The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

Shaff,
No, it's very specific to whatever you set it to wipe. You can wipe a whole drive, or just a partition. I wiped the whole drive and re-partitioned it. You just have to be careful that you are on the correct drive or partition, pretty easy for me to do when the boot partition is only 38GB! It's hard not to have it set right! I even go so far as to scan the partition in question to confirm that I have the right drive partition before wiping anything!

Russ

 

Haha only happened to me once. When I reformat I just transfer all of my stuff to my second drive and unplug it completely. That way I can be sure my data is untouched. Then when windows is up and running I just transfer everything back. I can go from a complete format back to my preferred settings, skins, codecs, etc in roughly 1 hour if I'm actually concentrating. Preparation is a simple as downloading the latest versions of my programs and drivers and setting them aside for after the format. Fairly painless really.

Currently been on this install of XP Pro since January though and been problem-free. I never have viruses and I rarely, if ever, have driver issues. Especially with the latest set of drivers Crossfire has been way more cooperative on XP

 

I never bother with third party applications to do what windows does fine already. The only exception to this is AusLogics Disk Defragmenter.
As for crossfire on XP, since quad CF, I have to use Vista or later.

 

Yeah recently I've been just using VLC, MPC and Winamp. Codecs do affect everything and it can be a messy business managing them.

I tried Auslogics but personally I don't like it. I use Defraggler.

EDIT:

And as far as Firefox stability 1.3 was terrible. 1.3.1 seems to have cleared it up though and I've been problem free since the update. Google Chrome is just as fast but personally I can't get used to the interface. Firefox is so much more intuitive for me.

 

Got 9.8 installed, tried warhead and seemed to get better performance (15fps, IIRC last time I got 12) - tried to enable AA and forgot I still had a default 8GB page file. Whoops! Raised it to 12 and will try again!

 

Estuansis,
I have Firefox 2.0.0.14 installed and I have Mozilla shut out completely so they can't upgrade it. Every time they try, I click on the "Keep Blocking" button. Why? So I can download the HQ sound and video from YouTube! It won't work if I let them upgrade to the next 2.0.0.20 version. IE, Google Chrome and Opera will not allow downloading of YT videos at all. If you install the download plugin, they all disable it at browser startup! I doubt that it's a technical issue, I think it's really about money! I think they all want money from Real Player to allow you to use it. Someone suggested to me to simply save the url, but that's only as good as the life of the url! Once it's been removed, all you have is a dead link when you click on the url!

Russ

 

Actually on Chrome there's a crafty trick you can use what you do is:
Click the bookmark star (it doesn't matter what page your on).
Type Download Youtube in the Name section and set the folder to bookmarks bar.
Click Edit...
In the URL box type

Go to the Youtube video want, Show the bookmarks bar (if not already shown)
Click Download Youtube.
The .FLV is now yours to keep/convert

 

keith1993,
Thanks, I didn't know that. I like the old FireFox though, and it's so simple to do with it! By downloading and installing Real Player instead of rhapsody, I get FLV files as well instead of the RM you get using Rhapsody. Here's an excellent FLV to AVI/MPG 2 pass converter!

http://download.cnet.com/Pazera-Free-FLV-to-AVI-Converter/3000-2194_4-10786669.html

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Exactly what I use, only I make it a bookmark. One click, and the videos are saved, much easier than it ever was wrestling with firefox's plugins to do it.

 

Sam,
It's one click to save it with the real player plug in too! You just click save! That's it! You can put them in any folder you want just by changing the default, which is the My Video folder in the My Documents folder! I just left it at default!

Russ

 

A realplayer plugin? No wonder you get issues...

 

Issues with what? The RealPlayer Browser Record Plugin 1.0 is excellent, and unlike some others that only let you record the low quality video and audio, if it has HD audio and video available, just click on HQ first and you get the better sound and video!

Russ

 

There are switches for that too using the bookmark system, and that supports HD as well. Forgive me for not expecting much of a realplayer plugin, I have yet to have a remotely reasonable experience with any version of realplayer.

 

sam,
I had been using the Rhapsody Plug in, but it wouldn't let you record the HQ, only the low quality video and audio and the damn Rhapsody Plugin would crash Rhapsody when it closed. Only RM files too! UGH!!

The Real Player Plugin is two click if you want the HQ. Click HQ first and then download. Couldn't be simpler! I always avoided anything to do with Real Player too, but I tried it and the plugin works excellent! The Pazera Converter is top notch! I convert all of mine to MPG, 2 pass and they look and sound great!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Either way, my bookmarks work fine, and I'm happy with .MP4s. I suppose I don't do as much video encode work as you. As far as I'm concerned, if it looks good, large file size is liveable.

 

Sam,
I also convert all my MP3s to Wav. Much better sound quality too when uncompressed! I use NCH Audio Converter for that. Another excellent program!

Russ

 

Er, what? I consider myself an audiophile but I have never spotted a difference changing MP3s to Wavs. Native wav to start with is of course much better, but unless you have a dodgy codec, MP3 playback and mp3s converted to wav should sound identical.

 

Personally I rip to FLAC but converting from MP3 to anything and expecting better quality is the silliest thing I've heard in a long while. That would be like getting a pint of milk, putting it in a 2 pint bottle and topping it up with water you've still got the same amount of milk but in a needless bigger container.

 

I'd say the same, but without diluting it - same waste of space, but diluted milk = yuck

 

Something needs to fill in the blanks that lossy MP3 causes may as well be water.

Well would you look at the metalhead talking quality