Recent content by phigamman

<< Is it as smiple as just getting a PS2/USB adapter? >> Yup. If you have a mainstream mouse, Windows'll pick it up as soon as you plug it in.

With at least a dozen threads devoted to this topic, is it really necessary to keep opening new ones with the same theme??? Tired, people. This subject is tired. :| << Which is better? thunderbird or P4? >> Webmonkey8888, there are easily more than 1000 posts in these forums that...

Windows was pretty well designed for Intel and compatible chipsets. Support for AMD is getting better but is still a bit touchy in some areas, especially with newer chipsets. Mobos that use ALi or VIA, for example, will rarely be natively supported by Windows. Sooooo, your mobo manufacturer...

I'm not going to get into the Intel sux/Athlon rulez thing - it's waaay too tired. But I will say though that IMHO there has never been a better CPU for hobbyists than the AMD Athlon/Duron lineup. Rock solid cores and kick-@$$ over-clockability. What else are we looking for? They're cheap...

Bear in mind that the label, &quot;300W power supply&quot; does not guarantee any performance. There are good quality 250's out there that are more stable and farm out more juice than some 300's. Just make sure you've got a good, reputable brand-name PS and you should be fine for your RAID.

Hmmm... That analogue-only problem is weird. Usually, you get dropped to analogue if the CD is scratched and can't do digital. Is the CD in question scratched/damaged?

I believe that the PS/2 port wants IRQ 12 by default. I have seen cases where another device (it's usually this ASPI something-or-other - I'm sorry I can't remember more detail) will sometimes grab this IRQ and screw your mouse, even when you try to go Serial afterwards. The best fix is to get...

Those HP burners are great - once you get 'em working consistently. ;) I work for a networking company and when we get a client saying they have a CD-R problem, it is ALWAYS HP! Did you force the drive to take a letter after &quot;H:&quot; in windows? Is it alone on the IDE bus? There are...

<< I have heard lots of people say they had trouble ripping with SCSI cdroms. >> I think it depends on the drive. I have a SCSI pioneer DVD-ROM which I rip from. It's spec'd at 6x DVD and 32x CD read. It rips a full-length CD in under 5 minutes. The quality is flawless (as flawless as an...

<< Okay now what about SCSI or IDE? Does it matter? >> Ripping is CPU intensive. + Even fast CD-ROM drives (IDE or SCSI) only churn out a fraction of the throughput that a CPU can process in a cycle. = It really only matters if you plan on doing something else while you're ripping. The speed...

The best gaming mouse I ever used was the Razer Boomslang 2000, bar none. It's accurate as hell and heavy enough that you can keep a good line with little effort. The only problem with it is that the buttons are so low/sensitive that after a month or so of use, they start to stick. Mine is...

I cool my hard drives only because I have 5 of them and they're stacked pretty close. They get pretty friggin' hot and the ambient temperature in the case would be significantly higher if I didn't have extra fans blowing their heat out. It's might not be necessary but this damned PC hobby...

Ironically, Quantum is now Maxtor. ;) Check it out

Something else to consider is that CD->CD-R across the IDE bus is notoriously unreliable. I have SCSI and I still dump to the HD and burn from there. I have NEVER burned a coaster doing it this way and, even though CD->CD-R might work, I'd rather stick with the sure thing. My two cents. ;)

Ignore this message. I tried to edit it and I got a second post. If a mod could remove this message, I'd appreciate it! :o My actual post is the next one (now).