puntoMX

Make sure you cleaned the contact side as well, i would check the pins in the socket as well. I don't think you will gain much from it.--- Other motherboard; why not sell the CPU and RAM and get a new motherboard, RAM (DDR3) and CPU? Most motherboards you´ll find in stores have ICH7 southbridges, yours had a ICH7R (not much better) but it doesn't support ACHI nor does it well with SSDs. You can get a nice set for about 150USD, CPU, RAM and mobo, will run twice as fast than what you have now so you won't need to OC. You are still on XP (Windows home?) and want to go later on for windows 7 or 8? Or is that Windows 7 home (can't be when you are on FAT32?)?

System specs: E6600 3.4 GHZ, ASUS P5W DH Deluxe, 2GB Gskill F2-6400-CL4D, HD5670, 2X 250GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10, WD 6400AAKS, Xclio Greatpower 550wATX, Sycthe Infinity, Samsung 18X DVD R/W, Lian Li PC-61 USB If you did all like you said you did, than there is only the CPU left. Did you clean the CPU on both sides and applied new paste in between CPU and cooler? You did test the motherboard, CPU, RAM and video card out of the case (only those components), if not, try that, easier to test as well.

A pagefile is probably not needed so you can disable that as well. When the PC starts to complain it is better to put in more RAM. This also will give you a more stable system. That motherboard is out, about 350USD, and it's interesting to see how VIRTU works on the Z77 chipset.--- Still, I would build a server and a personal work/gaming PC, not 3 things like server/work/gaming, that is just asking for trouble... Or/and ditch the Ncomputing office/kiosk stuff.

Depends on what you are connecting with Bluetooth. Some devices like headphones don't like the cheap Bluetooth USB adapters. Ebay sells a lot of fake stuff and so does DX, check out the ASUS branded ones and you will see how fake they can make it! (yes, stay away from it) You'll better check something that cost 15USD on newegg and check their reviews .

All those all-in-one watercoolers are very similar, also the CORSAIR H70 and ZALMAN CNPS20LQ are mounted the same way. For the price range you are looking for you can't have anything better.

Should work...

For example this site. Also, look into DOSBOX.

Some of those games might have a remake, it seems to be popular these days to have them rewritten under JAVA (some (console)emulators) or are coded over. They might be on the abandon-ware list and some have a loader for modern OSes. I know what you are talking about as I hate to see 8bit color debt games show anything but the real colors.

I don't see why you would like windows 2k and XP on the same machine but for the rest of the setup it will do fine, especially with the Q9550/9650. For games I would invest 110USD on a HD7750, doesn't consume much and will run most games pretty well at 1920*1080. The nVidia 8800 is just a bit too outdated. How much RAM do you have now? 4GB? That should be enough for X64 and a few heavy applications open. Your Q9300 sells for over 80USD (bare chip) on ebay .

50 Bucks for that CPU, I would do it without thinking, that one has room for overclocking. Note that such a CPU normally goes for 100 to 130USD on eBay . Yes, sorry, P45, I had the P35 in my mind, it has indeed PCI-E 2.0.

Welcome neovikingx, Yes they will. Sometimes higher clocks on the RAM benefit over 1:1, and as you know that LGA775 chips use a quad-pumped bus, so 4 times 333MHz giving you 1333MT/s. So, anything that is a multi of those 333Mhz would be seen as in sync with RAM and CPU. You do this with tight timings, not only from the RAM but also the chip-set as the CPU has no build in memory controller. Now, like I said, higher bandwidth, thus 800MHz DDR, could give a better performance with benchmarks, not that you "feel" the difference. yeah well, 1600MT/s bus, that will be hard, sure you have that extra space on your RAM to get the "1:1". 1:1 isn't 100% correct. Do you have all these parts just laying around? I would sell it all together on eBay, they do give amazing high bids on "old" stuff like this, and get your self some LGA1155 mobo with way cheaper DDR3. Even a G530 Celeron does a better job than any LGA775 CPU (some exceptions here and there). You will benefit from PCI-E 2.x and even PCI-E 3.0 with the upcoming 22nm Intel CPUs. AMD I leave out for now, but I would liek to know what games you will play and what video card you are going to buy, so post that here please. Bad idea, you got that I think by now, I can even explain you in details why, but first answer my question above .

Sorry, could not stop myself! Still lurking around, forgive my off-topic nonsense...

Hardware IRQs, but Windows Vista and Seven use virtual IRQs as well. You can have more devices of the same type on the same IRQ. But you are right, better have them on separated IRQs. Sure I see he has XP .--- I think all is working but the drives might need activation in "Administrator tools -> Hardware administration" (I'm using Spanish OSes for the last 8 years so I forgot how it would be in English...). I wonder if they are seen under System properties.

Correct, easier to setup, but sometimes doesn't work, and some times it´s needed. A lot of brand name manufacturers liked to use CS. Two IDE/ATA connectors should be named Channel A and Channel B, not master and slave connectors, this is why people get confused . Is this a RAID card? What brand and model is it or is it just a simple VIA chipset card? Does it have any jumper or does it show any own BIOS/Firmware when booting up? SATA and PATA (read IDE/ATA) have different channels and also communicate different, so it should not be a problem. What is the correct model and what is wrong with the onboard SATA connectors? (I know it has no PATA/IDE/ATA)

You don't have to know any programming language, just logic. Just buy a timer for your AC or buy a programmable logic board that is controlled by your laptop. You'll better start to learn electronics or look for a ready-to-go solution.

What is the exact model we are talking about?

Not closing this topic, BUT we better start over again. All calm down a few degrees or come back tomorrow after killing some bad brain-cells. --- Now, here are my 2 "could be" answers: - Bad chipset on motherboard, including bad capacitors can lead to all strange kinds of hardware failure. - If hardware failure is ruled out, how about those nice root-virus that dig themselves deep into the HDD, thus delete partition, power off/on cycle and re-install that 2001 dated OS Now, about what hardware are we talking as I'm for 99% sure it isn't XP related... Yes it probably does, you might have a bad or corrupted XP driver as well, that could be the other 1%. Try de-installing the ATA drivers and restart directly XP. You might need to redo the repair again when booting up.

Hi Josh, I would change the RAM to C8 (8-8-8-24) 1600 as it will be a difference for the same price. Now, I have C8 1600 but they are 2GB sticks and have only 4 banks, so I'll swap them for 2133 9-11-10-28 sticks, also from Gskill. The reason is that more bandwidth is always welcome and the loss on timings isn't that big as the 1600 vs 2133 speed makes it up for that (33% extra). Prices are close to what you picked. The SSD you picked has the best firmware for the Sandforce chip so you are going the best way there. The CPU, well, they are expensive, but I would go for the K version ant tweak it some 10% without problems. The mobo, well, just 4 RAM sloths is just a joke on a system like that, look at the ones with 8 sloths.

I would build 2 computers, one server and your personal one, and use a KVM swith. I'm sure you thought about that but why are you going for only one system?

What is in your eyes SMPS? (small model power supply)? Not only the video card will use the powersupply, but also all the other components. Your system as it is now will draw some 150W, so you would think a 400W is overkill and sure it is. The problem is marketing, and "China-watts" are introduced, showing wattages that powersupplies only can deliver for 1ms or so .Now, the maximum wattage you should pull, if you keep it by the rules, should be 75W from the PCI-E slot. Basically, anything that doesn't needs the external PCI-E power connector. The HD6670 should be safe to use on your 300W PSU, IF the PSU is a brand name PSU and showing the real wattage and not some over-hyped China-watts. The HD6670 does play games at 1366*768 pretty well, even with most eyecandy on! The new HD7750 does have a lot more processing power and it has a TDP of 55W, that would play most games at maxed out at 1366*768, it is also 30USD more expensive compared with the HD6670 but it's worth it in my eyes... But, what case does this PC have? Some slim model?

Okay, if the heatsink is real hot (so you burn your fingers) than it must be airflow indeed. If airflow is good (like using an exhaust fan) than it's a bad videocard. Return it for RMA or use it till it burns is the last option.

If it's not hot to touch you should replace the cooling paste. But, some cards just give false readings and at 84ºC you would have an unstable system (or close to it).

Looks like it uses an "overlay" of a video (or image in this case). It could help if you tell us what OS, drivers for the video card and video card model you are using. i don't know the program in question so I can't help you with that, but I could give you some suggestions.

You could still get a 32" TV with a 1366*768 resolution; not all programs like a larger font. Why would you need a larger screen?

Right, you want to "have a conversation about anything"? Not here... Keep it on-topic and in English.