PLDT DSL and Zyxel Modem Router

Two months after using PLDT "unlimited" DSL, at the best I'd say it's pretty much crap. It's down almost everyday for at least an hour (once it was forty-eight hours). Crap. Then when you're finally connected to the Internet, you'll find that you get less than sixty-percent of the advertised bandwidth. Crap. Then there's customer support. It doesn't take a computer literate to know they're talking BS. They could at least put someone remotely knowledgable in computer networks available to answer the phone. No one likes calling a helpdesk and then gets, well, Crap.

Fortunatley, they'll supply you with quality modems (no USB modems here; Globe, stop trying to sell with that junk). If you got a Zyxel 650R, you can set it to router mode for security. While mine was in bridge mode, Zonealarm reports 5-10 intrusions a second, totalling to almost 950,000 intrusions in four weeks!

To enable router mode, open 192.168.1.1 in a browser, login and enter Wizard setup. Change
Mode: Router and
Encapsulation: PPPoE,
go to next page and enter your username and password then change
IP Address: Obtain IP Address Automatically
Connection: Nailed-Up Connection
Network Address Translation: SUA Only
Save your settings and diagnose, check that everything is PASS. Logout and close browser.
Go to Control Panel > Network Connections and open properties for LAN Connection. Open TCP/IP Properties and set IP Address and DNS to Automatic.
You won't be needing to run the PPPoE connection dialer anymore as it will automatically connect to the Internet (when it's not down).

MSI K7N2 Delta2 and DDR Timings

If you have this board and plan to change your mem timings, make sure to have B.30 (the older one) BIOS. I used to believe I had extremely low quality RAM (probably even fakes), Apacer DDR400 2.5-4-4-8 with ProMOS chips (2-4-4-7@166) which was extremely unstable whenever I tried changing the timings. Now, check these out:

2-4-4-7@166 2.6v PCMark2002: 4405 3DMark2001SE: 10017

2-2-2-11@166 2.6v PCMark2002: 4537 3DMark2001SE: 10269

Using these new timings and the R550EE@440/300 we'd from get 3DMark2001SE: 11044

EDIT: Turning the 'CPU Interface' to [Aggressive] gives another ~200 point boost. It claims to use 'CPU/FSB overclocked parameters', but all CPU and FSB values seem to still be in their default state.

OC: GeCube 9550 Extreme

Yes, I finally gave into overclocking one of my *precious* gear upon learning that the card was most probably oc'd by the manufacturer anyway. My speculation is the 9550EE is an oc'd 9550 (from 250mhz to 400mhz) with mem replaced by uc'd chips (from 300mhz to 250mhz), flashed with a 9600Pro BIOS for stability, and the kick-ass heatsink/fan.

AtiTool was used to modify the clocks and check for artifacts. Artifacts detected >440 core and >312 mem. Here are the results from 3DMark2001SE, default settings, balanced quality.
400/250 10017 (stock)
410/260 10234
420/270 10445
430/280 10595
440/290 10804
440/300 10913
440/310 10953

By just oc'ing the mem (9600Pro clock speeds) we would get: 400/300 10580

Conclusion: 950 3Dmarks translates to what, additional 2-3 fps in HL2? Personally, I'd prefer getting a 9800XT, AXP3200+, 1Gb matched DDR550's when prices drop to Php 4K-6K each. Compared to getting an aluminum performance case and watercooling everything, costing about Php20K.

Rig Benchmark

Sempron 2600+ @ 1.833Mhz, 333FSB 1.65V
MSI K7N2 Delta2
1x Apacer 512Mb DDR400 @ 200Mhz 8-4-4-2.5
GeCube Radeon 9550 Extreme 128Mb @ 250/400
Seagate Barracuda 20Gb HDD 7200rpm
(everything's stock, no OC'ing)

3DMark2001: 10300
3DMark2003: 3390

Not bad, I guess. The scores aren't at the top of any list, but they're double from my previous PC scores.

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Whatever we have to say about computers, OSss, apps, utilities, and the weird stuff they do before it happens to you.