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Victor_S.

PC Discussion Thread - All PC related in here.

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A few years ago I bought the first "Eclipse" keyboard from Saitek as I liked the illuminated keys. It went dead after 1 year and I got a replacement keyboard without problems and free of charges. One year later the keyboard died aswell and I sent it back and received an "Eclipse II" keyboard in exchange that has a new design and new functions, again without any charges. If it keeps going like that I´ll always have an up-to-date keyboard without having to pay for it smile_o.gif

As for wireless ones. I only had one wireless keyboard years ago and I had a lot of troubles with it. I had to synchronize it very often and to be honest I never took much advantage of having no cable attached. When it finally broke I had only little sorrow and since then never used any cable-free devices for input anymore. Also in my neighbourhood all the people who have a wireless one sooner or later run into problems with them.

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I'd assume that with all the key pressing involved with an FPS that a battery-operated keyboard would need rather regular charging. I was never one for fancy keyboards, found they always messed up my typing as they tend to sacrifice ergonomics for gimmicks I never used. Currently I use a Cherry G83 which I would recommend to anyone, its as basic as they come, but very well built and only about €15. If I manage to get the money together, I might buy myself a Unicomp Customizer (a modern version of the old IBM Model M "clicky keyboard")

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What else besides WPA can somebody use to protect their wireless?

Also, how can one get into a protected wireless connection? For the past few days somebody's been trying to get into our wireless for some reason, and there are only three wireless connections 'round here, one protected, one unprotected. I doubt anybody on the unprotected one has a reciever powerful enough to actually detect our wireless, mine is pretty good and can pickup stuff from quite far I think. In in any case, I wanna dump a load of horse porn in the startup folder of the guy trying to connect to me just to see who it is from the screaming. Tips?

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  (MehMan @ July 09 2008,23:09) said:
What else besides WPA can somebody use to protect their wireless?

Also, how can one get into a protected wireless connection? For the past few days somebody's been trying to get into our wireless for some reason, and there are only three wireless connections 'round here, one protected, one unprotected. I doubt anybody on the unprotected one has a reciever powerful enough to actually detect our wireless, mine is pretty good and can pickup stuff from quite far I think. In in any case, I wanna dump a load of horse porn in the startup folder of the guy trying to connect to me just to see who it is from the screaming. Tips?

From weakest to strongest - WEP, WPA, WPA2. WPA2 may have compatibility problems, and I dont think its that much more effective than standard WPA (As far as I know). There may be stronger ones, but they would require extortionately expensive corporate-grade hardware.

People can try and access your network and use certain software to try and crack the WPA on your network. Has the person actually succeded in breaking into your network. If not, how do you know they have tried?

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  (MehMan @ July 09 2008,18:09) said:
What else besides WPA can somebody use to protect their wireless?

Also, how can one get into a protected wireless connection? For the past few days somebody's been trying to get into our wireless for some reason, and there are only three wireless connections 'round here, one protected, one unprotected. I doubt anybody on the unprotected one has a reciever powerful enough to actually detect our wireless, mine is pretty good and can pickup stuff from quite far I think. In in any case, I wanna dump a load of horse porn in the startup folder of the guy trying to connect to me just to see who it is from the screaming. Tips?

You can use "mac address filtering" which can allow or deny mac adapters

I disable mine, connect my own wireless stuff, copy/paste their address then turn on filtering "allowing" only address in list to connect

People will keep trying to connect to your wireless anyways.

Talking about wireless strength...I have some 14db antenna's I was using for a 1/2 mile wireless link between my house and my autobodyshop to view my cameras there

Its not uncommon or that expensive to purchase 27db or more antenna's, someone could tap into your wireless from miles away

If it were me and I have done this... this person that is trying to access your system and you are using encryption certainly would be illegal where I live.

You have his mac address and you could use something portable...I have windows mobile PDA with gps I could walk or drive around and get his location using something like wififofum or netstumbler

A note on his door,phone call or even police would freak him out

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I need a new Windows XP (! ) CD. The old one had a huge crack in it. Anyways, am I still able to buy a Windows XP Pro these days and what version could I use? Do I need retail or could I go for OEM?

I hate going over to Vista, I got programs that wont work on that OS.

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  (ch_123 @ July 06 2008,23:10) said:
Considering that ATI hasnt released a serious competitor to nVidia's cards since the X1950XTX of about 2 years ago, one can be forgiven for prefering nVidia's offerings. The fact that ATI's cheap cards can kill nVidia's latest and greatest is pretty good however, as it ensures that there's fair competition which drives down the price and keeps faster and faster cards coming out.

So you're saying that HD4xxx series isn't a serious competitor? Outperforms every nvidia card in it's class. And there's HD4870x2 coming out in August, and it will outperform nvidias fastest GTX280.

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  (Lepardi @ July 11 2008,21:41) said:
  (ch_123 @ July 06 2008,23:10) said:
Considering that ATI hasnt released a serious competitor to nVidia's cards since the X1950XTX of about 2 years ago, one can be forgiven for prefering nVidia's offerings. The fact that ATI's cheap cards can kill nVidia's latest and greatest is pretty good however, as it ensures that there's fair competition which drives down the price and keeps faster and faster cards coming out.

So you're saying that HD4xxx series isn't a serious competitor? Outperforms every nvidia card in it's class. And there's HD4870x2 coming out in August, and it will outperform nvidias fastest GTX280.

Thats exactly what he was saying. He was refering to Nvidia's dominance until the emergence of ATI's excellent 4xxx series.

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  (colossus @ July 11 2008,20:28) said:
I need a new Windows XP (! ) CD. The old one had a huge crack in it. Anyways, am I still able to buy a Windows XP Pro these days and what version could I use? Do I need retail or could I go for OEM?

I hate going over to Vista, I got programs that wont work on that OS.

Get yourself an OEM copy of XP. Costs about €80 for home, or €120 for Pro. Whilst you are technically only allows to buy an OEM copy to build a new PC, this rule is not enforced either by the retailers or MS itself. The only difference is that OEMs are basically locked to the computer you use them on, whereas retail copies are somewhat more lenient.

@Lepardi: Read what Froggyluv said. I was commenting that the 4--- series is the best thing ATi has come out with since it was bought by AMD.

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Thanks, ch_123. wink_o.gif

<s>Now that I've bought the OEM version I figured I would repair my XP (not formate, repair).

But after (foolishly) messing around in my computer I accidently manage to set my whole C:\ station to D:\ station.

And because I thought everything were still on C:\ disk I installed a 2nd Windows on my PC. Therefore lost all my settings and drivers.

So, would it be possible to move/reconstuct my old Windows (which is now at D:\ ) back to C:\?</s>

EDIT: No solution but to reinstall everything.

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Ok- i've got a lot of time to kill til I can re-build my career since my move back to the States so here's my candidate build for my former beloved PC RIP inlove.gif  sad_o.gif

My claim was for $1500 but I'm trying to re-build for $1200.00 US or under.

Case:RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WB Black 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case - Retail

        +$84.99 (-$20 MIR)

HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive- OEM

 

         +$84.99

PSU: RAIDMAX AURORA 2 RX-700F 700W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V Power Supply - Retail

         +$89.99 (-$25 MIR)

MEMORY: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

          +$104.99

OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP3 English for System Builders 1 Pack CD - OEM

          +$89.99

[/b]VIDEO: ASUS EAH3870X2/G/3DHTI/1G Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video

+       AMD Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Single Player Game - OEM

          +$269.99 (-$30.00 MIR)

MOBO: Open Box: ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard

           +$205.50 (not sure what "Open Box means"?)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail

+    Rosewill RCX-Z4 120mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail

            +$234.98

Total $1,172.41  ($6.99 S/H)

Sorry, having Bold problems

Questions: Should I go with tested and tried XP or the future with Vista? I've heard Vista has some problems with detecting SATA drives on 1st boot and I hate to Flash Bios.

                 Is Q6600 good enough for next couple years or should I try and go q9450 or better?

                 DDR2 or DDR3?

               

                 Saving almost $100.00 on Mobo because it's 'Open Box' does that mean re-furbished?

All input helpful and appreciated biggrin_o.gif

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  (froggyluv @ July 13 2008,00:26) said:
Case:RAIDMAX SMILODON ATX-612WB Black 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case - Retail

        +$84.99 (-$20 MIR)

HD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST3500320AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive- OEM

 

         +$84.99

PSU: RAIDMAX AURORA 2 RX-700F 700W ATX12V V2.2 / EPS12V Power Supply - Retail

         +$89.99 (-$25 MIR)

MEMORY: G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory

          +$104.99

OS: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP3 English for System Builders 1 Pack CD - OEM

          +$89.99

[/b]VIDEO: ASUS EAH3870X2/G/3DHTI/1G Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video

+       AMD Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Single Player Game - OEM

          +$269.99 (-$30.00 MIR)

MOBO: Open Box: ASUS RAMPAGE FORMULA LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard

           +$205.50 (not sure what "Open Box means"?)

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Quad-Core Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail

+    Rosewill RCX-Z4 120mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail

            +$234.98

Total $1,172.41  ($6.99 S/H)

Sorry, having Bold problems

Questions: Should I go with tested and tried XP or the future with Vista? I've heard Vista has some problems with detecting SATA drives on 1st boot and I hate to Flash Bios.

                 Is Q6600 good enough for next couple years or should I try and go q9450 or better?

                 DDR2 or DDR3?

               

                 Saving almost $100.00 on Mobo because it's 'Open Box' does that mean re-furbished?

All input helpful and appreciated biggrin_o.gif

Ok, my recommendations by item:

PSU: I would be wary about getting PSUs from not-well known manufacturers. If youre looking for a good one, there's one by Corsair called the HX620 (I believe) which isnt that expensive (Its around €110 over here in Europe)

RAM: Note that 4GB will not completely work with 32 bit Windows (it will only recognize between 3-3.5GB of it). You can save money and just get 2GB. If you want to go 64bit later on you can upgrade then. DDR2 vs DDR3? DDR2 atm. DDR3 is extortionately expensive at the moment, and the meagre speed increase doesnt justify price.

G-CARD: Im not sure why you'd want to get a 3870 X2, they eat a lot of energy and arent all that good. If you want to go ATI, get yourself a 4870, or a 9800GTX if youre an nVidia person.

Motherboard: Open box probably means that someone has opened it and used it, and theyre selling it second hand at lower cost. I never got the appeal of buying madly overpriced ASUS motherboards when there are much cheaper ones that do practically the same job.

Q6600 is the favourite chip atm, mainly because Penryn chips arent as overclockable. In reality, there is very little difference between the two. They'll become obsolete at exactly the same time smile_o.gif

Vista vs XP? I'd stick to XP for the moment unless you need Vista for something in particular. You can always get Vista down the line if you need it. If rumours are to believed, Vista's successor will be out within the next 18 months or so. (There's already leaked Betas making their rounds on the dodgy corners of the internet)

If you need any further advice, let me know

CH

EDIT: Unless you want to overclock, you can save money by not getting a third party CPU fan, the one that comes with the CPU is sufficient.

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I agree with ch_133 advice, good post

I have bought several "open box" motherboards , several factors could have been a reason for open box...

You risk not getting the extra hardware to mount the motherboard, possibly missing some cables and most importantly its probably "IS" missing the filler plate that actually attaches to your case that matches the motherboards ports. This can be very important piece to not have.

If your just building a server or extra pc,depending on the savings it may or may not be worth the parts missing.

Myself I have plenty of attaching arts, cables so it doesn't bother me.

Buying "open-box" usually eliminates the risk of DOA as they have to be retested before sold whereas an unopened one could come DOA

Sometimes I chose the route to build an inexpensive PC.

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Whoa! Nice save ch_123, I meant to click the HD4870! Thought that was a little too cheap. Great information guys.

Bratty, your right about 'Open Box'; Newegg only sends the BARE BONES, no wires, brackets, screws nada. No thanks, no board is worth that risk to me.

Looking into P45 boards as well as the E8400 as many posters at Tom's recommend this for gamers not looking for 2x16 Crossfire which I'm not. And like you said, Dual and Quad have the same expectancy so for now I'm looking for maximum game power and yes some overclocking. Good call on the Ram, saved me $$$ tounge2.gif , and will look into a better PSU.

Will keep ya updated

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My new XFX 9800 GTX Black Edition arrived a couple of days ago, mostly happy with it:

The Good:

1. Crysis runs at a solid 30FPS when running everything in Very High with the nature mod, looks amazing and plays smooth smile_o.gif

2. Stalker runs everything maxxed out without the merest hiccup, haven't checked FPS but it seems very good.

The Bad:

1. Nvidia removed the function of clone video (or choosing to play videos also in fullscreen on the TV) so I can't have video playing on my PC and also on my TV at the same time, means everytime I want to watch something from the PC on the TV I have to drag the player from the monitor window to the TV window, annoying and silly, Nvidia butchered the function at the behest of MS apparently, the irony is that I went with Nvidia rather than ATI to ensure good TVOut functionality and instead I'd have been better off with the ATI 4870 sad_o.gif

2. Audio from my PC isn't reaching my TV when I use TV Out with the new card, really bizarre situation, supposedly I have to use a SPDIF cable from the GFX card to the SPDIF socket on my motherboard, that's fine but I have a 15m DVI-HDMI cable which I believe doesn't support carrying an audio signal as well as video, so that's a real pisser, choices are buy a new HDMI-HDMI cable and hope it now works or buy a micro stereo system with AUX input and play the sound through that, going for the latter option as it's actually cheaper to buy a stereo than to buy a new cable.

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  (Placebo @ July 13 2008,14:35) said:
choices are buy a new HDMI-HDMI cable and hope it now works or buy a micro stereo system with AUX input and play the sound through that, going for the latter option as it's actually cheaper to buy a stereo than to buy a new cable.

Do graphics cards route audio through their HDMI port? And I think a TV would give much better sound than a cheap stereo, the cables arent that expensive, unless you need a really long cable.

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I say stay away from Raidmax and get you'reself a Cosmos-S or an Antec 1200. Also for PSU look for Corsair/Antec. Now for CPU go for a Q9450 and video card try and go for a 4870. If you want a P45 board look at the Maximus II formula.

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  (ch_123 @ July 13 2008,16:20) said:
  (Placebo @ July 13 2008,14:35) said:
choices are buy a new HDMI-HDMI cable and hope it now works or buy a micro stereo system with AUX input and play the sound through that, going for the latter option as it's actually cheaper to buy a stereo than to buy a new cable.

Do graphics cards route audio through their HDMI port?

9 series Geforce do apparently, no idea about ATI, probably not just for the sake of proving me even more wrong in my choice of Nvidia over ATI wink_o.gif

  (ch_123 @ July 13 2008,16:20) said:

And I think a TV would give much better sound than a cheap stereo, the cables arent that expensive, unless you need a really long cable.

PC is in the kitchen, TV in the living room, so I need a 15m or so cable, decent quality 15m HDMI cable is more than a modest micro stereo smile_o.gif

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  (Placebo @ July 13 2008,16:49) said:
PC is in the kitchen, TV in the living room, so I need a 15m or so cable, decent quality 15m HDMI cable is more than a modest micro stereo smile_o.gif

So youre going to get a 15m audio cable and put the stereo into the same room as the TV? Im sure you can find some way of hooking it directly to the TV using component audio cables.

  [b said:
Quote[/b] ]Now for CPU go for a Q9450

Which is around €100/$150 more expensive and has only a negligible speed increase over the Q6600. Why?

  [b said:
Quote[/b] ]video card try and go for a 4870.
  [b said:
Quote[/b] ]Whoa! Nice save ch_123, I meant to click the HD4870! Thought that was a little too cheap. Great information guys.

Remember the rules - try reading the thread before you post. smile_o.gif

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  (ch_123 @ July 13 2008,18:06) said:
  (Placebo @ July 13 2008,16:49) said:
PC is in the kitchen, TV in the living room, so I need a 15m or so cable, decent quality 15m HDMI cable is more than a modest micro stereo smile_o.gif

So youre going to get a 15m audio cable and put the stereo into the same room as the TV? Im sure you can find some way of hooking it directly to the TV using component audio cables.

No I already have the audio cable, have been using TV out for years, bought 15m S-Video and Audio cables a few years ago in the Czech Republic, then a month or so ago finally bought a DVI-HDMI cable and continued using the same audio cable with my GF6800, upgraded now to the 9800 and find that it blocks the audio reaching the TV, thus the Stereo solution smile_o.gif

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You can overclock a Q9450 just as well as you can for a Q6600. The Q9450 also uses a new and better fabrication process which means less heat and more power. The price also depends where you purchase that chip !. Alternatively you can go for a Q6700.

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9800GTX for about 280 AUD (260-270 USD). Why bother with the 9600GT? whistle.gif

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Ok a few changes here...

Mobo-Asus P5Q-E P45; @159.99

VGA-VisionTek HD 4870; @294.99

PSU-OCZ Evostream 720W; @84.99

Mem.-G.Skill 2GB/1066; @59.99

CPU-E8400; @189.99

Grand Total: $1,119.78 USD

@Universal- That Raidmax case got a 5 star rating from over 200 reviewers at Newegg with the only real complaint being the blue led glow that I like smile_o.gif  Alll of the components you named are nice quality but would definitely put me over my $1200 goalcap. I have a forum hangover from hours of comparing E8400/Q6xxx/Q9450 and the general concensus is that if your really just looking for gaming, and not video encoding, go E8400 until everyone jumps on the almighty Nehalem. It's true that a slightly Oc'ed quad can outperform the e8400 in games not even designed for quad but not by a huge margin and i'd rather use the difference to grab that 4870 which will definitely make a difference. The bottem line seems to be E8400'ers love their chips and Qxxx'ers love their chips

so it's a good problem to have.  biggrin_o.gif

The money saved can also buy me my fourth copy of Arma which got lost in transition.

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Rommel;

Well, you could say that the 9600GT produces less heat and uses less power (the 9800GTX needs two PCI-E 6 pin connectors). The 9800GTX is the best value nVidia card at the moment, but I think the Radeon HD4870 is the card to get, unless of course, you have a preference for nVidia.

Universal:

Overclocking: Ive read plenty of reviews of the Penryn chips, and they are unanimous in declaring them to be worse overclockers than the Q6600

Price: Everywhere Ive seen is the same, €100 more than the Q6600. Considering that its a newer chip and has a higher clockspeed, of course it will be priced higher that the older (but just as good) Q6600.

Fabrication Process: What looks good on paper doesnt neccessarily make any difference in real life.

Q6700: As someone who's always going on about overclocking, Im surprised you'd recommend paying an extra €50 for a chip thats a mere 270MHz faster than the Q6600 smile_o.gif

Froggyluv: EDIT: Nevermind, I agree with your choice of the E8400. Just bare in mind that Nehalem will not be backwards compatible with current motherboards due to a change in socket design.

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Apparently you aren't aware of the recent Intel price cuts wink_o.gif. It's a matter of money , if you have the cash spend it. Now Q9450 vs Q6600 : fsb , 2.667 vs 2.4 ghz , newer fab process , better TDP , higher l-2 cache and slightly lower multiplier. I personally would have waited for E8600 before getting E8400/8500.

Nehalem (Bloomfield) is LGA 1336/Socket B.

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