Recent content by Herrterror

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    Computer Store Horror Stories

    The fact that PC parts are cheaper online is not the only reason I shop for them there. We have a handful of shops around my town that sell parts and service systems. A few of those are chains, like Best Buy and Radioshack; The rest are locally-owned and operated. It's the latter that concern...
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    8800 GT w/New Cooler vs 8800 GTS G92

    Got an 8800 GT for Christmas; it was ordered on BestBuy.com and picked up in-store. Was going to put it in my HTPC. The thing is loud. I figured it would be, but not like a this, a lawnmower. Should I invest in an aftermarket cooler (like HR-03GT) or exchange for an 8800 GTS G92? It's...
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    Why so little improvement in mobos?

    You also need to consider that the motherboard market is different in structure than the others. Where video and CPU tech are duopolies, the motherboard market is a polyopoly. While some manufacturers seem to stand out - like ASUS - it is really an even market with many evenly-matched...
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    Crysis then and now

    And I'd take the Far Cry AI, even without an update, over the AI in any other game since. Honestly, there hasn't been much to complain about. We aren't suffering 3-4 years of press and waiting and delays.
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    Vista display issue

    This is an odd, silly issue. I can't find documentation anywhere else about it. Concerning the HTPC I just built: I'm displaying Vista in 1080 mode on my Westinghouse 42" lcd tv. But it doesn't fill the screen. There's a good 3 inches on each side of blak border. Windows thinks it has filled...
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    New System + Vista Freezes

    I guess what I'm asking is not "Is this enough juice for a power supply?" but "If the power supply was faulty, could it result in Windows Vista freezing like this?" Remember that it's an HTPC, which implies small form-factor, low-noise, and often low-power. They don't really make power supplies...
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    New System + Vista Freezes

    ASUS M@A-VMHDMI in Athenatech100c w/ stock 200w power supply 3800 AM2 w/ stock heatsink, fan replaced by Nexus silent 80mm 1gb WINTEC AMPO DDR2 800 cheapo RAM 250 gb Seagate hdd, worked perfectly in another system. Just built the system, installed Vista, plan to use it as a small, quiet...
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    Sound Card

    I'm currently using the onboard audio for the Asus A8N32, the Realtek AC97 chip. Gross. Pricewatch is featuring an Audiotrak Maya 7.1 for 19.99, free ground. It sounds pretty cheap for something that looks on paper to be a very noticeable improvement over the Realtek in all areas, even gaming...
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    Raptors with +/- $300 budget

    I'm satisfied with the gaming performance already, just want to improve general responsiveness. I just put the machine together and it performs/reacts only slightly better than my old Athlon XP 2500 system (except for greatly improved gaming), and everything is running at proper speeds, so it...
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    Raptors with +/- $300 budget

    I have a roughly $300 budget for new drives to use as primary operating drives (I already have my raw storage drives). Should I choose... 3x Raptor 36gb (RAID 5) 2x Raptor 74gb (RAID 0 or 1, or other RAID options...) 1x Raptor 150gb (No RAID options, and don't necessarily need the space...