Veritech

Yup, that is right. With my particular system setup, I had no system fans, so the only other significant fan would be the PSU fan. When the V7+ is at maximum, it pushed so much air through that the PSU fan couldn't circulate them out fast enough, so some of the warm air didn't move anywhere and got pushed through the heatsink again by the fan, which explains why the V7+ at high setting didn't cool the system as well as it did on medium setting. With proper system airflow, I doubt that would be an issue. With regards to noise level, the unit is just as loud as the stock Intel fan. The two configurations that are quieter are both the Zalman CNPS5700D-Cu and V7+, but only at the lowest settings for both.

Trigonometric Integration (PDF) Check out question "B" on the second set of trig questions, halfway down 2nd page. Uses alot of trig identities. Hope this helps.

I've noticed very slow transfer speeds via MSN... I think MSN Messenger caps transfer speeds, to prevent users from possibly sending large files (apart from Linux ISOs, and some other rarities, imply illegal trade) while using their clients.

Both Linksys and D-Link are good, as I have both a 5-power Linksys switch (EZXS55W) and an 8-port D-Link switch (DSS-8+), and both are excellent. (As an aside, check out academic prices if you're a student. I picked up the DSS-8+ at my University for $49 CAD, since it was on special. Regular prices on both brands (8-port versions) were $99 each.)

QWERTY keyboards are called so because the first six letters on your keyboard, starting from the upper left, are Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The same holds for DVORAK, where the first six letter keys from the upper left are D-V-O-R-A-K. For me, both are pronounced similarly. The first letter is pronounced "as is", and the rest is read like a word. So it's "Q-werty" (not "kwerty") and "divorak", but that's me.

I remember my high school days where I would rip the keys out of the qwerty keyboard and rearrange them into the dvorak setting.

Have you checked the CoolerMaster Aluminum Keyboard?

This probably isn't possible for FAT32, but is it possible to make NTFS case-sensitive somehow, more like Linux file systems?

Is that type of monitor an invar-shadow mask (the other one is "aperture grille" or more commonly known as Sony Trinitron)? Because of the way the screen is made to give the appearance of a flat surface and a bit of optics, flat invar CRTs inherently carry some vertical pincushioning... while it's possible to minimize them, usually only the best monitors will display little geometrical distortion.

You're probably referring to AMD I'm guessing? The example I had in mind would use Intel components, but it's always give or take couple tens of dollars, and there's also that certain part combinations can drop the price lower than what Dell would charge for. But I agree with Mist in that while not even the best machine today can run today's FPS games at top settings and still be playable, it's still a rig that's not to be sneezed at. In terms of mainstream (slightly above average) performance, it should get you through for at least 2 more years.

Basically all that means is that the IDE cable you're using to connect the hard drive to the motherboard might not be a condensed 80-pin cable. By "condensed", I mean there are 40 pins, but there should be 80 wires side by side along the ribbon cable. ATA specification is backwards compatible, so if you're not using 80-pin, you're simply limited to ATA33 on burst transmissions, instead of ATA66, ATA100, or ATA133.

It depends on the general attitude of the user in question. As long as you remain a computer enthusiast or even a power user, you could buy the best hardware available in the public sector and it'll still become obsolete in less than a year. In my opinion, alot of this "fault" goes towards software manufacturers, particularly game makers, with emphasis on the 3D First-person-shooter games. Alot of these games have "ideal" system requirements that are too far high above the mainstream trend. The end user is *always* forced to accept the fact that in order to experience the game as the designer intended it to be, he'll always have to shell out big bucks for another powerful system in order to accomodate it. This kind of practice by the game makers really hurts the customer because he (the customer) is essentially not getting what he paid for. Update: I checked out another post and found out that your system in question is manufactured by Dell (which probably explains the absence of a motherboard make/model, yet sport a ridiculously large number of USB ports). Unfortunately, Dell still uses the practice of making their components proprietary. That is, some of the components have been modified outside of ATX specification, such as the pin layouts on your motherboard and corresponding power supply. This prevents you from snatching another motherboard (or power supply) and tossing it in, and locks you in with Dell essentially. In the end, it really boils down to "you get what you pay for". The Dell game systems are notably less expensive than if you wanted to assemble your own dream rig of equivalent performance, but most of the time you also lose the ability to (easily) upgrade and/or fine-tune the operating specifications of your machine.

Hey bud, good to see you again!

Oh, cool! There's someone who lives in the same city as I do! Gave you a PM!

That's what I originally had with my older 2.53GHz CPU... but it was also housed in my older case, which had more exhaust fans than intakes (same speeds). With my new case, I have only 1 exhaust, and the PSU's dual-fan exhaust, with 2 intakes. This config probably balances the airflow better, since there's no vacuum. This is my personal machine, just spent around $1000CAD on it, so it's all stock, and I like the current temperatures, so no overclocking... yet.