PC Discussion Thread - All PC related in here.

[turms 0]

I've heard that switching from a 32 bit(sempron) to a 64-bit(Athlon) would ruin the files on my HD and possibly cost me Windows as well

This is not true at all.

It doesnt matter if you switch from any 32bit CPU to any 64bit CPU. Your files remain the same and untouched. You can still run 32bit Windows on a 64bit CPU. I do it and I assume most people with a 64bit CPU run 32bit WinXP. Not much to gain by going to 64bit Windows yet. Its rather the opposite right now with reduced performance in games. This will probably change over time when driver-support matures.

You're in a pickle with that budget and current HW. A new mobo might most likely require a new videocard (PCI-e) but on the other hand, that 6800GS wont do Arma too much good either. If you absolutely cant afford a new videocard but you can buy a new CPU and motherboard, I'd go with a s775 motherboard with AGP and a Core 2 Duo E6300. But I'm not sure if any C2D-compatible motherboard support DDR RAM. I think they all require DDR2.

The very same mobo (Asrock PT880PRO 775DUAL-VSTA) supports both ddr, and ddr2 (2 slots each). It also has agp and pci-e ports.

A good mobo for a person who is upgrading in a slow pace, just like me

Current compilation E6600c2d, 9600xt, 1 gig of 333mhz ddr :P

[froggyluv 2136]

AGP And Pci-e? I didn't know that was possible, will definately look into this as a short term solution.

As far as having to re-install Windows, current PC had it pre-installed- does that mean I would have to buy it as well?

[NeMeSiS 11]

There is a way to upgrade cpu and run the old windows, but it was fairly complicated iirc.    

Press 'reactivate windows'?

[turms 0]

There is a way to upgrade cpu and run the old windows, but it was fairly complicated iirc.

Press 'reactivate windows'?

doesnt that need the windows media, wich the guy obviously dont have?

[shadow 6]

There is a way to upgrade cpu and run the old windows, but it was fairly complicated iirc.    

Press 'reactivate windows'?

doesnt that need the windows media, wich the guy obviously dont have?

No, but it requires that he has a valid license.

If his computer came shipped with Windows pre-installed he should either have a install-disc or a preload partition on the HD.

[froggyluv 2136]

Thanks for all the feedback

Looking at AGP Mobo's was just depressing and I came to the conclusion that if your gonna upgrade you minds well do it right. I've got an order on hold at Tiger Direct for the following:

            ECS Nforce 570 SLIT-A Mobo  - $100

            Intel E6400    - $225

            Geforce 7900 GS 256MB - $185

            1 gig DDR2 ram 533 Mhz - $100

            Total with ship:  $690

If anyone sees any glaring mistakes here please let me know ASAP

As far as Windows goes, well I'll just have to find an alternative if I don't have the disk, I think I know a guy...

[echo1 0]

I have heard that ECS Motherboards can be a bit dodgy, though I cant really back that up with anything, and if there are any happy ECS motherboard owners out there feel free to prove me wrong, but I would look at ASUS if I was you, theyre considered the best. Failing that, Gigabyte and Abit are also very good.

[shinRaiden 0]

Anbody know of a Xeon 5000 compatible dual socket mobo with dual full x16 PCI- slots? All I can find are dual x8's.

[EiZei 0]

I have heard that ECS Motherboards can be a bit dodgy, though I cant really back that up with anything, and if there are any happy ECS motherboard owners out there feel free to prove me wrong, but I would look at ASUS if I was you, theyre considered the best. Failing that, Gigabyte and Abit are also very good.

Being a former ECS and ASROCK mobo owner id say avoid those cheap brands like the plague.

[eisa01 0]

Anbody know of a Xeon 5000 compatible dual socket mobo with dual full x16 PCI- slots? All I can find are dual x8's.

Are you planning to use SLI? Afaik there is no support for that on the Xeons yet.

Intel's Core 2 architecture Woodcrest-core Xeons (5100-series and 5300-series) offer better performance and lower heat output than AMD's 2200-series Opterons, but due to platform limitations, we stick with Opterons. The fastest available Opterons hurt slightly in performance compared to the fastest Xeons, although in a few applications the advantage of the Core 2 architecture Xeons is significant. Compare your application needs and choose accordingly. For the God Box, until SLI comes to the Xeon, these will have to do.

So, if you need that, stick with Opterons.

Btw, check out the God Box from the Ars system guide. They build a dual processor Opteron, so you can get a lot of advice there.

[j w 0]

2 x 250GB drives in RAID 0 = 500GB

2 x 250GB drives in RAID 1 = 250GB and all files mirrored on the other right?

Now, I just need to know what RAID 5 means (wiki says Striped Set with Distributed Parity, but I don't get any out of that).

Also, JBOD, what the heck is that?

[shadow 6]

RAID5 is somewhat like RAID0 except it writes parity-checks too. This allow the array to function and no data is lost if a HD dies.

Write-speed is quite a bit slower on RAID5 compared to RAID0.

Read-speed is allmost the same as RAID0.

The reason RAID5 perform a little slower than RAID0 is because it has to write parity-check for everything written on the drives. So instead of writing data to 3 drives simultaneously, it writes data to 2 of them and parity-check on the 3rd.

This means that you "loose" one H-D to parity check.

3x250GB= 750GB in RAID0.

3x250GB= 500GB in RAID5.

Minimum amount drives for RAID5 is 3 drives (can run on two if one dies).

Keep in mind if you want a fast RAID5 you need to invest quite a bit of money into a decent RAID-controller. RAID5 is "complex work" for your controller so you get what you pay for. Skip Promise and Fast Trak and such, go with Adaptec's.

I use Adaptec 2420SA w/128MB with 3x250GB in RAID5.

JBOD= "Just a Bunch Of Drives".

JBOD is disk-spanning. This means that several disks can work as one (kind of like RAID0 except there is no performance increase).

I dont see a reason why you would use this.

[j w 0]

Oh, I were just checking motherboards and saw a Asus-board with 0, 1, 5 and JBOD.

Also, I spotted an Intel-board with Intel Matrix RAID, is it something special with that?

[shadow 6]

Oh, I were just checking motherboards and saw a Asus-board with 0, 1, 5 and JBOD.

Also, I spotted an Intel-board with Intel Matrix RAID, is it something special with that?

A controller with good RAID5 performance cost about twice that of a motherboard. Memory isnt much of an issue with RAID 0 and 1, but RAID5 needs alot of fast memory for optimal performance. The onboard controllers use the slow system-RAM. Separate controllers have fast RAM chips on-board.

"Intel Matrix RAID" is probably the name of Intel's RAID-controller (usually made by Promise).

[j w 0]

I have a problem when connecting some USB-devices.

Firstly, I have a extensioncord for USB, but I've tried the same connections just in the main USB-ports. And both are fully functional since the webcam is connecting in both ports and fully working.

But, when I try to connect my MP3-player nothing happens.

And the external DVD-burner is there, when checking My Computer I get DVD-unit (G:), but when putting a CD/DVD in the drive, nothing happens, and when I click the G: icon, it says that there is no CD.

Do I need to upgrade something, or could it be hardware malmfunction?

It all worked fine for months until just now :/

JW

[blackdog~ 0]

USB stuff usually have limits as to how long of a USB cable length they can have. I used to be able to connect 5 10' USB extensions up to my webcam with it being fully functional. If I connected any more than five it would not work.

[j w 0]

Now the burner works, but the MP3 still isn't connecting. I recon it's problem with the "MP3 -> Computer"-cable, wich probably glitching when I connect it, either in the USB or the MP3 itself.

I'll give the store where I bought it a call and see if they can help.

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

Oh, and a question:

If I buy a Win2k3 Server with 25 CAL-license, does that mean that I can install it on 25 different computers?

Cause I'm a bit confused with this CAL-thing (Client Acces License)...

[EiZei 0]

Now the burner works, but the MP3 still isn't connecting. I recon it's problem with the "MP3 -> Computer"-cable, wich probably glitching when I connect it, either in the USB or the MP3 itself.

I'll give the store where I bought it a call and see if they can help.

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

Oh, and a question:

If I buy a Win2k3 Server with 25 CAL-license, does that mean that I can install it on 25 different computers?

Cause I'm a bit confused with this CAL-thing (Client Acces License)...

It means you are only allowed to have 25 clients simultaneously.

[j w 0]

Now the burner works, but the MP3 still isn't connecting. I recon it's problem with the "MP3 -> Computer"-cable, wich probably glitching when I connect it, either in the USB or the MP3 itself.

I'll give the store where I bought it a call and see if they can help.

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

Oh, and a question:

If I buy a Win2k3 Server with 25 CAL-license, does that mean that I can install it on 25 different computers?

Cause I'm a bit confused with this CAL-thing (Client Acces License)...

It means you are only allowed to have 25 clients simultaneously.

So, I can install it on 25 computers, then 5 months later, uninstall on 10 computers, and reinstall on 10 new ones?

[shinRaiden 0]

no. you may install it on only one machine. You may then have up to 25 unique PC's, or 25 unique client sessions simultaniously.

[EiZei 0]

Now the burner works, but the MP3 still isn't connecting. I recon it's problem with the "MP3 -> Computer"-cable, wich probably glitching when I connect it, either in the USB or the MP3 itself.

I'll give the store where I bought it a call and see if they can help.

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

Oh, and a question:

If I buy a Win2k3 Server with 25 CAL-license, does that mean that I can install it on 25 different computers?

Cause I'm a bit confused with this CAL-thing (Client Acces License)...

It means you are only allowed to have 25 clients simultaneously.

So, I can install it on 25 computers, then 5 months later, uninstall on 10 computers, and reinstall on 10 new ones?

I think you are confusing the concepts client and server here..

[blackdog~ 0]

There are also all kinds of different versions of Win2003 servers. Which version you choose and how many CAL you need depends entirely on what you intend to use it for.

[j w 0]

For a dedicated server, and to be able to run PHP5 with PHP my admin and mySQL (<- got those sorted), is Windows SVR 2003 Web edition any good? It's also intented to be able to run the most, like gaming, databases, filehosting etc.

And also, how do I know if the version is multilicense, ie, I can install it on more then 1 computer at the same time?

And a second question:

Wich Win Vista version would you reccommend for a server?

I was thinking Vista Buisniess edition.

[shadow 6]

Wich Win Vista version would you reccommend for a server?

I was thinking Vista Buisniess edition.

Vista is not a server OS. The new server will be out later this year or the next I believe.

Quote[/b] ]For a dedicated server, and to be able to run PHP5 with PHP my admin and mySQL....

Dedicated for what? games?

PHP and mySQL can run on anything NT.

If this is your private server for you and your friends I'd recomend forgetting the server OS and use Win2K Pro or WinXP Pro instead. They are cheaper and does the same job.

[froggyluv 2136]

All of my new components have arrived, and yep I went with the ECS mobo for cost reasons- hope I don't regret it

My last worry was losing Windows, so I called my current manufacturer who said Windows is partitioned on my HD thereby replacing the motherboard won't effect it.

Can anyone verify this?