weEvil

Nice. Hope you got some more great ones up your sleeve.

Yes.. I know. I have the one on the bottom. The color of the paste is almost the same as the body of the one on the bottom. Is this normal?

What color is Arctic Silver 5 like? Mine is almost the same shade as the grey tube it comes in. Its a slighlty different color, but the same darkness to the paste as the plastic body. Did I get ripped off? How can I tell more conclusively?

I don't get what's up with this "precision" you guys are looking for. I have a regular optical mouse and its **** precise. I can move it on the screen one pixel at a time. Its fantastic for paint or really tiny photoshop pictures. I'd be more worried about comfort and weight for gaming other than "precision". Even the no name ones have fantastic accuracy as it is.

Update the BIOS from the Manufacturer's website. Sometimes adds support for other hardware. Check their changelog bundled with the BIOS files to see what updates they made.

Oooooh. Logitech one is nice. Those buttons are real good for extra functions in Windows, like Media Player and such. The other one looks nice too. Myself, I'd take the Logitech. Ergonomic, cool paintjob (its multicolor and it changes slightly depending on angle), and extra buttons.

I'd like a good watercooling kit. Looked at the waterchill. Its a good size, got everything for GPU, CPU, Northbridge and HDD cooling. Is it any good? And is it upgradeable if I say.... want to add a second radiator and tank for better cooling? What about noise? I'm a noise whore, the quieter the better. Also, reliability. How long does the pump last and how leak proof is it? I'm not looking for advice on how to do watercooling with precautions and etc. I'm looking for watercooling kits. Something internal. And a passive radiator would be a nice luxury. I'm looking to spend about $250. Lower is always better. No fancy crap with LEDs and glow in the dark fluids and etc.

If by XP MCE you mean a tweaked Server 2003... then yes. If you mean XP MCE then no. in fact it could be slower depending on the configuration. What comes enabled and etc...

Yes... but does that mean triple the performance? On paper it looks real nice, in real life it could just be a 50% boost. Need some benches.

100mb!!!!?? ****! ( I notice that I can't say D.A.M.N. what gives? Its not a curse word.) Acronis is only 30. I got a better utility though: http://selfimage.excelcia.org/ Its only a couple of megs. It backs up files, folders, or partitions/drives and also compresses them. There's also a utility for the Ultimate Boot CD or BartPE so you can restore it too. Save your hard-drive space. Use open source instead.

I'd underclock that whereever possible. GPU too. Excessive heat kills hardware real fast. I'd also put it in a very well ventilated place for extra 'insurance' that it won't crap out on you. BTW. Nice one with the cheap-o-surveillance. Great idea! What software are you using for it?

How do the Alienware laptops have such high-end GPUs in them? I've seen a model that even has SLi. Are they using some low power version of the current GPUs? Like there are Low-Power CPUs that deliver the same performance. Is there such an equivalent for a GPU? The new cards are absolute hogs from what I see. Plus all that power running through the system produces a lot of heat.

1 Canadian dollar = 0.912575 U.S. dollars As of May 20th 2007.

Now THIS is what would be real nice for a PDA. e-paper. No more crappy back-light when you use it in bright environments. And energy efficient? Nice.

Dude. What about a 8600GT? I don't think you can even use an 8800GTS to its capacity without good matching ram (matching FSB of processor) & processor. Oh yeah. And if you get it, wait until ATi releases their new card. Wait until the cost cutting starts on nVidia's end as a response.

You mean HD playback for BluRay & HDDVD? On your Athlon64? Are you using pure software decode? Or GPU also?

I have a baron 3200. I am also in the process of upgrading my video to a 7600GT or 7800GS (whichever I find a better deal on). Also with 2GB sf memory. I know that its enough to play back H264 at 1080p. What about the "other" codecs? Like VC-1? Or whatever its called? What are the absolute minimum specs you've seen a computer playback such codecs?

What version was that? How long ago?

x264. That's the encoder. Its CLI. Look at MeGUI at a starting point. If you want to know more head on over to the Doom9 forum. This is what they do.

No that's the 2500. It can easily go to 3200 or even 3400 equivalent speeds. The 2600 is about at its limits. Its based on an older core. With the 2500 being based on a cut down newer core.

Do you use foam padding inside the PC? Nexus makes these sheets of noise absorbent foam and blocks for the drive bays. Fire retardant too.

Zalman fans are nothing short of horrible when it comes to noise. Scythe S-Flex and Yate Loon fans are the best you can get. Quietest I've found so far. I'll look at those other brands too.

Zalman Fans. Quietest fans my ears had the pleasure of hearing. They also make case fans. Also, I'd watch out for the specs of you PC. I wouldn't loaad it up with too many high-consumption components, to keep it cool and all that. I like to have a low wattage CPU whenever possible (mobile versions or chips designed to be lower wattage than the high-performance cousins off the shelf), and same for videocard. Also, I like to buy just one freaking huge hard drive or two instead of having many smaller ones. Keeps temperatures low and I can run the fans on even quieter settings and the air conditioning lower too. Here are the wattages of common videocards (nice bar graph too). Updated frequently. http://www.overclock.net/graphics-cards-ge...s-gf-6-7-a.html Also in terms of air flow.... kind of hard to explain my system without a 3dimensional drawing but I'll take a crack at it. Firstly, my computer does not have front cooler fans. All of them are in the back. They are routed to blow out air out of the case. Also, at this time, the front of the case has these little grill holes and plenty of space wheret there should be a fan. So while the back are blowing hot exhaust, the air from the front of the PC by my feet gets sucked in, moves through the components and gets blown out of the back. Near the wall where there is vely little circulation since its under a desk. Secondly, on the side door panel, I have a fan running that is blowing the ambient air onto the CPU cooler. The CPU cooler takes the air, circulates it towards the board (down to the CPU). Once it gets through the copper fins, it goes the way of the rest of the air. Out the back. Also, I've taken care to make sure that there are no leaks in the case which may disrupt the circulation from front to back. The case is sealed to prevent air escaping into crevices and cracks and in between the space where the case fans are attached. (except for the front grille where it must enter.) Took me about 20 min and $1.00 of sticky electrical tape I bought from the store. This way its like a funnel kind of.

I'm sure Samsung will have a licence for this from Dolby when it goes into production. Just like for everything else.

DivX < XviD < x264 Ditto.