NETLANTIS NEWS/BLOG

Sunday, October 28, 2007

[Thoughts] Audiophile PC

I've decided to get myself a new home-built silent and "green" (as in energy-efficient) PC...

My needs were :
- pro optical audio output
- 3 video output (for my dual-screen + my HDTV)
- totally silent !
- less than 1000 euros

It works really nice, so here's my recipe :
Asus M2A-VM HDMI Micro-ATX Motherboard (0 dB)
Asus EAH2400PRO HTP 256M graphic adapter (0 dB)
CPU AMD X2 BE-2300 AM2 (45 Watts : the most energy-efficient Desktop CPU available)
DDR2 RAM Crucial 2 x 1G PC6400 800MHz
Seasonic S12II-380 Power Supply 380 Watts (Active PFC, very silent and 85%+ efficiency)
PC case ANTEC SOLO (expensive but good against noise)
Noctua NH-U12F CPU cooler (6 dB)
Noctua NF-S12-1200 case fan (6 dB)
DVD burner PIONEER DVR IDE (Pioneer SATA + AHCI = won't work well)
PRO audio adapter E-MU 0404 PCI
SATA HHDD (Hybrid HardDisk) Samsung 2.5" HM08HHI 80G (one platter = better against noise) 5400rpm 8M cache + 256M Flash (good if vista really uses it...)
Corsair Voyager GT 4 GB (entirely used by readyboost)

With AMD Cool&Quiet active, the CPU runs at 23° Celsius, the GPUs at 33°, the motherboard at 42° and the PC is really silent.

The total price is 750 euros all tax included (in France).

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

[Thoughts] My Photoshop secret tip for underwater photography post-prod

The photo as taken with my now very old (but still working) Powershot A70 in its underwater case ($100 on ebay) :

Blurry and lacking some colors, isn't it ?

This is the photoshoped result.

Before...

After...

So you are in Photoshop and you opened your photo (it's called Background by default).

1 - Duplicate current layer (Background)
2 - Auto Levels
3 - Brightness/Contrast : Brightness +50
4 - Duplicate Background
5 - Move current layer to layer 2 (at the top)
6 - Auto Color
7 - Opacity 80%

If the result is too flashy you can play with the Opacity of the two first layers.

Of course you can make this an action script.

Enjoy!

[Thoughts] Br0ken!

A pedestrian crossed the street and had me fell from my bicycle.

The result is a broken right hand scaphoid bone...


Believe me, it hurts...

More infos about the scaphoid fracture.

I also broke the radius, but this is less of a problem...

I'll get better brakes and tires for my bicycle :)

Btw, the bike ain't broke, it's a decathlon (cocorico).