Samsung Galaxy tab 2 10.1 tablet

My son turns 2 next month so we decided to get him a Samsung galaxy tab 2 10.1 tablet

It was a last minute thing because I already have a transformer prime 201 tablet which I use to play angry birds in class  and I got bored in class after I could not pass a level so I downloaded some baby games eg baby-bus ones which were cute and then showed my wife and she loved it.  So that night instead of studying, I googled all the latest tablets and local retailers as our exchange rate is tanking vs US (1.03 last night 28th August 2012) so I did not see any benefit from buying offshore in this instance.

We do not have much choice and given that the latest transformer pad infinity costs about $800 AUD in our shops, I would be stupid to buy that and my current transformer prime is basically the same in features and functionality.

My wife gave me these parameters:

must have front and back camera, must not be too old and slow, must not be too heavy, must not be an apple product (she hates itunes)

Price was not a factor

So to cut a long story short, I started with the Google nexus 7 (7 inch), did not have a rear camera so ruled that out.  The other 7inch on the market were by brands like toshiba which I did not like.

So then 10 inch.  Samsung had a vast offering so I was too confused as all the online reviews said the galaxy tab 2 is worse than galaxy tab 1 ie heavier, no flash, crap os, short battery life of 8 hours etc.  

next day I went shopping!  So first stop was the dick smith store on George street.  They had a samsung galaxy tab 2 10.1,  but they did not have a big range in their store so I could not really compare, then i walked across the road to the samsung concept store.  They like copying apple and the guys there wore the pretty uniforms but they did not know anything about the product and they only sold the more expensive versions ie the 10.1 inch galaxy tab 2 was selling at about 699.  So then I walked around Myer and went up to level 6 of the food court at Sydney's Westfields and then almost got lost and then found the big JBHIFI, they had the biggest range of tablets, so I looked at every single one of them, the 7inches were definitely too small.  Sony's offering is too thick.  Toshiba offerings weight like a tonnne of bricks.  So it was down to the transformer pad infinity or the Samsung.  The Samsung had different specs eg 8g, 16gb, 32gb etc 

the 16gb one I bargained and got it for 447 AUD.  I did seriously consider getting the ASUS transformer pad 300 since I already have the prime so I know that it works and I did consider ipad2 but my wife hates apple as the reviews all say they are better in terms of OS, speed, camera, pixels etc...so a samsung it was.  (I personally had some issues with Samsung Cameras in the past as I got one for free with the 50inch samsung tv a few years ago and the pictures it took were crap) 

I spent half an hour fiddling around with the galaxy tab 2 trying to figure out how to get the camera to shoot a picture of myself (you click the gallery icon as there is no camera icon) and then there is a button.  If you get stuck on the pictures, click the back button and you will find the options to change camera. I learnt how to use an onscreen keyboard for the first time (my wife has an iphone but i have never used it before ha ha).  The samsung onscreen keyboard has all the keyboard characters that you would find on a normal keyboard and I found the tilde key by clicking the 123 key.   Everything appeared to function at a reasonable speed, so voila, my son's first gadget present.  

The two speakers are on the front, one  on each side when looking at the galaxy note when it is horizontal, and when you play games like tap tap revenge (for free from google play) which plays vertically, you will not block the speakers at all.  They are long enough so you wouldnt block the whole speaker even if you have big hands.

I was reading the online review sites and the tablet market is about to explode as the asus one had a phone embedded in it.  So no point paying top dollar for technology that will be obsolescent in a few months time, especially when my son might just go and throw the tablet off the balcony ha ha

On a brighter note, I am sure we have all been following the Samsung vs Apple litgation and Samsung has lost.  My marketing lecturer said that at the time that Samsung/Google decided to blatantly infringe on Apple's patents such as the swiping gestures to minimise/maximise the displayed contents, they must have had a plan c.  As Samsung and Apple really cannot live without each other since Samsung manufactures components for Apple all they will do is settle and move on.

Interestingly enough, I forgot to do my homework and that was about marketing a touchscreen mobile phone with the latest technology.  The answer was to list what the customer requires (which I never do) as in needs vs wants ie product specifications and go on from there.  To be honest with you, I wish Nokia would just make a dual sim phone that can be used in every single country.  I was in Hong Kong and wanted to buy one there since they are dirt cheap, but I was told that they would not work in Australia.  There are lots of chinese clones but based on my experience those chinese clones are only good for a few uses and then will die in one year.  They have amazing technology not available in any apple or mainstream product and well before those mainstream products adopt it.  Eg dual sims were available years before nokia released a dual sim phone.  I guess I was always a die hard nokia fan due to the n95 and was hoping to get  a nokia phone for the n95 replacement as it is getting worn out around the edges.  My criteria would be a good fast camera as the n95 took great pictures but it was slow to focus.  It would be great if nokia could work with nikon and get all the camera features from a small and light nikon camera such as s3100 which starts up super fast, has fast auto focusing etc and add the phone features, keep it light and slim with long lasting batteries.  That would be one way of reviving itself.  I hate having to carry both a phone and a pocket camera.  I read somewhere that nokia (the whole company) is cheap to buy so if nikon could merge with or buy nokia and then put nokia's phone technology onto its smallest cameras, that would be a way to save nokia by positioning itself as the best camera phone...  For me, I dont do any of the smartphone crap as australia has the most expensive internet plans for mobiles in the western world, so I don't twitter or facebook, all I need is a phone to make calls and a point & shoot camera replacement.. .Oh well,  guess that won't happen.  time to study and watch this week's episode of hells kitchen...

This week some nice movies
6.Bullets.2012.DVDRip.XviD-DiSPOSABLE is finally a watchable Jean Claude Van Damne movie.  In the back of the butcher room, I was hoping he would kick the carcasses like when he used to kick trees in kickboxer lol  It appears he has picked up some knife skills, would be great to see him go head to head with Steven Segal.   I remember those scenes in Steven Segal movies that made me want to learn knife fighting :)

So many version of this didnt know which one to watch..ended up with this one
Snow White & The Huntsman 2012 EXTENDED BRRip XviD AbSurdiTy
It is a great movie.  Kristen Stewart's acting is fantastic and the troll scene was so convincing.  I almost thought I was watching the lord of the rings in some scenes lol

I love watching movies about psychopaths, The.Perfect.Teacher.2010.DVDRip.XviD-aAF is a really good one about a rich girl who is literally crazy about her teacher.  Another one was The.Wife.He.Met.Online.2011.DVDRip.Xvid.AC3.Legend-Rg
about a crazy wife obsessive about her husbands every move.

Stash.House.2012.DVDRip.XviD-EXViD is a great comeback movie for Dolph Lundgren, reminded me of panic room.

I decided to refresh my mandarin skills from scratch by installing Rosetta Stone.
install this first
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7272499/Rosetta_Stone_v3.4.7_Preinstalled.exe
then the 3 levels:
http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/7277328/Rosetta_Stone_v3_Chinese_(Mandarin)_Preinstalled.exe

Chinesepod is also great for on the go mp3 listening on your ipod or mobile device (over 14gb)
https://thepiratebay.se/torrent/6344981/Chinesepod_Collection


One product I absolutely hate is the m$ keyboard and mouse bundle we have in australia ie
http://www.shoppingsquare.com.au/product.php?id=401282&n=2184

I have this keyboard at work cos I complained about the wires causing my tea to spill over as I misplace my teacups (disposable paper ones) while I work away... they got me this el cheapo m$ keyboard and it is the worst keyboard design ever, you will frequently miss the function keys at the top row and the keys are not bouncy and too low.  Its like the newer the designs, the worse it gets when it comes to keyboards.

Been sick as a dog...but my favorite media player splashpro ex 1.13 stopped working saying some blacklist crap and I was upset so I decided to google and figure out how to fix it...
u can fix it by following these instructions Download and replace icoupdate.png to C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Mirillis\
and rename it to ico_update.png and delete the old one
user is your windows name
http://www.nsaneforums.com/topic/142961-splash-pro-ex-1130/
or this one
http://wantivirus7.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/splash-pro-ex-1130-plus-serial.html (this is my favorite site for the week hee hee)
I have tested it to work.  To find the path you need to go to win 7 control panel and select the show all folders and files so you can get to your local appdata folder to copy the file over to the right location, once you do so, dont update the proggie until a new full version comes out with new sn
Open the Control Panel.  Open Appearence and Personalization.  Open Folder Options.  Select the General tab.  Select Show All Folders.  Accept and close.
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/w7itprogeneral/thread/5ae36d5d-cb29-49ae-a379-a8be0dde0abc
I have tested it works :)

I found a useful app called PassMark_OSForensics_Professional_1.2.1000_(ENG)___Patch.  There is also a freeware version: http://osforensics.com/purchase.html

My next project this weekend is to install windows 8 pro x64 and see if it will full version on vmware.  My next post will be my Windows 8 experience.

http://www.baltagy.blogspot.com.au/2012/10/atomix-virtual-dj-pro-v72-build-412.html

Games on my Alienware notebook

Just in case you are wondering what I am going to try playing to use my lovely gtx 680m graphics card to its full potential....

I installed Max Payne 3 onto it, blocked with firewall (I use comodo firewall) copied the save games from my old Acer notebook (all in the documents folder in c drive) using sdcard and then I continued from where I left off :)  Reloaded have got a lot of newer updated DLC but I will worry about those when I finish the whole game first :)  I can assure you, the gameplay is noticably better with the GTX 680m on the alienware vs the gt 540m on the acer.  With the GT540m, I kept dying at the start of the section where Max is at a petrol station with a bus, due to the processor lag as there is a rooftop guy and a couple of guys in front of you all shooting at you simulataneously, but with the GTX 680m, I killed everyone swiftly and accurately.

Other games I installed and will play shortly:

Darksiders.II-SKIDROW
Legends.of.Pegasus-SKIDROW

Hitman.Sniper.Challenge-SKIDROW <-- this one is interesting because you need to shoot all the bodyguards and the guy that gets off a helicopter using a sniper rifle from a rooftop far away, there is only one level, but its quite fun if you can find all of the bodyguards lol.

Dark_Souls_Prepare_To_Die_Edition-FLT

Final.Fantasy.VII.Remake-RELOADED

The.Amazing.Spider-Man-SKIDROW <-- I started playing this one and it is entertaining :)

and I am really looking forward to this one
Transformers.Fall.of.Cybertron-SKIDROW


Transformers: Fall of Cybertron transports you to the final days of the ÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛ planet Cybertron where you will experience the darkest hours of the     ÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛ apocalyptic war between the AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS. Embark on an      ÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛ adrenaline-fueled journey through a wide range of missions and massive  ÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛ environments designed around each character’s unique abilities. With    ÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛ the stakes higher than ever before, you play as a variety of            ÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛ Transformers characters, including Grimlock's nearly indestructible     ÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛ T-Rex form and the legendary Combaticons forming into the colossal      ÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛ Bruticus. Fight through both sides of the Transformers’ most epic       ÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛ battles leading to their legendary exodus from their homeworld.         ÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛ Transformers™: Fall of Cybertron™ allows you to go head-to-head as      ÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛ AUTOBOTS and DECEPTICONS with its multi-player online mode. Create your ÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛ own personalized character and weaponry with the most advanced and      ÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛ in-depth customization ever before seen in a Transformers video game.   ÛÛÛ

I only play a few games from start to finish and the last transformers games was one of them.
I still have not finished Max Payne 3 on my old computer due to a tonne of Uni assignments :(

Today I got bored studying so I caught up on australia amazing race s2 ep 6 to 12... i love watching all these nice tourist destinations from the comfort of my own home and seeing them get frustrated at each other :)
Gotta love the challenges in china where the contestants have to either recite a chinese menu or to eat sheep testicles, cockroaches, cicadas, scorpion, starfish etc,

Ooooh yes, America's next top model new season... Americas.Next.Top.Model.S19E01 The college edition

I was irritated the girl I wanted in top 13 was not chosen (Sara 20 year old at 5'8" from the University of Virginia, studying Astronomy/Astrophysics.)

Freebies and useful m$ excel stuff

http://www.exinfm.com/free_spreadsheets.html


Password stuff
http://www.straxx.com/free-excel-password-remover-2012/

How to unprotect a sheet without knowing password

http://excel-formula.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/how-to-unprotect-excel-sheet-without.html
Unprotect Password Protected Sheet in Seconds

In case of a password protect worksheet you are unable to Edit the data on the Excel Sheet. If you do not Remember the Password or do not know the password to unprotect the sheet just follow the below simple steps.
  

Press ALT +  F11 or click on View Code in Developers Tabs



In the Above White Space Enter the below Code. Do not change the code just copy paste:

Sub PasswordBreaker()
    'Breaks worksheet password protection.
    Dim i As Integer, j As Integer, k As Integer
    Dim l As Integer, m As Integer, n As Integer
    Dim i1 As Integer, i2 As Integer, i3 As Integer
    Dim i4 As Integer, i5 As Integer, i6 As Integer
    On Error Resume Next
    For i = 65 To 66: For j = 65 To 66: For k = 65 To 66
    For l = 65 To 66: For m = 65 To 66: For i1 = 65 To 66
    For i2 = 65 To 66: For i3 = 65 To 66: For i4 = 65 To 66
    For i5 = 65 To 66: For i6 = 65 To 66: For n = 32 To 126
    ActiveSheet.Unprotect Chr(i) & Chr(j) & Chr(k) & _
        Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & Chr(i3) & _
        Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
    If ActiveSheet.ProtectContents = False Then
        MsgBox "One usable password is " & Chr(i) & Chr(j) & _
            Chr(k) & Chr(l) & Chr(m) & Chr(i1) & Chr(i2) & _
            Chr(i3) & Chr(i4) & Chr(i5) & Chr(i6) & Chr(n)
         Exit Sub
    End If
    Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
    Next: Next: Next: Next: Next: Next
End Sub

Now Click on the Run Button or press F5:



----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Been busy on my assignments...My first assignment due Monday night is finally ready so I am working on assignment two due in a few weeks time....In my job at work, we are always looking for efficiencies so luckily for me I look for them in my personal life too.  for one of my assignments I need to go do financial statement analysis and I found an investment website that has all the data I need so I just import into excel and bobs your uncle :)


The nike air max ultra is now so comfortable, I wear it everyday to work and I have not turned back (to my hush puppies or other work shoes).  Walking from Chinatown to Central station after class is now much more enjoyable (usually starving by the time class finishes)

I stepped on a thumbtack :( when I pulled it out, a bit of air was released out of the bottom of my nike air max ultra... kinda like when you pump your tyres air gushing sound.  luckily the whole shoe didnt collapse ha ha
guess this is one way you can see if your shoe is the real thing or not :)

Ok the purpose of this post is to alert you to a free microsoft email service www.outlook.com

the interface is much cleaner than hotmail ie no ads at all.  Check it out!  You better hurry or your desired names will all be gone by the time everyone knows about it...  the email address you choose can be used on msn and other m$ sites.
The only thing that i didnt like was that their sms service (if you forget password) does not work to Australia.  Luckily I guessed my password hee hee


I find my alienware fan really does get very noisy as I was playing Darksiders II which I instlaled this week late at night (3am) because the idea of riding on a horse seemed kinky at the time as I couldnt' turn up volume as others need to sleep :0.



As I do a lot of plagiarising for my assignments, http://www.pdftoword.com/
is a great site for converting pdf of financial statements into word format for free (emails to your email address a zip file with the converted word document) so then I can just copy columns of data into excel from word :)  I don't like doing it within acrobat because it doesnt always work to my requirements and i dont have acrobat everywhere i go... of course the "save as excel" button in adobe acrobat is the best in the business and saves me hours of data entry ha ha:)

After studying all day, I decided to catch up on movies and tv...

The Avengers 2012 DVDRip XviD AC3 - TODE is excellent, I just could not stop watching it from start to finish, lots of superheroes in one movie with alien too :)

then i watched True.Justice.Death.Riders.2012.480p.BluRay.x264-mSD
I love msd cos theymake releases nice and small :)  The Steven Segal True Justice series is great, every movie is like a mini series with the same supporting police actresses.  Its great how he has reinvented himself from the early 90s, unlike vandamne movies which are so crap

My favorite dance music collection clubfanatix says 10 more till the end as it is now up to release 290.  I really hope not :(
I used to collect tunnel trance force, then bonkers (happy hardcore) and then a bit of future trance until I discovered clubfanatix.  Clubfanatix is easy listening and keeps you feeling happy.
http://thepiratebay.se/search/clubfanatix%202012/0/99/0

If you are like me and like to save time, this freeware helps u catalogue all your music, its really kewl
http://nfobuilder.com/music/

alienware m17x r4 issues

Update 04/11/2014

A lot of stupid driver update programs will download all the drivers latest versions without knowing what system u have, well for Alienware, whatever u do, DONT INSTALL INTEL USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller Driver
because it is incompatible and will render all your usb ports useless. (go to add/remove programs to uninstall it if you did accidentally install)





Update 19/01/2013
the more i use it the more f*cking issues there are, everyone uses Samsung TV so fk Dell.  HDMI to my 50inch samsung plasma tv doesnt work via the hdmi port.

while I am complaining fking aussie post at hunter connection in sydney australia, always pretending to make escalator maintenance.  been over half a year. they should just fking reverse the direction of the other escalator and make people exiting walk down. I pay so much for po box each year, the least they can do is provide a working escalator. especially in summer here it is 48 degrees celcius!

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/700477-alienware-m17x-r4-hdmi-hd-tv-samsung-problem.html

Update 01/10/2012  Alienware USB 3.0 does not work
http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/675401-alienware-m17x-r4-usb-3-0-problem-17.html

Its like my western digital USB 3.0 external 2'5'' hdd kept disconnecting and reconnecting when transferring files.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
I finally got my lovely new alienware m17x r4 with gtx 680m delivered today.  so I installed all the stuff I had in my last post, and I can say that the sdcard question I had in my last post was solved - it appears that the acer sdcard reader on my old notebook was the bottleneck (6mb/s max) as the alienware notebook's sdcard reader got 30mb/s easy, then when I got home, I installed adobe photoshop cs6 and some games to test out the graphics card.  The SSD is so fast, installing games and adobe took next to no time.

I installed street fighter x tekken and when I was in the game, I connected my good old logitech rumblepad and the alienware detected that no problemo :)  I played 2 rounds on everything at max settings and got 60fps, if I had it at the default settings, I got over 235fps

The alienware is sooo much better looking that my old asus g73jh. After using it all week for my assignment due tomorrow, the keyboard is signicantly better than ASUS chiclet keyboard as keys all have a nice bounce.  The keyboard coloring is easy to configure (top right button above numberpad) and the trackpad is much more responsive than ASUS's one.

The dvd drive is interesting because there is no dvd tray, ie you just stick the dvd into the drive and have to use the windows eject to get the dvd out as there is no eject button

When doing homework and not using the gtx 680m graphics card, the notebook is super quiet.  However, when you start playing games, you then hear the fan noise. It is not loud, but noticeable when do not pay attention to your game :)

I then decided to install a free software firewall and chose comodo.

I ordered a keyboard protector from ebay for a few dollars :)

Apart from fan noise (only when gaming using graphics card, watching movies does not have fan noise)
the major annoyance of the alienware keyboard is there is no right click menu key so I have to go use the alt + something + something in excel to use keyboard shortcuts....

Ok I now find that the sdcard slot being above the dvd slotdrive is very annoying.  Normally a dvd/bluray drive has a tray that precludes anything from going into the dvd drive.  unfortunately the design of the alienware is such that you just stick the dvd in directly without needing to first open a tray.  I found on more than one occasion I didnt look and shoved the sdcard into the dvd/bluray slot.  Luckily I did not use too much force or getting the sd card out would have been a laborious exercise.
I guess the only remedy going forward is to stay awake and look where I stick my sd card ha ha

Its like these keyboard designers need to listen to customers.

This post will be updated when I find more benefits or annoyances with my new notebook :)

ps the keyboard protector I ordered from ebay fits perfectly :)  Its like as always, I should have ordered more to save on postage but the first order, I don't know if they guy could be trusted (even though he had ebay stars coming out of his a$$).  I live near several construction sites so there is a lot of dust so if you leave your notebook on overnight (watch movie & fall asleep), you can see all the dust on the protector the next morning.  That is why to protect your investment, I highly recommend keyboard protectors.  You can type with the keyboard protector covering the keyboard keys no problemo.

One useful feature the alienware has is when you disable the trackpad (fn + f12) and plug in a mouse, the trackpad is disabled eg when you are gaming, you dont want to brush the bottom of your palm against the trackpad and you use a mouse for navigation, then when you unplug the mouse, the trackpad becomes automatically re-enabled :)  I use the same mouse for both my notebooks to save space on my table.

Today UPS called me and I paid the customs GST amount so everything is on track.  Now I decided to download some freeware and update software so I can just install it one by one and do a full system backup immediately after I open the box (of my new Alienware computer).  Here is a list of useful software I intend to stick on it.

Outertech's get diz 4.7 - great freeware text viewer that displays nfo files.  U know what those are for, right?
http://outertech.de/
if you need to generate music nfo files
http://nfobuilder.com/music/

Klite codec pack (mega + 64bit) & Videolan VLC Player
http://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm
and then update it

http://www.download.hr/download-k-lite-codec-pack-update.html

Foobar2000 to play music including high quality flac
http://www.foobar2000.org/download

Qdir 64bit version (its a 4 pane file manager) - the best of its kind :)
http://www.softwareok.com/?Freeware

Gadwin printscreen 4.7
http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/

for Browsers I will install both google chrome and firefox.

I hate installing useless crap but I only have my old n95 which I have used for over 5 years believe it or not....so I need to back up regularly.  If I get enough credit card points to get iphone 5 two years later, I guess that is what my goal is ha ha
Nokia Suite v3.5.34 Stable 
14-Aug-2012

http://nds1.nokia.com/files/support/global/phones/software/Nokia_Suite_webinstaller_ALL.exe

and some other paid appz to install include:
winrar 4.xx
M$ office 2007 (I hate the office 2010 because the keys to copy/cut and paste involve extra commands whereas good old office 2007 is still ctrl+c/ctrl+X & then Ctrl+v)
Adobe photoshop cs6 (it will be interesting to see if it will load faster as on i72630qm GT540m 4gb ddr3, it takes at least 15seconds to fully start up to a usable state, where I sit staring at the logo)
Resume maker professional
Tree Size Professional
UltraISO including the drive emulator
Splash pro ex (I use this to play movies)

These ones will install and run once and uninstall just to test system :)
3DMark Vantage Professional 1.1.0.0
3DMark.11.Pro.v1.0.2
PCMark 7 v1.0.4 Win7
CrystalDiskMark 3.0 (this tests ssd speeds, I got a Crucial 256gb ssd)
http://crystalmark.info/software/CrystalDiskMark/index-e.html
if u need help,this thread has some
http://forum.notebookreview.com/asus-gaming-notebook-forum/599323-whats-good-ssd-read-write-speed-test-prog.html


I was wondering if the Alienware will have faster sd card writing speed because my Acer maxed out at 6mb/s whereas the SDcard I was using was a Sandisk ultra class 6 sdxc advertised 30mb/s, so after a bit of googling, it is the card itself that is the bottleneck and I think based on my cursory glance, the 30mb/s is the maximum reading speed and 6mb/s is all you can get for write speed (feel free to correct me on this one lol)
http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/05/27/quick-look-sandisk-64gb-microsdxc-ultra-high-speed-card-a-fitting-name/
but then this article seems to suggest otherwise so I will test with alienware when I get it.
http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-sd-card/

I wont bother installing any temperature test software as I dont want to shorten the gtx 680m's life lol, u can read about temperatures at my fav notebook site http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-680M.72679.0.html
or here
http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=877&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=13
"While NVIDIA should be proud of updating their product line with the fastest graphics processor on the planet, I'm happy they also made it one of the most quiet-running flagship video cards ever tested."

Portable apps I will run to check the system:

TechPowerUp GPU-Z v0.6.3 w/ ASUS ROG Skin (to see info about graphics card)
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/SysInfo/GPU-Z/


HWiNFO64 v4.02-1700
http://www.hwinfo.com/download64.html

GPU Caps Viewer 1.17.0 with OpenGL 4.3 Support
http://www.geeks3d.com/20120807/gpu-caps-viewer-1-17-0-with-opengl-4-3-support/

SimpleSysInfo v3.0

Portable:
http://www.wieldraaijer.nl/download/SimpleSysInfo/SimpleSysInfo.exe

There are a few useful apps in the portable nirsoft package.  Note if you have antivirus, it will go crazy, but as you know antivirus is always false positives.

My favorite is the search my files tool.  It lets you easily find and delete duplicate files.

Portable:
http://download.nirsoft.net/nirsoft_package_1.15.10.zip