ssgatbliss

OK it's an Asus A8V delux. There's a new BIOS for it so I will do that but I was also reading the forums and I found I need to manually set the timing in the BIOS. If left on AUTO settings it will go down to 333. We'll give it a try.

The number of slots filled with memory has nothing to do with their clock speed. I think you may have another issue. I have to correct you there; it has something to do with signal strength loss and interference of "neighbor signals". It has been seen on older VIA chipset based motherboards or example. No, it’s not ASUS his fault . @ ssgatbliss, You have to try out 2x 1GB, it’s hard to say if it works fine... It would help if you could give us the model number of that mobo... I'll have to wait till I get home for the MB model, but it's documented in the book that came along the board that if all 4 slots are filled it clocks down to 333. Shows that way in the bios post too, if I try to force it to 400 then it won't boot and I have to reset the CMOS. Wish I ahd known that before I got the board. It is an older 939 board too. It was some expensive memory, overclocks really nice though.

Thanks! Everything runs fine, just wondering if there might be a boost from the extra 1GB.

OK, currently in the system is 2GB (4X512)of corsair TWINX1024-3200XLPT 2-2-2-5 memory. These are matched and should run at 400Mhz but since all 4 slots are taken in the Asus MB it auto clocks down to 333. I just got 2GB (2X1GB) of G. Skill dual channel 2.5-3-3-6 memory that I was going to throw into a server I was building. My question is do you think it would be better to throw the 2GB of G.skill in and 1GB of corsair (still 4 slots would be full) but I would be running 3GB instead of 2GB however the timing will auto clock down to the lower speeds. This is a gaming machine running on Vista Ultimate. I really don't need 2GB for the server (home server). So do you think the 3GB at a slower speed would be better or 2GB at teh faster speeds?

I have vista installed on my PC, my wifes, and on my laptop. All different versions (Ultimate, Home premium, and Business 64). Vista looks great and works really well. I don't know how you can say it's horrible. I have no problems gaming or doing regular work. My wife and daughter both love it. Most of the programmers at work also really like Vista. Unless your running some really old hardware that would make it run poorly you can't justify your statement. I had Vista ultimate running on an old AMD 3500+ with 1gb mem and an ATI 9800 pro. It ran fine and played Battlefield 2142 with no problems. So when people tell me it's a hog and you need all this new hardware I blow them off because they don't know what they are talking about.

If the CD/DVD lets you load (some check the hardware and won't let you even start the recovery process) you wouldn't be able to activate VISTA as again the OEM activation numbers are tied to the hardware (specifically motherboard). Now this may not matter as you still should be able to use Vista for 30 days before it starts limiting functionaility.

Just an update, since the game has been patched it now runs fine on Vista. It's actually a pretty good game if you follow the storyline. If you wanna play hack and slash then it's pretty much just like every other MMORPG out there.

Why should MS test NVIDIA's driver? It should be NVIDIA that enusres their driver works correctly with the OS.

I owned a MAC SE many years ago when there comptetition was IBM. I will never understand why anyone would drop that much money for a unix/linux enviroment. The majority of people I have run into that "LOVE" there MACs fall in pretty low on the totem pole of computer knowledge. They just need something to turn on and check their e-mail and download pictures. The machines themselves are just too expensive to justify buying one when compared to your standard PC loaded with any flavor of linux. JMO

Also my experience, I've installed VS2005 on my main system with no problems and it ran fine even without the Vista updates and I have Orcas running on my other system. One runs Vista Ultimate the other Home Premium. I would say it's your media also.

I've put mine in my car when I was doing a lot of work on the road which wasn't bad but I don't think it would be prudent to bring a LCD panel on a plane. Even if it was able to fit under the seat there's a good change it's going to get ruined. I wouldn't even think about putting it in the overhead, somebody's going to throw their baggage on top of it. Then you have to think about security risks. They are going to want to open it up and check it out. I would think Fed-Ex overnight will cost you the equivalent of a laptop if you ship it more than one or two times. Now what I have done in the past is I had a Lan boy box (which is quite small) and I just packed it well in my suitcase. Once I got to my destination I found a place like Walmart or Circuit City that has a 30 day no questions asked return policy and I bought myself a LCD Panel then returned it when I was done. (I know, not really ethical but then again neither are these companies, ever get a warranty on a PC at Circuit City then try to make a claim on it?) Sometimes you might get hit with a 15% restocking fee but that's still better than lugging a large monitor around.

Downloaded it last night to try it out. No issues installing. Didn't see any real improvement over IE7, I didn't care for the way they set up the favorites folder, it looked even more jumbled than IE& when you have a lot of "loose" links. You just have arrows showing main headers instead of the nice little icons of the web page lke IE7. I won't be switiching over. JMO

I'm trying to keep the price down as much as possible, I don't need any bling just functionality. Size/weight doesn't really matter and it will spend most of it's time plugged in so neither is battery life. Like I said I have software (XP/Vista/Office, etc) so I'm looking for just a machine. I hate to pay Dell $150+ for software I already have. Just wondering if anyone had any luck with a brand other than the likes of Dell/Gateway/HP.

I'm looking for a laptop for travel, nothing special. I have all the software I need so I don't want to pay for it again via Dell/Gateway. It will be used for e-mail, MS Office, Visual Studio 2005. Just something to plug in at the hotel so I can get my work done while I'm traveling. Any recommendations on companies that you have used? Thanks!

The Opterons overclock nicely. My 185 will do 3Ghz with air cooling and I can get it up to 3.3 with water cooling and I really haven't played with many of the settings. I'm sure I could get it higher but I'm quite satisfied with where it stands now.

My Asus board is the same way, it reserves memory for the southbridge chip, or so the manual says.

You can also go to the Performance area in the control panel and select manage start up programs (upper left area) and it will allow you to stop it.

I can play BF 2142 with no problems and the new Silent Hunter 4. Once in a rare while SH4 crashes but 2142 is solid so far. I would think because it has the new "Games for Windows" and a Vista recommendation on the box it would at least work decently. I agree for older games that I would recommend XP but new games that carry the MS mark shouldn't have these types of problems.

The game looks really good, the only problem is I can't play it for more than a few minutes before it CTDs. I've never had an MMORPG that was this bad. Well, that's a lie. WWII online when it first came out was really bad.

This simply allows you to update Vista from one version to another. The keys are locked to the software so you wouldn't be able to use the same key. Just like I thought I would get over by getting the Student version of Vista home premium for $65 then pay the upgrade fee to Ultimate, it doesn't work. It knows I have an academic version and makes me pay the full price to upgrade to Ultimate.

It's simply not ready especially if you have VISTA. It does look nice but has a problem with memory leaks. Vista people are suffering bad but even XP people are CTD also just not as often.

Just got Lord of the rings Online and my advice would be to stay away especially if you have VISTA. They have posted a sticky that they are aware of the crashing problems in Vista and they are working on it but when you start reading deeper into the forums you find it's just not Vista it's XP. Apparently it's been going on since the 2nd Beta test of the game. What bothers me the most is Vista is listed under their recommeded stats on the game. That's wonderful, we recommened Vista but you will also experience crashes every 10-30 minutes. I usually don't get upset about new games that come out and and I expect some unstableness but this is just crazy. This game crashes at least every 30 minutes and sometimes far more often. You have been warned.

The ABITs I had in the past were great for tweaking but really picky about what components you put in them. I have had three different ASUS baords and although they are limited in some areas such as voltage settings they are rock solid.

I also used the logitech MX518 which was nice but is now on the wifes computer. My DSL is great for ping rates but it's slow to download large files or to play on servers with more than 48 people. Even when I had the premium cable (10MB+ down - 6MB+ up) when I lived in El Paso Texas the ping rates weren't very good, always 100+ but it was good for playing with more players.

Issues I had with MSN and Vista, and Office 2007. MSN mail would crash constantly, I could read e-mail but creating/sending rarely worked. Signing on often shows errors, must re-try multiple times then it works. Don't know if latest release fixed that because I switched back to XP. No spell checker available for MSN with Office 2007, must use Office 2000 or 2003. So if you do get your e-mail working there's no spell check, you must compose in Word then cut and paste. This is true with XP SP2 also and Office 2007. I re-loaded XP after about 2 months of Vista due to these problems plus poor drivers/gaming ability of Vista. I like Vista but they need to fix some things before it goes back on my system. No Office Outlook Connector available for Office 2007, must use Office 2003. Office 2007 can import MSN mail but I can't set up rules to forward etc. Working with MSN through Office 2007 is slow but at least it doesn't crash and I can spell check now (that is under XP.)