The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

WD ran some extensive tests on cache, and discovered that while the difference between 8MB and 16MB Cache is significant, the gap between 16 and 32MB was negigible. I have a feeling they gave the Black drives 32MB cache for the sake of marketing above anything else. The Velociraptor is WD's flagship drive, if they saw the need for them all to have 32MB cache, they'd do so.
Running searches, would I be right in thinking your FALS mainly has large files on it, and the Velociraptor lots of little ones? When searching through indexes, file size is irrelevant, number of files is what's critical, I bet the velociraptor has a lot more files on it than the FALS.

 

30,000 files on the Fals, almost 90,000 on the Raptor. Funny...I would have thought it had more. The 1TB drive that is. I have a great deal of music, and what not on the drive. The drive seems to sift through it all pretty quick. It would be an interesting test, to put hundreds of thousands of pics, and mp3s on both drives, and see how they match up.
While the Fals has a great deal of LARGE LARGE files on it(ISO's), it also has a great deal of incredibly small files(Jpeg's).

 

Great read and advise from all about the boards and the HD's, actually the reviews are intersting but I wouldn't sqeeze a fart without getting opinions from the boys on this thread before I ever decide to fix or build something, even if I was a techie I still would never proceed without talking to the gang here.

 

Right-click properties on C:\Windows and look at how many files there are in there...

 

Windows 7 Raptor drive shows almost 62,000 files.

 

Shaff,
That's precisely what I get! It says "No signal" in a blue postcard sized window, with big red letters on the Viewsonic and "No Signal check cable" on the Dell! on the Sceptre it says "No Sync check video cable"! It is very easy to shut down this particular GPU, since it was designed for it in the first place. Remember the video chip is in the northbridge, so it would have to be disconnected in order to use a different video card. Video decoding is handled by the CPU through the NB, from the video card!

Russ

 

Why, that's not the case for using two dedicated cards...

 

Sam,
Could you explain that a little better, please!

Russ

 

There's nothing wrong with using two completely different graphics cards at once, even ATI+nvidia. You can't chain them for performance, and driver support is a little patchy, but there's no reason the OBG in a board need be disabled for another card, that I can think of.

 

Sam,
You can use it for hybrid crossfire, but the video is completely independent in both speed and memory configuration unless Hybrid Crossfire is enabled. You can even overclock it separately from the CPU. You can set GPU speed, Memory configurations and memory speed, all independent of the CPU! The memory speed is in another part of the setup, and is phantomed out unless the GPU is enabled. I'm going to call GigaByte on Tuesday and see what they say about it!

Russ

 

I don't really see how that changes anything. The OBG for the 790GX acts as a graphics card of its own within the chipset. However, for that reason, more than ever it should be subject to the same restrictions.

 

Sam,
As I said, I will be calling GigaByte on Tuesday and ask them about it!

On another note, My monitor came back early this morning, so my computer is finally finished, 100%! Everything runs just the way I expected it to. I'm going to keep the 9500GT, and forget about the OBG! I get a 3DMark 03 of 19504!



And a 3DMark 06 of 7660!



I have to say, I'm pleased by the way everything works, and it's perfect as a game machine for my purposes. Certainly not up to your gaming standards, but the 9500GT only cost $44, and the 3DMarks are a 100% improvement over the 7600GT I had in the E6750. I'm ready for a Phenom II in the not too distant future!

My monitor had a problem with the firmware, where it would loose the settings. They replaced the entire screen assembly again, and it works magnificently. No more stair-stepping with the video when it pans a scene. No dead or stuck pixels, and is, for all intents and purposes, a brand new monitor! It all took some time, but it's been well worth it. Why I have to have problems with my own personal builds, I'll never know. I built about 57 customer computers during 2008, and only had two RMA's, a BioStar 780GX motherboard, and a bad stick of A-Data memory! Still, in spite of having so many problems, I'm very happy with the result!

Best Regards and Happy computering,
Russ

 

3dmark03 means nothing to me. 3dmark06 is the only relevant test really. Scoring 7660 isn't bad, my file server with its X1900 scores 5000 ish with the CPU stock, and 6700 with it at 3.15.
Russ: Would people necessarily come back to you if something went wrong with your builds? Just a thought, people may want a second opinion or to have a go at the issue themselves.

 

Wish I knew enough to begin building on a more professional level. Currently, I will only do it for myself and family members. They think im ready, I do not.

On another note, im seeing a tiny imperfection on my monitor. Ive tried blowing it away, rubbing it away, and have come to the conclusion, that its QUITE stationary LOL, and must be a dead or stuck pixel. OK, it must be dead. Dead pixels present themselves black on white backgrounds. And I never see it on dark backgrounds. Its simply DEAD! But isnt this unusual? When I look at it with a magnifying glass, this is what it looks like. Yes...like a corner has been bitten off.

 

3dmark03 is an aging benchmark. Another point to consider is that it is also possible to obtain a higher score by lowering graphics resolution.

 

Sounds reasonable.
Omega: So the whole pixel is black bar a corner? Potentially could be a dead pixel caused by minor impact damage, for instance, accidentally poking the screen.

 

Yes, its an LCD screen.

Impact damage eh. I suppose its possible that blowing it off one day, the tube on the air can could have caused it. Its so minor though. In fact, I darn near have to try to look for it. I generally have a more Gothic approach to my wallpapers(Usually Dark). Text documents(white screens) comprise a small portion of my day anyway. No biggie.

 

My favorite solution is to put a napkin or something over the screen, line a pencil tip up with the pixel, and flick the butt-end of the pencil so it jabs the dead pixel through the napkin. Try it a few times and see what happens. The dead pixel should flicker back to life. A lot of the time this will fix a dead pixel permanently. It worked great when I got my Dell 24". I never had to RMA it