Newumbrella

Well actually real low level format can only be done at factory during manufacturing procedure. The utilities available at the manufacturer's website in reailty performs zero fill. If samsung doesn't provide a utility for "low level format", then you may use maxtor's powermax, which have the ability to zero fill all make's hard drive.

CPU: AMD AthlonXP 2500 or above (P4 feels more sluggish then the Mhz suggested below 2.8C), Perferred choice would be Athlon64 3000+ Motherboard: If AMD AthlonXP VIA KT600 (If SATA drive is used) or Nforce2 (Nforce2 is a bit faster, but both is at the same level), A64 would be K8T800. If P4 865/875 (SIS's newest chipset performance is actually pretty good too) Video: ATI, 9600/9800 Pro/XT HD: Hitachi 7K250 SATA 8MB, if not available get Maxtor DiamondMax 9 SATA 8MB Writer: Pioneer Sound: Audigy2 ZS or Turtle Beach stuff., To be honest altough Nforce2 have a pretty good DSP (MCP-T), but it's quality is often limited by the CODEC it uses. If the MB uses a inferior codec (Realtek), the sound quality will only be acceptable. Analog Devices, or Cmedia codec will do a bit better job CASE: Very personal, but perfer a case with good air flow design PSU: SPI (or FSP), Enermax

You should test the HDs with HDTach 2.7 for the burst speed (or the interface performance). The normal values should be 75 or higher. If you get a lower figure, it's probably caused by PCI latency timer set too low. I'm using MSI KT3-Ultra ARU as well (w/ latest BIOS, 5.7), and i've found out that the "PCI latency timer" option in BIOS is actually non-functional. Because I've used WPCREDIT to check the actual value, and whatever you set in BIOS, the actual value is always at 32 (which is way too low). So try to use WPCREDIT (with KT333 PCR file) to change the value, and use WPCRSET to apply the setting every time windows started. I have all the files you need so if you need them by any chance i'll post the link. P.S. I think the reason that VIA's chipset have bad add on PCI IDE adapter performance is because often the PCI latency timer is set at the inappropriate value, and these adapters need more piority to function at the optimum level.

It's actually not a problem. If you compare stock windows 2000/xp SBLive! drivers with latest creative driver, the new one have better sound quality. Because creative may have additional filter to improve the sound, but it'll decrease the volume.

Well if you check out ATI drivers download section, you'll see that you can download the windows drivers as on package, or individual components (driver, control panel). And MMC and dvd driver is seprate component as well. URL: http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/winxp...amp;submit.y=10 ATI have given user to intall driver and control panel seprately, nvidia don't even give you that option. The nvidia's control panel is bundled with the driver so u can't install it seprately. So if you think that the control panel is taking resource (which doesn't take that much, maybe a few mb) you can install drivers only. The linux drivers are for all radeon series, (8500/9000/9100/9200/9500/9600/9800), and they're fully optimized for 2D/3D functionality like nvidia does URL: http://www.ati.com/support/faq/linux.html But they don't have drivers for IA64 and AMD64 available yet, which you will not likely to use these ones. ATI will have support for these CPUs available later. Same as Nvidia, ATI provided one driver for Radeon family, and Nvidia for Geforce family. So ATI's inferior driver support (windows, linux) is a thing in the past. Starting from the catalyst drivers, they provided full range support for full windows and linux family. My first and second video card is nvidia (TNT, Geforce2) and i like them more then ATI by then. But I switch to ATI because of Geforce FX's disappointing performance, and their attitude (they deliberately cheat in benchmark/games, which i know ppl would say ATI cheats as well, but the problem is that they say that even by cutting corners it's still "fine". And the margin is too excessive too (when Madonion released 3dmark 01/03 patch for example, nvidia's performance dropped drastically (more then 20%) but ATI's is only like 1 or 2 percent or sth, which is very minor in comparison). And even worse is that their responded by releasing new driver versions to "re-enable the optimizations" which say that they're really just ignore what the customer really wanted (true performance). And ATI's response is that they'll turn off the optimization with the next driver release(even though is nth compare to nvidia). So this kinda of attitude it causes me to loose confidence with Nvidia.

Quote: I have two bones to pick with Ati 1.) They have HORRIBLE support (if any at all) under *nix 2.) They put LOTS of garbage and trash on widnwos like Ati Control Center etc.. LOL Also, Atis have nice bells and whistles which my system probably can't take advantage of! 1. Check out ATI driver page, they do have linux drivers. URL: http://www.ati.com/support/drivers/linux...&submit.y=8 2. - You mean ATI control panel is trash? then how bout nvidia? their newest "forceware" 50 series driver have lots of "useless" options as well.......so they're both the same deal - actually i never find any video driver's control panel as "trash and garbage", as they provides lots of useful options to tweak video card performance - besides you can install ati drivers by itself if you think control panel is not useful...ATI have give option to uninstall smartgart as well, as some ppl dun like it much

5200FX is not recommended since it's performance is quite questionable. Although it's capable of directx 9 but when it run these kind of games the frame rate is so slow that it's almost unplayable. In directx8 games it's no better, since even geforce 4 4200ti can beats 5200, sometimes 5600 too. So my recommedation is to get ATI 9600 pro/XT, since it's performance is above 5200 - 5700 in almost every application/benchmark, plus it's video/2d/3d quality is better too. And besides 9600pro's price has dropped considably since XT's introduction, so it'll be best buy for now.

If you are using ATI Radeon series Card: 1. install latest drivers and control panel 2. go into advanced display properties 3. display -> monitor -> click on monitor 4. Refresh Rate Override -> Same as desktop If you are using Nvidia (all series) Card: 1. install latest drivers 3. go into advanced display properties 3. refresh rate override 4. set desired refresh rate @ specific resolution note: in 4x.xx series this trick only works for direct3d games, for 5x.xx series it'll work for both direct3d and opengl These steps will provide desired refresh rate for both direct3d and opengl games/applications, which 3rd party utilities (eg powerstrip) is not needed.

So did you defrag your hard disk periodically?

Unfortunately even though 3.8 is a new release, mobility radeons will not be supported (as for the older versions). You can try Omega ATI drivers, which I've tried on few laptops with great results. the website is: http://www.omegacorner.com

UDF reader is included in the cd-rw, and it'll automatically ask you to install if a UDF reader is not presented. If this prompt didn't appear then the cdrom probably doesn't support CD-RW (most pre 95-96 drive doesn't)

If you need to turn off your machine for like 2 hrs before it can boot again i would say that something in your computer is overheating. The two possibility are either CPU or PSU. Check and make sure all the fans are working properly and it's clean, sometimes excessive dust can cause components to overheat. If the components are operating in a overheated condition for prolong period of time then these two components may starts to fail (not completely but enough to make the system unstable.) Next if everything is clean and fans are ok then try to update the following things: 1. Latest BIOS 2. VIA 4-in-1 driver 3. Nvidia video driver 4. realtek driver I would suggest that you to upgrade to windows 2000 or windows xp, as 9x series are relatively old OS and your system are capably of supporting these newer OSes.

There's drivers available from the following microsoft website: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/sidewinder/default.asp

Real low level format can only be done at the manufacturer's factory, which involves writing physical hd info and defect mapping. The utility provided at their website (low level format utility) only do zero fill in reality....but sometimes problems such as screwed partition, virus can only be removed by zero fill

Check and see if the fils have gone to recycle bin, if u dont' hold shift key while delete your files may not be "truely" deleted. If that's not the case, then there may be problem with the hard disk. Go to command prompt -> type "chkdsk /v /f" then restart See if these suggestions fixes your problem

Use a benchmark software like Hdtach and check the burst speed.... You can look at the burst rate, if using a older board (kt133 for example) with onboard ata controller (promise, highpoint), it'll be lower, around 66-73. If using chipset integrated controller then it should be higher then 80mb/s...like it exceeds wut hdtach can show....

Of course Nvidia have improved their quality, but if you have two cards side by side, ATI clarity is better then Nvidia...like 2D, but most appearant is when playing videos (VCD,DVD,XviD,DivX,....)

Ya i agree with you man....

If you plan to use Intel's "Extreme Graphics", then you should expect super slow fps. Although nForce2 onboard (Geforce4 MX, or more accurate, Geforce2 ++) it's not performing that great already, Intel's solution its even slower, performing at a bare minimum level (as you can see in the benchmarks, and i dun think they should use such a aggressive name for a product that perform very poorly). I would suggest ATI 9500pro/9600pro/9700, as they are not too expensive and ATI's quality surpasses Nvidia product...

ATI has drivers problems in the past, but the current generation of drivers (catalyst) is much better then before....and on my Radeon9600pro it works perfectly...

One more thing too for ATI cards i would prefer pro versions, yes 9500 pro is faster then 9600pro/5600 ultra but i think 9600 is pretty good too, plus ATI has a advantage on the quality side. It's most obvious when watching VCD/DVD and comparing side by side with a nvidia card.....

Which windows you're using?

A lot of people always blame windows for instability, but the fact is that most of the time it's hardware's problem rather then windows itself........for example linux was known for stability, but if you have some shitty ram/PSU then it'll still crash/freeze So always check if you have latest bios/driver/service pack/updates before blaming windows....... I'll recommend Windows XP Professional for newer machine and Windows 2000 Professional for older machines... btw win2k and winxp should offer very similar performance (provided that you have adequate hardware)

You should install the latest: 1. ALi integrated driver 2. Microsoft Intellimous driver It should help.....

You can try to install latest VIA 4-in-1 and usb filter driver.