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    SSD/HDD setup: HDD died, can't reinstall programs

    Solved it with a silly-sounding tip from sevenforums.com. I had some unallocated space on my HDD, so I created a 100MB partition called F:. Then I uninstalled OpenOffice, which no longer complained. Seems that it doesn't complain because it can't find the files, but only because it can't find...
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    SSD/HDD setup: HDD died, can't reinstall programs

    Thanks Mike -- I've already used half of the ssd just with the OS, starcraft, and drivers and such. I'll probably disable hibernation and get back much of that since the "sleep" function seems to work so well on this machine. But the issue is, I can't install OpenOffice anywhere now. If I...
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    SSD/HDD setup: HDD died, can't reinstall programs

    Hi y'all. I'd like to get some help. I'm new to Windows 7, and never used Vista, just XP. I just built a new system with an 80GB SSD, and used an old hard drive for data. I relocated my "User" files to the HDD, and installed only the most essential stuff to the SSD -- Chrome and Starcraft...
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    How good does heat goo spreading have to be?

    Well . . . no change with the old board. Time for USPS. Back to Newegg for the epox. :-( However -- the Gigabyte is working pretty sweetly! CPU is 24C now -- sound better? Gentlemen, I'm afraid you have a new Gigabyte fanboy on your hands (since I like my silent-pipe II Gigabyte video...
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    How good does heat goo spreading have to be?

    The fan seemed good to me. It was spinning in a way that seemed reasonable and effective. Went to Frys, and they were out of Arctic Silver 5. They had something that sounded like aluminum and some ceramic thing from arctic silver. I ended up getting Antec Silver 5. Clearly the name is a...
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    How good does heat goo spreading have to be?

    Hey all. I'm RMAing a motherboard that wouldn't work after much hassle. It's my first build, but all my friends said, sounds like the motherboard. Anyway, I pull off the heatsink, and there, right in the middle of my lovely 3800+ X2, is a 1/8" diameter blob where the thermal material is...
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    new build hangs while installing windows

    Can't get into the bios anymore. I clear the CMOS, but to no avail.
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    new build hangs while installing windows

    Hi. I'm trying my first build. Everything went together at first, no smoke on powerup, all fans spinning. I got to the bios screen, disabled the floppy (since I didn't install one), set first boot device to CDROM, inserted the windows CD, and felt pretty good. But part way through windows...
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    Help me decide what system to build

    Actually, some of the best quick info you can get is right here on Anandtech. They did a series of 3 system guides -- high, medium, and low price range. Have a look at the first 3 articles here: http://www.anandtech.com/guides/
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    Help me decide what system to build

    For AMD, you want to use socket AM2 at this point, probably, and therefore DDR2 memory. Dual core processors are now priced well. If you want more than an X2 3800 (cheapest AMD dual-core), then your money is better spent on the intel Core 2 Duo. Toms Hardware has price-performance charts that...
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    motherboard for Silent Pipe II video cards

    Thanks y'all! I've been worried that it would contact for a while. So it's not that bulky. Great!
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    motherboard for Silent Pipe II video cards

    I'm thinking about getting a Gigabyte 7600GT Silent-Pipe II passively cooled video card. There are two heat sinks: one takes up the next PCI slot for cool air intake, and the other is on the top of the card, to get airflow from the CPU fan. Here's a picture: Gigabyte Silent Pipe II 7600GT...
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    K9N breakthrough

    This is just a hunch. Have you tried a different electrical outlet? It could be a power problem, but a problem with your house's wiring rather than your power supply. Here's what I'm suggesting: You turn on your computer and monitor at the same time, and the monitor needs a big surge of...
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    RAID noob

    While we're on RAID, I've got a question. Can you buy 2 drives that are the same size, partition them identically, and have RAID 0 on one partition, with RAID 1 on the other? So say you got two 160 GB drives. You partition each so that you have a 60 GB partition and a 100 GB partition. Then...
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    Building for future upgradability

    Thanks for the help y'all. I was looking more for general strategies than specific product recommendations, but those are great. Regarding MSI k9n platinum -- really? Newegg's customer reviews showed a lot of people having troubles with the heatsinks overheating, and I was reading in some...
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    Building for future upgradability

    Does anyone have any tips for building a PC so it is upgradable for as long as possible? I would like to gradually swap in new parts, rather than throw the whole thing on the scrap heap in 3 or 4 years and start over. Any tips from those who have succeeded? Or is this just a pipe dream My...
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    AM2 motherboard memory limits

    @Noubourne: But some of the cheapest ECS and PC Chips boards on newegg list 32GB or 16 GB, while the DFI and Biostar nForce 590 boards list 4 GB -- and only Gigabyte offers an nForce 590 with more than 8 GB. It should only take one additional metal channel to double the amount of memory that...
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    AM2 motherboard memory limits

    If AM2 CPUs have the memory controllers onboard, then why do different AM2 motherboards list different limits for maximum memory? For example, the MSI nForce 550 motherboard lists 4 MB, while the MSI nForce 570 SLI board lists 8MB, and the Gigabyte nForce 570 SLI board lists 16 GB. (Chipsets...