[Mitesh]

Hello....Samm?

Take it easy on her she'll be back don't worry. As far as your purchasing habits I think it is a great idea. Sell some of the stuff you don't need too.

Are you being sarcastic? 'Sell some of the stuff you DONT need to?
Could you please answer some of my questions above please? (Previous message)

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Hi Mitesh

Don't panic, I'm back (I'm always away from home on Wednesdays so Internet access).

Re. the new parts :
Firstly, I am not a gamer, so I can only give you general recommendations on the hardware, not gaming specific. If anyone else has any comments to make re. the hardware & games, please feel free to make them.

CPU/Motherboard : Personally I prefer AMD cpu's & I often hear people say they're better for gaming but it's up to you. I doubt it would make that much different to be honest. The motherboard however does require careful consideration as I'm sure you know. Especially re. manufacturer & chipset etc. Which manufacturers are you considering? Personally I would recommend (in no particular order), DFI, Asrock, MSI, Abit. Asus are ok but can be a bit hit & miss occasionally.
Whichever board to decide on, make sure you check it out first on the Internet for reviews, known issues, benchmarking etc

Video - the 8800 seems to be the card that everyones going on about at the moment, especially in regards to Crysis. To be honest though, it's going to be hard to be certain which card will perform the best until Crysis is actually released. Re. the video memory - the video card uses the video ram at all resolutions, although the higher the res, the more memory it's likely to use.
I found an interesting set of benchmark results where, amongst others, the X1950XTX & the Geforce 8800GTX are compared. The interesting part is that two 8800GTX's are benchmarked (identical apart from the manufacturer) & the difference in benchmark results for some of the tests, are huge. Check it out :

http://uk.theinquire.../?article=35604

Another thing to remember if you're going to replace the motherboard/ram/video, is check the boards compatibility with the ram & video on the motherboard manufacturers website. Just because 2 components are theoretically compatible, doesn't mean they are guaranteed to work flawlessly, especially when dealing with the very latest hardware.

[Samm]

Hi Mitesh

Don't panic, I'm back (I'm always away from home on Wednesdays so Internet access).

Re. the new parts :
Firstly, I am not a gamer, so I can only give you general recommendations on the hardware, not gaming specific. If anyone else has any comments to make re. the hardware & games, please feel free to make them.

CPU/Motherboard : Personally I prefer AMD cpu's & I often hear people say they're better for gaming but it's up to you. I doubt it would make that much different to be honest. The motherboard however does require careful consideration as I'm sure you know. Especially re. manufacturer & chipset etc. Which manufacturers are you considering? Personally I would recommend (in no particular order), DFI, Asrock, MSI, Abit. Asus are ok but can be a bit hit & miss occasionally.
Whichever board to decide on, make sure you check it out first on the Internet for reviews, known issues, benchmarking etc

Video - the 8800 seems to be the card that everyones going on about at the moment, especially in regards to Crysis. To be honest though, it's going to be hard to be certain which card will perform the best until Crysis is actually released. Re. the video memory - the video card uses the video ram at all resolutions, although the higher the res, the more memory it's likely to use.
I found an interesting set of benchmark results where, amongst others, the X1950XTX & the Geforce 8800GTX are compared. The interesting part is that two 8800GTX's are benchmarked (identical apart from the manufacturer) & the difference in benchmark results for some of the tests, are huge. Check it out :

http://uk.theinquire.../?article=35604

Another thing to remember if you're going to replace the motherboard/ram/video, is check the boards compatibility with the ram & video on the motherboard manufacturers website. Just because 2 components are theoretically compatible, doesn't mean they are guaranteed to work flawlessly, especially when dealing with the very latest hardware.

[Dryfter]

if your running 1280x1024 you should be fine with the 320. You may not be able to run everything at max, but you'll still be able to play the game. As far as selling the X1950XTX I don't know if you'll get 200 out of it. because most people know that DX10 is more or less out and want DX10 cards.

I also put up one of my 7800GTX's on ebay about a month ago. hoping to get $200 or even $175, it ended up going for just over $100. I orginally bought 2 of these for just under $1000. Morall of the story? Expect about 1/3 of what you bought. If you get more? take it and don't complain. (yes i know the cards were a year old but still. $100 for a card that i spent $450 on. thats kinda depressing.)

Edited to include some info from Samm.

I am a gamer. (as you can probably tell by my choice of hardware.)
I used to be all AMD (old rig). But Intel has now taken the gaming section by storm with the C2D's. They are noticably faster. Even between my Opty at 1.8 and my E6300 @1.86 I can notice the differnece between them. In gaming and video editing.

Refering to the mother boards. I love DFI, I would recommend them for anything. Just make sure your ram will "mesh" with the mobo. But I agree with everything about the Mobo's.

I'm also going to recommend going with EVGA (graphics) if possible. Their customer support is awesome. And they have a program called "the step-up program". You send in your old card. they give you what you paid for it, and you can buy a new/newer graphics card. The only problem is this has to be done within 3 months of the purchase date.

Edited by Dryfter, 30 March 2007 - 05:14 AM.

[Samm]

Thank you for your input Dryfter

[Mitesh]

Hey,
Sorry its been such a long time since I replied, I have been busy selling my items on ebay!!
Thank you soooooooooooo much Dryfter for your input.... its priceless, I didnt know EVGA had such a scheme, and it is defintley worth buying that companies card.
However I am wondering: Say I buy the 8800 GTS for say £200- then I return it for a better card within 3 months for lets pretend an 8900 GTS. Then would I et another 3 months on the 8900 GTS or is this scheme only once for 1 card?
Oh and of course thank you Samm very much as yes I know it is important to check that I buy a good motherboard however I was thinking of sticking with gigabyte models.
However I recently spoke to this guy who owns a computer shop, he is very knowledgable and he told me the following:

I said: I plan on buying Vista with the new parts I am buying mainly because of DX10

Jamie (the computer store owner): Nah, its defintley not worth it there are currently too many bugs in it, as it is perfomance is far worse on Vista then XP (note by myself: he gets the latest parts for like 80% of the price we pay so he has 2 8800 GTX's on the most expensive Core 2 Duo available and of course he has tried Vista).

As for DX10, there isnt that big a diffrence between DX10 and DX9 and you wont realise the diffrences unless you look hard and have a large screen; at the resolution you will be gaming at (1280 x 1024) you wont notice anyhting spectacularly different. Even when Crysis gets released which by the way is post-poned till the end of the year as Vista has so many problems that the developers are waiting for Microsoft to iron out the bugs; following on, even when Crysis gets released you wont notice the diffrence between running it on DX10 and DX9 hardware and opwerating systems etc.
However I would still advise you to buy the 8800 GTS you told me you are planning to buy because firstly its a h-e-ll of a lot more efficient, it is as powerful as the X1950XTX, and mainly its future proof.

I said: I read on a forum on which I post that the RAM and motherboard should be chosen carefully

Jamie: Yes that is true, the best thing to do is go to the manufacturers website (of the RAM that is) (I would recommend you buy Corsiar RAM as they are of a very high quality) and on the website there will be a table containing info on all the mobo's it has been tested with. Pick your mobo from there- Asus make some of the best mobo's in my experience.

I said: Will I still get Shader Model 4.0 in XP

Jamie: Yes, DX10 and Shader Model 4.0 are two different things.. I have a customer I have to go now.....

So Samm and Dryfter, would you agree on everything he said?
Also I am confused about the following:

1) Is Shader Model 4.0 actually seperate from DX10 and if so will I get it on XP if I get a game that is DX10 and has Shader Model 4.0 such as Crysis?

2) We all know that the FSB of the CPU, is relevant to the speed of the RAM.
Now this is where I get confused:

-I am going to buy the E6600 which has a FSB of 1066MHz, so if I buy 2 1GB sticks of 533MHz RAM that would be the perfect match right? Also do they have to run in Dual Channel mode for the speed to match the FSB?>>>>>

-Ok now lets say if I bought only 1 stick of RAM 2GB and it was rated at 533MHz then would that work or in that case would it have to be 1066MHz?

-Is dual channel mode required for the FSB and speed of RAM to match?

-If this is all the case then why do manufacturers sell faster RAM when the CPU would just throtlle the speed back down to 1066MHz anyway?

-What latency timings are good? I found RAM with the following latency timings for 2 GB of DDR2-PC4200 (Because they run at 533MHz) and they have 4-4-4-12. Here check it out: http://www.overclock.......8&subid=697 - - 4th One Down. I was rather hoping to get RAM with heatspreaders again simply for eye candy - if not its no biggy.

3)Which chipset should I go with? What is this Nvidia Nforce chipset and how is it any diffrent to say the 965P or the 975X chipsets- which one is better.
Does buying an Nforce mobo mean that i would not be able to use ATI cards, or would that simply diasable the ability to crossfire? If I buy say the 965P chipset does that mean I can run any cards in SLI mode (not that I will I probably wont as I wont be able to afford it in the near future")?
Are the Abit Fatalty boards any good?
Can you please recommend a mobo within £80 and it must support the hardware I intend to use (the main reason I dont like Asus boards is because they look so dam boring they are brown in colour and I have a see through window so......).

Right now on to ebay!
I have put my items as follows:

Gigabyte GA-8I915P Duo Pro motherboard, Socket 775
£20.00 0 bids -- 1- watcher - 2d 02h 09m (remaining time)

Intel Pentium 4 Processor 3.0 GHz HT Socket 775 530J
£15.00 0 bids-- 2- watchers - 2d 02h 43m

Hauppauge Win-TV HVR 1100 Hybrid Video Recorder
£25.00 1 bid - 3 watchers - 1d 03h 03m

1GB PC3200 Corsair Value Select DDR with AKASA heatsink
£25.00 0 bids - 4 watchers - 2d 03h 06m

Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950XTX 512MB GDDR 4 VIVO
£90.00 1 bid - 12 watchers (!!!!!) - 2d 03h 36m

Now there seem to be people trying to pull off scams: please go here scroll down and read the email some benharrington sent me:

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...e...p;rd=1&rd=1

Here's the guys info (benharringtin):
http://myworld.ebay....k/benharrington

Notice how he has only bought or sold (not sure) 1 item? And he is registered in America on a UK website?
Now even some other guy told me that it sounds like some scam from africa (read above that email).

He didnt reply by the way.

I also received another email which I forgot to put up as follows:
'Good afternoon.
Will you take £110 for the whole package?
Regards
Phil'

Notice how he says Good Afternoon?

I replied:

'The whole package? You mean the motherboard, the RAM and the processor or do you mean the hauppage TV Tuner card as well? I am prepared to sell you the mobo the ram and the procesor for that price however if you want the tv tuner card then add £10 to that price as it is practically brand new if you read the advert.

The graphics card which I have yet to advertise WIL NOT COME UNDER your price.
It is the X1950XTX which is worth £260 it is BRAND NEW. I got it as a warranty replacement.

Please can you call me on the following number as I am at a friends house replying as I do not have the internet: 07xxxxxxxxx (dont want everone here to know my no.!)
Please do not email me as it will be some time before I will be able to check the email.

Call me anytime.. ASAP please. '

Kindest Regards,
Mitesh Kachhia

No reply again.

So I think hes a scammer as well heres his details notice how alll the stuff he has bought or sold is al weird and of VERY low value, also he has only been registered for 3 months: http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/fishbone-mad

What do you think?
I cannot understand how someone can use my paypal account in a way which would be negative for me.
Also since im not buying anything on Ebay do I need to register a credit/debit card (becasue I have) if not shalll I remove it?

Well in terms of the graphics card as you can see I heeded Drfter's advie and put it at £90. Check out the no. of watchers! However I reckon they will all only bid in increments of like £1-2 or so.

I am now very hungry and tired of typing so I am going back home (at friends using net) to eat; then if I can get back I will add more info.
Many thanks in advance.

[Samm]

I do agree with what Jamie said, especially regarding Vista. Let's face it, all the Windows platforms have been buggy when first released, just look at XP & Millenium for example.
As for directx 10, from what I understand, directx 10 will only be available for Vista. I would still recommend though that you stick with XP & DX9 for now until MS iron out the bugs with Vista. The other option you could consider would be to install Vista & DX10 but install it on a different partition to XP. This would allow you dual boot the system so you have a choice between XP & Vista.

As far as Crysis is concerned, it can run on XP with DX9 or Vista with DX10 (allegedly)


Mitesh - I have to go out now so I'm going to reply to the rest of your post tomorrow evening....

[Samm]

I is back...

Right, Shader Model 4: I may be wrong here so feel free to correct me, but i think this is right - shader model 4 is different to directx, however, the version of DX that you use must support the version of shader model you are using.
e.g Shader model 4 is supported by DX v9.0L (aka DX 9.0Ex) & DX10, both of which will only run under Vista.

RAM - I also agree with Jamie that Corsair are very good. Other manufacturers worth considering include Crucial, Kingston, OCZ etc
As the type of ram, most boards that support the Core 2 Duo, support DDR2 533, 800 & 1066. I would suggest you go for the 1066 if possible as it will be backwardly compatible anyway with other speeds. That way, if you upgrade the cpu in the future you won't need to upgrade the memory.
It makes no difference to the FSB whether you run the memory in dual channel or single channel mode.

Re. ram latency - because these are latency values, the lower the value, the better. Most ram modules (DDR2) have a CAS latency of 4 or 5. (e.g 5-5-5-15 or 4-4-4-12) where the first number represents the cas latency (CL).
Check out Ebuyer.com for a decent selection of DDR2 with heat spreaders.

Chipsets - you can use an ATI video card on a Nvidia chipset. That said, I would imagine that it's less likely you would get compatibility issues if you used an ATI chipset.
As far as the differences between current Intel chipsets & Nforce ones, I have no idea. Generally speaking, Intel chipsets suffer from less compatibility issues that other chipsets, inclding Nvidia. However, the nforce chipsets are suppose to be very fast.
To be honest, you best bet would probably be to decide on which video card you want, which games you are likely to play the most etc, and then research the individual chipsets from there. i.e are there any compatibility issues, known problems etc.

The Intel 965P chipset, as far as I know, should be able to run either ATI or Nvidia PCIe cards in SLI mode. That said, again check for any known issues first before buying.

Re. Abit Fatal1ty - Abit make very good motherboards. As for specific gaming boards such as the fatal1ty, again, ask a gamer. As far as I am aware, they're fine.

Re. Ebay
First guy who contacted you, is almost certainly a scammer. Fact. You said yourself, why would anyone (especially in America) offer that much money for those items. It's not like they're especially hard to come by is it.
Second guy - probably ok. He has a huge number of feedback ratings (both buying & selling) & has a 100% feedback for the last 12 months (99.7% since 2000).

As for Paypal & scams etc, I don't know exactly how it works but I know there have been lots of scams, usually from Nigeria, on Ebay. I can only assume that it involves paying via Paypal, then stopping the payment after you have already shipped the item out, or maybe by using a dodgy credit card to start with. I don't know. I use Ebay a lot myself & I know there are scammers out there. So far I have been lucky enough to avoid being hit by them.

As far as debit/credit cards are concerned for Paypal - I think you need register your card details with Paypal in order to set up the account. You don't have to use debit/credit card as your method of payment though, as you can set up direct bank transfer instead. This means that you still pay using Paypal, but the money is transferred direct from your bank account, instead of via a card.
What I do know is this - if you are selling anything on Ebay & you have only the basic Paypal account, then you cannot accept Paypal payments which are funded by debit/credit cards. You can only accept Paypal payment funded by direct bank transfer. In order to accept debit/credit card payments, you need to upgrade your Paypal account.
Its free to upgrade but you will be charged for every payment you receive.

[Mitesh]

My X1950XTX sold for £190!!
Only my mobo didnt sell dont understand why though.

Ok here are the components I will buy once I get the OK from you lot:

Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3P - there is a GA-965P-DS3 (no P) available - Dont know the diffrences if anyone can enlighten me I would be grateful
Core 2 Duo E6600
RAM- Ahhh RAM confused - Ok there are 2 I have an eye on the one on offer: http://www.overclock...rodid=MY-072-OC vs http://www.overclock...odid=MY-095-CS- cant decide.
The OCZ has the higher 4-4-4-15 which I am guessing will mean it performs worse- which one would you lot recommend?

EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS SuperClocked 320MB

Any recommendations or comments (negative and positive) are appreciated.

Edited by Mitesh, 04 April 2007 - 01:16 PM.

[Samm]

Differences between the 2 Gigabyte models (according to Gigabyte) is this :

GA-965P-DS3
Intel P965 chipset
PCI-Expressx16(8) slots : 1
PCI Slots: 3
SATA RAID levels supported : 0,1,JBOD
SATA ports : 6
Firewire : none

GA-965P-DS3P
Intel 965 Express chipset
PCI-Expressx16(8) slots : 2
PCI Slots: 2
SATA RAID levels supported : 0, 1, 5, 10
SATA ports : 8
Firewire : 3


Could you fix the second link to overclockers please

[Mitesh]

Sorry about the link,

Here: OCZ http://www.overclock...rodid=MY-072-OC (PC2-6400) vs http://www.overclock.......&subcat=144 (PC2-5300).

So theres the link for the RAM, I reckon I should go for the P series mobo as it has more features for only £6 more.

Feedback appreciated as usual!

[Samm]

Agree with you on the P series mobo.
As for ram, go with the OCZ stuff - it looks prettier (hey, there's little else to choose between them so might as well go with appearance!)

[Mitesh]

Could you please check out this RAM- I found it on E-Buyer and have already placed the order - however as I found out no companies are delivering before 11th Wed- I was really annoyed.

Is this the same as the one form Overclockers?
It doesnt say if it is unbuffered etc - any ideas?
Why on earth does it say PC2-5300/5400?> Which one is it???

Its cheaper then the one on overclockers and seems to be exactly the same if it is not then please say so.
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/98708

However then there is this which seems exactly the same except it looks prettier but costs more: http://www.ebuyer.co.../rb/26757402822

Which one??

From what I have read the mobo may come factory volted at 1.8V for the RAM and I think this RAM needs 2.1V, or is that for 800MHz RAM?
Do I need to change the voltage for the RAM from ebuyer?
If so how do I do that?
Jamie told me that it doesnt matter which RAM speed I buy he said that he has tested some of the most expensive RAM such as Corsair's Dominator series and their XMS2 series with diffrent speeds and ther is no real world difference especially in games.
However I beg to differ as here read this at wiki: http://en.wikipedia....ki/Intel_Core_2
Reas the bit that says 'DDR2 memory modules'.
It states that using PC2-5300/5400 (I think the 5300/5400 is just aload of marketing stuff) wil make perfomance worse.
Porblem is Ebuyer has no option on their website to allow me to cancel the order- and I read reviews and have read that many people have experienced shocking service form ebuyer - from unsent items - to thousands of pounds loss of items and other generally bad service from Ebuyer. Can you confirm all of the above??
____________________________________________________

Ok then I found this (I will be needing a IDE to SATA converter as I still use my trusty Seagate 80GB HDD for backup purposes - there is only 1 IDE connection on the mobo I am going to buy and I already have 2 DVD-ROM drives so.....unless it is possible to connect 3 IDE device on one cable...)

http://www.ebuyer.co.../product/124850

Is that IDE to SATA or the SATA to IDE??????

Dont forget I need IDE to SATA.
____________________________________________________

Here is the offical mobo link:
http://www.gigabyte....me=GA-965P-DS3P

Look carefully at the mobo near the power connector there is a molex connector - what on earth????????
Why is that there?

Which slot is the x16 PCI-E as if it is the orange coloured one then I will not be able to use my Creative X-FI soundcard............?????

What is that green thing on the bottom left of the board?
What are the pins above it for??

____________________________________________________

Ok now I have decided to buy the EVGA 8800 GTS 640MB version for a number of reasons:

1) I read a review and found that games such as F.E.A.R and other shader and texure heavy games suffered with just 320MB of RAM even at 1280x1024.

2)I can get a replacment card thanks to the step up program; I'm sure that in 3 months the GTX version will drop in price as ATI are due to release there new DX10 card in a couple of weeks.
Or there may even be a 8900 GTS in 3 months.

Of course as this card costs more I can get a better card in 3 months.
What do you reckon about the above??

Or I could go for the lowest GTS (£182) stock speeds and buy a new Asus 17inch LCD £118.

What on earth is this about? On dabs there are two diffrent 640MB versions of the card there is a TVO version which is £6 more - what is the difference? Here: http://www.dabs.com/...;SearchMode=All

3rd one and 6th one down.

Also there is a strange speed difference is it a mistake by dabs? Look at the strangely short specification of this card: http://www.dabs.com/...gationKey=50385
and the specfication of this one: http://www.dabs.com/...gationKey=50385

Notice that in the 1st one the core clock speed is 576MHz whilst the 2nd one is 500MHz the normal stock speed of a GTS. Is this an error by Dabs?

People reckon at least the GTX version is needed to run Crysis at playable FPS.
_____________________________________________________

Doh... 4got to backup documents before I took my rig apart and sold the parts. Dam.

Will my Zalman heatsink (the one in my sig) fit on this mobo and work with the E6600?

Does ocing the E6600 invalidate the warranty? People say if you are going to buy a Core 2 Duo then you have to Overclock - only I dont see the point if it invalidates your warranty as well as damaging the CPU (shortining its life span).

I have Arctic Silver Thermal 5 which I have had for about 8 months now is it still ok to use it? It has been stored in the fridge ever since I first opened it to slow down its sepration rate as directed by the manufacturers instructions.

Also on the motherboard there is a 8 pin power connector near the LGA 775 socket.
Now I think orn my pentium 4 I used a 4 pin power connecot (I think its 12V) however the new 965P board I am planning on purchasing has a 8 pin with 4 of the pins covered up. I thnk the 8 pins are only needed for quad core processors right?
So for the E6600 I only need to use the 4 which are shown right??

Edited by Mitesh, 08 April 2007 - 05:35 AM.

[Samm]

The Corsair ram from Ebuyer is rated PC2-5400 (stated in the model number). The true standard for this speed of memory is actually PC2-5300. The 5400 comes from the fact that the manufacturers claim they have successfully tested this ram at 5400 speeds (i.e with a peak transfer rate of 5.4GB/s).
This memory is identical to the Corsair modules on Overclockers website.

The Corsair TWIN2X2048-5400C4 runs at 1.9V & is unbuffered, as are the OCZ modules.

1.9V is about average for memory of this type. You should find that the motherboard supports a range of voltages for the memory (1.8 - 2.0V for example but obviously check first)

Re. ram speed - I agree with Jamie. I've read the section of that article you mentioned & it says that in some cases, the performance may be decreased. I have no idea if this is true but even if it is, I doubt you would really notice any difference.

As for Ebuyer, I have used them a lot in the past & have had no problems with them. The only snag is getting hold of them by phone is next to impossible. As for there level of service etc, Ebuyer are huge which means that probability states that some of the parts will arrive D.O.A. Bare in mind that bad news travels faster than good, so it's not surprising given the number of sales they must make every day, that there will always be some people who have had a bad experience with them. I'm not defending them by the way, I'm just trying to put it into perspective.

The SATA/IDE Dongle would appear to convert a sata port into an IDE port, which is what you would need. The alternative to this would be to install an IDE Controller PCI card. You cannot connect more than 2 IDE devices to a single IDE port.

RE. the motherboard. The molex power connector will be an auxiliary power connector. The chances are, this is meant for providing power to the video cards when you use 2 PCI-E video cards in SLI mode.
The board has 2 PCI-E slots for video cards. If you are using one PCI-E video card, then it will go in the blue slot. If you use 2 video cards, the second one will go in the orange slot.
I don't understand what the problem is with the Creative card. If it's a normal PCI card, then it simply goes in one of the white pci slots....

The green thing is the IDE port. The pins above it are the floppy port.

Re. the 8800 - the TVO model means it has a HDTV out port. There's not only a difference in core clock speeds but also in memory speeds - TVO model 1.6Ghz, other one is 1.7GHz.
This would suggest that the non-TVO model is faster but to eliminate any possibility the Dabs have made a mistake, I would check out EVGA's website & double check this.

According to Zalman, your heatsink is suitable for the Intel Core 2 Duo (all speeds).

I would imagine that, provided it's been well sealed, the Arctic Silver should be fine.

Re. o/c'ing the cpu - Generally speaking, overclocking will invalidate the warranty. It will also, as you already pointed out, shortened the life expectancy & can lead to system, instability.

Re. the power connector (12V) on the board - yes, you only need to use the 4 pins as shown.

[Mitesh]

I bought the E6600, Corsair PC2-5400/5300, Western Digital Secure cable (as recommended by yourself samm ages ago), GA-965P-DS3P, A Y molex power splitter (my cable wont reach my hdd) and the icing on the cake?
The EVGA 8800 GTS 640MB KO ASC3 Cooling - Oh yeah baby!!!- For 'Just' £80 more I could have got the 8800 GTX but I dont have that much more so I am hoping within 3 months that the GTX falls down to the price of the one I have.
I am hoping to receive everything tommorow although I doubt that OCUK who use citylink will be able to deliver it in time.
Also dabs (I ordered the GPU form them) wont deliver till ages cus at the mo the delivery is free so its 1 - 3 working days - can you imagine the amount of orders they must have!!!

[Mitesh]

Ok instead of me typing it all out again I have copied and pasted the message I sent to scan.co.uk:

Right, the hard drive has failed again.
I really cannot understand what is causing this as I recently upgraded the 'entire system' that is I changed the CPU form P4 to E6600, new Gigabyte 965P mobo, new 2GB Corsair XMS2 5300/5400 RAM, and an EVGA 8800 GTS 640MB.
The hdd's have been failing for about half a year now - so before I bought my X-Fi Extreme Music so that cannot be the problem.
Now the only 'old things I have are as follows 'X-Fi Extreme Music, AKASA Blue Cold Cathode, LG GSA-4120B, and some Sony DVD ROM drive, 17" Inch iiyama Prolite E435S 10msec response time and the case Thermaltake Tsunami case black + side window.
**(Oh shi*t I forgot to say the Logitech G5 USB mouse and the old Dell keyboard'.) Bollo*cks

Now O got my new parts a couple of days back and assembled it all.
Installed Win XP, put on the mobo drivers then turned the PC off.
Removed the LG drives IDE cable form the mobo (the new mobo only has 1 IDE connector) an used an older Gigiabyte IDE cable from the previous mobo to connect my 80GB Seagate IDE HDD to install Service pack 2 (this is the HDD where I keep all my files backed up becasue of these constant SATA failures).
So connected the IDE HDD and the molex cable (same one I am using to power the WD SATA as I use the WD special cable which occupied the SATA power therfore forcing me to use legacy power) turned on the PC.

Double clicked the SP2 from the IDE.
Setup began.
3/4 of the way through (not the installation the setup) I got this BSOD:

KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR
STOP: 0x0000007A (0xE148A4FC, 0xc000000E, 0xBF92FAA1, 0x2B4C3860)

win32k.sys - Address BF92FAA1 base BF800000, DateStamp 3b7de698

Beginning of physical dump.

During this the HDD makes a whoosh and clik noise (sounds like the HDD is slowing down rapidly, and the actuator is failing or the write/read head is touching the surface slightly not sure though).

If you have any idea as to why this happens please tell me!

I sent that 80GB IDE to a friend (he runs a computer shop) and he has tested it in the same configuration as mine but it has not caused any problems with his machine so far.

I have heard it could be my USB mouse or my LCD screen.
Any ideas?

Also I would like a warranty replacment HDD.

Do you pay for P & P?

Kindest Regards,

Mitesh Kachhia

OMG.
How much longer are these problesm going to go on for?
I cannot take much more of this (pulls hair out in frustration and smashes nearby glass to smitherens).

Can it be the USB mouse or the Blue cathode or the screen.

I have an crappy 15inch VGA screen which sucks I could try using that next itme and a old normal mouse.

However my old graphics card was damgaged if you remember ie it perfomed very badly in games showing very low FPS.
I obviously have not been able to install any games so I dont know if the card performs as normal.

HELPPPPPPP MEEEEEEEEEEEE form this [bleep] hole.
This is worse than death.

Oh and an additonal note is that Jamie - who is testing my 80GB HDD drive has a WD HDD connected via legacy power and the IDE via the SAME legacy power so in that sense it is in the same configuration as mine it si not specd as mine - just thought I should say that to avoid confusion.

Edited by Mitesh, 14 April 2007 - 05:28 AM.