Brian Frank

I guess it's best to find out exactly what hardware he's got, but I'd suspect some driver could be an issue. I've personally had some lockups with certain detonator drivers long before I'd ever get a BSOD. Heat could be an issue, depending on when it does it, y'know--randomly or after some CPU intensive task.

Yeah, MSI isn't as of yet. There is supposed to be a BIOS update for their 415 and 420 boards that give you the option to disable or enable super stability.

On the nForce, there is a superstability mode that kicks in automatically if all the banks are filled. However, Abit has chosen not to implement this in at least the NV7-133R. The trade off is that you cannot use a double-sided DIMM in the 3rd DIMM slot. People claim the nForce is slow, but that is false. You will loose performance if you do not have a DIMM in both memory channels. Check out this link: http://www.techhard.com/docs/mobo/a7n266c/a7n266c_1.htm You can see that the nForce boards keep up quite nicely with KT266A and KT333 boards. If you want help, NForcersHQ is a site dedicated to all things nForce. They're still working on the site itself, but the message forum is up.

From my experience, NTFS vs. FAT32 isn't noticeable. I used to run all FAT32 drives when I started using Win2k. I slowly migrated to NTFS on all of my partitions, and I cannot tell you the speed difference for the life of me. Benchmarks may say one thing--and while they are neat to compare, they don't tell you if you'll notice the difference, and in most cases you don't. NTFS is better than FAT32 by a long shot. The only time you really even need FAT32 on an NT-based system is if you're doing a dual-boot with any OS that doesn't read NTFS (Win9x, older distros of Linux--so I'm told anyway).

Quote: Are there any boards with SiS or nVidia North- and Southbridges with 5 PCIs and an onboard RAID controller? Yes. For nVidia, there's the Abit NV7-133R, based on the nForce 415 chipset. The 415 lacks the integrated video, and the board uses the HighPoint HPT372 ATA133 RAID controller. I have this board and love it.

Did you use any tweaks before? Did you change your memory timings in BIOS?

I had the Epox board, and it died after a couple weeks. I'd have gotten a replacement, but I was down to 1 PC (my file server with a crappy screen) and I didn't have time to wait for the replacement from Newegg. Disregarding that, it was a very fast board.

If it's a good brand name (it should say somewhere on the unit) it should be fine. A bigger PSU is never a bad thing. Matty, I trust these guys more than I trust you. Also, your bad grammer doesn't help you look like the intelligent type here. 2nd the difference between 300, 350, and 400W PSU's is not a massive difference anymore. The Epox boards/Enermax PSU's are a known issue, and if you doubt me, go check the Epox forum over at AMDMB. Please educate yourself before telling professionals they don't no nuthin'.

As nice as that dual Xeon rig would be, I think that's a tad more than he want's to spend

Well, it's safe to say that as long as there are moron's out there, we'll never go hungry.

If it's an Enermax PSU, you might want to consider getting a new one as these and Epox boards seem to have a major issue when paired togehter.

Nice setup.

Right now I do, but then again, I don't fix computers for a living---yet! I haven't run into any stupid people personally, tho I have seen some very stupid comments online by people--including someone telling me that you can indeed install Windows 98 on an NTFS partition.

Duke Nukem 3D Descent 1,2, & 3 Half-Life Dark Forces series Unreal Unreal Tournament:D

Go to AMDMB and check out their forums. I did have that Epox for a few weeks before an unforunate death (if you want the whole story PM or e-mail me) and that has overclocking options to Toledo. The only thing that can beat it is Abit's KX7-333. The only thing I don't like about that Epox is the location of the IDE ports at the bottom edge. If you have a full-tower like me, you may find this board a bit unfriendly here. I've been hearing the MSI KT3 Ultra is a very good board as well.

I understand the Abit thing. The only Abit board I've been really happy with is their NV7-133R, which I'm running in my main box ATM.

The 1066 RDRAM modules are out now, courtesy of the needs for the 533MHz FSB P4's. I'm personally looking forward to the new nForce boards here, but that's just me.

I know, it's really dumb.

Might be the PSU. So long as you've got a good 300W, you should be fine, however, it couldn't hurt to test it out to be sure. Also, that Via686B/SB Live! combo could be a problem, especially if you don't have the 686B/Live patch (driver pack can be downloaded from Abit)

Okay, checking out MSI's web site, I see that board has the infamous Via 686B southbridge/SB Live! combo, which can lead to data corruption. Things you can do are: remove the Live! or move it to a different slot, and also make sure you have the latest Via 4-in-1 drivers.

I wondered about it, mainly because I've heard of some ECS boards that are picky about the power supply used. Knowing MSI, I don't see it as a problem. Have you tried anything yet?

Agreed with pmistry's comment about less optional components, especially with the NT OS's. Consoles used to be cool, but once I discovered the PC side of gaming, anything else, even the Xbox, pales in comparison.

The quote is off SNL's "Nick Burns: Your Company's Computer Guy" It's hilarious to the nerds in the house, chiefly me and my dad Anyway, I'll be looking at some different batteries: this new camera eats alkalines. I can use NiCAD or NiMH or Sony's expensive InfoLithium...suggestions welcom.

Dude, that's like a year and a half ago! 8) I think he's hanging around T-Break's forums. My systems are about as dope as I can keep them. I am totally 1337:D hahahahahahahahaha!