Krull SGC

Kegetys is right, the reason the price of memory has skyrocketed recently simple, Supply and Demand. We currently are on the tail end of double edge demand spike, the launch of Windows XP has caused a need for practically everyone with a PC, particularly OEM's to increase their memory levels, more significantly Christmas always increases the demand for new PC's and OEM's have to fill their memory banks. However memory manufacturers can only produce so much memory at once, and when demand outstrips supply, like it has been doing in order to fill the banks of all these PC's, they have to charge more, unfortunately OEM's get top priority and so end users get what is left and have to pay a premium for it. The good news is that I think come June time (maybe earlier)you will see the price begin to drop again as demand for new PC's drops off and consequently memory too. When this happens memory manufacturers and vendors will need to stimulate more sales to cover the loss of demand (they have expectations to meet), and so a drop in price usually occurs to achieve this. The memory market however is quite unique in the PC componant industry, as it is the only one I know of to suffer seasonal demand at this level. All of the other componants are usually in a constant state refinement and development, and the effect is that prices are constantly being forced down in order for the products to remain competitive as new and better stuff is launched, just watch the prices of processors, especially after a new speed is released, you will see a clear drop in prices as the performance bar is raised. Memory is relatively slow in its development process and the standards change maybe once every year and half or so, if that, and so the manufacturers can't exploit the change in standards to stimulate demand like the other componant manufacturers can, and so are forced to rely on more traditional supply and demand techniques. For a more detailed read check out this article by Crucial Memory

Well call me strange, but I like the boxes, manuals and other paraphanalia that you get with a genuine retail product, even OEM stuff can't get close to the feel of a RP. Anyhow, if I recall my product licensing knowledge correctly, I don't actually think the XP product license is transferable, and if you read any standard form software license you will generally see, usually in the first clause that the license you purchase is a "Limited Use License", and consequently it is "non-exclusive", and "non transferable". Now in a strict sense that means only the original purchaser is legally entitled to use the software, however it would seem the powers that be have no real qualm if there is no money/commercial aspect involved, so maybe you should give it away to you brother or cousin or something, and save MS some money, those lawyers MS use are expensive, and eventually even Bill Gates wouldn't be able to afford them.

Now I love my computer, and all the other bits of technology that make my life and everyone elses easier, and wouldn't want to be without them for too long, but despite this general love of technology cybernetic implants/enhancements whatever you want to call them, scare the crap out of me, though whether its a natural human response or Hollywoods fault, I can't tell.

I would say try very hard to find a decently priced Athlon, the Duron is very underpowered in comparison, and certainly not worth the money if you can get an Athlon for a little more. I would also suggest,that you investigate getting either an Asus A7N266-C or the MSI nforce 415D board if you prefer (do they have one yet?), they have a 266FSB (the K7T Turbo2 uses a 133A FSB), and work with all Durons, but also and best of all, will take everything else up to the XP 2100+, so future upgrades will be easy with a FSB these processors were designed for, in terms of future upgrades this kind of board is a better investment. The other great thing is that the onboard sound is excellent, better than a SB Live! some say (I agree having owned a Live! prior to my A7N266-C), and definately worth the additional cost,(though then you won't need a sound card, so will save money there). One point is that you will need some PC2100 DDR memory, PC133 won't work, though if you have to buy that too, it shouldn't make too much of a difference, they are priced about the same.

Hi, I have recently upgraded my system to an Athlon Xp 2000+ and an Asus A7N266-C (nforce 415-D) motherboard. I have dumped my old SB Live!, and now use the bundled Asus ACR-6CH board for my sound, (which so far has proved to produce superior quality sound) connected to the AV inputs of a Dolby ProLogic stereo via the Front out jack on the card the same as I had my SB Live!. My problem is that in OFP (I have no sound problems in any other game I have) with hardware acceleration on, there appears to be no sound inside vehicles (unless the stereo volume is turned up full, and even then its low), with EAX enabled the ambient sounds are so loud they drown out everything, and with no hardware acceleration or EAX, you get sound inside vehicles, but not outside, except for the sound of your own weapons fire. Does anybody else with an nforce based motherboard have a similar sound problem?? and does anyone have any suggestions on how I could fix it. I am using OFP v.1.46, and what I believe are the latest unified nforce drivers (v.5.10.2813.0) from nvidia. Thx.

With the darkness problem, did you increase the brightness on you monitor, or in game? and did you try increasing the Gamma correction in the game options? If not that should help, otherwise you might have some hardware issues, anyhow just a thought.

At the moment I have a Creative GeForce 3, I got it a couple of months before the Ti cards came along, but I never regretted paying the premium I did for it, even after the Ti's appeared on the market, it really gave my ailing Athlon 700 a major performance boost, but now I have an Athlon Xp 2000+, so it isn't a problem anymore. Before that I had a Voodoo3 2000, got it within a week of being released, and it served me well for 2 1/2 or so years, I hope my GeForce 3 will do a similarly good job.

Lets no forget people, that most of these cases of online defamation involve people with a direct link to the company. This is a major factor in the eyes of the law, what such people say usually goes beyond mere opinion and potentially can be construed as fact. A generalised comment based on little to no insider information, from a regular member of the public would be extremely hard to establish as defamation. The fact is that the general public are not privvy to the same kind of information an "insider" has/had access to, and what they say is merely opinion. However as the article clearly establishes there is potential for people/groups of people to take their "opinions" too far and become maliscious, then I am sure the courts will eventually decide that a line has been crossed from mere opinion to harrassment. So go ahead make your comments about companies that you don't like, but don't make it an important part of your life, that might get you in trouble.

Are you sure that it is actually the S2390?, because according to the Tyan website that motherboard is compatible only with Athlons up to 1ghz, so a 1.1ghz probably would not work properly with it. However there is another board, which uses the KT133A chipset, the Trinity KT-A (S2390A), which has a 200/266mhz FSB and that can take standard Athlons up to 1.4ghz, and XP's up to the 1800+. In any case I would suggest that choosing to upgrade and to what depends very much on the cost, if you already have both things, or it is going to be a free/as good as free upgrade, then definitely go for it, but if not then look around first and try to get the best stuff you can for your budget, you would be suprised at how small the price differences are with processors, especially the Thunderbirds, for a little extra you can go up a few processors. Anyhow, in terms of what you have suggested, I am sure that with the other stuff you have, your computer will be pretty darn good when you have finished with it, and OFP will definitely benefit from any upgrade over 1ghz, so good luck with the upgrade.

Athlon XP 2000+ (1.67ghz) Asus A7N266-C 256mb Crucial PC2100 (only 1 stick, so no 128bit memory bus) Creative GeForce3 (the original) OFP CPU Benchmark: 4166 To me this suggests that the "OFP CPU benchmark" takes more than just the raw power of the CPU into account, 3987 and 4166 is some difference I think, and if it really was just the CPU all XP 2000+ owners would get equal benchmarks, and that kinda defeats the purpose of benchmarking!?!?!? Anyhow, based on that I reckon that the motherboard, and other core components are in someway influencing the overall benchmark result, it would seem to be the only other factor not yet excluded outright.

I don't see the point in debating something that happened over 20 years ago, something nobody here had any control over, or no doubt even saw/experienced first hand, all we have is hind sight and second hand opinion, both are biased and both see perfectly. To that end I offer this to the discussion: "Bygones, what was, was, what is, is". Lets get over it and hope that the people of N.Ireland can one day learn to live in peace with one another, with the help of the international community. Failing that I say Britain declares N.I to be a fully free and independent nation, albeit one excluded from the international community (until such time as the UN deems them fit to rejoin the community) and let the people fight it out themselves (after preventing any current "political" group, and any other nation from taking part in the process, send them all for a nice trip on an iceflow or something, but I don't think they should be involved). In my opinion this is the only way peace could ever occur, and if it fails napalm might be the only viable option, assuming that they haven't killed each other by then. Well thats my thoughts on the problem, take what you want from them.

I'd probably say none of those listed, I am waiting for, maybe Neverwinter Nights, Star Wars Galaxies, and Championship Manager 4. I don't know maybe I am losing interest in games, I am really waiting for my Athlon Xp 2000+ to come. Hardware is much more fun than software, until you want to put it through its paces, then maybe I will want more games.

Thats why Kubrick used music in 2001 Diablo. Though I do agree about a little sound making it more enjoyable, what would an X-Wing be like without the sound of blasters?!?!? and the Tie Fighter without its woosh. Still I have noticed that more modern sci-fi has begun to make exterior sound less obvious, so maybe its not that much of an issue for fussy error spotters anymore!!! Ohh and my choices for favourite movie(s) are: Bladerunner; Terminator and Terminator 2 Braveheart The Matrix 2001 Gladiator and Spartacus and on and on and on............. I have so many, they all hold different kinds of appeal for me.

For sure Monkey Lib, despite the rather strange image the band relied on, the made some truely excellent tracks, particularly I think, the Highlander stuff, and Bohemian Rapsody. Others would surely include U2, Sting and The Police, and REM, all three have alot of brilliant tracks, which are far superior to virtually everything not by them available by today's "artists". I guess its true about the longer established bands being far better than these manufacturer couple of year wonders.

No actual GeForce4 to date, but Nvidia are supposedly close to finishing their work on the NV25 GPU (probably named GeForce4), apparantly it will be based on a 0.13 micron manufactering process (as used in the the new (and very expensive) Intel P4 Northwood's, and the as yet unconfirmed super Athlon's which will finally take AMD clock speeds far past 2ghz). We can definately be sure of one thing, any graphics card based on the NV25 GPU will be very expensive, (it is supposed to be more powerful than that used in the X-Box, and I am sure MS don't want PC users to easily and cheaply gain a graphics power boost beyond X-box). It will no doubt cost around Å500-600 for a mid-range one, and because of the X-box connection won't drop below the current GeForce3 price point (around Å300) for some time.So I say go forth and buy your Ti500 (I got my standard GeForce3 a week or so before Nvidia announced the Ti cards and I still don't mind about my choice, you have to buy one day).