The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

well yeah, im not trying to start something, and tbh i remembered the sapphire problem after, i would have better of using thatm just was making a point.

 

Shaff,
All I'm saying is that all monitors have a bios chip, that all Plug and Play video cards are supposed to have the ability to read them as plug and play. I'm not knocking Ati. The older Ati video cards see the monitor as plug and play. You would think that the newer HD cards and on-boards would be able to see the dang thing too. Isn't that the whole idea of plug and Play? It's not supposed to be Plug and Pray! The monitor is old but I had Sceptre rebuild it back in March because it has such a great picture,the price was right and I didn't want a TN panel monitor, which was all I could have afforded at the time! Yes I would be saying the same thing if it was nVidia cards, yet I've never come across that problem with any nVidia card, including both Gforce2 cards I own, a 200 and a 440!

As far as motherboards go, I've had bad Gigabyte motherboards before for my own personal builds, and I've never tried to hide that from the forum. Gigabyte has always taken care of me properly, where as Asus has lied to me on numerous occasions, sent me a picture of what was supposed to be my motherboard to show me a damaged socket, that was a different Ser. # than the board I sent in, just so they could nick me for $40, and generally screwed me around with my P5P800SE and the P5N-E. Remember also that I'm the one who discovered why the P5N-E was so bad in the first place, not Asus! Doesn't it bother you that they had a good design, but went to cheaper and inferior parts just to try and make more money on them and the board became a piece of junk? How many high end Commandos and Crosshair failures do you have to see to understand why I won't buy any Asus motherboard? Yet I still buy their Optical drives! If one goes bad I'll throw it away and buy a new one because it isn't worth the trouble and expense to send one back! ie: I don't have to deal with them at all! The company sucks!

Still I managed to keep my mouth shut for a long time now as Sam is much more diplomatic about it than I am. I've even suggested some of their motherboards, in spite of my own personal feelings about the company! I feel like I have been very fair to both Ati and Asus!

Russ

 

oh, that wasn't a quip at asus/gb. Was just an example, of which either company are arbitrary. There was no meaning behind it russ.

 

Shaff,
OK That's cool!

Russ

 

A little case study I'll put out there, geforces had problems reading the Dell Ultrasharp 3007WFP for quite a while as it had no scaler, and they seemed to take issue with a device that took direct input without filtering it in any way. It seemed the general recommendation at the time that geforce users stick with other 30" monitor brands. Food for thought!
I've never bought an Asus DVD drive but I frankly don't see the point. I've been using LG drives since 2006 and not had a single one go bad. Why change? I had a Toshiba DVD ROM that worked OK for 5 years solid albeit with a worn out tray mechanism, but you can't really buy them. Both the Acer/Benq drives I had broke within 10 days so I point blank refused to use them for years. They've since merged with Philips, so that inspires a bit more confidence, though the only part of my Philips Hifis to break on both of them has been the CD drive, so who knows! lol
My Matshita OEM drive, apart from being slow as hell (32x12x8x8x2x1x1) had some interesting issues with burning software, and the Artec DVD-ROM it was partnered with had a habit of destroying discs.
I will admit, I have had to flash the firmware on my GH20NS15 as it somehow became corrupted, but due to all the games I play I'm going to blame StarForce for that. It can actually be transmitted virally, I found out to my amazement.
I think I've given the companies on my badbooks reasonable opportunity to prove themselves. I was willing to overlook the Epson printer that lasted 368 days, but for the fact that its replacement lasted only 2 years also before it became dodgy, and the Lexmark replacement that cost 1/3 as much lasted twice as long [and the HP LaserJet I use now is 11 years old!]
After three terrible Asus boards and a bad video card I figured I'd give up on Asus, but I gave them a fifth final chance with Shaff's Maximus II, which also kicked the bucket well before the end of its first year. For a £160 premium product that's disgusting. I like to think I don't needlessly hate on brands.
Besides some driver issues [which nvidia have had plenty of as well] I've had no hardware issues at all with ATI directly, only their scabby partners, or specifically Sapphire, Powercolor and Asus. Sticking with better companies it's been a smooth ride for the last 11 years.

 

Sam,
I've had two 2 series, one 4 series, two 7 series and one 9 series Nviddia and never came across any issues at all. That's spread over the last 7 years. The 800GTO I turned into an 850GT worked fine as did a couple of older Ati cards. It's only the hD ones that seem to be a problem!

I've had good success with Asus Optical drives and I like these as they are well made, very quiet and vibration free. Lord knows I've tried enough drives in the last year, 9 in all!

Russ

 

Ugh mobo wars. For the record I avoid Asus due to facts, not what someone else says. I've seen the failure rate with my own eyes.

 

Jeff: Same
Russ: That's not what my point was at all. I wasn't saying one nvidia card might randomly not work with your monitor. I'm saying one different monitor may have the exact same problem that you get with yours. You're the only person I've ever known to have this issue with ATI cards picking up a monitor, so who's to say one of the monitors other people use may only work with ATIs and not nvidias?
It's a rare unfortunate predicament, but it is not enough to disrecommend ATI as a whole, because this is a one-off isolated case.

 

sam,
While I do understand what you are saying, but Isn't plug & Play a standard set by Misco$oft years ago? Everything else sees it like that, and shows Plug and Play Monitor. With the HD Ati cards and on-boards, it just comes up Unknown Monitor, yet it says Plug and Play in the system hardware. Sandra reports it as Plug and Play Monitor, nVidia sees it as Plug and Play Monitor, and Everest reports it as Sceptre X20G-NagaIII, so I'm afraid I have to fault Ati for that with the HD cards and on-boards! They Must not be supporting the Plug and Play standard, and shows Umknown Monitor! How can I fault the monitor when all the other monitoring software detects it properly as Plug and Play Monitor? See where I'm coming from? I've never seen this problem before!

Respectfully,
Russ

 

They do support the plug and play standard, as that's how the 3007WFPs often come up. Plug and Play is merely a detection mechanism, if there's a conflict with the particular controller in the Sceptre, and how AMDs read plug and play, it doesn't matter about the interface. Plug and Play works on AMDs, just not with your specific monitor.

 

Sam,
OK! I'm assuming you mean my Model, not my individual Monitor, because this is the second one, as the first one that was rebuilt went haywire in a few days, and they replaced it with another with a different serial number! I believe that you mean a bios chip, because that's what Plug and Play reads!

Russ

 

Well, presumably, if you've tried another of the same and had the same result...

 

Yeah! Another WD20EARS drive on the way. I plan to store particular backups on one of the 1Tb drives, and shelf it. Gonna have to find a nice little storage container for Hard drives Finally have a 32Gb SD card too

 

Oman7,
I plan to do the same thing, only with 500GB drives. I just can't bear the thought of losing 1 or 2 TB if a drive fails. I prefer single platter drives for their silent operation and lower temperatures. I may even consider a 640GB drive since they are also single platter drives. I don't even burn to DVD anymore, and I have no interest in BlueRay at all! We may eventually get a small 27-32" HDTV, because neither of us watch very much TV. This house is so small we just don't have the room for anything bigger! Most of the time, TV isn't worth watching anyway!

Russ

 

Yah, I'd probably prefer single platter for particular backups. E.g. music, and irreplaceable imagery. If 'Z' were to quit, i'd probably put a gun to my temple... I really should backup that stuff. Ok, perhaps I wouldn't kill myself, but I would be devastated. Z is my main. It contains Photoshop saved files(Very precious), imagery compiled over multiple years, music compiled over multiple years(most I have on original cd though). I truly hope that this drive is the embodiment of Western Digital's pride

I can't wait for Hard drives to reach their peak of evolution. I probably won't be alive for it though LOL!

 

It's logical to assume that cramming more platters into a tight space, increases the odds of a problem. With a single platter, the risk is minimal. Logically speaking of course
Of course I understand very little about this technology, so...

 

creaky,
Single platter drives are quieter, and vibrate far less, if at all. They run cooler and have less moving parts to wear out or break. I have to remove the cover and get my ear down close to the case to hear any of my drives! I have a Black 500GB ALLS drive, and will get another of the same drive when I'm ready for it! 5 year warranty too!

I had a 20MB SCSI drive once back in the 80s that was about the size of a loaf of bread! LOL!!

Russ

 

My mother has the same drive russ. Can't seem to find the problem with why her OS is slower than mine though. It really should be similar. Even though I have the Velociraptor, the WD1001FALS is almost as fast. I would think the 500GB AALS drive is similarly has fast. Applications really don't load very fast at all. Aww well...
For whatever reason, she still uses her old busted a$$ 2001 gateway, with a pathetic 2.0Ghz pentium 4. and slow 80gb 2mb cache hard drive. Her choice LOL!

I think she's intimidated by the new machine. It's a big transition. She uses it every now and again.

 

When Gateway first came out in the 90s, they had a number of basic models, but they also had a long list of upgrades. Motherboards, video cards, HDDs, ODDs, memory, and so on. basically you could have them build you a custom computer. The idea did not catch on, mainly due to the high price of components in those days! You get far more Bang for your Buck today!

Russ