Windows 7 on main machine

I’ve decided to give Windows 7 another go, as there have been a few driver updates. This time in changed my SATA2 drive to Native mode instead of AHCI, and the install went flawless.

Once up, Windows downloaded 5 updates, and had 4 additional drivers for my Bluetooth dongle, Marvell 88E8001 Gigabit LAN, ATI 2900 Graphics card, Razer Copperhead gaming mouse.

The spec of my machine is as follows

ASUS M2R32-MVP
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+
4Gb OCZ 6400 Memory
ATI 1Gb HD2900 XT PCI-e
1 x 500Gb Western Digital SATA2 Drive
2 x 250Gb Western Digital SATA2 Drives
1 x Pioneer 112 DVD-RW (Again wiped out the Pioneer 212 SATA drive as this again caused issues)
Onboard ADI 1988A Soundcard (Wiped out the SoundBlaster Xtreme Gamer sound card, don’t ask !)
Acer AL2216 Monitor
Acer AL1916 Monitor
Razer Copperhead Gaming Mouse
Logitech G15 Gaming keyboard
Creative 5.1 Surround speakers.

Windows 7 now works fine, with the new driver updates, and the download of the Logitech G15 driver and utility, everything seems smooth. I did however have a problem where every 5 minutes or so, Windows would give me a BSOD with a tdx.sys error message, however after a little bit of googling, it seems Windows 7 has a problem with AVG Free anti-virus.

Granted I was only up and running for a few hours last night, but I did a little bit of testing.

Steam, worked fine, all games apart from World of Goo seemed to work ok, apart from all games being at a status of “Download Started…”

Warcraft worked fine, infact better than fine, I saw an increase of over 20 frames per second.

Itunes, worked flawlessly

Left 4 Dead work, and worked very well, without a glitch

Gadgets I’ve tried, and worked.

WhetherBug
Multi Meter (D)
Network Meter v2.1
GMail Checker
Utorrent Gadget

Now this is running fine on my main machine, I will create further blogs as I decide if I love/hate Microsoft’s latest operating system. So far I think it’s quicker, uses resources better, is stable, however it’s still early days.

I would like to point out that I have a lot of 720p content on my NAS drive, and without installing any video or audio codec, it played the videos straight out of the box, very impressive

Tags: 112, 1988a, 2900, 4, 7, acer, adi, ahci, al1916, al2216, amd athlon 64, amd athlon 64 x2 6000, asus, ati, Beta, bluetooth dongle, bsod, card, copperhead, dead, digital, Download, drive, driver, driver updates, fine, free anti virus, g15, gaming, gaming mouse, gigabit lan, googling, graphics card, itunes, LAN, left, logitech, logitech g15 gaming keyboard, M2R32, machine, Monitor, mouse, mouse logitech, MVP, native mode, pioneer, problem, razer, razer copperhead, sata, soundblaster, soundcard, steam, tdx, tdx.sys, warcraft, Western, windows

Belkin Powerline AV 200Mbps Networking Adapter (F5D4072uk)

Anybody who watches HD content, will know that streaming this across a wireless network is virtually impossible.

My upstairs network is wired, however downstairs (my Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3) are all wireless. This has been fine for gaming, web browsing, and everything else I normally use the Internet for downstairs, however it’s just not quick enough to stream HD content.

I’m a bit of a AV snob, and like the Video and Audio quality to be the best I can get. I like most people download TV episode from the web (just seems easier than recording via Sky, plus if you get them from the web, they tent to be a couple of days in front if the UK). I normally download the 720p version, granted they are over a gig in size, but the quality is so much better.

As you know from my previous posts about my Acer Aspire Easystore box, it’s got a Upnp Media server built in, which allows me to stream the content, and I normally watch these on my PS3 in the bedroom. If I do feel like watch the downloaded episodes downstairs, it normally means copying to a memory stick, then plugging into the PS3, then watching. This process has been fine up until recently. As I’m starting to build up a collection of Bluray Disks, I decided to look at converting these to mkv files, so I could stream these across my network, job done, a couple of films sat on my NAS Drive, converted into a readable format for the PS3. I’ve ripped these in full 1080p, and they are 11Gb+. Now my problem is, a, I don’t have a memory stick with 11Gb on it (8Gb is the largest I have), b, as you need to format the memory stick in FAT32 for the PS3 to be able to read it, I could only get 4Gb on it, and c, if I’m copying the film to a memory stick, I might as well put the bloody disk in, lol !

I’ve tested the films in the bedroom, and these work flawlessly, downstair was “play a couple of seconds, stutter, freeze, play a couple more seconds…….so decided to upgrade to the Powerline adapters (I know, I’ve finally got to the point !)

I spent Thursday morning reading through reviews, if I should go for the cheaper 85Mbps or splash out for the 200Mbps (Go on, have a guess which ones I went for, lol).

A lot of people dependant on their house hold power electrical wiring were getting on average 40Mbps connection speed through the 85Mbps ones, which wasn’t really much improvement on my Wireless, however the reviews for the 200Mbps were suggesting the people were getting 100Mbps, so went for the 200Mbps.

The strange thing is, even through the adaptors are advertised as 200Mbps, the built in NIC adaptor is only an auto sensing 10/100 card, after reading further at the specs, its 100Mbps each way (send and receive), making them a 100Mbps Full duplex.

Anyway, I got home, plugged them in, I end into a 10/100 Switch downstairs (which I then plugged in my PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii), and upstairs I plugged into the router. That’s it, done !, it worked straight away.

I plugged my MacBook into the downstairs switch and got a full 100Mbps transfer rate when copying from my NAS drive.

The ones I bought were £80, however well worth it for me, no drilling, no running cables, they just worked, I can highly recommend.

What’s in the box

Official Overview from Belkin

Powerline AV allows you to reliably transmit content from your Internet directly to your computer and other network devices through the electrical wires in your home. Transfer speeds of up to 200Mpbs makes Powerline AV ideal for streaming media to your home entertainment devices such as gaming consoles and set-top boxes.

Powerline is a great solution for areas in the home that are hard to reach by wireless connections, Powerline is the most reliable solution for providing secure Internet connectivity to these remote areas.

Setup of Powerline is simple with its plug-and-play connectivity. Connect one adapter to your router and plug it into an available electrical outlet. Plug the second adpter into an available wall outlet and connect the other end to any device with an available Ethernet port such as a gaming console, set-top box, or computer.

Official Features from Belkin

• Includes extension power cables for the optional placement of powerline adapter away from the electrical outlet
• Data speeds of up to 200Mbps
• Ideal for surfing the Internet and reducing online gaming latency
• Security: 128-bit AES link encryption with key management for secure powerline communications
• Operating range: Up to 300m in wall powerlines
• IEEE 802.3/802.3u
• HomePlug® AV-certified

Tags: 1080p, 200Mbps, acer, Adaptor, audio quality, AV, Belkin, bit, Bluray, Box, content, couple, couple of days, downstairs, F5D4072uk, fat32, fine, gaming, gaming web, gig, HD, home, internet, lol, Mbps, memory, mkv, nas drive, Network, network job, outlet, Powerline, powerline adapters, PS3, readable format, stick, stream, stutter, tv episode, UK, upnp media server, upstairs, vob, web, web browsing, wii, Wireless, xbox, xbox 360