Brian Frank

http://www.hexus.net/content/reviews/review.php?dXJsX3Jldmlld19JRD03NDEmdXJsX3BhZ2U9NA== While the FX 57000 Ultra is not there, it's comparable to the Radeon 9600XT. The 5200 comes in at the bottom of the barrel. 2nd, the FX 5700 Ultra I listed does have TV-out.

The memory is important, but the GeForce FX 5200 has extremely poor performance, and having 256MB of RAM is nothing more than marketing. Not saying it won't do any good, but when you're starting off with a poor performing graphics chip, all the ram in the world won't make up for it. The FX 5700 Ultra is a much better choice. If you weren't gaming, the FX5200 would be fine, but even then, I wouldn't suggest you pay extra for the 256MB of RAM---it's just marketing hype. The 256MB of RAM on a 5200 is like putting spinners and lights on a Yugo. It looks nice, but that's about it. It's your money, but I strongly suggest not getting the 5200 if you'll be gaming more than just rarely. Since you're going with an i865PE/i875P board, yes, if you want to make the most out of the chipset, it's definitely worth it to go for two sticks of RAM. Otherwise, you'll only be able to run a single channel configuration, and that would give you performance roughly the same to the 848 chipset, which is single channel.

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/...oduct_uid=63165 That's the Abit AI7 motherboard. It's more expensive, but it's more loaded and has dual-channel capabilities. http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/...oduct_uid=54473 In order to make use of the dual-channel capabilities, you need two sticks of RAM. About 3 pounds extra for 512MB (2x256MB). Since you're buying the retail CPU, it comes with a heatsink and fan, so you don't need to buy one. http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/...;subcat_uid=580 However, I would suggest going with this OEM 2.4 P4. It's based on the Prescott core and is slower in clock speed, however, this is a wise move if you want to enjoy your gaming. Far Cry will eat that video card for breakfast. Unless you like playing with very low framerates (read, under 20FPS), at very low resolutions, I'd seriously budget for something a little better. http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/...oduct_uid=64039 That's the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra. Not the best thing you can get, but for the money, it's about the best mid-range card you can get on ebuyer. You will enjoy a better gaming experience with that.

I picked up an Athlon XP 2400+ and am enjoying lower temps and a faster speed. Under load, I've got 13-14*C lower with the same heatsink and fan.

Offhand, I can't say. You might wanna e-mail or call ebuyer about it. For the motherboard, Gigabyte is a great company, but that motherboard uses the i848 chipset which runs a single channel memory configuration. This will cut out the full performance of the CPU, and I'm not sure if it's Prescott ready. I would get an i865PE or i875P motherboard and go with the older Northwood core CPU's. These chipsets feature dual-channel memory capabilities which provides the bandwith the P4 loves. While it's true the Prescott does have a 1MB cache over the 512kB on the Northwood, it's compensating for longer pipelines. Additionally, it runs hotter than a Northwood at the same speed. Now, if you go LGA775, than Prescott is your only choice. Socket 478 you have the option of either. To be fair, LGA775 was designed with Prescott in mind and should be a better platform. However, the LGA775 boards are pretty slim in the pickings right now. If you want the cutting edge stuff, I'd go with an i915P or i925X setup and have PCI Express (PCIe) on tap. The downside is, that PCIe video cards don't have a many varieties available. I could blab on and on, but there's a few things that we need to know to guide you in the right direction. How much are you looking to spend, and what are you doing with this system? It's silly to spend a boat load of money on a CPU and have a GeForce 2 MX video card to play FarCry on. Now if you just want to surf the web, a 3GHz CPU is far more grunt than you need to do that.

I've noticed Asus PC Probe utility to freak out more often. While that is kinda low, I don't believe the 3.3V rail is as critical as the 5V and 12V ones. However, I would go and exchange the power supply (or buy one if you can't return it), of good quality. Antec is good, but if you're a little skeptical now, that's fine. Sparkle (and Fortron---same company, different names) are good and cheap. If you have some cash to blow, you might look at something from PC Power and Cooling---basically the best PSU's you can buy.

I bought the promo upgrade to ME from Win98 only. TONS of problems. Tried a clean install, still problems. More crashes than 98, more blue screens. When I found out that Win2k supported all my apps except for a few dos games, I jumped ship. Another thing that irritated me was that stupid movie maker-which I have no use for and could not uninstall. Microsoft sure has some balls to force stuff on that you cant uninstall. That and the countless problems. Did I mention problems were rampant...I dont remember since its been a while since I converted to 2000. I know you cant pick and choose 2000 components, but with ME considering it was an upgrade to the 9x line, I foolishly thought that Microsuck would allow you to pick and choose what you wanted on YOUR COMPUTER. Maybe Im wrong here, but personally I dont need this company "...anticipating consumers needs." If MS pulls this sort of BS on WinXP, Linux may get a jump on MS. One thing I dont like already is MS .NET strategy dealing with subscription based OSes. I personally think that a one time fee ought to be enough. For some people, this may be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but this could cause some major issues. Just look at the security patches MS is dealing out like cards. Little mistakes like this could be even greater with the .NET strategy. Im not happy with MS right now. Win2k is the best OS theyve put out, but the way theyre going support for it is gonna be dropped in 2 years or less.

The Audigy 1 is pretty crappy actually. If you want an Audigy, go with the 2, or stick with the Soundstorm.

What temps are you getting for your CPU? What brand of power supply did you get? A generic 350W is not the same as a brand name unit, like Antec, Sparkle/Fortron, or if you're loaded, PC Power & Cooling supplies. While I agree that 350W should be fine, it might not be a bad thing to try a 400W or greater unit...again of a quality brand and not some generic unit.

Maybe I'm misinterperting you, but it seems like your holding Bush resposible for information given to him that was incorrect. You realize that Bush cannot lead this nation and keep tabs on everyone under him at once? The evedience was at least portrayed in a way that made Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi government under him appear as a very possible threat. If that's the case, the rest of the world was lying to us, and possibly Colin Powell and others presenting the information. Additionally, Congress granted Bush the right to go to war. They too saw the evidence and decided that there was enough reason to start a military operation. Or would you rather Bush not do anything and just wait for another 9/11 to happen? No, we did not have undeniable proof, but what was shown appeared to be a genuine threat. You seem to want Bush to go out and double check every little bit of info before making a descision. That's impossible, and he's one man. He would be out of office long before he'd finished his research. All the evidence that was given to him and the American people showed Saddam and Iraq as a threat. Do you want Bush to wait until another major city gets hit before doing anything? Is that what you want to wait for? Bush followed protocol for going to war, and Congress gave him that. Even Clinton is saying going into Iraq was the right thing to do, although he does disagree on the specifics.

For gas, it's not just Bush and the executive branch that should be looked upon for the high gas prices. By design, the house and senate must approve all laws, and they have approved tax hikes. Also, if Bush (or any other president) veto's a bill, it can still become law if there are enough votes in Congress. "I mean, charging the armed forces as they did TWICE over what they should have for barrels of gas as was done is right? You tell me! You & I pay for that you know... & I for one, do NOT like being robbed!" This was also the army that paid, huge dollar amounts for a screw (like a few hundred) a few years back? They spent the money so that the budget wouldn't be cut back. It's possible they gave the money up so as to make sure they don't get the budget cut. Just a theory. It sounds like George Tenet told Bush a few lies to go into Iraq. However, the 9/11 commission said that Bush was not resposible for the failure here. Actually, the whole world seem to be asleep at the wheel here, according to the report. The thing that probably infuriates me the most is how those against Bush seem to be saying that whatever he and his administration does is wrong. But, you know if they did it, it'd be okay. It's politics, and many upper level politicians seem to forget about the people they represent. While I don't really like what's gone on during the current administration, I do question people that are just bashing Bush for everything. I recall that Kerry had gone so far as to indirectly blame Bush for a drive-by. C'mon. I haven't really seen what Kerry is gonna do for us. It's like "Bush didn't do this...", not "I will do..." Actually, I agree with almost all of the positions of the Libertarian party, and will be voting that way this year. Sure, we can do better, but I don't feel Kerry is the way to go.

But it was in a Contract for Cheney to recieve the money from Haliburton, even after he left. Can you provide legal basis to show how this was wrong? Why is it that all large corporations are apparently evil because some people are rich? I'm not sure about Jimmy Carter, but that's his perogative. About the contract in Iraq: there are other corporations that have the resources to do this, but as I understand it, Haliburton is the only US company with these requirements. With all the griping about Bush sending jobs overseas (a valid argument, although the tax reasons were the same under past presidents), why not give a large company the contract? Would that not keep American jobs, and possibly create new ones. Clinton: really didn't do much except toward the end (and even Michael Moore has said this in his book, "Stupid White Men"). Looking back, the Lewinsky scandal was pretty weak, and if Clinton had an 'R' after his name, you'd see the Republicans defending him and the Dems attacking. I tend to disagree with what the president's role is. He, and the rest of the government need to stay out of the economy as much as possible. Less government is better, but I'm not in favor of total . I do not believe it's the government role to mitigate every little bit of the enconomy. If left alone, the economy will repair itself. The recession had started before GWB took office, so he can't be blamed for this. If you want to blame someone, Clinton would be it. But I doubt even he could've done anything about it. I disagree with Michael Moore. I think he's a left-wing socalist who is an extremist. Having said that, based on the Constitution, he has the right to put this out. I'm not against questioning the government (like why the hell do we have so many programs?), but I still don't have to agree with them. The folks trying to block Farenheit 9/11 probably achieved the opposite effect. It was controversial before it ever came out, and trying to block the release was pretty much free advertisement.

With Haliburton: It was in Cheney's contract that they'd pay him even after he left the company. Why? Well he pulled the company out of a downward spiral. They are more than happy to pay him even after he left because he saved the company. You seem to forget about Al Gore's side of things where they were trying to make our armed forces overseas votes not count, and how it was shown that people were altering the ballots to favor Gore. I think GWB isn't all that great. If it wasn't for 9/11 he'd have a pretty dull presidency and nothing really defining. I don't really care for Bush, and I'm even less thrilled about Kerry. In fact, I'm not voting for either one, since neither seem to remember this little document we know as the Constitution.

What USB device? Have you tried reinstalling the driver for the USB root hub(s)? If you have USB 2.0 ports, you'll need to have SP1 installed for it to work.

I've wanted to get into SCSI for awhile, and through some trading, I got that and the Seagate. With the DC390U2W, I have more options for storage now (the Asus has SATA). The SK-7 is pretty nice. Unfortunately, it's summer, and I'm sporting a Palimino core, which is running about 52*C or so idle. But it's stable, so it ain't too hot.

I'd try the Omega Drivers. Some guy tweaked the ATi catalyst drivers and they tend to make thing work a little better. 2ndly, make sure your chipset drivers are installed.

You'll have to make a customized disc with the drivers on it and the redirects for it as well. Offhand, I don't have a link available.

Without expensive software or data services, I'd back it up and format the drive. Personally, I've found Partition Magic to do more harm than good. I don't know what it is, but it never seems to work correctly for me. You can convert FAT32 > NTFS with Windows 2k/XP itself, and without extra software.

Originally posted by ali: Quote: I wonder if SATA150 has faster data transfer capability, then why the fastest SATA drive is 10K RPM? it just doesn't mak sense to me. there has to be a reason why they have not come up with faster ones yet. 15K is not a problem since they have been out for sometime now, but only for SCSI. I think SATA makes more sence for home user, but i have seen it being used for servers as well. Don't you think if you have SATA on your server you may want to have 15K RPM drives on it? SCSI can support multiple (7 or 15) drives on one channel. IDE is limited to 2, and SATA to 1. SCSI is a different animal than ATA alltogether, and they are designed differently. ATA's main advantage is cost. Although SATA150 can run up to 150MB/s, that's the burst speed, not sustained, in which case 40MB/s is the steady trasnsfer rate. Basically, this means that ATA66 is fast enough here. The real advantage of SATA is getting past the latest physical limitation of 137GB.

SuperMicro has some large server-class cases that will accomodate a ton of drives.

From the looks of it, that card probably isn't supported just being an S3 chip. If AoM is barfing on the S3, don't think it's the only title to do it. Probably the cheapest you'll find that will work well enough (not great) would be either a Radeon 7000 or GeForce 4 MX440. I've been able to find these online for under $40.

Disregard my other thread, but I would've edited it if I could. Time to clear out stuff. My terms: I don't ship until I have payment. I expect payment within 1 week (7 days) of completing the deal. If not, it will go back up on the block and I will leave you bad with a bad ref. I accept PayPal and Money Order only. Shipping done USPS w tracking. Faster shipping can be done, but at your expense. Shipping is from 46805. All items shipped with any accessories/manuals/CDs if listed. If I haven't listed them, I don't have them. If I do happen to come across them, I'll toss 'em in if they haven't been shipped already. My heat: BigB e-mail/Paypal: bjgrifter@verizon.net Items: Combo/ only sold as a combo right now: -Epox MVP3G2 w manual -AMD K6 450 w/o heatspreader -Vantec CCK-6027D w fan -1 working 32MB PC100 + 1 64MB PC100 stick SDRAM -$25 shipped Other: -Abit KG7-RAID motherboard w manual and USB bracket note: has some gel on the back of the socket, but has not affected the board. Bought used from previous owner, and I believe it was used in a watercooling setup before being sold to me, but I don't remember. -$25 shipped -Hewlett Packard NIC SCSI combo -LSI SCSI chip/68-pin connector -Not sure if it's 10/100 or just 10, but I think it's the former -$12 shipped -ATi Rage Xpert 98 AGP 1x/2x -8MB -$10 shipped -SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 -Driver CD -$15 shipped -Microsoft Sidewinder gaming pad -$10 shipped What I'm intrested in: -Outlaw Star boxed DVD set -Vandread + Vandread 2nd stage DVD's, except for Vandread: Enemy Engaged Not really looking for much else, but feel free to try. Thanks!

SB Live! and Plextor SCSI CD-ROM have been sold.

Should be interesting, as well as how nVidia is using a bridge for PCI Express and if that makes any noticeable difference in the end. Hopefully 3rd parties will make some smaller PCB's and cooling solutions

I think it's due to the professional attitude here...I think we haven't had a flame war in years. Anyway, the way it stands now, the 6800 vs the X800, the big thing is: will you notice a performance difference without benchmarking? No. Now, I have to check around for this, but I've seen the 6800 apparently having trouble running at 16xAA/6xAF, or something. This, of course is only for those that have to have their eye candy turned to the max. I like some, but with the likes of Far Cry around, even having the stuff turned off still gives you a good picture.