Recent content by sbazzle

Yeah, the P4's are definitely less efficient than today's processors. But as time goes on, and more cores are put in a chip, how much less power can they pull when all those cores are working like mad at the same time? Perhaps I don't fully understand the science behind it, but the math...

Anyone who says all you'd ever need is 500 watts has clearly been sniffing large quantities of thermal compound. I mean, it's good that a lot of manufacturers are making their products more energy efficient, but at the same time, those components like CPUs and video cards are just becoming...

This is one of those fun yet annoying problems when it comes to future technology. Obviously, everyone who builds a system builds it to their own personal needs (gaming, audio or video production, 3D, etc.), so making the effort to future-proof your system can always be a challenge. Do you...

This thread has really opened up my eyes to energy efficiency. The system I have now is the first one I ever built from scratch, which was back in 2003. I am not an electrician by any means, so the concept of energy efficiency never even crossed my mind when I built this thing. The PS in my...

Here's the specs for the system I'm building: Thermaltake Armor Plus case Intel Q6600 quad core 2.4 GHz Asus P5E3 Deluxe WiFi EVGA 8800GTS 512 Corsair 2GB DDR3 PC Power and Cooling 750 watt Thermalright Ultra 120 heatsink

Makes me wonder if this case was made simply for the fact that it could be made. Carbon fiber now, 24-carat gold later. What about function? I figure if you're going to spend that much money on a computer case, you're probably a gaming enthusiast or computer enthusiast in general who's...

This is the motherboard I'll be getting for my next computer build, but the only spec on it that I haven't figured out is the wireless LAN connection. Is this transmitting the signal (acting as a wireless router) or receiving the wireless signal from a separate source?

No, purely hypothetical. I will be starting my next big computer build in a couple weeks, and I'm guessing it'll pull over 500 watts when the initial parts are put in. I just started this thread to get a feel of what the general idea was on PSU wattage. You guys really took to it!

I'll be making the step up to Vista next month when I build my new machine, and I'm wondering which antivirus/security suite I should get. I've been using Norton Systemworks for years on my XP machine, and it's been great. But with so many great reviews for other programs, I'm wondering what...

I actually wasn't aware of the "one system only" thing with OEM. That's not a problem, however, since I only ever build one new system about every 4-5 years. But that does bring up an annoyance with Microsoft. Think about all the people out there who aren't as tech savvy as us, who want to...

Seeing as I'm a forward-thinking kind of guy, 16-bit is so last decade. ;) As for the drivers, I've gone through about half the hardware that I know will be using Vista (printers, scanners, webcams), and the 64-bit drivers are all available. I'll have plenty of time to run through all my...

Yeah, I'd much rather go for 64-bit, especially since Vista's been out for a year, and SP1 is right around the corner. Plus, a year should be plenty of time for most hardware manufacturers to get 64-bit drivers made up. Also, as a personal opinion, I never buy a retail version of Windows...

I will begin ordering and building my newest computer next month. It will be quite the beast, hardware-wise, and I'll be making the step up to Vista (we had a great run, XP....thanks for the memories). Now my question is whether I should get the 32-bit version, or jump up to the 64-bit one. I...

The easiest way to figure out your power consumption is by using a power supply calculator. The best one, IMHO, is here.

I'll be building a new system next month, and I recently made the switch to the 8800 GTS 512. I've read a number of reviews and benchmarks on this, and the stats for GPUs running PCIe 1 vs. PCIe 2 are quite different, especially in the bandwidth space. The increased pipe will really open up...