Recent content by mikeymike

My experiences in attempting to cool the hard disk suggest that a rear fan would make no difference in reducing the hard disk temp. I've tried mounting a fan right next to the hard disk, so it was blowing air above and below the disk, ~3000RPM fan. Not even a degree difference at point blank...

Re: weight - I don't like absolutely massive heatsinks. They're more difficult to fit, if you change motherboards something might be in the way of them fitting, and attaching a ~one pound weight to one end of a sheet of plastic tends to make me think "SNAP" despite it being bolted down :-)...

I'm thinking about upgrading my system within the next 6 months, I'm staying on the AthlonXP range for money reasons. I'd like a quiet cooler, that doesn't weigh a tonne and does a reasonably good job of CPU cooling. I'm currently using a Global Win CBKII-58 solid copper cooler with a ~3000RPM...

I just got a retail AMD 2500+ Barton for a customer, stock HSF is pretty good. Runs virtually silent, ~3000RPM fan, copper block on base of HSF. System temp between 44 - 48C. It's warm-ish in the UK at the moment. Outside I'd guess it's lower to mid twenties celsius.

Presumably an old 2600+? Palomino core?

Check out the reviews for the high-end P4s. They're bar heaters. And 'quieter' extremely rarely means 'cooler'. 99% of the time it means 'much much hotter'. The hot air has to go somewhere, you either push it away quickly and reduce the local temperature, or you don't. Do lots of research...

Are graphics cards just going to get bigger, noisier, heavier and hotter for the forseeable future, or do people think we'll see Nvidia/ATI go through the same phase as AMD have already and Intel are just thinking of doing? I'm a bit miffed after building a PC for a customer which is a damn...

I thought I knew the differences between the current AMD offerings, but it appears I don't :-) Could someone suggest a decent, concise article to read that best explains it?

I'm looking for a driver that'll best fit the following criteria: - lower memory footprint (ie. not the 18MB jobbies!) - hasn't had reports/rumours of "cheat"* optimisations - reliable, good performer I'm using Win2k, AGP 4x system. The card is a Creative Labs GeForce 4 Ti4200 64MB. * -...

Borrow a CD from a friend. Provided it is Windows 2000, preferably the OEM version, there isn't a legal issue. The machine has a valid licence for it presumably, notably that sticker.

I remember reading that ATi graphics cards don't pair up too well with nForce 2 chipset motherboards. Does anyone know if Matrox cards and nForce2 chipset mobos have similiar compatibility issues?

Creative Labs is missing from the Nvidia card suppliers. I'd put them in the 'good' list.

I see no reason to not buy Nvidia anymore... both Nvidia and ATI have been caught cheating on benchmarks, and who else is there for decent 3D gaming?

I found a 3Dfx card recently, PCI, IIRC it says "3DS5000TV", from the days of 2D/3D cards. I've tried searching for the above bit on the card on google but not found anything. The machine I'm planning on putting it in is a K6-2/350, via chipset (MVP3C Apollo), with an AGP card, S3 4MB (a bit...

I'm reinstalling an old machine with Win2k, and I'm getting minor graphics corruptions, the occasional pixel jumping a few to the left at any resolution/colour depth/refresh combination above 640x480. I've tried about 12 different drivers of different versions, for Win2k, NT4 or XP and no...