Micro Mart Forum / System Builders and Upgraders / Technical Forums

My rig is also dying

Drezha — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:47:34 GMT

It appears my rig maybe dying a low and painful death.

Everynow and then it starts up and BSOD's on bootup. I've not managed to catch what the damn think says as it disappears to quickly. However it did start BSOD'ing after I installed those vista update nVidia drivers. I uninstalled that update and installed the newer nVidia drivers and restarted.

it then proceeded to BSOD about 3 times then booted up normally. Then I've decided I cant afford to run the rig 24/7 so I've started turning it off over night and only using it when home from work. Which is fine, except it's BSOD on my now twice (different days and it was fine other times)

I've no idea what could be causing it. I've also been playing Dawn of War Soulstorm recently and on a few occasions, it's locked up and refused to carry on, so I'm kinda of heading towards a possible graphics card problem?

Recommended AMD2[+] Mobos

chappers — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:02:02 GMT

Could ppl recommend good mAtx and ATX mobos as im just comparing specs/prices [for a friend, for me to build], but get stuck on a decent AMD2[+] mobo.

it wont be necessary to oc the cpu [eg 5000+], but would like to compare prices between a intel and amd rig.

Future cpu upgrade path would be a bonus [but by the time that my friend gets a chance, the am2+ & 775 would be history anyways :w00t::hehe:]

i have a basic spec already, just wanting some recommendations....

mtia :w00t:

Intel E2200, E6600 and AMD AM2 5000+ BE compared

malc_wright — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:33:56 GMT

Hi All

I was surprised at the speed I got in SuperPi for the 3 processors above link here: [url]http://forum.micromart.co.uk/Topic221324-29-1.aspx[/url]

So I thought I would use two of the diagnostics tools/ benchmarks that were given away free with MM issues 972 and 983. Both machines have 2GB of PC 5300 Ram, and the processors are running at stock speeds.

The results are attached.

The poorest out of the 3 processors is clearly the AMD 5000+ Black Edition at stock, and it was even running the warmest all be it 33 degrees C isn't what most people would call hot.

Something for any of you out there tempted by the falling prices of AMD AM2 X2 processors, to think about.

Anyone ever played with the ASRock OC Tuner ?

micromac — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:41:59 GMT

Hi guys anyone know anything about this software ?

I know if i want to make any perminant changes its best to do it in Bios but supose i just wanted to see what differance OCing my CPU would make to say 3dm or a game, would you advise using it to test it out or would you still do it in Bios ?

Micromac

big problem with my vista

sexyed123 — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:21:36 GMT

well its my rig 1 it starts up and the the picture with the windows bar shooting across the screen the boot up one. just before the user account page (wich wont come up) it jumps to a blue screen and tells me this mumbojumbo
Stop c0000218 {RegistryFile Failure}
\SystemRoot\System32\config\Software or its log or aterntive is corrupt absent or not writable

then it goes on to say on the same page
collecting data for crash dump.....
there a little bit more hear then the computer will not do anythink i have to turn off using button on the front of pc
hope that makes sence
dose anyone now what in gods name i should,it is my dads pc and his leg is hurt so he cant drive so i cant really get it to pc world so wondered if there was anythink i could do, im not going to try a reinstall because when vista was first put onto the pc we had to flash the bios wich was not fun because we had to take it to pc for them to remove the cmos battire or somthink like.

New system built - time to test and stress!

didevldo — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:01:01 GMT

Hi all,

I have just finished putting together the following for my brother:

E7200

Penryn1600SLi

OCZ 2GB Kit PC2 6400

Seagate 250 GB HDD

HD4850

Optiarc optical drive

all in an Antec 300 with an OCZ Stealth Extreme 500W PSU.

I have installed Vista Premium and it all fires up OK!:D

Now, i'd like to make sure it is working to its best before handing it over, so can anyone please suggest the best way of stress testing on Vista whilst monitoring temps etc? There is an oveclocking utility that came with the mobo and it is saying 40 degrees at idle (seems a bit high to me!?!), but all suggestions/advice would be welcome.

Oh, i will probably overclock the system as well once i know it is definately OK!

Cheers,

Didevldo

Rig is dieing

spike09 — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:07:02 GMT

the socket 939 X2 3800 rig in sig is having random shutdowns, it isn't a power issue psu is 4 month old ocz 600 watt gamextreem all temps are fine.
I have run all the usual suspects WRT malware etc also ccleaner and eusing reg cleaner wll try memtest. but methinks approx 3 years constant abuse folding overa 1,000 wu's may just be its nackered and needs a rest. ;)

New motherboard and processor recommendations please

up4it — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:10:41 GMT

I am looking to upgrade my PC which I built about 5 years ago so I only really want a new motherboard and processor so I can reuse all my other stuff. I am looking at getting a fairly high spec so I wont have to upgrade for another 5+ years (maybe some RAM if my existing RAM is not compatable but thats fairly cheap at the moment anyway)

I have not paid any attention to what is available at the moment as I havent needed anything and now days you get dual core, quad core and presumably some other fancy items as well and I am not up to speed on whats best or even what it all means

What would you go for if you wanted a high spec motherboard and processor?
Or can you recommend any good sites to search?

I am thinking of a paying a good few hundred quid but maybe not as much as £900+ which I found on one site for just the processor!!!

What I have at the moment:-
AN7 motherboard
2800Ghz processor (not sure which)
184 pin DDR RAM (1 or 2 GB worth)
Radeon 9600 Graphics card
2 x Maxtor sata hard drives
400W Power supply

Laptop Advice requested

cpt_mike. — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:53:39 GMT

Hello Everyone.

I'm looking to move from using a desktop to a laptop. I understand desktop technology reasonably well as in graphics cards and processor specs. Unfortunately I know nothing about laptops at all.

My desktop was built for gaming so can handle pretty much anything thrown at it. Any future laptop only needs to be able to handle internet and word processing. It does need to be able to use adobe cs3 (photoshop, illustrator etc) without undue delay. Can anybody suggest a minimum power in terms of processor and graphics that would be able to allow me to use the photoshop stuff.

It'll be a shame to sell the desktop :crying: as I really enjoyed tinkering about with it, but I now need more space and cannot keep hold of it when a laptop and a PS3 console will do the same job.

Thanks for any help

Need Your Help MM...

daniel_macleod — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:04:55 GMT

Hi

Can anyone advise me on the following system i was looking at on ebay.. :-

[url=http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-AMD-Dual-Core-X2-5200-Desktop-PC-2-GB-500GB-8600GT_W0QQitemZ300249322356QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item300249322356&_trkparms=39%3A2|66%3A4|65%3A16|240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14]Click Here[/url]

Or will it be cheaper to build one..?

Im wanting to stick with AMD also.. :)

Any help, will be much appreciated..!!!

I want to build a PC and don't know what to buy

ricedg — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:09:07 GMT

Following on from the kind comments in topic http://forum.micromart.co.uk/Topic305356-19-1.aspx I got thinking about the motherboard sticky and how relevant it is, or not.

Most of the newbie or "I've not built a PC for a while" posts involve much more than motherboards.
So I propose to change the sticky to somethng like this, and as usual invite comments.

EDIT - major rework during Wednesday - thanks to all who have (and will) contribute.
I think it's got as big and as in depth as it needs to be, but it's for you lot so feedback :D
Also I'm not happy with the title.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You want to build your own system and you're either new to the game or have been out of it for a while or are just looking for some general guidance as to what to buy.
Hopefully the following information will give you a leg up and there's the whole Forum waiting to help as well.

I'm not going to aim this at extreme systems, either in performance or ultra tight budgets, but look at core systems that will do the job but still have an eye to the future.
Value For Money (VFM) is going to be a big feature, but that doesn't mean either cheapness or compromise.
There is no such thing as future proofing, but we need to take into account our needs may change over the next year or two and have the ability to cope with that without having to start again.
That makes cheap parts poor VFM as does being at the bleeding edge.

The first big question is gaming or not?
But we'll come to that in a minute; let's start with the parts that will be common to every system.

CPU
AMD are poor value now compared to Intel, this may have been the opposite the last time you looked.
In fact I'm not even going to touch on any AMD based systems at all.
Overclocking Intel Core 2 Duos (C2Ds) is so trivially easy to do and safe that I'm going to recommend you do so.
With that in mind, you'll appreciate buying a quieter HSF like the £11 Akasa 965 or £14 Artic Freezer Pro 7 over the stock fans.

Quad cores are only worth the extra money if you have a need for 4 cores.
Most people don't as little software can actually use all 4, or even 3.
If you need a Quad, go for the Q6600 as it will out perform the Q9xxx series when both are at their full potential and it's cheaper.

Your choice of CPU depends very much on gaming or not, so we'll look at specific CPUs later.

Motherboard
Motherboard chipsets are fairly equal as to performance, but differ in features.
Again the question is gaming or not as overclockability comes into it.
Gamers will appreciate the fastest bang per buck, the rest of us will be quite happy with something less extreme.
Look at my very modest Rig #2 - it eats through video encoding just as quick as my Quad Rig #1

RAM
DDR3 is available but represents poor value for money.
So DDR2 is the choice and 800 is near identical in price to 667, so it's what to get to allow overclocking.
2GB (£30) should be ample, and 4GB (£55) or more is only addressable by 64bit o/ses.
If you see CL4 for the sameish price as CL5, then go for that as the lower latency does help.
Most CL4 ram requires voltage above the standard 1.8v to perform at it's top level.
This is easy to do if your motherboard supports it - most can, but check before you buy.
Stick to branded ram, "generic" is very hit and miss as to quality and compatability.
I tend to go for Kingston, which is a very unsexy brand but just works...

Hard drives
£45 for a Samsung F1 500GB, job done.
There are two modes for SATA - IDE emulation (also sometimes just called SATA) or AHCI.
AHCI adds features that most of us don't need and requires that you add extra drivers when installing your o/s.
For the majority of us IDE/SATA will do the job just fine.
I don't intend to touch on RAID.

DRDRW
Prices start at £15. Get an IDE one if you have XP (less potential hassle) or SATA if it's Vista.

Cases
The style of a case is such a personal thing we can't touch on the value of looks to you.
My tip is to look for quality cases with PSU bundles.
The £60 Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU is one such.
As is the £75 Antec Sonata III Piano Black Quiet Mid Tower Case - With 500W EarthWatts PSU
Avoid the cheaper deals, the PSUs are rubbish and build quality poor.
If you have a case and are looking for a new PSU, the £25 Hiper 425W HPU-4S425 comes with a personal recommendation.

PSU
Not sure how big a PSU you need?
It's easy to overdo it if you believe some manufacturers recommendations (to be fair to them they are building in a safety margain for those that bought the cheap deals).
Go here http://tinyurl.com/2pfdtk and find out exactly what you need.
You'll probably be surprised that it's not as much as you thought.
On the efficiency front, bigger isn't necessarily better but do leave some head room.
Modular PSUs cut down on cable clutter as you only install the cables you need.

Monitors
With quality 19" TFTs at sub £100 prices now and 22" not much more, it's just a question of how big a one you want / can afford.
Gamers need to appreciate that the higher the resolution the pokier the graphics card required, but even that isn't such an issue as it used to be.

Peripherals
The £17 Logitech Black Deluxe 660 USB Cordless Desktop is a firm favourite of mine.
And the Logitech S220 Black 2.1 Speaker System has no right to sound as good as it does for £15

Operating System
There's no avoiding Vista, the question is 32bit or 64bit and prices for both are identical at £65
64bit allows you to access 4GB+ of ram, but doesn't really bring anything else to the party.
There are still issues with 64bit drivers / compatibility, but the situation is much improved.
I'm not going to get into any Linux arguements, suffice to say I am a daily user of Linux and it has much to commend it and just gets better and better.

Gaming or not?
It's time for the big question, so I'd better define what "gaming" means.
It's not solitare, hearts or tetris; we're talking modern first person shooters like Crysis.
I still reckon it's cheaper and less hassle to buy a console for gaming and have a PC for everything else, but I know there are those of you who disagree.

Non Gamers
The £45 Gigabyte GA-73PVM-S2H has all the bells and whistles you could want http://tinyurl.com/2ymtj2
Pair it with the £45 Intel Pentium Dual Core E2180 and you have a PC that will run at 3Ghz all day and chew through any task you set it.
Buy a single 2GB stick of ram and you can still add up to 2GB more later (it must be standard 1.8v ram as the motherboard cannot adjust the voltage).
You can always add a graphics card later if you decide to start some PC gaming.
This combo is my standard build.

Gamers
Welcome to the world of keeping up with the Jonses :D

CPU
The sweet spot of the C2D range is the £80 E7200.
With either of the motherboards listed below and DDR2 800 ram it will overclock to a massive 3.8Ghz
Quads may become more relevant and the advice as before is a Q6600 if you want to go down that route.

Motherboard
A good budget buy is the £60 Asrock PENRYN1600SLI-110DB, it has lots to offer and overclocks well http://tinyurl.com/25wejj

Moving up a notch you have the £80 Asus P5Q with the latest P45 chipset http://tinyurl.com/6zu7j6
Not really more "future proof" as the Intel socket will change this year, but it's going to accept the faster graphics cards of the future as it's pcie-2

The AS-Rock P43Twins1600 is one to watch out for when it hits these shores http://tinyurl.com/64rn4m
If the price is right - and it's looking like it may be sub £60 - it'll be a Forum favourite I'm sure.

Graphics Card
Has to be the £110 ATI 4850, but if you can push the boat out by £60 then it's the 4870.
For anyone on XP (and therefore DX9) look out for fire sales of the Nvidia 7900 series - they've been seen as cheap as £40

I hope you have found this sticky useful.
Prices are for guidance only and indicate a price bracket rather than the best deals in town.
If you need any further advice or clarification please post in the Forum.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Over to you lot...

Intel E5200

retro — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:18:56 GMT

thanks to VFM the intel e5200 came to my attention and i've been doing a little digging

here's what i have found [url]http://tinyurl.com/5brwzp[/url] and [url]http://tinyurl.com/5lzv83[/url]

it seems the chip is too good to be true, i have seen many posts about it getting to 4ghz easily with a 320mhz fsb on air with respectable temps. it seems to be replacing the e2xxx series but to me with its 2mb L2 cache it is replacing the e4xxx series aswell.

it should be ideal for the budget oc'er :D now to wait and see when it arrives over here in blighty

Any good deals on Monitors

Phitore — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:27:34 GMT

Basicly i'm looking for 2 new monitors prob 19" TFT widescreen with DVI.

Had enough of my 17" monitor and 20" LCD TV as second screen. As you can imagine the resolutions were bugging me.

Anyone know of any good deals about? I've searched Aria and Ebuyer etc. but nothing stands out.

System won't boot with new RAM

marc.knuckle — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:37:37 GMT

i have put in my new OCZ reaper RAM 2x2GB pc6400 in channel 1 of my p5b deluxe after removing the old OCZ platinum rev 2 2x1GB pc6400 but it wont boot. the system comes on with fans and lights etc but the screen stays blank. after taking it back out and putting the old in it is fine.

the cpu is oc'd to 3gz, e6600, but the ram was only very slightly o'cd due to be as close as possible to the standard speed.

any suggestions?

New build, what should I go for?

Tony G — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:51:53 GMT

Guys,

Having had problems with my desktop for a while now I think that it about time that I started to think about building a new computer.

Not sure what to go for, But i do like playing the odd game (COD4 ect) but I aint got money to burn.

I want something stable yet quick, cheap but not nasty and I want to use my copy of xp-pro on it, dont much fancy Vista at the moment.

Any ideas from you bunch of techno boffins?

I would be looking at CPU - HDD - Mobo - DDR - Grapics card ect

cheapest system humanly possible

sexyed123 — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 06:22:24 GMT

ello guys my mate has asked me to build the cheapest tower that has ever been made, his old pc is still running 98 and has all but died on him, so nothink can be reused. he dosnot play games or anythink like that, basiclly he wont a very cheap pc which will run msn,yahoo e.t.c and surf the net at the same time oh yea it will need to play music as well. i dont think he will need a soundcard unless no onbord because he dose the same as me plug his speakers into the pc and then his hifi into his streo. hes got a screen mouse and all of that stuff, oh yea he wonts to dual boot with lunix i dont now which ones.
so i was thinking.
*a very cheap aria case with a 400watt psu (oh yea i dont beleve that but as his system wont use much he will get away with i think:hehe:)
*2gb drr mem as it so cheap
*a sub 30 pound celron or pentuim d cpu's overclock 2.5-3.0ghz
*dvd/cd drive
*100-200gb hdd
dont now what mobo to get he needs usb 2.0, i was thinking 4 sata (so he have plenty of room for mor hdd) and 1 ide port(for cd/dvd) unsure bout graphics if its not on board

Quick Rundown

anzo — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 11:33:55 GMT

Morning all,

I've ordered my new case this morning and should be arriving tomorrow. Basically I'm looking to update my entire system.

I appear to have lost track with the lastest developments in the computing world, so I'm a little stuck regarding what I should be looking for in components these days?

If someone could give me a quick rundown of 'general opinion' of a range of the latest components I'd be really grateful.

I'm concentrating on the Quad cores, Motherboards, RAM and Graphics (sli - worth it?)

PC will be used for internet, gaming and media.

AGP video card

Edzzy — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 21:48:41 GMT

Can someone recoomend a good AGP card around the 100 pound limit...I need it for final update on an old board

I was thinking about

Model SAPPHIRE HD3850 AGP
Graphics Processor ATI Radeon HD 3850
Form Factor ATX 231.19 x 111.99 mm
Bus Interface AGP 4X/8X
Memory GDDR3 512MB /256-bit interface
Clock Speed 702MHz core / 846MHz memory
Cooling System Single Slot Active Fan Cooler
Bracket Full Height
Display Support DL DVI-I /TVO / DL DVI-I
HDTV(via cable)
HDCP Yes
External Power PCIe Graphic External Power(2x4Pin)
Regulatory Standards CE; FCC; UL

Its a go!! wife consents to upgrade

susdaforce — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 04:51:10 GMT

While still pondering over a faulty 7950 agp, i,ve decided rather than try and drag any more life out of my old system its time to do some serious upgrading, Im looking to replace my faithful old a7n8x deluxe , 2800 barton, xp oem, with something alittle more feisty, ive managed to bag around £600 from another re mortgage :D
Im hoping to hang on to the tagen modular 480 watt psu as it seems quiet beefy, i aint to worried about the cosmetics so the case can stay for the time being, i,ll have a couple of ide drives and a sata drive that i,ll want to connect but id rather use a new drive to run the os from which is another subject i,ll get to shortly,
So im basically looking for a new engine for gaming and playing films/tunes through my much loved creative inspire 5.1 (digital 5700), im thinking of building a system based on an e8400 combined with a 4850 gpu,(does this sound like a good combo ?) , i would like to go with an asus m/b but cant for the life of me decide which one , i was drawn to the p5k premium but wonder if the p5q or other is a better platform for this cpu, any suggestions on the fastest ram to compliment them ?, i dont mind delving into the bios but would rather prefer system performance was tweaked automatically than cooking it :w00t:
will i loose my my exisiting operating system because of such a big upgrade ? if so should i go with vista , whats important to me and it may sound strange but.... how well does vista run Call of Duty 1 ? if its crap then i dont want it and i would sooner carry on with xp, call me sad but its one of my all time favourite games, i play alot online and would be gutted if it didnt run smoothly, i also need to win back bragging rights from my son and his ps3,

So with a budget of £600 what would you get ?
Any suggestions words of advice would be gratefully received

Regards Sean :)

how can they make 'em this cheap?

marc.knuckle — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:46:22 GMT

blimey i just dont see how they can afford to make em this cheap. can anyone do better without resorting to lower specs???:D

CHALLENGE:D:D:D

Media Centre Help -Probably done to death

cuttlefish — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:50:45 GMT

Hi all, hope you can help

A friend has just passed on a pretty Ideq cube case and I fancy turning it into a media centre. I have a good idea about the components but I have some queries and wonder if anyone has the experience to provide some advice, here goes....

What operating system would be best? I have a spare copy of XP and am considering using this with Media Portal to save money. Mythtv is tempting but I have little experience of Linux and am unsure how complex it would be. If it is considered worth it I could shell out on the proper XP Media Centre edition or even a Vista incarnation. It needs to be pretty easy to use and reliable because if my wife missed her Holby City I would be in big trouble.

The other thing is that at the moment I only have a good old Sony Trinitron CRT with Scart and RCA input . Am I likely to get a decent picture on the TV for videos and programmes and any ideas on graphic cards to enable this.

I have other questions but these are my main concerns.

Cheers:D

Do I need to reinstall OS?

vunderground — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:39:02 GMT

Hi all. Just got a p5q mb and have installed it (came 30 hours after order on 5 days anytime free postage, thanks Ebuyer!).

The old mb was an Asrock HD job. Internet, games etc. work fine on old XP pro install with new mb but speedfan and cpu-z don't. Do I need a clean install to get full functionality or could it simply be a case of updating said software - if possible - to the latest versions? Does changing the mb matter at all? After all, the cpu is the same and so therfore is the instruction set.

Any advice gratefully received. :)

Advice needed on choice of RAM

mp1707 — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 23:34:05 GMT

Hello everybody,

I just bought an ABIT IP35 Pro XE and a Core 2 Duo E8200. Now I'm shopping for RAM, and everything I'd read suggested that the ABIT supports DDR2 667 (PC5300), which is perfect for the E8200.

However, the user manual supplied with the ABIT says it supports DDR2 1066/800. No mention of 667.

Any clues? Wouldn't entirely surprise me if this is just a misprint, but I'd appreciate any information anybody can provide.

In case it's not obvious enough - I'm not an overclocker, so I'm a bit confused about how a motherboard can support multiple FSBs. Do I need to tweak this in the BIOS?

Thanks in anticipation..

Advice On New Gaming Build Please (Long-ish Post)

Evilboithing — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:59:28 GMT

Hi Guys.. a little background before I start throwin parts and questions at you... I'm an amateur/hobbyist builder with a small amount of knowledge and experience of overclocking/cooling.. however I fell out of love with my PC for a while when my last rig decided to suddenly stop working and I just couldn't for the life of me figure out what as wrong with it (it was post-installment of a new drive (non-boot))..

anyway.. the result is I took a time out from my enthusiastic reading and absorption of the numerous websites reviewing new technologies and as the wonderful world of technology tends to run a little faster than day to day life.. upon my return (cued by my random picking up of an issue of MM - good times ;) ) I find that technology has not only advanced as to be expected.. but my brain has actively replaced all my harrd earned techy knowledge with lots of w's, t's and f's.

Long story short I'm playing catch up.

So I finally decided to upgrade the old beast.

Here's what I have already :

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300@Stock speeds&stock cooling
P5N-MX (came as part of an upgrade package deal)
4Gb Kingston Hyper KHX6400D2K2/4G@800mhz 5-5-5-15 1.8v Stable
Thermaltake Toughpower 850W

22" Hanns G HG216DP
Aerocool ExtremEngine 3T Case (Love that huge fan ;P)
3 Various sized HDD 1xATA133, 1xSata150 1xSata300.
XFX 7800GT 256Mb Pci-e

So here's the dilemma.. Obviously I need to upgrade that rediculously old 7800gt to something better.. So I'm looking towards the HD4870. I was looking at the 4870x2 but decided against it because my monitors max res is 1680x1050 and I don't think I'd really see the benefits from that card.

One thing stopping me from buying right away is concerns over cooling.. the 4870 reputedly runs hot so I'm wondering if you guys have any suggestions as to an aftermarket cooler for it? Will it fit comfortably in my case?

Another thing stopping me is obviously my new mobo isn't really up to scratch and as such doesn't have PCI-e 2.0.. or dual channel memory for that matter.. so I was thinking of getting the P5Q-pro and reselling my p5n-mx as used.. are there any concerns or known issues with that board?

and finally.. I'm looking into aftermarket cooling for the Q9300 with a view to overclocking.. obviously I'm concerned about the layout of the new mobo and also perhaps the size of my case again..

Thanks for listening and any help would be much appreciated :)

Ebt.

thinking about a shuttle

alex3410 — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:23:17 GMT

i love the look of the shuttle systems :P and want to build a back up solution, i want to build a server around this
[url=http://www.yoyotech.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=102433&osCsid=9732d5371638cfb7c7e70d4c53a1c521]Shuttle k45[/url]

but the PSU is only 100W :crazy: and i dont want the added cost of a larger PSU for it as they are a bit to £

so my question what sort of CPU and how much RAM and how many hard drives could i safely put in it?

(note it does not have a DVD/CD drive)

First timer

ttrini67 — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 15:40:02 GMT

Hi guys,I am prepared to built my first pc.I must admit I am not that clued in with all the technical terms I,ve seen in some of the posts that I have read on this forum.I am interested in building a complete system with a budget of around 300.Any advice will be greatly appreciated.Thanking all in advance.

HDD's

Tony G — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:55:31 GMT

Looking back to my other post http://forum.micromart.co.uk/Topic304529-19-1.aspx about building a new rig, I was just wondering what would you guys push as being a good solid and stable HDD? using Maxtor at the moment but wish to upgrade in size....

Although I do like having a smaller drive as I tend to back up to my external drives weekly, one for Pictures and the other for Documents......

HD 4850 Water cooling

binman180 — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 11:02:31 GMT

Hi, i have Hd 4850 with the stock cooler and i want to change the cooler. im planning on using my Zalman reserator 1 plus watercooler with the ZM-GWB2 gpu waterblock and some ram heatsinks. i was wondering if anybody had any experience or thoughts on this?

AM2/AM2+ multiplier question

desktopstu — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 21:55:26 GMT

Can anyone recommend me a decent AM2/AM2+ motherboard that allows for changing the multiplier (either by jumper or by BIOS)? Price is an important factor here!

Just a thought at the mo, pricing up an AM2 system for a 5000 black edition to go with my myriad of other computer projects.

Top Notch Ram for only £33

The VFM (Value For Money) Addict — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 17:49:28 GMT

Aria have some top notch Patriot 2GB PC2-8500 Extreme Performance (2x1GB) for just £33

See - [url]http://tinyurl.com/65kloa[/url]

There is review at the link below. The reviewers were a bit confused that the Patriot may need 2.6v. Anyway they only gave it 2.3v in their test and that is the correct vdimm for these sticks. At just £33 for 2x1GB this is a bargain.

Review - [url]http://tinyurl.com/6aobcn[/url]

Cheers,
vfm

Motherboard deliberations

IronClaw — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 14:40:12 GMT

I've decided to get a quad core CPU and, after some searching, I'll be leaving the AMD fold for the 1st time in yonks so I'm going for the Q6600 (or next one up). I however I'm still now deliberating on a motherboard and though I asked in one of my posts, I'm still no clearer on intel motherboard chipsets, but I want one with the option of an SLI. My searches so far have shown that I can get one with or without but there's a significant price difference. Can I have some ideas that won't break the bank? I'd like to stay around the £200 mark for CPU, Motherboard and RAM.

Thanks for any help.

Scan leading the way

The VFM (Value For Money) Addict — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 17:26:14 GMT

Just a quick heads up or two

First, Scan already have stocks of the E7300 (the 10x multi version of the E7200) and its priced at £93.

Second, Scan also now have the Asrock P43Twins1600 motherboard in stock at only £46. This is the best sub-£50 oc'ing board around IMHO.
See - [url]http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=860259[/url]
and - [url]http://tinyurl.com/6psh82[/url]

Cheers,
vfm

Dell power suppy upgrade

bop — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:45:32 GMT

Hi all,
I have a Dell dimension 9200 purchased around 18 months ago that has a 375watt power supply. I am looking to upgrade to a higher wattage and would like to know if the replacement needs to be a dell specific unit or if a regular power supply would work. Any info on the subject would be much appreciated .

MPEG-4 Encoding Race - Revised

Slipstreem — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:36:57 GMT

Hi peeps. :)

The original encoding race thread bought a few fundamental problems to light including encouraging people to illegally rip copyrighted material and the inability of the proposed alternative benchmark to work on certain machines running WinXP. So, let's start again with a hybrid of both approaches...

The race involves encoding an MPEG-2 file to MPEG-4 using a tool known as Vidomi which is aware of dual CPU cores if you have them. Results from all single-, dual- and quad-core CPU users are welcome.

[b]The Test[/b]

Download and install the CPC Benchmark Suite from here... [url]http://movies.custompc.co.uk/custompc/CPCSuite2007.zip[/url]. My thanks go to Wiz! for finding this for us. ;)

There's no need to actually run the suite as results will not be accepted as part of this test. See the first paragraph for an explanation as to why this is. We're only interested in the VOB file located in the "/Program Files/Custom PC Benchmarks Suite 2007/Video/DVD" folder.

Download and install Vidomi. You can get your copy from here... [url]http://tinyurl.com/2yknd[/url].

Install Vidomi wherever you like and then run up the encoder.

Click on the plus symbol and navigate your way to the appropriate MPEG-2/VOB file. Click open and the file path is loaded into Vidomi.

Before you start to encode, make the following settings by using the "options" icon.

Video Options: Hyper Crop - tick, Deinterlace - tick, Hyper Scale - tick, Threshold - 20, Scale By Percent, Left Crop - 0, Right Crop - 0, No Frame Rate Adjustment, 100% of Width, Force Output Dimensions to be a Multiple of 16 - tick. In the Video Codec Settings - Normal One Pass Codec (One Pass). In the Encode Color Space setting - YV12 (Faster).

Now click on the "Select Video Codec Defaults" and select - XviD MPEG-4 Codec. Click on "Configure" and select "1 Pass - Quality". Set a Quality value of 90%.

Click on "Advanced options..." and select Motion Search precision - 6-Ultra High, Quantizer Type - MPEG, FourCC used - XVID, Enable lumi-masking - tick. Click "OK". Click "OK" again on the "XviD configuration" window and click "OK" again on the "Select Video Codec" window and click "OK for a last time on the "Vidomi Video Options" window.

Click "Options" on the main encoder window again and select "General Options" and apply the following settings. Display Statistics When Encoding - tick, Multithread Encode on Dual CPUs - tick, Use _INFO.txt if present - tick. Leave all other checkboxes clear. Click the "OK" button to close this menu.

We're all now running on a level playing field regarding encoding parameters.

This is it. Click the "Start Encoding" button on the encoder and wait until the encoding process has ended then note down the figure given in the "Vidomi Statistics" window under "Frames Per Second".

[b]Results in so far...[/b]

Key: Submitter - Encoding Speed (Machine Specifications) - Encoding Efficiency Ratio in FPS/GHz

fakesnake - 126.51FPS (Intel QX9650 @3.9GHz with 2GB DDR2-1066 @1250MHz - 5,5,5,15,2T) - 32.44
mog wilson - 114.28FPS (Intel C2D E8400 @3.6GHz with 2GB DDR2-800 @667MHz - 4,4,4,15) - 31.74
oldboy - 113.80FPS (Intel C2D Q6600 @3.6GHz with 4GB DDR2-1066 @980MHz - 4,4,4,12,2T) - 31.61
Croatoan - 111.15FPS (Intel C2D Q6600 @3.2GHz with 4GB DDR2-800 - 4,4,4,12) - 34.73
andydods - 106.47FPS (Intel C2D E8200 @3.6GHz with 4GB DDR2-800) - 29.58
Mitch - 102.89FPS (Intel C2D Q6600 @3.1GHz with 2GB DDR2-800 - 5,5,5,15,2T) - 30.13
The Guy - 100.57FPS (Intel C2D E6600 @3.5GHz with 2GB DDR2-667 @667MHz - 3,3,3,10,1T) - 28.73
mog wilson - 99.03FPS (Intel C2D E6750 @3.2GHz with 2GB DDR2-800 - 4,4,4,12) - 30.95
tighthead - 98.45FPS (Intel C2D Q6600 @3.19GHz with 2GB DDR2-? @946MHz 5,5,5,12,2T) - 30.86
oldboy - 97.69FPS (Intel C2D E6750 @3.38GHz with 4GB DDR2-800 @ 844MHz - 4,4,4,12,2T) - 28.90
Mouse - 96.05FPS (Intel C2D E6600 @3.4GHz with 2GB DDR2-800) - 28.25
nescafe37 - 90.31FPS (AMD Athlon X2 6400+ BE @3.36GHz with 2GB DDR2-667 - 4,4,4,14,2T) - 26.88
Flaco - 86.91FPS (Intel C2D E6750 @3.2GHz with 2GB DDR2-800 @1GHz - 5,5,5,18) - 27.16
conrad101 - 85.93FPS (Intel C2D E4500 @3.25GHz with 2GB DDR2-800 - 4,4,4,12,2T) - 26.44
Subby - 84.69FPS (Intel C2D E6300 @3.15GHz with 2GB DDR2-800 @450MHz - 4,4,4,12,2T) - 26.89
Phitore - 83.68FPS (Intel C2D Q6600 @2.9GHz with 2GB DDR2-800 - 4,4,4,12,16,2T) - 28.86
ricedg - 83.04FPS (Intel C2D Q6600 @2.9GHz with 2GB DDR2-800 - 5,5,5,15) - 28.63
retro_gamer - 81.56FPS (Intel C2D E2140 @3GHz with 2GB DDR2-800 @800MHz - 4,4,4,10,1T) - 27.19
si32 - 81.36FPS (Intel C2D E4400 @3.25GHz with 2GB DDR2-800 - 4,4,4,12,16,2T) - 25.03
Wiz! - 78.28FPS (Intel C2D E2180 @3.42GHz with ?GB ? - 5,5,5,12,2T) - 22.89
Didevldo - 75.91FPS (Intel C2D E4500 @2.93GHz with 2GB DDR2-800) - 25.91
mog wilson - 75.85FPS (Intel C2D E6750 @ 2.66GHz with 3GB DDR2-667 @667MHz - 5 5 5 15) - 28.52
ricedg - 74.85 (Intel C2D E2180 @3GHz with 2GB DDR2-667 @800MHz - 5,6,6,18) - 24.95
Slipstreem - 74.02FPS (Intel C2D E4300 @2.83GHz with 1GB DDR500 @472MHz - 2.5,3,3,7,1T) - 26.16
mog wilson - 73.34FPS (Intel C2D E4500 @2.83GHz with 3GB DDR2-667 @685MHz - 4,4,4,12,2T) - 25.92
Spedley - 71.85FPS (Intel C2D E4400 @2.66GHz with 2GB DDR2-1000 @1064MHz - 4,4,5,12,2T) - 27.01
ricedg - 71.73FPS (Intel C2D E6600 @2.4GHz with 2GB DDR2-800 - 5,5,5,18) - 29.89
ricedg - 71.46FPS (Intel C2D Q6600 @2.4GHz with 2GB DDR2-800 - 5,5,5,18) - 29.78
Wiley - 70.39FPS (Intel C2D E4400 @2.8GHz with 1GB DDR400 - 2,3,2,6,1T) - 25.14
keith - 69.32FPS (Intel C2D E4400 @2.7GHz with 1GB DDR2-800 - 4,4,4,12,2T) - 25.67
Bruce R - 66.48FPS (Intel C2D E4600 @3.01GHz with 2GB DDR2-800 @667MHz - 5,5,5,16,2T) - 22.09
Planeman - 65.75 FPS (Intel C2D Q6600-G0 @2.4GHz with 2GB DDR2-667 @667 5,5,5,15,2T) - 27.40
Wiz! - 64.38FPS (AMD Athlon X2 4200+ @2.81GHz with 2GB DDR400 - 2,3,3,6,1T) - 22.91
alex3410 - 64.19FPS (Intel C2D E4300 @2GHz with 1GB DDR2-667 @ 595MHz - 3,3,3,12,2T) - 32.10
Just Jon - 64.18FPS (AMD Athlon X2 3800+ @2.6GHz with 2GB DDR400 @520MHz - 3,3,3,8,1T) - 24.68
Uncle Bungle - 63.56FPS (2x Intel Xeon E5345 Server with 4GB DDR2-667 - 5,5,5,15 - 5x72GB 15KRPM in RAID0) - ???
Bruce R - 62.29FPS (Intel C2D E2160 @2.30GHz with 2GB DDR2-800 @512MHz - 4,4,4,13,2T) - 27.08
spike09 - 60.56FPS (Intel C2D Q6600 @2.4GHz with 2GB DDR2-667 - 4,4,4,12,2T) - 25.23
Tippon - 59.97FPS (Intel C2D E2140 @2.41GHz with 2GB DDR2-900 @667MHz - 5,5,5,15,19) - 24.88
lakeslad2 - 58.84FPS (Intel C2D E6400 @2.43GHz with 1GB DDR2-667) - 24.21
spike09 - 55.56FPS (Intel C2D Q6600 @2.4GHz with 2GB DDR500 @540MHz - 4,3,3,9,1T) - 23.15
posochubb - 55.94 FPS (Intel C2D E4300@2.53GHz with 2GB DDR2-667@562 -5,5,5,15,2T) - 22.11
ricedg - 55.38FPS (Intel C2D T7300 @2GHz with DDR2-667 - 5,5,5,15) - 27.69
bigdaddy - 54.57FPS (Intel C2D E6600 @2.8GHz with 2GB DDR2-800) - 19.49
ricedg - 53.23FPS (Intel C2D E6300 @1.86GHz with 1GB DDR2-667 - 5,5,5,15) - 28.62
Planeman - 51.56FPS (Intel C2D E2160 @2.4GHz with 2GB DDR2-667 - 3,3,3,6,1T) - 21.48
Freakshow! - 50.54FPS (AMD Athlon X2 3800+ @2.4GHz with 2GB DDR400 - 2.5,3,3,7,2T) - 21.06
ricedg - 50.27FPS (Intel C2D E4300 @2.5GHz with 1GB DDR400 - 2.5,2,2,6) - 20.11
52919 - 49.74FPS (Intel C2D E4400 @2.2GHz with 2GB DDR2-667 @588MHz - 4,4,4,8,2T) - 22.61
spike09 - 49.73FPS (Intel C2D E6400 @2.13GHz with 2GB DDR2-667) - 23.35
ricedg - 49.01FPS (Intel C2D T5600 @1.83GHz with 1GB DDR2-533 - 4,4,4,12,16) - 26.78
Uncle Bungle - 46.74FPS (AMD Athlon X2 BE-2350 @2.1GHz with 1GB DDR2-667 @600MHz - 5,5,5,15,1T) - 22.26
ricedg - 45.70FPS (AMD Athlon X2 4000+ with 1GB DDR2-667 - 5,5,5,15,19) - ???
Davo1 - 41.64FPS (Intel C2D E6300 with 1GB DDR400 - 2.5,3,3,7,2T) - 22.39
Uncle Bungle - 40.74FPS (Intel Pentium D 915 @2.8GHz with 1GB DDR2-533 - 4,4,4,12,2T) - 14.55
ricedg - 39.44FPS (Intel P4 650 @3.4GHz (HTT enabled) with 4GB DDR2-667 - 5,5,5,15) - 11.16
spike09 - 37.30FPS (AMD Athlon X2 3800+ with 1GB DDR400 - 2.5,4,4,8,2T) - ???
ricedg - 34.35FPS (Intel C2D U7600 @1.2GHz FSB133 with 2GB DDR2-667 - 4,4,4,12) - 28.63
Dead Rodent Gone Optical - 32.96FPS (Intel C2D T2310 @1.46GHz with 2GB DDR2) - 22.58
nitrowing - 31.78FPS (AMD Athlon64 3700+ @2.5GHz with 1GB DDR400 - 3,3,3,8,1T) - 12.71
ricedg - 30.96FPS (Intel P4 630 (HTT enabled) with 2GB DDR2-667 - 4,4,4,12,1T) - ???
Bruce R - 29.65FPS (Intel P4 Northwood @3GHz with 2GB DDR400 - 3,3,3,8,?T) - 9.88
52919 - 27.5FPS (AMD Athlon64 3700+ @2.25GHz with 1GB DDR400 - 2.5,3,3,8,2T) - 12.22
alex3410 - 25.20FPS (Intel Celeron M420 with 1GB DDR2-??? - 4,4,4,12,16) - ???
Dead Rodent Gone Optical - 24.25FPS (AMD Athlon XP3000+ @2.17GHz with 1GB DDR333) - 11.18
ricedg - 23.22FPS (Intel Pentium-M 740 @1.7GHz with 512MB DDR2-400 - 3,3,3,8) - 13.66
nitrowing - 22.52FPS (AMD Athlon XP3000+ @2.3GHz with 512MB DDR400 @354MHz - 2.5,3,3,6) - 9.79
Uncle Bungle - 21.91FPS (AMD Turion64 ML-32 with 1GB DDR333 - 2.5,3,3,7,2T) - ???
Flaco - 21.35FPS (AMD Athlon XP3000+ with 1GB DDR400 @333MHz - 2.5,3,3,7) - ???
keith - 21.35FPS (AMD Athlon XP-M 3000+ @1.6GHz 512MB DDR400 3,3,3,8,11,1T) - 13.34
ricedg - 21.1FPS (Intel Pentium-M @1.7GHz with 768MB DDR166 - 3.5 & 2.5,3,3,7) - 12.41
Planeman - 20.35FPS (AMD S754 Sempron 3100+ @1.8GHz with 512MB DDR333 - 2.5,3,3,7,2T) - 11.31
Flaco - 19.68FPS (Intel Celeron M370 @1.5GHz with 768MB DDR2-533 @400MHz - 3.0,3,3,9) - 13.12
si32 - 19.38FPS (AMD Athlon XP 2600+ @2.2GHz with 1GB DDR400 - 2.5,3,3,7,2T) - 8.81
ricedg - 18.39FPS (Intel P4 Northwood @2.6GHz with 512MB DDR333 - 2.5,3,3,7) - 7.07
52919 - 14.8FPS (AMD Athlon XP 2500+ @1.84GHz with 512MB DDR400 - 3,3,3,8,2T) - 8.04
spike09 - 13.78FPS (AMD Athlon XP 2400-M with 512MB DDR400 - 2,3,3,7) - ???
Bruce R - 11.35FPS (Intel Tualatin @1.13GHz with 512MB PC133 - 3,3,3,7,9) - 10.04
Wiz! - 10.77FPS (Intel Celeron 1GHz @1.3GHz with 768MB PC133 - 3,3,3,6) - 8.28
chappers - 10.49FPS (Intel Pentium P4 @3GHz with 2GB DDR400 @402MHz - 3,3,3,8) - 3.48
keith - 9.83 FPS (Mobile P4 2.8GHz with 512MB DDR333 @166.5MHz - 2.5 3 3 7) - 3.51
keith - 7.15FPS (Intel Celeron 900 @897MHz with 256MB PC100 - 3,2,2,5,7) - 7.97
alex3410 - 6.52FPS (Intel Celeron @800MHz with 256MB PC133 - 3,3,3,6) - 8.15
keith - 3.81FPS (Intel P2 400 @412MHz with 192MB PC100 - 3,3,3) - 9.25

[b]Note: Please multiply all quadcore C2D results by a factor of 1.75 for a fair comparison to other similar dual- and single-core platforms.[/b]

As the software used isn't capable of utilising all four cores of a quadcore CPU effectively, forumite ricedg has experimented with running two instances of Vidomi simultaneously. The result is that two dual-threaded occurrences give around a 75% speed advantage over one dual-threaded occurrence on the same machine.

[b]Analysis...[/b]

Forumite alex3410 has kindly composed some useful graphs based on some of the information we've accumulated so far...

[b]Encoding Speed Versus Core Speed For A Cross-Section Of Dualcores:[/b] [url]http://tinyurl.com/36pvgk[/url]

[b]Memory Timings Versus Encoding Speed On His Machine:[/b] [url]http://tinyurl.com/2sly6b[/url]

[b]Memory Speed Versus Encoding Speed With Auto Timings On His Machine:[/b] [url]http://tinyurl.com/2n94o7[/url]

From forumite ricedg...

[b]A Handy Performance Graph Partway Through The Proceedings:[/b] [url]http://tinyurl.com/2v3t7t[/url]

From forumite Slipstreem...

[b]Memory Performance Tweaking Tips:[/b] [url]http://tinyurl.com/2zyqxm[/url]

Please post your results below and I'll add them to the table above in order of encoding speed. :)

Cheers, Slipstreem. :cool:

PS If your system specs aren't included in your signature, please remember to include them in your post.

Sound card wanted

cheyworth — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:05:57 GMT

i am looking for a sound card with a coaxial digital input to take signals from my hi-fi amp.

Any ideas?

Using all 4 memory slots

marc.knuckle — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 21:21:04 GMT

i have the asus p5b deluxe as mentioned in my sig. so far i have 2x1gb sticks of OCZ pc6400 in the first channel but want to add another 2x1gb into channel 2. could there be any issues with this? i know that XP wont 'see' all of it but it will still see more that at the minute.

edit...or can someone recommend a new 2x2gb kit for £50 give or take? ideally as fast as poss out of the box

Ideas for a budget system?

KK — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:33:37 GMT

Was thinking about something based around a E1200/E1400?

Edit:

Not overly intended as a games machine; but will be used for some video encoding...

How much/Which PSU?:-S

Bacon_Man — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 19:00:20 GMT

Hi I'm a first time builder and could really do with some advice on this,

at the moment i've got:

ASUS P5K Premium WI-FI edition (775) SATA Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.66GHz 1066MHz (Q6700) Processor
Scythe Mugen (Infinity) Heatsink
Patriot PC2-6400 800MHz 4GB (2x 2GB) DDR2 RAM
Maxton DiamondMax 22 500GB Hard drive +5V 0.65A, 12V 0.42A
Maxton DiamondMax 10 250GB Hard drive +5V 0.74A, 12V 1.5A
CR402A Card Reader
Sony DRU-190S DVD drive
It's going to be running on Vista Home Premium 32bit (Probably should have went 64bit)
All in a Thermaltake Armor

I'm looking too put a ATI 4870x2 bad boy in there...So i'm wondering how big of a PSU am i going to need? Apparently the graphics card alone is going to need a 650W:-|

I do also plan on overclocking the processor (thats why i chose the board really)

Any thoughts, suggestions, or ideas would REALLY be appreciated

Thanks alot

What's required for a modern gaming / multimedia machine?

Ringside Violence — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 22:34:27 GMT

Howdy all,

With the news that GTA 4 is coming to PC this Nov I really must start putting some money aside to upgrade my old system....more of a brand new build than an upgrade, just going to save my optical drive!

Now I'm asking what kind of CPU, motherboard, memory and graphics card would be good for modern gaming? It's been years since my old old rig has been able to run a game! I may even start buying parts bit by bit each week.

So what would your ideal set up be for modern games (and multimedia of course), within reason though! I don't really wanna go over £500. Speakers, monitor, keyboard and mouse etc are all unimportant for now, I'll be re-using my old bits for a while. Just wanna concentrate on the computer.

Thanks all.

PS) What would I be looking at paying for a notebook capable of playing newer games and multimedia? that's also an option.

Cheers!

slow graphics

glidestar — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:38:51 GMT

I've just built a cheap basic system for our general home PC, Everything appeared to be running fine, however I've just installed Google earth and the graphics don't seem to coping, stuttering, shuddering and things moving very slowly in steps , not smoothly.

The system is built on an ASUS M2A-MX motherboard (which has ATI RADEON X1200 on board) ATHLON 64x2 4200 (2.2GHz) 2GHz CORSAIR value RAM. WindowsXP SP2. The display is still our old Dell trinitron 17"CRT set 1024x768.

Have I missed something in the setup? I installed the drivers for the graphics and audio etc from the supplied CD

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Martin