nmX.Memnoch

It's probably a P4-M. Does it have a heatspreader (metal cover) or can you see the core? If it has a heatspreader it's a P4. If you can see the core it's a P4-M. Since it's running at 2.6GHz I have a feeling it's a P4-M. They have features that slow down the CPU to save power. The BIOS of a desktop motherboard probably doesn't have the features necessary to run it at full speed (although you'd think it would by default rather than running at the slower speed).

There's no need to ask. A GeForce 3 (DX8 part) or GeForce 4 (DX8.1 part) cannot be made to support features that a GeForce 5x00/6x00/7x00 (DX9 parts) supports. This would require retooling the GPU...in hardware. Basically what you're saying is that a driver update could make a DX8.1 part support a feature such as Shader Model 3.0. If that was the case then why would anyone ever purchase a new graphics card? The parts of the specification that aren't emulated are the DX8.1 commands. What they're not emulating are the DX9 specific parts of the DirectX specification. This is physically impossible because the GPU doesn't support the features necessary to process the information. Attempting to emulate it would be way too slow, making the effort to add the support via drivers useless. And I say "useless" because the game would run so slow that it would most definitely be unusable. So yes, a DX8.1 GPU can run most "DX9" games (provided the developer codes in workarounds)...it just can't/won't run the DX9 effects.

I definitely like the fact that the original post is at the top of every page now. It took a minute to realize what was going on...but it makes it easy to remember what the other posters have replied to already. <rant> The one thing I don't like is the Add Reply button right below the original post (between the original post and the replies). There are already enough people who reply without reading existing replies...this just gets them one step closer to doing that. </rant>

The advantage is proper email management. If you create a folder structure that makes sense, then it makes it easier to find emails again when you're looking for them. It also makes it possible to use the Rules Wizard, which will make Exhange/Outlook automatically sort emails as they arrive. It could be less if the Exhange Admin has configured it lower. If you're talking about the PST size, you can go larger than that with Outlook 2003 now using a Unicode PST.

There's a difference in how different controllers create RAID arrays. Each manufacturer users a different algorithm or method for determining how to write the files to each disk. You may not have a problem with your RAID0 array if you configure it exactly the same (same chunk sizes, etc). Being that you're using a completely different RAID controller I wouldn't count on it working, though.

Viewsonic's quality really has fallen off in the last couple of years. I've got a friend who purchased one of their 19" CRTs a few years ago. The original monitor had a crack on the upper right hand corner of the front plastic. He returned it to them three times...and all four monitors had a crack in the same spot (crack was different each time so it wasn't the same monitor he was getting back). The last one eventually went bad...the picture looked like he was playing a 2.40:1 movie on a 4:3 screen and it couldn't be adjusted. He replaced it with a Samsung 19" CRT and has been happy ever since.

I'm having a hard time understanding why you would want to keep them from changing their password. Most places require that passwords be changed on a schedule (usually at most every 90 days). It's good security practice to change them as often as possible without it being annoying.

Wrong. Some (not all) DX9 games have workarounds so that DX8.1 cards can run them. These cards do not run the game in DX9 mode. Again, if the hardware doesn't support the features required the drivers cannot add it. Doing it in software would be much too slow. This is why there is a requirement for hardware acceleration.

The Pentium 4 3.06GHz 533MHz FSB Northwood (non-mobile version) does support Hyperthreading. Whether or not you can put it in a desktop motherboard depends on whether or not it's a full P4 or a P4-M (mobile version). The P4-M did go to 3.06GHz so you need to verify whether or not the CPU you have is a P4 or a P4-M. If it's a P4-M then it depends on which version you have as to whether or not it supports Hyperthreading. http://www.intel.com/products/processor/mo...tium4/index.htm Also, if it's a P4-M and even though it's a 478-pin package, I don't believe it's pin compatible with desktop Socket 478 motherboards.

Agreed..."blacking out" the user name wouldn't do any good. If you know the password already there's nothing stopping you from logging in as that user and changing the password. Sharing passwords is one of the biggest security problems there is...it's a matter of educating your users not to do this.

It's called the "native resolution". If you run an LCD at anything other than it's native resolution they usually look pretty bad. We have some older Dell 1800FP's that don't have this problem with 1024x768 (native on them is 1280x1024)...but it's rare to find that. Viewsonic's look horrible if you run them at anything other than their native. IMO, you'd be best off looking at either a Dell or Samsung. I currently have two Samsung 241T's on my desk at work, and previous to that was two 213T's. Love 'em. We recently got some Hyundai 19" LCDs and they look washed out compared to the other Dells and Samsungs we have.

Yep...that card is a goner. How many is that now?

Not really. IIS6 is tuned pretty well. If your files are static and accessed a lot they will get stored in system RAM and be served from there...making the iRAM pretty useless in that situation as well. I think they're also stupid for limiting it to just 4GB RAM (not 4GB sticks...4GB total).

If you have enough RAM IIS should rarely, if ever, use the pagefile. Personally, I would never use a technology as new as this in one of my critical servers. If you were to use it, you'd be better off using it to serve pages. If the content is dynamic (ASP/PHP/ColdFusion/etc) then you probably won't notice much of a difference since the CPU still has to generate these pages before they can be sent to the browser. Also, the comment about the military servers...I work on a US military installation and I don't know of any servers using solid-state drives (none of mine do). For starters, it's very expensive. It's also a fairly new technology and we certainly wouldn't trust any of our critical data to it yet.

This doesn't matter because Windows doesn't use the actual name...it uses the Security Identifier, or SID. What you need to do is Take Ownership of those drivers. Right click the drive and choose Properties. Now go to the Security tab. At the bottom click on the Advanced button. Go to the Owner tab. Choose your account (or Administrators) under the Change Owner To section. Now check the Replace owner on subcontainers and objects option, then click Apply. It may return a few errors but if you run it a few times it should come back. Now you should be able to edit the security permissions as necessary.

Changing the Admin password shouldn't cause any stability issues at all. The only reason this would happen is if some service or scheduled task is set to run with the local Admin account. In this case you would have to update the password for those items after you change the password. If the option Mini124 mentioned is indeed checked then it's likely there is something set that runs as the local Admin account. It's a "best practice" to both rename and set a password on the built-in Admin account.

Reading their forums they also consider Antec and Thermaltake PSUs to be "sub par". I recently purchased a DFI 875P/T and I'm not all that thrilled with it. Maybe their AMD boards are better though...

No it won't. The Inq may not get everything right, but they're usually spot on with their pricing. http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=31126 $315 for the 2.4GHz version of 4MB cache? Count me in... I've been seeing some really nice overclocks on them too (that link shows the 2.13GHz version reaching 3.1GHz and pulling off Super Pi 1M in 16 seconds). Also, the Xeon version, which normally uses more power than the desktop version, is said to be somewhere in the 80W power envelope. http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=31131

You can try the Windows XP driver. Sometimes they work...

I don't believe AMD CPUs support this feature...and the only Intel CPUs that do are the P4-M, the P-M and probably Core Duo (haven't had the chance to check one of them yet). I would just leave it at the default clock speed. You never know when you may want to tap into that extra power at some point...and having to reboot just to do that would be a pain in the rear...

Make sure they're set to Auto in the BIOS.

Follow the Wyse link in my post and look at their products. Terminal Server + Wyse thin clients = solution

Yes they are. http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServe...6da0791033.mspx

+/- 0.01 voltate fluctuation is pretty much normal. I've seen more fluctuation on perfectly stable systems. Your temps should be fine as well. They will vary depending on how much work the CPU is doing (i.e. doing standard web browsing, email checking, etc it'll run at the coolest temps, but playing a 3D game, encoding movies/music it'll run higher).

All of the "Critical" and "Important" hotfixes (i.e. the ones from the monthly security bulletins) can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/current.aspx At the top of the base you'll find a link for the current months security bulletin releases. In the bottom part of the page you can search for all security bulletins that apply to a given product and service pack level. You can even tell it to not show you hotfixes/bulletins that have been replaced by newer hotfixes/bulletins. This way you aren't applying unnecessary/duplicate hotfixes.