The: What Computer Part did you buy this week thread

NETWORK
Asoka POWERLINE Homeplug Pluglink USB Bridge Model PL9710-USB Retail $135
Asoka POWERLINE Homeplug Pluglink Ethernet Bridge Model PL9610-Ethernet Retail $135

KEYBOARD
MICROSOFT OFFICE KEYBOARD USB & PS/2 VER. 1.0A - OEM $26

SPEAKERS
Klipsch ProMedia 5.1 THX Certified 6 piece Personal Audio System $368

CDR
2x Lite On 48x12x48 CDRW Model LTR-48125W Retail $93



Just bought these off of newegg. Gonna be waiting for me as soon as I get back!

Absolutely nothing, I sold parts to someone for $200 bucks, haha.

Welp, last week I got:

Plextor CD-RW 40x12x40 (ivory): $150
Plextor CD-RW 40x12x40 (black): $150

Dell Precision 530 PC for myself at work: $4,682.00 (plus shipping and tax)
The system consists of:
2 x 2.0GHz Xeon CPUs
1GB RDRAM
19" Trinitron Display
Quadro4 700XGL Display Adapter
Dual 36GB u320 SCSI drives in RAID 0
16x DVD-ROM (will have the black Plextor burner to keep it company)
Harmon Kardon 395 speakers
Windows XP Pro

ATi Radeon 8500 64MB OEM
newegg.com
$109 total

Upgrading from a Rage 128 Pro

Now I should get over 800 in 3dMark2001SE!

LOL! I didn't buy any PC parts this week, but I did a few weeks ago. I should be gunning for a new PSU and burner in the next few weeks whenever my bonus gets to me (pending on the blasted accounting department)

Thank god, no. The person responsible was on vacation all last week so when my boss found out I hadn't gotten mine, all he could do was wait. It should be on my next paycheck or so.

Bought a NGC - rented luigi's mansion - rapped it - nuff said

Waiting for metroid

Or for a life...whichever comes first

I bought a Liteon 40x12x48 cd writer :-)

And a nice new leather chair.

I had more fun putting the chair together........

Dilligaf

I had no intention to buy anything this week ... but this topic makes me think about throwing some hard earned $$ out of the Windows (no pun!)
I have crappy onboard sound on this A7V333.
I want anything which is not Creative.
Guillemot/Hercules? ... or Turtle?
I WANT very good 5.1 with VERY good drivers. Any idea?

I bought me a Intel Play Microscope and a Intel Play ME2 Cam. The cam doesn't work on XP. SUX

Bought some new drives for the office server in Istanbul.
Bought myself a LG 17" TFT for my new desk at the office.
I have intention to buy the new logitech wireless keyb/mouse.

I already have wireless but those look fantastic... Hell i've got the $'s for it so!

Oh apart from that our weekly OEM spending has way too much zero's in it. but we sell them off for more zero's in the end...
One example would be, today we are getting 50 P4 2GHz 512KB's @ $190 each

Yes we do have meetings in the office, i keep soem handy to give as a present to the big fishy's.

Who said bribery is immoral this is business

Cenk brags as follows:
Hey i am 25, I own my own company, I can't be doing it wrong

I picked up a Lite-ON 40x burner today...of course, my folks are giving me crap about it. Sorry my current one is trash (locks up any PC it's in), or I wouldn't have bought a new one. Sheesh.

It is quite a nice burner isn't it?

Also a great step up from my old one 8rx4rw (put it in my wifes pc - she hasn't noticed)

I think the best thing i've done with it is create video cd's.

My old samsung 709 dvd doesn't read cdr's and the only way i can do a vcd is by doing it on a cdrw. The 12x rewrite is briliant.

Dilligaf

Just ordered a new 120 gig hard drive. for 130 bux

Haven't tried it yet. The circuit the machine I put it in decided to start crapping out the breaker. The circuit breaker problem has been fixed, so I should be enjoying some speed-demon burning shortly.

This week:


sold:
Chenbro NET cube
Abit IT7 -MAX
Pentium 4 1.6a @2.25
Alpha 8942 heatsink
Thermaltake Smartfan 1
6 fans
a case badge

bought:
Coolermaster ATC410 case
Antec TruePower 430 PSU
Abit IT7-MAX
Pentium 4 2.26 @ ?
Alpha 8942 heatsink
Thermaltake Smartfan 2
a few case badges
5 round IDE cables.

round scsi cables

I didn't buy them, per say, but yesterday I got 7 powersupplies.

5 were dead. 2 worked(A DEER 250W and a Sparkle 200W).


I went in looking for dead PSUs to salvage cables from.

Bought some more stuff:

ATI |RADEON 9700 PRO 128MB 8X RTL 1 $369.00
SWITCH BOX BELKIN|KVM 4-PORT PS/2 1 $108.00
WIRELESS ACCESS POINT LINKSYS|WAP11 1 $119.00
POWER SP|550W(P4)EG651P-VE(FMA) RT 1 $188.00


:x

well i didn't buy it but I did get a 10,000 rpm SCSI drive yesterday.

Check out that Belkin KVM. Sweet looking thing.

Also the Enermax PSU. Currently have a 530 or 550 forget which but I'm hoping to quiet down my PC.

Also the WAP11's KICK ASS. Finally got my WAP11 talking to my Wireless BEFS (OVER WIRELESS) router a cpuple of days ago. Woohoo!

Anyone got any idea if they're gonna do an AIW version of the 9700, & if so, any clue on when?

i bought a 15k ibm scsi drive
and reinstalled xp

i found out sunthin...
installing xp with 2 xeons then activating the hyperthread works and is ok.
but it works so much better to install after hyperthreading.

Which KVM is it? I have a couple of the USB/PS2 versions which are nice, but sometimes don't like certain systems. I have to use PS/2 cables for my mouse and keyboard instead of USB on my main workstation, whereas my older Dell box (running RH 7.3) can use the single USB cable. Kind of a bummer...

I just bought a dual head VIVO card from MSI
I am not quite as much of a highroller in the video card market as some of you guys.

Here is the link looks like a pretty sweet card for $107
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/vga/vga_detail.asp?model=G4MX460-VTP

I grabbed some new RAM (512MB) cause mine crapped out - some DDR333 and also a 750VA UPS.

Monitor died, and being out of warranty, I needed a new one.

Dell 17" Trinitron flat-screen. It's used, but it's a steal @ $85.

can't wait until that graphics card gets here
dual 21 inch is gonna be sweet

Hey DF, which KVM model is it? Also, what kind of range do you get on your WAP? Does it support 128bit encryption?

Belkin OmniView SOHO Series 4-Port KVM Switch with Audio PS/2 Platform - RETAIL BOX

http://www.belkin.com/





Linksys WAP11 Instant Wireless Network Access Point

http://www.linksys.com/





WAP 11 SPECS

http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=22&prid=429



The v2.2 is alot better than the old vers. V2.2 is HTTP managed like the BEFS over the Ether port on the back. The older vers were managed by a USB cable and SNMP.

Also v2.2 is 100mw instead of needing the hack like the older vers to pump it up that high and it supports bridging to other WAPP11's and finally it recognizes the BEFS as an AP Server so my WAP11 can be an AP Client FINALLY! WOOHOO!!

I already have a WAP11 just want to experiment with 2 WAP11's off of one BEFS Router and experiment with different routes over wireless.

Heh, ignore that USB connection on the back. V2.2 doesn't have it.

Definatly sweet.

I run 1600x1200x2 now and I get frustrated at work with a 19"

So efficient for power users, and even for regular users it provides more flexibility. Plus - from what I have heard - chicks dig it 8)

Yeah, I have 2 of those Belkin units, but with USB and PS/2. They are a lot better with high resolution/refresh rate than KVMs used to be.

The WAP looks cool, and I am thinking of getting one for home to use with my iPAQ. Toys rock.

i kinda like the 2 monitors at work here. never had 2 before.
makes things kinda nice although its a piece of crap matrox.

i dont have room for 2 21's at home

POC Matrox??!! WTF?

yea i like dual
dual procs
dual or more hd for raid
dual nics
dual channel memory
dual etc.

cheap company.. wont shell out for a decent graphics card for cad

oh well got work with whatcha got

well i just found out that the god damn order didn't go through cause I musta fuct something up in the card number or something.
O well I will have to reorder tomorrow and get it next week instead of this week.

Matrox makes some sweet cards for 2D graphics and they tend to go out of their way to get their drivers certified for apps like Solidworks and Pro/E. What don't you like about it?

matrox is ok for still life and 2d but i never use that stuff. it is cheap though

it's very slow and when there are a lot of details solidworks does a bunch of blinking when picking entities. pro/e works a little better because it's better program but if u try and turn the detail up it gets monsterously slow.

the geforce cards work pretty nice on solidworks compaired to the very highend cards but i would call it only acceptable for large pro/e files with max detail.

of course this is all subjective as i have been blessed with working with some pretty darn decent equipment like sgi r10k's, intergraphs with wildcat cards, and regular multi xeons with e&s graphics.

The last set of boxes that I got for the engineers here have been 1.5 and 1.7GHz dual Xeons that were running WinXP. For some reason SW 2001+ acted oddly with them and CosmosWorks (theywould crash out on mesh creation) so we wound up going to Win2K, installing SW 2001, go to SP14, then upgrade to SW 2001+. So far they haven't crashed in the last 4 months or so. All these boxes have Quadros in them, mostly because they don't have the shared backplane buffer issue like the regular GF2/3s did where running multiple models simultaneously would give the flashing and freezing you mentioned. I thought about trying softQuadro to make the drivers "think" they were Quadros, but I was concerned they would do more harm than good.

i have solidworks here and at home. both on xp, 1 matrox and 1 gforce4
i havent run into that problem yet. i only use solidworks when i absolutely have to
there is one guy here that runs gforce4 dual monitor... it will only display solidworks on 1 monitor. we tried all kinds of different drivers but i dont think it's a true dualhead card. (gainward)

hmm that gf4 not being true dual head makes me kinda nervous
I just bought one.
although all the stuff that i need to be on both monitors is 2d
photoshop
premire
visual studio
etc
so hopefully i woln't have any problems.

basically gl apps wont work on 2 monitors
the nvidia site says the the current ogl version does not allow acceleration on more than one device.
not sure if that applies to either of us but it would answer my problem

No offense, but don't you think that's a giant waste of money? Rather than buying extra screen realestate with a second monitor why not learn to toggle (Press Alt + Tab) or use the taskbar and switch between apps. Also there are tons of programs that give you mutliple desktops like unix. Two monitors can also be kind of annoying if you have one of the left and one on the right. You might find that one in the middle directly in front of you is more comfortable. I'm not trying to knock you or call you materialistic. I just don't want to see you waste your money on something that really doesn't do anything special. I mean you can only look at one monitor at a time anyways. I will admit Matrox is doing something cool with three monitors for games, but that too is just money down the drain. We live in a world with pollution, evil, and suffering do you really think 3 monitors is going to ease your pain or anybody else's? What if you bought a small patch of land with the 1000 dollars you didn't spend on a 3 monitor setup. You could grow apples or have a park for your neighborhood or something.

Your funny.

christianb...
u just gotta try it, then u'll be hooked on multi monitors

dude i do photoshop and premire and visual studio etc
the dude that is investing in my business gave me both monitors and he is buying me the graphics card wich only cost 107 bux. also i have used a 17 for years at one point i had 2 17s but then one of them (the cheaper one) caught fire so i was back down to one. I use alt tab all the time. Now i can alt tab with larger areas of maximised screen. and yea i do like one monitor directly in front of me the other is more secondary anyhow.

i bought a hp omnibook laptop for the little woman

man that thing is small

Your woman or the laptop?

AndyF

lol

I have tried it several times on friend's computers and thought that's highly overated. I'm sorry I just don't get it . Too much space, too much money. I mean really what'd you rather have digital camera or two monitors?

For me? 2 monitors.

Got the monitor, got the digi-cam...what I need is some decent rechargeables for the digi-cam. 'Nother thing on my purchase list *goes to order Novell 5.1 eval for classes*

Without a question - duals.

Got my Retail ATI Radeon Pro 128mb today! Woohoo! Gonna test it out when I go home tonight. Any requests by anybody on what you want me to check out? I'm not going to do a full check of it until the weekend but I can do some quick analysis for ya if you want.

Hopefully gonna compare to my GF4 TI4600 on the same system this weekend. Before & After scores.

Just a user perspective instead of all these websites.

I've got a 21" Sony E500 so hopefully I'll be able to judge if there is an IQ increase or not.

well the monitors were given to me so all i had to do was get a graphics card. I have a digital camera so I am happy. I just need more hard drive space. Perhaps a 15k cheeta to run the system off of. I could also use some more ram but ram is mad expensive for my board.

why not have both

Picked up a 128MB PC133 stick and a 10GB hard drive for the Novell box.

I absolutely cannot believe how cheep 15,000 RPM drives have gotten. I take it there is a faster spindle speed out now? You can pick up a 10gig 15K drive for about 125 bucks! That's just crazy, crazy cool (for all you Paula Abdul fans out there, not that the song didn't suck, but she did have good ones, like cold-hearted snake) .

I picked up a slot fan. Major difference. Those things move a lot of air.

Between AMD's ClawHammer & HyperTransport, and the next gen nVidia chipset (NV3x, which is supposedly moving further towards photorealism...) it's going to be a great year!

Also with .NET server on the back-end, Microsoft will finally get more AD installations (many companies have still not completed a full AD installation because of the limitations of the Win2k implementation, and .NET server apparently goes a long way towards solving those problems!!)


...Anyway, what did I buy this week? Well, I caved in and bought a Logitech wireless keyboard & optical mouse combo - and I love it! It makes such a difference not to have to worry about whether the cables will reach, where you're sitting. I think it's got to be one of my best purchases this year!!
I've also got my eye on a DRD-RW/DVD+RW drive but I might wait a bit until the prices drop a bit further.

Rgds
AndyF

i shelled out for a legal copy of xp
(last week)
now i gotta get off my bum and reinstall with my squeaky clean slipstreamed sp1 cd
8)

Got the new Microsoft Multmedia Keyboard and Blue Mouse. Works nicely.

Want a new CDRW, but cannot decide at all which to get

Lite-Ons are supposedly quite good.

And sometime either today or tomorrow, I'm buying a new monitor:

http://www.ctxintl.com/products/pr705f.htm

Yeah, Lite-On drives are generally good quality, but often sold under different brand names. I've had good luck with Lite-On cdrw drives, been able to read subchannel data correctly, too.

I just bought and installed a Hercules GameTheatreXP 6.1 channel sound card.

This is one helluva card. I love it so far. And great drivers too, compared to the Fortissimo card that my friend got.

It doesn't fake 24bit sampling like the audigy cards do. It says it can do 20bit sampling, and that's exactly what it does.

And there are more possible input/output options that I could possible use.

So far, big thumbs up!

Got myself some thumbscrews @ last. They've been a little scarce, or expensive in the UK until now, but now Maplin's doing them in packs of 6 for £2.49 [product code WF78K]. Got 2 packs, but will be getting more.

Well, I bought it yesterday but only hooked it up about 40 minutes ago. All good so far although these damper wires (It's a Trinitron tube) are going to take a bit of getting used to. Anyone know of some good software I can use to set up the geometry settings etc?

This program should help you align the geometry of your crt correctly... http://www.passmark.com/products/monitortest.htm

I'll give that a shot, thanks.

Also, is it just me or do this forums tables not fully extend to the edge of the screen (leaving a huge white patch to the right) when viewed at resolutions greater than 800x600?

Given that I don't use IE (preferring Opera instead) it's probably me but I just thought I'd ask.

Looks ok with IE 6, 1280x1024..

Looks fine for me in IE6, Mozilla, Nutscrape 6, and Galeon at 1280x1024.

A friend gave me an HP scanner a couple of days ago!

Also received Icewind Dale 2, 2 512mb sticks of Corsair PC3200 memory, and a Toshiba DVDROM.

I thought my computer stuff was kinda expensive, but my home theatre is proving to be way worse.

No lovin' for my computer this month

i think i need one or 2 of those 15k scsi drives
i should talk to my invester after i do a little more on this website i am creating
it is a 3d automove aftermarket parts shop that ties over a million products to the site for instant purchase. I am psyched to do a 3d walk thru style site as opposed to the average 2d pages i have been doing.

those 15k hd's will turn your computer into a new machine
i highly recommend

yea that is what i was thinking
i have a 10k now but that is only 4.5 gigs and it just barely holds the system files.

on a side note
since i installed sp1 i have windows diskcache again on this system
8)

well right now i am allreay enjoying the benifits of scsi raid and ide raid
also haveing disks for specific tasks. i have a 10k for my os scsi raid for my programs ide raid for DV etc. etc. i am just looking to speed up my os drive

system drives seem to work much better when they are less than 9 gigs
i put mine at 4or5 gigs and it works nicely

I bought RH 7.3 Pro for work (just in time to hear about v8.0 coming out, oh well I'll get that too if it's worth it ;)). It's a pretty nice box set, and has quite a bit of documentation and a bunch of CDs.

If they made a desktop board like a P4T533=c with 66MHZ PCI slots I would go with SCSI, but otherwise its a waste of money.


Since I have no new computer parts worth mentioning I will tell you what I bought this month:

57" Sony Widescreen HDTV
Sony Progressive Scan DVD
Sony Reciever with Component Inputs, and Dolby Digital II
Already had the Sony speakers with SUB.
Got Digital cable, and Road Runner :P, with HDTV, and video on Demand.
XBOX with HDTV pack.

All hooked up with optical cables for audio and component HDTV cables as well.


Anyways thats why I don't have a new 2.53 GHZ CPU and 512 MB more of ram

I bought a LG -CD-RE-WRiter 32X 10 X Rewrite..

Cool Peace of hardware

I just bought myself a Microsoft Internet Keyboard Pro (the one with the integrated USB hub). Next step: Reprogramming these keys at the top to do something useful

I really like this new Blue MS mouse, And the multimedia keyboard is nice. I like MS keys on thier keyboards much better then Logitechs.


PLaying NFL Fever 2003 on the HDTV is something to see. I have shown my wife every Geforce card I have ever had, including all the great looking games, and she always comments "They all look the same to me"

SHe saw Fever 2003 in HDTV Widescreen, and she was passing by and said "WOW, thats looks really good"

IF there was just a way to hook my puter to it

You mean you went to all the trouble of getting an expensive TV & didn't check to make sure it had a 15pin d-sub [or whatever it's called] connector on the back? What about s-vhs?

ms keyboards are great
i have the natural keyboard pro

THe multimedia ones just came out. I have the natural version, No USB ports tho.

As for the DVI connector, only ones that are flat screen LCD's have those connectors.

A bit pricey

mine has 2 usb ports and 19 programmable hot keys

Do you know how to make the Play/Pause, Stop, Prev Track and Next Track buttons control Winamp instead of WMP?

Ive got the programable keys.

Can you send a link to what you got?


I wanna see it

This is what I have:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/det...ce&n=507846

F&T's is basically the same except his has the retarded split key layout. MS don't actually make either of them any more so I can't give you a link to the MS site.

Its a great keyboard except for the fact that, as you'd expect from an MS product (even though they're manufactured, and probably designed as well, by Flextronics), the default assignments for the hotkeys only really works if you use MS software. Since I use neither IE or WMP I've been left with the need to reprogam a few of them.

Since Search and Favourites do nothing in Opera I've reprogrammed them to Lock the workstation and start the Task Manager respectively. Web/Home has been reassigned to specifically launch Opera (by default it just launches the default browser which, in my case, is Netscape Communicator). Media has been specifically programmed to start Winamp3 (instead of it's default of just starting the default media player which, while being WA3 on my machine, protects it from another program, WMP in particular from ever changing it).

The only trouble I'm having is getting the transport buttons (Play/Pause, Stop, Pre. Track and Next Track) to work in Winamp. The IntelliType software doesn't let you assign macro functions to the keys so I can't use any of the "Multimedia Keyboard" plugins for either Winamp 2 or 3. If anyone knows how I can get these keys to work in Winamp it'll be much appreciated.

THe one i have is here:

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/keyboard/nmmk_info.asp

Havent tried winamp yet

usb on the keyboard
too cool

Not DVI, I mean the same type of connector as CRT monitors use - you can get TVs that have that type of connector as an input.

yea you need to download intellitype
and set your media button to start winamp
then the play and pause will work for it



and sapiens74
they took the page with the natural kb pro down
the mulitmedia one you have is just like it just has new colors

I could not for the life of me find a widescreen HDTV with any kind of monitor connnector.

I just got UT 2003. Does that count?

Hmm... That didn't work when I first tried... Perhaps that was because the Media button wasn't explicitly set to start Winamp. Thanks anyway.



The reason they took it down is because they don't make either of these keyboards anymore. And the Multimedia Keyboard looks like it lacks the internet hotkeys and the Internet Keyboard (which my folks have) lacks the multimedia keys and neither have the inbuilt USB hub so it appears that MS can give you one or the other but not both.

my kb has internet keys multimedia keys and 2 usb ports
so it appears they can give you all those features in one they jus aren't doing it anymore.

Mine works for Winamp

Mine works with winamp with the newest software.


I have to wait till Tuesday for UT 2003.

Hawaii takes longer

Yeah, EB, Software Etc., and Best Buy all said that as well, but Software Etc. got their first batch in today and didn't even know that it was coming.

Gamestop here, said Tuesday. So hopefully then

didn't realize ut was here already
well not that i was interested anyhow
i will have to buy it though for all my freinds that like to play

Well HDTV seems to to still be a novelty for the rich here, & not the sorta thing you see in most high-street stores, but I have seen the 15 pin D-Sub connectors on ordinary widescreen TVs. Having done a search on the net [which was more productive when I searched on "XGA" instead of just computer :)] there are plenty with that type of input.... but they're all LCD, Plasma, rear-projection, or actual projectors, which are all a tad pricey.

However, if you'd be willing to settle for SVGA then I did find a place called Electroline that does some HDTVs with SVGA input for somewhat less scarey prices.

wouldn't you want a dvi connector on a digital tv instead of a vga one?

Not instead of, as well as. Not all graphics cards have DVI output. I mean, if it's only gonna have 1 or the other then it should be a 15 pin D-Sub connector, but ideally it ought to have both.

This week i bought the following -

1. Creative Audigy Player
2. Lain-Li Aluminium Case
3. 2 80MM Case Fans with LED's (Looks cool when the light comes through the front of the case) :x
4. A new CPU Fan with Blue LED's
5. An ECS K7SFA Skt A Motherboard
6. Sony STRDE375 Dolby Amplifier (only used for my pc to attach my new audigy so i can get 5.1)
7. Eltax Movieboxx 5.1 (to connect to the sony amp)

This week i broke the following -

1. Gigabyte GA-7DXR+ Motherboard and i had to replace it with the ECS which is not going to compare to my Gigabyte board which had the world on it.

Received:

2 PCI USB 2 Cards.
Some USB2/IEE1394 Cables
ME-320 USB2/IEE1394 External Enclosure

Also order 2 Intel 1G NICS for my 2 PC's and a USB 2 PCMCIA card.

Bought a new HDD this week - a 60GB Maxtor 5TO60H6 [DiamondMax Plus 60]. It's not the 1 I wanted, or was saving up for, [I wanted the WD 120GB Special Edition (although I've seen the 200GB v. is now available :D), which I someday still hope to get]. but I didn't see that I had any choice really, as my DeathStar's bad behaviour was getting worse [like randomly spinning down or refusing to spin up!]. Having fiddled about with my hardware I have both HDDs in & running, & the DeathStar hasn't gone to sleep again since I did the re-arranging [Wednesday, when I bought the Maxtor], so I guess it is possible that its spinning down & refusal to spin up again may have been power related [I've disconnected my old CD ROM [still got CDRW in there] & a cheapo fan I had lying around that I had decided to hook up]. However, the DeathStar has also been occasionally doing that FING (tm) [Fear Inducing Noise of Grinding] that they are known for doing, so I decided that the risk of waiting until I could afford the WD HDD wasn't worth it.

Oh well, @ least I have a bit more elbow room, in terms of storage space. @ the mo I'm just using the DeathStar for stuff like my swap file, temp files & temporary internet files. I'm not really willing to put anything more critical on it, for fear of losing it.

My next intended purchase is some RAM. PC World are selling 512MB sticks of PC133 for only £49!

Quote:

Quote:

the DeathStar

LOL! Hilarious... gotta be the IBM 60-75gb series, right?

(Good name for the DeskStar!)

30GB 75GXP

Quote:

Quote:

I decided that the risk of waiting until I could afford the WD HDD wasn't worth it.

Got one... FLIES!

Git! No need to rub it in! :p

Quote:

(At least your getting some useful mileage outta that "deathstar" (lol) as you call it using it as secondary swappage/temp duties in meantime!)

Yeah, it frees up a bit of space, & also might improve performance a little [probably won't notice it though] as the 2 HDDs are on seperate channels.

Quote:

P.S.=> I dumped my RAID setup & will be doing all that on a Cenatek RocketDrive PCI-ScSi SolidState Ramdrive card soon w/1gb PC-133 SDRAM by Micron on it... it's gonna FLY! Can't wait... 4-5 more weeks tops! apk

I think it would be interesting to take that idea of the SolidState Ramdrive, add more RAM [say a total of 4 or 8GB] & install windows on it, then have some software for incremenetal backup to the HDD when the system is idle. I don't remember the specifics of the card you're talking about, but I remember looking @ 1 that you posted a link for & it had its own PSU, seperate to that of the PC, so that it retained all data when the PC was powered off, like a conventional HDD would. Now that would be FAST!

RAM's currently @ the cheapest I've ever seen it over here [well, in 1 place anyway - might be a sale, but I didn't see it advertised as such]. I woulda bought myself some if I hadn't needed a new HDD more urgently. Hopefully I'll be able to get some before the price goes up or they run out.

A m8 was telling me that they are supposed to be "copy protecting" HDTV signals to prevent copying of films and t,v shows via what ever method - how ever this will dgrade the quality signifigantly

I was like, okay, if someone wanted something that bad they would just get a regualr T.V - also as he said, whay are you paying the high prices for the quality, when it will be degraded.

will try to find the full story.

I got a cell phone that has the abililty to be connected to my PC. Now to get that cable and software...

Arrrggh, meant to bring my list of stuff i bought in with me but I forgot.

Bump for Tuesday.

ASUS P4PE
Radeon 9700 PRO
512MB Corsair DDR PC3200

Got my package from newegg yesterday

2 External USB2/1394 5.25" Enclosures.

One for me and one for a friend

1 USB 2 PCI card
for a friend

1 Soundblaster Audigy 2 Platinum

1 black floppy drive

for a friend

ASUS P4PE
P4 2.4Ghz (Rev.B) @ 2.7GHz

Another pack of thumbscrews, & a 512MB stick of PC133 [£44.99 from PC World].

Clutch how you like your P4PE so far.

My switch was a bit rough from my P4T533-C but I got windows back in shape and she runs good so far

I have RedHat 8 on it right now, as I am waiting for some fixes with Debian to come through via the kernel so I could my main OS back on it (Debian). So far, so good. I installed Q3 on it last night with the newest patch, and it ran creamy smooth. Also, my Plextor burner is now being picked up properly by some apps on this mobo, as opposed to my old SOYO where it wouldn't. I haven't tried using the onboard NIC yet, as there were some needed kernel patches and such in Debian and I disabled the sound so I could use my Audigy Platinum. I would have to say that this board is awesome though. It's running the CPU at 150MHz FSB and the RAM at 375 (vs. the rated 333) and is very, very, stable. I guess the Mushkin RAM along with other nice parts help with that though . So what did you get with yours? I got mine with the Broadcom NIC and onboard audio, although I wouldn't have minded the SATA and RAID, but those aren't something I would use right now anyway.

Same here, I didnt want the Serial ATA or raid.


I got my 2.26 @ 2.752 with memory at 434mhz and FSB 162


Great board.


Too bad your using linux on it.

LOL! Why do you say that? There are only 2 games that I even bother playing, and both of them (Q3A and UT2K3) can not only run natively in Linux but have run even faster (generally around 10%) in it than in Windows 2K or XP Pro. As for everything else it's all been great, and I plan on getting the NIC up and running tonight.

Such a sweet board to put such a dull OS on it.

I guess i need to go back to work So i can get bored of Windows as well..........

/sigh

I'm a bit late (by about 2-3 days) for the last week but I recently bought a Pioneer 16X (is it just me or have DVD-ROMs plateued out at this speed? Do DVDs shatter above this speed or something?) DVD-ROM and a Lite-On 48X (now all I need is some 48X media > :)) CD-burner.

Prior to that I bought an AOpen HQ-08 full tower case.

I'm buying this stuff as part of my ongoing quest to have a new computer by years end. I toyed with the idea of putting the burner and DVD drive into this while I waited to get the rest of the components but I desperately needed a new CD-ROM drive and having a burner in here would be much more convenient than having to take a number and wait in line to use the (4X) one in my folks machine.

Next week I'm going to get a new video card (I'm almost afraid to admit its going to be a GF4MX...) and a 128Mb SDRAM for the PII as sort of a holdoff while I buy the parts for (whats going to be) the Athlon box. Hopefully the GF4MX will be able to be taken to the Athlon (I read a note on the wall of a computer shop that mentioned the GF4MX 440 had compatibility issues with KT333-based boards so I'm a bit hesitant on that front) while I save up and buy a "real" video card.

Hmmm, just give it a shot and some time. I seem to remember a certain Intel zealot that used to be hardcore AMD only a short time ago...

I'm a sellout that's for sure.

I have Mandrake Running on my wife's Albatron PE Board, so I'm a little adventurous.

But since I don't work right now, I do not get frustrated with Windows like the days of old.

Mandrake is pretty nice, and is quite a bit easier to configure than many other distros. Maybe you can come on over to www.linuxcompatible.org and we can see about getting that thing doing more...

I had to buy a new CD-ROM as I killed one in a mod attempt (kids, make sure not to force open a CD drawer---it may be fatal).

I want to build a dual PII box in the near future, but I need to make sure I pay my bills and credit card off first (just a few hundred)

asus p4533
2.4g p4
yamaha 44x24x44 burner (burns text on cds *shrug*)
chaintech geforce4 ti4200

a friend needed a new setup... so i set her up.

on a side note her 1 year old liteon burner crapped out.

I have the following ordered from Newegg:
-refurbished Iwill XP333 R
-Duron 1.2
-Thermaltake Volcano 7
-Sparkle 300W PSU

I need to get some more DDR however...and damned if memory prices haven't been going up. The cheapest stick of 256M PC2100 was out--and it was Samsung.

I was looking at some Corsair XMS PC3200, and it went up like 30 doalls in 2 days.

I ordered it before it went up another 30, 3 days later

yea pc3500 is about the same as rambus1066
maybe they figure if peeps will pay for rambus they could squeeze
a little more money out of people

I'll have to pick some up eventually. Until then, I can always swipe the stick of PC2700 from my P4 box.

My system with PC3200 is faster then my Old Rambus 1066.

really?
my rambus system smokes over the ddr alternative

My P4PE lets you set memory independant of Bus Speed, so I can Really Crank up the memory, giving it the same Bandwidth as PC1066, with lower Latency

I just ordered a cheap Dell laptop for school.

P4 1.7GHz
256MB RAM (going to 512 as soon as it arrives)
32MB GF2Go
8X DVD ROM
15" SXGA display
Onboard NIC and Modem
30GB drive

All the software is getting canned and replaced with Debian/KDE (maybe Fluxbox).

How much was it, out of curiousity?

$1375 + shipping and tax. I couldn't even get a refurb for that cost. Dell has promotions for some universities, and they had a special for University of Wisconsin (where I'm going in January).

yea thats an excellent price

OK, scratch that, I found a better combo:

P4 1.7GHz-M
128MB 266DDR-RAM (getting another 512MB from Crucial, and the unit can go to 1GB, vs. the 2650 being capped at 512MB and used 200MHz DDR)
40GB HDD (free upgrade from 30GB HDD)
32MB GF4 440 Go
Internal NIC/Modem
Free spare battery
15" UXGA display (1600x1200)

And this one was $1369.

I was looking at that one too.

The PX now sells Dell direct with free shipping and no taxes plus special interest rates :P

Ahh, the Navy. I haven't heard "PX" since living in GTMO...

It was BX in the USAF... Ahh, the memories.

Cool thing about Hawaii, you have a Huge BX, and a Huge NEX, and they are so much cheaper then local shops

They have actually started mixing the commisary and BX/PX now.

Yeah, the did that in GTMO back in '90, and you could even buy cars and Harleys through the base exchange (not like there were any other dealers on base). It was this mega-mall thing.

Sony 48x 24x 48x burner,

Flashed firmare to make it 52x 24x 52x

got a motorola cable modem
now i can stop paying monthly for the old one i had for years and years

Bought a case for a system I'm working on for someone else and a green LED'd 80mm fan that I've put on a Volcano 7:D

Bought A 3rd Computer

ASUS A7N266-VM

Athlon XP 1700 Retail
256MB PC2700
Enlight Mini Tower w/300w Power Supply

Only 219 Bucks

Shipping was 67 tho

This week i got these -

Intel Pentium 4 2.533Ghz 533Mhz <--- Got her running sweet at 2.8 might take her further
ASUS P4S533-E
512MB 333Mhz PC2700 RAM
Creative Geforce4 Ti4600
Thermaltake Active Memory Cooling Kit
Coolermaster IHC-L7 Fan (not delivered yet)
Antec Arctic silver which should come with the Coolermaster fan
400Watt Power Supply Unit <-- Got home and plugged it in and it made a loud pop noise and lots of flashing so thats going back

Just bought a new 4D Optical mouse and a 48x LG CDWriter

Bought myself -

19" Philips CRT monitor (smallest 19" front to back space requiring monitor)
2x 80GB Western Digital Special Edition HDD's 8mb cache
1x raid controller
200 48x cdr's

Brought a new MEC Extreme 919 case for my new PC which I'll build next week

Just got them, but its friday 13th 8) so a bit frightened to put them in.

Got my ECS K7S5A and Athlon XP 1700+ today

Have u tried running that board yet, as i am having probs with mine and may have a feeling that its to do with the XP chips, maybe BIOS needs upgrade. Let me know if u get probs starting up sometimes.

Cheers

Booted fine everytime for me.

Also brought a Microsoft Internet Keyboard today. It's great.

Bought a Chaintech GF4 MX 440 64MB DDR AGP card off newegg...not for me, but for another rig I'm putting together for someone else (and making a few bucks on). Should give him enough power to actually play some games for once (I have no clue what's powering his grahpics ATM)

Ok, this is more of a "what bits have I bought in the last month" rather than the last week, cos I haven't gotten round to posting.

1st up, I got myself a Zalman ZM-NB32J northbridge heatsink, partly cos it was on sale, & partly just cos I felt like it. Of course, although it can work without a fan [& is intended to], I didn't see any reason why I shouldn't put 1 on it. :-) a 40mm 1 would have fit on perfectly with screws, but the only 40mm fans I had were pretty much dead anyway, so I tied on a 45mm fan I had that was still working ok.

Next I got myself a new HSF for my CPU, another Zalman product, this time it's the CNPS5100-Cu. It keeps my CPU a bit cooler than the stock 1 that came with my retail/boxed athlon XP. It's also noticeably quieter than the stock 1 [even @ full speed without the fan speed thingy] - so much so that when I'd put the side of the case back on & powered it back up I thought there was something wrong with my HDDs because of the amount of noise they were making, then realised that they'd always made that much noise but that I just couldn't hear it because of the HSF noise!

I also got 1 of those slot blower thingies that is intended to take the hot air from your gfx card & shove it straight out the back of the case. It allegedly is supposed to push 42cfm, but I've felt stronger airflow from a <30cfm fan. Oh well, it was only £5.99, I guess you get what you pay for.

Then I found myself with a bit more cash to burn, so I decided to treat myself. I'd been wanting a DVD drive for absolutely ages, but hadn't gotten around to getting 1, then found that the PC World just down the road from me were doing OEM Lite-On LTD-16SH drives for only £35.

While I was in PCW I also decided to have a look @ game controllers. I don't play games all the time, just occasionally - when I feel like it, but for quite a while I'd wanted some sort of joystick or gamepad for the few games I've got where 1 might be useful. I didn't want to splash out on something expensive that could do the dishes & make me a cup of coffee 1st thing in the morning as well, as I already had about £200 earmarked for something else. Sadly they don't let you try them out in store, but they did say I could take it back within 7 days if I didn't like the 1 I chose, which ended up being the Saitek P2500 Rumble Force Pad for £20.

Tomorrow's [Monday] the last day I can take it back, so I'm going to have to try it out on a few other games before I go to bed tonight, but going on the 1 game I've tried it with so far [Moto GP Racing] it's going back. Yes, it looks nice, & it is also comfortable to hold, but whilst there is an option to calibrate the analogue thumb sticks with regard to how far they can be pushed in each direction, there's nothing to calibrate the sensitivity of them. What I mean is, that unless the game includes its own sensitivity option for analogue controllers & you try playing a driving game using the analogue sticks then you may find yourself wondering if your driver/rider is gonna get pulled over & breathalised!!!

Right, almost done - been saving the best for last. What did I have that £200 [actually £199] set aside for? My new pride & joy, & currently my favourite piece of hardware - a Mordaunt-Short 907W 100w sub-woofer [mine's black, not that nasty cherry colour]. Now all the deep bass bits in films sound just like they should.

Went to town? LOL, not exactly - that's yet to come. I have a few other things to get 1st [like a new VCR, TV, DVD player, & possibly a 5.1 amp/decoder & maybe some new speakers], but after that I have a list of stuff I wanna get:

DigiDoc 5
Abit AT7 Max2 [& maybe the Max XP drive bay thingy]
Athlon XP 2700 [maybe higher by the time I get round to it]
512MB of Corsair PC3200
& [hopefully they'll be out by then in this country] a Radeon 9700 Pro AIW
New PSU [haven't made my mind up about make/model yet]
I'm also toying with the idea of an Audigy 2 Platinum.

I bought the following:
2 packs of Cooler Master ramsinks
an Athlon XP2000+ (Paliminio)
and I have a Thermalright SK-7 on order from newegg

I plan on ordering a KVM switch here shortly as well.

Went a bit mad over the last couple of weeks :x :

Vantec Nexus W-Force Super Panel
Swiftech MCX462+ Heatsink with YS-Tech 80mm fan
Chieftec AX-01SLD Aluminium Midi-Tower
Creative Labs Audigy 2 Soundcard

I think it's time to put the plastic away before I get tempted again... 8)

AndyF

I just bought a tricolour cathode light from ebuyer info here 8) , didnt even know you could get such a thing, looks very nice

I think we should retitle this thread "New parts I've just bought" and then we can all post as we buy new things.
Hell, keep the thread going for a couple of years and the first few pages of posts will be very historic

Anyway, my purchases over the last week or so:

ASUS P4G8X-Deluxe motherboard (Granite Bay)
Western Digital WD1200JB HD (120GB, 8MB Cache)
Diamond Internal V92 modem (For some reason my dial-up speed has now increased from 42k to 49k-50k, all very strange).

Dell PowerEdge 1600Sc dual SCSI 320's
640MB ECC REG Ram
Dell 1800FP monitor

I was as surprised as the next person!!
I was using a USR External V90 (flashed to V92) modem.
The connection speeds were a rather constand 40k or 42.6k
It has been this way for years and I've always assumed bad lines where I am.

Over the weekend I was building a PC for the girlfriend, her old machine had an internal modem and I'd sourced a Diamond Internal V92 one - this is a true hardware PCI modem, not WinModem or Software.
After I'd set her machine up of course I wanted to download the critical updates so I hit the net.
First attempt to connect to the net, connected at 44k.
A few more tests after reboots, 46k, 48k, 50k.
I'm now averaging around 48k and the only thing changed is USR External modem removed, Diamond Internal Hardware modem added.

Yer ok, compared to those lucky people with broadband this may seem like nothing, but my online experience does feel that bit better now.

Yeah. My granparents have a local ISP, and they connect at 48k pretty consistantly. Not as fast as the DSL I'm used to, but I'm impressed to say the least.

Ok this week i bought!

Eheim 1048
Danger Den Z-Chip waterblock
Danger Den Maze 3 478 waterblock
Danger Den GF4 waterblock
Black Ice Pro Radiator
Chieftec Silver Dragon full tower
3.5 Bay Rheo-bus
Qtec 550watt PSU
2* 120mm Titan Aluminium fans

Got some more goodies:

Q-tec 550w PSU
Digi Doc 5 [black]
Delta 60mm Focused Flow 36cfm [6800rpm]
FDD with black bezel
Braided sleeving
fan grills [various sizes]
about 2 litres of spraypaint [black undercoat, black gloss, & clear - was on sale, & I hate beige]

BTW, for those who haven't had/got a Delta fan, there are actually 2 reasons why they've earned the nickname "screamer": 1 refers to the noise they make, the other refers to the noise you make if you are unfortunate enough to get your finger caught in them. Maybe they ought to call them Delta Vampires.....

So, one question: what were you doing sticking your finger into a running fan? I hope it was an accident, and not just something you do to pass the time

Rgds
AndyF

Yeah, was an accident. 1 I don't plan on repeating. It didn't bleed for that long, & it only took a little chunk out of the tip of the little finger on my right hand.

I got the Antec-style cases with a precut side window in it today. I plan to get a 4-port KVM switch here shortly as well.

just bought a new ATX case / 512 pc-2100 (but getting pc-3500 for overclocking once i find it - just could not wait!)..lol

possibly buying a new 2.0a chip for some serious over clocking!

I got an iPAQ 5455 yesterday to replace my iPAQ 3850.

I was curious as to whether you condisered another brand Pocket PC.

I had an IPAQ 3765 which I really liked, and was looking into buying a new one soon. THe Dell AXIM is the frontrunner, although I have always been biased toward the IPAQ. Any particular reason you chose yours?

THanks

Ordered my Zonet 4-port KVM switch! Should be here wednesday or thursday.

5 minutes ago I ordered:

NEC 1760NX 17" TFT (16ms response time) and it cost me......a small fortune.
Should have her in my possesion in black tomorrow morning.
I've now got that giddy feeling where I cannot wait to get my hands on it and see it in operation and then on the other hand thinking of all that money I've put on my credit card

I am a major fan of the iPAQs, and the only other unit I thought about was the Sharp Zaurus (Linux-based), but I wanted to use the PPC OS again with Outlook. As for the Dell unit, they haven't been on the market too long so I will just wait and see what they are like in a year or so. Every PDA I have looked at has had issues and needed a lot of firmware and OS updates to get them up to speed, so I just think I'll stick with someone that's been making them for a bit. Also, the utilities that Hew-PAQ released for my 3850 were great (WLAN switcher, dashboard, etc) and most of the time the 3rd party utilities that they bundled with the unit were full versions of the apps and not just demos or freebies that were already available.

I was considering the DELL beacuse of price mostly.

I can order an AXIM with 400MHZ Xscale CPU, and 256MB SD card for 407 bucks shipped.

THe IPAQ i was looking at was closer to 700, although I like it better not sure I can justify the extra 300.

Yeah, mine has integrated Bluetooth (not using it yet) and 802.11b (using that at multiple networks) built-in, which is *very* nice as I don't need to use my sleeve all the time with my PCMCIA NIC just to connect to my network. You should check out Toshiba, which has some nice handhelds that include wireless support as well. Plus, they have built-in CF support whereas these just have SD/MMC support only.

Thats another issue.

I have a SOny DVC and a Kodak Camera so I got 2 kinds of memory as it is.

MY old IPAQ had the expansion sleeve, although it didn't have the SD slot like the new ones.

Wirelss is pointless to me, which I believe is why there is a difference is cost between the IPAQ and AXIM.

Yeah, for me I sometimes store large files on the iPAQ or on the MMC/CF card with it. I have a 512MB CF card and a 128MB MMC card that I keep a bunch of things on (including MP3s :)) for moving between systems. Many times, I use the wireless access between the iPAQ and WAPs, PCs, and other handhelds to move stuff around. This is quite a bit faster than using IR to transfer things. But, if you don't need the 802.11b, Bluetooth, and integrated fingerprint scanner in the handheld (yeah, the 5400 series now has biometric-coupled security options) then get a cheaper one. I just got tired of needing the sleeve all the time.

Yeah with the sleeve the thing was a brick to carry around.

Either way im going with SD card and get a nice 256mb one mostly for files and stuff, maybe an Mp3 or 2

going to be buying a nice C1 stepping CPU either 2.4 or 2.6 for mad over clocking to which in the next few weeks i will be building my ultimate overclocked cpu / gpu / chipset cooled system!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My KVM switch came in, and it just rules. Not the most high-end, but a 4-port model for 60 bucks with 4 KVM cables was a great deal!.

Oh yer, my NEC LCD came in too (although that was on Tuesday, I forgot to report back, d'oh).
That too is most excellent, in fact it is quite probably the best purchase I've ever made for my computer.
I could never go back to CRT now - well actually I do have to on a daily basis at work, but you know what I mean

Hopefully buying the new Abit BH7 motherboard - if they get back to me about them saying that it can suport DDR400 - but then it says in specs only DDR333.

buying this for my overclocking fun as i have amxed out my p4s533 board @ 166FSB and my cpu cna go highe then 2987!! i know that. - i love C1 steppings!

Been awhile since I last posted but I really haven't bought much computer stuff lately.

Just checked out Newegg today and they FINALLY have External Enclosures that support more than 200GB! Check it out: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.as...pa=0&page=2

Just ordered 5 of these: External 3.5"/5.25" (USB2.0 & IEEE1394) Enclosure - ( Supports 250GB Hard Drive. With a COOLING FAN. ) - ( Silver/Silver ). Oxford & Ali chipsets. Works with both PC & Mac. Fitting for CD-ROMs, CD-Rs, CD-RWs, DVD-ROMs, DVD-RAMs, and 3.5" Hard Drives, IDE to USB 2.0 or IEEE 1394 interface. Plug and Play. Hot-swappable connection. Stackable casing. ME-320 series. Retail Box. Please see images. --* Works With PC & Mac *--

They may be FUGLY but they work.

Also ordered 2 more Western Digital 200GB's at $244 a pop. I'll finally get to use the 4 200GB's that have been sitting in my drawer for the last month.

YAY! :x :x :x :x

2 WD120gb in computer
1st one OS HD. 9x/NT4/2K/XP/Windows 2003. Full except for like 30-40gb which is a FAT32 drive for temporary storage between NT & 9x.
2nd one Game Drive. Currently has 50gb free because I do not have all of the games I haven't beaten installed on it.

1 120GB TRAVEL
1 120GB BACKUP OF TRAVEL

This drive has all of the data that I have accumulated over the years. Freeware/shareware/personal stuff. It's full to the brimm. It's also the drive I carry with me to work every day and to travel.

1 120GB GAMES1 + 1 120GB for Backup
1 120GB GAMES2 + 1 120GB for Backup

These are all of my Game .ISO's. Thet are both full.

1 120GB WORK1 + 1 120GB for Backup
1 120GB WORK2 + 1 120GB for Backup

These are all of my work .ISO's well basically anything that's not a game. They are both full.

1 120GB GAMES3/WORK3 + 1 120GB for Backup

Both Game .ISO's and Work .ISO's. Still have alot of space left.

So that's what 1200GB (half of which is dedicated to backup.) total that I'm backing up but 1450 total HD space including my computer.


With the 200GB's I'm getting it'll look like this.

1 200GB TRAVEL
1 200GB BACKUP OF TRAVEL

1 200GB GAMES1 + 1 200GB BACKUP

1 200GB WORK1 + 1 200 GB BACKUP

1 200gb GAMES2/WORK2 + 1 200GB BACKUP

1600GB!!!!!!!!!! Half of which is dedicated to backup.



Can't wait for those 300GB drives!

Brought a stick of 512MB PC2100 DDR for my Athlon.

Another 512MB DDR SDRAM PC-2700 DIMM. That bring to over 1 gig of ram. Also, I got a 60GB Maxtor Diamondmax Plus 9 HDD.

Whats it like. I read the review on Toms Hardware and I am very impressed with these drives. I want one :P

Picked up a Samsung SyncMaster 191T today to replace my dying Radius 19" monitor. It is running 1280x1024x32bit@75Hz and is awesome with ClearType enabled.

http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=11182391&m=488&cat=497&scat=501

You're running an LCD at 75hz?
That means you can't be using the DVI connection.
If you're card has got DVI on you should consider that connection - if you think your display looks good now, you wait until you've got it on a true digitial connection.

Yeah, I wasn't getting any DVD playback on it while using the DVI connector, and then I flipped the "primary" output from VGA to DVI on my Ti4600 and now that works. It claims to be running at 72Hz now (I am not very familiar with the DVI spec, as I haven't had much use for it until very recently) with the newer drivers from MS Update, and I have a 17" CRT running off the VGA connection for media player and other stuff.

Oh it is quite possible that the Samsung works differently to other LCD's
The NEC I have has a maximum resolution/refresh of 1280x1024@75hz.
When I first got the display this is what I was running at, however once I moved to DVI the maximum resolution/refresh is 1280x1024@60hz - I wasn't sure if this was just the way NEC were doing it or not, however it appears that Hitachi, LG & Iiyama do the same, so I'm assuming that is official DVI specifications.

Thankfully I'm running on a great graphics card (9700 Pro) so it can happily cope with running any thing at 1280x1024 (even those games with nice full detail) so I don't have to worry about scaling and the like.

Yeah, I haven't tried UT2003 or Q3 on it yet, and I might install them tonight. I don't play games very often, but I am interested in seeing how they will turn out on this thing.

So far so good. I have as a NTFS patitioned HDD instead of FAT 32 partioned. It is a bit slow right now but I figure that it will speed up once I place SP 4 into it. I see how well that 8MB Cache 80GB HDD is when my dad places it in his system. I must say one thing it's a lot more stable with the Plus 9 HDD than it was with the D740X.

Just bought an AIW 9700 Pro. Got tired of my Hauppauge WinTV Theatre, the chipset is like 4-5yrs old! 8)

Can't wait to stick the plain ol' 9700 Pro in my drawer to gather dust.

Odd, I was just thinking of getting one of those for the last few days. I have an old AIW Pro that worked really well (outside of the 3D perfomance, oddly enough :)) and I am looking to add really nice TV/Video capture functionality to my PC. However, some of the Add-In cards don't seem so hot, and I am still a bit gun-shy when dealing with ATI stuff (many a driver issue in the past with a lot of workstations). When do you think you'll be able to use it? I would like to hear your opinion of it.

Hopefully by mid next week. The war shouldn't affect the package getting here except slightly (they are a little more careful at checking the packages).

I'll stick it in as soon as I get it. Unfortunately I don't have cable/satellite so I can't help ya there. (Might use a friends satellite connection for testing) I'm preparing my computer for when I move back to the states but I plan on testing it here before I leave.

don't buy the 9700 AIW yet - wait for the 9800 (april supposedly) to come out with 256mb - i would "hope" that shortly after they will have the AIW 256 versions - although maybe pricey.


Last week i bought for my over clocking needs the new ABit BH7 motherboard - allowed me to take my 2.4C! upto 3.1 with stock fan and voltage!. - also grabbed 512 pc3200.

Now i am saving up for dual LCD's - either 18" or 19" but i can not find ANY that go to a 1600 x1200 res.

Does anyone know of any LCD"s that go to 1600 x 1200 res? all i can find is 1280 x 1024!

Can't wait. The 9800 isn't that different from the 9700. It's not like there'll be a game coming out that I can't play on my 9700 that I would on the 9800. Also I'm not sure what the AIW's capabilities would be. Would it be clocked the same as it's Pro brother? I also do not buy product's until they are reviewed by a reputable source and until I've heard good things about the product from multiple sources. This means at least 2-3 months time waiting to know if the 9800 is a good buy or not. The 9700 AIW is out now. 256MB would be nice but I think I can live without 8x AA @ 2048X1536.

^^^^ Yes very true, the increase from 9700 to 9800 is minimal - for me it is more the 256mb that has me interested

i am not sure if it will be called the 9800 (as that is out already) as the 256mb is to have DDRII, so it maybe called something else... guess i shall have to wait and see.

hopefully the next AIW in wil have the same clocks' as the pro card , as the 9700 AIW does, but i beleive it uses a slower ramdac chip? like 4ns instead of 3ns found on the pro card.

either way as said - got to wait for reviews.

These flat panels should cover your 1600x1200+ request, but come at a fairly heft price:

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/produ...ategory_id=5194

The Dell Ultrasharp units are very, very nice indeed. But I like the Samsung unit that I have (1280x1024 tho) and the NEC/Mitsubishi units as well since they have very slim frames and work well side-by-side.

OUCH! $1k! - i was thinking dual 18" or something for about $1300, but at least i know they exist! thnx m8.

I got my Dell 18" LCD for 450

They have deals all the time for the 20.1" LCD for about 849

May have to settle for dual 18" then @ 1280.

it seems u can not get a 1600 x 1200 LCD with out it being 20" or higher and cost a pretty penny.

There is a high failure rate at making screens of that size and resolution, hence the higher cost of the finished product. Remember, all those units that failed have to be financially accounted for somewhere, and what better way then to pass that on to the consumer.

mm, may just have to settle for 1280 x 1024 dualies

Well a good friend of the family needs a new computer so I made a deal with her that she'd buy me a 2.66GHZ and I'd let her have my old 2.26GHZ P4.

THat's what I am charging her to build it.

Anyways should be here Friday.

GOt a Volcano 7 heatskink too, I;ve read good reviews, does anyone have one here?

Double Post :P

Well installed this bad boy


Letting it burn in now.



Did my first ever mod on a case. Drilled a hole for the fan control. Goes from 2k rpm to 6k

I guess this is the closest I'll be getting to any PC part (had to buy a new car), but I've been working on lighting my PC up with some neon's made for cars. Not that hard, but the little PCB that I took out of one needs to be covered, so I got a project box, among other things at Radio Shack.

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)

I just got a Sony DRU-500AX DVD+/-R/RW burner, and I am ordering an ATi All-In-Wonder Radeon 9700. I also picked up a JVC DVD player for the main home theater setup that plays back all the formats that the burner supports.

I've been toying with the idea of buying a DVD writer, but I don't want get stung buying the wrong format! Don't want to have a repeat of Betamax all over again (yes, I know Beta is better, but when did that ever matter in consumer wars?!)

Is there one format that is inching out over all the rest, or is still neck and neck?

Rgds
AndyF

The Sony that I got supports all the current, major formats. I had been toying with the idea of getting a DVD burner for a long time, but was frustrated with the standards war as well (this was back when "DVD-RAM" was still a contender :)). But now, you can get a nice, cheap DVD player for your home theater setup that supports the DVD±R/DVD±RW standards as well as MP3 and WMA files. The JVC player that I got even supports S-VCDs so you can have DVD quality video using a CD.

http://www.jvc.com/product.jsp?modelId=MODL027033

Got my AIW 9700 Pro Last night.

Plugged it in real quick, installed the software from the CD and the latest drivers from the net. Hit TV, Hit Scan. Software found all available channels and automagically had them tuned. Channels looked as good as on the TV if not better. YAY! I then went to sleep and then to work. Hopefully can play tonight.

Got an New Antec case, and upgraded mY second machine with new MB ram, and my old Lian LI Case

OK, instead of the ATi AIW 9700 Pro, I got the Radeon 9800 Pro, a Pinnacle Studio Deluxe (v 8.0), and a Belkin firewire adapter for my server.

Are there any plans to make an AIW 9800Pro?

u know there will be, but not liekly out for a while - took long enough for the AIW 9700 to come out.


i bought a new 120g WD, a g4 vid card 9no palce here had an ATI 9*) and some networking crap and some fans for my case.

not i finally got my little vaio case as a entertainment rig in my living room, all networked up! movies anytime! got to get a pic once i get a camera!

got an extra p4s533 mobo wiuth 512 pc2100 - So temping to buy a new cpu - 2.8 or something to over clock!!!! i hate having an extra mobo around!

Due to a nice little trade with my dad, I got a brand new 60GB 7200RPM hard drive. Nice swap for an older 20GB 5400RPM drive.

ordered the ABIT IC7 with the INtel 875p chiset and Twinx3200LL Corsair ram to go with it.

The AIW 9800 Pro has been announced on the ATi website since early April, but I don't feel like waiting any longer. Plus, I wouldn't have dual-monitor support with one card (like I did with my Ti4600 and my new Radeon 9800 Pro) which is something I really like. However, I have started watching DVDs on my system more often, and ATi's support is simply wonderful. This is one thing they have always been good at, and continue to do so. I was watching "Mischief 3000" while downloading McAfee and moving files around. While this may not sound like anything special normally, I was watching the movie at full screen, and doing everything on one monitor. There's this new "ThruView" feature with the ATi DVD player that lets you watch the movie with everything else on your desktop being translucent. It's pretty handy to work on stuff and be able to just change your focus and watch a movie. All this, and only about 8% or so of CPU utilization. Pretty trick indeed.

Also, the card has been great in a couple of games that I have played using it in (UT2003 and Q3) and is a solid performer. If ATi can just keep the momentum with their drivers, we could have something here.

I bought a Sapphire Radeon 9500 Pro a couple of days ago. All up, it cost AUD$401.50 (including AUD$15 shipping) which I'm none too happy about (I didn't want to spend more than AUD$300 on a video card but there was nothing in that price range with the longevity I was after) but such is life. When it arrives, it'll join the EPoX 8RDA+, ATA133 controller, Athlon XP 2400+, Volcano 9 cooler and all the other stuff I bought last year for this project (case, CD burner, DVD-ROM, MPEG decoder etc). Next, I plan to get a 120Gb Western Digital Caviar Special Edition along with some 80cm rounded cables (another thing I'm not happy about, 30 bucks for a cable is daylight robbery) so I can fit it and my other ATA devices at the top of my tower (my IDE ports are at the bottom of the case instead of the more logical position in from of the DIMM slots). Finally, I plan to get me a pair of the 256Mb Corsair Twinx DIMM modules and get a dual-channel RAM setup going but that probably won't be until the end of June

Clutch - is that, or would that not be the same technology they have had for about 2 - 3 years now that allows you to watch TV but the screen becomes your wallpaper basically? i can use that with my old ATi AIW 32mb 128 2x AGP card with the latest drivers and some older versions..................

Don't know, as the last ATi card that I bought for personal use was an AIW Pro (Rage Pro), and it didn't do it. Also, I don't recall any reviews of the later cards bragging about it, while I have seen several reviews of the new AIW 9700 card covering this feature. It works in both window and full screen modes, and makes all the windows translucent so you can see right through them to watch TV and/or movies in the background via the ATi media player.

i know the old AIW did this, as my uncles has had almost everyone since the 128 PRO one - and it always did this for him, place the TV on your desktop as if it was your wallpaper., but it did not make the windows on top transparent.

So then it didn't do what I was talking about afterall, now did it? It will also do this in windowed mode, so if you want a small screen playing in a corner of your monitor you can do that and not drown out the whole desktop. It's a pretty cool trick; almost too cool. You wind up staring at it most of the time anyway that you might as well have it running on another monitor .

^^^^, k now i got to get a new card so i can check this out and see how they improved it over the old version - DARN U! and i just got my new secured Credit card! - now i just need an online site that ships internationally to Costa Rica!

My ship came in this year (fed tax check), so I picked up the Gigabyte GA-7VAXP Ultra. DAMN! this mofo is loaded. They didn't give a kitchen sink tho I'm gonna have like a video card in there and that's it.
Must...study...Win2k Server Exam....Arrrgh! Anyway...I'm gonna have some fun.

As for ATi, I used to be adamently against them, but they've cleaned up their act. They may have some rough edges with the drivers, but they aren't noticable to me anyway.

I am likeing the looks of the new ABIT board - SOOO tempting!!!!
i currently got an Asus P4s533 with 512 pc2100 just sitting here! i want to buy wither a 2.6 or 2.8 for it to over clock as the mobo does not go high in fsb - but then i also need a vid card and i hate buying cheap so is like mmmmmmmmm, what to get!

my water cooling stuff is on it's way! woo hoo


[list]
[*]Koolance - Motherboard/Video Cooler
[*]Danger Den Maze GeForce 4 Block
[*]Danger Den Maze 3 P4 Block
[*]Hydor L30 pump - 1200 GHP
[*]3/8" to 1/2" Black (Via Aqua) Threaded Adapter
[*]1/2" Snap Clamp (3/8" System)
[*]5/8" Snap Clamp (1/2" System)
[*]Versatile Acrylic Reservoir
[*]1/2" ID 5/8" OD Clear Vinyl Tube
[*]3 Pin Extender
[*]NanoTherm XTC
[*]Thermaltake Active Memory Cooling Kit
[/list:u]


new case and a new 520w power supply coming soon!

Netgear 54 Mbs plus Carbus Card for my laptop. Sweet...speed plus high encryption.

^^^^ dam! that sound like some serious connection going on!


Getting ready to order my new case and fans - going to go with a second case to be all green, lights and all other will be all redish blue!

can't wait for the parts!

Blue Cold Cathode to replace the one I accidentally snapped last month.

I picked this up yesterday to use with MS RalliSport:

http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=p...mp;languageid=1

It's pretty sweet.

Picked up dual WD Raptors

Running them in Raid Now.

They are quite fast, way faster then my old SCSI 320's

Add a 2.6c CPU to the list.


See what 800FSB can do

I now hate you.

Have fun with the sick speed you got there, man.

Hate googlegear bro.

They dropped the price 26 bucks before my sale went throught, so i had to cancel and wait till Friday to get the new CPu

Got a Western Digital 80GB 2MB cache drive yesterday :P

Logitech MX700 mouse.

First time I had this mouse I didn't like it.

Now I cannot part with it.

Got a Philips webcam and adapter to use in my telescope...all I need now is a way of either getting a really long USB cable or some wireless doohicky to connect it up to my desktop from the back garden ;(

Rgds
AndyF

cdrom drive
370 heatsink/fan

for an old celron 366 system.

A couple more to add to mine:

SB Audigy 2 - To replace a dead Audigy 1
Maxtor 120GB SATA HD - Well work paid for it and by the time it made it into the work machine it was an 80GB ATA100 drive

had to replace my crappy p4 2.5g cad station with a dual 2.6g xeon station.
the wildcat vp 970 graphics cards is quite disappointing i think
still tweaking on it

Got a Lexar 64MB USB drive. $20 after that $10 rebate.

lets ee today!


got some spare parts so i need to buy!

1 USB card
(for a old celeron 366 system - soon to be a cahce dns) - no mouse are and uses ancietn fat keyboard plug)

Possibly i p4, prob 2.4 for some spare parts already got a

p4s533 / 8500 radeon/ 512 pc2100 / 40g HD lying around might as well put it to use.

new case for it.


cdrom drive


dam, my list just got more expensive!

(quick copy paste from another thread :o)

I just bought and can recommend the Belkin Nostromo n45 Dual Analog USB GamePad. It can be purchased (at the time of this post) in the US for under $16 shipped free from buy.com. Each and every one of the 13 buttons (and even 8 way digipad) can (with the latest v2.6 drivers which are digitally signed by Microsoft) be bound to almost any (if not every) in game function.

My only complaint with it so far is that the analog pads are a bit close together, such that if you have the left one full right, and the right one full left, your thumbs might bump together, though the pads don't.

And, in case you were wondering, you can custom bind which axis goes to which analog pad. This means, you can bind the x axis to the left pad, and the y axis to the right pad. Which means you can drive the car like a remote controll RC car, one only steers left and right, the other only accelerates/brakes. I set it this way and also have two buttons set for accelerateing/braking. Works great.

Just grabbed a p4 2.4a (400mhz)

overclocked to 3.2 NO problems on air!!!

yea baby!!!!

Stinks that the 3.2 are coming out June 24th i beleive - now i can't say i got a cpu n one else has!! darn it!

I got the Philips Dynamic Edge last week.

woo hoo!

water cooling parts arrived - now waiting on my RAD and some water wetter and i am offffffff!

some pics (around 100 kb each)


Yes the North bridge is exposed the hook that holds the heatsink snapped - so got to solder it back on and make a bracket to hold the NB water block on

CPU and thermale take active cooler on the ram.




Vid Card






both with a hose

Since yesterday was payday and I had to get something, I decided to get an interim graphics card until Doom III/Half-Life 2 come out

I purchased an A-bit Siluro FX 5600 DT 256MB card. It's not the fastest nor the slowest card on the block but it's supports AGP 8x on my Canterwood board 8)

BTW, I work for a local Aopen Distributor on the left coast and have been testing an engineering sample of their latest Canterwood motherboard, the AX4C Max II. This is a really nice board, it does correct the issues that the initial board had, which were corrected via BIOS updates, but the only thing I'm gonna let Aopen America know about is the space between the P4 CPU socket and the DIMM's sockets. They re-arranged the CPU socket so it's a bit closer to them now and my Zalman copper flower bloom actually touches the module in DIMM slot 1. Since I have heat spreaders on the modules there's no real problem but it's pretty darn close

^^^^

the ti4600 has been beting the 5600 - u could of gotten a better temp card


but anyways


yeah Alec - the rad i orderd it is supposed to be 2-3 day delivery worldwide but 1-5 days to ship!

i want it darn it

and the fans in my case i am keeping

i got 3 x 80mm on the back - 2x 80mm on the front and one on the side panel blowing in around about the vid card and cpu.

now i am trying to get my design for a custom ram cooling for the g4 using fans instread of water - should be interesting - now, if i cna remeber how to use AutoCAD. will save me some time tring to do it in Photoshop.


I would say Alec, on your new rig - try out water cooling - even if it is just on your vid card or just your cpu - they are SO easy to set up! - i was kind of worried @ first, but it is so simple!


P.S - u best be getting us some pics of that car once it is all done up! heck drive down to Costa Rica to show me

Yeah, well I just needed something until about the October timeframe

I'll be looking at getting a 2.6c or a 2.8c P4 CPU soon but not until I get the DDR400 memory. Kind of need that first or at the same time

lol


hate when u got to wait - u want somehting now, but u know u should wait - iam bad for that, but better now!

I don't know when it will happen, but what would be interesting is if game coders could find a way to use the extra CPU registers in 32-bit mode. I remember back in the day that there were a few enterprising coders for the C128 that was able to hack into the second CPU, this was a faster Z80, for extra things run in the background. Wish I could remember the apps, but there were very few of them for sure

Perhaps there will be something akin to HT on the Athlon64's, who knows

New game rig (replaced celeron 1,3 geforceMX).

ASUS P4P800
Celeron 2,4
2x 512MB transcend PC2700
80GB 6Y080L0
Radeon 9600 128MB

I Overclocked the celeron to 3,2 just to notice that the side wall of my case that the mobo is screwed on to is getting quite warm (running on stock cooling) The CPU temp is 40°C (47 on load) and the MB temp is 43°C?
Gotta get and active cooled northbridge.

Faster than a P4 3,06 according to sandra
It's still good for 9663 3dmarks, but still gotta optimize the ram/chipset timing. Sure to go around the magic 10000.

P.S. definetly need more cooling. 8)

nice nice

well really a celeron it may haev the faster Ghz speed but it is limited in what can go through it i beleive was said it another thread.

if it is only @ 40c u got no worries, once it hits 60, then worry.

After running seti@home for 3 units in a row:

stock @2,4GHz the board has 45°C and the CPU 48°C
OCed @3,2GHz the board has 49°C and the CPU 47°C

I've added an extra fan to suck the hot air out at the back.

The side of the case still gets kinda warm. I'ts a nice feature in the winter, but now we have 30+°C here.

The second thing that wories me is that the air that comes out of the PSU is much warmer than the one that is sucked out of the case.

I took an ambient thermometer to measure the temp. The air that comes out of the case has 35°C the air that comes out of the PSU has 41°C

The air that comes out of my old Celeron's 1,3 PSU has 32°C

The ambient temp in my room is 30°C and the outside temp is 26°C. The 4 °C have been generated by my new computer over the night (at stock speed).

Gonna OC the bastard cos I like sauna

I would install better cooling, but I can't open the case cos it'll void my 2year waranty. It was enough pain to install a secod fan through the psu opening. It's like fixing your car's engine through the exhaust.

This is why I prefer to build my own boxes, I can do whatever the hell I want to do with them I provide my own warranty so I also have to eat anything that I destroy as well

As for the rise in temp from the PSU, it's because of the OC'ing. This causes more power consumption hence more heat from the PSU

But I'm running not overclocked now and PSU temps are almost the same. Maybe a cheap 250W PSU just labeled as 300W.

I ordered the components to build my own box, I too hate those prebuilt stuff. But I got the case and a LG 52x burner for almost the same price as all the other components alone. I asked if I still had 1 year component waranty if I open the case and they said it will void all waranty.

I probably won't be able to keep my hands from opening the box after a month or two.

But if something fails it'll be expensive

Who did you get this system from?

that is SUCH BS if you open your case it will void the warrenty - so if u want a rma upgrade you have to send your WHOLE case to the shop

that is BS

Who did this syetm for you, PLEASE let me know

did they put sticks on the joints to say if it is broken the warrenty is void?

let me know full details, sure there is a way around it

P.S have u been over to
http://forum.oc-forums.com/vb/index.php?s=

may want tro check it our if your getting into O/C'n alot.

Building your own is better, you stil usually get a 1 year warrenty @ min. on all parts you buy, - unless it is OEM packaging.

The PSU - what you need to look @ is the 3.3 + 5v output - that is what matters, not the 250w or the 300w.

if it is not on your PSU - but u cant tell cause u cant open your case - but if anything search the web for your PSU to see what the specs are.

It's one of the biggest computer shops in our country called ComTron.

Yes they put stickers on the joints

If I want to change anything I have to take it tho them and they charge for it.

They said that they don't want anyone to add any components that would damage the computer ... Yeah BS

I'll tear of the sticker sooner or later anyway, but it still sucks.

Wow, they give you complimentary weed with the PC? Hell, I wouldn't think that the warranty (or the PC, or anything else) would matter much...

lol

that ius such BS - just a way to screw the person over for more money

steam off the stickers, do what u want - u have to take it back, steam off the stickers again, take out whatever and glue them back on

Going to the dark side of cooling. Ordered a Swiftech MCW5000A waterblock, Hydor L20 pump, 20ft (better safe than sorry) of 3/8" ID/1/2" OD Tygon tubing, and currently have a car heater core for my radiator. I need to pick up a T fitting here as well.

What are you using the T fitting for, this will serious slow down your water flow...if u use it to seprate to cool 2 water blocks.,


as for the Hydor L20 pump - i got one myself anf frankly i think it is kind of crap..lol so i am gettin ght eheim now.
the l20 i will use for just my video card and uyse the ehiem for my cpu and north bridge.

I'm not using a resevoir, and am using a T fitting to provide a way to add water. I'm currently just using a single CPU waterblock in the system.

^^^

thas kew - for adding water, also to get all of the air out a T piece works well.

Looks like I'm in the P4 race again. I'm sure the nForce 2 boards are nice, but they're so f'in picky with RAM, I've not gotten one to work...and have tried several different brands to boot. Returned the nF2 and got the MSI 856P Neo. Cheap and basic, but should be much less of a headache with the RAM....just need to sell some crap lying around and get a P4 to go with it.

Plus the P4's tend to overclock nice with out getting hot enough to cook a 3 inch steak! (p4 2.4 any 400,533,800 - are all intels sweet chips)

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, steak! DOH!

Just ordered a laptop

After much debating I went with the Compaq x1030

Has a 1.4 Centrino, Radeon 9200, and a nice wide screen

Compusa had a great deal on it , and I got it cheap

It was actually just over a week ago now, but I've got myself a Saphire Radeon 9600 Pro VIVO. Cost me £146.86 from Blisware. I know Komplett do it about £16 cheaper, but they don't take Solo, whereas Blisware does. Card's great, but the drivers need some work.

I took the plunge and picked up one of these baby's

Yeah, I've noticed a couple of companies doing DVD writers that can do 8x, the only snag is that whilst they do +R at 8x, they only do -R at 4x.

Yeah, but since I'm archiving a bunch of WinRAR 3.xx archives, I just use Nero 6 and away I go onto some cheap DVD+R media I picked up at Office Depot

I'll have to go back for some more as well, if the sale is still on that is.

Picked up an 8x DVD Writer and a Dell 2001FP monitor- 20.1" LCD


Monitor is sweet

Got myself a Logitech MX 900. Nice and it's really a Bluetooth mouse as apposed to the Microsoft attempt at it.

An LG DVD-ROM/CD Writer combo drive

Persuaded all my family to get me various parts for a Shuttle (nForce based) HTPC for Christmas.
I'm now working on turning it into a fully-fledged TV/DVD player/recorder with the ability to show DVB (digital TV) broadcasts - at this rate, I should be able to replace 3 boxes under the TV (VCR, DVD-player & digibox) with this one machine.

I may looking at getting another video card though, I'm not overly impressed with the onboard TV-out signal - diagonal lines and "crackles" all across the picture - any suggestions anyone?

Rgds
AndyF

ATI 9800Pro XT

Abit IS7-E.

I like gift certs

I readt that Radeons and Maxtrox cards have the best TV out. If you have a HDTV or a TV that can take component video in, get yourself a Radeon which supports the conponent video dongle for the best TV out.

You won't regret it. I picked up the 9700 back when it first came out in 2002. First ATI card I actually bought since the Rage days....I'd seen WAY too much trouble with ATI throughout the years at work and on friends machines to even bother. Even the Radeon's before the 9700 were kinda quirky. After the 9700 I haven't bought an Nvidia card personally...only in situations such as old computers with no AGP where I would get the PCI Nvidia because the performance beat the Radeon's would I buy an Nvidia part.

Been looking at the 9800XT but the performance isn't that drastic over the 9700 (at least that's what I've been telling myself since I'm a performance wh---- )

Alec,

how's your card going?


Still waiting for mine (USPS ;( )

lol

guess i dont have to worry about namiung a kid after you now :0


i am glad u got it!


as for performace

the 9800 is about %10 more then the 9700
the XT is about %10 more then the 9800 - this is why they called it the Xt and not a new line of cards. - and supposedly the r420 will be %50 faster - due to PCI express - but not likely.


but still from a ti4600 to a XT is a NICE jump - i went from a ti4600 to a 9700PRO and that was impressive to me!


as for problems - ATI has had problems - they are MUCH better now with the catalyst suit of drivers - 3.9's has some issues and so did 3.8 but 3.7 were rock stable!


So alex - when u going to start to overclock and mod that card! - have you considered a volt mod or too once the card starts to show it's age?

LOl

well seem you are happy - i will join that happy band wago when i start to spec out my dual opteron syste m): i am hyped about it but also sad @ the lack of motherboards for it - MSI - is worthless and TYAN, well decent, but pricey!

and with DDRII and PCI Express on the horizone of this year sometime! argh! to wait or not to wait! - i want to wait mainly to see ati and nvidia new line sof cards out q1 this year - i hope!

So $445 USD is just a bit expensive? Hmm, my system somehow cost a lot when it said and done. This secondary system of mine seems to have cost me at least $600 USD. No matter how hard I try it never come out cheaper than that.

I paid 410 on ebay for mine


Nice System Alec




This new Dell 2001FP rocks.


GOt my XT intoday, and its great. You can tell a differnce big time in games at 1600x1200

nice niec

yeah even my 9700PRO - a red cover plate over some corcuit gets darn hot!

it came in my dell system - one thing dell needs to work on is cooling - the pice got so hot i could not touch it! no wonder i had to have the card replaced!~


i want to volt mod my 9700 PRO so tempting i can only get about 350CORE and about 330 memory - so not even 9800PRO specs

we'll see!

yeah that is because 2004 will be brining

PCI EXpress (16x AGP)
DDR II in motherboards

new CPu Prescott and another one form Intel maybe if no delays

the new socket 939 for the AMD FX64

alot of new things coming out this year that is why i am trying to hold off as long as i can on my dualie rig i want to build.

AGP 8X made stuff all difference to video card performance so I can't see PCI express making a difference. Is it just me or is putting the video card back on a shared bus a step backwards? All PCI devices share the same bus so having the video card compete for bandwidth from other devices like gigabit LAN, RAID controllers, etc a bad thing. AGP is separate from the PCI bus now so why not just raise the AGP spec again?

Having recently switched to an ATI graphics card, I can agree with the superior 2D performance, especially with MPEG decoding. With my old MX200, I had poor or nonexistant DXVA and my system couldn't decode 1920x1088 MPEG2 streams sent by my HD tuner card but with the Radeon, I get about 20 to 40% CPU usage on HD streams and about 4 to 10% on 720x576 PAL ones. As well as the better CPU usage, I bet a better image with all of the enhancements.

TV out quality on Radeons is damn good too. The TV out on the Radeon blows the TV out on my crappy TNT2 in my other box away.

I guess it all the extra bandwidth PCI Express will have(much better than PCI ). Considering that PCI has been around sence 1992 and hasn't been cahnged sense.

ATi has always had excellent video output along with their excellent DVD decoding as well.

This is why it's hard to make a choice of new graphics card unless you have one of those nice 42" or larger plasma displays. Then the choice becomes clear, ATi all the way

Also check out the PCI-X sig for more on the specs.

Sapphire Radeon 9600XT and an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe.

I just recently purchased a Celestica Radeon X800 Pro thru work. I couldn't believe how much faster it is over my older GeForce FX 5600, the display looks much cleaner and crisper as well, and this is thru a KVM switch box

Trying to get my system ready for Doom 3 and Half-Life 2, need I say more...

Wow this is an old thread resurrection.
Okay this is what I got.

P4 3.0e ghz processor
asus P4C800 motherboard both were FREE.
and an LG GSA-4120B 12x DVD+/- burner (does Double Layer discs as well) and that was $129.00 CDN.

I lucked out on the processor and mobo and I couldn't resist the price despite having been an AMD user the last four years or so...

S

yeah I got the burner at www.dealsdirect.ca in case anyone else is interested.

so my current set up is
P4 3.0E ghz
asus P4C800-Deluxe
1GB pc 2700 (which I need to upgrade soon)
Ati X800 256MB vid card
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS
LG GSA-4120B 12x DVD+/- burner

So now I anxiously awaiting my pre-ordered copy of DOOM3.

S

Not Doom3 related, but I bought a Canon Elura 65 in preparation for my son's birth...

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.

IN the last month, I bought an Apple G5 tower (dual 2.0's) and a 23" Display, 15" powerbook for school, and an IPOD

The very last thing I bought was a Linksys Cable Modem/DSL Router, so that I won't have to let my PC share its internet connection (DSL) and thus have to leave it on all the time.

Originally posted by Alec§taar:


O its great, I really love my 2 MAC's. Use my PC for gaming only now.

I picked up the Logitech Cordless MX Duo on sale, pretty slick. Although ironically for being cordless the receiver has a charging station that installs to the USB port and an adapter that goes to wall, nothing is truly wireless and cordless.

OK, this post is not exactly something I purchased in the last week but it's about as close as you come without purchasing

Anyways, my employer needed somebody to test out the Aopen Xcube AV Editions, check them out HERE!

So I got to take home (2)Two of these boxes over the weekend to play around with, yes that's right, two of them

Well, I need to finish geeking out over these and I will post more info from work tomorrow morning into the afternoon on what I like/dislike about these SFF machines

Since the EDIT option expired I'll have to post a new reply, so here's what I like/dislike about the Aopen Xcube AV Edition.

Pros:
SFF(Small Form Factor) Design makes it ideal for a home media center placement, like any other Hi-Fi equipment.
Aluminum chassis for added weight savings and better cooling, this includes the power supply also being made of an aluminum cage.
4-in-1 card reader in place of floppy disk drive.
Front panel connectors including Audio, USB and Firewire.
Prescott CPU ready motherboard with dual channel memory slots.
Support for both SATA and PATA HD's.
Comes with a separate TV/FM Radio tuner PCI card.
Remote Control that basically covers all the functionality you could want.
Home Theater Software app by a third party software developer, in this case Intervideo. It requires Windows 2000 Pro/XP Home or Pro to run properly.
Comes with an all Copper CPU heatsink fan along with the Smart Fan control on the motherboard BIOS for quiter operation.
Cool black design makes it look like other Hi-Fi equipment in your rack or media center.
One PCI and One AGP slot available on the motherboard, however since the TV/FM Radio tuner card takes the PCI slot you only have an option to add a decent graphics card to the AGP slot.

Cons:
No room for an internal floppy drive, USB only and external, sorry about this you legacy folks out there.
The Smart CPU Fan control seems to be too conservative in it's settings, with a Prescott core CPU the cube can become something akin to a space heater
Only room for a single HD, so make it a very large capacity drive as you can only add external USB/Firewire drives
Only room for a single Optical drive, so make it a DVD-RW to get the most out of this box.

Recent purchases:

A Sony DRU-710A Dual-Layer capable DVD Burner
An ASUS P4P800-X motherboard (Pentium4 w/ Intel 865 chipset, Dual Channel DDR RAM support, SATA support [the main reason I bought it])
A Seagate Barracuda (7200RPM) 200GB SATA hard disk (for use with the above mobo)
Sparkle GeForce4 MX-4000 video card (for my brother's old PC)
2 Coaxial IDE ATA-133 cables (replacing the standard ribbon types to reduce cable mess)

Well, I have just returned from ALDI (UK) with this >

# ntel® Pentium® 4 Processor 550 with HT Technology 3.40 GHz. DVB-T Digital TV & FM Radio Tuner card
# Dual Layer Multi Format DVD/CD Writer
# Bluetooth
# Geforce 6610 XL with new PCI-Express x16 bus architecture
# 250 GB Hard disc - SATA
# WLAN 54 MBit/s
# 9 in 1 Memory Card Reader
# 512 MB Memory
# 6x USB 2.0
# 2x FireWire
# 8-channel Intel® High Definition Audio
# LAN Network Controller
# 56K V.9x PCI Data/Fax modem
# Reddot Design Award
# Microsoft Works Suite 2005

Woohoo..Can't wait to try HL2 & DOOM III on it.

Originally posted by Yakkob:

Blimey!
You managed to get a PC like that from a supermarket?!!

How much did it set you back, and did they have any left? :p 8)

Rgds
AndyF

Originally posted by AndyFair:


For real, we have an ALDI in Germany too, and a couple of other supermarkets, and they all always have compititions with biggest PC's at the best prices, at least one special offer per month.

BTW, what do you guys think about these FANS

http://www.arlt.com/shop/pics/C1030419.jpg
http://www.arlt.com/shop/pics/C1030428.jpg
http://www.arlt.com/shop/pics/C1030405.jpg

Just got this one only last night:

Intel Pentium4 3.0GHz Prescott CPU.

Originally posted by AndyFair:


Hi Andy,

Soz I aint replied earlier...Bit flu'd up at the mo
Price = £699.99
They should have some left, but hurry, the system is excellent for the money. AND HL2 looks absolutely gorgeous. Also, running NFSU2 with everything max @ 1600x1200 !!!! Mad AS!

Zalman Reserator 1 CPU coller, http://www.zalmanusa.com

A dustbuster!
Mainly to vacuum the crud out of my case, but also handy for ciggie ash, crumbs and anything else that looks like it would be fun to suck up (ties, curtains, small animals)

Logitech Z5300s, very nice speakers and won't break the damn bank.

Last week i got a new Seagate 7200rpm 200gb 8mb buffer drive.

Also got a Sony CPD-G520 21" trinitron monitor for $AU400 ex gov. Nice.

http://displaysbysony.com/display/model.jsp?pCode=CRT&pModelId=555

I got last week my Mac Mini. Apple took nearly 7 weeks to ship it to me

I ordered the following configuration:
Mac Mini 1.42GHz
512 Ram
80 GB HDD
Superdrive (DVD±RW)
Bluetooth
AirPort Extreme (WLAN)

with DVI to video adapter, Wireless Keyboard and Mouse

Mind if I ask what you paid for that sucker?

€997 (= around AUD 1,670) for all incl. tax

@Philip, the Mac Mini uses a fanless design I take it, all passive heatsinks and the like ?!?

My only gripe with the basic specs was that it could have been a little more beefy. More basic RAM and a faster CPU, however, since you're packaging it with a more efficient OS you most likely didn't really need a faster CPU.

That being said I think all machines should come with a base of 512MB of RAM and at least an 80GB HD for storage

The Mac Mini has a fan but you barely hear it. The fan is only running loud in some heavy CPU load situations such as video rendering under iMovie HD. However, many PCs are much louder than this

Last week I installed a Gigabyte GeForce 6600 GT 128 MB. Works flawlessly under Slackware with the 7714 drivers. Couldn't figure out how to get it working under XP though, too much of a headache, so I said to hell with Windows...

Comp upgrade time. I order some stuff from ZipZoomFly yesterday and I can't way for my new toys.

-DFI NF4 Ultra-D
-Athlon 64 3000+ (Winchester) retail
-eVGA GeForce 6600GT
-512MB (2x256MB) Patriot PDP+XBL PC3200
-Enermax EG565P-VE FMA SLI PSU

Upgraded my file server last week to the following:

Aopen AX4SPE Max motherboard
Pentium 4-3.0c
Apacer, 4 x 512MB, PC3200
ATi X700 Pro, 256MB, AGP
Logitech MX1000 Laser Mouse

In case you didn't get that last part, let me reiterate:

"LASER"

Seems like an awfully high-spec machine just for file serving

Originally posted by jmmijo:
LOL!

I've just treated myself to a swanky ViewSonic VX912 19" LCD monitor. Woot!.

Philips Toucam II USB webcam for £20

had some spare cash to use up, not a bad price for 800x600 res.

Say I was looking at one of those too and I indeed forgot to mention this in my above post, I decided on an Aopen 19" LCD instead due to the pricing. It still comes with a 3-3-3 year warranty which is great, especially for the back-light warranty

Yup, the Viewsonic is indeed a little bit more expensive than normal. But when my girlfriend insists on us buying one to replace "that nasty lump of a CRT" (her words) I can't really object. 8)

Nope, if I had a sugar mama like that I wouldn't object neither

lol nice, breaking the bank to please a woman :P
I had to pick up a Thermaltake Silent PurePower 480W PSU last week to replace my aging Enermax 350W.

Um, I bought another SCSI to IDE adapter for my ESX test box and 2GB of RAM.

I recently built a new Pimp Daddy Gaming Rig and you folks may want to check out the specs.

heh, VERY nice... *hate* :P lol
I picked up my ATI X850XT a couple months ago, and then had to grab a SATA 250GB HD to replace my dual 80 IDE setup :P kept running low on space. Haven't put any money into my pc lately, broke the bank paying for my Toshiba Satellite A70 laptop for school and (limited) mobile play :P.

Does a Notebook PC count? (Neo Q-Note Endura 350SL w/ Intel Celeron 1.3GHz, 256MB SDRAM, 40GB Hard Disk, Sis M661MX + SiS 963L Chipset, 15" TFT Display, Windows XP Home)

Sure why shouldn't notebooks count

GeForce 6600 GT, 256 MB, AGP 8x.

Wilhelm, what did you upgrade from? and let me know how that card runs! It is on my list of possible cards to get this summer

Haven't posted in the thread for quite a long while....but you can expect some posts sometime in the future because I plan to build a new computer at the end of this year!


I did get a free Thinpad P166 laptop from work this week. Plan to use it for DosBox compatibility testing.

Originally posted by tool_462:


I upgraded from NVIDIA GeForce4 MX4000, so I must say it was GIGANTIC leap from it.



It runs quite good!

Guild Wars, Half Life 2 have never looked so beautiful.

Counter-Strike: Source, video stress test
All video options at max.
* Test 1#: AA 2x: 67.96fps
* Test 2#: AA none: 70.25fps

Have not jet tested Conflict Global Storm, which came with the card.

Ah, I ordered some nice stuff today:

eVGA 7600GT
Seagate 250GB (SATA) HDD
PFU Happy Hacking Keyboard Lite2
1GB SD memory for my camera
and 50ft of cat6 cable.

Bough a 500GB Western Digital SATA drive and a Nexstar 3 ESATA External Enclosure.

Just need to buy half a dozen more to transition over from all of my 120/200/250gb external USB drives.

Also bought a Western Digital Raptor 160gb SATA for my ol' nforce 2 mobo in preparation for when I build my new computer soon.

Bought Acer AL1717.

Been meaning to buy an LCD. Problem is that I haven't built my new computer yet so if I bought the monitor I want to get (24") then I won't have the power to push the native res.....

I'll be keeping my CRT for as long as it will last because I like using the original resolution so I guess it isn't an issue.

All this talk about large LCD displays and this is what I picked up last night, very sweet for both gaming in 1600 x 1200 and Widescreen DVD viewing

First off, I couldn't edit my post so I have to reply with another one instead

Picked up THIS chassis yesterday for my pimp-daddy gaming rig.

This thing is massive so if you are looking for small, then look someplace else for sure

It comes with all the neat features you would want including BTX conversion and the neccessary air-ducts too.

The thing that got me was the all around look of the chassis and the well ventilated side panels. Hell it comes with a special fan mount bracket on the main side panel for up to 4 120mm fans

They went so far as to create a nice mesh vent slot on the bottom of the chassis as well.

Since the motherboard mounting tray is removable you and supports extended ATX form factors this would be a good chassis for just about anything, I think even a Quad-SLI rig would remain very cool in this case

One firewire cable and one USB mouse.

Maxtor Personal Storage 3200, 230 GB (298,09 GB) external HD.

Bought a WD 500GB SATA HD yesterday to replace my internal 120GB PATA Game drive I bought back in 2002.

Mmm, 500gb of space. Time to fill it up!

I bought an Apple TV last week

Going to buy a 24 inch monitor next week. Most likely a Dell 2407WFP. The only other one I that matches it is the Benq monitor that just came out but it's $200 more expensive and I'm not sure that it's worth it.

Well I ordered the Dell 2407WFP!!! I'm so excited!!

The Benq FP241WZ looks very good but:

1. It's too new. (I usually wait 6months to a year before buying technology/games.
2. Too expensive.
3. Didn't like the button layout.
4. Didn't like their Dead Pixel Policy.

Also if I like the 2407 enought I'll probably buy another one and I want them to match.

Samsung 400GB, SATA2, 16MB - 99 €.

Did not buy anything.

I start building a new PC and bought this week the first two parts

- LEXA Blackline case with blue LED
- Corsair VX450W power supply

HP Pavilion m9066.sc Desktop PC.

a zune if counts a computer part (more accesory)

LG Flatron Wide L196WTQ

I use a table as a desk, and the Dell 17" Trinitron CRT has made it bow some when on the thing. Still works, but boy, these LCD's have gotten nicer, and quite acceptable, even for a nitpicky person like I can be sometimes.

Picked up my new P182 to house all the new juicy hardware that wouldn't fit my ageing Sonata II (plus the door broke off :()

I just got back from Fry's and purchased a little something for my birthday...

They had the Seagate 750GB, SATA HDD's on sale for $140.00, so I picked up one of these along with a Promise 4-port eSATA/SATA Controller card and a Kingwin External Enclosure that supports USB and eSATA interfaces.

That price is so kicking I'm thinking I should pick up one more HDD

If that seagate gets too hot you should definetly get your hands on the 1tb Western Digital Caviar Green drives.

I bought 6 750gb Seagates for my external enclosure and they are quite a bit hotter than the Western Digitals (Tested after copying hundreds of gigabytes of data to the drives).

I recently built a file server with 6 of those Western Digital 1TB drives and they are the quietest/coolest drives I've ever had.


Hmmm, need to update this thread with the file server I built last month.

I finally finished building my test PC:

Asus M2N-E SLI motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ EE
Corsair DDR2-RAM Kit 4096MB
Asus Extreme N8600GT Silent 256MB video card
DVD+R/+RW SATA LG GH20NS DVD burner

Purchased a BFG 9800GTX w/512MB of frame buffer space for $199.99 at Fry's.

Now I need to get an upgrade on my old dedicated sli ps unit which I have on order now, the Thermaltake W0158RU.

Apparently these GPU's require around 24~26a of current

Bought a AMD Radeon HD 4870 to replace my NVIDIA Geforce 8800GT.

Stuck it in last night and watched Dexter S2/Heroes S2 last night so didn't do any benchmarking or play any games to test it out.


Also bought 2 WD Velociraptors the week before last and put them in RAID1 to replace my single WD Raptor and WD 500gb drive.

These Velociraptors are fast!

Adding onto my recent Graphics Card purchase I also did the following:

Antec Quad-Power 1KW PS Unit.

Trendnet 8-port Gigabit Switch with dozen CAT6 Patch cables of various lengths and colors.

And not really something I purchased unless you count the Intel Gigabit PCI NIC, but I was given a Maxspeed Thin Client awhile back for free and created a pfSense VPN Router out of it.

If anyone has ever used this distro before then you know it's based on BSD and some Monowall technology.

Now I need to tweak it some more

I just bought a WDElements external hard drive with 1TB storage for backups. Finally, I can make a full backup of both drives in my PowerMac G5

Just a recent purchase for my Pimp Daddy Gaming Rig.

MSI K9A2 Platinum Motherboard, ATi/AMD 790FX Chipset

AMD Phenom Quad Core, 9850 Black Edition

Corsair Dominator, 4GB RAM Kit, DDR2/800 Memory Modules, 2 x 2GB Modules

Windows Vista Business, x64 Bit Edition

Seagate 500GB, SATA HDD's, ES Models x 2

Now Dual-Booting with XP Pro 64-bit Edition and Vista on two separate HDD's.

Amazing how much faster my frame rates are already, Fallout 3 looks fantastic

I just purchased an Acer Aspire One 150L netbook along with an external LG GE20 DVD writer.

I bought today a Huawei E160 3G modem

Finally, my MacBook Pro 17" arrived. I waited 2 months for this machine.

I bought this week a WD My Book Studio 1TB external Firewire800 harddrive and new software.

VMware Fusion
Office 2008 Update
Adobe Creative Suite CS4 Design Premium Update
Toast 10 Titanium

I purchased a Seagate Free Agent External USB, 1.5TB HDD.

I really needed some extra storage space and CostCo had them for cheap

well .... i bought a new laptop .. HP... CQ40 ... but there's sth wrong with it .. so sad ..

Bummer, here's to getting this replaced promptly then

I also upgraded my gaming rig, installed some more memory for a total of 8GB's of DDR2/800 using all Kingston HyperX sticks.

I then got a pair of Samsung, Spinpoint, 1TB SATA drives and installed them on the remaining onboard SATA ports and then created a 2TB RAID Zero array. Installed Windows 7 RC1, 7100 and away I went.

Dual Booting with Vista x64 on one RAID Array and Windows 7 on the other array...

Bought 6 2TB HD's to replace the 6 1TB HD's in my home file server.
Went from ICH10 RAID5 to ZFS RAIDZ2


Also went from Windows 2008 Server to FreeNAS.


Finally finished copying 4TB of data back to it last night.

How's tha new RAID controller working out and the FreeNAS ???

Are you using gigabit LAN or fiber channel ???

Using the onboard SATA controller but just using it for ports not for RAID.


Using gigabit on both the server and my desktop.


I briefly thought today that something was wrong with the server because file transfers were extremely slow. Turns out it's the POS NIC in the XPS M1330. Compared it to another E5400 laptop and my desktop and file transfer were normal. I've noticed this same behavior previously with two other XPS M1330's.

More Apple software:

Mac Box Set (with Mac OS X 10.5.6, iWork '09, iLife '09)
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard

Hey Philip, if you are going to post Mac stuff then I guess I have to post my Amiga stuff too, hehe

Just purchased another motherboard to try out, the Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-UD4H.

Just a nice mid-range 790GX Motherboard with the SB750 Southbridge.


I'm going to use my older MSI board for my fathers upgraded system soon, just need to get a decent CPU, PS Unit/Case and GPU.

Just bought the Gigabyte GA-P55-UD4 Socket 1136 motherboard along with the new Intel Core i5 processor and 4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1333 memory.

Didn't get anything this weekend, but hopefully a new keyboard and mouse

Bought 2 1GB PCI express cards for my XPS M1330 (Only has 100Meg NICS that are flaky as hell).

File transfers to my server are now fast and reliable!



Thinking about getting that ATI 5870.....

Good job on replacing the faulty nic's and I've been looking at the new Radeon Cards too

I just bought another 4GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3-1333 memory kit and two Seagate Barracuda 1TB HDDs for my i5 system