Tours Travel

Top 10 things to do in Gauteng

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If you are looking for a province in South Africa that offers a wide range of activities to suit all personalities, from the stay-at-home to the adventurer at heart, then Gauteng could be the place for you. Take time to relax and enjoy the beauty of Gauteng.

Air to Africa
Enjoy panoramic views of Johannesburg and its surroundings as you float through the air in one of the oldest forms of flight – a hot air balloon. Based in Cradle of Humankind, Air to Air offers a variety of tours that provide passengers with an unsurpassed flight experience.

Cradle of mankind
This World Heritage site covers an area of ​​47,000 hectares and is considered the birthplace of humanity. More than 1000 hominids, ancestors of humanity, fossils have been found in the Cradle of Humankind. The Maropeng Visitor Center provides the visitor with the opportunity to tour the development of the earth and humanity.

The elephant sanctuary
The Elephant Sanctuary is located at the Hartebeespoort Dam, east of Johannesburg. This sanctuary offers an educational and interactive experience for guests. The Elephant Sanctuary offers guests the opportunity to feed, touch and even ride the elephants.

Gold Reef City
Built around a 19th century gold mine, this world-class theme park has something for everyone. Gold Reef City is home to a theme park, a variety of restaurants, a theater, a casino, and a hotel and conference center.

Stay longer
Linger Longer is an upscale restaurant located at the bottom of the Wierda Valley in Sandton. High standards, elegant surroundings and an à la carte menu for all tastes ensure that guests have an unforgettable dining experience.

Day of life spa
Located in Fourways, north of Johannesburg, this spa offers a variety of facilities that allow guests to relax and awaken their senses. This spa has a health bar, sauna, steam room and Swiss showers. Enjoy a day at Life Day Spa and unleash your five senses.

Monte Casino
Located in Fourways, Monte Casino is a leading entertainment destination. This representation of a Tuscan village features hotels, a casino, restaurants and bars, a variety of shops, movie screens, a theater and much more to entertain all types of guests.

Orlando Towers
If adrenaline is the order of the day, look no further than Orlando Towers in Soweto. Bungee Jump, Power Swing, Internal Swing or Rap Jump to get back down. For the less daring, the viewing platform offers 360-degree views of Soweto.

Tswaing meteor crater
40 km north of Pretoria, hidden by a ring of hills, is the Tswaing meteorite crater. Formed more than 200,000 years ago, this is one of four meteorite craters in South Africa. Visitors can enjoy a picnic or a walk around the rim of the ancient crater.

Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden
This Botanical Garden in Roodepoort invites guests to come and enjoy the beauty and tranquility of nature. Against the backdrop of Witpoortjie Falls, the Walter Sisulu National Botanical Garden is home to a variety of plant and wildlife species.

Arts Entertainments

Common resume problems

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“I have received a lot of advice on how to write it, mainly from my staff. It seems they really know about these things. They tell me that I have to use the active voice for the resume. You know, things like” He commanded the Armed Forces of the States United “,” Ordered airstrikes “,” Served three terms as president. “All beautify a little.”

-President Bill Clinton, White House Correspondents Dinner, April 29, 2000

As a professional who reviews resumes frequently, I see a flood of resumes from different people with different backgrounds every week.

In general, the undergraduate / recent grad resumes that I see fall into 1 of 2 categories: either they are very impressive and don’t need a lot of work other than minor formatting issues, or they are good but have some common problems.

Common problems

The two most common problems I’ve seen are not being specific enough and not focusing on results. If your resume says “Information Compiled and Research”, those who review it might rightly think that you yourself don’t know exactly what your responsibilities were.

Focusing on results is equally important – why would someone hire you if they can’t get results?

Example of resume improvement

Here is a good example of what NOT to write on your resume, if you are applying for financial services jobs:

“-Procurement objectives investigated in the construction and homebuilding industries”.

This is not specific enough and doesn’t give me any idea how he did it, what his process was, or what the results of his work were.

What resources did you use to research these? Did you speak to experts? Reference the Wall Street Journal? What criteria did you use to make the final selections? Returns? Cost effectiveness? Scale? Management teams?

Those are all crucial details that were left out of this example.

Here is an improved version:

“-Researched more than 100 acquisition targets in the construction and homebuilding industries using Capital IQ and Factset and narrowed the list down to the top 10 companies. Used financial selection criteria such as revenue growth and profit margins. EBITDA. He also used qualitative criteria such as market dynamics in construction subsegments, strength of management teams and exposure to subprime mortgages. “

This is much better than the first version, but could still need some improvement: the results of your work. What did you spend all those hours doing, if it weren’t for the results?

Sometimes people say they don’t know what the results were or that they can’t link anything directly to their work. If this is the case, get creative and get results.

I’m not suggesting that you lie, but as Bill Clinton points out earlier, sometimes you have to exaggerate a bit. Don’t suggest that your beautiful Excel chart generated an additional $ 1 million in revenue, but claiming greater efficiency or time / money savings is fine.

Here’s an example of how we could add a focus on results to this example:

“-Researched more than 100 acquisition targets in the construction and homebuilding industries using Capital IQ and Factset and narrowed the list down to the top 10 companies. Used financial selection criteria such as revenue growth and profit margins. EBITDA. It also used qualitative criteria such as market dynamics in construction subsegments, strength of management teams, and exposure to subprime mortgages. As a result, the private equity firm conducted additional due diligence on 3 of the companies. “

I admit this is a bit of an exaggeration; in this particular case, it would be quite difficult to say what the true results were.

And sometimes, in fact, you may not be able to determine the results. But if your resume doesn’t have a single mention of results anywhere, you can definitely find some cases where you have tangible results and expand on them.

Technology

Don’t be afraid to show your personality on Facebook

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Social media has allowed us entrepreneurs to start businesses cheaply and spread our message to thousands more people than we could have done otherwise. But, in the process, you must be careful not to only Post about your business. When you do that, you can just seem like an aggressive salesperson, and your followers may soon get bored and abandon you.

But the beauty of social media, especially Facebook, is that you can also show your followers who you are “outside of work.” You can spark their interest with photos and personal “lifestyle” posts.

Sharing parts of your life is a good way to help develop a “know, like, and trust” relationship with your audience. Posts that include things like funny photos and stories will make you seem more approachable and your followers are more likely to be interested in your products.

So, here are some fun ways to brighten the mood on Facebook and increase engagement with your followers:

1-Share your humor

Did your preschooler tell a funny story at breakfast? Feel free to share it. Did you have a fun conversation with your “beast”, teenager or grandfather? Share it. Everyone needs a bit of encouragement during the day, and laughing, of course, relieves stress.

2-What are your weekend plans?

Do you have a favorite hangout on Friday nights? Do your Saturdays find you on the soccer field? Will you support your favorite local charity by attending their annual race or gala? I guarantee you’ll get other soccer moms to feel sorry for you, and in the process, you can raise awareness with a local charity.

3-Do you love to travel? Share your suggestions and favorite locations

Whether you’re traveling for business or just pleasure, sharing notes from your favorite places can help others who are planning a business conference or personal trip. These types of posts are also great for starting conversations about vision boards and wish lists. Even if your clients don’t travel, they can still live vicariously through you!

4-Share your view at lunch time

Almost everyone enjoys leaving the office for lunch, so why not settle in a park, by the water, or on the beach and share your thoughts on Facebook? Even if you’re stuck indoors during bad weather, your sight can spark interesting conversations.

5-Show them your favorite hobbies

How do you relax after a long day at work? What pulls the strings of your heart and motivates you to overcome your workload so that you can enjoy your free time? Hobbies are a wonderful way to engage people in your posts. Show pictures of your workspace, your finished project, or just share how you discovered this hobby.

These are just a few ideas of what to share online to show that you are a real person with a real life outside of work. But, because you are so uniquely different from anyone else in the world, the list of what to share is limitless. So, show what makes YOU; show your talents outside of your job. Sharing these flashes of your personality and your life will attract your audience that wants to interact with you.

Business

Crafts: How to price for profit

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If you are thinking of selling the crafts you make, one of the most important decisions you can make will be how much to charge for your items. If you don’t price your items correctly, you won’t have sales if an item is priced too high, or you will go out of business if the items are priced too low for you to profit. While there are many formulas for calculating prices, they are all based on certain common elements.

First, know your market. If the items you make are priced higher than what people normally buy in your area, you must either be priced lower or sell on the market that supports your prices. Trying to sell high-end jewelry pieces at a flea market won’t work, but finding a specialty boutique or juried fine art show will. Once you’ve decided who your target market is and what they’re willing to pay for, you can start working on your numbers.

Make a list of all your expenses related to creating your crafts. This includes materials, labor, overhead, and profit. When calculating costs for materials, this includes everything from glue, thread, markers, etc. Be sure to include the shipping costs for those materials if you need to order them by mail. Calculate how much the material costs to produce each piece, this gives you the price of the raw item.

Calculating labor is a bit more personal. How many items can you produce in an hour? How much do you want to be paid per hour? If, for example, you can produce five of your items in an hour and you want to earn $ 10 per hour, then your labor cost on each item would be $ 2. Obviously, this amount will vary depending on how many items you can produce in one. time and how much you want to be paid. Add this amount to your cost of materials per item.

Overloading is tricky. While most artisans work at home, don’t think you have no overhead. There is the space you occupy in your house for your work, pens, paper, the telephone, electricity, etc. that is used during your business process is counted toward your overhead. The easiest way to do this is to keep good receipts and open a separate checking account to buy anything for your business. For utilities, take an average household bill (such as electricity) and divide the total amount by the percentage of square feet your home business occupies. Once you have this total number, you can divide it into a daily or hourly number to make calculations easier. Add this figure to labor and materials.

Earning is one of those things that people add to the calculation of work or do it separately. It depends on whether you have someone to help you make the items or not. The profit is really the number you want to make beyond the cost of the item. So if you want an additional dollar of profit on each item over and above your labor, add that amount to the cost of each item. If the cost of making your items brings your retail price lower than the area averages, you can add profit and increase the price, keeping it in line with the average price.

Once you add these four items, this is the price at which you want to sell your item. As you can see, the profit number is what you can adjust to keep your item price in line with your market.

What if your numbers make the item too expensive for your market? The first thing to consider is the cost of materials. This may mean finding new sources for your materials or buying in bulk to cut costs. Don’t forget to look up your supplies on the Internet; You can often find great prices on materials that way. It could also reduce your earnings, or possibly your workforce, although these are the last decisions you need to make.

Take the time to work the numbers and you’ll be more likely to be successful in business selling your crafts.

Home Kitchen

Your new kitchen

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It’s where we prepare food, wash dishes, eat, and socialize. It is the center of the house, the nerve center so to speak, and the place where everyone inevitably ends up, whether they are hosting a dinner party or just a normal Tuesday dinner.

It is your kitchen and it should reflect your personality and tastes like any other room in the house. They say the kitchen is one of the most important rooms in any home and it’s no wonder because it’s the busiest, the messiest, and usually the one with the most ‘stuff’. With so many options, it’s hard to narrow down what you want in your dream kitchen, so here are some ideas to help you out.

A kitchen island can be a godsend, especially if you need more counter and storage space. An island can be mobile or fixed and can even offer a different space for your sink. They’re great places to store items, great areas for a breakfast bar or homework spot, and complete the look of the kitchen while being ultra-functional in the process.

Custom cabinets can make your space shine and use every inch of space you want, as they are made on a project-by-project basis. If you want raised cabinets that go all the way to the ceiling, that’s what you get, if you need a slim slider for trays and flat items to fit in the right place, you can get that too. Everything personalized, everything just for you. A wonderful addition to any kitchen.

Sunrooms are great additions to any kitchen, as they double as dining rooms or breakfast bars. Imagine your kitchen is flooded with light and you have all that extra space for entertaining or just enjoying the outdoors from inside. Most of today’s sunrooms can be used year-round and add all the important square footage to your home no matter where they are. Since kitchens are used a lot, it is always a good plan to create more space there.

New hardware. While it may seem like a simple thing, getting new accessories for your existing cabinets can make your entire kitchen look new again. Going a step further and updating the cabinets can also alter the overall look of the room, and getting new light fixtures and / or plumbing fixtures can also transform the look without breaking the budget.

Auto

When The Game Was Ours by Larry Bird and Magic Johnson with Jackie Macmullan

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Larry Bird and Magic Johnson’s “When The Game Was Ours” with Jackie MacMullan is an interesting journey through the careers of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and the National Basketball Association of the 1980s and early 1990s. These were two of my five favorite players growing up, and I really enjoyed reading about their career highlights and learning more about what was behind the two basketball superstars.

The book chronicles his travels from the classic college showdown through his seasons with the Lakers and Celtics and the intense rivalry between players and teams, to the Olympics, Johnson’s HIV, both from his training and his participation. on teams after playing. Learn how similar the two hall-of-fame players were (and both elected, Bird in 1998 and Johnson in 2002), but equally how different they were and how they brought out the best in each.

While the book is written by both players, it actually looks more like a Jackie MacMullan biography than an autobiography of the two superstars. It is written in the third person, as an outsider looking at their careers and how they interacted, not as a first-hand personal account. This is especially true in the section that discusses other facets of the game, the NBA, and other players besides Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. This is not bad, I also enjoyed those sections and I think they were added to the book. Bird and Johnson did so much to help the NBA, it stands to reason that their story is intertwined with other aspects of the game and personalities.

The parts of the book that I liked the most were the highlights of the duo’s careers. It took me back to those games and it was good to relive them through this book. The casualties, injuries and hurt feelings suffered by the two show that no matter what their success is, not everything is a bed of roses. The book also highlighted the differences between the NBA of the 80s and early 90s and the NBA of the late 90s and 2000s. Maybe it’s just because I’m getting older, but I connect more with Bird and Johnson and the players of their older days. than with those of today. That’s another reason it was nice to relive those moments briefly while reading this book. The final chapters share a bit of what the two of them are up to now, and it was satisfying to know that these two basketball heroes from my youth are still doing well. If Bird and Johnson were heroes and you grew up with them and the NBA like I did, you will enjoy taking a look at their history.

Digital Marketing

Check Google Ranking with New Keyword Position Tool and Google Ranking Checker

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So, you are looking for the best Google ranking tool with which you can determine the ranking of your website on Google. This article will help you find the best tool. Finding the right tool is one of the most important tasks to check the Google ranking or position on the website. This gives you an idea of ​​how all your SEO efforts, link building, etc. they are working. The selection of the tool should be based on several factors, and the tool should take into account many recent changes that have been made to Google in the last year or so. Read on to find out what these changes are and how to find the best Google ranking tool. In the end, you can search the resource box below to find an amazing tool that takes into account all the recent changes (described below) on Google.

Now what are these recent changes to Google and how will they affect your website ranking? It goes without saying that if your website doesn’t rank well on Google, it will be like a desert island with no traffic (unless you have a lot of money for PPC). Now, to understand in simple terms, Google ranks a website based on more than 200 factors, of these, the simplest factor and yet the most important is the keywords (everyone knows that, right?) But you must understand that there is more. When you search for any keyword, say “buy flowers” on Google, you get a set of results, but what people don’t know is that the set of results for the same keyword will be different for someone else sitting at another PC. . Now the question is why? The answer is simply in front of you, have you noticed that Google has changed its home page quite a bit in the last year? Now Google offers you the option to customize your search (on the left side of the Google home page) based on the time period (results since the last year, 1 month, etc.) and on your country (custom location). By setting your preference, you can also search for the same keyword on blogs, forums, etc. it’s basically about giving personalized results and therefore the search results for 2 different people for the same keywords are different. For example, people are emotionally attached to your website and therefore tend to search your website more on Google to see how it is displayed, so Google would rank your website better on your PC but not on the Your friend’s PC.

Second, Google places importance on the location you are searching from. Therefore, Google search results for a keyword in the US will not be similar to results for the same keyword in the UK. Now this is very important for any online business to know where their website is located in different counties as traffic from any country is potential income. If you know that your website is ranking well in country X buy not country Y then you can channel your efforts to improve your ranking in country Y only, this can be done in many ways such as adding popular keywords in that country to your website content. . Basically, the right tool can save you time and give you the right direction to channel your efforts and improve website ranking.

You know that for certain keywords your website appears in Google, but you may also be interested in monitoring those keywords for which you are trying to rank in the top 10 results. Now when you selected certain keywords and you are trying to optimize your website to appear on the first page of Google, you don’t get there in 1 day and it takes time and before you get to the first page your website will arrive. to page 30 (range 300 assuming 10 default results per page) then it can be to page 20 (range 200) and slowly depending on how you are optimized you can get to the first page, now it will be a big task to get to the page 30 and check if Google has indexed it. Here, Google’s ranking tool can find if your website appears on 30-40 pages in a matter of milliseconds.

Relationship

Who is Arnold Friend?

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Joyce Carol Oates “Where are you going, where have you been?” presents the passage of its protagonist, Connie, a fifteen-year-old girl, from childhood to femininity. At the same time, a story of innocence destroyed by evil emerges. The passage Connie passes through is made possible by the introduction of Arnold Friend into her life. While Connie’s character is thoroughly discussed, little information is given about Arnold Friend. One question that comes to mind after reading the story and several critical essays about it is: Is Arnold Friend real or was he just created by Connie’s mind?

Critics Gretchen Schulz and RJR Rockwood claim that Arnold is “created in Connie’s mind …[ing] there alone (520). They further suggest that Connie created Arnold for a chance to become a woman. Schulz and Rockwood also point out “that Connie, like all young people, needs help when she begins to move from the past to the future, when the dangerous inner journey to maturity begins” (152). It’s easy to see good-natured Arnold when viewed this way. If Connie created it, there is no real threat to her life. He is there solely to help her move into another developmental stage in her life.

Connie favors Arnold’s physical appearance, which may suggest that she created him. She appears to be very observant of both the appearance of others and her own. Finding someone who passes their own strict judgment seems more than a mere coincidence. She also approves of his taste in music and clothes. In fact, Arnold seems to be all that would attract Connie. Also, Arnold knows where her family went the day she came to visit and what her sister was wearing. The fact that Arnold seems to know a lot of details about Connie and her family suggests that it was created in Connie’s mind.

Throughout Connie’s conversation with Arnold, she continues to have the feeling that she is looking around her for the first time. For example, Connie walks away from Arnold and enters his house “[t]The kitchen seemed like a place she had never seen before. ”(512) These insights show that she is moving into the next developmental stage of her life, femininity, which is so different from her current stage that she does not recognize it.. what was familiar seems new. This passage is almost finished when it is given to Arnold at the end of the story. He leaves his house, symbolizing his childhood, towards the “land that [she] he had never seen before and did not recognize “(516), which symbolizes femininity.

However, it seems unlikely that Connie created such a threatening character. In her dreams, she thinks of the boy she had been with the night before, “how nice he was, how sweet he always was” (507). Arnold, on the surface, seems to be all that would attract Connie, but on the inside, he is all that would reject her. He’s not the ideal daydreaming guy. He’s too sassy, ​​not like the guys Connie is used to, and he seems to be trying to hide every aspect of his real self.

Arnold tells Connie that he is her lover, which is obviously something that Connie is opposed to. He also threatens that if she tries to wait until her family comes home, “then everyone will succeed” (514). Right after that, he says “… Give me your hand, and no one else will get hurt, I mean, your nice bald dad and your mom and your sister in high heels” (514). He tells her that “no one else” will get hurt, implying that he intends to hurt Connie.

Why would Connie’s mind create a character to help her who also wants to rape her and murder her family? It is highly unlikely that your mind created this horrible character. If Connie’s mind created a character to turn her into a woman, the person is more likely to be like the children in her dreams. Considering that he is still in the childhood stage, he could not create such a complex character. Due to all this incident, Connie becomes a woman, although it is unlikely that her mind created the situation to do so.

Another question that needs to be answered, if Arnold Friend can be assumed to be a real character, and not someone created by Connie’s mind, is: Is Arnold Friend helpful or harmful to Connie?

In “Connie’s Tambourine Man: A New Reading of Arnold Friend”, Mike Tierce and John Michael Crafton state that “[w]We should not assume that Arnold is completely evil because [Connie] is afraid of him “and further suggests that” his arrival could be that of a savior “(532). Obviously, Arnold cannot be considered a savior because of his threats of rape and murder. In fact, Joyce Carol Oates created her character based on in a serial killer. How can he be considered a savior? Arnold consequently provides the escape Connie needs to become a woman, but it seems unlikely that his intention was to help her.

Arnold’s evil and cruel intentions destroy the innocent world Connie had lived in, which symbolically happens when she succumbs to Arnold and leaves the safety and innocence of her world. She then enters an unfamiliar world that symbolizes femininity, but also the evil and corrupt world of Arnold Friend.

Cited works

Oates, Joyce Carol. “Where are you going, where have you been?” reprinted in Literature: read, react, write. Fort Worth: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1991.

Schulz, Gretchen, and RJR Rockwood. “In Fairyland, Without a Map: Connie’s Exploration Inward in Joyce Carol Oates’ ‘Where Are You Going, Where have you been'” reprinted in Literature: read, react, write. Fort Worth: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1991.

Tierce, Mike, and John Michael Crafton. “The Man with Connie’s Tambourine: A New Reading of Arnold Friend”. Reprinted in Literature: read, react, write. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1991.

Gaming

MSI NF750 – G55 motherboard review

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INTRODUCTION

MSI is one of the giants within the PC hardware industry. They have been around for as long as I can remember. Motherboards are one of the cornerstones of your business, but the company has diversified into many different areas in recent years, and as you may know, MSI is now one of the leading providers of laptops.

Today I am going to review a very interesting motherboard from MSI, the NF750-G55. Here are the specs:

MSI NF750-G55

AMD® Phenom (TM) II / Athlon (TM) II / Phenom (TM) compatible processor with AM3 package.

Unique NVIDIA® nForce 750a SLI chipset

Hyper Transport Bus HyperTransport 3.0 supporting speeds up to 5200 MT / s

Memory or Dual Supports DDR3 800/1066/1333/1600 (OC)

– 4 DDR3 DIMMs (240-pin / 1.5V)

– Supports up to 16GB.

Slots or 2 PCI Express x16 slots with x16 operation (PCI Express Bus SPEC V2.0 compliant)

o When 2 PCI Express x16 slots are fully installed, 16 PCIE x lanes will be arranged from x16 / x0 to x8 / x8.

or 2 PCI Express x1 slots

or 1 PCI slot, supports 3.3V / 5V PCI bus interface.

Integrated IDE or One NVIDIA® nForce 750a SLI IDE port

– 66/100/133 Extreme Supports DMA mode

– Supports PIO operation mode, Bus Masters

– You can connect up to two IDE devices

Integrated SATA or 5 SATA II ports from NVIDIA® nForce 750a SLI

o 1 NVIDIA® nForce 750a SLI eSATA II port

– Supports storage and data transfers of up to 3Gb / s

RAID 1-5 function SATA II supports RAID 0 1 0 + 1/5 or NVIDIA® nForce 750a SLI JBOD mode

Audio or Chipset integrated by Realtek® ALC889

– Flexible 8-channel audio with jack detection

– Meets Azalia 1.0 specification

LAN supports Realtek 45CL 10/100/1000 Fast Ethernet

Internal I / O connectors: 24-pin ATX to power connector

– ATX 4-pin 12V CPU to power connector

– CPU x 1 / System x 3 FAN connectors

– CD input connector

– Clear CMOS to the jumper

– Power button

– Chassis intrusion switch connector

– Front audio panel connector

– Front panel connector

– Serial port connector

– 3 x additional 6-port compatible USB 2.0 connector

– 1 x floppy drive connector

– 5 x Serial ATA II connectors

– 1 x IDE ATA133 connectors

– 1 x SPDIF output to header

– 1 x TPM modulates the header

– 1 x OC switch

Back panel I / O ports: 1 PS / 2 keyboard

– 1 x PS / 2 mouse

– 1 x 6-in-1 audio jack

– 6 USB 2.0 ports

– 1 x RJ45 LAN connector

– 1 x eSATA port

– 1 x DVI-D port

– 1 x graphics card port

– 1 x HDMI port

Other Features MSI Active Phase Switching

MSI Easy OC switch

MSI Live Update Online

MSI Live 4 update

NVIDIA Hybrid (TM) SLI

True Audio Blu-ray

Based on the specifications of the NF750-G55, it is easy to conclude that MSI has worked hard to produce something a little more with this board. The board offers support for SLI, Hybrid SLI and has some interesting proprietary technologies from MSI, such as the “Easy OC Switch”. In this review, I will not test the SLI functionality as it has been done before, instead I will focus on the integrated GeForce 8200 chip and see what it can produce in terms of performance.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The NF750-G55 comes in a fairly understated-looking standard-size cardboard box. In it, MSI emphasizes the support of the latest AMD processors, the support for SLI and Hybrid SLI and some of the additional features like True Blu-ray Audio, APS and Easy OC Switch.

The accessories included are: a manual; a quick start installation guide; a drivers and utilities CD; the back I / O panel board; SATA and IDE cables and a SATA power converter cable.

MSI NF750-G55 IN DETAIL

Although the MSI NF750-G55 is of the ATX standard, it is a bit narrower than most other ATX boards.

There are 4 memory slots that support up to 16GB of DDR3 (up to 1600MHz). To clarify a bit here, the chipset officially only supports up to 1333MHz, but it is possible to run the memories at 1600MHz by making a small change to the multiplier in the BIOS.

The only heat sink on the motherboard is the heat sink located on the nForce 750a SLI circuit.

The CPU cooler is fastened with screws, which I think is great as it allows you to really understand how tight the cooler is, much better than with plastic anchor systems. The 4-pin connector for the CPU is located in the middle of the board.

MSI’s Active Phase Switching (APS) is located to the right of the 12V ATX ​​connector. This system is in charge of the automatic regulation in real time of the power fed to the CPU. Actually the power level is illustrated by 4 LEDs which is a nice added feature.

The board has two PCI-E x16 ports and 1 PCI port. As you can see; the PCI-E ports are separated by a fairly large distance. If you use a dual-slot card in the second PCI-E port, you won’t be able to use the PCI port at all. It would have been better to place the PCI port before the first PCI-E x16 port.

The internal connectivity also incorporates 5 SATA 2 ports with RAID functionality, 3 USB 2.0 ports, a COM port connector, connectors for external audio; S / PDIF digital and a contact CD.

Integrated chips for sound and Ethernet connectivity are Realtek ALC889 and RTL45CL. Both chips are of high quality and backed by excellent drivers. The Fintek chip located next to the battery takes care of the general I / O functions of the motherboard and also allows to control the fans with the popular SpeedFan program.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of this motherboard is the “Easy OC Switch”. It consists of a pink switch as you can see in the image below. This change allows us to increase the FSB by up to 35% without having to make any other changes. In principle, this addition is great, but it will only work well if the processor you are using supports overclocking without increasing the voltage.

The rear panel connectivity is excellent; see the specifications above for a complete list.

TEST EQUIPMENT INSTALLATION

For testing the MSI NF750-G55 I used the following hardware and software:

Test equipment

AMD Phenom II x2 550 SEES Processor

Zalman CNPS9900A LED fan

MSI NF750-G55 motherboard

GeForce 8200 graphics card (integrated)

Integrated sound card

Kingston HyperX DDR3 1333Mhz 2 × 2GB Memory (7-7-7-18)

Seagate ST3320620AS Hard Drive (SATA 2, 16MB, 7200 rpm)

Zalman ZM660-XT Power Supply

Cooler Master Box 690 cm PURE

Operating system and software

Windows XP SP3 operating system

System Drivers V1.0 BIOS

nForce 15.49

3D Mark 06 benchmarks

PC Mark 05

Everest 4.5

SiSoftware Sandra Lite XII

CINEBENCH R10

SuperPI 1.5 XS MOD

HD Tune 2.55

Crystal DiskMark 2.2

Light Mark 2008 (1280 × 1024)

FurMark 1.4 (1280 × 1024, NoMSAA)

WinRAR 3.80 real tests

X264HD Benchmark 2.0

X3: demo meeting

X3: Continuous demonstration of land conflicts

Shout 2 of the Revolutionary Armed Forces Officers Club

DH Photoshop Benchmark

Other software CPU-Z 1.51

GPU-Z 0.3.5

VLC 1.0

Here are a couple of screenshots of the hardware I used:

In the graphics test I used a resolution of 1024 × 800 with the highest graphics settings.

BIOS

The BIOS on this board comes from AMI (American Megatrends Inc) and is very intuitive and easy to handle when overclocking.

The menu that interested me the most was of course the cell menu, where all the really important settings are, at least if you want to overclock your system. Although the NF750-G55 can be considered a mid-range motherboard, it offers many possibilities for overclocking both the CPU and the memory modules.

The M-Flash program that is embedded in this BIOS is actually unique to MSI motherboards. It is a smart little program that allows us to update the BIOS and even make backup copies and recover old versions of the BIOS.

There is also a menu called “User Settings”. Allows you to configure different “profiles” of the BIOS settings. This can be useful if you want to quickly load a default overclocking setting for a gaming session or the like.

COMPARATIVE TESTS PART 1

The CPU performance of the nForce 750a chip is within the range I expected. However, the memory tests came out a bit short, which surprised me as this is usually a strong area with NVIDIA chips.

COMPARATIVE TESTS PART 2

The HD read and write speeds were very good, which means that NVIDIA has resolved the driver issues that have caused the hard drive to run slower than it should on older chipsets.

REAL WORLD TESTS

What struck me from the above results was the poor WinRAR test results. My conclusion is that it must be due to the memory issue mentioned above.

In testing the IGP GeForce 8200 chip I didn’t get any noticeable results in the 3D test, so it’s easy to conclude that you shouldn’t be using it for gaming. However, it worked well for HD video playback.

The power use of this system is really low, especially when it’s running in idle mode, making it a good option if you’re building a 24/7 system.

OVERCLOCKING CAPACITY

NVIDIA has created the classic overclocking chipsets from AMD in the past, including the now near-mythical nForce 2 and nForce 4 platforms. So what about the overclocking capabilities of the nForce 750a SLI? The following screenshots say it all:

I was able to overclock the FSB to 264MHz (!) Which was actually a bit surprising to me, I didn’t expect it to be that “overclockable” being a mid-range card.

I also tried to overclock the integrated graphics card (GeForce 8200). Got it to run stably at 601 / 1442MHz for the core and shaders respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

My first experience with the NF750 chipset has been a pleasure. The MSI NF750-G55 is a very diverse motherboard. It can be used in a hardcore SLI high-end system or can be used as a motherboard for an HTPC project thanks to the integrated VGA with HDMI output.

Generally, MSI has managed to build a great motherboard around the nForce 750a SLI chipset. Its performance and overclocking capabilities are excellent, as is its connectivity. The integrated graphics solution is good but not as powerful as some of the integrated chips that AMD / ATI offers.

Health Fitness

Can Elderberry Supplements Lower Triglycerides? Discover the truth revealed

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“Can Elderberry Supplements Lower Triglycerides?” All people seeking treatments to lower triglyceride levels must have found the possibility that elderberry has an impact, directly or indirectly, on heart health.

Researching the elderberry would tell you that this particular plant has been used for many years in alternative medicine. What exactly is it about elderberry that makes it the preferred choice of many in treating a wide range of diseases? The elderberry has strong antioxidant, antiviral, and antibacterial properties. The small shrub, with its flowers and berries, is also rich in bioflavonoids, which boosts immunity against certain diseases, ranging from the simple flu and colds to cancer.

The elderberry is not very common. Native to North America, only those in Asia, Europe, and North Africa can enjoy its flowers and berries. Fortunately, it now comes in supplement form, available worldwide. As such, you can be anywhere in the world and still be able to benefit from the healthy goodness of the elderberry.

It is not known for sure how elderberry supplements can lower triglycerides and affect the condition of the heart. There are testimonies and studies that link elderberry with cholesterol levels, although the effects are rather minimal, almost negligible. Still, its wide range of healthy properties should contribute in some way to overall heart health, making it a good choice when dealing with high cholesterol or triglycerides.

As it stands, it would be a good idea to take other triglyceride lowering means alongside elderberry supplements. For example, start eating a healthier diet, one that is made up of green leafy vegetables, yellow vegetables, fish, high-fiber foods, and none of the bad fats and sugar.

The reason so many people have triglyceride problems is due to poor eating habits. They prefer to choose the easiest and most convenient route, which is to buy ready-to-eat foods that are fried in unhealthy fats, rather than preparing their own meals at home. On the other hand, they must be made to understand that these food choices do not help their life to be better or healthier. In fact, eating fried foods every day can cause your triglycerides to build up in your system, making you prone to a number of heart conditions.

Vegetables such as squash, cauliflower, broccoli, spinach, and lettuce are among the vegetables identified for lowering triglycerides, as they are rich in fiber and essential vitamins. Fish contains Omega-3, the essential fatty acid that plays an important role in heart health.

In addition to eating healthy, exercise is also advised. Cardiovascular exercises are particularly recommended as these would actually make your body sweat the calories and burn the fat. However, cardiovascular workouts are not recommended for everyone, so it is best to check with your treating physician first if you plan to try cardiovascular exercises.

The answer to the question, “can elderberry supplements lower triglycerides?” It may not be a resounding yes, but no one can deny the elderberry’s role in maintaining general well-being, including heart health.