Comments for Information Trails http://www.csloh.com/research Performance Assessment in Multi-User Virtual Environments Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:18:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 Comment on 3D-Ready DLP by Sebastian http://www.csloh.com/research/3d-ready-dlp/#comment-10 Sebastian Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:18:59 +0000 http://www.csloh.com/research/?p=656#comment-10 The ATI Radeon 5xxx (original card in the Alienware) came pre-configured with 2 HDMI ports – hence, HDMI audio also. Unfortunately the NVidia GTX 285 that I bought did not have HDMI port! So NVidia's workaround is to provide a (very flimsy) S/PDIF passthrough cable (going from the video card to the S/PDIF header pins that is sometimes found on the MoBo, or add-on sound card). You would think that Creative's X-Fi Titanium card would have S/PDIF header, but nah! What are they thinking? :shock: This means that I must now connect the cable to the MoBo and turn on the RealTek on-board audio chip to "hear" HDMI audio. And if I want to use the Soundblaster, then the HDMI audio must be turned to off. (But apparently Nvidia's driver has a glitch: it will reset itself to HDMI if it detect the presence of a HDMI cable! As in this case where I connect the Alienware to a DLP! In my home rig, I am connecting the Nvida card to a LCD monitor via DVI, and the driver works fine. That's why I never see this coming!) Long story short, I broke the S/PDIF cable when I tried to remove it (thinking maybe I don't need it) and found that a <a href="http://www.evga.com/products/moreInfo.asp?pn=W000-00-000070&family=Accessories%20-%20Hardware" rel="nofollow">replacement of the cable</a> will cost me $15! (In Singapore, I can get the same cable for $2!!) Fortunately, I did find a spare S/PDIF cable because I am using a GTX 260 at home (and since I wasn't connecting the comp to my LCD monitor via HDMI, it was still lying around doing nothing.) Well, this nVida thing is really giving me a lot of grief.... Sigh! The ATI Radeon 5xxx (original card in the Alienware) came pre-configured with 2 HDMI ports – hence, HDMI audio also. Unfortunately the NVidia GTX 285 that I bought did not have HDMI port! So NVidia’s workaround is to provide a (very flimsy) S/PDIF passthrough cable (going from the video card to the S/PDIF header pins that is sometimes found on the MoBo, or add-on sound card). You would think that Creative’s X-Fi Titanium card would have S/PDIF header, but nah! What are they thinking? :shock:

This means that I must now connect the cable to the MoBo and turn on the RealTek on-board audio chip to “hear” HDMI audio. And if I want to use the Soundblaster, then the HDMI audio must be turned to off. (But apparently Nvidia’s driver has a glitch: it will reset itself to HDMI if it detect the presence of a HDMI cable! As in this case where I connect the Alienware to a DLP! In my home rig, I am connecting the Nvida card to a LCD monitor via DVI, and the driver works fine. That’s why I never see this coming!)

Long story short, I broke the S/PDIF cable when I tried to remove it (thinking maybe I don’t need it) and found that a replacement of the cable will cost me $15! (In Singapore, I can get the same cable for $2!!) Fortunately, I did find a spare S/PDIF cable because I am using a GTX 260 at home (and since I wasn’t connecting the comp to my LCD monitor via HDMI, it was still lying around doing nothing.)

Well, this nVida thing is really giving me a lot of grief…. Sigh!

]]> Comment on Alienware by Sebastian http://www.csloh.com/research/alienware/#comment-9 Sebastian Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:57:13 +0000 http://www.csloh.com/research/?p=466#comment-9 It turns out that Dell really doesn't want to sell this 'baby' to Higher Institutions! Suffice to say that they went out of their way to make ordering this a real pain... Wow! It turns out that Dell really doesn’t want to sell this ‘baby’ to Higher Institutions! Suffice to say that they went out of their way to make ordering this a real pain… Wow!

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