PC Discussion Thread - All PC related in here.

[Supernova 0]

sickboy 8gb's of ram you can't use all of that anyway. I heard 9800 GX 2 are very problematic so I don't know.

[echo1 0]

Just a quick question...

I was told that I should try to stop using IDE and fully move over to SATA. But is it worth buying a new CD Drive just to get out of IDE? Will I notice enough difference for it to be worth it.

If so, then what is a good CD/DVD drive to look for? What are the main things that make a good drive?

Cheers.

@456820:

No, there is absolutely no point in going over from an IDE CD/DVD drive to a SATA one, it makes absolutely no difference speed wise. In fact, some motherboards dont like SATA CD-Drives, so you could be worse off. If your current drive works, use it. If you need to replace, use IDE anyway, it saves SATA sockets for Hard Disks that do benefit from SATA.

[Supernova 0]

Ok now i've settled my choice to these two motherboards. From what I have seen one at times has better performance than the other and vice versa but I just can't help pick one of them:

ASUS striker II Extreme

ASUS Maximus Extreme.

[echo1 0]

Considering those boards are more expensive that most processors, and crammed full of features you'll never need, do you not think you'd be better off with something more austere? How about the Abit Quad GT IX38?

[sickboy 13]

Truely nobody who can comment if SLI is working in v1.11beta, and if it gives extra performance and possibly how much?

@Universal, if and how much of RAM I can use fully depends on my needs, usage and wishes

[Supernova 0]

I don't trust any other brands except ASUS and eVGA (less though) for motherboards.

@sickboy: AFAIK you won't use all that 8gb anyway and seems you're specs are a bit discreet and hidden

[sickboy 13]

@Universal; Guessing is IMO useless.

I use Vista x64 SP1 Ultimate. This both allows the full ram usage,

aswell as since it's Vista it got a Super Prefetcher Cache, which (ab)uses all my left over RAM after applications.

I play, develop, pack setups with 7zip (~1300mb ram usage per instance), virtual machines (WS & Server), and a whole lot more.

At times even in Combinations.

However, I will not claim that I hit the full 8GB, with applications

IMHO you either go for 4, or for 8, in either 2x2 or 4x2gb combinations for dual channel.

So as mentioned earlier, it fully depends on ones needs, usage and wishes

Anyway, all I asked was info on SLI, this is what I am in need of information about

ps, what do you mean with "Your specs are somewhat discreet & hidden"?

What more specs do you want at a question about SLI  

[Supernova 0]

ch_123 I understand that they are expensive but I otherwise will not look at any other motherboards except an eVGA 790i SLI(in last case). So I need some help deciding between one of them.

@sickboy: Once I get my new rig I'll try and inform you about SLI.

Edit: Is it worth getting the X48 ASUS P5E3 Premium ? or the Rampage Extreme ?

[echo1 0]

I don't trust any other brands except ASUS and eVGA (less though) for motherboards.

@sickboy: AFAIK you won't use all that 8gb anyway and seems you're specs are a bit discreet and hidden

I use an Abit board which has served me excellently for 3 years (despite the abuse I have inflicted on it) , and the model I suggested to you has excellent reviews. I dont quite understand why you have to buy the most expensive of everything - believe me, the performance difference between those boards you mentioned and some of the more midrange ones like the one I suggested above.

@The whole RAM thing: The first rule of RAM - you can never have enough of the stuff.

[Supernova 0]

Ok fair point made but then I'm still wondering go with a DDR2 motherboard or a DDR3 motherboard and go with 790i SLI or Intel chipset ?

Basically I'm looking for cutting-edge as upgrading my current rig will do no good I need to get the latest and greatest and make it last for a while. I won't consider getting the Rampage formula until Rampage extreme.

[echo1 0]

Get DDR2, the DDR3 technology has not matured sufficiently to make it worthwhile yet. If you ever need to increase the amount of RAM you have, I'd say that DDR2 will still be available for many years to come (after all, you can still buy DDR1 and SDRAM).

You dont have to buy the best (and most expensive) of everything to have a cutting edge PC. Whilst performance increases with price, the value for money tends to decrease as you go up. Its therefore most wise not to get the most expensive components, but upper-midrange ones. They will last just as long as the overpriced ones and cost an awful lot less.

[Supernova 0]

Ok I have been looking at the motherboards from my list and I see some like the rampage/maximus series supports crossfire but does that also mean that they won't accept NVIDIA cards (non-SLI) ?

[echo1 0]

No it does not.

[Supernova 0]

Basically X38 is scratched from my list (maximus extreme). Now I need to decide whether or not I will need SLI with my current GPU choice of 9800 GX2.

[CameronMcDonald 146]

I would say probably not at this stage. SLI is an odd thingeh, tried it and didn't like it. Support has been scratchy from the start, and the performance doesn't really warrant you fishing out a wad fulla dollars since you won't be getting 2x performance, by any means.

[echo1 0]

Basically X38 is scratched from my list (maximus extreme).

Out of curiousity, why is this? The X38 based boards have always seemed quite good to me (if not somewhat overpriced at times)

[Supernova 0]

X48 are much more stable when overclocking and for numerous other reasons.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Basically X38 is scratched from my list (maximus extreme).

Out of curiousity, why is this? The X38 based boards have always seemed quite good to me (if not somewhat overpriced at times)

Overpriced? the X38 DS4 is just as expensive as the P35 version. I own it and it is a goddamn great board. So far I encountered zero errors, cooling is great and the results of Futuremark benchmarks speak for themselves.

X48 boards are a totally different level pricewise. If it is worth the extra bucks.. I doubt it.

[echo1 0]

If I recall correctly, they were quite expensive when first released. Theyre now better value though.

[Supernova 0]

This doesn't look good. Makes it seem like I might have to go with Rampage Extreme or P5E3 Premium.

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=183119

[Shadow NX 1]

Have a noobish question, that google so far didnt answer.

I ordered a new Harddisk which is faster than the old one already installed.

So for me this means swap jumpers and put the new one on the master postion on the cable.

Then i can format the new HD and put a OS on it... so far so good.

But what happens if the other harddisk already had for example Xp installed and has several partitions?

Will that co exist fine?

Better solutions?

Mainly i want to avoid having to backup all my stuff from the current HD.

[BraTTy 0]

It will coexist fine. You can select which hdd is your boot drive in your bios.

It wont cause problems and when you are done retrieving files from your old hdd you can partition it and format (I say that as it has windows on it and few files just wont delete unless you format it)

I do it all the time.I try to leave my old hdd intact until I have all the files from it and make sure new drive functions fine

Having another bootable hdd in your pc is a good safeguard as you can just select the boot drive either in your bios or boot menu (usually a F key at bootup)

Just so you know you most likely wont be able to run any of the programs off of your old hd unless you reinstall or am booting from it

[Shadow NX 1]

Thanks for the info, especially the last part was what i needed to know.

[dwringer 45]

Truthfully you may be able to run a few programs off the old drive but you may get unexpected results. A lot of times you can fix this by copying the [drive]:\Documents and Settings\[username]\My Documents\ folder over to your new hard drive, or at least the relevant files in it.

Disclaimer: Do NOT do that, unless you know exactly what it is you're copying and why. If you have the same program installed on the old and new drive, this WILL cause you problems.

Other programs (in fact, many if not most) rely on registry information that may or may not be automatically restored upon execution. These might not work no matter WHAT you copy over. On a case to case basis, search the net, you might even find registry fixes for this but I wouldn't bet on it - more likely than not this is not something you'd want to try.

But in other words, don't count those programs out right away

[Colossus 2]

Shinning up my XP and I was thinking a Vista theme would do the trick. I've downloaded Vista Transformation Pack 8.0.1 by some Mr.Windows X. Any good?