nmX.Memnoch

A 6800XT card would be much faster than a 9800 Pro. Only because it's not being put in new PCs or new motherboards. There are still plenty older AGP based systems out there and plenty of people using them who won't need PCIe for some time to come. cumminbk: What does he use the PC for?

No doubt. But starting with a 100MHz bus could give him more head room for overclocking. If he manages to reach 133MHz FSB on the Celeron it'll be faster than the PIII at 140MHz FSB. bonestonne: What motherboard is in the system?

What's wrong with AGP?

The Celeron 1.1GHz should have the same amount of cache as the PIII 1GHz. Once Intel reached 1GHz with the PIII's they didn't go any higher. Technically, there are higher speed PIII's, but they're marketed as PIII-S (S for server) and have double the cache (512K). At that point, they doubled the Celeron cache to 256K just like the PIII 1GHz and lower CPUs.

If a Celeron was all he could afford when he built the system then I imagine he was limited on his motherboard budget as well. I don't care for SiS (or VIA) chipsets but not everyone has the money to buy the best available. I didn't make any recommendations as to purchasing another motherboard + CPU + video card because if you read between the lines he's trying to say he doesn't have the money to purchase a lot. So his options are limited to upgrading his CPU. Since he is gaming and if he were doing a major upgrade, I'd still recommend he stick with Intel...especially since, as stated by his post, that's what he wants. The Core 2 Duos are hard to beat. Their overclockability along with the upcoming price drop (along with new SKUs) are going to make them an even better option. My recommendations still stand.

Change the Common Documents path in the following location: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

In the Group Policy Management console either edit the Default Domain Policy or create a new policy and go here: GPO Name -Windows Settings --Security Settings ---Local Policies ----Security Options Now look for the following two items and set them to Enabled: Microsoft network server: Disconnect clients when logon hours expire Network security: Force logoff when logon hours expire The first setting should be applied to all servers as well as workstations so that you don't end up with sessions hung open. I'm also with cluberti on this one...I'm not sure about the functional level either. Also, if you create a new policy instead of editing the Default Domain Policy, make sure that you link it to the OUs that contain your computer accounts.

This is the way I have my wife's wireless connection configured (Linksys WiFi NIC). She still has to wait at least a minute before logging in. If you're not running logon scripts (not GPO logon scripts, user logon scripts) then the wait isn't as crucial because the user will be logged in with cached credentials. However, this can still be an issue if you have expiring passwords (login with cached credentials but domain password has expired = resources unaccessable and no warning that your password has expired).

Personally, I wouldn't even entertain the thought of a 533MHz FSB CPU. Since you're upgrading you should definitely go with the fastest CPU you can afford (and find). Having said that, any one of those CPUs will run circles around the Celeron you currently have. Not only does the Celeron have reduced cache, but it also doesn't have any multi-threading capabilities.

The DVI connector is what most LCD monitors use. If you have, or plan on getting, two LCD monitors it's best to get the dual DVI version. The card does come with an adapter though so if you only have a CRT monitor that uses the VGA connector you can still use the dual DVI version. Personally, I'd recommend going ahead with the dual DVI version.

Give this a look as well: http://www.nsa.gov/snac/downloads_winxp.cf...uID=scg10.3.1.1 Some of the settings aren't available in GPEDIT.MSC (Group Policy Editor) on a workstation (they are only available as domain level group policy items). Some of the things that are domain-level group policy items can be done in the registry or manually in the NTFS/Registry permissions though. Just make sure you do some research before applying some of the settings (the guide has notes as to what can mess things up).

Also, what brand is the drive? If it's a Western Digital, take the Master/Slave/CS jumper OFF completely.

The only difference between those two cards is that one is dual DVI and the other isn't. Other than that, the specs are exactly the same. BTW, they're both SLI capable.

You are correct, but you have to make sure you install that part of the driver. It doesn't install by default.

Yes it is. I had the same problem with my wife's machine on my home network. Hers is the only wireless workstation I have on the domain. Unfortunately, I can't remember what I did to make it work! I do know that on a reboot though she has to wait a minute or two for the wireless connection to be established before she logs in. Otherwise it logs her in with cached credentials and my logon script doesn't run to map any of the drives.

Just so you know, you're sacrificing A LOT of security just to make things a bit easier. If you have a lot of users and want to do it correctly you should look into SMS. First of all, I recommend downloading the Group Policy Management Console w/ SP1. It'll make managing Group Policy Objects (GPOs) much easier. Once you've downloaded it install it on the DC(s) (you can also install it on a workstation if you choose to manage your GPOs remotely). Now open the console (Admin Tools > Group Policy Management) and navigate to Group Policy Management > Forest: [your.forest.name] > Domains > [your.domain.name] > Group Policy Objects. This will show you all of the currently available GPOs. By default you should have Default Domain Controllers Policy and Default Domain Policy. I recommend leaving these alone and creating new GPOs for each item that you want to force settings for. This way if you create a GPO that cause problems you can disable just that GPO without disabling all policies. Right click on Group Policy Objects and select New. Name it something recognizeable like Workstations Restricted Groups. Once you've done that right click on the new GPO and select Edit. For this particular GPO you want to go to [GPO Name] > Computer Configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Restricted Groups. Right click on Restricted Groups and select Add Group. Type the name of the group (Power Users). On the next screen it'll give you the option of which users should be members of this group and which groups this group should be a member of. Under Members of this group click on Add and enter Domain Users, then click OK. You can now close the Group Policy edit window so that you're back at the Group Policy Management window. Since you're only using machine settings in this particular GPO you should disable the user settings. This can be done by right clicking on the GPO, selecting GPO Status and then selecting User Configuration Settings Disabled. After you've done this you need to link the GPO to the OUs that you want to apply it to. You want this to apply to your workstations so in the Group Policy Management console right click on the OU that contains your workstation computer accounts and select Link an Existing GPO. Select the GPO you just created. Once it's linked I always select to Enforce the GPO. To do that right click on the GPO link under the OU and select Enforced. GPOs can be very powerful. You should do some research before applying anymore settings though. Even though you're giving all of your users Power User access, you can still restrict certain areas of the workstation using GPOs. The NSA website has some good documentation on securing workstations using Group Policies. If you use this just keep in mind that it's a guideline. Some of the settings can cause problems if improperly configured or used with older applications. http://www.nsa.gov/snac/downloads_winxp.cf...uID=scg10.3.1.1

Actually AMD's 65nm CPUs have already been reviewed. The results show that there isn't much of a performance gain. Remember, AMD made absolutely zero changes to the CPU other than a die shrink. The die shrink only allows them to get more CPUs from a single wafer, which translates to lower costs. Well...there's also a reduction in power usage, but a die shrink does not translate to higher performance at the same clock speed unless other changes are made to the CPU. Also, Intel is set to start their 45nm process later this year.

Read this on what Intel has for upcoming "mainstream" CPUs: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2903

The short answer is: Yes, it's basically two CPUs in one processor package. However, to go a little more in depth, dual core CPUs offer a few advantages over a straight up dual processor system. One major advantage is that the cores don't have to use the front-side bus to talk to each other. Another is shared cache between the two cores; if a thread running on Core 0 needs to access information that's already been cached by Core 1 it can do this without going across the bus or going to main system memory to recache the information. As for the "better" CPU, that all depends on what he wants to do with it. I would highly recommend taking a look at the following article though: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/showdoc.aspx?i=2903

It's molex. PATA drives don't have the SATA power connector on them. He could be using a powered adapter with the floppy type connector, but I've never seen a powered adapter.

I had a similar problem using the onboard NIC of an "older" motherboard I had (AOpen AX4C Max). It didn't matter what I was using, the network connection would just drop and the only way to get it back was to reboot the PC. As soon as I disabled the onboard NIC and added a PCI NIC the problem disappeared. Give that a shot if you have a PCI NIC laying around. You can also try updating your NIC drivers.

Since it's a Promise controller you should be able to put HDDs 2 and 3 back in the machine, then go into the Promise RAID setup and recreate the array exactly as it was before. You have to be sure that the stripe size is the same as it was before.

I'm pretty sure WMP10 installs with 2003 SP1. Since service packs are all inclusive it should be included in the SP2 beta/RC as well (unless they don't have it in the beta or RC builds).

First off...using Everyone is a Bad Idea . You should just set it to either Administrators; Users or Administrators; Authenticated Users. If the setting is clearing at every reboot then you either have some sort of malware doing so, some security software doing so, or someone has jacked around with applying a custom security template to the PC. Would there happen to be a domain controller in the mix? Actually...disregard that. If it was an AD Group Policy setting you wouldn't be able to change the option within the local security policies...

All UPS's should have that. If it doesn't, it's cheap and you shouldn't buy it.