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  1. M

    Holy upgrade Batman! (4670 -> 7850)

    I bought a 2 GB Sapphire Radeon 7850 a few days ago, replacing an ancient Radeon 4670 512MB . Easily the biggest performance jump I've ever experienced in a computer! I'm not that much of a gamer, but I went from a 1680x1050 to a 1920x1200 monitor and that was the nail on the coffin, even...
  2. M

    Why should I prefer a 7770 over a 6870?

    I have a decent PSU and I want to make this rig as fast as possible for gaming without spending too much. I'll be playing at 1920x1080. I've seen some benchmarks and the 6870 seems to wipe the floor with the 7770... and they're almost the same price here. I'll also buy another 4 GB stick...
  3. M

    New PC build performs ridiculously slow. What's going on?

    I went from a Socket 939 X2 2.4 Ghz rig with DDR1 memory to what's on my signature now. Not much of an enthusiast by these days. I formatted, installed Windows 7, updated everything to the latest, and it's insanely slow. MP3 files take more than 20 seconds to open, any sort of quick viewing...
  4. M

    How to make Win7 erase and redetect all hardware?

    What I'm trying to do is make Win7 have to check all the hardware again, like Win7 is just being installed, so wiping away ALL the updated or third party drivers is a must. If you're wondering why, here it is: I use a 3G dongle in my netbook and the installed files became corrupt due to...
  5. M

    Insanely slow write speed on SD cards/USB pendrives in Win XP.

    Hey guys, I've got a first-gen Acer Aspire One netbook loaded with Win XP. 8 GB SSD drive on it. I used to have Win 7 but the drive's just too small. Shame because it worked very smoothly, better than XP in fact. Anyway, I have a 16 GB SDHC Class 10 card and a 2 GB SD card as extra...
  6. M

    Got a Phenom rig for "free"!

    My current rig is a: AMD X2 939, 2.4 Ghz 3 GB DDR400 DFI Infinity NF4 Radeon 4670 And while it's slow, it does what I need nicely. Sort of. It can play games with decent-ish graphics at 1680x1050, even some newer ones. Now, I fix and setup guitars for a living. And I recently did a big job...
  7. M

    Best budget CPU for gaming nowadays?

    It's hard to give you a price idea since I'm from Chile and prices are a bit disproportional to the US. But let's say I'm considering something, somewhere between a Phenom II X4 and a Core i3. The Phenom's got the 4 cores and that's nice, but the i3 has faster single core performance and...
  8. M

    New Caviar Black drive, slow write speed.

    Hey guys, I just bought a 1TB Caviar Black 1002FAEX, 64 MB cache HD, and I think there might be something wrong. My mobo is quite old and supports SATA1 only, so the peak transfer rate of the bus is around 120 MB/sec and the Black indeed hits the roof: At ATTO benchmark it doesn't go past 120...
  9. M

    Formula 1 2010: Extremely unoptimized or what?

    My rig is pretty much ancient, but it can hold it's own in many modern games. Crysis runs pretty smoothly, sailing around 20 FPS (which isn't bad with the CryEngine 2) at 1680x1050 (native LCD res) with carefully selected settings, like lower physics but high shaders. It looked and performed...
  10. M

    Windows 7 Fail

    Well, not really FAIL, but I've just been notified that my copy of Windows 7 is illegal. Which I found funny, considering that I'm using the evaluation release. :D No clue why that showed up. I rebooted again and it didn't show the message anymore. And my Windows copy is, of course...
  11. M

    So my motherboard decided being Dual Channel was lame...

    Rig in the signature. 939/DDR1. Just noticed that my RAM is running at Single Channel. No idea when it started. I have matched 2 x 512 and 2 x 1024 DDR sticks that worked without a problem in Dual Channel for years. Last night I just noticed it. I lapped my CPU and heatsink (with great...
  12. M

    How much faster would it be...?

    I've been on a tight budget for my computer for a while. Raising funds for other stuff. I'm OK with my PC performance currently, but the Black Edition Kumas look tempting since they're so cheap. Plus DDR2 prices are really low now and I could get a good mobo for cheap. The thing is, would...
  13. M

    Out of all these 4850...?

    A local store is bringing 8 different Radeon 4850s by different makers. Here's the link to them: Local store In your experience, and if the price tag was no concern, which would you choose? Which of these has the best cooling solution? Any of those I should steer away from? Even better if...
  14. M

    At 1680x1050 res, how much faster would you say is...

    Yup, sadly I had to sell back my 3870 and my x1950 Pro. Money woes meant they had to go. I'll be back on track soon for a new video card, but the thing is, it's gotta be cheap and as silent as possible. And for what I've seen the 9600GT is just an incredible value. Plus it would be easier to...
  15. M

    My X2 CPU core temps are way off, and I know all of them are like this

    I was stress testing my CPU to see if it could handle 1.325 voltage, and then I noticed the usual ridiculous temp readings. Something like 43ºC in Core 0 and 61ºC in Core 1. But here's my question: Are both cores actually at that temperature, or the readings are just wrong? This is an old...
  16. M

    ThermalTake PurePower RX 600W

    I've done my homework and done my fair share of reading reviews, and it seems this PSU is pretty solid. Here's the site with the specifications: http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/...px?C=1247&ID=1518#Tab1 Am I missing something here? I think it might be a bit overkill for my system (don't...
  17. M

    >Ignore this<

    Here's the link of the manufacturer: http://www.nspiregear.com/51382.asp Never heard of this brand. Seems like a strong PSU on paper, certainly good enough for my use. Got any experience with it though? I won't be buying something so critical without some advice... didn't find any reviews...
  18. M

    x1950 Pro overheated in 5 minutes, solved!

    Check the last post! :) --- Hey everyone, I'm trying to sell my old card, but this is just not right. I just can't sell a card that behaves likes this. It's a Sapphire x1950 Pro with the stock cooler. You see, this card used to peak around 82-83ºC and everything was OK. But realizing...
  19. M

    Who's got an old AMD X2/AMD 64 rig as their main computer?

    I use my computer (check sig) mostly for browsing, music, watching videos and some gaming here and there. Oblivion, rFactor, GTR2 and GT Legends get the most use. And frankly, I wouldn't gain much by upgrading to a C2D or any sort of a Quad Core by now. Plus I've got more than enough RAM for my...
  20. M

    Would you...?

    So, would you? I've read that this PSU is pretty anemic. Weak amperes line, etc. But it can handle my x1950 Pro with no issues, which demands a lot of juice. There's even a guy here on this board with an OCed Phenom rig, 8800GT, 2 HDD, etc, and the TR2 PSU. So I'm a bit torn... So, would...
  21. M

    My computer makes odd noises when overclocked hard.

    I redlined my CPU a few minutes ago (made it hit 2.85 Ghz with 1.47v) but quickly pulled back to 2.4 Ghz, which is the moderate OC I've had pretty much forever. The reason? In Windows, while programs loaded and stuff, I heard a distinctively odd noise coming from my case, I'd say it was from...
  22. M

    Is my PSU running out of juice or something?

    As you can see in my signature, I have something you could call mostly a 'frugal' rig (besides the x1950 Pro) and a ThermalTake TR2 PSU, which delivers 430 watts. But I just noticed something odd, and annoying, and I don't know if it's related to my PSU, my motherboard, or else, and I think...
  23. M

    Athlon X2 overheating?

    Just got my new A64 3800 939 X2. (Will update the signature... :) ) But damn, this thing idles at 45ºC and goes well past 60ºC when gaming! And it's at 2.4 Ghz and 1.3v Vcore (yup, below spec) Is it supposed to be this hot?? I'm using the A64 stock fan that came with my old processor, and...
  24. M

    Probably an idiotic question about DDR1 and Dual Channel

    Do both channels have to have the exact same RAM sticks, all 4 of them, or you can have different sticks as long as they're the same on each channel? All of this to enable Dual Channel. I have matched 2 x 512 MB sticks on one channel and a lonely 1GB stick. If I bought another of the same 1...
  25. M

    Going Dual Channel: Will I see any real life benefits?

    Here's the drill: As you can see from my signature, I'm running 3 sticks of memory on my computer, so I'm without Dual Channel by now. Either 2 sticks or 4 sticks. It's an old system, I know. The thing is, I could buy an identical 1 GB of RAM and enable DC, but will I see any real, tangible...
  26. M

    2900XT close in price to the 8800GTS...

    Just realized these two cards are pretty close in price. I know, ATI drivers are... shoddy, and that's being polite. But eventually they'll iron them and the 2900XT is a faster card. Seriously, as a long term investment is there any reason why I should prefer the Nvidia? Don't think so...
  27. M

    Worth to upgrade from single A64 to Opty 165?

    Hi everyone, first post. First of all I'll give you a quick review of my PC: AMD Athlon 64 3000 @2.5Ghz 1 GB Value RAM XFX Geforce 7600GT @ 700/1.8ghz DFI Infinity mobo. 17" CRT screen (I normally play at 1280x960) Do you think, considering my weak video card, that it would be a worthy...