The (new) Official PC building thread!

rick5446,

It's interesting that you mention that because my findings show that many burners don't seem to make good readers! With every disk that I've recovered so far, the original failed to read in any of the burners in the house, even the one in the laptop. They read fine in my Asus E616A2 DVD Rom drive, and so far I have yet to fail to recover one to an ISO and then burn it to a new disk unless there was noticeable physical damage to the disk! I've also learned that most (not all) burners do not make very good players. I've also never had a DVD I made not play in a standalone, even the cheap ones you find in Hotels!

Maybe it's the fact that I see a lot more than most people because I repair and build computers, but these findings have been fairly consistent. I'll tell you a funny one. My Nero 6 CD never would start by itself, not since it was brand new! You always had to open the disk and start it manually. I made an ISO of it and burned it to a CD, and it autostarted the first time I put it in either drive and has ever since! LOL!!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Russ, you mean Burners don't make good READERS.

See I got you for a legit reason, while you...

lol

EDIT: Greg, my memory is higher clocked than that! I'm on a GDDR3 3850, while you're on your fancy GDDR4 3870. Come on step it up! This isn't a game, lives could be destroyed!

/overthetop

 

@ greensman

Ill back that up...been thinking of removing my drawer and adding # 5 drive...

Not really happy w/ the last drive I got...once in a while a blue screen comes up when Im using my litly [LH-20A1L revBL05] as a reader and states to up dated hardware or last software...only come when I use the litly??????? then I have to restart my computer and start over w/ the coping process!

 

Greg16---I may be missing something or slow (probably both) but I thought you had a Q6600 and CPU-Z says E6550?

 

herrick,
Go here and see if you can make a difference with that drive. Scroll down and d/l the last firmware in the 20A1L section and then "flash" the f/w with the most options first. hth....

Russ you do make a good point and I've often thought about adding the DVD-ROM drive you like and recommend. lol. Your selling point about "reading" and "writing" is well worth listening too. I've also noticed that some DVDRW drives are better readers than others.

I was reading the other day on a "ps2" forum I think and they were raving about an LG DVD-ROM as well. NOT a burner but the -ROM version for reading. They were slow but VERY accurate. Sorry can't find the link right now.

....gm

 

Heres the link..Actually it was yours too star with
Just click on the Photo
Or U could spend the xtra buck and get the lightscribe
Actually get the Lightscribe its got free shipping
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...82E16827106070,N82E16827106073&page=2&bop=And

 

@ greensman

have latest firmware

 

greensman,

I used to think that it was just my imagination, but after I got this drive, I knew I wasn't imagining it. The Sony/NEC/Optiarc 7170A that I have is a pretty good player! Not quite as good as the Asus, but close. The LG's I was using before were terrible readers. The movie would pause every once in a while for a fraction of a second and then continue. Just enough to be annoying!

I have a drawer full of old CDs that were all beat up as I've had them for years, that no longer work properly (don't ask). I was able to recover most of them to ISOs using the Asus ROM drive where none of the other 6 drives in the house would. A read error is almost like a death in the family, as I just don't get read errors with it. It's supposed to have some kind af "Angular Lazer Technology" that helps it read better. All I can say is it does work!

It's been quite a while since I used LG drives, but what I had been installing in my builds just wasn't standing up very well. Those looked cheap and sounded cheap. It was also very easy to damage the gear teeth on the track if you accidentally knocked against it at the wrong time.

The Sony/NEC/Optiarc AW series which was the last ones I installed, worked fine, but God did they look cheap! I had no choice as Newegg was out of the 7170s and I needed a drive. LOL!!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Wanna know a really accurate reader? PowerISO. It's magical, like it has no moving parts or something.

 

That's a progie you silly bugger!!! We was talking bout DVDRW and DVD-ROM drives......

Russ were those Sony AD-G170A drives? If so you can go here and d/l some magic by L&G. hth..... Oh and I agree on those AD-7170 series drives. GOOD they are.... lol. Reminds me of Yoda... which in turn reminds me of Lp531.... where's that bum at???? @ Lp.....

....gm

 

I realize that lol. I was just kidding.

I had a BenQ drive once. Broke down in less than a month.

 

sorry friend... got four 1655s and they are still kicken _ _ _ after hunderds of burns each

 

Any time I've had to make another copy of my Ripped DVD I've alway used DVD Decrypter to put it back on my HDD.This way I know I've got a good rip. The writers have alway been faster then just a DVD Drive, for me anywat!..Their pick and response, I've found is a lot faster then standard DVD drive. They play the Video smoothly in Power DVD, Media player Classic, VLC etc..My money is on the Burners for over all performance

 

at one time, lite-on dvd rom's were the king in regards to ripping speed. they would tear everything else up. I don't know if that still holds true or not. I really should have a rom and at least one writer. the way it stands now, I use my benq to rip (little faster than my litey) and my litey to write.

I use RI4M to rip (or DVDD w/ anydvd for those that RI4M won't handle). any folder requiring compression after I've removed the garbage w/ DVDRemake Pro, I only use DVDRebuilder/CCE SP period.

 

Mort81,
I use RipIt4Me for just about everything and I've only had it not work Twice in over 600 rips, and I used the newest Fab decrypter (at the time) for those two. I've since installed FabDecrypter Platinum, but I've only used it once to split a DVD for a friend (that's what she wanted!).

I ripped and processed "The Beyonce Experience: Live" yesterday, and it took 45 minutes and 17 seconds with DVDRB/CCE, 2 pass. I did some fiddling with the computer today. I lowered the CPU speed from 3.552 to 3.504, and I made some changes to some of the lower memory sub timings, which fattened my memory bandwidth a bit and discovered it runs just a bit faster than before, even though it's running a little slower. because of an error from Image shack I had to process the rip all over again. It did the whole thing, Prepare, Encode and Rebuild in 43 minutes and 2 seconds, an improvement of 2 minutes and 15 seconds. Take a look at the progress at 25,50,75, 85, and 95%. I'm not quite sure what I did, but 2:15 is a large improvement given that I slowed down the CPU. They are direct link so I don't have to fill a whole page. I've never seen numbers like that before, at least not on my machine. Let me know what you think. I know it's not LOR-II, but humor me! I'm not going to get a movie I hate just for a reference standard. I've already gotten the damn thing twice, and I should have kept the rip! The only one I have to make happy is me, and I is! LOL!!

25%
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/2512/25ys6.jpg
50%
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/789/50xt3.jpg
75%
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/8794/75tk8.jpg
85%
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/3218/85vb1.jpg
95%
http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/2474/95jn7.jpg
RB Final
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/9780/rbfinaldp8.jpg

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Russ,

looks good. as you know, if you can make your memory run at spec timings or tighter, it will perform better. I have also determined that it will also perform better the closer I can get it to spec speed (on my set up anyway). I found it will perform better even a little underclocked than it will with a fairly descent OC eg. better at 385mhz than at 450mhz. mine is set at it's optimum performance level (4-4-4-12 and 400mhz with the fsb/dram ratio at 1:1 ) since my buss speed is an even 400mhz.

 

now im just learning here but doesnt the mem come at a lower rate when you get it and it has to be OC'd so to say to get it at its rated speed? i think im wrong in this but i will say it so if i am i canhave some light shed onto it for me...
i thought the DDR2-800(PC6400) was shiped with the rateing of 400mhz and you needed to OC it to get it to its rated speed. so is this thinking wrong on my part,or did i just missunderstanding something?

 

rob,

with everything stock, the memory should run at it's rated speed. sometimes the timings will be lax and you will need to set them to rated. when you raise the cpu freq. to OC, the memory freq will change too. you can change the fsb/dram ratio to get your memory back close to it's rated speed. some mobos will even allow you to unlock the fsb/dram ratio.

since my memory is DDR2 800 it will run at the rated 400mhz at 9 (stock multiplier for my E6600) x cpu freq of 400mhz at a fsb/dram ratio of 1:1.

 

@abuzar1 - This is a 3870 X2 (slower frequency than a single 3870)
@ Deadrum33 - I do, i just pulled those images from overclockers uk forum to show Sam how badly performing internal crossfire will be.

I really do think ATI is going over the top with 4 GPU's...... I can't really see a difference with 2. If i did go with the 3870 Crossfire(external) id be getting maybe 18,000-19,000 in 3dmark06 for £150........is it worth it?

 

Abuzar: I had two Benq drives, both broke down in less than a month.
GregI6: right now I'm very glad I didn't choose to go crossfire, even the single cards aren't reliable. My PC hasn't performed this badly for years, not since back when I had 512MB of RAM. Every single time you turn a corner the game stutters, it really gets tedious after an hour of gaming like that. I'm hoping I can fix that with drivers, if not, my X1900's going back in. I'd sooner have smooth gaming than a high resolution.