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    Thinking of trying water cooling

    Hi all, Recently my room got quite hot plus I got some new components so my air cooling is struggling to keep my parts cool. Besides I can't stand the drone of the fans anymore! ( I have over 8 fans in my system). However, I have zero experience in installing a water cooled system. Been...
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    SSDs, are they worth it?

    Hi all, I am considering adding a 128GB (or maybe 80GB) SSD to my setup and run my OS (and maybe a few select games) from it. I am just wondering if they are really worth the high price they demand. Will it really make a difference and are they really worth it? Also are they reliable? I...
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    Copying OS into a new HD and running from it

    Hi all, Two questions here that I hope someone could answer: 1) I have a 1TB HD with my OS installed on it (plus all the program files). If I buy a new HD can I just copy the whole content of the HD over to the new HD and run it off the new HD? 2) Is it possible to save Program Files to...
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    Is my i7 idling too hot?

    Hi, I am posting here because I got worried after some comments from a friend of mine. I have an 920 i7 CPU overclocked to 4.0GHz @ 1.400v at the moment. My room ambient temp averages @ 26 Celcius. According to CoreTemp v0.99.4.65 are cores are idling around 46-47 Celcius mark. On full...
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    Poor SLi Performance

    Hi all, I just finished building my i7 rig and the specs are in my sig. The problem is I am getting bad 3DMark Vantage scores. With my highest overclock at the moment (also in sig) I only managed to get around 13k marks @ Performance settings in 3DMark. I also noticed the GTX275s runs a...
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    Please help, GT280 display error

    I hope that someone can offer some help here as I am truly running out of ideas. This is what happened. I was installing Race Driver Grid and also the latest NVidia Driver 177.41. The installation of the driver hanged midway (my fault I guess for running the Race Driver:GRID installation at...
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    GTX 280 Fan noise - any solution?

    Hi, I just got a GTX280 and it is fantastic! However, I am a bit miffed by the fan noise. I barely started GRID when the fan would go like a washing machine (>2000 rpm i think) and won't stop until I quit the game. It stays about the same throughout the game. Is there any solution to this...
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    Can I replace Thermal pads with AS5?

    Hi, I recently bought an aftermarket cooler according to a PC magazines recommendation only to find out it doesn't fit! I have removed the original cooler from my 8800GTS w/o checking first :( It seems that all the vrams use thermal pads and only the GPU uses thermal compound. I don't...
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    How do you check your HDDs health?

    Hi all! I am building a rig from old parts salvaged from my attic. I have 2 HHDs that I plan to use, which are Maxtor DiamondMax10 200GB S300 and Maxtor 250 GB 7,200rpm DiamondMax 10. I temporarily tested them on my main rig and they still seem to work find. However, I am wondering if...
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    Changing CPU, do I have to reinstall Windows XP?

    Hi, Sorry if this is in the wrong section but I have a question regarding Windows XP. I have an OEM Windows XP at the moment on my PC. I am deciding to upgrade (only) its CPU to a more powerful one. The question is, do I have to reinstall Windows XP after that or is it ok if its just the...
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    GT280 or two 4850s in CF

    I am having a very hard choice deciding between these two options. I have a CF mobo so SLi is not an option. I am thinking if I should squeeze around £150 more to get GT280 or should I hold on and get two 4850s for around £300. I game on a 24" monitor in its native 19x16 resolution. Hopefully...
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    Q6600, is it enough for gaming?

    Hi all, Recently been thinking a lot to get another CPU solely for gaming purposes. I am wondering if Q6600 (OCed @ 3.5GHz) is enough or is the Q9xxx series (or even the E8xxx) better for gaming? I am thinking of maintaining air cooling though as I am not familiar with water cooling so...
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    Distance to TJ Max

    Hi, I have recently noticed a thing called Distance to TJ Max (using RealTemp). However I have no idea what are they for and the safe ranges. I am currently @ 3.5GHz and around 41oC (Celcius) idle and around 67 under full P95 stress test. My distance to tj max is between 51-55 for all...
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    44-53 Celcius Idle temps

    Hi, I noticed through Real Temp 2.5 that my core temps at idle (light web browsing) jumps from 44 to 55oC. I am just wondering if I should I just ease off the overclock or are these temps normal? At full load it goes up to around 72oC. At the moment, the average room ambient temps are around...
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    Should I wait for GT200/48xx or....

    ... get a 512 8800 GTS OC? I currently have 9600GT and to be honest it runs out of steam in some games. My wife's PC needs some updating as well so I am planning to order my gfx card in one go. Thing is , I don't know if I should wait for the new cards to come out or just get the 8800GTS...
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    Are these core temps too high?

    Hi all, I am very worried about my idle temperature. Although I happy I managed to clock my Q6600 to 3.6Ghz I get an idle core temp of around 50oC-56oCmax (according to Speedfan, Realtemp and HWMonitor) This reading is taken after 2-3 hours doing mostly web browsing. My case is an Antec...
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    Compatible CPUs for ASUS P5AD2-E Premium

    Hi all! My wife's PC recently had some malware so I helped to get rid of it. In the process I noticed how slow her PC was. So I decided to get her a CPU upgrade and also a RAM upgrade. Her mobo is Asus P5AD2-E Premium. But, I am not sure which is the best compatible CPU for this board. I...
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    Maximum clock speed for Q6600

    Hi all! I am just curious what is everyone's maximum clock speed for overclocking Q6600 on air? Can you please post: Speed achieved: Clock speed x FSB: Cpu volt: Normal operating temp (CPU) : Operating temp under full load (CPU) : Thanks ! I am curious because I am trying to...
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    Overclocking Asus Rampage formula+Q6600

    Hi all! I recently upgraded my system to as shown in my sig below. I heard that Q6600 + the mobo is very good for overclocking so I tried some O/Cing but all I used is the built in default settings in Extreme Tweaker (CPU level up) . I find that above 3.01GHz it is unstable. Can't pass Orthos...
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    Best Video card for a 24" monitor?

    Hi there! I am thinking of upgrading my video card (I am using the one in my sig profile) but I am not sure of which to choose. Should I go for Nvidia or ATI ? Should I consider Xfire? Is Xfire really worth the price ? (as my mobo only supports Xfire) I also heard rumours that ATI will...
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    Low 3Dmark06 score :S

    Hi, I just finished building my rig and ran the free 3D mark 06 Advanced Edition 1.1.0. I was fairly dissapoint at the 8890 score I got :( I am wondering if I did anything wrong? I ran the SM2.0Graphics test + CPU test @ 1680x1050 2AA. Below are my system specs: Intel(R) Core(TM)2...
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    2GB or 4GB ? (DDR2)

    Hi! I am currently using WinXP Home SP2 as my OS (might plan to upgrade to Vista). I am wondering if 2GB of DDR2 ram ( 2GB (2x1GB) Corsair TwinX DDR2 XMS2 ) is enough? I seem to see that a lot of people are having 4GBs minimum in their setups. AFAIK 32bit OS only "reads" up to 3GB of RAM -...
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    Which card to buy?

    Hello everyone! I am having a slight dilemma here. I have an Asus Rampage Formula and as far as I know it only supported Crossfire. Now, I really don't know what option would I go for. These are what I have in mind: 1) 9800GX2 x1 2) 8800GTX x2 3) ATI Radeon 3870x2 Which do you...