[Shiarra Curtis]

Originally by Powerslide
LET'S MAKE THIS WORK PEOPLE!

Okay, now as anyone could see there are HUNDREDS of tech threads floating around in CD - ranging from questions about graphics hardware, to questions about pricier graphics hardware and other tech such as monitors, hard drives and Processors to announcement threads of new technology and more. (I accede - I'm not being very eloquent here

Any questions you have, tech news or ANYTHING related to buying/selling/information/announcements of new hardware should go here.

For example, if you come to the forums to ask "What is the better graphics hardware" or "What sort of RAM should I put in my PC?" then it should go here - I'm a little hazy, I know - but please keep all those graphics card and tech questions to one thread! Please!
So here's the summary, all:

• Announcements and queries on new or unreleased tech
  
• Benchmarks and results of hardware/discussion
  
• Questions on what sort of hardware you need/want for your machine
  
• Questions about existing tech and/or function
  
• Pricing and recommendations

Should be kept to THIS THREAD.

This has been A-okayed by CCNA for all who were wondering - it's up to you to stop filling CD with the same topics again and again that ask what the most powerful card in existence is so you can (not) buy it.

If you feel you have a question or can answer one - please feel free to do so.

Also, this is a great thread for you PC newbs, for learning more about your PC and hardware. http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=258050&st=0&p=4626051&#entry4626051

Also, a useful site for a frame of reference (not actual numbers), http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu.html?modelx=33&model1=476&model2=477&chart=174, and http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics.html?modelx=33&model1=519&model2=547&chart=211


Thanks all.
Adding more links shortly, thank you for your patience.

(Threads 1-74 have been all pruned, may they rest in peace)

http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1036256
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1043406
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1046279
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1050067
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1053812
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1057002
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1060245
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1064983
http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1069729

Do I also have to put a big glowing neon sign to this in my signature? THERE ARE TOO MANY TECH THREADS - THIS IS NOT A FORUM FOR YOUR TECH WOES!

But we will gladly help you anyway.

Honour list:
Nottheking
Lord Athanar (SUPER-PINK!)
Insaneturbo13
Anothercanadian
Tig Ol' Bitties
Dogsbody (Moderator)
CCNA (Moderator)
N??h?ggr
wolfpup
Wierd
Softnerd
wingus

Oh and PLEASE, if you want us to "Build" you a PC, please indicate the following:
1.) your budget in your country's currency
2.) what country you reside if not listed in your avatar area
3.) pre-assembled PC? ...or can you build your own?
4.) what is needed other than the PC tower? Monitor, speakers, mouse, keyboard, Windows OS disc? All these can jack up the price.
5.) product preferences, preferred seller, and intended aim

but please, no "I want teh superererest Peecee evar1!!!!11!1", because really, only Bill Gates has that much moolah.

And, speaking of building your own PC, two good how-to videos from Newegg (thanks to SpankyTheElf for finding these):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CStOC0hET8 and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3buj5cIh2Bs&feature=related

Other useful links
http://trinityhome.org/Home/index.php?wpid=1&front_id=12
http://tools.corsairmemory.com/systembuild/report.aspx?report_id=12472
http://www.memtest86.com/
http://www.techpowerup.com/atitool/
http://entechtaiwan.com/util/ps.shtm
http://www.irfanview.com/
http://www.knoppix.org/
http://www.jonnyguru.com/
http://forums.extremeoverclocking.com/showthread.php?t=136602
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php
http://www.cpuid.com/pcwizard.php
http://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/
http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/
http://tftcentral.co.uk/
http://www.apple.com/itunes/
http://www.futuremark.com/products/3dmark06/
http://www.fraps.com/

[Jack Moves]

LET'S MAKE THIS WORK PEOPLE!

When ever I see this I always invision a fat man standing on his desk yelling this.

Anywho, onto my question. I'm looking to install a couple http://www.frozencpu.com/products/9978/lit-187/Logisys_20_Inverterless_True-Color_CCFL_Light_Bar_-_Frontal_180_Lighting_-_Blue.html?tl=g6 in my case. How do these connect to get power to them? I just want my case to have some more... showy offness.

[Auguste Bartholdi]

When ever I see this I always invision a fat man standing on his desk yelling this.

Anywho, onto my question. I'm looking to install a couple http://www.frozencpu.com/products/9978/lit-187/Logisys_20_Inverterless_True-Color_CCFL_Light_Bar_-_Frontal_180_Lighting_-_Blue.html?tl=g6 in my case. How do these connect to get power to them? I just want my case to have some more... showy offness.

Just connect them to your standard 4-pin molex power connectors on your power supply. Those specfic CCFL have integrated inverters so they are easier to install. I actually purchased the exact same ones (almost) from frozencpu.com. Mine are red (hopefully). I have been too lazy to install them. One word of warning, the packaging doesn't include velcro tape. I suggest that you buy some, depending on how you are mounting them inside your case.

[Chris Cross Cabaret Man]

I just reinstalled Bioshock and it's lagging really badly.
I've played it before without any lag, and my video card is above even the maximum suggested card for the game. Any suggestions? Why it doing this now, and is there any way to fix it without lowering the graphics quality?

[WTW]

I am looking for a sound card that would be a major improvement over my onboard Realtek chipset. My budget is about $110 max. I know the X Fi Extreme gamer card is pretty good, but I hear the drivers are a little glitchy with Windows 7. The cards that I have been looking at.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102024
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006
Which one would be the best upgrade, and if you know of any others that would be better for the price, what would they be?

[Nichola Haynes]

I just reinstalled Bioshock and it's lagging really badly.
I've played it before without any lag, and my video card is above even the maximum suggested card for the game. Any suggestions? Why it doing this now, and is there any way to fix it without lowering the graphics quality?

You could try to add -dx9 to the target line for the shortcut. That helped with my crashing issues on Windows 7, not sure if that will resolve yours though.

[latrina]

I'm still not having any joy figuring out why I'm not getting any input to my monitor on the new system. We've tried it out with RAM and a GPU which we know work, and still don't get any signal. I'm thinking the motherboard may be the culprit, but does anyone else have any other ideas?

[roxanna matoorah]

I'm still not having any joy figuring out why I'm not getting any input to my monitor on the new system. We've tried it out with RAM and a GPU which we know work, and still don't get any signal. I'm thinking the motherboard may be the culprit, but does anyone else have any other ideas?

I'm sorry if you've said this already, but have you tried connecting the monitor to a different computer altogether? Maybe the monitor's the problem. :shrug:

[Project]

I'm still not having any joy figuring out why I'm not getting any input to my monitor on the new system. We've tried it out with RAM and a GPU which we know work, and still don't get any signal. I'm thinking the motherboard may be the culprit, but does anyone else have any other ideas?

I did a quick scan through the previous thread, but apologies if I missed it; what is the motherboard that you're using? If you have multiple PCI-e slots then there is the off chance that this might apply to you: When I built my desktop last year, I noticed similar behavior when I first put everything together. I'd put my GPU into the middle PCI-e slot, but as it happens, my 780i board will not boot unless the card is in the first PCI-e slot. So I switched slots and the No Signal error code on the motherboard's display went away. Probably irrelevant, but maybe not :shrug:

[Kit Marsden]

I am looking for a sound card that would be a major improvement over my onboard Realtek chipset. My budget is about $110 max. I know the X Fi Extreme gamer card is pretty good, but I hear the drivers are a little glitchy with Windows 7. The cards that I have been looking at.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102024
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006
Which one would be the best upgrade, and if you know of any others that would be better for the price, what would they be?

The X-Fi Titanium is a solid card, although I'm not in the loop with the whole Vista/Windows 7 driver support. The whole Alchemy thing kind of svcks too. Asus has soundcards as well with their Xonar series...may want to look into those.

[{Richies Mommy}]

I'm sorry if you've said this already, but have you tried connecting the monitor to a different computer altogether? Maybe the monitor's the problem. :shrug:

Yeah, it's the same monitor I'm using on this computer just now.

I did a quick scan through the previous thread, but apologies if I missed it; what is the motherboard that you're using? If you have multiple PCI-e slots then there is the off chance that this might apply to you: When I built my desktop last year, I noticed similar behavior when I first put everything together. I'd put my GPU into the middle PCI-e slot, but as it happens, my 780i board will not boot unless the card is in the first PCI-e slot. So I switched slots and the No Signal error code on the motherboard's display went away. Probably irrelevant, but maybe not :shrug:

It's the Gigabyte EP45-UD3LR. Only one PCI-e x16 slot, so it's not that.

[BaNK.RoLL]

I am looking for a sound card that would be a major improvement over my onboard Realtek chipset. My budget is about $110 max. I know the X Fi Extreme gamer card is pretty good, but I hear the drivers are a little glitchy with Windows 7. The cards that I have been looking at.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102024
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006
Which one would be the best upgrade, and if you know of any others that would be better for the price, what would they be?

Both the Omega Striker and X-Fi Titanium are good cards, Omega being a fantastic company with some of the best customer support I've ever seen. Creative has done better on the driver front, you really shouldn't have any problems there. I returned my X-Fi Titanium because it simply didn't want to work properly, I suspect it was a bad card.

If you don't mind buying refurbished, the http://www.auzentech.com/site/products/refurbished.php (or Prelude for $110, although they're largely the same card - same features). No doubt about it, better than the Titanium and usually retails for $140. It's the PCI-E, low profile version of the card I have (X-Fi Prelude) and I've been extremely happy with it. I also bought my Prelude refurb and haven't had a single problem with it. Auzen's cards offer all of the advantages of Creative's cards (EAX 5.0) with what was called much better driver support a while back, although that's somewhat irrelevant now since Creative's drivers actually work now. They also haven't released new Windows 7 drivers for the Prelude in a while.

$90 for the Forte is an absolute steal.

[Alexander Horton]

So I have IPTV where I have a little box that I plug an ethernet cable into and run an HDMI out of it to my TV. It has coax, hdmi, S/PDIF, and a multi SVideo out thing. How could I hook that bad boy up to my comp?

[Eve Booker]

Question about macs and mouses

Can I get any mouse for my mac? Or do I have to get one that is compatible with it?

The ones at school are able to use regular mouses but those are all running 10.5 so I'm not 100% sure if the OS has anything to do with it

Edit: Still running Tiger 10.4.11

[Scotties Hottie]

See my edit above. Try the "Small FFT" setting next; let it run 8 hours or more. If this fails, then it condemns your CPU; if not, your CPU is fine.

I ran the Small FFT test two nights in a row for 7-8 hours and I got no errors, now what?

I am still pretty sure that the problem lies with my CPU, since it had been running for 100? for at least 1 whole day.

I am trying to troubleshoot a problem with video playback, where it seems a little more "blocky" that usual, but only on encoded formats such as flash and avi. I think the CPU is the culprit because DVDs are fine, and they don't need any extra decoding because they are uncompressed right?

[Jennifer May]

I ran the Small FFT test two nights in a row for 7-8 hours and I got no errors, now what?

I am still pretty sure that the problem lies with my CPU, since it had been running for 100? for at least 1 whole day.

I am trying to troubleshoot a problem with video playback, where it seems a little more "blocky" that usual, but only on encoded formats such as flash and avi. I think the CPU is the culprit because DVDs are fine, and they don't need any extra decoding because they are uncompressed right?

Actually the format used on DVDs is compressed, being MPEG2, and while DVD decoding is usually software-based (meaning they are decoded by the CPU) because although they are compressed they don't require much processing power to decompress, MPEG4 decompression (divx, xvid etc.) is usually performed via the GPU nowadays. So I would rather check out the GPU in your place.

[Rude_Bitch_420]

Actually the format used on DVDs is compressed, being MPEG2, and while DVD decoding is usually software-based (meaning they are decoded by the CPU) because although they are compressed they don't require much processing power to decompress, MPEG4 decompression (divx, xvid etc.) is usually performed via the GPU nowadays. So I would rather check out the GPU in your place.

I have already tried swapping the graphics card with my older one though. The card I am using now is less than 6 months old.

[jasminε]

Question about macs and mouses

Can I get any mouse for my mac? Or do I have to get one that is compatible with it?

The ones at school are able to use regular mouses but those are all running 10.5 so I'm not 100% sure if the OS has anything to do with it

Edit: Still running Tiger 10.4.11

Yes, virtually any mouse will work just fine.

[lexy]

I ran the Small FFT test two nights in a row for 7-8 hours and I got no errors, now what?

I am still pretty sure that the problem lies with my CPU, since it had been running for 100? for at least 1 whole day.

I am trying to troubleshoot a problem with video playback, where it seems a little more "blocky" that usual, but only on encoded formats such as flash and avi. I think the CPU is the culprit because DVDs are fine, and they don't need any extra decoding because they are uncompressed right?

In Prime95, a failure on Large or Mixed and no failure on Small FFTs clears the CPU and implicates the Northbridge or RAM. I would be testing your RAM next. http://www.memtest.org/ (version 4.00 came out last year) is very easy and thorough.

[Channing]

What is the highest screen resolution to date?

TV and computer.

[CArlos BArrera]

In Prime95, a failure on Large or Mixed and no failure on Small FFTs clears the CPU and implicates the Northbridge or RAM. I would be testing your RAM next. http://www.memtest.org/ (version 4.00 came out last year) is very easy and thorough.

I see it is a boot ISO, which means my computer will be out of commission until the test is finished. About how long does the memtest take?

And that still doesn't explain my blocky video playback, while all video games are just fine.

[Dona BlackHeart]

Hey I'm back.
I was just wondering, has anyone tried the http://www.tigerdirect.com/sectors/recycle/index.asp?name=Recycle-Computers thingy on Tiger Direct? They seem to have a deal going on for http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5024447&csid=_22 mobo and processor that I was referred to in the last thread. I plan on turning in my old cellphone and (X360) Call of Duty 4 to get 40 bucks off, but I'm not sure how it works. (I looked around and didn't see how you were given the money and if it could combined with your own money on a purchase).

Thanks

EDIT: Just found out they pay you with gift cards. Anyone know if you can combine gift cards with your own money to make purchases on Tiger Direct.com?
EDIT2: I'll just start a new thread about this seeing as I want to get some community input to see if Tiger Direct is a reliable site as well.

Ravin

[Claire Vaux]

What is the highest screen resolution to date?

TV and computer.

To date for retail TV's, it's still 1080p (1920x1080). Retail source material is not being released for anything greater than that atm.

For LCD monitors, it is at 2560x1600 (or 1600p).

[Eliza Potter]

Just sent my mobo back to Overclockers to be tested at the cost of... Yet more money <_< Next time I'm just buying from a local parts shop - far better service without having to wait bloody months for things to be posted back and forth.

[Madeleine Rose Walsh]

I ended up ordering thehttp://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829271001&Tpk=HT%20omega%20striker sound card for my PC, it should be here within the hour. Is there anything specific I should know about it? I downloaded the latest drivers and Creative Alchemy. I will disable onboard sound in my BIOS. Anything else I should know?