question about graphics cards

32-bit linux will run with more than 4 GB of RAM without issue assuming bigmem support is enabled in the kernel (most distros offer bigmem kernels so this isn't usually an issue). I had a 6GB K7 until the clip holding the heatsink to the CPU failed and the CPU burned up in the middle of a party in which it was the jukebox. Lesson learned: If you move, open up your computer make sure everything in your computer is still securely attached.

back in the day pny was a nasty card to have, my "legendary" geforce 2 gts was a pny

that thing STILL hauls ass, id be using it today (cause it smokes most of my other cards) even with nearly a decade of extreme overclocking, a almost half inch warped (to the left) pcb, but being a geforce 2 it doesn't have shaders

so when i got my (first) 6600GT who did i choose? PNY right on!

died in 6 months

new one yay, died in another 8 months

sent it back, they "say" i tampered with the heatsink ... which is not true, kept the card and said stfu

i dont have a issue with their cards today, they are just "another reference board soldering station" but i am not happy with their quality or customer support, they are not the customer arse kissers, bad momma graphics cards they once were

if you can, go with BFG or XFX, they come factory "overclocked" and offer lifetime warranty's

when my bfg 6600GT went out, nearly 2 years after i got it i got a YES SIR!, and 50% off shipping

guess which brand i got for my new 9600GT's ... it wasnt pny

evga, sort of the same story, limited warranty, meh support, but every time i send a card back the customer gets an upgrade (6600 -> 7600GS, 8600 -> 9600) so i cant really complain

ps: one last "quote" lol

i can use a geforce graphics card with that right?



when i was using a guide on newegg.com

http://www.newegg.com/Product/CategoryIntelligenceArticle.aspx?articleId=199#topic2

and it added up to 700 when i estimated 65W for the processer 400W for the graphics cards then max for everything else, but i have mostly low end stuff so i dont think the motherboard will need 60W, the hard drive 30W and i added 60W for 3 optical drives (two cd and one floppy) which are from my old computer which i could probably easily shave off 30W and then around 10 W for some extra fans and usb devices which puts me around 600 W so i am thinking of something a little over 600W should be good with my generous estimates

after more searching i found this psu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817611007

i am fairly confident in everything i have now and i am just about ready to order

i decied to pay the $10 extra and upgrade to home premium, i switched out the ram for the model that was posted above and then added this psu

the total comes out to $490 shipped with $110 in mail in rebates and i might spend a little extra on another fan and some thermal compound (waiting just incase any comes with any of the parts im buying like the processer and if not ill go visit best buy or something) but the only thing about the fan is that this specific tower has one open vent in the back (above the psu slot) and the whole front is a half vent kinda think where most of it is open vents but i cannot see directly because a plastic face covers the front of the tower. I was thinking at first to throw and intake in the back vent but it would be above the psu so i dont know how good it would be but there will be at least 3 fans already in it (1 on the CPU, one on the graphics card and then one in the psu) what do you guys think about that?

also i will be making my decision by tomorrow as 3 out of the 4 mail in rebates end tomorrow

My card is Intel GMA(R) 950. But I can not loggin. I could get in once but then I get crashed as soon as I loggin. I have tried to clean cache and also reinstalled the SL software and it has not worked out. Any suggestion?

well here is the the system requiremnts page just incase you didnt know

http://secondlife.com/support/sysreqs.php

but we could use some more information like operating system? and at what point exactly does it crash? Or have you logged in on this system before? and when you start it up to log in does the picture of the island load up or do you get a black screen?

when i first started to play on this laptop i could not get the picture to load and all it showed was a black screen. At that time my card was not officially supported but was in the may/may not work screen. I did two things I found an earlier release of the game and installed that instead and i also downloaded and updated the drivers for my card and then it worked. Later it forced me to update my veiwer and i did and it worked fine which makes me believe it was the drivers that did me in and i would suggest you check that first.

This probably should have been it's own thread, since you're talking about your question and not the original poster's question.

Without more information, it's sounding like it's a driver issue. If you're on linux, what does glxinfo -v spit out? (Looking for Direct Rendering: in particular). If Direct Rendering says No or you're using something else, let us know. If it says Yes, then it's time to make sure your X server's using the right video driver (odds are your distro has some method to redetect and fix it automatically for you at this point: in Ubuntu and Debian, it's sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg .

alright i have ordered those parts i was thinking about before

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817611007

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186151

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116488

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136075

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145184

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103214

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130320

Cool. Let us know how the assembly goes.

I was hoping you'd opt for a better motherboard, but hopefully you'll do alright with that Foxconn.

Thanks for the link to the power supply guide, by the way. I hadn't seen that before.

well

1) YOU NEED A HEATSYNC FOR YOUR CPU -- just incase you didnt add one

and 2

over at tiger direct, this xmas i bought my wife

msi am2+ board
athalon x2 5000 + (2.6ghz) with a heat sink included
256mb geforce 8600GT (oc) by bfg
4 gigs of 800mhz dual channel ram
and a 250gb hard drive

for a total of 269$ inc 2 day shipping and no rebates

no case no os or anything else, but you might want to shop some, cause i was able to get more hard disk space, 2x the ram, faster (slightly) video card and a 400mhz faster chip for about the same price

i already have an heatsink and fan that i recycled from my old computer that after cleaning should work fine and i have a 8600 GTS with 256 mb and 4 gigs of ram also

but thanks ill defently keep that in mind the next time im shopping for computer parts (hopefully i wont be for a while)

@ Chosen Thanks for all of the help and yes i did decide to stay with that motherboard because it does have a 30 limited return policy so that if it does happen to be one of the the faulty ones (which it seems to have like a 50/50 chance weather or not it will be good or bad) i can return it for a refund or get a replacement now im only waiting on shipping

*sigh* these will be the longest 5 days i have had in a while XD

UPDATE:

w00t w00t the parts are in sitting next to me some time tomorrow after work ill start building it but i will have to run down to the store to pick up some thermal compound first and some compressed air cans to clean off my old parts

one more question though i was planning on using my old cpu fan/heatsink do you think this will be ok? because i was looking at newegg's catalog and i noticed that certain ones are rated for different types of cpus

also because my tower has the psu mount on the right side of the tower and not the left (viewing from the back) i have to flip my psu over so that the fan is facing outward do you think that will be a problem?

bump

i updated my last post but since it didnt bump im going to do that now =) will deleate later XD

You will definitely want your cooling system to be a match for your CPU type. First, it needs to fit, physically. Second, you need to make sure it's adequate for the amount of heat the chip will put out.


I'm not quite sure what you mean. If you're facing the back of the case, the PSU will usually occupy all the space from left to right, not just sit on one side or the other. What case do you have? Can you post a picture of it?

Anyway, I'm not sure I'd recommend flipping over the particular PSU you chose. It's got a fan on the top, which I'm guessing is an intake (exhaust blows out the back, usually). If you flip it upside down, it might end up sucking in hot air from the CPU area, which probably wouldn't be good for it. Again, I'm just guessing, though.

ill post some pictures when i get back from work today but my psu will have to stand upright and there is one intake on the side

lots of photos yay here is a link to an album i made on photobucket

http://s68.photobucket.com/albums/i4/nascarfan38124/computer%20pics/

The password is Titans

i think the psu will be fine in the position it will be in but i will have to modify the cradle a bit so that the psu and hang out the back a little more but all of the screw holes line up perfectly when i have it in that way and the fan faces the other side of the case which will be where the motherboard will be located

i also put up some pictures of my old heatsink and cpu and thats the one thing that im not too sure about. weather or not what i have will be good enough or if i need to get something better

i also will need to get some thermal compound but i was also looking to see about those pads because it seems to be easier to install the pad instead of the compound but does it have worse performance? i dont plan on upgrading this part of the computer for awhile would it be better to go with the grease/gel or a pad for ease of building my first machine

make sure your not putting that together on the carpet STATIC will DESTROY your CPU RAMM you name it.

I've never seen that type of case configuration before. Usually, the PSU goes on the top or the bottom, and the mid level holes are for the motherboard's rear ports (left), and the main exhaust fans (right). That's why I didn't get what you meant before. Are you absolutely certain the power supply is what that large mid-level hole is for?

I agree with you on being a little leary of that old heat sink and fan. If it were me, I'd rather play it safe, and go with something specifically designed for newer hardware. I'm a big fan (no pun intended) of Zalman fans. Newegg has a good assortment of them. I like the 9500 series very much, but I'm not sure one would fit in your case, if the PSU really does go where you've got it.

As for the thermal compound, I've never used a pad, so I can't speak very intelligently about them. I've always just gone with the paste that comes with Zalman fans. I know arctic silver is popular with gamers, but I find it's kind of thin and greasy, too easy to make a mess. I like the nice thick white paste that Zalman gives you. I'm not sure what it's called if you want to get it separately, sorry.


ETA: Absolutely follow Distelled1's advice. Keep off the carpet, if at all possible. Static charges will destroy PC components pretty easily. It's a good idea to plug in the power supply (but don't turn it on) before you handle any parts, and ground yourself by touching its metal chassis. Once the PSU is mounted in the case, you can also ground yourself by touching any of the metal shielding or metal framework inside the case. Don't handle parts unless you're grounded.

thats a pretty old case, compaq, and most of them were designed with socket 7 boards in mind where the cpu is actually on the bottom front of the mobo

having said that heres the issues you will have with it

1 its backwards, so if you have a fan on the "bottom" of the psu you will have to flip it around
2 when you do that the holes no longer match up, so you have to drill new ones, it used to be worse you use to have to cut sheet metal to do that

course you already know this, but you also have a clearance issue tween the top of the cpu heatsink, and the underside of the power supply

3 you HAVE the AMD K6/2 cpu and heatsink now, NO THAT WILL NOT WORK, its way too small and the fan is too, it will become over saturated with heat within little time and be come totally ineffective, (ask me about my "new heatsink my ass! story" from when i tried to use a socket 7 sink on my 850mhz athalon, ... when that was new and uber, like 8 years ago)

4 that heatsink will not physically mount to a AM2 board, it barley mounts onto a socket A board from 2-3 designs ago


so yea get a new heatsink, and my advice is to put that old amd k6/2 and take it to a local ma n paw computer shop, if its in working condition they might just trade you out a new scratch and dent case (lol if you paypal me for shipping ill give you one)

its not impossible, but its going to be a tight fit, those old compaq cases have the airflow of a 90 year old chain smoker (cause the cpu was in a totally different place), and by the time you fiddle fart with it you can usually get an "el cheapo" at "bob's computer shack" with a rinky dink power supply in it for ~50$ that will do better

as far as heat sink compound

pads are ok, they are the most restrictive of heat flow (bad) but they work fine for normal use (actually the "pad" is one of the reasons of xbox 360's red ring of death, but thats a really really retarded pad design, unless you see 3 or 4 layers of foil under them your fine)

the white stuff (lithium grease) is better

the silver stuff is best (both are messy, silver is messier ill agree)

but heres the deal, you dont want a big thick coat of the stuff, all its suposta do is fill in the gaps tween your cpu and heatsink, thin is better, cause all of it restricts heat transfer to a point (and squishes out less)


edit:

image of a typical socket 7 board that case was designed for
http://www.pcmech.com/pics/at-mb-diagram.jpg

and a typical modern board
http://www.pcmech.com/pics/at-mb-diagram.jpg

im not 100% sure why they moved the cpu sockets, it made more since on the bottom front of the mainboard where the hottest thing could get clean cool air from the front of the case, now its jammed in there with a million watt heater er video card, psu, ram that needs heatsinks, drives and a power supply along with all the wires you have to keep away for air flow kinda dumb isnt it,

just like agp or newer cards are upside down, so your heatskink is point down, and last i checked heat still rises (right)

ah if i were king...

yea i know i was going to touch the screw in the middle of my electrical outlet to grond myself from the start and periodicly ground my self every once and in a while but the psu trick should work too and not only that but i have a nice hard woodent desk to work upon and that whole room in there is fireproof carpet which is the exact opposite of shaggy carpet and is extreamly hard and uncomforatble

and yes im sure thats where it goes (because thats where the old one was)

i also have a pair of viynal gloves (basicly latex gloves for people who are allergic to latex not that i am but i got them for free =D) to use when i put the computer togeather so that i dont get any grease or stuff from my hands

i was talking to a guy at the store and he was talking about the directions that artic silver has on thier website saying that they found that it was best to just put a dab of it in the middle and let it spread out when you put on the heatsink

and speaking of heatsinks im going to go to another electronics store to see what they have there and if they dont have anything good then its back to newegg

most of the heatsinks i find now are so massive that i cannot fit them on my cpu anyways (because my psu will be in the way so im going to look for a smaller one)

yea and i know air flow might be a problem in this case so i am probably going to invest some money in a good fan for the one open slot above the psu mount to get some intake in and then there is the exaust on the psu that will hopefully get some good airflow going although i fear that all of the air thats going to be sucked in is going to be the air thats has just been blown out of the psu XD hmm maybe ill look up the costs of another case to better fit my parts we'll see

just incase you missed that in all my mad babbling

Thanks for the additional info, Osgeld. I learned a lot from your post.

actually i missed your whole post XD due to me posting when you did but im going to go down to fry's electronics today and see what i can find there

also i dont know if my old processer will still work because i fiddled around with it a bit and kinda bent one of the pins but then i bent it back and i was able to re fit it back into my old mobo but it was a tight fit XD

and im now looking at both of my mobos and my old one has the cpu socket on the top left (when it is mounted in the computer) right behind the output plugs (you know the ps2 for the keyboard mouse, the moniter, usb etc.) and the new one has it in the top center but in the same general area where it will still have clearence issues due to my psu being in the same area on the other side

also btw both of your links are the same picture just incase you didnt know XD

and finnaly i wanted to say thanks for offering that to me but im going to stay with getting stuff off of newegg or in a shop because with all of the people scamming out there id rather be safe then sorry not that you will do anything but this way is just safer but thank you very much for offering

UPDATE:

I have returned from fry's where i got a brand new case for $50 with loads of room for everthing and some fans to get some good airflow with a side vent for my new heatsink and fan for $30 and i grabbed some artic silver so im going to start building either tonight or tomorrow thanks for the help everyone =D

good, a more modern case will help out with heat and dust

(and i totally understand, i probably wouldn't do my offer either lol, now where do i put this darn empty case?)

and your old cpu should still work as long as the pin isnt broken off, and is actually in the hole (it might make a ok file server)

and depending on what pin it was it might not even have to meet those requirements

i got a old beater of a laptop for free from a guy at work, yanked out its 150mhz cpu, and tried to slap in a k6/2, found out the hard way it was a socket 5 board (minus 1 pin vs a socket 7) and said "screw it" and broke the pin off

a year later that stupid thing is still working perfectly @ 366mhz (under clocked) with 256mb of ram, runs cooler than the stock intel and is fast enough for basic scripting or web stuff if im out and about

tho i wouldnt suggest you take such risks hehe

wow well i guess when you get stuff for free its ok to take some risks lol and now i do have my computer put togeather and its up and running... sorta

so here is the epic fail of the new year

i dont have a ps2 keyboard and my wireless usb ones dont work XD so im of to CVS to see if they sell keyboards and a mouse

so yea its sorta running i have a nice little foxconn logo on my screen and all and all the fans are on and everthing is running i think (the only things i have doubts on is the second disk dirve and the floppy drive dont seem to be working correctly yet) but im going to get the os working first and then deal with those issues later so im off to CVS yay!

oh i hate that, you usually have to turn on usb kb/mouse support in the bios, and well if you dont have a ps/2 one ...

cvs might, wallfart does (and they are usually open this time of night) or if you have one of those little usb-ps2 adapters that come with every mouse nowdays. those will work with a keyboard too

as far as your second disk drive, make sure one is set to master and the other is set to slave (if their ide)

and the floppy drive is really easy to hook up backwards, you can tell cause it wont work and the light stays on all the time, if thats the case just flip the ribbon cable around

good luck!