puntoMX

Well, the Seagate is faster in sustained throughput but the 7k***b series are more reliable; almost no RMA on the Hitachis.

I don't get your point there pointertovoid, you are placing questions in your post and want answers on that or you are just being sarcastic? I think you already know that the latest chipsets can use different sized RAM modules to team up to get a 128bit bus up to the size of the smallest module. AMD even has the option on their 790G and 785G to set the memory that will be used for video to the beginning of that memory on at the end. I only see much benefit for onboard video to have a 128bit memory bus and not so much for the CPU as AMD CPUs will not use the FSB to get the memory data to the CPU (at least that's what I always thought).

I`ve seen a lot of problems when you set the size under the amount of memory on the video card, so if you use a 256MB card and set the AGP Aperture Size to 128MB it could mess up your system. That looks more like free memory to me, 8MB will be used in "2D mode". No you can't change that much, ... I can't explain it so fast... but there are a lot of different ways to apply AA, all depends on how a game-maker (for example) does his AA. If it's only on texture than the performance would not drop that much but on the edges of polygons you will need to buffer more information and process that... I have to dig into it again ., slap me if I'm wrong .

For sure a nVidia 6100/430 based mobo, AM2"+" ready, stuff is just WAY to outdated (as you were not sure if you wanted to know ).Junior2613, Indeed, leave the Phenom where it is and only go for a Athlon II (AM2+/AM3) or Phenom II (AM3) with Chipset on the motherboard a 760G, 785G or 790xx (If you have a PCI-E video card around). So, what parts were damaged?

Okay, what he wanted to say is that the heads move more around when you move data from one partition to another, it's also a lot slower to move data from one partition to another on the same drive compared with 2 separated drives.

Are we talking here about just plain storage or is this the main hard disk to boot from, or both? I personally would not care much for speed if you go for a single drive setup, just look for something reliable over speed. If you go for a RAID set up with mirroring, you would do fine with just any drive out there*, less the Seagate 7200.11 series it seems (Older build are fine of that model by the way) . I use mostly Hitachi drives, not the fastest but they have a low number on failing. Western Digital seems to have a lot of RMAs lately so I’ll don’t touch those. I’ll keep the Seagate 7200.12 series as my second option, they seem to make up for their errors with that model… * there are special versions of drives for RAID, but never have seen a good example why to buy those (if any one has some good example(s), please show us).

God... it has been a year already... ... ... ... Thank you so much guys! I wasn't expecting this! * 35 Years young now

Let us know how it wend and if it really drops to 1 second init.

I see, but an init of 17 seconds is a long time and I never have seen that on any of the Gigabyte motherboards with just a SATA drive. It's interesting to know that there is a new ACHI BIOS out there, strange part is indeed that Gigabyte didn't implement it in their BIOS updates.

Players are indeed not so expensive these days, I can't get my hand on other brands for Bluray other than LiteOn (that's the retail version but you could save your self some 5USD and go with the OEM). They are fast and I still have to find a disk that it doesn't read. EDIT: The link I gave you is a 4x drive, for a bit more you can get a 8x drive but for some reason they seem to fail more...

just a few answers on that but lets see what others will say too: - You can't improve the ACHI init time. - Mine would do some 10 second or so with to init ACHI on a 1TB Hitachi drive on a -UD3P. - Can't tell, but I don't believe that, that BIOS part is written by Intel any way. - Other chipsets do a faster ACHI init (but can't say if it's "better"), even on AMD based systems with a SB700/710/750. I hope that helps. Seems that your NAND drive is just slow with the init. Why would you use ACHI any way on a NAND drive?

I agree there, they might be not the fastest but they are so well made these days. I use them for my systems and also less to none returns from customers. If I can't get Hitachi I go with the Seagate 7200.12 drives or WD.I don't know about the heads but most are made by TDK? Just wondering...

That card is about 10 years old as I remember... but let me see what I can get on Monday. have a nice weekend for now!

Well, to not keep running in circles, keep that PSU until to buy your real Graphics Accelerator, the PSU isn't that bad for now... Just start with a case, like that Antec 300 or so and a P45 Intel based mobo from Gigabyte like the GA-EP45-UD3L or the GA-EP43-UD3L when you real short on cash. Build from there .

Naa, better to keep your money in your pocket to buy a real case, but I thought you said a 850W is coming in? Go with a case from Coolermaster, Antec or something that is made out of 0.8mm steel and has 12cm vent holes in them.Save your cash on the CPU for now too, that CPU will do perfect and with a good mobo and cooler it can do twice the speed if needed. Also, check out the Ultra Durable series from Gigabyte by the way, with a P45 chipset (S775).

Junior2613, for what are you using that computer? It seems that you have a stock ACER desktop so here is what you need to do first: There are nice uATX motherboard out there but I would suggest changing the housing first and like others pointed out, place a new motherboard in there using your current CPU and RAM. From there you can build up your PC little by little.

What drivers did you install? Seems more a software problem than hardware...

Okay, time for me to jump in . That CPU will do just fine for now, upgrade it in a year or two or so, you already have it so keep it. On that motherboard you will reach with the stock cooler without problems a 1000MT/s bus, giving you a 2.5GHz CPU for not much money, bottleneck is mostly the 512kB cache. If you use an add-on video card like you do you can get even some 3.0GHz or more out of it on stock voltages. The cooler is a bit cheap that comes with the CPU and I would replace that when you OC to 3.0GHz or over with one from Coolermaster (92mm fan) or Foxconn (80mm fan) cooler for better results and it's only some £8. Like others said, next time ask before buying , you could have saved on the 9500GT and some other parts to get better results with less money, but hey, you got what you paid for and it's not enough to run modern games when you are stuck to 2GB, no DX 10.x support (change for now to Windows 7 RTM, I'm sure a friend downloaded it or you already have that version your self). Mind you that OCing stuff is on your own risk, but in my opinion woth the try, also for that VGA card, some 10% should be done easily. If you need any help, ask us .

I would reset the BIOS to default by the jumper on the motherboard and see if that helps. You could also try the latest BIOS update, but beware that there is always a risk involved when updating, read all the instructions carefully. That VIA SATA controller is also known for problems, but your first harddisk should work any way. There is also a possibility that the power supply has gone bad or even the motherboard it self besides the BIOS.

It looks that not much people see this as a hardware problem, it's more an OS related problem so you might be better off to have your topic in the XP section, moving it for you.

To add, some BIOS don't give an option and in that case it depends on the memory Installed, with 512MB RAM it will be set to 64MB, with 2GB RAM it will be set to 512MB for example.

By the way, you "only" have 6 PCI-E sloths, you are walking behind .

So, BIOS defaults set's it to AUTO? Good to know this for other people who have the same "problem".

I thought that mobo came with no fan at all? I sell the Atom 330 as my basic desktop systems for office/Internet usage in combination with the older 945 Intel chipset, combined with 2GB 800MHz DDR2 RAM and it runs perfectly after installing Vista (before finishing the install, windows updates are really slow on any Atom CPU). EDIT: I see it comes with a small fan... just get yourself a case with a side fan and your done .

Odd indeed, but flash your BIOS, if it is the latest go one step back, do a total reset of the BIOS too. Set "boot from USB device" to "no" if that is found in your BIOS. There could be also something wrong with the RAID setup as well (eg. faulty Southbridge). But hey, to try never hurts does it .