nmX.Memnoch

Don't get the 6800GT if you plan on eventually using this for a media center PC. The hardware video acceleration is broken on those cards (on all 6800 series cards for that matter). It works on all GeForce 6 models below the 6800, as well as all of the GeForce 7 series cards. Personally, I'd go for the 7600GT model. I'd rather the video card be limited by the CPU than the other way around.

BLAT definitely works. The error message indicates that your SMTP server isn't going to alloy you to relay email from just any source (this is Good ThingTM, unless of course you want to relay email ).

*sigh* How many times does it have to be said that HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT is NOT the Default User profile? That's where the settings are stored for the logon screen. In other words, it contains the settings for when the system is sitting at the 'Press Ctrl-Alt-Del to Logon' (or Welcome) screen. To change the Default User profile you have to load the NTUSER.DAT located at Documents and Settings\Default User\ and make your changes. Then unload it. Now any new user that logs on will inherit those settings.

Wow...that's all I can say...just Wow.

All you need are local accounts on each server that match. So create a local user account on the non-domain server called schedtasks. Now create the same local account on the member server. Make sure they have the same password. Make sure it has the appropriate permissions on both servers and use that account to schedule your tasks. It should work without a problem.

I use a CMD utility called BLAT for sending emails. There's no install required...it's just drag-n-drop.

Being that this is an older Dell system it was Intel only...this also included only using Intel chipsets. They didn't start using other chipsets on their Intel systems until the second or third generation XPS gaming machines. The i810 and i815 chipsets are limited to a total maximum of 512MB RAM. http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/matur...ht_compare& The problem with the i815 series is that the motherboard usually came with 3 DIMM slots. The only way you could fill them was with either three single-sided DIMMs or one double-sided and two single-sided. But the max is still only 512MB. Now if it's a really old PIII system and has a 440BX chipset then he'll probably be able to get up to 768MB. The 440BX supports up to 1GB (4 x 256MB), however Dell only included 3 DIMM slots in their 440BX based systems so you could only put in up to 3 x 256MB for a total of 768MB.

If it's an older PIII system (and both jcarle and myself are assuming so since it only came with 128MB RAM) then it probably doesn't support a single 1GB stick. Depending on the chipset the system may only support up to 512MB, and at that it would only support it in 2 x 256MB sticks. The Intel i810 and i815 chipsets are limited to just 512MB total RAM (boneheaded move on Intel's part at the time). Do you have the model number of the Dell?

Leave the BIOS set to Auto...it'll automatically detect the correct speed for your drive.

See? Everyone was trying to get all technical and fancy when it was the simplest of problems.

One thing to be careful of is that various RAID controller manufacturers often do not use the same methods for creating/managing/reading RAID arrays. For instance, a RAID array created on an LSI based RAID controller will more than likely not transfer successfully to an Adaptec based RAID controller. Provided you get Windows to accept the drivers (either by installing the RAID controller in an open PCI/PCI-X/PCIe slot or injecting them using your preferred method) you can create an image of the drives you want to migrate (Ghost or any other method). Then you recreate the array on the new controller and restore the image.

*sigh* It's always fun when someone says "But this applications requires Administrator privileges to work properly!". The correct answer usually is "No, it usually just requires write access into areas of the file system and/or registry that regular users don't normally have". And this is only because the developer coded and tested the application with admin privs on their development workstation, instead of coding it properly to use the user profiles like they're intended for (developer hint: this is what Application Data is for and why it has it's own system/user variable %APPDATA% and it's also why %TEMP% points to the user profile). Find out what areas of the system the application requires write access to and then use a GPO to enforce those settings. Then you can use a GPO to restrict who belongs to the local Administrators group.

Actually you would notice the difference in CNC3 even with the CPU he has. But since you already knew what you wanted to recommend before you even started the thread...

The motherboard may have a "safety" feature to prevent it from booting if no battery is present.

If you're already looking at spending $210 on the video card I'd recommend just putting in another ~$60 and get the XFX GeForce 7950GT 512MB. The performance will be much better than either of those cards. My machine (although Core 2 Xtreme X6800 based) is capable of playing CNC3 on a 7900GT at 1920x1200 with everything on.

You can't necessarily equate a 5000:1 contrast ratio on a Plasma to even a 1000:1 contrast ration on an LCD. Heck...sometimes you can't even compare constrast ratios between different LCD models. What you have to realize is that the "1" part of the ratio isn't equal on all of them. They all quote ratios, but none of them quote what the baseline (the "1") of the ratio is.

5+ years...the battery would be my first guess as well...especially since the mention of the date having been reset. It's also pretty much the cheapest component to replace.

No, and I never plan to. I don't feel the need to buy hardware from a vendor who only has a 15% market share. At least with an Intel I don't ever have to worry about hardware or software support, ever. You don't need software support for it. Its an x86 processor. Just like Intel makes. You plug it in and it works. Windows covers a wide range of prcessors. Technically...you do. You need the AMD Dual-Core Processor Driver, the AMD Dual-Core Optimizer, and a hotfix from Microsoft for it to work properly. Actually...Intel has the superior product right now (and for the foreseeable future). They started dropping prices, AMD followed suit. Then AMD dropped again and Intel followed suit. Between purchasing ATI and being very agressive with their price drops, AMD is in a world of financial hurt right now. It'll stack up to it very well. You already mentioned you plan on overclocking. The current Intel lineup has a lot more overclocking headroom than AMD's current lineup. You should see 3-3.2GHz easy on an E6420 which just air cooling.

Me being the KiXtart junky that I am... If Exist("\\vms\ISOs") Use * "\\vms\ISOs" If @ERROR = 0 ? "Successfully mapped " + @RESULT + " to \\vms\ISOs" EndIf Use * "\\vms\vms " If @ERROR = 0 ? "Successfully mapped " + @RESULT + " to \\vms\vms" EndIf Else MessageBox("The vms server is not available. Please contact your System Administrator","Error",4112) EndIf

I just can't bring myself to recommend the E4300 to anyone since it only has an 800MHz bus and 2MB cache. You can step all the way up to the E6420 with a 1066MHz bus/4MB cache and still be under $200US. On to recommendations... The reviews of the lower GeForce8 series cards aren't looking to good right now. If you're going for a GeForce8 card but don't want to spend a lot of cash on the high-end models then look at a 320MB version of the 8800GTS. Motherboards? Personally I have an Asus P5B-E and haven't had any problems at all with it. The only thing I didn't like about the specs was the onboard NIC so I turned it off and threw in an Intel PRO/1000 PT Desktop Adapter. It's PCIe x1 and runs between $35US and $40US from TigerDirect. I'm not using the onboard sound either (never do) so I can't really speak as to how good it is...but I haven't read anything bad about it). As far as a hard drive recommendation...look at the Seagate 7200.10 series. They're very quiet, very fast and super reliable.

Hauppage does indeed have a couple of ATSC OTA (over-the-air) models. The WinTV-HVR-950 is a USB 2.0 solution and the WinTV-HVR-1600 is a PCI solution and comes with a remote. We actually just got the 950 for a solution we're testing at work. It just came in though so I haven't had a chance to mess with it yet. We aren't going to use the little antenna that came with it...we got a seperate powered one. We're also only planning to use it strictly to pick up the broadcast...not for any recording (although I will be testing that). rendrag is right though...you won't find any (or many) cable-ready HDTV tuners.

That you cannot do - setting User Configuration policies on a machine configures it for all users and cannot be broken down in a more granular fashion (some security options can be set for specific users and groups, but that's about it). If you want to target specific users, you either do what you've been doing (edit ntuser.dat), or upgrade to a domain infrastructure. Doesn't Vista bring back user targeting for local policies? I miss that ability from the old PolEdit days...

You can probably do it with DevCon. DevCon is the command line equivalent of Device Manager. It can be scripted to disable/enable devices. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/311272

- Better air flow - Easier routing - Only install what you need - Not having to hide unused cables (read: shove them into places they weren't designed to be shoved...or into places that weren't designed for cables to be shoved into) - Ability to add more later as need be - Ability to replace a bad cable (not common, but it happens) That's just to name a few reasons...

You can use GPEDIT.MSC to edit the local policies...unless it's XP Home. GPEDIT.MSC isn't available on XP Home. There's a way to add it but you'll also need the ADM templates.