Zxian

The E2160 CPU will work with any chipset from the 945 and up. The chioce of any P35 (or the P45 you chose) will work. Older CPUs will work with newer chipsets. Newer CPUs don't always work on older chipsets. If you wanted to, you could run an old Celeron LGA775 on the top of the line motherboard today (not that you'd ever want to...). From what I understand, the P5Q Pro is a great motherboard, and should leave you plenty of upgrade room for the future. Just make sure you don't get the plain P5Q (non-Pro/E/Deluxe, etc). I'm not sure what ASUS was smoking when they laid out that board, but the ATX power connector is buried close to the back IO panel. Good choice there. If I were you, I'd see if I could get the Western Digital WD6400AAKS. It's a very fast hard drive, while still being very quiet. You should be able to find it for roughly the same price you had posted for the WD5000AACS. I'd also like to suggest you go for a different case. I understand that the Xion case may look pretty, but there are a couple of things that bother me. First off - it's a no-name PSU in there. That's an instant no-no in my books. The PSU is one of the key components in your computer. If it decides to have a hairday, it could take every other component down with it. Secondly - the airflow in the case isn't really the best. You'll have a better time cooling all your components if you get something like the Antec NSK4480, which includes an Antec EarthWatts 380W PSU. If you're worried that your computer won't have enough power, have a look at my system description here. The maximum power draw that I can get from that system from the AC outlet is about 300W. Judging by the efficiency of the PSU, that makes the actual internal power draw somewhere in the vicinity of 250W. Your setup will draw less than 150W at full load. I think it's time to start finalizing a parts list, and then look at where you can get the best prices.

Motherboard - Great choice. That board will serve you just fine. CPU - not so much. The P4 Dual Cores are old technology. They're slow and they consume a lot of power making them difficult to cool. Get yourself an Intel E2160. Dispite the lower clock speed, it's a much faster CPU and consumes much less electricity. Not to mention, it's cheaper. Video card - The 3450 should be fine for what you do. Just be warned - it's not going to run modern games at any decent pace. If you're looking for a dedicated video card on a budget - you've just found it. Also... there's no need to make a new post every time you want to add more information - simply use the edit button. I've merged your last four replies into one. Just because something looks good, doesn't always mean that it is. A good way to check for how good parts are is to Google for reviews of that part. Have a look at the date that the review was made. If it's anything over a year, don't bother buying it. If the component gets a good review, then add it to the list of options.

Download Memtest 86+ and burn it to a CD. Remove all RAM sticks except for one. Let Memtest run a complete pass on the stick. Swap out that stick for another one. Repeat for each stick of RAM you use.

Like crahak said - it's your money, but you can find current generation hardware for not too much more money. The problem with that board is that you're limited to first generation Core 2 Duo processors (which are hard to find) and it's based on the 945 chipset... which is two years old. The motherboard is one of the most important decisions in a computer (second to the power supply IMO). I think you would be making a big mistake by purchasing any motherboard based on the i945, i965, or i975 chipsets today.

Oziyn - I'll say it again - don't skimp on the motherboard. If you do, you'll likely just end up buying a new one the moment that you're looking to upgrade. Go for the P5K series or the GA-EP35 motherboards. Honestly - it'll be money well spent. For get any chipset from Intel that starts with a 9, or any nVidia chipset...

CPUs need heatsinks (which typically have fans attached to them), but as long as you buy the retail (i.e. not OEM) version of the CPU, it will come with a basic heatsink that will work fine for the most part.

If you live in Canada, the best way to find the cheapest components is to use www.shopbot.ca. Put in your search item, and it'll bring back all the prices from the cheapest stores. Some of the stores that are high on my list (In approximate order of who I buy from): NCIX.com, Anitec, DirectCanada, NXSource, FrontierPC. I'd recommend you get this motherboard instead: ASUS P5K-VM. It's more expensive than the one you chose, but the motherboard is one component you don't want to skimp on. Like crahak mentioned, depending on what type of work you do, you'll probably want to upgrade to 4GB later. You'll also have the added advantage of using an Intel chipset (I have a personal vendetta against nVidia chipsets). Edit - you mentioned TigerDirect... ugh. I can't stand dealing with them. I'd personally wait until things go on sale at NCIX, or buy from other stores (take any from the list above).

At the moment, all the ULZ files are hotlink protected, which is why you're getting HTML instead of a ULZ file. I'm sure that jcarle could implement this in a future release of WUD.

Simply burning the files to a CD will create a plain data CD - not an install CD. Use nLite to do all your customization. Exit and add whatever other post-install packages you might want WPI, XPlode, etc. Open nLite again and select the source directory, and select the Create ISO option only. Either save the ISO and burn it using a third party program (such as ImgBurn), or burn it directly from nLite.

Here's my home system as it is now. I'll upload my workstation desktops when I get a chance.

Normally, we don't help with homework (see Forum Rules #2c)... but I'll give you a small hint - look at what you're doing with count... you're simply adding one to the existing value and displaying the result (what happens to $COUNT after it's executed?).

crahak - my list is pretty similar to yours... but there's one in particular that does it for me - insta-search!!!

You'd need something that actually handles the x-windows. If you don't believe me, start up your Linux box, and hit Crtl+Alt+F1 to drop into a command shell. Login and then run xclock. You'll probably get an error about the Display not being set properly. Like TranceEnergy said, XFCE is fairly lightweight, as well as E17. I personally find GNOME to be pretty resource friendly, provided that you don't add any large panels or themes.

Haha! My brilliant plan isn't foiled yet! When you get that BIOS update done, check the PSU voltages. If it's an old PSU, it's very likely that it's starting to go (especially if it's some no-name brand). Lycka till!

Excuse me? Sorry Kel, but no. The XP vs Vista debate has gone on long enough, and when it comes to new hardware compatibility and performance, 64-bit Vista wins hands down over 32-bit XP. Also - you're missing one very big factor when it comes to 32-bit XP. Look at how much video memory he's got. That means that with all the hardware addressing that happens, he'll have less than 2GB of usable RAM! If you don't believe me, look here. That's the system properties from my setup a few months back, running two video cards (512MB 8800GT and 256MB 8600GT) with 32-bit XP. With the setup he's looking at (two 1GB graphics cards, physX, sound card), 64-bit is a must. I understand that SLI gives some performance benefit over a single card, but it's definitely not worth the money. It's more bragging rights than anything else, and then you've got your electricity bill and noise/heat to worry about. For my ultimate gaming setup, I'd much rather take a P5E3 motherboard (x38 chipset, DDR3) and a single 8800GT for the time being, and then wait for the next gen nVidia cards to come out. If the leaked specs are anything to go by, spending $1000 now on graphics cards would be a complete waste of money.

Since the problem seems to have been gradually increasing, I'd guess that a component is failing. Install something like Everest or SpeedFan and see if there are any voltages that seem out of whack (anything more than 5% from rated value is worth looking at). Otherwise, you'll likely have to dig around to see if you can find a new motherboard. On the other hand - getting such an old board would probably be expensive, and you'd be better off getting a new board and a new CPU to go with.

Hope you have a good one!!!

Have you checked the power supply of the system? Faulty PSUs can cause strange behaviour such as this. That's a pretty old motherboard. Did you get it new or second hand? Have you tried running the server headless and connecting via Remote Desktop? You've ruled out memory and hard drive errors, so that leaves PSU, motherboard, graphics, and CPU. In my experience, when a CPU dies, it dies hard (unless you're overclocking and it's simply unstable).

Man... this and Universal Studios... fire/explosion damage seems to be more "upfront" lately....

The latest service pack is SP3. As such, the only critical updates in the UL files are the ones that have been released after that. Update your source files to SP3 and you'll be off to the races.

What exactly do you mean, automatically? AFAIK, Outlook has allowed you to drag and drop files into the email window to add them as attachments for quite a few versions now. If I need to add multiple files, that's typically what I end up doing.

To answer your question about power supplies, let me put it to you this way - ALL the PSU calculators out there overestimate horribly. If you look at my workstation here (although now running Asus Maximus Formula SE and Q6700), the total peak power draw, when stressing the CPU and 8800GT (haven't found a way of stressing the second video card as well) is less than 300W. That's a quad core CPU, high end motherboard, and two graphics cards. I have yet to see a system with a single CPU and single graphics card draw more than 400W from the wall. My recommendations for the PSU would be the Corsair HX620 or the Enermax Modu82+ 625W. Both of them would run very quietly with the setup you've specified. As for cooling, the best air-based cooling solution is the ThermalRight Ultra-120 Extreme (aka TRUE). I've got it on my CPU, and my load temperatures never go above 44C with a mere 500RPM fan installed on the heatsink. I'm guessing that you'll probably be able to run your CPU at 50C at load with a slightly higher speed fan. Your other option would be to go with watercooling, but judging from your questions, that's a venture you should only take when you're a bit more experienced with system building. Get the TRUE and a Scythe Slipstream 800RPM fan (run it at full speed - they're still deathly quiet), and you'll be laughing. If I may be so blunt... that case is horrible (and far overpriced). I can see the asthetics aspect of it, but actually installing the system in there and making it neat (which helps airflow - which helps lower temperatures) is going to be a royal pain in the butt. Not to mention, the top 140mm fan is restricted by the shaped mesh on top. Simple rule with fans - the less stuff you have infront and behind them, the more air they move. In my file server, I've completely removed the fan grilles from the rear exhausts to maximize airflow. It's not like I go sticking my fingers back there anyways. One very popular case right now is the Antec P182. The P180 that it was based off was designed by Mike Chin over at SilentPCReview.com. The case was designed with good cooling and low noise in mind, and has achieved just that. There's no reason why you can't have your gaming PC, and not go deaf because of it. Heck, even with a case like the Antec 900 (which is what I use) you should be able to get a very quiet system going. Are you planning on running SLI? If so, I'd recommend against it, since the performance gains are negligible at best and definitely not worth the price. That being said, I'd recommend a good Intel chipset over the nVidia 790. You can get a VERY good motherboard for your system while spending half of the $450 of the Striker II. The ASUS P5K3 Deluxe would suit your needs quite well, and save you a lot of coin. Sure, it's not the latest and the greatest, but it'll run every Intel CPU up until Nehalem processors are released. You'll still have plenty of upgrading room in the future, as it supports DDR3 and PCIe 2.0. If you're going for an aftermarket sound card, don't get the Creative ExtremeGamer. Take the money you've just saved from your motherboard and move up to either the ASUS D2/D2X or the Auzentech Prelude. Both are much higher quality, and have proper driver support. Just search the web a bit, and you'll hear about the recent horror stories regarding Creative drivers. Thermal temperature display - gimmicky and unnecessary. After you install all of your hardware, there shouldn't be a need to constantly monitor your temeratures. If you have adequate cooling while you're stress testing your system, you should never have to worry about it again. Rounded cables - that used to apply for the old PATA cables, but isn't really a concern with modern SATA drives. Don't bother. As a final thought... the whole system from iBuyPower is horribly overpriced. I would highly recommend that you build the system yourself (you'd get better parts than what they're offering) and you'll save yourself a lot of money as well. Except for the installation of the CPU, there isn't really much that can go wrong. Connectors are dummy-proofed, and as long as you read the manuals that come with the various parts, the installation is more or less straightforward. You'd of course be more than welcome to ask questions here about the actual assembly. You'd also have the option of getting the Q9400, which would save you upwards of $600. Trust me when I say, you won't notice a difference performance-wise between the Q9400/P5K3 and the Q9770/StrikerII, while you will feel it financially.

Haha.... text based Google Searching.... awesome.

1GB single channel is plenty. Remember, this is a file server, not a high-powered machine. All you need is the bare minimum to hold and run your hard drives.

Do those keys have alternate functions on them? Have you tried reinstalling the Logitech drivers (uninstall, reboot, install, reboot)?