Recent content by Mondoman

  1. M

    man I really need some direction here

    I think you're getting "Hz" (frequency) confused with "B" (bytes, or capacity). Presumably you have 3 1GB sticks in your system. Windows performance will be better with more RAM than less, so I'd go with the 3GB of RAM. In any case, the 680i chipset has problems, and may not really run RAM...
  2. M

    Best to match DDR to FSB?

    Unless the MB supports dual-channel memory mode, you'd really want DDR-533 RAM to match the FSB, but in practice your friend won't notice any difference with RAM running at DDR-333.
  3. M

    Using PC3200 DDR RAM with e6600?

    In practice, nobody makes a MB for the core2duo CPUs that can take DDR RAM.
  4. M

    What is better

    More RAM is faster than less RAM, so just keep the 3 sticks.
  5. M

    External HDD crapping out after only about a month

    If the enclosure doesn't have an internal fan for cooling, it's pretty likely the drive dying from overheating.
  6. M

    e6400 vs e4500

    Hopefully not much "more", given that Intel's Absolute Maximum Voltage on those is 1.55V!
  7. M

    Quick CPU poll -which would you do?

    Any halfway decent MB will work fine at 1333MHz FSB, since that's now an "official" speed. You'll likely have a hard time getting an e4600 running at 3.6GHz without substantial voltage boosts etc, an the e7200 has internal improvements as well, so I'd go with the latter.
  8. M

    E6600 Temps

    Sounds like you don't have your CPU cooler quite properly attached -- high idle temps are a key sign of this. Are you using a 4-push-pin cooler? If so, remember that you need to attach it with the MB OUT of the case; otherwise, the pins often don't have enough room between the MB and case wall...
  9. M

    Overclocking E2140 in DFI Lanparty DK P35

    BTW, there's no need to disable XD, as it has no effect on overclocking, and may prove useful in preventing runaway programs or viruses.
  10. M

    Computer stopped under stress

    OH's guess about a marginal MB pushed over the edge sounds plausible.
  11. M

    RAM divider question

    Since the FSB is bottlenecking the bandwidth, I can't see that you'd get any bandwidth boost. As for latency, any links that you could provide to tests showing latency improvements/performance boosts with the faster memory bus would be welcome.
  12. M

    OCZ PC3200 1GBx2 Platinum Series bad quality?

    OCZ isn't known for the best quality RAM, but I agree about Epox, too. Standby mode tends to cause problems in general.
  13. M

    Benchmarking HDD?

    That seems quite unlikely. If you accidentally left out the word "difference", it'll depend on how you define "performance". Loading/saving big files should be speeded up by going to RAID 0.
  14. M

    Best External 1TB Option

    Whichever has the longer warranty (which will likely be a Seagate). However, since external drives may be even more likely to fail than internal drives because of heat/power issues, I'd certainly get two drives and alternate my backups between them. Even better, roll your own RAID 1 or RAID5...
  15. M

    Seeking advice on HDD setup

    For a basic setup, just get a decent 320GB drive for $70-80. For faster boot time, faster application loading, etc, you need to increase the data transfer rate, which you can do by running RAID 0 or RAID 0+1. Some implementations of RAID 1 may also improve read performance.