Larian Studios Forums General Chat What PC to buy

Btw, have any of you guys tried using PC with water cooling?

As for me it can be a bit <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/offtopic.gif" alt="" /> but I don't want to create a new thread just about it. My super video card now travelles into the works of the manufacturer. Yep, my beloved 3D Prophet Radeon 9700pro is out of order (I think memory is not functioning). Too much playing, eeh. Had hard times proving local dealer that this card was really purchased from him as I lost that tiny receipt, damn and the dealer just don't care. Good that there are written s/n and pn numbers on the card. So, always keep receipts (though maybe these rules apply to our wild eastern countries only)

Why excluding Dell?

Dell was excluded from my list because they have changed, since the last Dell I purchased.
The last 2 Dell's were delivered early, and when I called them there was a real person on the phone that was proficient in English.

After ordering a notebook XPS system on March 13th I got a ship date of March 30th. Sounded great to me. On March 30th I got an automated phone call stating the delivery date had been delayed till April 5th (I hate automated messages). Ok, so April 5th isn’t forever so I would wait. On April 5th I received an automated call telling me the ship date had been changed to April 26th.

I called to complain about this and ask why (since the website as of today is estimating April 16), I got a person who I think may have been speaking English (it was hard to tell). Out of frustration with the changes and fear that on the 26th I would get another call telling me oops did I say 2004 I meant 2005.
I cancelled the order and have no intention of ever purchasing a PC from them again.

That's fair enough. I was going to buy a laptop through Dell, reading that has concerned me, but I will be purchasing the laptop through my school so I won't need to pay VAT, I haven't heard any complaints about delivery from my computer tech as yet so if that is the only problem, then I'll go ahead. There aren't any other problems with Dell are there?

I am on my second pc from Dell and the only problems that I have had we caused by me. Playing in areas that I have no idea about and trying to make changes to them. When I have a problem with software and call tech support the problem gets fixed. Like with the latest thing, got a popup virus and had to do a full clean of my HD and tech support talked me through the reinstall of everything, took over three hours to do. So I have no complaints about Dell.

The two Dell's I have had have been good. Outside of replacing a motherboard in both (also had to do that with my Sony) they have not had any problems.
However, before you buy it you may want to check out some of the message boards at Dell and some of the current reviews. Seems I am not the only one canceling orders lately (about 4 pages of cancellations). There are a lot of reviews that express problems with the service department. I personally had good turnaround on the motherboard replacements.

I just do not do business with companies I feel have intentionally lied to me, and after reading their order status message board it was apparent that the dates I was given when I placed the order were wrong and they knew it.

[color:"orange"] Btw, have any of you guys tried using PC with water cooling? [/color]


Hmm personally i just don't think electronics and water should be combined, then again maybe there are non-conductive liquids available ?

but as I said that's imo <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

sorry i can't help, egin. i have yet 2 venture into water-cooling method for pc. it should be alright & safe enough, if u make sure all joints won't leak (by applying excess amount of silicon glue) & that u have enough liquid to make cooling feasible. i'm sure u have an idea about this. anyway, check out Tom's Hardware for more info on water-cooling. it even has a video on that.

Thank you <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
I will probably just buy low speed vent., to reduce noise.

Btw, today I purchased new HDD, as my old one is about to going to die.
My new one is, Seagate: Barracuda 120Gb (yay instead of 16). I feel happy and <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/stupid.gif" alt="" /> as I have to figure out how to replace them and the most important how to copy all data. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

I am waiting on how the 64 bit processor from AMD pans out. It relativly cool & fast, but hasn't got lot af support (grafical card don't have 64 bit drivers yet, windows XP 64bit is still in bèta, and most software isn't optimised for 64-bit processors), But I think the 64 bit processor is going to catch steam since Intel is also working on a 64 bit processor thats compateble with AMD's and I am not talking about the Itanium from intel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

what i heard of is that if you order the AMD 64bit , you get the beta service pack2 from winxp with it.
on tom's hardware

but my system can handle all th enecesery programs without a problem. and i can take halflife2 on, soo
it will take some time before i upgrade my computer again.

Best hardware site ever <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

No, you can get the Beta for SP2 for free from Microsoft.

What that article means is, that the Athlon 64 supports the NX-Flag (NX = No Execute), wich is used by SP 2 to protect your System, cause it can avoid buffer overflows. The program will just crash with an exception instead of executing malicios code. You don't need an 64 bit operating system, this works on 32 Bit Windows as well, but not on Pentium 4 processors.

hey egin,

what u cn do to transfer your data in your first HD to your new one;

1. connect your new HD to your system via IDE cable (make sure it's master/slave in relation to whatever IDE device [be it another HD or CDROM drive] that connects to the same cable by setting the pin correctly).

2. fire up your system & go into your BIOS setup IF your computer isn't set up initially to auto-detect IDE drives. u can tell that it does when every time your system boots up, it shows that it detects your HD & CDROM drive.

3. if the HD has yet to be partitioned & formatted, u may need to unplug your old drive & let the new one be the only HD in the system. have your boot disk ready to partition & format that new drive. don't go NTFS (if u're using Win2k or WinXP) yet as u need all the partitions in FAT32 for easier (i mean less hassle) file transfer.

4. if it's already partitioned but not formatted, then u can format the drive easily in windows by going to windows explorer, & right-click that new drive, & choose full format. easy wot? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

5. operation drag & drop. do all file transfer u want via windows but to be safe, put the files in the second partition or others. so long as u don't put them in the first.

6. if i don't make any sense, please go to tom's hardware & find out more on installing hard disk drives.

hope that helps. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Yay, Janggut, great info, you always help me out. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

I don't think this HD is partitioned, I am planning to split it into four (?) partitions for easy defrag or whatever operations with HD I need. I am also planning to format at least one partition NTFS, it is slightly slower but more reliable. I am thinking to make C: NTFS, And NTFS is good for working with large files 4+ Gb. As for your tips on installing thew hardware I hope today I will to that sure I will use your post as a manual (I wonder what if I cut this green wire? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/stupid.gif" alt="" /> BOOM.)

As for copying files, erm, I am a bit lazy, I asked is there software that allows you to copy your files as a drive, with all its integral components.
It will make image and copy everything ie sys files, registry etc. Then I don't have to install everything from scrach. But, from other hand it is always good to format and reinstall everything, to free your resources from junk.

Than you Janggut.

[color:"orange"] As for copying files, erm, I am a bit lazy, I asked is there software that allows you to copy your files as a drive [/color]

Hmm there are various "ghosting" programs available, of which IMHO Norton Ghost is probably the best,I also reccomend Partition Magic, as it always seem to come in handy.

As for partitioning large volume drives, I suggest you stick to 20Gb a partion and have C: for your OS, D: for utilities like PSP, Norton etc. E: for Work related files, F: for games and G: for storage.

I also reccomend you do all these partitions in NTFS, as it is far more reliable then FAT32, and sofar I have had no problems playing any games (hmm aside from Ultima 1&2 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> ) and your drives will be alot more speedy and functional <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Anyways that's my 2 bytes worth <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Sounds like a good idea. I just wish I could understand all of it. I have a 60G HD and would have like it split in thirds, 1 for OS, 1 for Utilities and web pages and 1 for games.

Yeah, I have heard about ghosting progs, but never tried them myself, as I have never tried roll back for winxp for example. Have you tried copy-image your drive? Does this go smooth?



That's an excellent idea, I always thought I have too much space reserved for system and too little for gamezz. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" />



Speedy? I have heard many times that FAT32 is much more flexible and speedy. That was the reason I was planning to allocate less space for NTFS.

Goldy I am not sure, but I think you will loose all your data if you decide to partition your drive, as format goes after partitioning.

I have no plans of loosing all data again. Did that when I reformatted about 1.5 months ago already nd that is not fun.

yohoho!!

u're welcome, egin. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

anyway, about ghosting, i wouldn't recommend it. it's painfully slow & re-configuring your system after u successfully transferred your old hard disk image to a new HD will again take quite an amount of time. it's a lot easier to just install a fresh OS on that new HD & then do HD-to-HD file transfer. better have at least one drive in FAT32 so that when u ever need to transfer files from that HD to another system that uses older OS such as Win9x or ME that don't recognise NTFS, that FAT32 partition will be a blessing.

as for goldy, u can still partition your hard drive via a 3rd party software such as partition magic. that software can split your current partition(s) to smaller sizes. yes, even when u have OS & stuff on your HD.

better double-check with Mea about that. that aussie gal knows her stuff. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />