Posts tagged "Article"

GAMING Power Inverter

Power Inverter for Gaming Computer

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It’s better to be Safe than Sorry when it comes to computer hardware.

If you live in a country where power failures are a common thing, you surely need a backup to avoid failure of computer hardware that’s why inverter is must have things. As a desktop computer user, I keep my computer turned on for almost 24 hours. Most of the time I’m doing video editing, Rendering images and animations. Furthermore, power failures reduce productive time as I’ve to start from the beginning. In addition, rendering takes several hours so it is better to do it in one go.

There are several questions in mind while looking for an Inverter to use it with computer;

  • How much capacity is required to run computer with 650W Power Supply (Mostly used in High End or Gaming Computers)?
  • Is it pure sine wave inverter or not?
  • Is it Safe to run computer on Inverter?
  • Should I get dry battery or wet battery?
  • How long will be the backup time?
  • Can I use my computer on common home inverter?
  • Should I use a dedicated Inverter for my computer?
  • Is it possible to run computer on Solar Power?

How much capacity is required to run computer with 650W Power Supply (Mostly used in High End or Gaming Computers)?

The first factor to decide the power requirements for your computer is the Power supply of your computer. There are variety of Power supplies available in the market. Moreover, power supply rating depends on the components in your Computer.e.g. main power consuming component in a Gaming or High-end system is the Graphic Card so you can buy power supply based on the requirements of your 3D Card. Other components combined consume as low as 100W on idle*.  Even if you have the latest Graphic Card in your computer that is Nvidia’s top of the line GTX 1080 Ti, you should get a power supply rated around 600W. In addition, Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti consumes 250W power and most probably the mentioned power requirement is measured at full load. I’m using older GTX 970 in my computer. Here are the Load Outputs from inverter at various conditions;

  • Idle on Desktop: 60W
  • Google Chrome: 80W (110W while watching Videos)
  • Rendering with CPU Only: 144W
  • Gaming: 280W (Rise of the Tomb Raider), 240W (DOTA 2), 277W (Sniper Elite 4)
  • Rendering + Gaming: 276W (DOTA 2), 312W (Sniper Elite 4)

Is it pure sine wave inverter or not?

There are lot of quality factors that should be present in the inverter. Pure sine wave is one of these factors. As you know inverter converters DC of battery to AC for home appliances. Early inverters used to make the voltage go straight up and down, creating a blocky signal. This is called modified sine wave. A modified sine wave inverter can be used for simple systems that don’t have any delicate electronics or audio equipment that may pick up the choppy wave and produce a hum. Old tube TVs and motors with brushes are usually ok with modified sine wave.

Pure sine wave is needed for newer LED TVs, CFL light bulbs, and inductive loads like brushless motors. Moreover, Clocks and Music equipment behave much better on a pure sine wave. As the advent of newer electronics, inverters are also evolved and are offering pure sine wave features. So your first priority should be to get a pure sine wave inverter.

Is it Safe to run computer on Power Inverter?

Yes, it is safe to run computer on power inverter as long as you’re proving enough voltages and current. Moreover, your inverter should be capable of supporting the load produced by computer. Low Power rated inverter will shut down or trip if the output load requirements are more that the rated capacity. For a computer using 650W power supply, 650W or more rated inverter is recommended (Check previous section for discussion on power requirements). Battery based inverters have a lot of options to choose from. Not all of the inverters have all of the features, so you need to decide which features are required or desired, and select the inverter based on which has them.

Should I get dry battery or wet battery for inverter?

There are multiple type of batteries available in the market. Most common type is Led-Acid Battery used in automobile starting, lighting and ignition. There are certain drawbacks of having Led-Acid batteries that it requires timely maintenance and handling precautions. Led-Acid batteries and inverters should be kept outside of your home like in porch as there is chance of acid spillage. On the other hand, Dry batteries do not have acid or liquid electrolyte in it. They have electrolyte in the form of GEL or Powder. Therefore, they can’t cause spillage and are maintenance free.

Therefore battery selection depends totally on the consumer, Dry batteries cost more as compared to Wet batteries but are environmentally safe and maintenance free. Dry batteries also have longer lifespan, better charging and discharging capabilities.

How long will be the backup time?

When we talk about the backup time Battery capacity should be our first concern. There are wide range of batteries available in the market. In addition, Battery capacity is mentioned as “Ah” Ampere Hour. Consequently, More “Ah” will result in longer backup times. Same is the case with cost. Hence you have to pay more for a battery with larger capacity.

I’m using a wet battery with 48Ah capacity. On Idle I was able to get 3 hours backup time. Since, On Idle computer power requirement is 50-60W which is very low. In conclusion, backup time reduces significantly while performing CPU and GPU intensive tasks e.g. Rendering and Gaming as Power requirements are increased.

Can I use my computer on common home inverter (Home UPS)?

Yes, you can use your computer on home inverter if the power capacity of the inverter is enough to support all the load combined. Therefore, Low end computer can be connected to home inverter instead of getting a dedicated for computer.

Should I use a dedicated Inverter for my computer?

If you have a high-end computer with more power-hungry components then dedicated inverter should be your first priority.

Is it possible to run computer on Solar Power?

Solar energy is abundant in Pakistan. So, if you get an inverter which have built-in Solar charge controller, you can run your computer on Solar power. Some inverters also feature dual power options e.g. you can shift load to solar power and if solar is not capable to handle load then it will use some energy from battery. Moreover, AC source will remain disconnected unless there is no solar energy present. Some inverter come with additional Solar power rating so you should check the solar power rating according to your requirements. I’m using inverter which have 1000 W capacity on batteries and 600W solar capacity, tested under different conditions it was able to run several things on solar power only. Therefore, 600W is more than enough for a computer. All you need are high quality solar panels to pair with the inverter.

*System Specifications under consideration for this article.

  • Processor: Core i7 4790K 4.4Ghz
  • Motherboard: MSI Krait Z97S SLI Edition
  • Cooler: Corsair H80i GT
  • Ram: 16GB DDR3 Corsair and Kingston
  • Graphic Card: Gigabyte GTX 970 Windforce
  • HDD:  Seagate Barracuda 2TB and 1TB
  • SSD: Intel SSD 128GB and Transcend SSD370 256GB
  • System Fans: 3 x Corsair 140mm Non-LED Fans
  • Accessories: Razer Deathadder Elite Chroma, Razer Kraken Chroma 7.1, Razer Firefly Mousepad, Logitech G810 RGB Keyboard
  • Monitor: Benq Zowie RL2755

*Inverter: Homage Tron DUO HTD-1211SCC

  • 1000W Inverter with Solar Charge Controller (Solar Capacity 600W)
Apple Hackintosh Microsoft

5 reasons to build hackintosh

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I’m using macOS Sierra as an alternate operating system. Mostly i use windows as a number of softwares and games are available only on Windows. Anyhow when I think of doing work instead of playing games, I usually boot into macOS Sierra for video and photo editing.

Hackintosh are upgradeable and are cost-effective as compared to Mac Pro or iMac. Hackintosh is the best option if you’re concerned about the physical appearance of your machine as well as the hardware selection. Although there are some compatibility issues and installing Hackintosh requires a lot of patience and energy. Anyhow there are some forums related to Hackintosh.

Forums can help you build a decent Hackintosh and you may avoid the issues that may occur during installation. Users share the details of their hardware and installation procedure with recommended settings. I also installed Hackintosh in my system an year ago. It’s specs were Intel Devil’s Canyon 4790K, MSI z97S Krait SLI and Nvidia GTX 970. I was able to run it at full potential and this build scored the 16266 points on Geekbench 4. OpenCL score was around 101469 Points using GTX 970 and macOS Sierra.

It is acceptable score considering the release date of this CPU and GPU, almost 3-years-old.

Hackintosh

When Apple began to shift onto Intel processors, almost a decade ago. Mac hardware lost it’s uniqueness which used to set it apart from stock PCs: an incompatible architecture. Today, Macs aren’t that different from Windows machines, something that Apple itself takes advantage of is Boot Camp. It’s the official way to boot Windows in Mac environment. Apple never supported other hardwares in the beginning (installing macOS on non-Apple hardware). But nowadays many PCs have almost same specs as Macs as a reason macOS can be installed on them.

1- Outdated Expensive Apple Products

Apple hasn’t released any Mac Pro in recent years. The latest Mac Pro is around 3000$ boasting an Intel Xeon E3 6 core processor with 15MB cache and clocked at 2.7 Ghz. It also features Dual AMD FirePro D500 graphics processors with 3GB of GDDR5 VRAM each and 16GB DDR3 Memory. So at a high price point, you’re getting a 3-year-old Mac pro which you can’t customize apart from some limited expansion options. At this point, Hackintosh is a preferred choice. You have the latest Intel processors and Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti support. So you can build a powerful Mac operated computer, which will save you a fortune as compared to apple.

Although one can’t deny the quality and compatibility of Apple products. As the hardware used is completely synchronized with macOS, so there is no chance of bottlenecking. In Hackintosh, you may have some issue while connecting to Wifi, as your wireless adapter will not be supported. Consequently, you won’t be able to listen to music as your sound drivers will not be working. In my Hackintosh, I’d to replace my Wireless adapter to get an access to the internet. Only plus point was it had cost me around 8$. It is always fun to play with the custom build as you’re in charge of selecting hardware whether it is GPU or CPU.

2- Freedom of choice

As discussed earlier, Mac computer has very limited configurations available. So as a hardware enthusiast, you’ll feel robbed or inferior while performing various rendering tasks. In Hackintosh, you can pick your favorite component. Not only the freedom of choice but it’s also budget friendly. So buy the hardware which has better performance to cost ratio.

3- Upgradeability

Hackintosh is very easy to upgrade and it also gives a wide range of options at hand. You’ll comparatively get a decent buyer of your hardware as the market has high demand for those components in contrast with Mac computers. Nvidia recently released drivers for 10 series GPUs so you can even upgrade to 1080Ti in near future if you’re low on budget.

4-  Better Graphics and Visual Experience

As compared to windows macOS has better graphics and CUDA support for GeForce graphics. You can push your graphic card to limits while rendering a video in Premiere Pro or After Effects. MacOS also has finely tuned icons and visual experience. Minimalistic design helps it to outperform various tasks on macOS and also provides a premium and professional feel. Although there is not a lot of game released for macOS as compared to Windows. Windows is still considered ahead if you’re comparing gaming scenarios of both operating systems.

5- Windows vs macOS

MacOS Sierra is available for free while you have to purchase a copy of windows. Moreover, you’ll get performance upper hand while running CPU and GPU benchmarks on the same computers running macOS and Windows. In the test 4790K at 4.0Ghz on windows scored 13376 points on Geekbench while on macOS it scored 16266 points. Windows platform scored 113758 points on openCL while macOS scored around 101649 points.

Conclusion

MacOS Sierra can be installed in your PC and it won’t cost you a single penny.  It is also customizable. Moreover, you can dual boot it with Windows. You can use it as primary OS if you’re concerned about limited apps. Hackintosh is difficult to build in terms of installation and hardware selection. As there are only a few successful combinations. The most important components of a Hackintosh are the motherboard and graphics card: if they aren’t fully compatible with macOS, Installing macOS will be an impossible task. As there will be bottlenecking issues. Any processor compatible with that motherboard will work. So in case of intel you can get either a Core i3 or Core i7 depending on your performance requirements. After that, selecting RAM, storage (SATA), and other components is pretty straightforward.

Before building always visit forums related to Hackintosh and check the specifications of successful builds. You can configure your own macOS machine based on your budget and performance priorities.

Is HACKINTOSH illegal? – Yes, macOS is supposed to install on Apple branded computers only. The currently preferred method of creating a hackintosh uses a bootloader to make a legally-purchased copy of macOS think it’s running on actual Apple hardware. In those circumstances, Apple’s software isn’t being pirated or modified, which would seem to make hackintosh projects immune from suits under the DMCA.