ZeroDamage

After I move next week and get settled down, I will start my new rebuild. It will be my first ever Intel system I believe. I am going to wait to see what ATI has to offer for a video card which I hope will be better than the Nvidia. My reason for this is the older ATI card possibly functioning as a Physics processor. I hope Nvidia adopts that idea, that will be super cool.

What are your specs these days? I doubt you are still using that X1800XT that I hooked you up with.

He is probably the best Fantasy writer alive today along with Mercedes Lackey and Robin Hobbes (to name a few).

Can I please be unbanned. As for the server, I do not know which one was the original. It has been a good while. I do know it is active on all of them. Sorry. I do not play often but would like to play with those I know rather than the crude pubs. Sorry I am a noob and a jerk. Sorry Throw me a cookie? Sorry. STEAM_0:0:37929

Yeah, I am thinking that DX10 may just be a new engine altogether. That takes years and years though so who knows for sure.

Sorry if this was posted before. I came across this and it reminded me of the Black-Viper services tweak guide from way back when. This is a list of the services for Vista and what they do. I doubt this is complete or 100% verified but may come in handy for you Vista users. http://www.speedyvista.com/services.html

I am not so sure if the timings in the case of the memory will make much of a difference if any at all at stock speeds. The timings of the Patriot is 5-5-5-16 while the G-Skill is 4-4-4-12. If the RAM is not going to be overclocked then I say go with the cheaper Patriot. If you plan on overclocking the RAM a little, then go with the Gskill since the better timings will give you more headroom for overclocking. Over all, the Gskill is better RAM and worth the small amount more money IMO. Cujo is right. I am not so sure about Ep-2 being DX10. I do remember reading an article that DX10 is in the works for the Source engine at some point. Though we all know that things change often when it comes to Valve.

I Know you do not like Ultra PSU's Cujo but here is a 500Watt one which is free after rebate if the second Case were to be considered. http://shop1.outpost.com/%7BFd8491ttM2j3nq...:Homepage:Spot1

The thing with the RAM is that it needs to be able to clock higher with the FSB if you are going to overclock the CPU. Do not get me wrong, G-skill is on the top of my list for RAM these days due to price/performance ratio. Heat Spreaders help with some memory especially when overclocking is taking place although it just depends on the RAM. It often times is just for show. I am just thinking price for Mags since this thing is a little over price. I picked that case because the one you chose looks to be small which will make the newer video cards impossible to fit. Usually the PSU's that come with cases suck to boot. I chose a better Video Card because of the fact that Valve is always updating the Source Engine and with Episode 2 coming out soon along with Team Fortress 2 and Portal, a little better video card would be the best way to go. It's not all about DX10, it's about Nvidia's new design which newer and newer games can benefit from, including CSS. The Overclock for Mags should be easy and will turn a 600 dollar system into a 850 dollar system.

A couple of items I found at slickdeals that are still ongoing. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820220088 I know, no heat spreader so Overclocking will be out of the question in this case. Can save a few bucks if money is a major issue. THis case looks hot: http://www.compusa.com/products/product_in...;ref=performics My old work built a system with this case a couple of weeks ago. No PSU in it but it is bigger than the one above and has all the cooling you need in it. PSU is on the bottom and there is a very large fan on the top. I am still all about waiting on the video card if you can. ATI's new stuff should be out sooner rather than later and it will provide new options and bring down the prices of their older stuff. I am still handing onto my old ATI card until then, although the new Nvidia cards keep tempting me. If you are all about getting a new video card now, then look at a better card than that. Definitely better worth an additional 60 bucks for a card that will last you longer and is dx10 able. http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetai...st=pricegrabber

I always wait a year or so after a new OS release before upgrading. This time around I need an install of Vista somewhere so I am familiar with it enough to fix my users machines. I had it on my Tablet PC and it sucked. Freezes and all kinds of insanity. I uninstalled and reinstalled XP on it. My new Dell laptop will have home on it and I will keep it for a while to try it out.

Sounds like multiple issues happening at the same time. #1. Hard Drive may be doing bad. A good SpinRite test at level 4 will fix this I imagine or give you enough time to replace hard drives. I use a multipurpose boot cd called "Hiren's." It is at 8.8 now and this MIGHT be a download link for you: http://www.9down.com/downloads.php?fileid=446 #2. The Hard Drive problem has most likely corrupted some of your drivers. Go into you device manager (right click my computer, go to properties, go to Hardware tab, click on Device Manager). At the bottom, you will see the USB area. How I've fixed this is remove the USB drivers (the main hub) and rebooted. Do this with your ipod disconnected.