KWSN Orbiting Fortress

[Eaving]

So I bought my new shrubber a few weeks back now and its already cranking out more shrubs a day than my other two systems combined. The problem is that in my research for the system I kept hearing how wonderfully the e6400 overclocks. Now I want this system to be quite as possible but theres still that wonderful over-clocky-ness floating around in the back of my mind. I mean how long can a true loonie ignore that call? So I turned up the heatsink fan ever so slightly and then did a nice tame 20 percent OC on the processor. Will get back to everyone on the temp/speed/volume results in a few days
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[JerWA]

I am jealous. While there are benefits to having a Dell, one of the downsides is they've decided that only the XPS 700 series users are worth a special bios to unlock options like overclocking. I'm quite happy with my E6400's, but I want to overclock mine too and can't.

That's one of the reasons I'm going to give this system to my g/f (upgrade from the XP3k+ which will become a file server) and build myself something more uber towards the end of the year. I've got my eye on a QX6700. Hopefully I'll have the money flow to do it by then.
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Stats: [BOINC Synergy] - [Free-DC] - [MundayWeb] - [Netsoft] - [All Project Stats]

[Eaving]

I'm a huge Abit fan and have been forever purely because they make tweaking so easy. I know almost everyone else has followed in their footsteps over the years but I'm comfortable with their boards. Though I will say the god awful pink bios screen on the AB9 Pro is a bit bizarre. The system runs wonderfully but any time I'm fiddling in the bios I find myself wondering what drugs they were on when they selected that color.
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[Tenebra]

My rule is that unless you need a server, then create your own PC. There are stores that have or can find any component you wish and can assemble it. Dell & HP are fine for first time users but when you want or need something extra they do not provide. Every time I looked at a PC like that, half the components had to either be upgraded or changed completely!

And I'm an Asus m/b fan.
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My Greek Blog: The Dark Side of the Force and Other Stories
My English Blog: Snippets and Other Stories from the Net

[Eaving]

Generally I'm ok with Asus, I tend to use them when I build systems for my father. I'm a tad annoyed with an Asus video card I just picked up but hopefully a driver update or two will fix that.
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[Tenebra]

If it has an Nvidia GPU then you can use Nvidia's drivers, which are really really good. Have seen older graphics cards perform to the last bit with Nvidia GPUs and drivers.
I have nothing against ATI GPUs; it's just the fact that their drivers really leave much to be desired. Everyone that I know that put an ATI GPU in their PC had to look for new drivers from the ATI community and not the official drivers.
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My Greek Blog: The Dark Side of the Force and Other Stories
My English Blog: Snippets and Other Stories from the Net

[Eaving]

I'm just a bit bitter about the current status of the Vista drivers at the moment. Once the card actually does everything its supposed to I'll be pretty happy with it.
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[Tenebra]

Not changing to Vista yet. Will wait for a while until the first problems have been smoothed out.
Then when I'll get a new PC (thinking of December), I'll try Vista. Will remain with Office 2003 though, as most people will not switch to Office 2007 for a while yet.
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My Greek Blog: The Dark Side of the Force and Other Stories
My English Blog: Snippets and Other Stories from the Net

[Lloyd M.]

[Lloyd M.]

[JerWA]

Do I run Vista? Nope. Will I? Probably. When? After service pack 2, just like every other Microsoft operating system. Going near an MS OS before SP2 is just asking for trouble.
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Stats: [BOINC Synergy] - [Free-DC] - [MundayWeb] - [Netsoft] - [All Project Stats]

[mohrorless]

My new laptop is running Vista (it came with it). No problems .....so far, but it has only been used for shrubbing and surfing...it hasn't been taxed.
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Fetch me the Holy Hand Grenade!




Keeper of the Unending keg of PGGBs
Taunter in Training
Campaign Manager for Sir Shrubbery



Plus

[Eaving]

Normally I wouldn't have touched Vista yet(and probably should have waited anyway) but I was setting up a home theater system and I figured that for a first and only time the nice interface actually mattered. Probably should have gone for XP MCE and given Vista another 6 months to get things ironed out. I haven't noticed much of a performance hit compared to benchmarks of 6400 running XP. I did go through and turn off some of the more annoying security features, some of which I expect had some decent overhead. As for the various DRM issues we both understand that it can and will be hacked. The DRM on HD/Blu-Ray discs already has been and I'm pretty sure Ive heard that someone else has managed to hack the HDCP system on top of that(may be related to the other, been a bit since I've read about it). I definitely wouldn't suggest shelling out full retail for Vista in any sense though, its entirely to easy to pick up an OEM copy of the software for a fraction of the retail cost.
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[Tenebra]

[Sir Papa Smurph]

I just read the whole article. ( took about 2 hours ). Me thinks Microsoft just might be committing suicide. Can't someone design an operating system that can be used by non-geeks. There are lots of smart code savvy people out there and this just might give them the break they need.

Nope no Vista for me. I don't want to build a new comp just to run DX-10 and that is the only reason for me to get Vista. We will see.

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a.k.a. Licentious of Borg.........Resistance Really is Futile.......
and a Really Hoopy Frood who always knows where his Towel is...

[Lloyd M.]

Folks running (or planning to run) Vista - suit yourself. Don't say I didn't try to warn you.

Sir Papa Smurf,
I think Microsoft is comitting suicide as well. There are some gamers that are crazy enough to run anything that will let them run DX10, and some games will come out (at least initially) as DX10 only. I'm hoping that they will figure out what a dog Vista is on whatever non-DX10 games they have, and do the math.

Anybody else might a least think twice, and large organizations (e.g. the very large governent agency I work at) are simply going to hold off. Yes, they're making us buy new computers with Vista-compatible video hardware, and I know for a fact that they are going to hold off as long as they possibly can. Why would any organization that is never going to play Blu-Ray or HD-DVD disks want to run all that processor-hogging code to make sure that they aren't?

I hear you about a decent OS. My research with Linux indicates that it has come a LONG way in the lack of geekiness needed to run it (at least with certain distros).

There are several distros that will boot and even run from CD, so you can see if it will properly identify all your hardware, and even run the GUI and apps properly. You can even do stuff like mount a flash or floppy to save your files and settings, and still generally run it off the CD without ever touching the hard drive whatsoever.

There's also some services availalble (even "free" under GPL licensing, or cheap with support) that let you run quite a few native Windoze apps directly in Linux.
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[Lloyd M.]