Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread

[aimeeandbeatles]

Thanks

The thing is, it was Vista twlling me it was inactive.

 

[Turner]

Vista is incorrect.

While it's a nice idea, I generally don't pay attention to such notifications from windows. In fact, I generally turn them off too when I think about it.

AVG will tell you if it's not working.

 

[lndm]

So I'm not the only one that does that

I might go out on a limb and guess that AVG has manipulated vista for it's own purpose.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

What is a good, quiet, slow (I know you're thinking WTH? just read on and you'll understand) and not real expensive DVD-ROM? My current DVD-RW drive is really noisy, and I'd like a second slower one, not just for the noise but other reasons too. But the noise is important reason, my mom thought I had the vacuum cleaner running!

 

[Ulyaoth]

How's this setup look? Anything that you'd change?




Thinking of finally upgrading, I just need to pick a case that's cheap, sturdy, big, not horribly cheap looking or gawdy. Any suggestions for that? I'd like one big enough to not have problems when I get a bigger heatsink eventually. Also, would like to keep it around $625 total.

 

[Aramazd]

I'd go for a larger hard drive and a less powerful PSU. I'd prefer Intel, but I haven't looked at Phenom X3 benchmarks.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I don't know about the case on your list (the thumbnail is way too tiny to tell), but see-through cases are good idea (IMHO). Not only do they look cool, but if the computer's malfunctioning you can take a look inside without opening it up.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

I don't know about the case on your list (the thumbnail is way too tiny to tell), but see-through cases are good idea (IMHO). Not only do they look cool, but if the computer's malfunctioning you can take a look inside without opening it up.

There's no case on the list, and having a window wouldnt help you if its malfunctioning. You'd still need to get inside of it. A window is just for looks.

 

[lndm]

.... and a less powerful PSU.

Peace of mind now, upgradeability later?

 

[Ulyaoth]

I'd go for a larger hard drive and a less powerful PSU. I'd prefer Intel, but I haven't looked at Phenom X3 benchmarks.

Well I wanted a psu with enough extra juice to power any new video cards that may come along or if I want to crossfire maybe, would a 550 have enough for that?


About larger hard drive, I have a 160gb one now and even when I first put it in and went 2 and a half years before reformatting it finally I still had 65gb left and that's after whatever downloads I had ever wanted. I'm just getting a new one anyone because I figure a nice fresh one would be quicker plus SATA over my IDE one now.

I was going to go Intel but the AMDs now are pretty good especially for games which is the main thing I want it for, and cheap, so I can get that extra core to run background things while the other 2 game or whatever, over an Intel dual core.

I don't have a case on that list, but I was thinking about the Antec 300, but I've been reading some bad reviews about it being kind of shoddy and noisy.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

There's no case on the list, and having a window wouldnt help you if its malfunctioning. You'd still need to get inside of it. A window is just for looks.

Oops, I thought there was, didn't look closely enough

I meant to tell if something got unplugged inside. e.g. If the hard drive got unplugged, I think it'd show a No Operating Sytem Found error. So if you can see inside, you can tell if it actually got unplugged or if you accidentally wiped the drive.

Plus it's kinda cool to see the inner workings, at least.

 

[Aramazd]

Well I wanted a psu with enough extra juice to power any new video cards that may come along or if I want to crossfire maybe, would a 550 have enough for that?

Yes. When you are looking for a PSU just search for one that is Crossfire certified or whatever they call it.

About larger hard drive, I have a 160gb one now and even when I first put it in and went 2 and a half years before reformatting it finally I still had 65gb left and that's after whatever downloads I had ever wanted. I'm just getting a new one anyone because I figure a nice fresh one would be quicker plus SATA over my IDE one now.

The price difference is low enough between 500GB and 1 TB that there is little reason to not upgrade.

I don't have a case on that list, but I was thinking about the Antec 300, but I've been reading some bad reviews about it being kind of shoddy and noisy.

Newegg seems mostly postive and I like my Antec 900, FWIW.

 

[Ulyaoth]

Well the 1TB is $40 more. Not much when you consider how much more you're getting, but wouldn't it be slower? I'd prefer it to be quicker than to have more space I won't be using, but the 10000rpm ones are too expensive or too small.

Now I figured, might as well get a good case and just spend the damn extra $20-$30 something extra over getting some cheap piece of crap, so now I'm trying to decide between whether I want the toolless things and rubber gromets to make things quieter of a Cooler master case(a 690 I'm looking at) or the extra large exhaust fan on the top of the antec cases(still thinking of the 300 mostly, unless I find another site with it for much cheaper)

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

10000 RPM are only for those who like cutting edge. Just make sure it's a pretty decent RPM and there's enough RAM and processor speed should be fine. I'd recommend putting in more RAM to cut down on swap file usage, swap files can be slow sometimes.

 

[Ulyaoth]

Well that's why I'm getting the 4 instead of 2gb like everyone keeps telling me is all I'd need. It's cheap as hell anyway so why not.

Also freed up $20 by noticing that the video card I chose is a combo deal with the cpu I chose. Also noticed my mobo is DDR2, not 3, so I stepped the RAM down to 1066, $563 without the case with these changes.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

unless you're going to overclock and want a better fsb:ram ratio, id go for DDR2-800 RAM. I bought 1066 and now I sorta regret it. It took several RMA's to get working set. Most often, the DDR2-1066 chips are factory-overclocked DDR2-800 ones.

 

[lndm]

Well the 1TB is $40 more. Not much when you consider how much more you're getting, but wouldn't it be slower?

Typically, larger drives are faster. However, drives within the same family (such as these two might be) probably differ only by the number of platters and so are probably identical in speed.

Now I figured, might as well get a good case and just spend the damn extra $20-$30 something extra over getting some cheap piece of crap,

Bear in mind that some of the money tied up in a good case might be in the drive quick release mechanisms or internal lighting/fannage or whatever. Thought I'd mention that in case you only want something sturdy that will keep things quiet.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Typically, larger drives are faster. However, drives within the same family (such as these two might be) probably differ only by the number of platters and so are probably identical in speed.



Bear in mind that some of the money tied up in a good case might be in the drive quick release mechanisms or internal lighting/fannage or whatever. Thought I'd mention that in case you only want something sturdy that will keep things quiet.

My suggestion for a case is get one with the most mountings for fans, but the least fans mounted. Then get some scythe or noctua quiet fans.
My Antec 1200 came with 6 fans mounted, but damn are they loud. Even on the lowest setting, they drown out the noise of my GPU fan going at 90%. Which is hard to do since it sounds like a jet engine.

On the topic of GPU fans. Why does my GPU fan at 90% sound passable, but at 100% it ramps up to be so loud that I can hear it from the next room? I've checked, and from 50% to 60% to 70% etc to 100%, the RPM increase is the same each 10% level. Yet the noise increase isnt linear like that. Anyone wanna explain this to me?

 

[lndm]

Energy expenditure versus linear velocity is in fact logarithmic.

 

[Genocidicbunny]

Energy expenditure versus linear velocity is in fact logarithmic.

Wait, wouldnt that mean that the energy increase from 90-100% would be less than from 80-90%? In that case, noise increase too should be less, not more. Unless im not getting something here.