jdulmage

Quote: Hi, you could have a look at Themaltake's SLK-900 http://www.systemcooling.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=401 I've seen several overclocking stores saying it is the best performance cooler for Athlon XP and Pentium 4s. However, it does come at a price and you have to buy your own fan to go with it. that one will work, thanks

As late as it is in this post, Windows 2003 actually runs games better than Windows XP, and infact, it gets higher 3d and pc marks, as well as higher stability and speed. Only bad thing is, no drivers out yet. But the difference in performance is close to 1%, not worth it. Stick with XP.

check for a firmware update on the drive itself. You'll have to go to the distrubutors website, I got a JHLS or whatever it's called, which is a Liteon, flashed firmware, everything is fine.

DS3Circuit is right, just hack the LBA

I bought Logitech Office Keyboard, Microsoft Optical Mouse, Liteon 16x DVD-ROM, Panasonic floppy drive, Arctic Silver 3 thermal paste, Lexmark Z35 printer, and a Vantec Aeroflow VA4-C7040 HSF. (which by the way runs like a charm)

Quote: When do you think the next version of IE will come forth? It won't, IE 6.5 will be the last OS (IE 6.0 SP2 for non-Longhorn users) and that's it, they'll move towards making MSN.net bad idea in my opinion, but IE will always be there.

Last Known Good Configuration will fix that, try it first before doing recovery console and yes, you could just boot off the CD and do recovery console with F6. another good suggestion would to dump that P.O.S. of an O/S and get XP or 2k3

After having this installed for close to 2 weeks now, and using the workstation convertion to make it audio-video capable just like XP. I've found this OS to be highly faster and highly stable compared to both XP and 2k. So for those of you who are skeptical, don't be. This is a great OS once you mod it to run games. Some of you say "why use a server OS to run games", well, because in critical benchmarking, games actually run faster on this OS and this OS has better stability and speed. Any gamer would want that.

My 1800+ on a stock AMD fan never got hotter than 51 degrees, and you're running a 2000+ at 55 with a brand name fan? that's BAD! Highly highly hot for a brand name fan and no OC. Put those fans back in. With my new Vantec Aeroflow VA4-C7040, my temperature with Windows and UD Cancer Agent running is 35 degrees MAX, it hasn't got hotter than that. So I suggest you invest in some better cooling, because in the longer run, 55 degrees will kill that cpu and/or the motherboard

only PURE ATI cards have a guarantee to work with the reference drivers. If you have a Hercules or Sapphire, etc., you should be using their drivers. I suggest using Omega's hacked drivers, as they work better.

for $18 bucks, you are just delaying yourself by going from generic to generic. Spend the extra money and get an enermax or vantec

I agree, even though i've been using Nvidia for over 5 years, I wouldn't be silly enough to say that Nvidia is the superior product, when I know damn well it isn't. I say this before and I'll say it again when it comes to video problems. Upgrade to DX 9.0 Revision A, get latest chipset drivers and get latest video card drivers. and secondly, putting on the latest divx codec should fix the problem with WMP 9, a problem which i've never had myself for your information. good luck. EDIT: ok, noticed you mentioned you do have the latest stuff. ATI's Control Panel offers a lot of ways to alter how your video should run and look, give that a try. I've never ran in to ANY of these video problems that people claim they run in to with ATI's cards. Call me lucky or call me a troubleshooter, because I don't run in to problems with computers anymore.

Depends what you are doing. If you care about getting full music capabilities in games, movies and music, it's a joke to say "SoundStorm is good", SoundStorm is only good because it has Dolby Digital ICE, whereas Audigy doesn't. However, Audigy 2 is far superior in quality, and capable of bringing a more realistic environment to games and crisper sound than an onboard device. Read un-bias reviews and you'll see. You can get an Audigy 2 for $80 bucks now, that's a far better choice.

Uninstall Video Card from device manager (don't reboot!) and then uninstall 3DMark 2003. Now reboot the system and have it find everything again on the card, then install 3DMark 2003 again.

nforce2 Chipset has proven in over 20 reviews and 100 benchmarks that it is the best chipset for an AMD processor. By the way, SoundStorm isn't all that great, buy an external card.

the 4.1 channel audio works no matter what i'm running. Try up[censored] your bios to 1011 or the 1012 beta from Asus, as well as up[censored] to DirectX 9.0a and getting latest Via Hyperion drivers. If it still doesn't fix it, then i'm afraid i'm out of ideas, because it works flawlessly for me. This'll sound dumb, but make sure primary 2 speakers are in the Green jack, and the secondary 2 speakers in the Blue jack. Other than that, there isn't anything else you can do, the board's audio is probably DOA.

I have this motherboard, first off, go to: http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloads1-3.aspx?Keyword=ALC650 download the latest XP drivers, should be 3.42 or something. Install those first off. Secondly, go to Windows Audio Properities, Speaker Settings and set them for Quadaphonic Sound (or Surround Sound, whichever you have, try both, but make sure you have the RIGHT one) Secondly, right click on Soundman icon in systray, go to Sound Manager, then click on Speaker Configuration tab. Choose 4-channel mode for 4 speaker output, to the right, you'll see "Phonejack Switch", green should be "Front Speaker Out", blue should be "Rear Speaker Out" and Red should be "Mic In" (even if you have a subwoofer, don't change these settings) After that, the sound should work fine. I have this exact motherboard using a 4.1 sound system. Good luck.

I've been researching this for a while now, so I don't really need any technical information on this, just some thoughts from various mature, professional tech users. I'm used to the "ati sucks" and "nvidia sucks" and I just can't stand it and need a real response on this from users with the experience. It's either going to be ATI Radeon 9500 Pro or GeForce 4 TI 4400, looking at benchmarks and reviews (i've looked at over 10 reviews on both cards in comparsion tests, etc.) and have come to believe that the ATI Radeon 9500 Pro is better than the GeForce 4 TI 4400 (even the 4600 was losing sometimes), HOWEVER, I hear the age ol' story of: "But their drivers suck" I know that ATI has gone a long way in the catalyst drivers. So I'm asking you? Is the "drivers suck" situation as bad as people make it out to be and which path should I take on this? Thanks

all i'll say is that in critical benchmarks, the A7N8X is the winner 99% of the time, which is better than any other motherboard to date. Several reviews have given it 'Top Choice' award.

Quote: All i have to say ATi drivers sucks - is an OLD argument that no longer holds true - it is all hardcore NVIDIA fans can come up with to try and put down ATI now that they are kicking nvidia into the ground the 9500 has Dx9 support the ti's don't Do not get an old g4 card - as with in a short time they will be paper weights. Give it a few months if you can until ATI's full new range of cards is out. Now, you can get a 9500 (not pro) and flash it to become a 9700 pro! so that would be your best bet for sure. If you possibly wait until the 9200 and 9600 come out (9800 is out now) - then the cards you are looking @ now will be cheaper and a higher end card maybe in sight - as the 9700 pro is already @ $300 US and will likely drop to about $250 once the 9800 become more availible - which is a great price for a wicked card. I myself have a ti4600 and a 9700 pro 9600 pro is quite funny, it is actually a slower card than the 9500 pro, because it only has 4 pipes, and the 9500 has 8 pipes. 9600 has a faster clock, but gaming wise, is slower. On another note, I considered going with 9500 non-pro and blasting it to a 9700, however, I have no clue how to do that, nor do I know which brand and type of card to buy.

yea, only thing is that Asus has been taken off the list for certification and I think that is what Copernicus was speaking of. I've decided to go with an Audigy OEM instead. But that may change by the time I buy it, I'm the kind of person that researches heavily and changes his mind about 4 times before buying it. I've learned that is the best way to buy new things.

well, all signs are pointing to an Radeon Pro 9500 or 9700. So looks like that's what i'm going for when the time comes. Thanks, I appreciate it. On a side note...there is NO possible way to make a game video card-strict. Yes, it can detect the card and say "Non-Nvidia Card Unsupported" or something, but it'll just mean another run of the DOJ and secondly, there will always be cracks to get past that see ya!

Quote: Quote: I'd like to see you reply to someone using one sentence Hey... it's as long as your post was! lol... Well, I figure posts are like being a reference manual: The user requires complete & accurate information, I give as much as I can & as accurately as is possible. (This comes from work-habits, doing reports etc., hard habit to break, sorry!) * Ohhh, I guess... What can you do, you know? This field's loaded with information & variation plus change... sometimes, you have to post a ton to get a point across! APK P.S.=> It's easier to expound that much info. in speech, no question, but typing? Well, the "baud rates TOO slow"... apk I agree. I work as a computer support technician and constantly need to be 100% clear, especially with "n00bs" on the other line. haha

Quote: They're both great companies, with great products... However, myself now, were I to go buy? Even speaking now as an NVidia user currently in the GeForce Ti4600 VisionTek unit, I have to say the better buy now is ATI Radeon type products! Alot of folks here use those & say their drivers are now SOLID as iron... good news for you, & the ATI stuff GENERALLY costs less for more performance "pound-for-pound"/pixel-for-pixel. (Especially their All-In-Wonder 9700 series... all the multimedia & TV hookup stuff PLUS the gaming speeds! DosFreak & Clutch have been looking @ those, & probably in great detail... PM them if they don't reply here!) * In short, were I to buy now? I'd have to admit I'd go ATI... just as much power, if not more, & usually for less... APK P.S.=> I have not tried a more powerful GeForce FX type of NVidia card OR an ATI Radeon type etc., i.e.-> one more powrerful than my current card, but others here may have owned both... I'd have to say that they'd be your BEST reference, due to 'hands-on' use of both types of products from both OEM's... apk I'd like to see you reply to someone using one sentence

Quote: The A7N8X doesn't have Soundstorm certification. So it's better to put an Audigy sound card in it,than leave it using onboard sound. Uhm...A7N8X Deluxe has Nvidia Soundstorm on it. That's what i'm talking about. Not the certification. I already knew that. I've since decided to stick with the SoundStorm onboard anyways, unless it is giving me hassle.