD to divx or perhaps using Adobe Premiere to encode a video etc.

In the above scenario is it (a) possible to allocate applications to specific cores? (b) would I be able to do what I described with no performance impact (eg the CPU intensive DVD rip won't slow down my VMware session or WoW since it's on a separate core?)

Thanks.

Moving a windows installation from a single processor to a new mobo and c2d. How?

the ghost of Ken Lay — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 10:46:41 -0800

Moving a windows xp installation from a single processor to a new mobo and c2d. How? I've moved windows installtions before between similiar motherboards and only had to remove the motherboard driver, video driver, and sound driver. Windows would boot up, detect the new equipment, and run. I would then have to re-install some drivers.

Now I'm moving from an AMD based system (via board, athlon) to a intel core duo running on an asrock with the via PT880 Ultra chipset.

Is it possible to move my installtion to this platform? I'm guessing my current method won't work and I will have to do an in-place repair install. Has anyone tried moving an XP install like this? Any suggestions? Thanks.

Looking for foam core board

photoslob — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 21:15:17 -0800

I'm looking for a source of cheap foam core board. Any suggestions? I'm looking for foam core board that is black on one side and white on the other. I need it in 4 ft x 8 ft sheets. The two large art supplies stores in my area can't get it. I've looked online and I'm not able to find it.

In case you're wondering I need it to make v-flats for a photo studio.

Will switching to a mac make developing awesome?

Null Pointer and the Exceptions — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 19:33:39 -0800

Would an iMac 20-inch 2GHz Intel Core Duo meet my needs? I've found a good price for one. I do development, mostly webapps in Java and Ruby/Rails. I'm looking for a desktop replacement, which is currently a Thinkpad X31 running Ubuntu. The specific machine I'm looking at only has 512 ram (I would probably upgrade to two gigs) and an ATI X1600 with 128 megs of ram. Will that keep me satisfied for the next two or three years? How well does Eclipse run in OSX? What about IntelliJ IDEA? Are there other IDEs that are more Mac oriented that I should know about?

I've got a separate box that runs my raid so the single 250gb drive on the iMac Duo isn't a big issue. I am worried that the 20inch screen might be (currently using a 19inch CRT).

Abs Workout

Miko — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 07:46:54 -0800

Simple, structured abs workout - got one? I've been loving weight training this year, but have been neglecting core strength and really need to attend to it. There are some previous AskMe threads about strengthening abs, but they were more about spot reduction and weren't quite what I'm looking for.

So what I'd like to find: either a web site with a pretty clear, structured, 15-20 minute abs routine, or your recommendations for a video/DVD that will show me a series of effective exercises.

Thanks.

Littering?

fixedgear — Fri, 08 Apr 2005 12:17:27 -0800

If I'm out riding my bike and I eat an apple or banana and dispose of the core or peel by tossing it in the woods or on the edge of a farm field, am I littering? This was the subject of much heated debate on a recent ride. Someone tossed a peel, and another rider actually stoped their bike, went back, and picked up the peel from the side of the road. He then proceeded to tell the person who tossed the peel that he was littering, etc. He stated that the peel wouldn't break down all that fast. Several other riders told him that this was ridiculous.

Does anyone have any experience with solid or foam-core bicycle tires?

milovoo — Mon, 03 May 2004 17:27:33 -0800

Does anyone have any experience with solid or foam-core bicycle tires? I've been looking at these and these. I have always hated flats, patches and pumps. Is this a safe and worthwhile option? I have a light touring bike (cannondale R600) and a heavier hybrid (trek 950), I would probably try them on the trek first. My primary need is for city riding.