Kwisatz

Keep in mind that watercooling uses [distilled] water, and water is conductive. In the event of a leak, you could very well fry your components.

Try updating your graphics, chipset drivers, and possibly flashing your BIOS. I was getting that error a lot until I upgraded to the new ForceWare drivers (I have a 7800GT).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scoville_Heat_Unit There's a hotter one that's 7.3 million SHU.

Price for 1.8 oz: $35 AND you must sign a waiver and be 18+ years of age ------------ Before you talk spicy, try this stuff in your food. Here is the hottest condiment as taken from their site. That's all. My dad retails food, and he has a hot sauce that's 5 MILLION SHU. He tried it and he started crying. I was way too afraid to do the same.

That is absolutely ridiculous, if any manufacturer's CPUs have a reputation for running how it's Intel's. Word! Intel Prescotts have a rep for running so incredibly hot. That's why you almost ALWAYS find AMD processors in enthusiast machines. My AMD keeps at 27 C almost all the time, and I overclocked it by 15 FSB once and it only went up to 32. They're WAY cooler than P4s...

You could have just as easily posted the second half of your post and offered him/her the answer to his/her question without insulting his/her intelligence. You must also remember , that just because you are from the USA where english is the primary language , maybe he/she is not. And also , very well said Cameron (even though it was a quote) , it was the exact reason why Firefox is the superior choice :) You can tell the difference between a lazy English native and a struggling person whose second language is English. I believe the poster is the former. And, that aside, even if he wasn't an English speaker, he could have pasted his post, like I said, into a program with a spellchecker and it probably would have caught most of his errors.

I've become desensitized to spicy foods, so I have a much higher tolerance than others. I took half a spoonful of horseradish and it wasn't as bad as my friends thought it was.

hmm i notice alot of nubbs r teh usin bad enlgish and garmmr and not speell checkin tiehr posts Seriously, take the time to think out your posts. It's not as if this is AIM or IRC where you have to be instant, the very least you could do is copy and paste your post into Word and take 30 seconds to do a spell check. On topic, Firefox, having a single-digit percent market share, has almost no spyware or malicious programs written to exploit it. In other words, with Internet Explorer, you're more likely to get spyware and such. And, it would be helpful if you told us of these mystical "poping questions" you speak of, as that would help us ascertain whether or not you are getting errors or if they're just routine warnings.

The iPod video is pretty sweet from what I've seen of it, but the things that bother me about it: -2 hour battery life -Have to convert movies -The clickwheel, which I never liked, now lost the raised button -They freeze up sometimes And, I was looking at this, and it's theoretically better than the iPod, but it's way thicker and apparently has an issue audio quality, so that's sunk until they fix it. So I'm torn right now between the iPod and Zen Vision for my next MP3 player.

I "wander" why you were [developmentally delayed]ed to bump an old thread. It isn't interesting, funny, or anything - it's stupid.

Look, I quite frankly have no idea what you're talking about with the dual-core processors messing up old code. Perhaps somebody with a bit more experience can shine light on that issue. But what I do know is that dual-core processors are far superior to HyperThreading ones. HyperThreading doesn't always increase performance, as essentially all it does is use one core to execute two threads, rather than two cores as with dual-core processors. In fact, HyperThreading processors actually decrease performance in some applications, most especially ones written exclusively for one core. However, in my opinion, unless you're doing CAD, lots of multitasking, or video or audio editing, I see little point in buying either type of processor. My current machine can handle 50 Firefox tabs, CS: Source, Gaim, Winamp, Source Dedicated Server, wordpad, and all the background crap just fine with an Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 939-pin.

Did you ever think that it was because your kind are such a smallll percentage? It could possibly cost them more to change their operations for .1% of the people out there (not an exact statistic, so don't quote it) Just wondering, but do you really need six case fans if as you say they are inaudible, which is probably due to them barely running at all ;) Better safe than sorry :P I keep them low and then turn them up if my case temp gets into the 90s F, which isn't often. If they just typed in the little comments box "No OS," then they wouldn't install it, saving the technician time, them a license. I'm not sure, but I'd think it safe to say that they probably have a "comments" box on their order system, and even if they didn't it would cost them next to nothing to implement it; just tack on a field in the SQL database.

I find your post rather unjustified as well. If I am crying for attention, then why would it be that I've made two new topics in the past four months? I dunno, I just thought that since I am "crying for attention" and all that I would try to have more of an impact on the boards rather than replying to threads that die within a matter of days. I also find it rather funny how you say I say Dell is "mean" becuase Dell will not sell me a whitebox. They should sell me a "whitebox," seeing as how I'm prospectively purchasing a computer through a company that does hundreds of thousands of dollars with them a year, and that it would save them supplies and labor (thereby increasing revenue) if they sold me a computer without Windows. Nobody would have to load it on the machine, they would have one more license on their hands, and they'd make the same amount of money. The way they have it now, they have none of my money, none of my future business, and less profit than if they just sold me the frickin' laptop without Windows. And, the other thing is that if they just put the fan they already have on there on the processor and put a 120mm in the back, they'd have a system just as quiet. My system has relatively high-end components in it and SIX case fans, and is inaudible unless you stop clicking and typing and listen for it (or turn up the fan speed). Or I may just be hearing-impaired, but I don't think that's it, because I can hear everyone when they talk to me perfectly fine. And, concerning the PSU: http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply ... ?cmd=INTEL If you select a Prescott, low-end video card, CD-RW, DVD, one HD and two sticks of PC100, you get 229 watts. Although this is certainly an overshot, it would have to be a 35% [guesstimated] or more overshot, which to me seems somewhat unlikely. Just some thoughts.

I dont like the looks of that set up at all, why you may ask? Well heres why. It is absurd to spend nearly $1000 on the motherboard, its a dual socket one yet your only suggesting he buys one processor which is leaving one empty. Just that alone is a big wast of his budget, and as it says, it is a motherboard for a server, not an every day machine for word docos, gaming, ect. As for the processor, it is also more suited for a server situation so it isn't really needed in an every day computer, as said above. You also picked out a geforce fx 5500 and from what i was told that range of cards sucked. It is a card from two generations back and it would just not cut it with the games there is today. Steer away from a card like that if you intend to game, your much, much better off with something from the geforce 7xxx or radeon x1xxx series. You don't need a CD writer and a DVD writer, that's just a waste of a drive bay, you'd be better off to just get rid of the CDRW all together and just get a second DVDRW, a plain old DVDROM or just have the single drive. Floppy... floppy discs are the most useless form of data storage there is IMO, because i have bought a pack of 10, only half of them would work, only reason to have one of them in a computer is for drivers if the need arises. The sound card seems decent so that's something you could use, or you could just opt for the on board sound on your motherboard. As for hard drive, with another $70-80 you could get a 300gb hard drive, which is twice of what you listed. And the power supply in the case could cause problems as it is most likely a no name brand psu and my understanding is to steer clear of those as they usually aren't as stable as a better quality one from a brand such as antec. There are my reasonings. My major gripe with the parts you listed is that the motherboard and cpu aren't necessary and are a waste of money. Its a dual socket motherboard yet you only listed one cpu, which seems like a waste of $1k to me. The cpu isn't needed either as you could just opt for an X2 which would be better suited for his needs and with the money you would save from ditching that mother board and cpu, you could put that money into a decent graphics card from one of the current generations, a nice new monitor, keyboard, mouse, speaker system or what ever else you may want to spend it on. If you or any one else disagrees with what i wrote or what i wrote was wrong, correct me so he can make a good decision. Ditto. If I was you then I'd spend no more than $100 on a mobo. My mobo has SATAII, SLI, and the works for that price: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813128301 That motherboard does nicely. Works great for OCing too, should you choose to do so.

Dell laptops are alright. The thing thats gets me, however, is how they only warrant the battery for one year, even if you buy the extended Gold Tech Support. However all of the Dell Latitudes I've dealt with are pretty good. Laptops are going to break, no matter what. The Inspirons, on the other hand, are a different story. They use "bleeding-edge" technology and Dell always recomments Latitudes for businesses, because they themselves say they are more reliable :? . So just click Small Business on the front page and buy a Latitude if you want a laptop.

Laptops break so easily. Every laptop that I've owned/my family's owned/my friends have owned have broken down within the first two years. If I was you I'd buy the extended warranty :P.

I would not be so sure. My old Compaq had a 2.8Ghz Celeron and Intel "EXTREME" Integrated Graphics and got 20 FPS on 640x480 on CS 1.6

What Militaris posted was great. However, if I was you I wouldn't invest in dual displays, seeing as how they're [cabbage]e for gaming and unless you're doing heavy office work they don't benefit at all. After I got my new LCD i tried running a dual display on my 19" LCD and 19" CRT and it was so pointless it wasn't funny. Do not go with water cooling. Just get some nice fans, like Vantec Tornado and a good fan controller, then have the fans in front of the case pulling air in and the ones in the back and top pushing it out. Also buy the largest fans your case can support, 120mm fans are better than 80mm ones because they're quieter and move more air. Also stick with AMD, as their processors are way cheaper and perform much better than their more expensive Intel counterparts: http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/11/21/ ... age29.html for benchmarks. At this point in time I wouldn't go with dual-core unless you are doing Photoshop or CAD work, seeing as how games are not yet written to take advantage of such power (but Windows is when multitasking), but my budget was a paltry $1300 so I didn't really have that kind of option anyway. Also stick with Nvidia and buy an SLI-capable motherboard; they're practically the same price as regular PCIE ones, and provide a good upgrade path if you choose to slap a second card in later for the ~170% performance boost. In fact, I'd say drop the second monitor and get dual 7800GTXs. At this point in time, ATI's Crossfire may be a "better" technology but it isn't mature and does not have nearly as much support as SLI. And, keep about $100 reserve for if you have defective parts and need to ship back. I did this on my system, and I'm glad I did.

That may be true, but I guess the thing is that when you're paying upwards of $1000 and you're buying for a large business (and have a business account with a sales rep) that you expect to have little downtime and use better components. If it were $400 that was paid for them I don't think I'd mind as much, but for a grand, that's just unacceptable. I'd gladly pay a paltry $2 more if they just used a halfway decent cooling solution. And, @Peter: I partially agree with that, but seeing as how Compaq actually uses case fans and processor fans, as well as ATX-compliant parts in their Presarios (and include an open AGP slot by default), I'd go with them instead.

I know everyone is going to flame me, but I just felt that after what just transpired, I need to make this particular post about why you SHOULD NOT BUY DELL for your own sake. Ever since Dells became the PC of choice for the average American, I've loathed them for being so popular and mainstream, and I'm just stupid like that and think that mainstream = bad. However, ever since starting my job as a helpdesk technician and working on side jobs for people with Dell PCs, I've really come to the conclusion that my loathing of Dell is justifiable. After just having a little chat with Dell, I am motivated to make this post, to warn users before they buy their next computer. 1. Dell uses inferior setups and nonstandards in building their PCs I have to work with and support hundreds of Dell Optiplexes, many of which were built within the last two years. These are all business-class machines that cost at least $1000 at the time of purchase. Now, one would expect that for a large business spending so much money on each machine, you would get quality, right? WRONG! Dell actually uses many proprietary components, mounting mechanisms and connectors in their computers, as well as substandard cooling solutions. For instance, Dell computers do not actually have processor fans, they have a case fan and a duct. Look at the picture below: See that green thing below the power supply (metal thing) on the left? That's the duct. That fan is what is expected to cool the hot P4 Prescott chips. One would think that it wouldn't be too much trouble to put the fan directly on the processor and have a separate case fan for better cooling, but no, Dell is too cheap to spend the extra $2 to do so. Additionally, when I received a new heatsink from Dell that had heatpipes, when I tried to remove the existing heatsink, I took the processor too, because of the massive amounts of SILICONE thermal paste on the processor that stuck it to the heatsink, consequently bending 6 of the pinks on the processor in the process. Then, when I could not find the return label for the bad part, I called Dell and they told me that it cost more to ship it back than to manufacture the heatsink in the first place. Guess that says a lot about "quality." Additionally, rather than using a real power supply, they use cheap power supplies that aren't 300W, not 200W, but 180W SUSTAINED!!!. And as of yet, in 1 and a half months, twelve (12) Dell power supplies have gone bad, giving the blinky orange power light of doom. Guess that says a lot too, just like how they use a proprietary front panel connector, have only two hard disk bays despite having room for more, have green brackets instead of regular screws for disks (annoying when you have to swap the bracket every time you change drives when testing hardware), and how they block the activity LED and release hole for the optical drives. I've said enough. On to the next point... 2. Dell has terrible support Dell Support is some of the worst I've ever seen in my life, bested (or should I say worsted?0 only by CyberPower (whom you should NOT buy from under any circumstances, no matter the price). The first time I called in a part to Dell, I got the home and home office help, then transferred to the Gold Support (which I should have had in the first place, seeing as how I entered my service code when prompted), then given the extension, then disconnected. And when I tried to call back the extension was invalid. And, Dell has twice sent us boxes that were supposed to have the aforementioned power supplies in them, but were in fact empty. When I called them in, I fully expected them to ask if the packaging was compromised or in any way looked as if something was stolen, but they didn't hesitate at all in sending me a new power supply and return label (I could've used the one I'd gotten in the empty box and thrown the empty box away), and not even apologizing. Downright atrocious. They also have, depending upon what line you get randomly transferred to, a voice-recognition system that lets you speak your service code, since pressing buttons is such a chore. What is already a crap idea turns out to be even worse when you say "9484733124" in a monotonous voice and get back "Did you say 9...3...2..4...7...3...3...1...3...7?" Why can't I just enter the darn thing, or at least just bypass it since I still have to tell the support person my code anyways?!?! And, numero three... 3. Dell does not raise a finger to help you, the perspective buyer I am looking for a laptop, and since the company I work for gets a discount since they buy volume, I was going to order through our Employee Purchase program. I have an XP Pro license from when I ordered two by accident from Newegg, and I want to purchase a laptop without the OS. I thought you'd be able to, but apparently not: 6:17:08 PM System Welcome Alex ***** ... 6:17:08 PM System Connecting to server. Please wait... 6:17:08 PM System Thank you for using Dell Chat, a representative will be with you soon. 6:17:40 PM System You are now being connected to an agent. Thank you for using Dell Chat 6:17:40 PM System Connected with XPS_Rep_Brad 6:17:44 PM XPS_Rep_Brad Thank you for choosing Dell's Digital Home XPS Experience, my name is XPS_Rep_Brad, I will be your personal assistant today. Give me a moment to review your concern. Please don't go away. 6:18:14 PM You i have a question 6:18:25 PM You is it posible to purchase an XPS without an OS? 6:18:58 PM XPS_Rep_Brad no,sure isnt 6:19:28 PM You so even with a copy of windows 6:19:33 PM You i own one myself 6:19:40 PM You that's not in use on another computer 6:19:49 PM You and i can't buy a computer without windows? 6:19:51 PM XPS_Rep_Brad what OS are you wanting to put on it? 6:20:04 PM You winxp pro 6:20:14 PM You i have a license key for it 6:20:24 PM You bought one too many when i made a bulk order from newegg 6:20:42 PM XPS_Rep_Brad when you get your computer just put xp pro on it 6:21:02 PM You but i'm paying for windows right? 6:21:20 PM You when i buy the computer from your company i pay for a copy of windows right? 6:21:43 PM XPS_Rep_Brad no,it comes with the system 6:22:11 PM You meaning 6:22:22 PM You included in the price of the computer is windows, correct? 6:22:36 PM You and if you didn't install windows on it the cost of goods would go down, correct? 6:22:44 PM XPS_Rep_Brad yes,all the software that comes on the computer is included in the price 6:23:00 PM XPS_Rep_Brad no,we have to ship OS on it 6:23:28 PM You ok. 6:23:54 PM You so you're telling me that even if i was some large company and had a volume license of winxp i would still have to buy an os with each system i buy? 6:24:48 PM XPS_Rep_Brad your not buying any OS with the system,microsoft puts it in for free,b/c you have to have an OS to run a pc 6:24:56 PM XPS_Rep_Brad most people dont have a copy already 6:25:42 PM You despite what they may tell you a Microsoft OEM copy of WinXP Pro is $150, but whatever. 6:25:49 PM You Thanks for answering my question. Have a nice day. 6:26:06 PM System The session has ended! Not only did he have the audacity to tell me "sure can't," but he also had the laziness to type "b/c." He also had the nerve to lie to me about the OS being "free" with the computer, but also told me to buy a computer with an OS and then install XP Pro on it, which makes no sense whatsoever, and to tell me, who has already demonstrated my knowledge of computers by saying I have a "license" rather than a copy, that you need an OS to run a computer. Pitiful. Frickin' pitiful. I also know why my company has a volume license of Windows XP Pro, and yet all the machines have XP license keys on them - Dell does not offer machines without OSes, even for businesses with upwards of 5000 employees that Ghost the machines as soon as they arrive. I hope that this motivates you to make a wise choice - almost any choice besides Dell. All of this is factual information and comes from personal experience, so I REALLY would not enjoy it if someone replies and says "omgf u r teh specilatin [sic]!!111." Comments?

Yeah, and he actually pulled off the whole thing the other night, sounded really good. Eruption is way overhyped. Some of it is kinda tricky, but I bet the guy can pull off better stuff than that, no? Yes, I've heard better, as in more complicated. But the thing about it is that it sound so raw, so powerful, and stands very well by itself as just a solo. Note that I don't play guitar, but from someone who has played for 8 years, I know a lot for someone who doesn't play :P.

Terley listen Look at the trailer for Prince of Persia on PSP and Xbox and tell me which you would rather play... My DVD player has DVD quality DVD discs with an even BIGGER range of movies... You can probably even get a portable one for $100 now... My PC is the best FPS machine in the world (ok, not mine, but it could be...) Why get an all in one when you can have all of these seperately but much better quality? Runesmithie is right. I have a portable DVD player if I want to watch movies on the go. I have an MP3 player to play music on the go. These things do the job better than the PSP does, by far. And, I don't know about you, but I'd take ease of play and gameplay over graphics on a portable system. The DS has PC-like precision controlling FPS games, because of the touchscreen. Unless you've played Metroid, you wouldn't know what I'm talking about, but trust me when I say that you could play, say, Half-Life on it and still have the same level of control as on the PC. Face it, joysticks are more cumbersome. And not only that - the DS makes things like drawing, messaging, etc. easier with the touchscreen, and innovates. The PSP is just a watered-down, expensive, portable PS2 as far as I'm concerned. In short, I buy a game console to play games and have fun. At this time, the DS offers more promise in this area and suits that purpose better.

You make your decision on two people replying without giving any proper information. Look up some information at bigger 'qualified' websites with people that really know what they are talking about rather than what some kid on this forum tells you. What exactly makes websites more "qualified?" The majority of times, the website reviewers just play the system in question for a week or so, and the system owners actually own the system, know what it's like from a consumer standpoint, and have had to live with their purchase. Personally, I think this gives them a better insight than just going to Engadget or whatever and reading "DS: First impressions." Just a thought, no need to flame. On topic, I personally like the DS better than the PSP. Although the PSP supposedly has the analog nub, it didn't provide the range of control i thought it would, and there's really no way for you to tilt it a little bit in any direction (and my finger kept slipping off of it). Additionally, the PSP is a bit bigger and has half the battery life (according to my friend). And if you're into FPS games, the DS is better because of the PC-like control that it offers; it's only a matter of time before we get Goldeneye and Perfect Dark on the DS. However, the PSP's two obvious selling points are the graphics and the homebrew ability (but the DS has many homebrew projects going as well, it's just that the PSP has easier vulnerabilities to expliot). If you do get a DS, get Mario Kart, Super Mario 64, and Animal Crossing. DO NOT bother getting Need For Speed, it sucks, just as many of the other EA games for it. Right now, the only really decent games are first-party ones, with some stuff like Feel The Magic being the only good non-Nintendo games. But once they re-release all the 64 classics, the DS sales will rocket into the stratosphere.

I can't remember my first Scapeboard post either, but I know that one of the first ones was about how Linux blows. Of course I was, what, 11 back then? And obviously many people here will flame me and say that I still act like a noob, but I sometimes think that I am on a higher level than some of those people.

---