I would also ditch FAT32 over NTFS. I know you're using an nLited install, but there's still no reason to use FAT32 in this day and age. NTFS has considerably faster performance for small files (since they reside within the MFT itself) nad has improved stability and security. Also, if you're using t...

Another thing to note - Win7 x64 will be larger than Win7 x86.

Thanks for the link Devon. I was wondering if anyone knew if the firmware was compatible for the non-RE drives as well. I know that most of the features in the various firmwares are compatible (you can enable TLER on non-RE drives for example) across a particular series, but I'm not sure if that app...

I always feel sorry for those who have to deal with the electrical infrastructure over the other side of the pond. Here in the UK we are lucky to have probably the best system in the world, with the mains being a perfectly smooth 240V, 50Hz day in, day out; I can't remember the last time we had a b...

Definetely, not good. Let's see if an NVIDIA chipset has better chances. From what I've read, the ICH9R does support SSU when set to ACHI mode, but I'm just not sure if it's actually working or not (it's hard to tell from outside the case if it's two drives spinning up initially or three). You'd ne...

Oh, Nick. Just to be clear about this: you did try SSUp with your drives, right? All of my drives have the jumpers for staggered spinup enabled. I don't think the drives connected to the ICH9R on my motherboard are starting up separately, but the other 8 storage drives connected to the 3ware contro...

I can't speak for any other setups, but WD GP drives do support staggered spinup when paired with a controller that supports it as well (all 3ware cards do, IIRC). All you need to do is jumper the proper pins on the back of the drive.

This way or that way, I would not buy GP drives myself until this issue has been cleared by WD; any drive can fail, but it does not make sense to by a drive that's *known* to have issues. You're right, I'm going out to replace my WDs with Seagate 7200.11s right now :? Huh? Aren't you going around t...

My point was to say that Vista is more picky about hardware stability than XP is. Most of those screenshots are taken with XP because it will allow the overclockers to boot up, run the benchmarks, and post them, while Vista would start throwing errors. Sure, you might get higher benchmarks in XP bec...

Vista/2k8 is number one in 3D mark with SLI, CPU-Z, PC-Mark 05 (which has transparency test, guess why Vista wins here). XP/2k/2k3 in 9 categories. Some don't have screenshots. You're also comparing apples to oranges here. You can't make an equal comparison when the systems you linked to have diffe...

Supplied thermal grease probably isn't the problem, but using the default pushpins might be. On any large tower heatsink, I always buy whatever bolt through kit is available (the Thermalright kit seems to work with most heatsinks), not only for the security, but also for distributing the stresses ac...

Running a fast core 2 duo with lots of memory? Have you done an A/B on the same hardware? Yes, less of an issue as "typical" hardware gets faster. BTW, are you saying that Vista does not have end-to-end video encryption? That doesn't slow things down? There are other ways to accomplish anti-video-p...

When I was shopping for a second kit I made sure to pick out a kit that had the same rated timings and speed at a given voltage (in this case both Patriot and Corsair recommend 2.1v). Other than mobo factors (northbridge and memory tables in the bios) and memory factors (speed, timings and voltage)...

Not sure how I feel about the Mini P180, part of me is wishing I went with the Solo, due to the giant whole in the top of the case. On the other hand this will force this build into an on-going project where I need to work to silence it further (still much quieter than my old computer), which I lik...

Mixing RAM often leads to problems like this. I'd suggest loosening the timings down to 5-5-5-15 and see if that aleviates the problem, and/or kicking the voltage up a notch. Both the Patriot and Corsair kits should be able to handle 1.9-2.0V without any troubles.

Microsoft isn't to blame when drivers of third party hardware don't work, but if people know there will be a problem with some of their drivers when they upgrade to Vista, I can't blame them for staying put. I completely agree. I've never been one to be a first adopter of new software or hardware, ...

xan_user wrote:Or another take is, Vistojave is essentially an early BETA for Win7. One that you have to pay for the privilege to be a tester.

If that's the case, it's the best damned beta product I've seen in a long time (we'll see how Win7 runs on my EEE later this weekend).

Nick, it's very charitable of you to take it upon yourself to be Microsoft's appointed vanquisher of all users who have anything uncomplimentary to say about Vista, however I fear the mountain of negative feeling towards Vista cannot be dissipated by one person alone. Very little will be achieved b...

After reading about Windows 7, the new Windows OS currently in development, I highly doubt I'll ever try Vista after all the problems I've heard about it. And it's been said that Windows 7 will be what Vista SHOULD have been. I'm currently running XP and it does exactly what I want it to do, so oth...

@Nick Geraedts: Are your sure there is no noise from your 2443BW at any brightness level? -If so I would try to exchange mine instead of returning it. I haven't noticed any whining from my monitors at all. I usually have them set at about 70% brightness. My Acer monitors, on the other hand, had a v...

Would a 500GB drive work? The Western Digital Scorpio Blue 500GB drive is very quiet, and not horribly priced either.

One of my father's PCs is a Pentium II 233 MHz with 160 Mb of SDRAM. I've installed XP on it a few months ago and I must say it runs rather well. I certainly wasn't expecting it to do so. What's your definition of "rather well"? If it's rather well considering the system specs, then fine. If it's r...

$orry, I have particularly high $tandard$ for product$ from companie$ that make big profit$. (and any of their $ubsidiarie$) As do I. There's also something to be said for the amount of time that I spend fiddling with software/hardware as opposed to using it. It's the main reason why I'll probably ...

Zune=Micro$oft. How long has M$ been writing code that's had to deal with leap years? I would hope that given over 2 years since Zune's release, the biggest software company in the world, could have found the bug before it crippled players on new years eve! The fact that only 30GB models are effect...

Just another example proving that even after this long in business, Microsoft cant get its shit straight. :evil: This long in the business? How long has the Zune been out? And how many major problems have there been with the device? Compare that to Apple's track record of iPods and iTunes failures,...

I know that the OEM install DVDs only come with one version, but I remember vagely that 32bit license keys work with the 64bit version as well. Has anyone tried this? There is no such thing as a "32-bit Vista key". You have a Vista key for a specific version (Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate, etc), bu...

The next obvious question would be to make sure you're installing a 64-bit OS and that you got the 64-bit version of the program. Otherwise the application will be limited to only 4gb of memory. Correction - on a 32-bit platform of Windows, software is limited to 2GB of virtual address space, and c...

G.Skill 4x4GB DDR2-800 6-6-6-18 I've used it in several builds, and I haven't heard of any problems with the systems to date. For the record, all the negative reviews of the product state the price as the "con". The kit was fairly expensive when it first came out (~$1000), but that was when the P45...

Merry Christmas (Happy Holidays) everyone! I hope that everyone has found the time this year to be with loved ones.

As long as the size of the fans are the same, they should work. I use the 800RPM Scythe Slipstream fans in my system (similar overall power draw to yours) and they manage to keep everything nice and cool. :) You might be able to replace the northbridge fan, but considering that it's got its own litt...