Due process

Holmes and Tsarnaev – revisiting due process

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

Watch the comments to any article detailing the trials of James Holmes — the accused in the Aurora theatre shooting — and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — convicted for the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. You will see some rather disgusting statements that pretty much boil down to “Why aren’t they dead yet?” In short, I think most have forgotten that in the United States we don’t execute the “obviously” guilty without trial.

Another thing often forgotten: due process.

Stemming from the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, the Constitution of the United States requires that any person who is accused of a crime have a day in Court — even the “obviously” guilty Tsarnaev and Holmes. It is rather sickening how easily others are willing to completely abrogate due process rights… for people other than themselves. Numerous times, in the case of both Holmes and Tsarnaev, many have said the equivalent of “Don’t waste taxpayer money on a trial. Just take ’em out back and shoot ’em now.”

Wow…

I’ve made it no secret that I defend due process and the right to a trial by jury, even for those many seem to believe don’t “deserve” it, as if your due process rights are earned or abrogated by your actions. Due process is guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States and must be provided to everyone. But due process can be problematic, which is why I feel it is coming under attack. After all it is due process that led to the high-profile acquittals of OJ Simpson, Casey Anthony and George Zimmerman.

And many seemed to fear the prospect that Tsarnaev or Holmes would walk. So they demand that we avoid that possibility by… executing them without trial. On Yahoo! I said this to someone advocating exactly that:

So if you were to get a speeding ticket, we should just lock you in jail rather than giving you the chance to plead on it? The interesting thing about rights is how willing people are to throw them aside for *someone else* but still demand them for themselves. Either we all have the right to due process, including Holmes, or none of us do. Which would you have?

Some months later, to another article on Tsarnaev, I wrote this:

Another article about Tsarnaev, and once again, people are willing to just throw their own rights out the window. If you’re so willing to just ignore Tsarnaev’s rights, why do your rights deserve any protection? If you want your rights protected, you must be willing to protect his, meaning if you take seriously this whole idea of executing him without trial and executing his family and acquaintances without trial, then should the same apply to you, regardless of whether you are actually provably guilty of anything?

The assertion that Tsarnaev is “obviously guilty” does not nullify his right to due process, yet many assert such should be the case. The assertion that Holmes is also “obviously guilty” does not nullify his right to due process either, yet, again, many assert such. In instances like these, it is rather disgusting how easily many enter the mob mentality, the “torches and pitchforks” mindset.

And the fact that individuals many have asserted are “obviously guilty” have walked out of Court acquitted on charges has led many to attack due process and the jury system, and assert that there exist situations in which the system should be bypassed.

Let’s make this clear. Even the “obviously guilty” enjoy the right to be presumed innocent. They enjoy the right of due process, to have the accusation against them and the supporting evidence heard in a Court of Law by an impartial jury. To so easily abrogate such rights for others, for the “obviously guilty”, is to jeopardize that right for everyone.

If you are unwilling to defend those rights for those who you feel don’t deserve them, then you don’t deserve those rights either.

Debt/Law

Disputing a debt

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

One topic that gets intermittent discussion with regard to debt collections is debt validation. And lesser discussed still is how to exercise this statutory right. Well it comes down to the letter you send. When you receive first contact through the mail of an alleged debt, you have 30 days to fire off a letter disputing the debt and requesting they validate it. To aid you in this, here is the template I have used previously for this:

[Date]

[Name and address of collection agency]

Dear [Name of collection agency],

Re:    [Debt account information provided in the letter]

NOTICE OF DISPUTED DEBT

On [date letter received], I received the first communication regarding this alleged debt. In accordance with 15 USC § 1692g(b), part of the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, you are hereby notified that this debt is disputed in its entirety.

Thus in accordance with Federal law, you are required to cease any collection attempts or efforts with regard to this alleged debt until you can obtain and forward to me documentation that shows that I have any legal obligation to pay you the amount you have alleged as quoted above. In accordance with the above-quoted Federal statute, I also request that you provide to me the name and address of the original creditor.

Further, in accordance with 15 USC § 1692c(a), you may not contact me at my place of employment as my employer does not permit such communications to take place, and you may not contact me at any other time or any other place, except in writing, as no time or place can be considered convenient.

Any attempt to collect on this debt without first satisfying this validation request is a violation of Federal law that may subject you to civil penalties in accordance with 15 USC § 1692k. Your cooperation on this matter is anticipated and appreciated.

Thank you,

[Your signature]

And when you send the letter, use a service that provides tracking and/or delivery confirmation — return receipts are recommended as well. If you are currently unemployed, remove the statements regarding an employer.

I highly recommend against using the letter template provided by the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. For one, it says “Please supply the information below so that I can be fully informed” instead of outright stating that you dispute the debt, which the statute requires [15 § USC 1692g(b)]: “If the consumer notifies the debt collector in writing … that the debt, or any portion thereof, is disputed…” Requesting information about the debt is not the same as disputing it, in whole nor in part, and unless you say you are disputing the debt, they may presume you are not disputing the debt and do not intend to dispute the debt.

Whenever you are invoking statutory rights, you need to stick with the statutory language so there is no doubt what you are doing.

The CFPB template also demands a lot more information than creditors are required to provide. The creditor is required to provide you evidence that the debt is valid, the amount claimed is accurate (itemized details are not required to fulfill this), they have the authority to collect it, and the name and address of the originating creditor if you request it. That’s it!

The disclosure with the CFPB template even says this:

A debt collector may not have a legal obligation to provide some or all of the information you seek, even if you request it within the 30-day period. If the collector doesn’t give you what you request, that doesn’t necessarily mean the debt collector has broken any laws or has given up a legal right to collect from you.

Amazing how many people think that one misstep by a debt collector and the debt is no longer collectable. In the case of the CFPB’s template, though, the letter requests information that should be readily available with the first contact, such as:

  • whether they are contacting you from out of state (check the addresses on the letter you receive)
  • name of the original creditor — virtually every initial contact I’ve received from a collector included at least the name, with the address provided through a validation request
  • name of the current creditor — again, typically given in the initial letter if different from original creditor

along with details that they are not required to provide you, such as the details regarding their license. If the matter goes to Court, that’s a different scenario, and an attorney should be able to provide the specifics.

And one question that is asked in the CFPB template that should never be asked directly to a debt collector is with regard to the statute of limitations.

If you are certain the debt is beyond the statutory time limit, wait for them to return with validation materials, and write back stating you refuse to pay the debt and leave it at that. Do not mention the statute of limitations. When you do that, under 15 USC § 1692c(c), the collector is barred from contacting you except to say they are ceasing collection attempts, to advise you that a specific “remedy” will be sought, or that they are seeking a specific “remedy” — i.e. they may or will sue.

Only if they sue do you counter with the statute of limitations. The statute of limitations applies only to legal actions through the Court — i.e. it is grounds to immediately dismiss with prejudice any lawsuit they do file against you. It doesn’t stop them from continuing collection attempts unless you tell them in writing to not contact you — again, see 15 USC § 1692c(c) — and it doesn’t stop them from assigning the debt to someone else.

So again, keep the letter short and sweet, like the template I have above, and you should be golden on exercising your statutory right of validation. If you have any reason to believe the information they provided you is inaccurate, you can dispute it further, but never bring up the statute of limitations in any communication with a debt collector. The only time to mention the statute of limitations, if applicable, is with regard to Court actions.

Bear in mind, however, once they satisfy validation, they can file a lawsuit against you.

Due process/Second Amendment

Who is actually racist?

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

Anyone who tries to tout that the NRA doesn’t like the idea of blacks carrying guns is absolutely ignorant. For one, the NRA News has a commentator by the name of Colion Noir. He’s black. And he’s had a YouTube channel since before he joined up with the NRA as a commentator. And in one of his videos, he stomped over the idea of the NRA picking him as the “token black guy” (or in one case, he was called the NRA’s “porch monkey“):

Beyond that, the NRA is about defending everyone’s right to carry a firearm. It’s the anti-gunners who seem to have a problem with blacks being armed. So let’s play a game.

Who is the real racist: the NRA and other gun rights organizations who readily welcome black and other minority members, or the law enforcement agents who deny the issuance of a concealed carry permit to black persons with clean records, while issuing to whites with less than clean records?

Who is the real racist: the biracial president who says that “Saturday night specials” are a problem, or the gun rights advocates who say that such firearms allow our poorest people to arm themselves and defend themselves in some of the more crime-ridden parts of the country — i.e. the “inner cities”? Now contrary to the President’s assertion, “cheap handguns” aren’t being used in crimes. The FBI’s own statistics and studies contradict that notion.

Who is the real racist: the gun rights advocates who fight hard for ammunition availability, even going so far as to “rally the troops” against the ATF’s attempted ban on a popular rifle round, or the people who call for banning bullets and like seeing prices go up and availability go down, apparently not realizing that the poorest people who need inexpensive guns will be the first affected when that happens? After all, if you have to choose between buying food and buying the ammo to keep up practice at the firing range on the off chance you have to defend yourself with your pistol, I think all of us would choose buying food. And so the economically disadvantaged are the ones who are first affected when ammo prices go up with increased demand and decreasing supplies and availability. This is known as “being priced out of a market”.

Not everyone can afford to pay $10 for a box of 50 9mm rounds. .22LR ammo used to be very inexpensive and very available. A lot of people use it for self defense because the ammo and pistols were both inexpensive, affordable even for the poor. Now, not so much thanks to the ammo scares following Sandy Hook.

Just like free speech means that messages with which you disagree are still protected, the right to keep and bear arms means those who you don’t want owning guns (excluding those convicted of felonies or involuntarily held in a mental hospital) also have the right to own them. And the entire history of gun control in the United States has very racist overtones. Indeed the Gun Control Act of 1968, which established the FFL system, implemented a points system regarding the importation of firearms. Some of the firearms excluded under this new system were firearms owned primarily by lower-income minorities.

Back in 1999 the NRA-ILA posted a set of bullet points regarding “Saturday night specials”. One point is rather key:

A law against “Saturday Night Specials” would disproportionately affect poor citizens by reducing the availability of defensive handguns to low income Americans. (Gary Kleck, Targeting Guns, 1997.) The violent crime victimization rate is highest among people in households with annual incomes below $7,500. (Bureau of Justice Statistics, Criminal Victimization 1997, Changes 1996-97 with Trends 1993-97, Dec. 1998)

And the poverty rate is highest among blacks, meaning blacks would be affected at a far greater rate than whites. And in larger urban areas, the need for firearms for self defense is even more acute. Detroit’s police chief even openly advocated for it, knowing that public confidence in the police to actually respond when people dial 911 just isn’t there.

Yet anti-gun advocates, like the late Sarah and James Brady, have routinely said that firearms for home defense are unnecessary because… police. What they fail to forget is that the Courts have also routinely said that you are not entitled to police protection. Law enforcement is about enforcing laws, apprehending those who break them and providing evidence a prosecutor can use against the apprehended in Court. If they get there in time to stop a crime in progress, great. But that is not their job.

So who are the real racists: those who support gun rights, or those who target them?

What is even more sickening is the willingness to abrogate due process, especially when it comes to anti-gun advocates. After Tuscon, Aurora and Sandy Hook, many asked the same question: how did these “obviously” mentally ill people get their guns? What they probably realize behind the scenes is that the only way someone can be stripped of their right to a firearm is to first put them through the system. The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments require this. Setting aside Adam Lanza, since he didn’t actually legally acquire the firearms he used, the only way Jared Loughner and James Holmes could’ve been blocked through an NICS background check is if they were first adjudicated through the system and their information provided to the NICS system.

Without the Court record, any attempt to block them from acquiring a firearm would’ve been a violation of the Second, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Suspecting a person should not be able to acquire a firearm is quite different from proving it, and the Constitution requires proving it.

And the fact that blacks are more likely to end up in the system also shows that blacks are very, very disproportionately targeted by gun laws. So who’s the real racist? In trying to answer that question, bear in mind that Otis McDonald, the lead plaintiff in the McDonald v. Chicago case at the Supreme Court, is also black.

Free speech and press

Wal-Mart is not censoring Ronda Rousey

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

MMA champion Ronda Rousey apparently fancies herself an author enough to have written a book called “My Fight/Your Fight“. And apparently Wal-Mart is deciding they will not carry the book at their stores. Now this decision is quite significant, as that means none of Wal-Mart’s 5,163 locations (as of January 31, 2015) just in the US alone will carry it.

And in response to it, the book’s publisher, Judith Regan, is calling it “censorship”. I wish I was joking.

Let’s make this clear: one retailer deciding to not carry a particular book is NOT censorship. I mean there are a shit-ton of books, literally, that Wal-Mart does not carry on their store shelves. Have you seen the book section at a Wal-Mart Supercenter? It’s tiny! They typically decide on the basis of projected and actual sales which books they’ll carry. And in this age where getting a book is as easy as clicking a button on an e-book store and having it within minutes without the need to go to brick-and-mortar store, that’s something that’s becoming more difficult.

Censorship is when the government says no one can sell copies of the book. Amazon is carrying the book. Barnes & Noble will likely carry it in their stores. Same with Target and other retailers. And the government of the United States cannot, under the First Amendment, ban any book for any reason — contrary to what Senator Feinstein wants to assert with regard to the Anarchist Cookbook. The same applies to the States and territories under the “incorporation doctrine”.

Regan is complaining and accusing Wal-Mart of censorship because Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the world. Revenues from the book could be significantly lower than expected. But that’s not censorship. She’s only saying it is censorship as a means of trying to push Wal-Mart to reverse their decision. People don’t like the idea of censorship, but Regan’s assertion is also a symptom of a greater problem.

And that problem is this sense of entitlement.

Recently with Indiana’s “Religious Freedom Restoration Act” (IN-RFRA), a lot of people acted like it was a license for discrimination. Indeed when a pizza parlor announced that they will not host gay weddings, they received a lot of harsh feedback, harsh enough that they decided to temporarily close up shop. And we’re all familiar with the stories of bakeries refusing to make cakes for gay weddings, and the various lawsuits that have resulted from those — and recently there was a bakery that refused to put an anti-gay message on a cake, and was also sued.

The idea seems to be that if a service exists, the service must be provided to anyone and cannot be denied for any reason except, perhaps, availability (not every shop can accommodate everyone who comes calling) or the ability of the patron to pay. And that is the case in greater than 99% of instances, something many seem to not realize. It’s only the outliers that draw attention.

And now add to this the sentiment given by Judith Regan: if a retailer exists, they must sell my book, or it’s censorship. Seriously?

Ms Regan, if you happen across this article, let this be the takeaway: you are not entitled to Wal-Mart’s shelf space. You are not entitled to any retailer’s shelf space. You aren’t entitled to a listing on Amazon or any other online retailer. Their decision to provide a space for you to sell the book does not mean you are entitled to anyone’s space for the purpose of selling the book. Stop acting like that is the case.

You are not being censored by Wal-Mart. The fact you are accusing them of censorship, likely in an attempt to goad them into giving you shelf space, is despicable. As such you should publicly retract your statement and also apologize to Wal-Mart for accusing them of censorship.

But I’m not going to hold my breath on you doing that.

Product and service reviews/Technology

Corsair AX860: Giving up on it

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

Note: This review is RETRACTED IN FULL. Read the details here.

First let’s talk specifications: I have an AMD FX-8350 overclocked to 4.4GHz with an ASRock 990FX Extreme6 mainboard and two PNY GTX 770 4GB graphics cards in SLI. My system is also watercooled. If you were to evaluate how much wattage this configuration draws, most evaluations will put it in the ballpark of 650W to 700W maximum draw, something an 860W power supply should be able to handle.

The first AX860 unit, the one I bought through Amazon, was RMA’d in November 2014, about two months after purchase. Corsair sent back a full retail packaged replacement unit — with a cable kit and everything. That power supply lasted another 3½ months before I replaced it.

The concern? The system wasn’t remaining stable under any significant load. With the first unit, the system would randomly power down — not power off, but just power down such that the monitors would go blank but the fans, lights and keyboard and mouse would still be on. The reset button wouldn’t work in such a situation. The only option is to hard power off the system with the switch on the back.

With the second unit, the problem was a little more subtle: graphics would freeze, the sound would go all weird, and eventually the system could completely lock up and I’d have to press the reset button to get things working again. It actually got to the point where it wouldn’t remain stable under *any* load — merely browsing the web for a few minutes off a cold boot caused the system to lock up completely. In both instances I had to hook up a spare power supply to run my system — a Corsair GS800 that had no problem keeping the system stable, meaning the power supply was certainly the problem.

In the interim I also changed out the mainboard — original was a Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3 — due to not liking how it functioned with overclocking enabled. That still could not keep the system stable with this power supply.

I have no idea what happened, but I’m done with it. When one unit goes bad, you blame the unit. When two units go bad, you blame the design, especially when it is the only common denominator in the problems you have. When an 800W power supply can better keep a system stable than an 860W power supply, there’s a problem with the power supply, especially when it cannot keep the system stable under the kind of load every online evaluation says it should be able to sustain.

I replaced it with a unit from a different brand — only been running that new unit a few days as of this writing — so now it’s a matter of what to do with the unit I currently have.

Religion

No, Christine, your daughter didn’t see angels

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

Gotta love what comes out of the mouths of children at times. Some of it is comedic, some of it is sickening. And some of it is just deserving of a facepalm. A lot of it we don’t question.

So what should be the response when a child says she saw angels in her room?

Mommy! Guess what happened last night? I saw three ANGELS!!! I woke up last night and there they were…watching me! One was tall and skinny and she was up on the curtains, another was on the other side of the curtains and she was smiling like the skinny angel. Then there was a little one that was kind of chubby sitting with her legs criss-cross applesauce on my stuffed animal bin! She was so cute, mom! She had a little look like she was going to giggle. They were all white but you could see through them. They were all looking at me and kept smiling, and I smiled back. Then, when I woke up this morning, the angels were gone.

This is from a piece by Christine Carter over on the Huffington Post called “For those who don’t believe“. She initially shared it on her own blog a pinch over three years ago.

Children can have wild imaginations at times. Their minds are very malleable, to say the least, to the point where children can be coached to say things as truth that never actually happened. The reasons behind it are many, but in Carter’s case, the reasons are quite clear:

My daughter has been told countless times, how her Father in Heaven loves and cherishes His beloved children. Much of her life has been immersed in learning of His Grace and His Glory. I have shared precious details of His Hand guiding every step of her glorious and miraculous journey. She has grown to believe.

She has grown to believe. And the statement following this paragraph is quite simply, “And how she has seen his Angels”.

No, Christine, your daughter did not see angels. Children’s imaginations run wild at times, and they will eventually learn to tell the difference between what is real and what their minds manufactured. You assert toward the end of your article that “There will come a time, when she will remember that night long ago, when she saw three angels smiling at her.” And what will she say? You hope that she will look back upon it as a reminder about her former faith. Or she may look back upon it and think “I was a child then and I had a wild imagination”.

Depending on how old she was when this happened, she may not remember it at all. And as memories are imperfect, wildly so at times, your attempt to get her to write down her experience was only step 1 of many to not remembering what she saw accurately. For example, I know that you didn’t reproduce what your daughter said completely accurately as well. You were in the ballpark, but unless you have an audio or video recording, those aren’t her words, but what you thought were her words.

One other thing to bear in mind: the angels your daughter describes aren’t the angels that are described in the Bible. Instead what your daughter imagined, and what many imagine angels to be, is an anthropomorphized version conjured during the Middle Ages and reinforced in mainstream productions including, but not limited to, Touched by an Angel. Personally I prefer the representation of angels in the Diablo series — cloaked warrior figures with celestial wings instead of what you’d normally see on a bird. If angels are real, that’s how I’d like to imagine they look. After all, if that’s actually how angels appear, God’s one hell of a bad-ass.

Instead it sounds like what your daughter described came from a cartoon — in fact, given the description, they actually sound familiar but I can’t quite place it right now.

Here’s a question that I don’t believe you’ve answered: what has your pastor or congregation said about this? Sightings of angels have made entire cities places for pilgrimage by those seeking miraculous transformations in their lives. Has the Vatican or any official of any church visited to talk to you and your daughter and see her bedroom, the place where the sighting supposedly took place? I’m guessing not. Which tells me you don’t sincerely believe your daughter saw angels. Instead you just want to believe she has.

Your daughter “seeing” angels is not the same as angels actually visiting her. A child’s imagination can be quite active at times, manufacturing things the child initially believes to be real. This has been demonstrated numerous times and in numerous ways. I recall a 20/20 special I saw some years back where a group of children were told there was a fox in a box, though there wasn’t, yet the children believe it so much that a child opened the box and said he saw the fox. Again, there was not actually one there. But the children believed it so much that they were afraid of the box and, when one child opened it, claimed to have seen it.

I don’t believe for a moment your daughter saw angels. She thinks she did. You think she did. But that doesn’t mean she actually did.

Beta Orionis

Beta Orionis – Part XVII: The AX860

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

Build Log:

I am now thoroughly pissed off at the AX860. I have no fucking clue as to what is going on with this power supply, but when an 800W 80+ rated (not even bronze-rated) power supply is more stable at operating my system than an 860W Platinum-rated power supply, there’s a major problem. And the sad thing: this is the second AX860 unit I’m now replacing.

The 800W power supply to which I’m referring is the Corsair GS800, also known as the “heart lung machine”. And yes, again, the unit I’m now replacing is a replacement itself of my original AX860.

So here’s the setup: overclocked FX-8350 (voltage untouched) to 4.4GHz, two PNY GTX 770s in SLI, pump, 6x120mm and 3x140mm fans, and two 12″ CCFLs. Every evaluation I’ve tried said that 750W should be the bare minimum for what I have, with power ratings for the hardware coming in at about 650W to 675W. The AX860 is an 860W power supply, so it shouldn’t have any problems handling my system. Back in November I wrote about the first power supply that, for some reason, just started acting up, and caused me to replace the power supply and my SATA RAID card. A retail-packaged replacement unit came back on RMA and was not a problem initially.

A couple months later, it started acting up. Somewhat similar symptoms as well to the first, and this would happen randomly: under load the graphics would freeze, the sound would go haywire, and the system would just completely lock up a few seconds later — reset button to the rescue! So first thing I did was change out the PCI-Express cables as initially I had them using the dongled cables to power the graphics cards, so I changed it so each of the power connectors on the graphics cards had a direct line to the power supply. That was sporadic as well. Then I realized that one of the power cables wasn’t entirely seated, but that didn’t completely correct the problem.

Then over this preceding weekend, the system could not remain stable at all. I disconnected the AX860 and hooked up the GS800, and the system has been running completely stable ever since.

Now this is on top of the mainboard also already being replaced. Originally it was the Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3, and now it’s the ASRock 990FX Extreme6. So that makes the power supply the common denominator in the system’s instability. Pretty fucking sad, too, that a platinum-rated 860W power supply couldn’t keep the system stable.

Why not just hook up the GS800 and call it a day since it seems to have no problem remaining stable? I want something with a better efficiency rating and quieter fan for my primary system.

There were two potential replacements in mind: the Fractal Design Newton R3 1000W, which is also a platinum rated power supply, or the gold-rated EVGA Supernova GS 1050W. The latter had the lower price tag and a stellar 9.7/10 rating on JonnyGuru, (the Newton R3 received a 9.4/10) so I ordered one from NewEgg. Until I learned of the Supernova GS, I was going to buy the Newton R3. The radiator on the floor of the case is the reason for that: 180mm is the longest I can go on the power supply, and the shorter the better. The AX860 is 160mm long, the Newton R3 is 165mm, and the Supernova GS is 170mm.

The only way I’d be able to get shorter still would be to go with the 160mm long, bronze-rated Corsair CX850M, or even the CX750M but that’d be cutting it close on the power ceiling. But given that neither PSU has enough PCI-Express connectors to put two separate connectors on each graphics card, neither would be a good option.

But depending on which of the Newton or Supernova I selected, it would mean redoing the entirety of the cable management in my system. I think I’m going to save that for the weekend after it arrives.

Now what to do with the AX860… If anyone from Corsair comes across this, I wouldn’t mind exchanging it for a memory kit or an SSD.

Animals and pets

Reply to Dave Ramsey: “4 practical ways to save on pet care”

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

A couple day ago, Dave Ramsey’s blog (not sure if it’s Ramsey himself) published an article called “Pricey Pets: 4 Practical Ways to Save on Pet Care“. I tried leaving a comment, but it’s still in limbo. Note to blog owners: don’t have a comment section if you’re going to leave comments in moderation limbo.

Anyway, let’s get into this.

1. Pet Food

Just buy a bulk bag of dry dog food and pour it into a bowl. Your dog or cat doesn’t need a fancy feast. They just need food.

While it’s not necessary to go with the most premium pet food available, there is still “junk food” for pets, and going a little premium can pay dividends with the long-term health of your pet. This is especially true when it comes to your pet’s teeth — some of the more premium foods are better at tartar prevention, which can save you from having dental work later or having to use a specialty (read: expensive) food for their teeth and gums. You don’t need to go all-out, but don’t get the cheapest food on the shelf either.

For example, I buy Purina One SmartBlend Indoor Advantage for my 9 1/2 year-old feline.

2. Supplies & Medicine

Dogs don’t require parkas in the winter and sunhats in the summer. God has equipped them with everything they need to enjoy the Great Outdoors au natural—unless of course we’re talking hairless cats.

Sorry, but no. And a cursory glance at the variety of breeds shows how wrong this statement is. For one, winters can be harsh, and if you have a breed that originated from a predominantly warmer climate, that can be problematic. One of my parents’ dogs, Angel, is a blue Australian Cattle dog, Basenji mix. The former came, obviously, from Australia, the latter from central Africa. Both are obviously warm climates. So she gets jacketed in the winter when the temperature or wind chill plummets to the single digits or lower, primarily because she doesn’t have a thick coat.

But that means she can better handle hot summers, unlike my parent’s oldest dog, Rolli. Not only does she have a thick coat, but it’s mostly black. She can handle lower temperatures without a jacket (to an extent). In the summer, though, she’s mostly in the shade.

And while it’s perfectly okay to buy pet toys, don’t get sucked into making your furry friend more comfortable with a memory foam mattress or a deluxe cat tree. That’s what your lap is for.

I’m guessing whoever wrote this doesn’t have cats. Like with food, you don’t need to go all-out, but you need to bear in mind that cats love to perch. So give them plenty of sturdy places to perch and they’ll be happy. I have two shelves in my apartment made purely so my cat has other places to perch up and out of the way, but still be close by. I built them myself, too, so if you do something like that, definitely go that route instead of buying something pre-fab, and buy scrap carpeting from your local home improvement store as well. They sell off the leftovers from the end of carpet rolls at steep discounts — only downside being you might end up with a lot more than you need.

3. Grooming

And when it comes to grooming, skip the overpriced Puppy Palace and shop around. While an occasional summer trim may be in order, there’s no need for specialty ‘dos and luxurious bath products. This is one category where mutts have it made.

Talk to your pet’s veterinarian. Many offer grooming specials, and there may be a discount on grooming if you bundle with your annual or semi-annual exam. Definitely price shop, but also be sure to ask around for recommendations and check reviews online.

4. Vet Care

When it comes to your pet’s health, it’s hard to separate your emotions from your wallet. We all want our animals to be active and healthy, but does that mean prolonging their lives until it bankrupts us? We say no.

If Fluffy has a tumor, get a second opinion and then ask some hard questions. Is surgery absolutely necessary? Will it really help your animal’s quality of life? Or will it just cause her more pain?

If she does require an expensive operation, ask for paid-in-cash discounts, save up for a few months first, or make the tough decision to enjoy the time you have left together. Even if it’s heartbreaking, you must put the well-being of your human family first.

One thing a lot of people don’t realize is that there are people lined up with deep pockets who are willing to fund expensive veterinary care — if it’s worth it in the end. Pet got hit by a car and has a broken leg? Chances are your vet, or a little research on Google, can find a charity or sponsor who can cover the cost in its entirety or on top of what you can reasonably afford.

Also pet insurance is becoming more widespread now, so definitely consider it, especially if you have an older pet. Your veterinarian will likely have details.

Rack mount HDD enclosure

Rack mount HDD enclosure, part 7

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

Build Log:

The enclosure shipped a little earlier than expected. FedEx reports it shipped on Monday from Nova Scotia, Protocase e-mailed me about it on Tuesday, and I received it on Wednesday. So let’s fill in a few gaps in the timeline.

Before discovering and talking to Protocase, I had started to purchase some other parts. From my local Micro Center, I acquired some 3mm “tailed” LEDs to use as activity lights in the case. And I already mentioned I had fans — 4x80mm Enermax fans, which is why I configured the case for 4x80mm fans in the front. I don’t have any filters for them yet — more on that later.

From Performance-PCs I ordered 3x60mm fans for the 60mm fan mounts I had on the rear of the enclsoure. Since I’m going for a reasonably quiet build, the fans I bought were Noctua — who knew they made 60mm fans? — specifically the NF-A6x25. Performance-PCs had them for a good price and, again, I’m wanting to make this reasonably quiet. I also bought holders for the LEDs and a latching vandal-resistant switch for the power switch.

So here’s the parts list:

HDDs: 4x1TB Western Digital Blue in RAID 10
Fans: 3xNoctua NF-A6x25 (60mm)
4xEnermax UC-8EB 80mm
Enclosure: Custom enclosure by Protocase
Port multiplier: Addonics AD5SARM6G
Power supply: Enhance ENP-7025B 250W FlexATX
LEDs: Lamptron 3mm Amber LEDs, 16mm cable with 4xLED-3H-C LED holders
Switch: Lamptron 16mm vandal resistant switch, red ring

There are some parts you can change out to reduce the cost, but not by much. Other 60mm fans are not going to be much less than what I paid for the Noctuas, with the trade-off that they might be louder — I found the Noctuas on special with Performance-PCs for about 9 USD, which tells me they may not restock them when they run out. The Enermax fans were only about 8 USD each from Amazon.

I selected the fans in question because I knew they’d be silent. Noctua is one of the best companies when it comes to quiet fans — others come close, but Noctua continually wins out. The color scheme of the fans is why I didn’t buy 4x80mm Noctuas for the front — that and the price (typically around 15 USD each). At least the 60mm Noctuas aren’t going to be noticeable unless you go looking for them.

Custom enclosure

First my thanks to Protocase for working with me with regard to the original quote. But let’s talk the good, the bad and the ugly with regard to this. And let’s start with a simple question: now that I have the actual case in hand, is there anything I’d change about the design? Three things.

First is the front face. The four holes I had cut for LED holders are a little too close. They’re the perfect diameter (6mm), but just a little too close together for the nuts that hold them in place, so some of the nuts can’t get a firm hold while others can. So easily I’d space them out a little further. Instead for the enclosure as it currently stands, I’ve ordered some 1/4″ IDx5/16″ ODx5/32″ long spacers to provide a little bit of a gap for two of the holders. I’ll see how well they’ll work when they arrive.

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Second is on the rear of the case with regard to the mounting holes for the FlexATX power supply. I didn’t make them large enough to accommodate a #6-32 screw. I have no idea how I screwed that up, but they’re a few hundreds of an inch too small, but a 5/32″ drill bit easily fixed it. The screw holes lined up perfectly as well, thanks to a diagram published by SilverStone Tek.

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Aside from that, there’s also the cutout I chose for the port multiplier: DB-50. A little research should’ve been done on this first to realize that the port multiplier is dimensioned to a DB-50S cutout, not a DB-50. The difference is that DB-50S is about ½” wider than DB-50. For now, only one of the screws on the back of the port multiplier could be secured. The eSATA port is still accessible, but not in a way I’d be comfortable leaving for the long term. Perhaps I can re-mount the multiplier on a different kind of bracket that will fit in a DB50 port. I’ll look around for options.

Okay one other thing: I don’t have the four front fans quite evenly spaced. Needless to say, before publishing the design file, I’ll have a couple modifications to make.

The finish on the case is high quality, and the case feels very sturdy. The cutouts for the fans fit their respective fans without any problem. The hidden hardware is also a plus. There are embedded screws on the front and bottom panels to be secured down with an 11/32″ nut — use sockets and wrenches where needed to ensure everything stays secure.

Otherwise the enclosure came out exactly as designed and was shipped wrapped in enough bubble wrap to protect a small child. So how did the components fit?

Building the enclosure

The three 60mm fans mounted without any problem. I’m using the noise isolating mounts that came with them as well instead of screws.

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The four 80mm fans in the front did meet some small interference from the lip at the front of the bottom panel. But last week I ordered several packs of Gelid rubber fan mounts, intending on experimenting to see what I can do with them to improve the sound profiles of the various computers I have. And they pad out the fans perfectly on the front panel.

And I discovered the Gelid mounts can be attached to the fan or the panel first. Most vibration-isolating fan mounts require you to mount them to the panel first and then attach the fan to it, which can be problematic in tight corners, such as the front panel of the enclosure. But it wouldn’t have worked anyway as it would’ve been difficult getting the front panel flush with the lip on the bottom panel. The ability to attach the mounts to the fans, then the fans to the front panel was a major bonus — and in small form-factor computer builds, such as microATX or miniITX cases, I can see that making things much, much easier.

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I’ve ordered filters from modDIY as I wanted filters that wouldn’t stand out. I also ordered a power supply jumper switch as well. They ship from Hong Kong, so I can go without them in the mean time. Not sure if I’ll end up practically destroying the fan mounts getting the filters put on, so it’s a good thing I’ve got plenty of them. They’re somewhat difficult to work with as well — pliers will come in quite handy trying to get these installed — so perhaps different vibration isolating mounts are in order.

The jumper switch I ordered since it’s a lit jumper switch, meaning I can just cut the switch off its wires and attach the vandal resistant switch to the PSU adapter. Ideally I’d be soldering it, but I’m not sure if I’m going to do that.

For powering the fans, I purchased an NZXT Grid from my local Micro Center — with 7 fans, something was going to be needed to keep this sane. A SATA power splitter powers two of the hard drives while the two SATA connectors from the PSU power the other two. And the Agestar HDD “bumpers” came in handy this time as well for holding the hard drives — I do still have the CaseLabs HDD brackets, but opted against them for this, in part because I misplaced the hardware for it.

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Right now there’s not much in the way of cable management. Eventually I’ll take some 3M Command clips — I used them in Absinthe and Beta Orionis — and use those to help with the cable management. They work much better than zip ties alone as they will pull and hold the cables out of the way. For the power switch I’m currently using an ATX power switch I’ve used previously to jumper a spare PSU when bleeding the water cooling loops. I have one LED run currently to the eSATA activity light. I intend to have four LEDs total for each of the four individual HDD activity lights.

Until I get all the small parts necessary to finish this up, I do at least have it running inside the enclosure to make sure everything works. I have stuff on the way from two companies to finish this out.

And so far the fans are quiet, comparable to the fans in Beta Orionis at least. And it’ll probably be a little more quiet once I get the cabling better managed. If necessary I do have noise dampening material as well I could put on the sides and top of the enclosure to help curtail noise even more. When I tested the fans without anything else in the enclosure, you’d have to be right up near the enclosure to hear the fans due to the airflow’s clear path. Everything that’s in the enclosure now is creating turbulence, so there’s some noise. I’m not expecting to completely eliminate any noise, but at least have it so that it’s not going to be noticeable.

Technology

Benchmarks, bottlenecks, and buyer’s remorse – revisiting AMD vs Intel

Posted on by Kenneth Ballard / 0 Comment

I’ve had the wonderful chance over the last couple months to interact with some very arrogant elitists and fanboys. The AMD vs Intel debate to those individuals is over, and the clear and unchallengeable winner is Intel. There was even one person I encountered for whom the words “buyer’s remorse” had likely just entered his vocabulary, as he basically insinuated that anyone who defends the FX-8350 has it, even going so far as to open his post with a link to Wikipedia’s article on post-purchase rationalization — i.e. “buyer’s remorse”:

The 8350 is clearly not the better choice over a locked i5 for gaming, but people cannot stand to believe they’ve made a bad purchase decision. I don’t blame them; it sucks to purchase something and to find out there’s better options out there, but I don’t like how people try to justify their purchases to no end.

Talk about an elitist and arrogant position to take. Better options being available does not make a particular purchase a “bad decision”. Decisions have trade-offs, plain and simple. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about cars, computers, espresso machines, or what have you. There are tradeoffs going with AMD, and there are tradeoffs going with Intel. There are tradeoffs going with an AMD graphics card, and there are tradeoffs going with nVidia. That doesn’t make either an inherently bad decision, and to act like going with AMD is an inherently bad decision shows the elitist attitude I’ve seen permeate much of this discussion.

On YouTube, there was one Intel fanboy who made this blanket statement: “AMD is one big failure since they made their first product FACT.” Oh brother. I’m guessing this guy thinks the FX processors are AMD’s “first product”. Goes to show no one is immune to dumb comments, regardless of what side you’re on.

AMD and Intel have both been around for a long time. Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) was founded on May 1, 1969, while Intel (derived from “integrated electronics”) was founded on July 18, 1968. In response to the idiot who made the blanket comment, I said this: “Crap since their first product? So tell me your experience with AMD’s 8086 and 8088 processors. Or did those processors come out before you were born?” That wasn’t AMD’s first product, but the point still stands.

In his book The Political Brain: The Role of Emotion in Deciding the Fate of the Nation, Drew Westen said “When reason and emotion collide, emotion invariably wins”. And without any doubt, many throw a lot of emotion at the AMD vs Intel debate and don’t talk rationally on it — and that holds true for both sides.

Let’s explore history a little. For quite a while, AMD and Intel have traded blows. Sure AMD is lagging behind Intel quite a bit right now, having not released anything groundbreaking in several years. Those who want to believe AMD can never do anything right obviously don’t realize that AMD’s pulled quite ahead a few times over the years, and in one case almost left Intel in the dust.

If you’re running the 64-bit version of Windows right now, you actually have AMD to thank on that. AMD developed the x86-64 instruction set targeted by 64-bit versions of Windows. It was renamed AMD64 on release and first implemented with the Opteron processor in April 2003, with the Athlon 64 following in September 2003. It would later become known as x64 to distinguish it from x86. Unlike Intel’s original 64-bit implementation, AMD64 is fully backward compatible to x86, which is why you can run either a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system on x64 processors as if it were a 32-bit processor.

This put Intel in the position of underdog, and basically means you have AMD to thank for the fact 64-bit desktop processors even exist today. But I don’t expect the Intel elitists to actually do that. Wouldn’t surprise me if they’re trying to find any way of disproving what I’ve just said. Intel didn’t release an x64 processor until July 27, 2006, more than a year after the release of the x64 versions of Windows XP Professional and Server 2003, and over 3 years after AMD’s first offering.

Now Intel actually had a 64-bit processor called the Itanium, first released in 2001. It was first announced in 1999, and a nickname was dubbed for it quickly: “Itanic”. Compared to other established options, such as the DEC Alpha, it was a disappointment, and the processor definitely did not live up to the hype, meaning its nickname was quite fitting. The Electronic Engineering Journal tells the story in their article “Sinking the Itanic“. Despite that, the Itanium is still around and still selling, for some reason.

While 64-bit computing has actually been around for quite a long time, AMD brought it to the desktop, and it wasn’t the first race that AMD won either, only the most striking because of the time lag by Intel. AMD was the first to ship a 1 gigahertz desktop processor. While Intel tried to contend they actually beat AMD, evidence suggests AMD beat them to it, and it is generally accepted that AMD won the gigahertz race.

But where AMD has always won out over Intel is price to performance. I don’t believe Intel has ever come close — unless you’re buying your Intel processors used or waiting for price drops to close the gap, but even then that still may not close it enough.

The point is that most trash talkers have likely not used AMD products for long, if at all. It’s a lot like the comments you see on Amazon by buyers who trash-talk an entire company after having a bad experience with one product and cannot understand why people would actually give 4-star or 5-star reviews. AMD has contributed significantly to the current state of desktop computing.

Today they’re lagging behind Intel, but that doesn’t erase the history AMD has made.

Bottlenecking

One thing I’ve seen way too much is the use of bumper sticker thinking by many of those in the “millennial” generation. With AMD vs Intel, this is no different. Arrogant, elitist people with superiority complexes armed with terms and phrases they understand only to the point that the phrases basically mean “Intel rules” take to the web in various forums to shout down anyone who dares speak favorably of AMD.

Which brings me to “bottlenecking” — arguably the most misunderstood and misused term when it comes to talking about computers.

Anyone who is familiar with business processes and process and operational management knows the term. With computing I’ve come to the conclusion that most who use the term don’t understand it. They know only what they’ve read: “AMD CPUs will bottleneck graphics cards”. Since bottleneck sounds like a bad thing, and the ignorant Intel owner is looking for a new reason to feel superior to his AMD counterparts, he automatically thinks that Intel doesn’t bottleneck graphics cards, assumes AMD always bottlenecks graphics cards, and so throws around the word as if it actually means something.

The term bottleneck, of course, comes from the neck of a bottle: the thinner neck greatly inhibits the flow of liquid leaving it. A similar term from military strategy is is “choke point“. In business, a bottleneck is an inefficiency that slows down an entire process and keeps it from operating at peak capacity. It’s a very important concept to understand from a management perspective.

And it applies perfectly to computers. Your system is full of bottlenecks. An Intel processor will not eliminate bottlenecks, so don’t even bother trying to say such.

Storage is easily the most constricting bottleneck for your system. The read and write throughputs will always hold back your system. The fact that CD, DVD and BluRay drives are always significantly slower than even HDDs is why optical drive emulation started coming into vogue about 10 years ago — you can drastically improve game performance by emulating a CD/DVD image instead of using the physical disk. Having an SSD curtails the storage bottleneck even more.

Memory is also a bottleneck. Your processor is always going to be significantly faster than your RAM. Anyone familiar with low-level programming knows that the CPU can perform operations faster on registers than memory. Compiler optimizations take this into account as best as possible, which leads to the common notion that you shouldn’t try to outsmart the compiler, because you cannot do it.

In short any component in your system can be a bottleneck. Having an Intel processor does not change this. Period.

Let’s talk graphics. The common definition of a bottlenecked GPU is one that doesn’t constantly operate at 100% usage while in a game. And with this demonstrably incorrect definition come a number of implications, conveniently always levied against AMD as well. “You’re not getting full performance out of your GPU when using an AMD processor” is the typical argument. The question they never want to examine is whether that actually matters.

Intel elitists always overstate the concern as well. They imply the GPU not operating at 100% usage is a big problem, which it’s not as I’ll show in a moment, while also implying that an AMD system cannot see any kind of performance gain by upgrading to a newer graphics card or to multiple graphics cards, which is demonstrably untrue.

In Beta Orionis, I have two GTX 770s in SLI. Currently I’m working through Bioshock Infinite. In game GPU usage will fluctuate from as low as 30% to nearing or reaching 100% depending on where I am. Many would say that this shows my graphics cards are bottlenecked because their usage never stays at 100%. What they never take into account that the GPU may not need to be used at 100%.

JayzTwoCents made a video back in August 2013 where he demonstrated a bottleneck. He wound down his i7-3770K processor to the equivalent of a 1.8 GHz i3 processor running with a single GTX 680 graphics card and demonstrated what a bottleneck actually looks like. Quite simply it was a high CPU usage but low GPU usage. In the video, he showed GPU usage hovering around 50% while the CPU usage was significantly higher. That’s a bottleneck.

If your GPU usage isn’t maxing out, but your CPU usage also isn’t maxing out, and you’ve got the settings on your game cranked up as high as they’ll go, that’s not a bottleneck. It’s just a game that isn’t challenging your system to its limits. It’s not automatically a bottleneck if your graphics cards aren’t maxed out — yet too many people who don’t understand what bottlenecks actually are will say otherwise. “Well you’re not getting the maximum value of your graphics card if it’s not maxed out”. Well, perhaps it’s not being maxed out because it doesn’t need to be.

Watching frame rates in Bioshock Infinite with FRAPS with the game maxed out on its graphics settings, V-sync off as well, I always get at least 60 frames per second, with extended periods in the triple digits. Talk to an Intel elitist and they’ll probably tell you what I’ve just said is impossible, or they’ll pull a variant of the “pics or it didn’t happen” trope. Watching the CPU usage on my FX-8350 versus GPU usage, the GPU usage never hit 100%, but neither did CPU usage on any core. The game’s engine spread out its processing across the cores, and SLI allowed its graphics processing to be spread out across both GPUs. If I had only one graphics card, I’d expect it to be maxed out, but as I have multiple graphics cards, it isn’t maxed out.

When I disable SLI, the single graphics card is maxed out, and we see the typical fluctuations in usage percentage that would be expected during the course of a game, with the CPUs not having any problem keeping up. So clearly the FX-8350 isn’t being any kind of bottleneck for the GTX 770, either single or dual in SLI. I have no reason to believe it’ll be one for any other graphics card currently on the market.

Which brings me to arguably the largest bottleneck of any gaming system: the game itself, specifically how it’s engineered. While faster hardware can get around poorly designed or implemented software, it’s an uphill battle, possibly requiring significant improvements in hardware to get noticeable results.

Drivers and the operating system can also contribute to or exacerbate any observed bottleneck.

Bottlenecks have numerous causes, numerous points for investigation or solution, yet most Intel elitists will readily assume it’s the processor if it’s learned the person is running AMD.

The biggest reason to analyze bottlenecks is not just to determine the extent to which they exist, but the cost to alleviating them compared to the capacity that is gained. Any money that is going to be spent needs to be balanced by a commensurate increase in value and/or capacity. Even businesses are willing to live with bottlenecks in processes if it’s determined alleviating the bottleneck won’t result in a desirable return.

As such if you already have an AMD FX system, then it makes absolutely no sense changing over to an Intel system, in my opinion. Sure doing so would potentially alleviate a bottleneck, and while the determination of whether the expense is worth the upgrade is entirely up to you, I don’t see it as being worth it. The gains, which could be rather meager, don’t justify the costs. After all, if the gain in performance is one you’re likely to not notice, why undergo the time and expense of changing over? If you have a water cooled system, the expense is greater as you have to change not just the mainboard and CPU (memory can likely be re-used), but the water block as well.

Instead ask yourself this: what kind of performance are you seeking, is your desire reasonable, and can your system deliver it? In my case, the answer is an overwhelming yes. And with most other games I’m going to be playing, I see no reason to not believe that will hold true.

What matters in gaming is the minimum frame rate. So long as your system can deliver at least the refresh rate of your monitor at its highest resolution, you’re golden. And if it can do that with all settings in your game maxed out, even better. And, again, AMD paired with a good graphics card can deliver that.

But again, talk to any Intel elitist and they’ll likely say that is impossible. I’ve seen the comments all over the place.

Benchmarks

Benchmark scores have become little more than tokens of superiority — “yeah, well, my system can break 10000 on 3DMark Fire Strike while yours can’t”.

The problem with benchmarks is how misleading they can be at times. All benchmarks being synthetic, they measure a static block of code — be it an algorithm or 3D scene. This eliminates variables and gives a good base against which performance comparisons can be made. If you’re overclocking, they help determine if you’re gaining ground.

But here’s where many end up getting led astray: they focus only on one or a few scores. I’ve seen it a lot.

Using one benchmark to determine the true performance comparison between platforms is like taking a person’s time in a mile run and using it to extrapolate out to entire marathon. For some, it will be an accurate extrapolation. For most, though, not quite. And the same with benchmarks.

This is why no reputable review site posts only a couple benchmark numbers. They tend to provide a wide range of benchmarks and frame rates. And here is where you learn one key detail: despite claims to the contrary, Intel does not have an absolute advantage over AMD, and where Intel does have the advantage, it’s not as striking as many believe.

This doesn’t stop the Intel elitists, and I’m sure I’ve only just enraged them even more.

TweakTown made a performance comparison of the FX-8350 vs the i7 4930K running GTX 780s in SLI and GTX 980s in SLI at 4K. In all measurements, the AMD processor gave the better scores. Unsurprisingly, the results where challenged by commenters. Many said that they should’ve used the i7 4770K instead. Kenny Rucka Jarvis made a prediction: “They should have compared it to a 4770k or 4790k which would have blown the 8350 out of the water.”

TweakTown did just that, and the results showed the i7 winning out, but it didn’t “blow the 8350 out of the water”. TweakTown had this to say:

Spending an additional $180, or another 50% or so on top of the AMD combo, results in some decent improvements in frame rate. The issue again is, the performance increase is only around ~10% on average, while you’re spending 50% more money. Some games are scaling much better, with improvements of 15-20%, but still – you’re spending $180 more.

Again the performance gain was not that significant in what they tested. While in some games the performance difference may be a bit more pronounced, look at the frame rates — in most cases the AMD processor was quite capable of keeping up with the Intel processor on both minimums and averages. Sure the 4770k won out, but it didn’t “blow the 8350 out of the water”.

In the comments to the 4K challenge involving the 4930K, Facebook commenter Gary Lefever observed “Show an AMD CPU in a positive light and the butthurt Intel warriors come out in droves! You’d think someone was talking about their mothers or something.” Pavan Biliyar responded:

I agree, although in defense of the butthurt, this article is somewhat biased, though not intentionally. All games tested were GPU-bound in addition to running them at really high resolutions and details, and likely single-player– all of which puts very little emphasis on impact of CPU. GPU-bound tends to favor AMD platforms by winning on perf/$, but they also defeat the purpose of upgrading as platforms from several year ago would end up with similar performance, whether we’re talking about a Phenom x6 or Core i5-700. Playing GPU-bound makes upgrade gain percentage per dollar unreasonable.

If you want a reason to upgrade the CPU, you should be playing CPU-bound, and therein lies a simple fix to make the butt hurt happy: CPU-bound scenarios will embarrass AMD every time. Trouble is that CPU-bound doesn’t favor fancy graphics card combinations if it even has proper multi-GPU support. I mean, that’s the whole idea, it’s CPU-bound. Except now we’re accidentally offending those butt hurt over their $350+ graphics setups, we’re not allowed to tell them they spent too much.

Of course getting more than one display can compensate and give those expensive graphics something to do, all while justifying an Intel platform– but wait, now we’re getting into a demographic that wouldn’t settle on AMD because it isn’t like they are strapped for cash. Making the comparison at this stage doesn’t make much sense. Although, I’d like to see a surround 4K review by Anthony Garreffa testing both platforms with maybe more graphics cards to compensate. Frame rates may be unplayable, but I’m more interested in how each platforms scales for their total price.

That being said, the rich stay rich because they are picky with their money, they don’t take the ‘spared no expense’ route– except when they go out and get Apple laptops. The majority of any salary bracket aren’t enthusiasts.

And that’s certainly a very striking observation. The majority of people who build a computer don’t care about anything more than getting what they need at the right price, and the question will come down to what will meet their needs. Benchmarks won’t tell you whether something will meet your needs, as benchmarks are merely performance comparisons involving static blocks of code, and so can lead people astray or cause them to overspend by leaps and bounds, meaning they’re not getting the most for their money.

Gamers are probably going to be a little more involved in their purchase decisions, but most computer buyers aren’t. Enthusiast gamers are the ones to avoid, in my opinion, as most that I’ve encountered don’t have any capability of thinking with real costs in mind. I said this on the Linus TechTips forum:

I’m not going for super ultra-high resolutions with framerates faster than your eye can see, let alone what my monitors can actually display. Obviously if you’re going for that, you’re not going to be running AMD, but you’re also not going to be running a 3rd generation Intel, and probably not even a 4th generation. You’re probably going to have a 5th generation Intel with multiple 980s.

Later in that post I followed up by saying “So the question comes down to what performance are you seeking, and can your system deliver it? If no, then figure out what to upgrade.”

The additional question is why you’re seeking that kind of performance. Are you merely trying to improve benchmark scores, or is your system no longer capable of delivering what you actually need, not what you think you need? Are you trying to compete with others purely on the egotistical notion of being able to brag about your system and the benchmarks and frame rates it can achieve, or can you save money and actually buy a system capable of delivering a decent experience that won’t send your bank account into the red or max out credit cards?

Conclusions

Now many Intel enthusiasts, or “Intel warriors” as mentioned earlier, will probably look at all of this and call it one giant case of “buyer’s remorse”: “Wow, you wrote all of that. That’s a lot of guilt over a bad purchase. Stop trying to defend your bad choices.” Creationists have said similar about those who defend evolution, calling it “going to a lot of effort to disprove God”. Many Intel enthusiasts have also adopted the point of view that it doesn’t matter what AMD puts out, it’s crap and should be avoided at all costs — similar to how many anti-vaxxers will almost automatically be against anything labeled a “vaccine”.

Or they might cop out and say “well you’re experience isn’t typical”, but the only thing atypical about my setup is the SLI configuration — that and the fact I’m using a 32″ television for a monitor (and it works quite well!).

The thing is that Intel doesn’t provide significant performance gains over AMD in virtually every measurement I’ve seen. It’s better, but not so significantly better as to, in my opinion, justify the cost. And an AMD FX processor will not bottleneck a graphics card!

Back in June of last year, I said this to a friend of mine on Facebook:

It’s like gamers saying “Yeah well, my system can do BF4 at 150fps, which demolishes yours which can only do 80fps”. Okay…. but can you tell the difference between 150fps and 80fps, or will both appear to be smooth renderings to the casual observer?

The AMD vs Intel gaming debate is just one giant dick-measuring contest, in which benchmarks and frame rates are substitutes for inches in length or girth, and claims that AMD will “bottleneck graphics cards” or is otherwise substandard are the substitute for insinuating a guy has a small prick, or can’t get a woman off, or what have you…

Whether a particular need can be adequately met by an AMD CPU is ignored in favor of pointing out that Intel can do it better. “I can get 150fps in Battlefield 4 while you can only get 80fps” is the equivalent of saying “I’ll be she can cum a lot harder with my cock!” Yes, I’m intentionally making sexual remarks to show the absurdity and irrelevance of this whole discussion and the degree to which it’s blown out of proportion. The discussion has long ago lost any sense of rationality or sanity and has turned, in essence, into a substitute for competitions over prick size and sexual ability. (Perhaps that’s why I have no qualms going with AMD, as I have no problems satisfying my wife…)

Does it ultimately matter that Intel can do it better? If you answer that question in the affirmative, you need to rethink your perspective. For most, it won’t matter. For the relative few, they’re already aware it matters, and they already have other requirements that can only be met with higher-end hardware.

As I said on the Linus TechTips forum, quoted above, if you want to be able to play every game on the market maxed out at the highest resolutions, you’re not running an AMD processor. You’re probably not even running a 4th generation Intel (4xxx series i5 or i7). You’re probably running the i7-5960X in a system with two or three GTX 980s, and you’re probably waiting with eager anticipation the release of the Titan X and Broadwell — and everything is probably water-cooled and overclocked as far as you can take it.

In other words, if you’re a performance enthusiast, money is likely no object. And when money is no object, there is no competition possible. It’s a notion that we see time and time and time again, not just with computing but with everything else in life.

For everyone else, AMD is a viable option, so don’t overlook them. Yes the processor is a couple years old, but it’s still quite a contender. For gamers the GPU matters more anyway and, again, an FX processor will not bottleneck a graphics card — but that won’t stop elitists from continually saying it will.