System Hardware: PC | MOBO | RAM | CPU | HDD | SSD | PSU etc

Hi All. I am looking at upgrading my current system and am looking at the following components:Motherboard: gigabyte 8XINPCPU: P4 3.061024 MB DDR Ram either PC2700 or PC3000Radon 9700 Pro 128 MBI will continue to use my present case (500W PS), Turtle Bay Santa Cruz sound card, 3 7200RPM HD, and WinXP Pro.Any comments, thoughts or suggestions appreciated.Thanks all,Ed Green, KCLThttp://www.panelshop.com/images/ELAL-350.jpg

High guys.I have searched the WEB for the answer to this question.What is the "normal" operating Temp of a PIV 2.53ghz Intel ChipMine starts off at 40degrees Celsius.Warms up to 45-46During Flight sim play it gets to 61 C.Is this normal, alright, terrifying or could be better?Stock Heatsink and Fan, not installed by me..so who knows what method of heatsink compound was used to mate the heatsink and CpuI had seen 71 C during a test of 1600X1200 at 85hz in flightsim.So i took the side off the Tower,and changed the display back to the 1280x1024 mode that i like.

I recently upgraded my drivers to 41.09, I know how do a proper install and all, but I noticed some weird stuff happening, when I close WMP it really never closes, its still running when I press CTL+ALT+DEL, its there running. Also, all of a sudden when I am surfing the net, or chatting on MSN, or listeing to music XP tell's me that Explorer needs to close, my computer's HD does some work and then I am back again running fine?, could graphic card drivers be causing this?, or is it something else? Some help would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all,I plan to buy a new pc configuration with multiple display setup. What hardware is recommended? What kind of graphics card should I buy to run Flight Simulator properly on multiple display's?While surfing around searching for hardware, I read about a company called Matrox. This company says that their producs are being used by Flight Simulator enthousiasts. Is this true? Are their products worth the money?Do I need anything else like special software? Where can I get that software?I hope you can answer my questions.Regards from Amsterdam,Alexander SierPlease visit The Dutch Flight Simulator Site: www.hinttech.com/~dfs

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=8250I'd read about people having major problems with these mobo's completely locking up. Well,well...take a look at whats been found.Exactly the reason I never buy bleeding edge stuff,I'm glad to set back and let others do the beta testing...David

I replaced my old Asus mobo yesterday with a new MSI K7N2G-L (nForce2 chipset) board, and now I've got a problem with my GeForce4 Ti4600. I'm getting random lockups, especially (but not only) when running 3D applications. Usually they manifest as screen freezes from which I eventually have to reset, but several times I've gotten errors as well, and always they're with my nVidia display drivers. Problem is, I never had any trouble out of this card with my old board (Asus A7M266), and I've tried four versions of Detonator now with exactly the same results.I've also tried flashing the BIOS to the most recent version using LiveUpdate, but it didn't seem to affect the problem …

To make the helicopterflying more realistic in fligtsim, a pitchcontroll must be a good thing. Anyone knows if I can buy it somewhere or any good guide were someones building one??

HiPaul or any gurucan anyone explain why 2002 runs great but games like unreal2 wont work unless I disable T & LsystemAbit KT7AGF3 Ti 200DX9Dets 43changing drivers doesnt workproblems started after reinstalling win 2000 proI am right in thinking FS ia a direct 3d application?suggestions appreciatedSun

Hey, I have a Geforce 4 Ti4600 running on my Gigabyte 7IXIE4 Motherboard. I am running 30.82 drivers (stable on my system) and when tweaking slightly with Rivatuner I saw that it said AGP 1X/2X, 1X Selected. So I want to the graphics option and enabled 2X but no change has been made. Any suggestions?

I'm curious as to how much difference, performance-wise, it makes between running a video card at AGP 2x and AGP 4x. I'm trying to wring the final ounces of performance out of my 1.4Ghz Athlon and GeForce4 Ti4600 before upgrading, and I've noticed that I can only run my video card stably at AGP 2x on this motherboard (Asus A7M266). If I bump up the AGP speed in the BIOS the resulting display in FS2002 has a lot of tearing and artifacting that renders it unflyable, but in 2x it displays just fine. I'm considering an upgrade to an nForce2 chipset MoBo, but I'd like to get all I can out of my current system until I can upgrade. Anyone have expertise in this area?thanks,

What should I set this to in properties for the video card? I don't wish to repeat what FS is also doing, although I don't see a setting for this in FS2002 (video card settings)? Settings available are 2*, 4* or 8* (and off).I did raed somewhere here that checking "texture sharpening" is not required as it already is happening in FS.Thanks,Bruce.

I'm on the verge of upgrading from dial-up to broadband. I've got both Earthlink cable and SBC DSL available in my area, yet I am undecided which way to go. Cable is cheaper, $41.95 per month, but involves an installation by an outside technician, involving moving furniture, drilling a hole in the floor, etc. That I'm trying to avoid. DSL is a self-installation, yet is $49.95 a month.I understand cable speed can slow down if a bunch of one's neighbors are also on. This doesn't apply to DSL? Are the throughput speeds otherwise about the same? I want a good multiplayer hookup, and don't know if one is better than the other for that. The download speed for SBC DSL at the $49…

I've just been browsing through the catalogue from my hardware dealer, and on a whim I did a little comparing between some of the CRT and TFT monitors they have listed. And since it could be that I might be buying a new screen some day in the foreseeable future (though at present I have no urgent plans to do so), I've got two questions which I'd like to ask up front.First of all, is it true what I've been hearing that present TFT screens are actually quite well-suited for gaming?Moreover, I noticed that those TFTs I took a look at (and which were mostly from Samsung or Iiyama) all appeared to have a lower max frequency than CRTs of the same size. For example, I was lookin…

First off, I've been into Computer games for about 10 yearsnow, and make up my own puters.SO I'm here in desperation, as I have tried all the obviousLatest MoBo, Video, Monitor drivers, Patches, Game Forumsand FAQ's.I have a P4 2.5 gig, GForce4 Ti4200 AGP8X,MSI 648 AGP8x MoBo, 80gig IBM HD with plenty of room.Sound Blaster Live Value.Dual booting WinXP and Win98.Crashes happen on both XP & Win98 and DX 8.1b & 9.FS2002 runs perfectly and has never crashed on this system.Man, and How GREAAAAAAAAAAAAT THAT IS!!!! :)So do all of my older games and some new games.However I recently got EA's Tiger Woods 2003.It randomly crashes with the screen going black, andI have to…

My Microsoft Wireless Optical Mouse stopped working! I have checked the batteries, put new ones just in case, but it still doesn

I have the above rudder pedals that are about 6 years old. They connect via a gameport. I can't get WinXP Home to recognize them and have search high and low for drivers.Any help would be aprreciated. I can trick XP into seeing them by useing a "Y" connecter and using a joystick to interface but then I get all kinds of elevator flutter. Can't adjust FSUIPC to calibrate or compensate.Craig Evansftd1"

After lurking in this forum for a while, I'm aware of the general consensus regarding building systems versus buying them. However, I'm compelled to ask if building my own system just isn't viable (personally), what manufactured systems would some of you gurus out there suggest? I've read of some mobos being better than others, CPU's etc. Certainly there are good and bad points to ready-made systems. I'd appreciate hearing from you.Regards,Rick

Hi everyone.I recently bought a GForce4 Mx Nvidia graphic card.Since then, when I press the alt key in full screen mode to see the top menu bar, it doesn

Hey all,Thinking of doing some upgrading in the not-too-distant future and I'm trying to sort through the overwhelming pool of information out there about all the different cards available.Just to keep things clear, I'm really not considering an ATI card at this point ... so if you're gonna post and say "Get the 9700" or "ATI whoops on Nvidia now", let me save you the time.I'm interested in having someone explain what the performance difference is between a GF4 Ti 4200 (64MB 8X AGP) and a GF4 Ti 4600 (128MB 4X AGP). My understanding is that the 8X AGP would be the "better" card, but yet it has half as much video memory attached so I'm confused?Also, could anyone vouch fo…

Hi, just had a new Asus V8460 GF4TI4600 128mb. fitted. When I run Smart Doctor, It flashes a warning "Your VGA card voltage is out of safe bound, m/b does'nt supply a reliable 3.3 voltage" It also says "Your current overclocking method is overclocking core clock". I have'nt touched any settings (don't know how to) Could it be a faulty m/b, or just needs a higher power psu. Any help would be much appreciated as I have lost all confidence in the guy who (up till now)has supplied my computer.It's taken almost a month to get this card fitted, first he fitted a 64mb TI4200, then, believe it or not a 64mb mx440. I had to really fall out with the guy and finish up taking it to t…

Hey everyone,I need to replace my motherboard and videocard as they both have suspect, swollen capacitors, a couple with black crust.I currently have an Abit KT7A and a Gainward Geforce 4 Ti 4200, both of which happen to be affected by the corporate espionage fiasco of a couple years ago.Could anyone tell me what is on the market now which would be solid and stable with my AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz and if possible, would not require me to replace my PC133s just yet. Unfortunately, I am currently on a tight budget, but do not want to downgrade because of this repair. My caps fortunately have not popped yet, but I do not want to give them much more time.Any advice is appreciated.T…

Hi,I am thinking of upgrading from a 17" monitor to a 19", and have beenlooking at the NEC FE991SB Superbright 19" model. Is anybody usingthis model and how satiesfied are you?Perhaps someone could recommend a different one which gives betterperformance. I am not looking into any LCD's (too expensive).Any ideas or recommentations are appreciated.ThanksHelmut Berger

hi, i have a question. the properties box of the geforce 2 gts in the display settings window says sometimes that the graphics bus is 2x and sometimes it is 4x. it is actually 4x. does anybody know why this happens? thanks. Asad.

Hi All,I am considering purchasing a Matrox Parhelia video card. It is supposed to provide 3 monitor support and the companies web site specifically cites support for FS 2002. Does anyone have any direct experieince using this video card in FS2002? How does it run, what kind of fps can be expected? Any info would be appriciated. Thanks

Recently I bought joystick to play MSFS2k2PRO. It is Thrustmaster TopGun Afterburner II. But I have got a strange problem. Even the stick is calibrated properly and have no significant bias in its axes, when I don't touch the stick, the planes tend to descend. It goes nose down. Some of them more and some of them less, but all of my planes. I've tried change drivers, correction utilities etc. but nothing works. I have the same problem in Flanker 2.0 and few other games. But don't have any problem in F-22ADF for example. Could you help? Should I RMA the stick or it is SW problem. Appreciate your ideas.BTW - FSUIPC in MSFS2k2 helped a bit, but I have to reset values for my …