THE COMPUTER THREAD

[RVR II]

So here I did a search on Newegg for "CPU + Processor" and set the filters to Microatx.   So any of these motherboards will fit the case, based on the specifications?  Right?  I sure as shootin' don't want to buy something that doesn't fit.

One thing to watch out for in this list is the Memory..

Something to keep in mind: If it's DDR memory, it's gonna be more expensive.
The Lower the memory speed (333, 400, etc), the Slower it is.

Look for something DDR2 with 800 speed at least otherwise, your 'upgrade' is gonna be slow in performace.
Of those listed; BioStar & PCchips are the only 2 that offer that setup

Thanks for the input.  Now it's a tough toss-up between BioStar and PCchips.  I need IDE ports (that's the same as PATA, right)? so that my DVD-RW drive will work, but I also need SATA ports so I can put in a high-end hard drive (I'm thinking 1.5 Tb).

Hmm..  That's gonna be your Biggest delima right there with only 1 IDE connection on both motherboards.. IDE's are being phased out and it's very difficult to find a motherboard with 2 IDE's anymore..

I have my Operating System hard drive as a IDE hard drive (they connect with those 'tape worm' looking data cables..), and my storage and ROM drives as SATA..
You can maybe get away with 1 IDE hard drive and 1 IDE rom drive on 1 IDE cable (hard drive as Master, and disc drive as Slave) on 1 IDE cable but it's not recommended as it can cause data transfer errors..

You may just have to decide what to sacrifice IDE wise..

[Thrifty]

So here I did a search on Newegg for "CPU + Processor" and set the filters to Microatx.   So any of these motherboards will fit the case, based on the specifications?  Right?  I sure as shootin' don't want to buy something that doesn't fit.

One thing to watch out for in this list is the Memory..

Something to keep in mind: If it's DDR memory, it's gonna be more expensive.
The Lower the memory speed (333, 400, etc), the Slower it is.

Look for something DDR2 with 800 speed at least otherwise, your 'upgrade' is gonna be slow in performace.
Of those listed; BioStar & PCchips are the only 2 that offer that setup

Thanks for the input.  Now it's a tough toss-up between BioStar and PCchips.  I need IDE ports (that's the same as PATA, right)? so that my DVD-RW drive will work, but I also need SATA ports so I can put in a high-end hard drive (I'm thinking 1.5 Tb).

Hmm..  That's gonna be your Biggest delima right there with only 1 IDE connection on both motherboards.. IDE's are being phased out and it's very difficult to find a motherboard with 2 IDE's anymore..

I have my Operating System hard drive as a IDE hard drive (they connect with those 'tape worm' looking data cables..), and my storage and ROM drives as SATA..
You can maybe get away with 1 IDE hard drive and 1 IDE rom drive on 1 IDE cable (hard drive as Master, and disc drive as Slave) on 1 IDE cable but it's not recommended as it can cause data transfer errors..

You may just have to decide what to sacrifice IDE wise..

I think you misunderstand because I erroneously pluralized "IDE port".  I actually need one, to keep my DVD-RW drive working.  My intent is to replace the IDE hard drives in my current PC with a SATA drive in the 1.5 Tb range.

My dilemna here is on memory.  One of those boards has the capacity for 16 Gb, the other just 4 Gb.  But on the other hand, if I tried to go past 4 Gb, I'd need to move to a 64 bit operating system.  Also, WTF am I going to do with 16 Gb of memory anyway (you're probably also asking what I'm going to do with 1.5 Tb of hard drive space).

[kodiakthejuggler]

I'm not a fan of Micro ATX, as there will be space issues for add-ons such as video cards, sound cards, possible USB cards, etc.

Unless you want a small case for a small fit, go the regular size route. It's just not worth the effort of putting together your own computer if there's no room for upgrades.

I've got a PC Chips motherboard/chip combo, and it's micro ATX, and I ended up losing one of the PCI ports because of space constraints. Go with the standard ATX is my advice.

Also, there are few home computing reasons to go above 4 gigs of RAM. Unless you do some serious video editing or have the software to take advantage of high RAM amounts, it's just overkill.

[RVR II]

Yeah.. 16gb is Insane! I think that was for Vista er some 'super duper OS'

True; 3gb is all you need for Windows XP Pro (what I still use on all my systems)

I'd just go with 2 -1gb sticks and 2 -512mb sticks of DDR2 800 memory and hold at that myself..

[RVR II]

Well, here's what I upgraded to last year..

Well, that computer shown at the beginning of this thread (and above also) ,is about to get a Serious Hardware Upgrade this weekend:

The parts just arrived today from NewEgg!
They are as follows:

ASUS P5KC LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Motherboard


Intel Core2 Duo E6850 3.0GHZ processor

A Thermaltake CL-P0401 110mm Full-Range Fan CPU Cooler (This thing Is HUGE!)


3GB Kingston HyperX DDR2 1066 Dual Channel memory (2 X 1GB, and 2 X 512 MB)

and a ATI All-In-Wonder X1900 256MB GDDR3 PCIe video card I bought on Ebay


along with 2 SATA Lite-On DVD Multi Burners, 2- 500gig SATA Hard Drives, and 1 - 750gig SATA Hard Drive


Everything original (FIC P4 865PE Dynasty, 3GB Socket 478 CPU, and 3 gigs DDR 333 PC2700 RAM, and ATI All in Wonder X800XL AGP video card) is about 4 years old (not the all in wonder - 1 to 2 years old), and is starting to act like it's about to fall apart and/or crash so again this will be a Serious Boost of performance!



EDIT: Oh yeah; forgot to mention the 680w 'Iceberg' power supply from Apevia powering it all

But NewEgg no longer carrys it, but here's some others to confuse you more..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&Description=asus%20775&bop=And&Order=PRICE

[Piobman]

Yeah.. 16gb is Insane! I think that was for Vista er some 'super duper OS'

True; 3gb is all you need for Windows XP Pro (what I still use on all my systems)

I'd just go with 2 -1gb sticks and 2 -512mb sticks of DDR2 800 memory and hold at that myself..

32-bit systems have a limitation of 4gb of ram whether it be vista or xp. There are patches and work arounds, but it does not use the memory properly. So its basically useless to try. You'd have to go to a 64-bit OS in order to accept more... but then most of your old proggies will no longer work.

[MSTJedi]

Yeah.. 16gb is Insane! I think that was for Vista er some 'super duper OS'

True; 3gb is all you need for Windows XP Pro (what I still use on all my systems)

I'd just go with 2 -1gb sticks and 2 -512mb sticks of DDR2 800 memory and hold at that myself..

32-bit systems have a limitation of 4gb of ram whether it be vista or xp. There are patches and work arounds, but it does not use the memory properly. So its basically useless to try. You'd have to go to a 64-bit OS in order to accept more... but then most of your old proggies will no longer work.

Wait, so if I upgrade to a 64-bit processor all of my old PC games will be useless? Not to mention all the freeware apps I've downloaded over the years?

What a bitch.

[Piobman]

Yeah.. 16gb is Insane! I think that was for Vista er some 'super duper OS'

True; 3gb is all you need for Windows XP Pro (what I still use on all my systems)

I'd just go with 2 -1gb sticks and 2 -512mb sticks of DDR2 800 memory and hold at that myself..

32-bit systems have a limitation of 4gb of ram whether it be vista or xp. There are patches and work arounds, but it does not use the memory properly. So its basically useless to try. You'd have to go to a 64-bit OS in order to accept more... but then most of your old proggies will no longer work.

Wait, so if I upgrade to a 64-bit processor all of my old PC games will be useless? Not to mention all the freeware apps I've downloaded over the years?

What a bitch.

Do you want to hear something worse? It's very likely your old hardware may have issues because the drivers need to be 62-bit also! Apparantly, 16-bit apps will not be supported at all. And 32-bits only partially.

[MSTJedi]

Sometimes progress is just plain stupid.

[Thrifty]

Yeah.. 16gb is Insane! I think that was for Vista er some 'super duper OS'

True; 3gb is all you need for Windows XP Pro (what I still use on all my systems)

I'd just go with 2 -1gb sticks and 2 -512mb sticks of DDR2 800 memory and hold at that myself..

32-bit systems have a limitation of 4gb of ram whether it be vista or xp. There are patches and work arounds, but it does not use the memory properly. So its basically useless to try. You'd have to go to a 64-bit OS in order to accept more... but then most of your old proggies will no longer work.

Wait, so if I upgrade to a 64-bit processor all of my old PC games will be useless? Not to mention all the freeware apps I've downloaded over the years?

What a bitch.

Do you want to hear something worse? It's very likely your old hardware may have issues because the drivers need to be 62-bit also! Apparantly, 16-bit apps will not be supported at all. And 32-bits only partially.

My dad built a computer to plug in to the back of the TV so he could watch, like downloaded movies and Youtube/Hulu/etc., stuff on his TV.  For some reason he also installed Windows XP 64 bit.  Now he can't find a 64-bit compatable DIVX codec, so he can't watch a lot of his movies.

[Thrifty]

Well, I got the Biostar motherboard off Newegg, and snagged a 2 Gb stick of memory at the same time.  I think it's more fun NOT to maximize the RAM and leave that wiggle-room for expandability.

Now all I need is a hard drive.  Some time after pay day I'll grab one of those nice 1.5 Tb hard drives I've had my eye on.

Incidentially, suppose I wanted to throw Windows and Program Files all on one partition and leave the rest of my data on another.  How big do you think I should go on the Windows partition?  And can I change my mind later without reformatting the drive and zapping everything?

[jewishcarpenter]

Yeah.. 16gb is Insane! I think that was for Vista er some 'super duper OS'

True; 3gb is all you need for Windows XP Pro (what I still use on all my systems)

I'd just go with 2 -1gb sticks and 2 -512mb sticks of DDR2 800 memory and hold at that myself..

32-bit systems have a limitation of 4gb of ram whether it be vista or xp. There are patches and work arounds, but it does not use the memory properly. So its basically useless to try. You'd have to go to a 64-bit OS in order to accept more... but then most of your old proggies will no longer work.

Wait, so if I upgrade to a 64-bit processor all of my old PC games will be useless? Not to mention all the freeware apps I've downloaded over the years?

What a bitch.

Do you want to hear something worse? It's very likely your old hardware may have issues because the drivers need to be 62-bit also! Apparantly, 16-bit apps will not be supported at all. And 32-bits only partially.

My dad built a computer to plug in to the back of the TV so he could watch, like downloaded movies and Youtube/Hulu/etc., stuff on his TV.  For some reason he also installed Windows XP 64 bit.  Now he can't find a 64-bit compatable DIVX codec, so he can't watch a lot of his movies.

Tell him to try vlc media player, that might work... maybe.

[RVR II]

I always check Price Watch first, http://www.pricewatch.com/hard_removable_drives/

then check other sites like New Egg for a price comparison..

[RVR II]

Incidentially, suppose I wanted to throw Windows and Program Files all on one partition and leave the rest of my data on another.  How big do you think I should go on the Windows partition?  And can I change my mind later without reformatting the drive and zapping everything?

I currently have 23 gigs on my OS partition of 200 gigs, and have the other 300 gigs for additional storage (500 gig Western Digital SATA)

Not 100% sure about reformatting a particular partition only, but I think it should b fine..

[Thrifty]

I always check Price Watch first, http://www.pricewatch.com/hard_removable_drives/

then check other sites like New Egg for a price comparison..

I usually do my comparison shopping at Pricegrabber.