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[grap3fruitman]

Ta-dah!

Thanks for your input guys. Runs like a champ but I can't find a decent app to play HD-DVDs and Blu-rays in Windows 7. The older version of PowerDVD that is supposed to always gives me an error about my system being inadequate (hah!), but I'm not the only person that's getting the same error under W7 according to Google. Any suggestions?

I've also got another question; this build was for my non-PC gaming brother (I don't know why I went so high end) so now the younger one that does play PC games is obviously quite jealous. I had built him a system like a year and a half ago as a late Xmas present (was drunk from the Xmas party and ended up ordering it, haha, though I wish I had put more thought into it now). So my question is, how do I go about improving his rig without really building a brand new one? His specs are:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Windsor 2.8GHz Socket AM2
GIGABYTE GA-MA69G-S3H AM2 AMD 690G ATX Motherboard
SAPPHIRE 100215L Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16
OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Rosewill RD500-2DB 500W ATX12V Power Supply

The mobo doesn't support socket AM2+ so I can't get a newer quad-AMD processor and so I guess my only route would be to get a new graphics card and more ram, right? Hmmm... =\

Or maybe I'll just end up building him a rig similar to the one pictured and take his. I haven't upgraded my PC in four years and its age is really starting to show.

 

[TheExodu5]

Ta-dah!

Thanks for your input guys. Runs like a champ but I can't find a decent app to play HD-DVDs and Blu-rays in Windows 7. The older version of PowerDVD that is supposed to always gives me an error about my system being inadequate (hah!), but I'm not the only person that's getting the same error under W7 according to Google. Any suggestions?

I've also got another question; this build was for my non-PC gaming brother (I don't know why I went so high end) so now the younger one that does play PC games is obviously quite jealous. I had built him a system like a year and a half ago as a late Xmas present (was drunk from the Xmas party and ended up ordering it, haha, though I wish I had put more thought into it now). So my question is, how do I go about improving his rig without really building a brand new one? His specs are:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Windsor 2.8GHz Socket AM2
GIGABYTE GA-MA69G-S3H AM2 AMD 690G ATX Motherboard
SAPPHIRE 100215L Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16
OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Rosewill RD500-2DB 500W ATX12V Power Supply

The mobo doesn't support socket AM2+ so I can't get a newer quad-AMD processor and so I guess my only route would be to get a new graphics card and more ram, right? Hmmm... =\

Or maybe I'll just end up building him a rig similar to the one pictured and take his. I haven't upgraded my PC in four years and its age is really starting to show.

I'm not sure about the socket AM2 stuff...never owned or spent much time researching into AMD.

He's got more than enough RAM in that system.

The graphics card could certainly be updated to an HD 4890. Hopefully that Rosewill PSU can hold up...I'm not sure how much power they can actually deliver. The reason I'm saying that is because I believe the HD 4890 takes an extra power connector, which means maybe an extra 75W draw.

 

[VistraNorrez]

Be careful about those 4890 deals from Fatwallet. Seems a lot of people on FW are now getting annoyed because ewiz seems to have been switching prices around a lot, even so quickly that some people ended up with one price when they added the thing to their cart, and it increased right as they hit the final submit button. They're not too happy about the hassle of canceling the orders either. I think I'm going to wait and see what happens with prices once the official price drops occur.

Yes this is true, you cannot hesitate at all. Thankfully I got in on the HIS 4890 before it went out of stock, and it shipped this morning, but buyer beware.

 

[MiniBossman]

Ok I got my GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P yesterday. I'm getting it prepared for installation tonight, but I noticed something different compared to my old board. The 4 pin power plug is an 8 pin on this mobo.

Now my PSU (Tagan 700W) has two 4 pin connectors. Do i just plug them both in? Does it matter which one goes in which side of the 8 pin? The manual wasn't that clear.

Secondly, what if any level of Overclocking can I do with the Q6600 on this board with the stock Intel fan?

Any help would be great.

 

[TheExodu5]

Ok I got my GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P yesterday. I'm getting it prepared for installation tonight, but I noticed something different compared to my old board. The 4 pin power plug is an 8 pin on this mobo.

Now my PSU (Tagan 700W) has two 4 pin connectors. Do i just plug them both in? Does it matter which one goes in which side of the 8 pin? The manual wasn't that clear. Any help would be great.

I don't think any mobos require 2 4-pin connectors, so I'd assume using both 4pins is fine. Usually there's a clip on the connector on the motherboard indicating which direction the cables should plug in. Does the clip on the motherboard allow both 4-pin connectors to be clipped in?

Hopefully someone else can clarify on the matter, just thought I'd throw in my thoughts in the meantime.

As for OC'ing with the stock Intel fan, I'm really not sure how much it allows you to overclock a quad. I think they ran fairly hot. What you want to do, is get something like Speedfan that will show you the temp of the CPU. Then, you can get a stressing tool, like Orthos (I think that's what it's called). Stress the CPU at stock, and compare the temperatures to the thermal specification of the Q6600 (you should be able to find that on the Intel site). If it's staying below the thermal specification during stressing, you can OC it until you're reaching the thermal specification during stressing.

 

[BravoSuperStar]

Ok I got my GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P yesterday. I'm getting it prepared for installation tonight, but I noticed something different compared to my old board. The 4 pin power plug is an 8 pin on this mobo.

Now my PSU (Tagan 700W) has two 4 pin connectors. Do i just plug them both in? Does it matter which one goes in which side of the 8 pin? The manual wasn't that clear.

Secondly, what if any level of Overclocking can I do with the Q6600 on this board with the stock Intel fan?

Any help would be great.

It should work just plugging in the 4 pins into the 8pin connector. You can also get an adapter at a PC store if needed. Also plugging them both in may work, I have heard of doing this but don't know for sure myself.

 

[Ikuu]

Anyone got an NEC 24WMGX3 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-028-NE) tempted to order one, my TV broke but since I use it about an hour a day max, and could easily see the monitor from where I sit, might as well just buy an awesome monitor.

 

[Battersea Power Station]

Thanks, Exodu, brain_stew, Hazaro.

I have my wedding coming up in September and am trying to save some money until then, but if everything works out ok, I'd probably be able to go for $900 or so for a video editing rig.

Do you mind if I post again at that time and see if your advice has change based on components available and their prices?

Thanks,

Mike

 

[brain_stew]

Ta-dah!

Thanks for your input guys. Runs like a champ but I can't find a decent app to play HD-DVDs and Blu-rays in Windows 7. The older version of PowerDVD that is supposed to always gives me an error about my system being inadequate (hah!), but I'm not the only person that's getting the same error under W7 according to Google. Any suggestions?

I've also got another question; this build was for my non-PC gaming brother (I don't know why I went so high end) so now the younger one that does play PC games is obviously quite jealous. I had built him a system like a year and a half ago as a late Xmas present (was drunk from the Xmas party and ended up ordering it, haha, though I wish I had put more thought into it now). So my question is, how do I go about improving his rig without really building a brand new one? His specs are:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ Windsor 2.8GHz Socket AM2
GIGABYTE GA-MA69G-S3H AM2 AMD 690G ATX Motherboard
SAPPHIRE 100215L Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16
OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Rosewill RD500-2DB 500W ATX12V Power Supply

The mobo doesn't support socket AM2+ so I can't get a newer quad-AMD processor and so I guess my only route would be to get a new graphics card and more ram, right? Hmmm... =\

Or maybe I'll just end up building him a rig similar to the one pictured and take his. I haven't upgraded my PC in four years and its age is really starting to show.

RAM isn't going to add anything but some CPU overclocking will. Pick up this $20 cooler and see what you can get out of it. It isn't a bad gaming CPU anyway,especially if you can get it past 3ghz.

Buy a 4890 (check out earlier posts for some excellent deals) and you've got a very nice gaming rig for a $200 investment.

 

[TheExodu5]

Do you mind if I post again at that time and see if your advice has change based on components available and their prices?

Not at all. Hopefully I can try to keep up with hardware until then. If not, it will give me an opportunity to research the benchmarks at that time.

 

[brain_stew]

Ok I got my GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P yesterday. I'm getting it prepared for installation tonight, but I noticed something different compared to my old board. The 4 pin power plug is an 8 pin on this mobo.

Now my PSU (Tagan 700W) has two 4 pin connectors. Do i just plug them both in? Does it matter which one goes in which side of the 8 pin? The manual wasn't that clear.

Secondly, what if any level of Overclocking can I do with the Q6600 on this board with the stock Intel fan?

Any help would be great.

Don't do any overclocking on the stock HSF, its barely adequate cooling for a stock Q6600. If you just want a mild 3ghz which will give you a noticable boost without diminishing returns then pick up this if you're on a budget. There's plenty of better options,sure but you'll have to be spending close to 3x as much to get a much better cooler than that.

Thanks, Exodu, brain_stew, Hazaro.

I have my wedding coming up in September and am trying to save some money until then, but if everything works out ok, I'd probably be able to go for $900 or so for a video editing rig.

Do you mind if I post again at that time and see if your advice has change based on components available and their prices?

Thanks,

Mike

Of course not, I'm thinking a core i5 rig is going to be perfect for your budget and needs so holding out until that's launched is probably not a bad idea anyway.

 

[VistraNorrez]

Can anyone tell me for certain if this memory will work with this motherboard?

 

[Crazymoogle]

Can anyone tell me for certain if this memory will work with this motherboard?

The motherboard uses DDR2. That is DDR2 memory. So 95% of the time it will work at DDR 800 speed. Judging by the comments though, may not be the smartest buy for an AMD platform. Maybe this instead? Can't tell for "certain" if the memory works without actually testing it out.

Generally speaking any 1066 DDR2 will be fine for your board though, (and even the speed rating doesn't matter too much, since I think the CPU/memory clocks are still independent?) Typically issues happen as a result of voltage or running at high spec; clock down and problems go away.

 

[VistraNorrez]

Thank you very much Crazymoogle. The reviews on there were confusing me, in GAF I trust.

 

[MisterAnderson]

Can anyone explain to me what Raid is? Not sure what that term is referring to and looking it up didn't really help make it clear as to what exactly it is.

Also what's the best method of seeing your CPU/video card temp/control your fan speeds? I downloaded this program called SpeedFan and it seems good enough except I couldn't find the temp of my video card.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Can anyone explain to me what Raid is? Not sure what that term is referring to and looking it up didn't really help make it clear as to what exactly it is.

Also what's the best method of seeing your CPU/video card temp/control your fan speeds? I downloaded this program called SpeedFan and it seems good enough except I couldn't find the temp of my video card.

RAID: Redundant Array of Independent Disks

Basically, it's a way to string together a bunch of drives for improved performance and/or redundancy (backup).

RAID 0: Pairs of disks (2 or 4), data is split up between the two. It's great for speed - now you have two highways for data instead of one - but if either drive fails you lose all of your data. Folks are using this a lot with SSDs right now to max out the SATA2 bus.

RAID 1: Pairs of disks with data duplicated. A bit slower since you write to two drives simultaneously, but if one drive fails you still have the other. On the other hand, if one drive screws up a write, the other may have too.

RAID 5: Disk pairing with both faster writes ("striping") and redundancy. Since all of the drives (you use 4 in this case) have parity info, if one drive fails the other drives can construct the information (probably) using the parity information. Takes awhile and knocks your array out of commission though.

JBOD: Basically, you have a bunch of drives. JBOD tricks them into thinking they are all one big drive. It's useful because all other raid methods require equal-size drives. JBOD is just "whatever". No redundancy, though. It's still used for various things these days but to a gamer it's kinda pointless in the era of 500GB-2TB hard drives.

 

[MisterAnderson]

As I understand it the lower the number (latency I think?) on RAM the more it can do faster.

This triple channel Corsair set is about $145 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145242
with 7-7-7-20

This is the set of Patroit RAM I got for $79.99 at Fry's
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220364
with 9-9-9-24

Would the extra money for the lower latency be worth it in anyone's opinion?

 

[brain_stew]

As I understand it the lower the number (latency I think?) on RAM the more it can do faster.

This triple channel Corsair set is about $145 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145242
with 7-7-7-20

This is the set of Patroit RAM I got for $79.99 at Fry's
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220364
with 9-9-9-24

Would the extra money for the lower latency be worth it in anyone's opinion?

You willonly ever notice the difference in benchmarks, and even then we're talking a couple of percent at most. Expensive RAM like that is aimed at hardcore OCers and benchamrkers,its a waste for anyone else.

 

[Hazaro]

You willonly ever notice the difference in benchmarks, and even then we're talking a couple of percent at most. Expensive RAM like that is aimed at hardcore OCers and benchamrkers,its a waste for anyone else.

Sub percentages at best! :lol
But yeah, really really minimal.

 

[PedroLumpy]

Is the info in the original post still good?

 

[Darklord]

I have a really annoying problem. Since my new PC I got Vista and it seems to randomly change my folders around.

Say for example I pick "List" as my view and adjust a few things around. I'll come back and it's switched it to "Medium icons", I'll put it back to list, come back later and it's on details now plus every time it changes it resets them to be in sorted by name. It does it for heaps of folders and I'm sick of having to redo them at least 1-2 times a day.

I want my Stuff folder as large icons but no, it keeps putting it to list. Argh! It does it for my movies, music, random, programs folder, near every folder I use on a daily basis.

Is there anyway to fix this?

 

[Wrekt]

My PC seems to have a dead motherboard. It's a rather old board but I don't have the money to replace the entire thing. I've always had poor luck replacing out of date equipment so I'd appreciate it if I could get some help.

The old board is an Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe. I originally bought it on NewEgg but they stopped selling them. Can anybody recommend a replacement board or does anybody know a decent place where I can pick another one up?

 

[MisterAnderson]

I'm getting 6GB Corsair DDR3 RAM from newegg. I'm probably a nuisance to this thread by this point with all my nitpicky questions, but thought I'd ask if these were ok. I've seen high performance RAM with heatsinks that looked pointed and was wondering if the heatsinks on these are alright, I know Corsair is known for their quality and don't mean to question it just wondering if these are the type of Corsair RAM I'd get for an i7 setup and which would be best (or if you can link me to a better/better valued 6GB Corsair set).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145236

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145242

 

[MWS Natural]

I'm getting 6GB Corsair DDR3 RAM from newegg. I'm probably a nuisance to this thread by this point with all my nitpicky questions, but thought I'd ask if these were ok. I've seen high performance RAM with heatsinks that looked pointed and was wondering if the heatsinks on these are alright, I know Corsair is known for their quality and don't mean to question it just wondering if these are the type of Corsair RAM I'd get for an i7 setup and which would be best (or if you can link me to a better/better valued 6GB Corsair set).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145236

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145242

It's the same RAM but with different timings just get the cheaper one.

You will only ever notice the difference in benchmarks, and even then we're talking a couple of percent at most. Expensive RAM like that is aimed at hardcore OCers and benchmarkers, its a waste for anyone else.

 

[Skenzin]

I fried my new Asus motherboard. I had the entire system up and running perfectly. However, somehow there was electricity running thru the aluminum case, as in if you touched it certain places it was like touching a very large 9v battery! The motherboard was mounted right with the risers and all. I have no idea. It's not like Im new to this. I honestly think it was something with the case, which I would expect from a cheap case but it was LianLi.

Anyway I let it go for a day and when I tried to plug in a USB device in the back I must have completed the circuit between the case and USB port and the whole thing went dead. god I hope its just the motherboard, who knows.. Im gonna be in RMA hell for a week. It was running very well though other than somebody could have died and all.

 

[tahrikmili]

I was really holding out for a 4770 but I found a 4850 for 90 bucks. I think I'll really cave in and order it to replace my 3850. My only hesitation is that I play about 3-4 games on the PC in a year. Hopefully I can sell off my old card somehow.

 

[MisterAnderson]

It's the same RAM but with different timings just get the cheaper one.

Ok thanks man. One last question: I currently have a Sonata Designer 500. It only has 1 large fan in the back (exhaust) and two small in the front (intakes). It's running a Core2Duo/4870 and averages at about 40-45 degrees.

I asked the guy at Fry's if this case would be sufficient with an i7 setup with an 4890 and he made it sound like I would be better off with an Antec 900-2. What do you guys think? It has a lot more airflow it seems... the only reason I went with the Sonata was it was cheaper and was a very quiet case. But keeping this stuff cool is definitely more important to me.

 

[Hazaro]

Ok thanks man. One last question: I currently have a Sonata Designer 500. It only has 1 large fan in the back (exhaust) and two small in the front (intakes). It's running a Core2Duo/4870 and averages at about 40-45 degrees.

I asked the guy at Fry's if this case would be sufficient with an i7 setup with an 4890 and he made it sound like I would be better off with an Antec 900-2. What do you guys think? It has a lot more airflow it seems... the only reason I went with the Sonata was it was cheaper and was a very quiet case. But keeping this stuff cool is definitely more important to me.

Are those CPU / GPU idle temps?

If so you can replace the fans. Ive got two 80mm lying around here. You can have for $2 shipped.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835150007
As for the 120mm, a Yateloon would be good, cheapest would be at petra tech shop or jabtech.

Hopefully I can sell off my old card somehow.

Buy/Sell thread on here or eBay.

*Older mobos are harder to find, post some wanted ads on CL and on other tech forums like Anandtech and [H]ard

 

[evlcookie]

Dunno if this falls into the new PC section. But i need a new keyboard, some of my letters arent working at all :lol

I currently use an original G15 and love it to death. The problem is i havent been able to find a replacement since every new keyboard has a few "G" keys but not enough. I use about ~10 of them for WoW and the lcd screen is too useful to not have another. I might be able to live without one though if i really need to :lol

So does anyone know of a good gaming based keyboard? Of course one solution would be to quit WoW and then find a good standard KB but that won't be happening

 

[MisterAnderson]

Are those CPU / GPU idle temps?

If so you can replace the fans. Ive got two 80mm lying around here. You can have for $2 shipped.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835150007
As for the 120mm, a Yateloon would be good, cheapest would be at petra tech shop or jabtech.

Right now it's been running idle while I've been surfing GAF and it's running at 41 degrees. Would swapping the fans with these 3 speed Antec fans really make that much of a difference? And when I put an i7 and 4890 in here won't it make it run that much hotter? It just seems like this case - while aesthetically pleasing and quiet - can't possibly have sufficient ventilation for a gaming rig. In retrospec I think it was kind of naive of me to get a case with only 1 exhaust fan.

The main reason I got the Sonata is that it came with a power supply (500w) but now that's gotta be replaced anyway to power the i7 setup w/ 4890 GPU. The Antec 900 two is only $20 more than the Sonata so it might just pay to switch it up since I'm having to redo everything else anyway with the i7 build. Do you really think swapping out the fans in the Sonata 500 would be good enough?

 

[DeadTrees]

I have a really annoying problem. Since my new PC I got Vista and it seems to randomly change my folders around.

Say for example I pick "List" as my view and adjust a few things around. I'll come back and it's switched it to "Medium icons", I'll put it back to list, come back later and it's on details now plus every time it changes it resets them to be in sorted by name. It does it for heaps of folders and I'm sick of having to redo them at least 1-2 times a day.

There's a registry hack for this in the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion (under "Fix Incorrect Folder Views").

 

[Hazaro]

Dunno if this falls into the new PC section. But i need a new keyboard, some of my letters arent working at all :lol

I currently use an original G15 and love it to death.

Call Logitech and they'll send you one for free

*The amount of airflow you really need isn't much, esp since it's mostly idling.

Check your load temps and see what they tell you.
What Heat Sink are you using currently?

 

[ElyrionX]

Ok, guys, what's the best value videocard to buy now? Are the 4890s any good?

EDIT: Ok never mind. Digged around a bit. Going to go with either a GTX260 or HD4870.

 

[brain_stew]

Ok, guys, what's the best value videocard to buy now? Are the 4890s any good?

EDIT: Ok never mind. Digged around a bit. Going to go with either a GTX260 or HD4870.

Bad choice. You can get 4890s for around the same price now, and its a significant upgrade.

 

[ElyrionX]

Bad choice. You can get 4890s for around the same price now, and its a significant upgrade.

Well, the 4890s are about $30 to $50 more over here depending on the brand and I'm reading that the performance increase from the 4870 and GTX260 is marginal at best so I'm not so sure what to think about that.

 

[letsbereasonable]

I currently use an original G15 and love it to death. The problem is i havent been able to find a replacement since every new keyboard has a few "G" keys but not enough. I use about ~10 of them for WoW and the lcd screen is too useful to not have another. I might be able to live without one though if i really need to :lol

Send it to Logitech, but if they won't replace it with another old model you could try getting a US/Italian original G15 and transplanting the keys you need on it. The keys are basically the same, but some of the shift-characters are in Italian; those are the ones you could replace with your original keyboard. The Return key and Left-shift are also shaped a little differently from the original US keyboard. Touch-typists should be okay for the most part.

They're pretty cheap now; here's where I got mine:

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=967599-0103&cpc=SCH

If you want to see the layout I could probably take a picture and post it.

 

[MisterAnderson]

Call Logitech and they'll send you one for free

*The amount of airflow you really need isn't much, esp since it's mostly idling.

Check your load temps and see what they tell you.
What Heat Sink are you using currently?

I'm using the stock core2duo fan/heatsink currently. I heard the i7 fan/heatsink is pretty good.

Edit: Running Crysis for a litttle over 5 minutes here's my temps according to SpeedFan:

Temp1: 46C
Temp2: 57C
Core 0: 56C
Core 1: 56C

After running idle for a while after that test it says:

Temp1: 43C
Temp2: 41C
Core 0: 44C
Core 1: 44C

I'm mostly going to be using this rig for gaming. I really liked how this case didn't have that "cheap" overly flashy "gamer case" look to it. I love Antec though, and if I end up going gamer case to get better airflow I will probably have to get the 900-two. I just wish that you could turn off the blue LED lights...

So my question is will swapping out 1 fan in the back to a higher RPM fan really make much of a difference? is 57ish degrees really hot? (In speedfan there's a flame next to those numbers seemingly indicating that it's too hot) If I put an i7 and 4890 (that I may overclock) in a case that already can't keep a core2duo with 4870 under 55C during gaming won't that be too much?

Antec 900-two get? Or stick with the Sonata 500 Designer and switch the fan out with a faster one.

Spoiler

I wish this case had a top fan... would be perfect.

 

[brain_stew]

Well, the 4890s are about $30 to $50 more over here depending on the brand and I'm reading that the performance increase from the 4870 and GTX260 is marginal at best so I'm not so sure what to think about that.

Its certainly not marginal, about a 20% boost or so over the GTX 260 (216), so yeah, its pretty much giving you the same bang for buck as those cards if its going to cost you an extra $50. So its down to whether you'd like to pay a little bit more for a little bit extra performance, really. ATI's price cuts should be filtering through so perhaps wait to see where local pricing goes, you may well end up with more for your money.

What resolution are you playing at and what card are you coming from, that should make things much clearer.

 

[MisterAnderson]

Alright so I went ahead and purchased the 900-two. Functionality is most important to me and I don't want to not have the option to overlock because my case isn't cool enough.

 

[Hazaro]

I'm using the stock core2duo fan/heatsink currently. I heard the i7 fan/heatsink is pretty good.

Edit: Running Crysis for a litttle over 5 minutes here's my temps according to SpeedFan:

Temp1: 46C
Temp2: 57C
Core 0: 56C
Core 1: 56C

After running idle for a while after that test it says:

Temp1: 43C
Temp2: 41C
Core 0: 44C
Core 1: 44C

New fans won't help much since the heatsink can't transfer heat as well at lower temps. You'd need an aftermarket cooler.
It looks like you have more than enough ventilation at stock. It'd let it run for 30 to see how much they would increase though.

 

[Darklord]

There's a registry hack for this in the TweakGuides Tweaking Companion (under "Fix Incorrect Folder Views").

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

 

[Broadbandito]

is it worth me to go to 64 bit vista instead?

 

[rc213]

What's a good $80-100 dollar video card? HD 4830 still?

 

[letsbereasonable]

What's a good $80-100 dollar video card? HD 4830 still?

4770 when retailers stop putting it above msrp.

 

[KilledByBill]

Hey guys, although I don't have the budget to build a new PC yet, (planning to hold out a couple more years until both Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 are out) I wanted to see if anyone has some advice about updating my current PC's graphics card and possibly PSU. I don't necessarily need it to be bleeding edge (and doubt I could achieve that anyway since it's an older mobo) but just bring it up to snuff to play a number of good 3D RTS and RPGs that have come out in recent years since I haven't jumped into this gens game consoles.

I'm using an old VAIO PCV-RZ14G. It's got a Pentium 4 2.53Ghz CPU, 1GB DDR RAM (which I can upgrade to 1.5GB), and an atrociouslol) Geforce4 MX 440 GPU. Check this link for full spec sheet if you're curious: http://www.docs.sony.com/release/specs/PCVRZ14G_mksp.pdf

It's got a 4x AGP slot so my upgrade options seem kind of limited. In searching at NewEgg it seems like the top of the line AGP GPUs are about $90-100 with many lower tier cards in the $50-60 range. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+1069609639&Configurator=&Subcategory=48&description=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

I can afford to spend $100 for a top line AGP card (like the Radeon HD 4650 or 3650) but since my mobo's AGP slot is only 4x would that be a waste of power/money?

I don't know the wattage of my current PSU but I'm guessing that may need an upgrade as well. The OP seems to have some good recommendations for 450-500whz upgrades, but are these typically easy to swap out of an OEM machine?

Thanks in advance for any help to build me a bridge to the future. I figure just about any GPU upgrade would be a big leap from what I have now.

 

[Hazaro]

I'm using an old VAIO PCV-RZ14G. It's got a Pentium 4 2.53Ghz CPU, 1GB DDR RAM (which I can upgrade to 1.5GB), and an atrociouslol) Geforce4 MX 440 GPU.

It's got a 4x AGP slot so my upgrade options seem kind of limited. In searching at NewEgg it seems like the top of the line AGP GPUs are about $90-100 with many lower tier cards in the $50-60 range. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+1069609639&Configurator=&Subcategory=48&description=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

I wouldn't suggest upgrading that machine. It's not even PCI-E, hold off or buy now

 

[SapientWolf]

Hey guys, although I don't have the budget to build a new PC yet, (planning to hold out a couple more years until both Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 are out) I wanted to see if anyone has some advice about updating my current PC's graphics card and possibly PSU. I don't necessarily need it to be bleeding edge (and doubt I could achieve that anyway since it's an older mobo) but just bring it up to snuff to play a number of good 3D RTS and RPGs that have come out in recent years since I haven't jumped into this gens game consoles.

I'm using an old VAIO PCV-RZ14G. It's got a Pentium 4 2.53Ghz CPU, 1GB DDR RAM (which I can upgrade to 1.5GB), and an atrociouslol) Geforce4 MX 440 GPU. Check this link for full spec sheet if you're curious: http://www.docs.sony.com/release/specs/PCVRZ14G_mksp.pdf

It's got a 4x AGP slot so my upgrade options seem kind of limited. In searching at NewEgg it seems like the top of the line AGP GPUs are about $90-100 with many lower tier cards in the $50-60 range. http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010380048+1069609639&Configurator=&Subcategory=48&description=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

I can afford to spend $100 for a top line AGP card (like the Radeon HD 4650 or 3650) but since my mobo's AGP slot is only 4x would that be a waste of power/money?

I don't know the wattage of my current PSU but I'm guessing that may need an upgrade as well. The OP seems to have some good recommendations for 450-500whz upgrades, but are these typically easy to swap out of an OEM machine?

Thanks in advance for any help to build me a bridge to the future. I figure just about any GPU upgrade would be a big leap from what I have now.

A 3850 would be a good stopgap, even at 4x AGP. I didn't notice much of a performance difference between 4x and 8x with that card. There isn't a game on the market I can't play at decent settings with it, especially after overclocking. You are going to be ridiculously CPU limited though.

 

[Gully State]

What's a good $80-100 dollar video card? HD 4830 still?

I saw the 4850 for $90 at Newegg a few weeks back. If you look around, I'm sure you can find a similar deal.

 

[brain_stew]

I wouldn't suggest upgrading that machine. It's not even PCI-E, hold off or buy now

This. Save up the money instead, so that you can get a proper upgrade much quicker. Considering you can build a nice rig for close to $500 these days, $100 sets you a good way on your way to that nice new rig.

If you can find a second hand 6600gt/6800gt/x1600/7600 or something AGP for something like $20-$30 you might want to consider it, otherwise just forget about it.

To the guy looking for a $100 card, the 4850 has dropped into that price bracket now, so its a no brainer, its the card for you.

 

[bee]

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/12376/asus_mars_gtx_295_sli_with_8gb_ram_far_cry_2160p/

3840 x 2160 is where its at!