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[IrishNinja]

ok, GAF (brain stew & co!), did the research, and you're right: i need to get with one of these newegg lappys, just trying to decide between these two. both have the screen size, HDD capacity etc, but the former seems to have a better processor, the latter, a better vid card. for my applications - again, mostly older games, but id fancy playing diablo 3, new vegas, bioshock infiite etc one day on, ideally, medium settings if possible - so from what ive read here & from links, im thinking the vid card is more important, just wanted to check what you guys thought:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834101230

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220733&cm_re=260M-_-34-220-733-_-Product

note that the latter is "recertified" - should this be a strike against it? not sure if newegg does service plans or not, but if there's any kind of extended warranty, im likely buying that too, on any system i get.

 

[RickA238]

Hey guys, first of all, thanks for all the help with selecting components for my new computer. You gave me some great advice!

Second, my hard drive appears to be transferring incredibly slow, and I would like some advice on how to fix it. I ran ATTO Disk Benchmark to confirm my suspicions: the transfer rates are unbelievably slow:

Note: I quite the test early because the speed was unbearable. Any suggestions on what I can do to fix this? The hard drive is a Samsung 1TB Spinpoint F3. Thanks in advance!
Try running the 4MB or 8MB stripes and see if it is that slow.
If it is change the SATA port it's plugged into and look at a new cable as well.

Try running the 4MB or 8MB stripes and see if it is that slow.
If it is change the SATA port it's plugged into and look at a new cable as well.

Alright, I did 4MB and 8MB tests and the drive still transfers at the same slow speed. I changed the SATA cable as well as the SATA port it is plugged into. When I first rebooted the drive after doing this I got good transfer rates, however after a second reboot the drive is back to the same old slow transfer rates (~2MB/s).

I am not sure if this problem is indicative of drive failure, or if I have just done something wrong while installing the hard drive. I did a quick format after installing (currently using the problematic drive for my operating system (Windows XP).

Once again, the drive is a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3. I am at a loss for what to do; should I begin the RMA process with this drive? Are there any further tests or fixes I can attempt? Advice is greatly appreciated from anybody. Thanks!

 

[K.Jack]

potential game plan:

Wait for the holidays and see if i can get a decent laptop for around $450-500.

Think a i5 processor and some type of graphics card ( ati 4800s or something comparative) will be able to play civ 5, diablo 3, and kotor mmo at mild settings the laptops resolution ( probably x768 or 900 tops) ?????????

A $500 laptop will never have a decent gfx card.

ok, GAF (brain stew & co!), did the research, and you're right: i need to get with one of these newegg lappys, just trying to decide between these two. both have the screen size, HDD capacity etc, but the former seems to have a better processor, the latter, a better vid card. for my applications - again, mostly older games, but id fancy playing diablo 3, new vegas, bioshock infiite etc one day on, ideally, medium settings if possible - so from what ive read here & from links, im thinking the vid card is more important, just wanted to check what you guys thought:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834101230

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220733&cm_re=260M-_-34-220-733-_-Product

note that the latter is "recertified" - should this be a strike against it? not sure if newegg does service plans or not, but if there's any kind of extended warranty, im likely buying that too, on any system i get.

The latter is the one to take. The 260M is a 9800 GT, while the Mobility 5650 is a downclocked HD 5570. That's a huge performance gap.

Even re-certified, the Asus should still be under the Asus 2YR Global Warranty.

 

[Knch]

... Are there any further tests or fixes I can attempt? Advice is greatly appreciated from anybody. Thanks!

Is the drive running in DMA mode? (You can find this in the device manager under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers, then the Channels)

 

[Superblatt]

Any recommendations for a $400 MAX laptop for my wife? She will be using it for school, so a good video card for gaming is needed. We're talking word, excel, web, big hd, etc. There are a LOT out there like this, so I'm looking for a recommendation on something that isn't a piece of shit.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

8x/8x is fairly common on the cheaper SLi boards. It's fine.

Reinstall microsoft's .net framework (I think it's on 0.3? or something?) uninstall and reinstall nVidia drivers with driver sweeper following the instructions.

Might be the PSU, it's not the best quality but it should handle it fine. Might be the card.
After trying the above you can downclock it and see if the same problems persist.
Can you describe whats happening with L4D and Stalker?
I've had Fallout 3 bug out on me before, don't believe it was hardware related.

Oof, thas one that runs hot. Yes it's possible your card just likes to run hot. You can try reseating again via spreading it, but it'll probably be the same.

Read manuals if you are confused. (Esp. mobo manual)
Take all the cables and make sure they go somewhere
Triple check cables

Are you positive that board is sli? I can't find anything saying that on the spec page.

 

[RickA238]

... Are there any further tests or fixes I can attempt? Advice is greatly appreciated from anybody. Thanks!
Is the drive running in DMA mode? (You can find this in the device manager under IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers, then the Channels)

Yes, all Primary IDE and Secondary IDE channels are running in DMA mode.

Would the fact that I'm currently using Windows XP Service Pack 2 make a difference?

 

[Owzers]

A $500 laptop will never have a decent gfx card.

I don't necessarily believe you. "Never" so the laptops that are $750 now with a mobility 5650 will never drop in price?

 

[K.Jack]

Any recommendations for a $400 MAX laptop for my wife? She will be using it for school, so a good video card for gaming is needed. We're talking word, excel, web, big hd, etc. There are a LOT out there like this, so I'm looking for a recommendation on something that isn't a piece of shit.

Dell Inspiron 15 or HP Compaq Presario.

There aren't many safe choices in this price range, unless you go Netbook. Avoid the low-end Acers.

I assume you meant a good GPU isn't needed.

I don't necessarily believe you. "Never" so the laptops that are $750 now with a mobility 5650 will never drop in price?

Well, I should have added, in 2010. They'll be down there in Q1 2011.

But who knows, maybe HP will have some decent coupons in Q4.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

.

 

[Shambles]

Yes, all Primary IDE and Secondary IDE channels are running in DMA mode.

Would the fact that I'm currently using Windows XP Service Pack 2 make a difference?

As a last resort you could try throwing it into another machine and run the benchmark there. It does seem that your drive is bad and needs to be RMA'd though.

 

[Dr.Acula]

Reinstall microsoft's .net framework (I think it's on 0.3? or something?) uninstall and reinstall nVidia drivers with driver sweeper following the instructions.

Might be the PSU, it's not the best quality but it should handle it fine. Might be the card.
After trying the above you can downclock it and see if the same problems persist.
Can you describe whats happening with L4D and Stalker?
I've had Fallout 3 bug out on me before, don't believe it was hardware related.

L4D2 was giving me green dots all over the menu, and then the game would crash at startup. Stalker the textures and geometry would go missing, and then the whole thing would crash after a few seconds.

Reinstalling .net seems to have fixed it though. Re-ran OCCT for an hour with 0 errors, and all my games play fine. I have another two weeks until I hit the 30-day return window with newegg, so I'll just keep monitoring it.

It makes sense. Everything's perfect, some sort of .net error, then everything goes sideways, fix .net, back to normal.

--
Hey, where's the old PC troubleshooting thread? I was looking for it last night but couldn't find it.

 

[Gary Whitta]

So games are crashing a lot so far on the new rig I built. I think maybe it's the GPU (ASUS 5870) but can't be sure. Typically:

Game will freeze for a few seconds, then show a solid blank screen (gray or some other color) then lose connection to the monitor entirely then after a few more seconds the game will (usually) recover, accompanied by a brief loud blast from the (I think) GPU fan. Either that or the game just freezes entirely and I have to reboot. I've seen this in WoW, StarCraft II, COD World at War and TF2.

I've updated ATI drivers, chipset drivers, lowered RAM speed, underclocked the card, reseated the CPU but so far nothing works. Any ideas?

 

[eznark]

So games are crashing a lot so far on the new rig I built. I think maybe it's the GPU (ASUS 5870) but can't be sure. Typically:

Game will freeze for a few seconds, then show a solid blank screen (gray or some other color) then lose connection to the monitor entirely then after a few more seconds the game will (usually) recover, accompanied by a brief loud blast from the (I think) GPU fan. Either that or the game just freezes entirely and I have to reboot. I've seen this in WoW, StarCraft II, COD World at War and TF2.

I've updated ATI drivers, chipset drivers, lowered RAM speed, underclocked the card, reseated the CPU but so far nothing works. Any ideas?

Punch Will for not minimizing your points of failure.

 

[brain_stew]

So games are crashing a lot so far on the new rig I built. I think maybe it's the GPU (ASUS 5870) but can't be sure. Typically:

Game will freeze for a few seconds, then show a solid blank screen (gray or some other color) then lose connection to the monitor entirely then after a few more seconds the game will (usually) recover, accompanied by a brief loud blast from the (I think) GPU fan. Either that or the game just freezes entirely and I have to reboot. I've seen this in WoW, StarCraft II, COD World at War and TF2.

I've updated ATI drivers, chipset drivers, lowered RAM speed, underclocked the card, reseated the CPU but so far nothing works. Any ideas?

Run OCCT's GPU test, if that fails its your GPU.

If not, run OCCT CPU test, if that ails its your CPU.

If not run Memtest, if that fails its your memory.


I suspect its the GPU. Perfect time to switch it for a GTX 470 and get ~$100 of your cash back and a better GPU to boot.

 

[Gary Whitta]

Run OCCT's GPU test, if that fails its your GPU.

If not, run OCCT CPU test, if that ails its your CPU.

If not run Memtest, if that fails its your memory.


I suspect its the GPU. Perfect time to switch it for a GTX 470 and get ~$100 of your cash back and a better GPU to boot.

Apparently my rig does not support either the GPU or memtest so both are disabled.

Run OCCT's GPU test, if that fails its your GPU.

I suspect its the GPU. Perfect time to switch it for a GTX 470 and get ~$100 of your cash back and a better GPU to boot.

Yeah I am seriously considering that!

 

[DodgyGeezerFella]

Just curious, what was installed after Windows 7 had finished installing ?

 

[brain_stew]

Apparently my rig does not support either the GPU or memtest so both are disabled.

Try Furmark instead, or rename the .exe.

By memtest I didn't mean OCCT's memory test, i meant this:

http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

 

[Gary Whitta]

Run OCCT's GPU test, if that fails its your GPU.

If not, run OCCT CPU test, if that ails its your CPU.

If not run Memtest, if that fails its your memory.


I suspect its the GPU. Perfect time to switch it for a GTX 470 and get ~$100 of your cash back and a better GPU to boot.

I'm running FurMark right now to test the GPU it seems fine so far. OCCT CPU Test reported an error on Core #3.

 

[twdnewh_k]

Hi everyone. im looking for a nettop to act as an htpc. Budget is $300-500, obviously looking for the best bargain.
Im not looking to do any gaming or use any optical media.

My only requirement is the the ability to run HD video with no issues at all, and an HDMi output for audio and video.

I've heard good things abt the acer revo series, but ive been hearing word of nettops coming with new atom/ion chips.

thanks !

 

[kagete]

I'm running FurMark right now to test the GPU it seems fine so far. OCCT CPU Test reported an error on Core #3.

Aha! I knew you did the secret CPU handoff wrong with Will! He was doing two fingers up top and you were supposed to do the pinch while flashing your hood's sign with your free hand. Either that or Loyd bent your pins when he touched the socket. There were 3 men with you on that livestream, now you must find the one who did it and kill him

 

[brain_stew]

I'm running FurMark right now to test the GPU it seems fine so far. OCCT CPU Test reported an error on Core #3.

Could still mean its the memory, CPUs are very rarely faulty.

 

[Corky]

Since this thread > google <3

Running a gtx 460 with a gts 250 as a physX card : Is it as simple as plugging them both in, and then in the nvidia controlpanel assign one of them as a dedicated physX card?

Or do I have to have somekind of hardware /sli- bridge between the cards?

Thanks again

 

[brain_stew]

Hi everyone. im looking for a nettop to act as an htpc. Budget is $300-500, obviously looking for the best bargain.
Im not looking to do any gaming or use any optical media.

My only requirement is the the ability to run HD video with no issues at all, and an HDMi output for audio and video.

I've heard good things abt the acer revo series, but ive been hearing word of nettops coming with new atom/ion chips.

thanks !

The problem with relying on an Atom/Ion combo is that if you don't have a media player and codec that supports DXVA then its not going to play if its a HD file. As such I'd probably be tempted to get, a cheapo socket 775 m-itx motherboard like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500044&cm_re=itx-_-13-500-044-_-Product

Then pair that with a cheapy low end socket 775 dual core processor like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116264

This cheapy 2GB stick of RAM:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0227494&cm_re=2gb_ddr2-_-20-227-494-_-Product

Then you're most of the way there. There's plenty of M-ITX cases to choose from and this sort of setup will require the absolute minimum PSU capacity.

Edit: Just realised that board doesn't have an HDMI output, that's no good, I'll find something more suitable.

Its hard to find any decent alternatives in that price range, step up a little and you could get this combo, would be much better suited:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131659

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103687

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0231252&cm_re=2gb_ddr3-_-20-231-252-_-Product

Pricier but it does give you HDMI with HD audio, decent integrated graphics, wireless N, a more stable motherboard/chipset and the option to add a dedicated GPU or upgrade the processor cheaply later along the line if you want more out of it.

 

[Mr_Brit]

Since this thread > google <3

Running a gtx 460 with a gts 250 as a physX card : Is it as simple as plugging them both in, and then in the nvidia controlpanel assign one of them as a dedicated physX card?

Or do I have to have somekind of hardware /sli- bridge between the cards?

Thanks again

Pretty much that.

 

[brain_stew]

Since this thread > google <3

Running a gtx 460 with a gts 250 as a physX card : Is it as simple as plugging them both in, and then in the nvidia controlpanel assign one of them as a dedicated physX card?

Yup, should be.

 

[Salaadin]

Try Furmark instead, or rename the .exe.

By memtest I didn't mean OCCT's memory test, i meant this:

http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

An advantages to that one over memtest86+?

 

[L0st Id3ntity]

Just to start you off, this is the GPU I'd choose:

http://www.ncixus.com/products/54105/ZT-40102-10P/Zotac/

Its the fastest single GPU solution out there and is also one of the quietest high end GPUs you can buy as well.

I see. Can you recommend the other main parts as well? It may take me too much time to research and I don't want to end up with a bad match if that's possible.

 

[Gary Whitta]

Could still mean its the memory, CPUs are very rarely faulty.

I'm running memtest now, no problems so far. I ran OCCT Test a couple more times and it came back with different results so who knows how reliable that is?

FurMark test passed with flying colors so now I'm thinking maybe it's not the GPU after all. I'm totally baffled.

 

[brain_stew]

I see. Can you recommend the other main parts as well? It may take me too much time to research and I don't want to end up with a bad match if that's possible.

If you want an ultra high end rig and to really spend most of that budget, this is what I'd suggest:

http://www.ncixus.com/products/index.php?sku=54105&promoid=1008

http://www.ncixus.com/products/index.php?sku=35456&promoid=1008

http://www.ncixus.com/products/index.php?sku=44398&promoid=1008

http://www.ncixus.com/products/index.php?sku=50895&promoid=1008

http://www.ncixus.com/products/index.php?sku=49016&promoid=1008

http://www.ncixus.com/products/index.php?sku=50913&promoid=1008

http://www.ncixus.com/products/index.php?sku=34719&promoid=1008

I've left off the case (since that's a personal choice) and an OS but add OEM X64 HP if you need it. Comes to $1600 after rebates and discounts but that;s with the best single GPU solution on the market today, a ridiculously fast processor with craploads of OCing headroom in the i7-930, 6GB of DDR3 RAM, an Intel SSD, 1TB HDD, a 700w modular PSU, water cooling and an excellent high end motherboard.

Now, not everyone needs all those high end niceties but its not as if you're throwing away money here, you're definitely getting something extra by paying that premium. If you'd rather something that just plays games at high/max settings @ 1080p with little bother but costs less than $1000 then I can spec something like that up for you.

 

[Hawk269]

Greetings all-

As I have posted before, I just configured my new rig with SLI with the following specs...

AMD Phenom II Black Edition 965 X4 @3.4
SLI eVGA 460 w/1gig Ram Each
8 Gigs of Ram at 1600
Win Ultim. 64bit

Being new with building a comp and SLI, I am not sure if the below results with the Mafia 2 Demo are good or not. It appears to me, I should be getting higher fps, but that is why I am asking here.

In Mafia 2, with setting 1 of the 460's for Physx, all otehr settings in the game at Max, inluding V-Sync to on, I get on average about 33 fps. With the hardware I have, I figured I would get a bit better performance. Is this normal?

I do have the SLI Bridge in place, latest drivers for both Physx and the Card. I know both cards are working because when I run the game with no Physx and no V-Sync on a single card I get around 58FPS, with both cards no V-Sync I get around 90+ or so. Again being new, not sure if those are good numbers as well.

I did 3dmark and received a high score for both CPU and GFX...actually about 500-600 points higher that Guru 3d test using dual 460's.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[brain_stew]

I'm running memtest now, no problems so far. I ran OCCT Test a couple more times and it came back with different results so who knows how reliable that is?

FurMark test passed with flying colors so now I'm thinking maybe it's not the GPU after all. I'm totally baffled.

That's normal, a CPU fault could crop up at any time. What temperatures is it showing during testing? It could be your heatsink isn't properly mounted and your CPU is overheating.

I've never heard of a faulty GPU passing Furmark really, so it being the GPU seems less likely. Try running ATI Tool's artefact scanner, it'll probably say its not compatible with your GPU/drivers but that's fine, that only applies to the OCing portion and you're not using that.

Are you making sure you're running enough iterations of Memtest to swamp all your memory? Be sure to close down as many programs as you can as well. You can also later try booting with just a single stick, then running the games that crash, then trying it with just the other stick.

 

[twdnewh_k]

thnx a lot brain_stew

 

[brain_stew]

Greetings all-

As I have posted before, I just configured my new rig with SLI with the following specs...

AMD Phenom II Black Edition 965 X4 @3.4
SLI eVGA 460 w/1gig Ram Each
8 Gigs of Ram at 1600
Win Ultim. 64bit

Being new with building a comp and SLI, I am not sure if the below results with the Mafia 2 Demo are good or not. It appears to me, I should be getting higher fps, but that is why I am asking here.

In Mafia 2, with setting 1 of the 460's for Physx, all otehr settings in the game at Max, inluding V-Sync to on, I get on average about 33 fps. With the hardware I have, I figured I would get a bit better performance. Is this normal?

I do have the SLI Bridge in place, latest drivers for both Physx and the Card. I know both cards are working because when I run the game with no Physx and no V-Sync on a single card I get around 58FPS, with both cards no V-Sync I get around 90+ or so. Again being new, not sure if those are good numbers as well.

I did 3dmark and received a high score for both CPU and GFX...actually about 500-600 points higher that Guru 3d test using dual 460's.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks!

V-sync will cripple performance if you're not forcing triple buffering, so download Rivatuner, and use the included D3DOverrider package to always force triple buffering+v-sync and never use the ingame/driver vsync option again.

Have you followed this guide for PhysX tweaking?

http://physxinfo.com/news/3628/mafia-ii-demo-tweaking-physx-performance/

Disable NPC cloth physics as instructed there and uninstall PhysX and install this recent update:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx-9.10.0513-driver.html


Enabling PhysX high will lower your framerate even if you have a dedicated PhyX card as there's more stuff for the primary GPU to render and more things for the CPU to keep in sync.


Tap ctrl+alt+delete during gameplay as well and see what your CPU usage ingame is as well. Its possible you're suffering from the bug that loads the CPU with the PhysX works, though that looks unlikely.

 

[Lonely1]

Dam, though luck Gary, . Whats the temperature on your CPU?

 

[Gary Whitta]

That's normal, a CPU fault could crop up at any time. What temperatures is it showing during testing? It could be your heatsink isn't properly mounted and your CPU is overheating.

I don't know, I don't see a field for temp in the OCCT window. I'm pretty sure it's not the heatsink though, I already took it out and reseated it once, it's definitely locked in place properly.

 

[brain_stew]

I don't know, I don't see a field for temp in the OCCT window. I'm pretty sure it's not the heatsink though, I already took it out and reseated it once, it's definitely locked in place properly.

Hmm, OCCT should have an integrated temperature monitor, if you're using a modern version. They should be named core #0, core #1 etc.

You can alwyas run CoreTemp or RealTemp while you use it instead, I guess.

 

[Zaraki_Kenpachi]

I don't know, I don't see a field for temp in the OCCT window. I'm pretty sure it's not the heatsink though, I already took it out and reseated it once, it's definitely locked in place properly.

You reapplied thermal when you reseat it right?

 

[Gary Whitta]

You reapplied thermal when you reseat it right?

No I didn't and what was on there looked like it was diminished somewhat. Maybe I should get some new stuff and squirt it on there?

 

[Hawk269]

V-sync will cripple performance if you're not forcing triple buffering, so download Rivatuner, and use the included D3DOverrider package to always force triple buffering+v-sync and never use the ingame/driver vsync option again.

Have you followed this guide for PhysX tweaking?

http://physxinfo.com/news/3628/mafia-ii-demo-tweaking-physx-performance/

Disable NPC cloth physics as instructed there and uninstall PhysX and install this recent update:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx-9.10.0513-driver.html


Enabling PhysX high will lower your framerate even if you have a dedicated PhyX card as there's more stuff for the primary GPU to render and more things for the CPU to keep in sync.


Tap ctrl+alt+delete during gameplay as well and see what your CPU usage ingame is as well. Its possible you're suffering from the bug that loads the CPU with the PhysX works, though that looks unlikely.

I will look into those tweeks, but based on configuration is the FPS I am getting right where it should be based on my hardware? Being new to building a rig and PC gaming I just want to know if those numbers I am getting are where there should be.

I know each invidual game will vary and tweaks can be done, but just my raw numbers with no tweaks I want to know if I am where I need to be. I guess just being paranoid that something may be wrong or that I did something wrong.

Thanks,

 

[Lonely1]

No I didn't and what was on there looked like it was diminished somewhat. Maybe I should get some new stuff and squirt it on there?

If its overheating, yeah. Just make sure that's the problem. Run RealTemp.

 

[brain_stew]

I will look into those tweeks, but based on configuration is the FPS I am getting right where it should be based on my hardware? Being new to building a rig and PC gaming I just want to know if those numbers I am getting are where there should be.

I know each invidual game will vary and tweaks can be done, but just my raw numbers with no tweaks I want to know if I am where I need to be. I guess just being paranoid that something may be wrong or that I did something wrong.

Thanks,

I honestly couldn't say, standard double buffered vsync can reduce performance by as much as 50% so get rid of that first.

 

[Gary Whitta]

If its overheating, yeah. Just make sure that's the problem. Run RealTemp.

According to RealTemp and the OCCT temperature gauge (which I finally figured out) the CPU is 25-35 when idle, up to about 70/71 max when under stress. How's that?

 

[Omiee]

what should i get

460 in SLI with i5 760
or 5870 crossfire with i5 760

which is faster and can i get some benchmarks..?

its either this setup
http://tweakers.net/gallery/367893?wish_id=85877#tab:wenslijst


or this one
http://tweakers.net/gallery/367893?wish_id=85873#tab:wenslijst

 

[Lonely1]

According to RealTemp and the OCCT temperature gauge (which I finally figured out) the CPU is 25-35 when idle, up to about 70/71 max when under stress. How's that?

70-71 (C) is a bit high, but still comfortably bellow the red zone. Sorry i can't be of more help.

 

[Gary Whitta]

Yeah I don't think it's the CPU. There's something weird going on that's for sure, WoW is crashing all the time now.

 

[brain_stew]

70-71 (C) is a bit high, but still comfortably bellow the red zone. Sorry i can't be of more help.

OCCT can push it pretty high and since he's on stock cooling, that doesn't seem to be particularly out of the oridinary. So its not CPU temps that are causing the crashes, I still think its memory tbh, its the most common component to turn up faulty.

Try running your games again with each stick individually.

 

[DodgyGeezerFella]

Something that might be worth trying later on is a completely fresh graphics driver install. I installed ATI's 10.6 drivers over 10.5 awhile ago, and my system would freeze up and reboot about a minute after Windows had booted (after years of happily installing the latest driver over the previous, on mine and multiple computers with no problems). I had to restart in safe mode, run driver sweeper and remove all traces of ATI drivers, reboot into Windows, restart again because Windows intalled its own driver, then finally install 10.6 again and everything ran perfectly from then on. Many others had this problem too (could just have been 10.6), so its likely this isnt your problem, but just an idea im throwing out there if nothing else sorts it out

Its also 1 of many reasons im going back to Nvidia, last bunch of ATI drivers have done more harm than good in many of my games Great hardware, but there drivers just aint upto par with Nvidia in quick enough time (from my experience, of course).

 

[Curufinwe]

Anyone have a good wireless mouse recommendations for using with a laptop?

$40 or less and it has to have at least one thumb button.

 

[brain_stew]

Something that might be worth trying later on is a completely fresh graphics driver install. I installed ATI's 10.6 drivers over 10.5 awhile ago, and my system would freeze up and reboot about a minute after Windows had booted (after years of happily installing the latest driver over the previous, on mine and multiple computers with no problems). I had to restart in safe mode, run driver sweeper and remove all traces of ATI drivers, reboot into Windows, restart again because Windows intalled its own driver, then finally install 10.6 again and everything ran perfectly from then on. Many others had this problem too (could just have been 10.6), so its likely this isnt your problem, but just an idea im throwing out there if nothing else sorts it out

Its also 1 of many reasons im going back to Nvidia, last bunch of ATI drivers have done more harm than good in many of my games Great hardware, but there drivers just aint upto par with Nvidia in quick enough time (from my experience, of course).

Shhh, you're not allowed to say Nvidia have better drivers than ATI around here.

Spoiler

Even though they most certainly do.