Shanowen review

ding_dong

What are you opinions on the place. Recommend or not?

Please could you state reasons etc.

Im debating whether to go there or to get some digs somewhere.....


cheers

ding_dong

Has no one been?

Am I making a big mistake, going to a deserted place ? o_O

Diarmaid07

well hey,you got 6 poll replies... can't expect everyone from DCU to be on here =D

DemocAnarchis

Been there 2 years, grand, no room inspections unlike campus, internet is **** but just dl on campus, rooms are about midway between hampstead and college park, price isnt cheap but equivalent to campus, shop is handy, washing facilities are expensive.

ding_dong

Diarmaid07 wrote: »

well hey,you got 6 poll replies... can't expect everyone from DCU to be on here =D

My bad, I didnt vote on it, so didnt see the poll results


Shame to hear about crap internet

What sort of speed/latency are we talking about on average? Ive been stuff on a ****e 1mb line for 2yrs now

DemocAnarchis

1mb, I wish. You're talking about the equivalent of dialup, about 25kb-35kb a sec. Latency doesnt matter because the connection is too slow to game on.

ding_dong

DemocAnarchis wrote: »

1mb, I wish. You're talking about the equivalent of dialup, about 25kb-35kb a sec. Latency doesnt matter because the connection is too slow to game on.

Please tell me you are joking I was just assuming it would have good enough latency for gaming etc

25-35kb? Wtf?

Please, I beg you dont tell me its the same in the university

DecentBee

Good look gaming on campus, everything is blocked. Well, aside from second life but...uh, yeah. Second life >:|

DemocAnarchis

ding_dong wrote: »

Please tell me you are joking I was just assuming it would have good enough latency for gaming etc

25-35kb? Wtf?

Please, I beg you dont tell me its the same in the university

All ports on campus wireless and wired are pretty much blocked. Basically, lab gaming with GameSoc is yer only recourse, although the pcs we use are running CS 1.6, Quake 3 and the original TF, they struggle with anything else :rolleyes:

Im having a look into getting one of them 3g modems, as they cost about the same as shanowen "broadband" which is 150 for 2 semesters. Even if I cant game on it, I wont feel like hanging myself just trying to check a bloody email.

ding_dong

What

Prospects are going down hill by the minute


So No CS-S, BF2, Crysis, COD4 ?

Damn.....


Can you at least download from rapidshare etc?



P.s how on the ball are the security and how forgiving are they?

Matthewthebig

Shanowen Square is expensive. €600/m (roughly) excluding internet.

Management are all right. You have to bitch a lot to get things fixed (ie our couch, Took them a good while to fix it)

Internet maxes out at about 40k most of them time. Upload is not capped so you can upload like a mofo.

I don't know what DemocAnarchis is talking about. I gamed most nights last year. TF2 to an english server. My ping varied from 30-60ms sometimes it would spike to 400/500 but that was rare. And if you went back later on the ping would be low again.

Security can be alright. There is a certain one who is a liar and a cúnt (to be brutally honest), He says he doesn't report you when he does. This did happen to someone else and pretty sure happened to us. He also entered our apartment without an invitiation. Which is against the terms of the lease.

Parties are another thing. You are allowed have twice the number of tenants in your apartment at once. So 8 in a 4 person one. However as long as your keep the sound down they aren't too bad if you have more. And if security comes to the door asking to come in. Say no.

Saying all this i do not plan to live there for 4th year.

Want to know anything else? just ask.

If you have not been offered a place it is too late. Just to let you know.

DemocAnarchis

I think the quality of the internet connection varied from apartment to apartment then, because I know at least two others in my apartment had problems with it too. I could occasionally play CSS but generally lagged out, could play 1.6 passibly. Play online poker and the connection would cut out about once an hour, if I could connect at all. I gave up trying after the first semester and didnt bother paying for a second, its possible you had a better experience.

ding_dong

They said they were sending a contract out to me........

Hopefully they are true to their word.



I must admit im a bit disappointed personally Hopefully this year will be different and I will be more sociable etc but ive always been an extremely heavy user (gaming, downloads etc)

Just looks like I will have to make that little more effort this year



P.s is there much of a LAN community here?

cheers

Matthewthebig

There is gamessoc who run the odd lan every so often, and there is pc gaming each week. But the machines are woeful and won't play anything new.

There are ways to download in college if needs be though >_>

ding_dong

Matthewthebig wrote: »

There is gamessoc who run the odd lan every so often, and there is pc gaming each week. But the machines are woeful and won't play anything new.

There are ways to download in college if needs be though >_>

So there are no massive 64 player AIX/BF2 games or 64player CS-S tournaments?

*Heads for drink*


I definitely want to be availing of the hopefully insane download speed. Would be criminal not to :pac:


So what does everyone do? Is it really getting drunk most of the time? (oh and work :P)

Rocket!

So, is the internet in Shanowen nothing like the speeds on campus?
Fcuk it, I was impressed with the speed of hamstead last year. Sure, you couldnt download things, but it was grand besides that.

Also, ye seem to be talking about shanowen square. Is shanowen hall any different?? Ive been told our internet is included in the weekly rent of 140!
Anybody know otherwise?

Matthewthebig

Afaik hall's internet is better

ding_dong

okay, i got my contract in the post today....


apparently im on the ground floor in block D1 or something.


To be utterly frank, the internet is important but its not a deal breaker if the people in Shanowen are kick ass. Lets face it, its the people who make a place. No point having 24mbps net if the people are a bunch of ****es.


Oh yeah, another question , whats the sound proofing like? I have some speakers which I foolishly bought. (now it seems) Seems like a crime to leave my Z-5500 at home so many hundreds of miles away....


Also, one thing that caught my eye in the contract...... could just be an over active beady eye.

They mentioned payment of utilities.... what do they mean by this? This Shanowen place having the energy bills paid etc was the deal maker for me (8800GTX setups etc). Is this just basic provisions?

Matthewthebig

Shanowen will pay your bills to a certain amount, they charge you if you exceed some unknown number.

Our apartment never reached that, and we had a few energery drainers.

With regards to soundproofing. Not very. I have a set of z2300's and if the bass was full you could hear the bass everywhere.

If my memory of the shanowen layout is right, I may be the block opposite you, on the ground floor as well

ding_dong

Matthewthebig wrote: »

Shanowen will pay your bills to a certain amount, they charge you if you exceed some unknown number.

Our apartment never reached that, and we had a few energery drainers.

With regards to soundproofing. Not very. I have a set of z2300's and if the bass was full you could hear the bass everywhere.

If my memory of the shanowen layout is right, I may be the block opposite you, on the ground floor as well

Looks like the Z-5500 will have to be on low then

They were a bit of an odd buy it has turned out >_> When my parents are home, they cannot realistically be above 4/30 sound levels lol.

When my parents are out.......


So if I have a GTX SLI (hopefully will sell a GTX before I come) setup on 24/7, I should be alright in regards electricity?

Cheers, its good to hear that its not bad ^_^



I should come up one day to see what DCU is like >> Still havent lol.

Matthewthebig

I'd say you'll be fine for electricity. Do not quote me on that though

ding_dong

Matthewthebig wrote: »

I'd say you'll be fine for electricity. Do not quote me on that though

Cheers.


Hopefully this place will be good craic and all will go smoothly ^^

gizmo

You'll be fine with the electricity but yea, keep an eye on the sub for those Z-5500s

ding_dong

gizmo wrote: »

You'll be fine with the electricity but yea, keep an eye on the sub for those Z-5500s

Would'nt want to piss anyone off

Though if the room mates are cool and all, I wouldnt mind having the speakers in the main room to be used with my secondary rig for music.


That is, if they dont listen to hiphop :pac::D