So yesterday we had some nasty storms. I come home and power my machine up and basically nothing. Removing every component so it is just memory and cpu still only results in a single beep on startup. I tried clearing cmos to no avail. The mobo is probably done huh? Anything else to try? Nothing else in my house is messed up like lightning might have hit and my machine was turned off I think (occasionally it gets hung on shutdown and I didn't actually wait to see if it did or not). Just a case of random coincidence?

It is an old Abit KT7A-raid from ~2000 and I was looking to upgrade soon anyway. With that in mind, assuming the 2 HDs are still good, how can I go about getting email messages out of Outlook and bookmarks out of IE? Am I going to have to resort to buying another KT7A-raid as an interim solution to pop in and get that stuff out?

8/10/2005 9:48:48 AM

OK so recommend a 939 board with good onboard video. I don't do really any gaming but I do like my dual monitors (might go to 3 soon) so an AGP port that can be used in combo with the onboard would be nice.

8/10/2005 10:35:56 AM

microATX?

ECS RS480-M Radeon Xpress 200 chipset
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813135191

8/10/2005 10:46:26 AM

Yea I found that one, sucky thing is, it only has 2 memory slots. I don't see any boards on there that do AGP and 4x slots. So now I am trying to debate what is worth more to me, having the extra slots and getting a new vid card to run dual monitors or will the two slots be enough. I suppose since I don't need blazing speed then it makes more sense to stick with the 2 dimm slots and just get 2 vanilla pc3200 1g modules in dual channel setup and be able to use my existing agp card for the exrta monitor support. Should be plenty for basic shit like dvd ripping right?

8/10/2005 11:06:36 AM

the reason is that onboard video is very bad compared to dedicated video cards. So it's only used where space crucial. So small form factor pc's and the like that use microATX boards are the only feasible reason to have to use onboard video.

you should know that most video cards can support two monitors themselves. So you can get any 939 motherboard and just a decent video card (AGP or PCI-E). If you want three monitors though, you would have to get another video card (it would have to be PCI).

[Edited on August 10, 2005 at 11:35 AM. Reason : why]

8/10/2005 11:32:19 AM

Well the idea was to do this as barebones as possible (meaning essentially just mobo, cpu, ram) and I have an existing AGP card (an old Ati one) that doesn't have a DVI connector so dual monitor on this card isn't possible. I must have searched wrong at first because there actually doesn't appear to be any boards that have AGP slots AND onboard video, so being able to reuse this card is out the window anyway, which opens up my search options.

[Edited on August 10, 2005 at 11:42 AM. Reason : x]

8/10/2005 11:35:59 AM

Ok so just a little help here. I am going to get a 939 board that will last me for quite awhile and I am looking at nforce4 chipsets. I don't need SLI because I am not really a gamer and don't think I will be any time soon. Since I would like to get some stuff as soon as possible (ie, order in the next couple of hours), I would like to continue to use my AGP vid card and then when I get some more time and desire to spend money look to get a PCI Express card if I really need it. With that said, I see x1 and x16 flavors. What is the difference between these two in regards to performance, and where is the industry moving (so I'll be positioned better if I want to get a better card 1 yr from now)?

Edit:

It now appears that nforce4 boards aren't supporting AGP slots, is this the case?

[Edited on August 11, 2005 at 11:31 AM. Reason : x]

8/11/2005 11:08:08 AM

NEW

x16 PCI-E is for graphics cards
x1 PCI-E is for other things like sound cards, wireless adapters, modems etc

OLD

AGP is for graphics cards
PCI is for other things like sound cards, wireless adapters, modems etc


If you want a card that can do both AGP and PCI-E then you're limited to motherboards with AGP express like this, but it's for Intel's LGA775
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?p=MB-915P-A&c=PG&pid=20bafc9b5d6e78b40a2afa755c9858030be3e7c09b1823187770c24ea3c4c177

There is another board ECS is bringing out for 939 with the same features called the K8T890-A, but I've only found it for sale at one place in the UK.
http://www.cms-computers.co.uk/product_detail.asp?stype=5&productcode=1483-0220&group=MOTA64&pgroup=MOT&brand=

[Edited on August 11, 2005 at 11:33 AM. Reason : -]

8/11/2005 11:29:29 AM

Yea I found a Biostar NF4UL that has an XGP slot (looking at an Anand review of XGP now). It may not make too much sense to try and bother with AGP compatibility and just bite the bullet now on a new vid card. What is a good budget card out there. The idea is to get a solid board now and for whatever reason if I get bored then I can get a ballsy card and start gaming at reasonable quality.

Edit:

Notable differences between nf4 and nf4 ultra chipsets?

[Edited on August 11, 2005 at 11:50 AM. Reason : x]

8/11/2005 11:48:41 AM

what's your budget for video card?

8/11/2005 11:50:34 AM

Eh...honestly...whatever card gets the most bang for the cheap buck. That is, if card X is 100 but card Y is 70 offering 85% the performance of X, then I'll take Y.

I'm also wondering if W2K (I don't have XP ) will support dual monitors with Biostars odd XGP slot, and a PCI E card.

Hell, that XGP port doesn't support my old assed card anyway so fuck some AGP. This opens up my options nicely.

[Edited on August 11, 2005 at 12:14 PM. Reason : x]

8/11/2005 12:05:50 PM

Geforce 6200TC ~$65
Geforce 6600 ~$100
Geforce 6600GT ~$150
Radeon x800XL ~$275
Geforce 6800GT ~$325

A comparison of PCI-E video cards:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20050524/index.html

since you don't game, though, you could get by with very little so I would recommend a x300 or 6200TC. Those are the low ones.

8/11/2005 12:54:38 PM

Gonna go with a

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D
Venice 3000+
Either a 6200TC or 6600
2 512mb sticks or 2 1G sticks (haven't decided yet)

How much of an effect does memory have on dvd rips and those types of operations. Since I am not goin to be OC'ing in the near future I don't need max memory bandwidth, so I am thinking I can save a little money on getting blistering mem modules and get 4 512m sticks or 4 1g sticks.

8/12/2005 8:45:14 AM

kind of off-topic, but has anyone actually seen any PCI x1 slot cards for sale (sound cards, specifically)?

8/12/2005 10:08:11 AM

Confirmed, another person in my complex had it run in and kill their shit too. The cable modem would get on the network but it wouldn't show any connectivity to the PC. I'm about to hook the router back up between my machine and the modem and see if it took out the router or maybe just the port it was on.

What all do I need to completely isolate my machine from the outside world? I suppose they make surge protectors for cable lines and for ethernet lines also?

[Edited on August 14, 2005 at 5:45 PM. Reason : x]

8/14/2005 5:44:51 PM

most ups's that are worth a damn surge protect over the ethernet as well. they have a 60$ one at the bookstore that does. also, you can get them fairly well priced at bj's warehouse club and/or sams club. those are higher capacity ones though, and you probably don't need that much battery backup.

() Most APC UPS's also condition cable lines, but I don't know if they're compatable with digital cable. Only matters though if you care about protecting the modem, since you can surge protect everything past the modem on the ethernet without worry.

[Edited on August 14, 2005 at 7:43 PM. Reason : ]

8/14/2005 7:40:30 PM

How much of a power supply am I going to need for this setup. I've been out of the loop for so long. I was looking at a 420W supply on newegg and some douche bag says it won't do 64 bit applications well. I think he is full of shit but since I don't really know I pose the question here.

8/14/2005 9:34:04 PM

your 420 watt PSU will handle that computer above easily. as far as UPS i don't have one or know about
them.

8/15/2005 1:25:16 AM

wow, you got a KT7A-RAID to last you that long?



I had one and that fucking thing shit the bed 2 times on me within 8 months


after the second time I just said "fuck it" and got a cheap-ass shuttle board that I still use today

8/15/2005 6:30:27 AM

I never really had too much trouble out of it honestly.

On the way to my door, should be arriving by Wed.

ORDER CONTENT:
1 x (241589) Chaintech VNF4 Ultra ZENITH VE nForce4 Ultra Athlon 64(FX)/Sempron Skt939 DDR ATX Motherboard w/Audio, Gigabit LAN, RAID/Serial ATA Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** @ $81.00

1 x (80699-5) AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Processor (Venice) Socket 939 Retail ***Free 2nd Day*** @ $146.00

1 x (FARCRY-GAME) Farcry - by Ubisoft @ $0.00

Item(s) shipped from CA Tracking Number:
1 Sky Hawk/Eagle Tech ATX-GM520SC ATX 12V, EPS 12V, AMD ATX-GES 520W Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16817193004 $44.99
Item(s) shipped from NJ Tracking Number:
1 CHAINTECH SV62TC-T2 Geforce 6200TC support up to 256MB PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814145116 $66.00
1 CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail


I probably could have saved money in a few places but I'm too lazy to pinch the pennies at this point.

8/15/2005 8:04:41 AM

Should have gone with a DFI, they have so many nice extras both built in and pacaged with the motherboards that it hurts.

8/15/2005 8:32:37 AM

thank goodness it didn't crap the car

8/15/2005 8:57:39 AM

Quote :

"Should have gone with a DFI, they have so many nice extras both built in and pacaged with the motherboards that it hurts."

Right, and a better vid card and better memory and better psu too?

I'll take that extra $30 bones on the Chaintech vs DFI and spend it on a nice feature filled steak dinner somewhere for myself.

8/15/2005 9:04:30 AM

The motherboard is the msot important. If you have a good motherboard you can alwasy upgrade the rest as you need to or have extra cash. And any decent PS will work. I jsut tend to spend money to get the bes5t of the best motherboard wise, and if i have to scrimp, go cheap on video card or the like.

8/15/2005 11:12:03 AM

I'm not trying to be lazy here, but please show me what I get for my extra $30 on this thing.

8/15/2005 11:32:16 AM

Does zipzoomfly's website work for anyone else?

8/15/2005 1:19:09 PM

Ok, its working again.

8/15/2005 2:00:49 PM

>.<

8/15/2005 4:44:57 PM

sorry typea this sounds like a hairy situation i want no part of

8/17/2005 5:01:31 AM

So how much is XP Pro at the bookstore?

8/19/2005 10:34:36 AM

Quote :

"MS Windows XP Upgrade $69.95"

they do not sell the full retail version at a discount. If you are ECE or CPE, I think you can get Windows from the MSDN for testing purposes.

8/19/2005 12:07:41 PM