PC Discussion Thread - All PC related in here.

[Supernova 0]

Thanks Ill be sure to check it out. My upgrading is intended to be a interim/stop gap measure while I save up for a totally new comp.

[Necromancer- 0]

Im not 100% sure how PCI 2 affects SLI performance, but I would say two things:

1) You need a bigger PSU

2) Why SLI? Why not just get one card, and then replace it with a better card somewhere down the line? It will be cheaper and give better performance. SLI is really just a marketing gimmick tbh, its benefits are very shaky and vary from game to game, and it has all sorts of problems... One fast card is always better than two slower cards.

Okey, then I'll just stick with one gfx card...

Now my second question is..

Does 24 lanes in stead of 32 PCIe lanes affect one gfx card at all?

[echo1 0]

Nope. PCI-E graphics cards are 16x.

[Shashman 0]

Afaik they have to be crossfire certified.

f.e. a good mainboard would be the ASUS P5E3 WS Pro supporting crossfire/crossfire multi-gpu and DDR3.

thanks King homer but thats one expensive card

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/138575

and i think it only supports DDR3 and not 2.

think ill give up on crossfire doubtfull id ever use it anyway, just want one that supports DDR 2+3

Forget that. X38 isn't good value for money at the moment. Stick with P35 chipset.

Go for the ASUS P5K-C motherboard (I have it). 1333Mhz FSB, is DDR2 and DDR3 compatible and is designed for Crossfire.

Voila, all your requirements filled, and it won't break the bank either

P5K-C @ Ebuyer.com

[Supernova 0]

I have a problem right now and I dont know what to do. You see I cannot receive/upload files and I dont know if it is associated with the router or the new ISP. What also is affected is my ability to post very long posts.

[kavoven 4]

Problem with Vista:

Under XP I could organise all my files in groups and this groups were organised in this way:

A

B

C

Now stupid Vista only does A-G, H-M and so on. And I don't want that, because I like my music folder for example in the A, B , C way.

Does anybody know, how I can change that?

[456820 0]

Well I have a small problem, basically I'm trying to plug in 2 new external USB ports into my motherboard. But the connector I have been given only has 8 holes for the pins whereas there are 9 pins. One side of the connector also has the 8 holes seperate as opposed to the other end where there all connected into one.

Does anyone know why this is? Thanks.

Edit - Well I've managed to solve the above problem after quite a lot of trial and error with the sockets and stuff but I finally got it working correctly.

However I do have another small question, CPU fans connect via a 4 pin cable instead of most original fan cables that are 3 pin. Is it possible to get cables that convert the 4 pin CPU fan into a 3 pin fan?

If so can someone please post me to a link as I have already looked on a few different sites and have not found anything. Cheers.

[scruffy 21]

@456820: The additional pin has no function, normally it should be like this:

1357

2468(10)

1 and 2 are +5V, 3 USB0- and 4 USB1-, 5 USB0+ and 6 USB1+, and 7 and 8 are GND.

As it seems you just have one connector and not 8 small ones ignore the additional pin and you should be fine

[M.Andersson(SWE) 4]

My new one arrives today:

AMD Quadcore 2.2Ghz

3072Mb Ram (4BG Installed)

512 MB 8800GT

2x500 HDD + ext 320GB in mountable/sled

Wind Vista 32Bit Home Premium

TV Card with remote

19" Flatscrean HighRes

[-Snafu- 77]

I've completely had it with Norton Security and have been looking around for new security suites. I'm stuck between ESET and AVG suites. I know people that swear by both but I'm leaning towards ESET. I'm totally illiterate when it comes to Internet Security so what one would be the best?

[echo1 0]

Kaspersky is widely regarded as the best AV, and it has an internet security edition. AVG is the best free one, but I dont think their paid-for version is as good as other commercial offerings. ESET/NOD32 is a damn good one too, Im not sure if its as good as Kaspersky though. I dont know much about firewalls, my router has a built in one and I trust it to do the job. Always remember - common sense is the computer user's first line of defence against virus infection

[-Snafu- 77]

Kaspersky is widely regarded as the best AV, and it has an internet security edition. AVG is the best free one, but I dont think their paid-for version is as good as other commercial offerings. ESET/NOD32 is a damn good one too, Im not sure if its as good as Kaspersky though. I dont know much about firewalls, my router has a built in one and I trust it to do the job. Always remember - common sense is the computer user's first line of defence against virus infection

Quite impressed by the features of Kaspersky. With regards to Norton. I don't know what the hell it does on my computer. Once it used to constantly bug me with notifications, 'Do you want to start resistance.exe', or whatever. But now it does nothing and its system scans pick up the same 'tracking cookie' again and again. That is the only thing it detects.

[MehMan 0]

Norton and the norton tools are truly one of the most useless and resource hogging things I have ever seen. If you have any Norton product installed, uninstall it.

Here's my favourite quote about norton AV:

Norton is like that schizophrenic kid at school who keeps on yelling out in class shit about flying cows or something when your trying to do your work occasionally he actually yells out something coherent, but you suspected it anyway.

[BraTTy 0]

My new one arrives today:

AMD Quadcore 2.2Ghz

3072Mb Ram (4BG Installed)

512 MB 8800GT

2x500 HDD + ext 320GB in mountable/sled

Wind Vista 32Bit Home Premium

TV Card with remote

19" Flatscrean HighRes

So how goes it ? Review?

I can start to assume problems as you haven't posted back here

[Supernova 0]

Hehe thats quite a system but except for the AMD looks good. Seems like everyone has excellent stuff while im stuck with old and outdated equipment.

[-Snafu- 77]

Hehe thats quite a system but except for the AMD looks good. Seems like everyone has excellent stuff while im stuck with old and outdated equipment.

You are not alone.

[Supernova 0]

Probably but less and less over time. What I also mean is that if you want to get a top-notch system you are going to have to invest at least 3k (assuming we're talking about extreme quad core's like qx9650 etc...) and thats quite a sum of money. Not everyone has a rich uncle or rich family and we often have to work our ass off for pennies , I can't even run my ofp on the highest settings i have to run most of them on very low/low

[echo1 0]

I sometimes wonder if any computer can run OFP comfortably at its highest settings...

You dont need three grand for a top notch system. There's a certain cut off point where spending more gets you minuscule improvements that dont justify the price. You shouldnt spend more than about 1,500-2,000€, and thats for a home-made machine

[Balschoiw 0]

Hello hardware gurus.

I have a problem that arose yesterday.

I have two harddrives in my computer. One is for the OS and programs and the second one is purely for storing data.

The storage harddrive is making making problems now.

When in BIOS the drive is recognized correctly, but when

I load windows the drive is not visible anymore and cannot be accessed, while sometimes the HDD activity LED is permanently lit.

I have to add that the drive is not making irregular noises and when I reboot windows the drive sometimes shows up without any problems.

I ran HDD regenerator in DOS to check the drive for bad sectors without a result. The drive seems to be physically ok.

What could be the reason for this odd behaviour and how can I fix it ?

My operating system is Windows XP.

[BraTTy 0]

Thats a weird one Balschoiw..

Its exhibiting behavior of the jumpers being not set properly except that would usually mean it wouldn't show up in your bios and may ocassionaly work within windows.

I suspect your chipset drivers for your bios but if its something that was working and you haven't up/downgraded

your chipset drivers lately.It wouldn't happen by itself.Chipset drivers don't get updated by windowsupdate. (unless by chance you have some MS type motherboard, which I am not aware of any made)

I would check your cables and make sure they are properly seated , not cut or pinched.And the jumpers haven't wiggled their way off partially.

Otherwise it sounds like something may have been installed that is messing with your low level drivers (chipset driver) corruption,virus and a possibility of imminent hdd failure

Be careful messing with chipset drivers as it could lock you out of your system (boot to safe mode and select default windows drivers)

Have a windows os cd ready for recovery etc..

Few questions:

Do you know your mb model or chispet type

Are we talking about IDE or SATA drives

Do the drives ever "cluck"

How long ago has it been formatted/ OS install

[Balschoiw 0]

Quote[/b] ]Thats a weird one Balschoiw..

Definately

Motherboard Asus A7V600-X Latest Bios revision

Chipset:

Nortbridge : VIA VT 8377 Apollo KT600

Southbridge: VIA VT 8237

Drivetype: IDE Western Digital Corporation 2000JB-00GVA0 200 GB

S.M.A.R.T.-Status: No Errors

Drive does not make "cluck" noises

No OS on this drive, formatted about 1 year ago. Defragged weekly.

No, drivers haven´t been upgraded lately.

I´m going to open the case and will check cables and Jumper on HD. Additionally I will rewire the drive to the second IDE port and see if that helps.

Right as I´m typing this the drive shows up normally with both partitions and no unusual behaviour when accessing data on drive or writing data on drive.

[Supernova 0]

Thanks ch_123 for that advice , at any rate I can't afford an extreme quad core might as well have to get a P4 customized. Now what I wonder is how much hd space should i get and how many hard drives should i get ? Im thinking of either a seagate 750gb or get a 500gb and a few more of them. I consume space pretty easily so I need a big storage hd.

[Colossus 2]

I just bought a new computer and it won't start.

I get the green light on the motherboard, but when I start it up it only lives for 1 second then it dies. What can it be?

I think it's the motherboard since I tried unplugging everything else except the CPU (+fan), RAM and motherboard.

Quote[/b] ]

Antec Nine Hundred

Asus P5KC

Creative XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Pro Series

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400

OCZ Gold XTC 4096 MB DDR2 PC6400

Samsung SH-S203B

Samsung SpinPoint

Samsung SyncMaster 204B

XFX GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB

Zalman CNPS9500LED

Zalman ZM600-HP 600W

[klavan 0]

@Colossus

Watch for the PSU: I had similar problems a while ago and they were due by a faulty component.

Also you should watch for the RAM.

Klavan

[Colossus 2]

I have no way of knowing if its the PSU or the motherboard. It's not the RAM, I'm sure. I just tried it. Zalman should be a good enough product, but I can't be for sure it faulty or not.

Sigh.. I guess I just have to replace the PSU and motherboard. There goes my easter LAN