nmX.Memnoch

No, he definitely meant that the integrated video would affect how much you could overclock. Just realize that overclocking has the potential of reducing the life of the CPU and/or other components. If you're not gaming or running anything else CPU intensive todays CPUs are plenty fast enough without overclocking them any. For that matter, overclocking them isn't even gaining gamers that much more in the way of performance right now. It's not like the days of the Celeron 300A where getting 450MHz or 504MHz out of it was a huge jump in performance for the entire system for no extra cost at all. The X700 is a generation newer than your current 9250. Your 9250 was more of an entry-level type card not really meant for gaming. The X700 was more of a mainstream type part meant for the casual/occassional gamer. It's not the latest generation, but that shouldn't matter since you aren't gaming. Even if you were, you'd still be able to play the previous generation of games with decent frame rates on the X700. The X700 doesn't require additional power. The PCIe slot provides more power than an AGP slot does so additional power isn't required until you get to the higher end products.

I don't know that integrated video is going to affect overclocking all that much...but what's the point if you have integrated video anyway? I have to second the option to get a good P35 based motherboard and a cheap PCIe video card. You can get 8600GT based cards for less than $100US. For that matter, you can get a decent 9600GT based card for ~$150US. Either of them will be better than integrated video.

I just use my ISP's SMTP server. It's worked for me without fault (at least during the tests...the controller has never had to send me anything other than a test email ).

The best option is to backup your data and do a completely fresh install (format C:). This may not seem like the fastest method, but it will be in the long run. It'll save you a lot of troubleshooting problems later on, which often times result in a reinstall anyway.

What sort of remote access are you looking at implementing?

Yeah, if you're going to use onboard RAID you definitely want to go with an Intel chipset based motherboard right now. AMD/ATI's aren't necessarily up to todays standards and NVIDIA is having problems with their's causing data corruption again (AnandTech has even had problems with the controller bricking several drives). http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=3279

But you have a PCI-E or at least 64bit/66MHz PCI for sure. The VIA chipset on the 4COREDUAL-SATA2 doesn’t do more then "normal" PCI and a "more or less" PCI-E 4x sloth that will be only compatible with a few VGA cards and not with the AGP card in use and a PCI-E add-on card. That's true. However, if you spend THAT much on a top notch RAID controller and don't back it up with a motherboard to match, then you only have yourself to blame. Also, 64-bit/66MHz PCI cards can be put into 32-bit PCI slots as well...you just won't get the full performance out of the card/drives. BUT, 3ware's "PCI" SATA RAID controllers are PCI-X cards, which means 64-bit/133MHz. They aren't your garden variety 64-bit/66MHz PCI card. They also support 64-bit LBA and array sizes larger than 2TB (which requires XP x64, Vista or Server 2003 SP1 or higher to take advantage of using GUID Partition Tables). If he's just planning on running RAID0 or RAID1 the onboard controllers are usually good enough for desktop use. Now if you're talking RAID10 or RAID5 then I'd start looking at an addin controller.

Don't forget 3ware (AMCC). Awesome products. We've been using them in a couple of our workstations at work for a couple of years now. I also have a couple in my home domain controller/file server. Zxian can also attest to their ease of use, reliability and speed as well.

So that developers can test their web apps before deploying them to a real IIS server. Also, if you plan on using IIS under XP you will not get more than 10 users at a time (not 10 per site, 10 users total). Get yourself a real server license. Windows Server 2003 Web Edition isn't really that much. For that matter, neither is Windows Web Server 2008. Since when? IIS5 (Windows 2000) had a few serious holes that were fixed for the most part. IIS6, on the other hand, is rock solid and has had very few security bulletins released since 2003 went Gold.

Almost. Setup the main connection as DHCP ('Obtain an IP address automatically' and 'Obtain DNS server address automatically'). Use the Altnernate Configuration tab for static entries used on another network (these will only be used when a DHCP server is not available).

You need to setup the server with a static IP address. I would also recommend NOT using the DHCP server built into the router. Install 2003's DHCP Server on your server (it's very easy to configure). You can control many more options for the workstations/laptops using 2003's DHCP Server. As you figured out, you need to have the server's IP address setup as the primary DNS server for your workstations. As a matter of fact, that should be the only IP address listed for an AD environment. Your SBS box should do all the DNS lookups. So, in summary: -- Change your server to a static IP address (use whatever address it currently is using from the router since everything in the install is already configured to use that address) -- Disable the DHCP server in the router -- Install/configure DHCP Server on your SBS box -- Let all of your workstations and laptops use DHCP

The problem with their current naming is that the GT200 is the new architecture...so it should be a new name. If the article linked above is to be believed, the GT200 will be released as 9900 series cards. I won't say that the current 9800GTX shouldn't be a "GTX"...it just shouldn't be a 9800. It should've been an 8900GTX. I say 8900 because the G92 release of the 8800GT/GTX should've been 8850's. And the 9600GT should've been an 8700GT.

That's not entirely true. It all depends on the boot order you have specified in your BIOS at the time you do the installation. If you have the boot order specified the way you want it and load the SATA drivers (if necessary) then you can use a SATA drive as the system drive without any problems. As an aside, Windows calls the drive that hosts those files (NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, etc) the "System Drive" and if your Windows install is on a different drive, that drive is called the "Boot Drive". Yes, I know...it's backwards, but that's the terminology used within Windows. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314470/

A TV won't have the resolution of a monitor. Most LCD/Plasma HDTVs have a "VGA" resolution of 1360x768. That 30" monitor has a resolution of 2560x1600. It costs quite a bit more to produce a panel that size with that high of a resolution. Of course, I wouldn't pay $2000 for it either, but they do have the 24" 2408WFP for $600, which is well worth it considering all of the inputs it supports (it can also double as a 1080p HDTV).

Remember, the Atom is an in-order processor. It wasn't designed to be "the fastest", it's designed to be "fast enough" for the devices it's aimed at...which is ultra-mobile devices and low-end desktops used for internet/email only. Intel actually sacrificed some performance to make it a very low power CPU (electrically). Parts of it are a bit technical, but Anandtech has a pretty good article on the Atom: http://www.anandtech.com/cpuchipsets/intel...doc.aspx?i=3276

Talk about confusing people. A new core and according to that article they're still going to use GeForce 9 series names? The NVIDIA engineers may know what they're doing, but the marketing department coming up with the names sure doesn't. I think it's time they hold another competition to come up with a completely new name like they did for 'TNT' -> 'GeForce'. Since GT200 is supposed to be a completely new architecture now would be the time to do it.

I second the WSUS option. It's easy to setup and can be configured for "lite touch" administration once you know things are working properly (which, again, is easy to do).

I'm pretty sure that on Windows 2003 getting this information, even using the DHCP MMC snapin, requires that you be in at least one of the following domain groups: Domain Admins Enterprise Admins DHCP Administrators I do know that if you're not in at least one of those groups, you can't even connect to a DHCP Server with the DHCP MMC Snapin.

No problem... People tend to get mixed up on this all the time. HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT contains the settings for the logon screen. You can change the screen saver settings, wallpaper and other settings for the logon screen within that key.

Try this: Key Name: HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop\ Value Name: PaintDesktopVersion Data Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value) Value Data: (0 = disable, 1 = enable)

Let me guess... You named your AD domain the same as your web domain?

I expect they'll be hitting more than just enthusiast stores pretty soon. Plus the Thermalright Ultra 120, it's closest competitor, is already ~$60USD without any fans. The Noctua NH-U12P is ~$70USD and includes one high-quality, high-performance, ultra-quiet fan. By the time you add a good Scythe or even a Noctua fan to the Thermalright you're looking at $75-80USD easy. That makes the Noctua a better deal IMO. How much is your peace and quiet worth to you? Also, two fans aren't really necessary as proved by the review.

You can prevent the Password1!, Password2!, etc problem but it requires 3rd party software. We use Password Policy Enforcer from Anaxis. I didn't do the implementation itself (as I don't manage the AD here) but they do have our policies pretty strict (minimum 5 day age, maximum 60 day age, minimum 9 characters, 24 (!) passwords remembered, 1440 minute lockout duration, 1440 minute lockout counter reset, 5 invalid logon attempts before lockout). Some of the non-standard stuff they've done with PPE is: - Passwords must contain at least 2 numbers, 2 lower case, 2 upper case and 2 special characters - A new password cannot be similar to the previous password (or any password in the password history) - Administrative account passwords must be at least 15 characters long (a seperate account policy can't be done natively in 2000/2003, but can in 2008) - No keyboard patterns - Passwords cannot be similar to the user's logon name or display name Fortunately though, we are migrating to SmartCard (aka Common Access Card, or CAC) logon. We're mostly there but a few applications and ActiveSync PDAs still require passwords. Those applications are being "fixed" and we'll have CAC sleds for the PDAs soon so passwords will be a thing of the past.

There is an ActiveX control that will run the connection right in the browser. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en See this page for further information: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/a...541(VS.85).aspx

Got some more... I just read a review of Noctua's new NH-U12P HSF. The numbers they got coupled with how silent the thing is put it at the top of my list for a new HSF.