Zenskas

Just remember you can still use that old PC for something! With 320MB RAM and that 800MHz CPU, you would do OK for watching DVD's (just add an IDE DVD drive), downloading stuff off the net (or a torrent box...legal torrents of course ), playing classic old games (any game pre 21st century should work, and there are plenty of fun ones that are easy to get) and even using it to do something like play music. Just don't do all of those things at once I still have an fairly small, old Dell P3 that up until I built my 'LAN-BOX' was used solely for watching videos and movies on. Plus the odd CS 1.6 Its a 1GHz P3 with 512MB RAM and a 40GB HDD. Because it used so little power (had a 110W PSU!), made so little heat and so little noise (had just a single 80mm fan in the whole system) it was perfect for what it did. But I really wanted to build a compact PC for LAN parties and loved the look of Shuttles so the P3 is now getting handed down to my little sister for playing old games emulating GBA games, using word and paint, you know just really basic stuff. Anyways, just give it a format and use nLite and it should still be OK to use XP to do something really basic with. My P3 has a RAM usage of under 120MB when at idle with no open apps! Its got a hugely cut down install of XP though, and boots up in under 40 seconds.

No the article is true. Firstly, we are talking about the PC version here not just MW2 in general. Secondly I have just found out that because MW2 has sold so many on console (57% on XBOX, 40% on PS3, and just 3% on PC) that 3% of sales for PC is still higher that what COD4 sold in its first week. This means that because it is selling so much on console the seemingly small 3% on PC is actually a large amount. EDIT: Yeah rendrag your probably right, anyway MW2 on PC is almost a direct console port (except for in game text chat, mouse support, and changing graphical options..."oh wow"). BTW, because MW2 on PC goes through Steam that means Steam gets some cash too so any copy sold on PC would only make as much as a console copy (give or take a bit, but it still makes less that usual).

No problem Also with two optical drives in your system copying a disk can be faster if you put the disk you want copied in one drive and then a blank disk in the other, then in your burning program you should be able to select the source drive (the disk you want to copy) and the destination drive (the blank disk). This will copy off the disk then straight onto the blank disk.

Hi there, Its fine that its showing up as an IDE drive as it would be running in IDE mode (no RAID or AHCI). You can run two drives in the one PC, and your burning program should let you choose which drive to burn to when you are about to burn something. Hope this helps.

You could always try to download the updates manually of MS's website, or ever use an alternative like AutoPatcher. Personally I like to use the latter and you can also download DX, WMP, IE and lots of other essential little things as well as updates to Office all using the one program.

Its not all bad Sales flop for the PC version in UK? Haha hopefully IW will notice this.

No, the point is there are plenty of HD 4670 cards for over $80, not everyone is gonna go out and buy the very cheapest card of its class, some people like certain brands, warranties, bundles, coolers, PCB's etc, and no that you can overpay for any card. I said that you can't really argue with market share = people are somehow still buying NVIDIA cards even though they are apparently so horrible in everything = they can't be that bad if people are still buying them. Not that popularity = good as such, although good things that work usually are popular. Lots of people (general PC users) still stick with integrated graphics as it does what they want and comes on the mobo. Besides, ATI is also getting beat by Intels GPU's and if you look at the original chart here then you will notice ATI has also even gone down in market share since Q3 2008. And is loosing to Intel. Which shows that the general user does not care about dedicated GPU's but the OP does... Fairly sure I said Intel, no need to try and joke about it (like in your first post). If their drivers suck so bad, then where is all the people complaining about it on this forum? Do you even have an NVIDIA card in any of your PC's? If not, then don't judge their drivers. Sure you may have had an NVIDIA card earlier (I understand you had a 8800GT) but the vast majority of people have had no issues (especially the 8800GT which is a very solid card). I have driver issues with my x1950 but you don't see me going and buying a 7950GT (which would be faster, quieter, use less power etc) as I had a alright deal on an x1950 so went and got it being as little as a fanboy as I can. My x1950 freezes in any 3d app when GPU-Z is open in the background. Never happened on any NVIDIA card on any PC I have built, but has happened to others with ATI cards online as well as mine. GPU-Z is pretty important in a little shuttle PC so I can monitor fan speeds, clock speeds and temps, but am forced to use another program (not as good). Also you are forced to install .net 2.0 with ATI's drivers which is a bit of a bummer but you don't hear me banishing ATI's cards because of these setbacks. In fact, I try to recommend both an ATI card and a good NVIDIA card if it hasn't been recommended yet. Just said you couldn't judge ATI's cards totally against NVIDIA's cards until NVIDIA have a similar product lineup like they will soon. Of course a newer card will be faster and cheaper than older cards, doesn't mean NVIDIA cards suck. OK so you have found a review in favor of the card by a lot, but I found one that showed just a slight increase in performance. Which to believe? You decide, but since the OP ain't gonna get one of these cards it doesn't really matter. No all that for recommending what the OP asked for. He asked for a good NVIDIA card. No-where did I see him say "hey what's a good GPU at $60?". I simply said that the 9500GT ain't that great (either is a 4650 really) and instead grab an $80 9600GT if you are looking for NVIDIA cards. Since NVIDIA cards fail so much then why do people still use them? Didn't say market share = being good, I said that NVIDIA has high market share meaning they really don't suck as far as dedicated GPU's go (please don't say Intel must make fantastic cards again) and that you are basically saying that all the people using NVIDIA cards are using crappy cards with bad drivers etc. LOL. You have recommended a good $60 card while I haven't? Whoop-de-doo. You haven't recommended a good $500 card either? Like I said, he didn't ask for a $60 GPU, but a good NVIDIA card. I think I was a bit more spot on with the answer in my first post despite your lengthy posts.

Well actually there are plenty of HD4670's on Newegg for over $80 but hey I was just recommending another card on NVIDIA's side as that is what he did ask for... See above. Can't say I know anyone with a faulty GeForce 7xxx card, infact I know a few who have had their cards for a long while. But maybe they were lucky too... Macca's do serve "great" food. Cheap, easy, tastes nice. Isn't good for you but hey either is smoking. Can't really compare to graphics cards Intel graphics cards come on many people's motherboards, and dedicated GPU's aren't an essential item. It's not like you can buy a mobo that comes with a free GPU capable of Crysis. Besides, Intel's GPU's suck bad for gaming and watching any hi-def videos. Like I said, they come with the mobo's and are not really sold separately. Ah comparing some new ATI cards to the old NVIDIA cards? I just took a look here and did not see any "pwning" at all. Sure it gets about a 5% performance lead over the GTX 285 (if its lucky) and is 50 bucks or so cheaper but thats still comparing a new gen card to a very soon to be old gen. Just wait till the GT 300 series comes out then decide. Triple monitors aren't that new either. Heard of TH2GO before? All that just for recommending something that the OP asked for

With a flash drive you don't have to wait for the disk to spin up often, and a USB memory stick makes no noise too!

None! (Sorry, couldn't resist) It depends on your budget, and what you expect out of a new card. Around $60 you can either get a 9500GT or a ATI 4670 that's ~50% faster (see here for example). In fact, even the cheaper 4650 is faster (see here) Personally, I don't let nvidia stuff get near my boxes Or you could get a 9600GT for $80 which is x amount faster. Or a HD4770 which is x faster than that. Or a GTS 250 which is even x amount faster! The 9500GT ain't that good, but a 9600GT would definatly beat any 4670 easily. And of course the 4650 is faster! My x1950pro is faster than a 9500GT! Even though lots of x1950's tend to screw up (compared to their NVIDIA 76/8/9xx competition) I guess I was lucky! Anyway, you can't argue with the market share, so some NVIDIA cards must be good. As for NVIDIA cards, like I said, a 9600GT would be a great replacement and I find myself recommending 96/800 series cards to many friends of mine who get them running nice and hot while gaming without any issues with heat or drivers etc. I got three friends I know with 9800GT's, two with 9600GT's and one guy with a 9500GT. Then I have a heavily OC'ed 9600GT and also an x1950pro in my other PC. The x1950pro would be really cheap second hand like mine, but like I said, they tend to have heat issues with the VRMs. Thankfully mine has the decent stock cooler which covers the VRMs.

Hey now, just remember that a Celeron 365 currently holds the CPU-Z world frequency record! With an old P4 631 (almost the same one as in my LAN-BOX) coming second with an OC of 8180.4 MHz! So a P4 can go higher than any C2D CPU (the highest C2D got to 6820.31 MHz-the E8600). Although the C2D would still be faster, it just shows that you can go higher with the older stuff.

The ones that come with Windows are. The Windows Update drivers are the real drivers that NVIDIA issue. I'd suggest using the Windows Update drivers if it offers them. Good to see your problem is cleared up! Hmm it was just on one particular PC a year ago that the MS video drivers were absolute crap and it wouldn't do anything. It would be better off NVIDIA's site still though as you can easily select a place to save the download.

I'd say his 7300GS has a tiny fan or is fanless. So over 60C aint so bad. It could handle 85C but that is not very safe or good at all! My 9600GT only does under 60C at all times no matter what but would have a much larger HS and fan than any 7300GS! Any GPU drivers downloaded from MS ain't gonna be good! Always download from NVIDIA's site. The MS NVIDIA drivers are not meant for gaming if they are the crappy ones I'm thinking of. The 9600GT would thrash your 7300GS by a huge amount. It would be around ten times faster in pure shader power and also has 57.6GB/s of memory bandwidth versus the 7300's 6.48GB/s!

Have you installed anything new? Could be a virus or something nasty. Update your drivers too. Scan for viruses with your fav virus cleaner and also try Spybot S and D.

Shouldn't the aspect ratio read seta r_aspectRatio "1"?

Anyone mentioned a Samsung yet? The F1 or F3 1TB drive is fast, quiet and reliable. I have one in my Shuttle and also have built another PC for someone using it and it has had no problems. Both are used as a single drive for the OS and all data in both PC's.

I might as well join up then!

Yeah that too. I really don't like VAC at all. PB is way better even if it does have services running in the background even when your not in a game. VAC will make the game full of cheaters and give out permanent bans when it finds those cheaters. I have never been kicked or banned by PB for cheating (only for a too high ping!!!) but I heard it is not permanent the first time you get banned.

Yep I'm not buying it yet. Gonna stick to COD4 and am getting COD5 real soon so that will do me for a bit. If they release a patch to allow dedicated servers and mods down the track then that is when I would get it.

Well Australia is finally progressing (or at least my ISP, Internode, is). I used to get 10GB per month with a 1500/256kb/s plan for $50 per month. Now I'm getting 50GB with the same speeds for the same price from the same ISP! My ISP is also building their own DSLAM near where I live so I will finally be on ADSL2+ (for no extra charge per month). So I should then be getting up to 24mb/s DL and 1mb/s UL. Probably more like about 15mb/s DL though as I'm about 2 kilometers from the exchange.

Not really. There is a point when there is nothing new coming out for a while and that is a good time to buy. When I bought my 9600GT there was nothing else really available at the same price and it would probably still be the choice for me now (almost a year later!) although it would be cheaper and I may go for a 9800GT if I was to buy again now (for a pretty small performance increase though). We KNOW that NVIDIA will be releasing new cards soon and I would also bet ATI's cards will come down a lot when that happens.

I would have to say wait until the new NVIDIA cards come out. Firstly your PC will handle MW2 fine as it is on a 22inch screen, and secondly NVIDIA may have better offerings soon. ATI will also have more cards and the current high end cards will be cheaper than they are now too!!!

PC versions of games are always cheaper (which works in my favor )

Depends on the game you are using it with. In CSS, turning on AA makes it look not much better and doesn't really slow down the performance much. If its an older game you are playing (and your getting a high framerate) and then you turn on AA you probably won't notice a difference in performance as you can't really tell if its running at 150FPS or 100FPS!!!

One other thing, you won't see any difference between a 256MB x1650 and a 512MB version if they are running at the same speeds. It just doesn't need that amount of memory. Even an x1950PRO (in my new "LAN-BOX") doesn't need 512MB as a 256MB version produces identical performance even in higher resolutions like 1920x1080.