Dathaeus

Thanks.... this is my tentative list: (all newegg as usual even tho i hate them now) Already owned: Case: $70 back like 3 yrs ago! PSU: Still NIB so... $70 back when they were selling Intel Dual Cores MB: GIGABYTE GA-Z68A-D3H-B3 ($130) CPU: $300+, ehhh... just too much for the i7, wont need the super... I mean, I been using the E8500 still, pretty decently, so... no need to throw away $100+ when I'll just upgrade everything in another 2-3 years. $15 off the i5 is only thru today.... I think I got my answer... I assume this will approach 4.0, maybe with the water cool unit listed below? Intel Core i5-2500 Sandy Bridge 3.3GHz ($195) (newegg) CPU Cooler: $30 - Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus HSF for LGA 1366 and LGA 1156 No doubt thats the best value out there, but, just BUT, what do u think of this for $50: CWCH60 Something about WC..... What u think of: $35 - Patriot Signature PSD38G1600KH 2 x 4GB DDR3 1600 RAM Or G.SKILL Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 1866MHz (PC4 14900) -> $59.99 Either way, I wont OC RAM, dont wanna deal with that, so I assume this will never be my bottleneck? GPU: Seems like the GTX 560 TI is the best reasonable performer at $220 unless i wanna go with the HD6850 for $150... any thoughts between the 2, and do I REALLY need 2GB? I play high end games but now I also got an XBOX, not sure how much I will really play, so.... pity to spend money on something you might use later. HD: I been having my head up my a$$ I totally forgot about the SSD's, which I JUST used to build a client's PC, duh: Corsair Force Series GT CSSD-F90GBGT-BK 2.5" 90GB SATA III ($120AR) I am guessing the SATA III is well worth it over SATA II? Or OCZ Vertex 3 VTX3-25SAT3-120G -> $159.99 after MIR he last couple months due to flooding in SE Asia where the manufacturing plants are. I got like 3 (1TB 7200rpms's) in my machine, which I'll prob pull one, and I got a brand new WD 1TB laying around in its sealed bag... got a freakin compusa in my dining room, so I'm good. Almost home... thanks again!

Hey all... its been way too long but finally have the op to build a new one for myself.. havent been keeping up too much on the latest and greatest hw details but I need to get started quick and I need a hand in the right direction, so here is the scoop and any useful info would be appreciated: - I need a good balance of price/performance.. budget is under $1k includes everything but a display - My priorities in usage is: General massive multitasking (ie, 10 windows open at once, possible 100 different tabs open across 3 different browser types), heavy Photoshop (some massive files), high end gaming (FPS, adventure/strategy etc...) *** CASE: I already have a LIAN LI Lancool PC-K62 Black ATX Mid from back when, brand new... will this be good enough to use (consider those gargantuan coolers)? *** MB: I have NO idea about this one, but I see the ASUS Sabertooth X58 has some of the best ratings, so lets start there, altho its a bit pricey for me... *** CPU: Really dont care Intel/AMD, but I have gone with Intel for myself my whole life, but I have used many reliable AMD for clients... I would like to go with some form of the i7, might as well right? Just then need to know the right model and any revisions, etc.... *** Cooling: Still going to stick with air cool... unless someone things one of those portable water coolers (I think from coolermaster?) is better in performance, price and silence. This also has to fit in the case I have so... any thoughts are appreciated... I will OC if possible, wouldnt mind getting to 4.0 safely. *** RAM: Fastest compatible for my MB without breaking my bank.. assuming something like 2x4GB for now (unless I will feel an actual difference with a 3x4 or a 2x8... can always add another 4-8 later).. the G.SKILL Ripjaws (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) seems nice for $42 *** PSU: I still have a brand new XFX Black Edition P1-750B-CAG9 750W, would love to use it, dont think its modular but heck it will save me $$$ from getting a new one *** Video Card: The HD6850 for about $150 seems like the best deal but I usually use nVidia, so how about the GeForce GTX 560 Ti for about $220? *** HD: Thinking of again going with the Western Digital VelociRaptor WD3000HLHX 300GB 6.0Gb/s 32MBcache... would love to run a RAID 0, but just too freakin expensive, so maybe I'll just stick with one, unless someone thinks putting in a 7200rpm in RAID 0 will be faster? HD speed is pretty important to me, lotta file crap. I think thats about it... help! Thanks!

So I just ordered the 6200 PCI card to add to the 210... waiting for it now, should be here any day... But I am having some doubts because in the office, I have a Quadro 3500/4000 or something, running dual, and I tried adding a 6200 for the triple third display, and it would not work and Photoshop would crash, even with the latest drivers, but wasn't sure if I were supposed to install BOTH Quadro and 6200 drivers or... my IT guy told me that those 2 drivers are probably not compatible so it wont work, i.e., Quadro and 6200 are too far apart in architecture/drivers to play nice. But he said a while back he got it to work with a VGA cable on the 6200... I was trying it with a DVI cable, + 2 DVI's on the Quadro... does that even matter? Has anyone here gotten a PCI-e and PCI to work together from different families of cards within nVidia, with all DVI or otherwise? I looked a around a bit for a PCi 210 but couldn't find one, and I heard people using the PCI 6200 for triple display as a second card so I figured it's safe but....

Ok I appreciate your help and input, but first of all, I DO have an ACTIVE DP adapter... I do not remember stating I had a passive one. Second yes you told me to get a PCI, fine, but then you are chastising me because I chose the advice of what was it, about 5-6 other "experts" on forums who, as I state now for the 3rd time, told me it will work. So I was actually favoring THEIR decision because there were MORE of them than you, simple math. On top of that my client said he would also rather go with the newer card. So you expected me to go with the minority and against my client because..... I am not accusing you of anything, I am just reasoning with you that I wasnt just being frivolous or ditzy in getting the 5850, it was a logical decision. On top of that, NOW I have posted this result and this shenanigan, NOW more people have come out to support your statement. Yes, you get what u pay for on internet forums but as far as my process, I dont think I have "not listened" or did anything wrong along the process considering the whole process depended on what I could read and research. He's paying for it, he wants it, majority said it will work. Why shouldnt I have gotten it logically? If there really is a reason please tell me so in the future I will take this into consideration. I am not exactly a noob on forums nor am I an avg pc user, so I think I did as much as I could to make this work properly through a process.

Many "experts" adamantly reassured me it would work with XP as long as it is for EXTENDED desktop and NOT EYEFINITY. Do you have proof or documentation that this is a true or false statement, bec if it will not work with XP NO MATTER what, then I'll just trash this card and get the best nvidia PCI card and couple it with my existing 210. As long as his stock software can handle Windows 7 (it better) I dont mind just upgrading to it but its a pain the ^#^#@ to reinstall everything and I really dont want to "upgrade" XP to 7, I'd like a clean install.

As I was afraid of, got the 5850, didnt work. Just 2 displays. Only 2 showed up in CCC, third monitor showed no life. Third display was in XP Display properties but could not right click on it at all. I tried using first: Display 1: Displayport + adapter to DVI cable (worked at all times) Display 2: DVI to DVI cable (worked at all times) Display 3a: DVI to DVI cable (never worked) Display 3b: DVI to DVI/VGA adapter to VGA cable (never worked) The reason I tried 3b was because I heard some say it will not work with 2 DVI connections or the HDMI, that a VGA has to be involved. Well it seems like that didnt work either. And yes I did a reboot several times. Either I am missing something very simple or as other people have said, the 5850 or these eyefinity cards dont work with XP regardless of using eyefinity or extended desktop. Any other ideas would be appreciated.

Not sure that Matrox device will work, #1 "must run (all monitors) at the same resolution" meaning at least one of his monitors will be slightly blurry... and #2 I am afraid with the GTX210 there might be some lag across the displays, or maybe not, but dont wanna take the chance... I dont want this to be a hit or miss trial deal since its not for myself. I am sure the 5850 will be fine in XP for extended as I have heard from many so far, no stretch gaming intended.

@suedenim: LOL that guy in the first site really needs to get some displays with thinner profiles! Ya this guy isnt gaming and we wont be using eyefinity so it seems using a 5000 series card will be fine for an extended 3 display setup with the active adapter I have... thats part of the reason I will stick with the 5000 series and not 6000 because I think that will give a higher chance of compatibility with my adapter and XP... there have been other chimes about adding a second PCI card "may" lag behind the main 2 displays, which will defeat the whole purpose of this project. I'll just trust the newer tech and go with it, but it makes me nervous because I was not able to get the trips working with a 5450 I had from last year, which is also "supposed" to support triple monitors with the adapter. This all seems like such an inexact science.

Monitors are HDMI/DVI, DVI, DVI/VGA, no DP. Found out finally the MB is a Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L, only one PCI-e slot, and 2 PCI slots. I figured it was too small to have 2 PCI-e slots. Ok here is the final choice: 1. Get the GIGABYTE GV-R585OC-1GD Radeon HD 5850 (Cypress Pro) for $155 AR at newegg and I also get the Shogun game for free (score!) and hope the "Active" DP/DVI adapter I got works 2. Get the EVGA GeForce 6200 512MB 64-bit DDR2 PCI 2.1 Card and just add the third monitor to it, assuming that one will run at the same speed as the others (unlike the USB crap) I feel like #2 is the simplest solution but my client and I are still leaning towards #1 for various reasons. Can we take a pole here (for anyone present) and help me make my final decision? Thanks!

Ok this is the mess: System in question right now has an nVidia 210 and a double monitor setup with a third monitor operating via USB adapter, which has a noticeably slower response time than the other two understandably. We want to run all 3 off one card or at least all 3 with no lag. Main application is not gaming, but heavy data transfers for real-time stock research using custom software across 3 monitors simultaneously, continuously. I was thinking of getting the 6870 which I think would be more than enough for this situation. I already have an active DP-DVI adapter sitting here. Then I find out that Eyefinity needs Windows Vista or 7 to run. This PC has Windows XP still, and not sure if this custom stock software will support 7 without some major upgrade cost. So I need options here... - Add some cheapo PCI video card I had sitting around for almost a decade for the third monitor (or get a more modern PCI card)? - Check to see if the mobo has an extra PCI-e slot even if its not x16 and add another PCI-e card? - Ask the vendor if the custom software will work with Windows 7 (*shudder*) and deal with that and then get the 6870? ....or another option? Thanks in advance.....

Ehh, I threw the package away, something cheap I got from newegg... the standard mic that comes with pc's doesnt work either, ie, its not the mic.

My top side/case audio panel does not work for recording only. The audio jack works on my headset (properly overrides the SB card), but the mic jack does NOT work for recording, on either a standalone mic or on the headset... here is more info and troubleshooting I have done: First my hardware and software: - Case (Thermaltake Armor Series VA8003BWS) - MB (Abit IP35 Pro) (Software/drivers installed) - CPU (Intel 3.16 Ghz) - Sound card (SB Audigy ZS Platinum) - Windows XP Pro SP3 - PC is clean of all malware and all updates are current - I have tried both of the plugs into my MB, the AC97 and the Digital... - Of course all sound options have been selected and set to the Realtek choices.... even there, I have tried the "HD Digital Input" AND the "HD Audio Input" and recording/audio volumes are all at least 90% high setting - Recording DOES work when I plug it into my SB card in the back, so my recording hardware is fine - When I plug in the mic into the recorder jack, Realtek software DOES recognize something having been plugged in, and I select "Mic" in the choice menu - When I try to run a hardware test in Windows Sound Hardware Tester, it never detects the mic after it is plugged in there, so the mic cannot even be tested Thanks guys and let me know if u need any more info

Ok let me do a quick synopsis of whats happened and hopfully some of you can let me know what is the next step: 1. My friend has a T500, got badly infected he told me, and said he couldnt clean it, so I told him I'll just reinstall Windows and get it redone to be safe. The laptop seems to be originally a Vista OS, but he said he had been using XP for a while. I do not know what kind of virus he had. 2. When I tried reinstalling XP, there is a blue screen error right when the initial screen ends and is about to go to the choose partition section and format... the error code is different depending on what install disk I use, XP SP3 Slipstream I made from the MS site, or an old XP Home disk I have had for a while... for the slipstream, the error is: (blue screen of death) [intro] Check for viruses on your computer. Remove and newly installed hard drives or hd controllers (no new hardware had been installed btw).... Run CHKDSK /F..... Tech info: *** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000) And for the Dell XP install is: (blue screen of death) [intro] Check for adepquate disk space.... If a drive is identified in the stop message, disable the driver.... try changing video adapters.... Check for BIOS updates.... Disable BIOS memory (how do you get into BIOS in this model???)... safe mode (nor more safe mode, contents are delated)... Tech info: *** STOP: 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, 0xF748E0BF, 0xF78DA208, 0xF78D9F08) *** pci.sys - Address F748E0BF base at F7487000, DateStamp 3c0bfadb 3. I have tried multiple DOS formatting/partitioning/Kaspersky AV boot scan (which did detect 2 viruses, deleted them) to try to clean up the boot sector and HD. Also ran memtest86, no RAM problems. 4. Now I read somewhere that this particular model needs the SATA drivers to load on XP install, so I have to specify a disk for that. Well there, it can only recognize floppies it seems, even though I have it on a CD, and this laptop does not have a floppy drive. So if I do need to install the hd drivers, how do I do it? My conclusions are: - bad hard drive - boot sector is damaged beyond my control - Lenovo has particular ways to handle this that I dont know Please help if u have any suggestions! Thank you.

Hi all, another question... I recently got a bluetooth headset for my phone, which works great. I also got a mic/headset for my PC that plugs into the sound card... then I was thinking, since I have a bluetooth dongle, why dont I just use the bluetooth headset for both? I do some gaming but the quality is not paramount, and the PC headset I got is not a great one either... So first I would like your thoughts on using the bluetooth over the PC mic/headset, and then, how do you make the default sound device the bluetooth? I cant find any way to disable the regular speakers. Thanks!

Hey guys, would like a general consensus on what you think is the best to use to backup a boot drive to an external so that if anything goes wrong on the internal boot, I can just pop a new drive in there and image/recover it back over easily, no frills, high reliability... and of course free is always good as long as it works for this one purpose: Acronis True Image Norton Ghost Clonezilla (free/open source) G4L (free/open source) BackupPC (free/open source) Bacula (free/open source) (Any Linux app, Ghost, ddrescue, etc....) (If applicable, Windows XP Pro and will have many programs installed, and possibly large files, i.e., HD video files, going from a 1TB internal to a 1TB external)