Hardware to avoid

[SPARTAN-117]

Modular PSU's bad idea. Also avoid PSU's with 20+/-4 pin motherboard connection as they cause boot issues. 8O

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My System:

AMD 64 X2 3800+ OC'ed to 2.2 Ghz, BFG 7900 GTX 512 mb OC'ed, ASUS A8N-SLi Deluxe, 2 Gb Kingston Value RAM CAS Latency 2.5-3-3-6, Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 4, Westen Digital 74 Gb Ratop ADFD, 2x Western Digital 250 Gb Caviar SE, 3x Thermaltake Hardcano 14 HDD coolers, Thermaltake Blue Orb II CPU cooler, Zalman VF-Cu 900 Blue LED VGA cooler, Thermaltake Extreme Spirit Northbridge cooler, and a PC Power & Cooling 510w PSU.

 

[redline42]

y avoid modular? im thinking of gettin one

 

[Crashman]

Someone said ultra ram, and i will agree its terrible.

Ultra isn't even a manufacturer, it's a brand of a discount web vender. It might as well say "tigerdirect" on it.

Would you buy "K-Mart" brand tires for your car?

 

[Crashman]

No, it's just that you put the cables on wrong. Floppy cables go on flipped (side to side) compared to hard drive cables, but the drives aren't keyed to prevent you from putting them on backwards.

 

[Crashman]

did anyone list e-machines? I'm not being bias... but any computer company who could cram a machine full of crap.. sell it... and not give you room to upgrade? (GATEWAY *cough* GATEWAY) should go out of business rapidly

And I bet you're one of those guys who wants a Shuttle cube...

 

[melarcky]

sli does help improve 3dmark scores

Who cares?
True who cares about 3D Mark scores.. I would rather get 100FPS in source then get a 5,000 3d Mark 06 score.
As for bad hardware.
GFFX5500, GF4MX440.. I was a No0B and didn't know that it didn't support DX8.0

 

[flasher702]

I know this does not need mentioning but someone has to do it. VIA 8O there, I said it.

I've never had any problems with Via, made hundres of AMD + Via budget PCs... SIS chipsets I've had lots of problems with though, they seem to just obsorb CPU cycles and disperse them into the ether.

 

[minim3]

1 word: Celeron

This name must simply die.

Also stock hsf of my prescott p4 478. 5000 rpm and the most annoying noise
in the neighboor. (was replaced by an artic freezer).

 

[dietzjack]

I keep hearing people having problems with Maxtor drives. I've always used maxtor and only 1 failed on me, and that was only because it was really old and it was bound to happen.

Otherwise I've been happy with maxtor drives and have never had another problem with them, and I have many maxtor drives.

I personally dont like IBM drives because they I've had problems with them and the rear connections are flimsy.

My experience w/ maxtor goes like this:
Got a 10GB Maxtor that came with my Dell.
That one lasted until I sold it and got a 40GB Maxtor.
That one lasted until I sold it and got a 160GB Maxtor.
That one lasted until I sold it and got a 250GB Serial ATA Maxtor.
I also got a Maxtor combination IDE/SATA disk controller PCI card with that one.
Thinking of selling and getting a 500GB Maxtor.

 

[axilon]

did anyone list e-machines? I'm not being bias... but any computer company who could cram a machine full of crap.. sell it... and not give you room to upgrade? (GATEWAY *cough* GATEWAY) should go out of business rapidly

And I bet you're one of those guys who wants a Shuttle cube...

Lies, check the spec, i just hauled into a brand new rig.. shuttle my *** its dragging a 16 pound Thermaltake ARMOR case.

 

[rwaritsdario]

All the products I condem, mostly because theyre outperformed for the same or lower price:

-Corsair (Dominator and DDR2 800 CL3 excluded)
-Artic Silver 5
-Asus M2N series
-Zalman 9500
-Gskill PK
-Sony optical drives
-Rosewill PSUs
-Intels BadAxe

I know alot of ppl might feel ofended by this. So if youve got an objection, tell me and ill tell something thatll outperform the above for a lower price.

 

[amdwilliam1985]

Could people who said Ultra brand rams are bad give some reasons?

I'm posting this because I have 2x512=1gb ddr400 running in my system now. I'm running them at ddr480 specs at 3,3,3,8,2t. memtest86 stable after more than 6 hours.
I got them when they're on sale from tigerdirect.com
each one for 10$ plus maybe 5$ shipping fee.
So I think I pay like 30$ for 1gb of ram, which to me is a very good deal.

 

[Crashman]

As far as I know it's simply inconsistency.

 

[Crashman]

I like Corsair, their quality is hard to beat for similarly rated modules. The company's 5400C4 runs faster than many competitor's 6400 RAM when similar overclocking tactics are applied. I use Corsair and Crucial Ballistix in my own systems, and I have a wide selection at hand.

 

[stallyn]

heh I got one, logitech keyboards, had the space bar buttons stick, and go bad!

 

[qwazzy]

Haha, I knew there was going to be a line for that one!

Add to the list:

Case Power Supplies
Dell

~Ibrahim~

Oh damn, you stole mine! NEVER EVER EVER EVER BUY DELL!!!

 

[qwazzy]

heh I got one, logitech keyboards, had the space bar buttons stick, and go bad!

Hell no! I have a wireless Logitech keyboard, have not had problems with it and the Logitech webcam I bought is nice too! So is the Rumblepad 2..with vibration!

 

[jaguarskx]

value ram = crap...

I like my Corsair DDR 400 RAM that I bought for my HTPC a few years ago.

 

[jaguarskx]

How about an oldie... Like MicronPC? They went out of business, but have been revived as MPC.

Anywaste, my first PC was from MicronPC with the screaming Pentium MMX 166MHz. Within 18 months the following failed:

PSU
Motherboard (twice)
CPU

Since then I taught myself about PC parts and how to put one together. That was an expensive and annoying learning experience.

 

[rwaritsdario]

How far have they overclocked (only speed wise)??

 

[Crashman]

I can get around 840 at CAS4 and 890 at CAS5 out of 5400C4 modules, consistantly, at 2.1V. That's the same 2.1V OCZ requires for it's DDR2-800, with similar overclock-ability (890 at CAS5).

I have faster modules, but the 5400C4 came to mind because at the time they were given to me (over a year ago), a pair of 512s only cost $100. Newegg even had a rebate that would have made them cheaper.

 

[rwaritsdario]

wow, that thruly is more than I expected. But generally Corsair can be matched for a lower price, even that now that theyre lowering their prices considerably I wouldnt be so sure...

 

[ikjadoon]

Me and Crashman have had a talk about Corsair vs. OCZ DDR2, actually.

Just a tid bit about memory: OCZ is now releasing a DDR2-800 CAS4 for under $240. Most likely will come with a rebate, possibly bringing it under $200.

~Ibrahim~

 

[rwaritsdario]

Just a tid bit about memory: OCZ is now releasing a DDR2-800 CAS4 for under $240. Most likely will come with a rebate, possibly bringing it under $200.

OCZ Platinum Rev.2 DDR2 800 4-4-4-15 *guaranteed D9GMH* will go to 550Mhz CL5 = $235AR
These the DDR2 800 modules of choice by far right now.

I just hope the new line wont be like the Gskill ZX...

 

[kanoobie]

Sorry for the mix-up 😳 , XP Home does support dual core processing, but it doesn't support more than one CPU on a system.