I opened my Arcsoft MediaConverter 7 so I can do some more transcoding. To my surprise I was greeted with the following error.
I went to the Lucid Logix website for support just like the error said. I couldn’t find any help nor did I find a way to purchase the full version. All I found was a message that says if I ever need support for this product, to contact the motherboard company. So I go to the Gigabyte website and their support is through email. I haven’t heard back yet but I’m guessing it’s because of the weekend.
I hope I can get this resolved. Using Quick Sync is the biggest reason why I went with the Z68 platform. For now, my CPU usage is close to 100% every time I transcode. Unlike before, with Virtu and Quick Sync, my CPU usage was around 40% and my fans don’t even kick up.
Update: (2011-09-19)
I called Gigabyte’s tech support and was able to get help after several calls. Here are the problems and solution in a nutshell.
My motherboard – Z68MA-D2H-B3 – didn’t come with the Virtu software so I downloaded the one from Lucid Logic directly. According to Gigabyte, I have to use the one that came with the motherboard CD because that version is licensed with them. I have been using the version straight from Lucid Logic’s website which is why it is now expired.
I downloaded and installed the Virtu software from Gigabyte but I still get the error. It turns out that my Bios version (F2) is old and I need to install the current version (F8).
After updating the bios and using Gigabyte’s version, I can now use Virtu once again. Gigabyte support team has been helpful and I will continue to use their products.
I recently bought a Roku2 XD device. I already have an Apple TV2 but I was curious at what this device could do. The Roku2 is pretty much the same device as the ATV2 except the XD model supports 1080p video whereas the ATV2 will do up to 720p. It is also cheaper than the ATV2 (XD model). So far I have been enjoying it. It’s a lot lighter than the ATV2 and from I’ve read, consumes less power (2 watts).
If you haven’t seen my unboxing video, check it out below.
I also made a demo video just browsing around the many different channels.
So far, the only thing I wish it did was stream my files from my DLNA server. It does however, have a mini SDHC slot. I could store them on of those cards but that’s more work. Maybe one day, they’ll release a patch or someone will create a hack.
I just picked up the new Roku2 XD. Best Buy had them in already and thought it would be a great replacement for my Apple TV2. I’ve had my ATV2 since it became available and at first I thought it was a great device. After a few weeks of use, I changed my mind. I don’t rent or purchase movies from the Apple Store and in order to stream my own content I’d have to import the video into iTunes and keep my computer on. This made my NAS box with DLNA capability useless. So I pretty much paid $99 to stream Netflix because that’s all it can do in my household.
Roku came out with their second version, the Roku2. Roku was the other device I thought about getting instead of the ATV2. What made me get the ATV2 over the original Roku was its size and the fact that most of my computers and devices at home are Apple (at that time). I wish I had done more research but oh well. Now that I have the Roku2 XD, it has been great and impressive. For me it has been a better device than the ATV2. Here is a short list of what my Roku2 can do that my ATV2 can’t.
Supports 1080p
Steams Amazon’s Video on demand
You can listen to Pandora
You can add channels and they are a lot
The channels are easily added and if you’re familiar with the Wii and its channels, it is set up the same way. You browse and install/add. There is no way to shut off the device. You just have to set the screensaver timer and that’s it. From what I heard the power consumption is very low. According to their website, it uses only 2 watts while streaming video.
Check out my unboxing video and a quick physical comparison to the Apple TV2.
I’m beginning to feel limited while using Apple products. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great platform. But as I start introducing non-Apple devices, I have to go out of my way to get it to work. I started looking into building a PC after 8 years of exclusively using Macs. At first I had my eyes set on an i7 Sandy Bridge but after doing more research and talking with experts, I decided to go with the last generation i7 (LGA1366, Bloomfield). Why?
More motherboards available
Supports faster memory – DDR31600
If I ever want to switch out CPU to the hexacore, I don’t have to switch out motherboards
X58 is a great platform and more stable
It’s been almost a week and I’ve been impressed by some of the tests I’m running. I will go part by part and tell you what I liked and disliked (if applicable).
Corsair Graphite 600T: I decided to spend the extra money getting this tower for several reasons.
I can run the cables in the back side of the tower. There’s plenty of room there.
It is truly tool-less.
Can hold 7 hard drives. It can be reconfigured and move around depending on how you want your airflow to work.
Removable dust filters.
Great quality and durable.
Bottom mounted PSU for liquid cooling solution.
So far, the only thing I don’t like is it doesn’t have a 3.5” slot. I don’t use a floppy drive but most internal memory card readers use this slot. Now I have not only buy the memory card reader but an adapter to make it fit in the 5.25” slot.
Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD3: I was going to get the ASUS Sabertooth but the Gigabyte has dual bios where if one were to fail to load, I can use the other and fix the issue.
3 different raid controllers. 6 Intel (SATAII 3Gbps), 2 Gigabyte (SATAII 3Gbps), and 2 Marvell (SATAIII 6Gbps)
Supports triple channel ram up to 24GB
Software to OC is easy to use
One thing I don’t like is it doesn’t have an internal USB port. The front of my tower has a USB3.0 and uses the standard cable. In order for me to use it, I’d have to run the cable to the back of the tower and plug it in.
Intel i7 960 3.2GHz: Currently the fastest processor before going into the extreme hexacore CPU. I have seen people OC this over 4.0GHz so it has great potential. This is a quad core CPU and with Hyper Threading, it becomes 8 cores. I was considering the AMD Phenom II 1100T Black Edition but the benchmarks I’ve seen online were not impressive. Based on those benchmarks, it runs against the Intel i5 Sandy Bridge – not the i7.
Corsair Vengeance 12GB DDR31600: I was going to get a 6GB set but decided to go with the 12GB so that I can max it out in the future. It has XMP and all I needed to do in the BIOS is to set it to Profile 1. Comes with a heat spreader as well. It has a CAS Latency of 9 but seen it run at 8 when OC.
Seagate ST3500641AS: Seagate makes great drives and since I’ve started to use them, I haven’t had one go bad yet (knock on wood). Drives that have died on me are usually Maxtors and Western Digitals. These drives have a 16MB cache and runs at 7200RPM. I bought 4 of these 500GB hard drives and set them up as a RAID10. They run great and my Windows gives it a score of 6.1.
Corsair CMPSU-850TX: I figured 850W should give me enough for current any future mods. Supports SLI and Crossfire. It’s rated at 80Bronze. The only thing I don’t like is it doesn’t support the new ATX v2.3. Corsair just came out with the second version of the PSU. I could’ve waited but I didn’t want to. I figured the changes were not important for my set up and use.
Corsair CWCH70: I could’ve use the stock heatsink that came with my i7 but would need an aftermarket one if I decide to OC it. Rather than figure this out later, I bought it so it’s ready for OC. The install was not as easy as the videos I’ve seen on Youtube. Once installed, I get around 40-52 C on idle or normal use. When doing transcoding (high CPU usage) I don’t go over 65 C. Spending the extra $80 (after rebate) is worth it. It’s compact unlike the first versions of liquid cooling solutions.
EVGA nVidia GTX470SC: It’s not the high end video card in the series but works great. It has CUDA and works great with Adobe software. I have already used Adobe Premiere Elements 9 and exported an HD video to 1080i, 25fps. At the same time, I played Starcraft 2 on ultra settings. The computer remained stable and responsive. I was very impressed. All 8 cores were at 100% and ran around 52-65 C and the video card ran at around 84 C. Starcraft 2 was running at about 52-58FPS. I was able to ALT+Tab between applications, play HD videos off Youtube and watch an HD video off my hard drive.
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional 64-bit OEM: One of the best, if not the best OS Windows has “created”. I find the 64-bit to be more stable than 32-bit and with 12GB of ram, it’s necessary. I still miss things on OS X but there are things on Windows that don’t exist in my Apple. I love Live Writer. I can blog from my desktop. I wish Apple would create something that works similarly. The built-in Backup/Restore is still unreliable. I’ve had failed backups and failed restores. I decided to keep my iMac and run it side by side. My iMac will contain all of my important documents and use Time Machine to back up. Hopefully one day there will be a back up software/workflow as easy as Time Machine for Windows.
Whoever says using Windows is cheaper than a Mac is wrong. I have spent about the same price building this PC rather than purchasing a new Mac. I have already spent close to $300 on just software, where similar software is unnecessary or already included with a Mac. The hardware cost is about $1500. Unlike my Apple products though, I can switch out parts. To make this possible with Apple hardware, you’d have to purchase a Mac Pro which starts at $2400 and you are still limited to hardware that’s compatible. Regardless, I would have to use both in order to do everything I need to do. I just wish software licenses are easily transferable for both platforms.
Shout out to Jeff of JB Tech Enterprises and his brother Eric for helping me build this machine.
It’s been over 6 years since I exclusively used Windows and have been using Apple. But recently I’ve had the urge to build a PC – mainly for games and video transcoding. So I started doing so research on hardware. As I am doing research, I’m starting to realize how much Apple has limited me from doing certain things and lacked support for some I/O devices.
I find myself running Windows virtually for doing simple tasks that I can’t seem to do with Apple either free or efficiently. For instance, if I need to edit metadata on a video file without having it render again is only possible with iTunes. But if I use iTunes, it has to be added to the library and not all file formats are supported. In Windows, I can accomplish this by using a free app called MP3Tag. I’ve looked and have not found an app for OS X – free anyway.
My second example. USB 3.0 and eSata has been available for years now (well eSata has been around for years) – no support at all by any Apple hardware. Yes, there is FW400 and FW800 but it isn’t as practical or affordable. I have many external devices that have both USB 2.0 and eSata. The eSata is begging to be used but I can’t. Even my HD camcorder uses USB and iMovie can recognize it – no FW support on the camcorder.
My third example. I have a bluray burner and have a lot of movies. Not all have portable media versions that come with it and even if they did, I would download through iTunes and have it be stuck (DRM) to 5 accounts. I’d like to throw this file onto my DLNA server and have it stream throughout the house. I don’t want to leave my iMac on all day just so that iTunes can share things – that’s why I have a Terastation with DLNA. Now I can rip blueray videos. I use MakeMKV to rip it then use Handbrake to create an MP4 file which would take around 9 hours to do. I’m hoping to cut this down by a lot on a Windows machine because Windows supports blueray format.
My fourth example. Time Machine is great. But without the expensive Time Capsule, I can’t do back ups over the network. I have found hacks but they are not 100%. Again, I have a Terastation and want to use it to its full potential.
My fifth example. My iMac that I bought in 2008 has been maxed out of its upgrade. The ram is at 4GB and the hard drive is 1TB 7200RPM (I think this model should recognize up to 1.5TB). I’m unable to upgrade the video card because iMacs are built like laptops. So whenever a new game comes along (Starcraft 2), I’m stuck with hardware from 2008. I’m able to get as high as medium setting and still experience some lag. World of Warcraft, I’m able to get 22-40 FPS in high populated areas. For my uses, I can’t upgrade the hardware anymore and would like to. If I had bought a Mac Pro, I probably could but for the price… no thanks!
So the plan is to build a PC that will let me have a better experience in games as well as transcode/edit videos more efficiently than my current iMac. I will be using an Intel i7-2600K processor and an H-series motherboard. The P-series is a little more expensive and I don’t plan on overclocking anytime soon – even though the 2600K allows me to. Now why spend the extra bucks on K? I just want to have the capability of overclocking once I do decide. And when I do, I just get a new motherboard. By then the Z-series motherboards will be available will have the Quick Sync capability and overclocking capability. I will be running 8GB DDR3 1333 ram for starters but the motherboard will be ready for 16GB when I am. For now, I’ll be running 500GB Sata 3Gbps, but in the future I’ll have it set up with 4 250GB on Sata 6Gbps with RAID10. That should give me a powerful and enjoyful experience compared to what I have now with my iMac.
I enjoy using Apple and OS X and will continue to use it. But as a desktop and for my current needs, I feel I’m better off on a PC running Windows 7 64bit. My MBP 13″ will be my second desktop/laptop because I still don’t feel comfortable nor do I trust doing certain things on a Windows machine.
Once I get more comfortable and have a nice workflow set up on my new PC, I will be selling my iMac. But that won’t be for weeks. Hopefully, what I have read and expect is true. If not, my new PC will just be a gaming computer and I will continue to do everything else on my Mac.
