Trosh Kubyo wrote:

Thanks for the heads up about the PSU, I guess I've just been lucky. After thinking about it I am going to go ahead and get her some dual channel 4GBs. I guess under Vista 64 she could support up to 8GBs of ram, but I don't really see her needing that much, plus I don't feel like downloading a print of Vista 64 either.

I am looking at a new video card now, it seems a bit cheaper, but it seems like an OK video card. Like I said, she isn't a hardcore gamer, so it should be OK.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133250

So I might end up buying her a new PSU. Just enough to get her by with the new video card. I am a little more unclear on the PSU though. On the desktop desc it says it uses a micro atx case, so I assume that is the size of the PSU I am going to have to pick up. Newegg doesn't exactly have a lot of 300> watt PSUs that seem high quality. Could you point me out to a few that could be decent?

If you order quickly, you can get a nice 9800 [edit, er 9600] GT card for the same price!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127333R

(warning tho, open box won't come with accessories. Potential accessories you may need is a gfx card power adapter if your PSU doesn't have one, and a dvi to vga converter if your monitor doesn't support dvi or you don't have a converter laying around.)

Mizukouken Ketsu wrote:

A P4 2.8Ghz dual processor is bottle necking? o.O Strange.

The family's P4 3.0GHz dual processor is slower than most computers with a dual core P4, regardless of clock speed. My bet is that the problem lies somewhere else--for example, my 1GB RAM is DDR. Also, the processor is pretty old, like 3-4 years old, so the CAS latency could be a bit high or the motherboard could be going bad. The harddrive might be slow, too.

My point is, while speed is heavily dependent on processor type and memory, that is not always the problem. But if you're going for a new processor, definitely go 64-bit. They are being developed like mad, with all sorts of newer, faster technologies.

CaptFalcon33035 wrote:

Mizukouken Ketsu wrote:

A P4 2.8Ghz dual processor is bottle necking? o.O Strange.

The family's P4 3.0GHz dual processor is slower than most computers with a dual core P4, regardless of clock speed. My bet is that the problem lies somewhere else--for example, my 1GB RAM is DDR. Also, the processor is pretty old, like 3-4 years old, so the CAS latency could be a bit high or the motherboard could be going bad. The harddrive might be slow, too.

My point is, while speed is heavily dependent on processor type and memory, that is not always the problem. But if you're going for a new processor, definitely go 64-bit. They are being developed like mad, with all sorts of newer, faster technologies.

I hate to be nitpicking, but a Pentium 4 is different from a Pentium D, there is no Pentium 4 D, there's also the "Pentium Dual Core", which I guess is a kind of super low end C2D but a large improvement over the Pentium D.

Anyways....

CaptFalcon33035 wrote:

I never once mentioned a Pentium 4 D.

You said: "The family's P4 3.0GHz dual processor", there's no such thing, unless the board has 2 physical P4 processors, it doesn't make sense.

Mizukouken Ketsu wrote:

I don't mean to call you a liar, but you are wrong. Would you like a screen shot of my dxdiag report?

I could very well be wrong, I wouldn't mind seeing it. Just keep in mind that HT (hyper threading) is not the same as dual core. It will likely show that you have 2 cores if you have Hyper Threading.

I have a short aside on your 32 bit processor comment, if you don't mind:

[link]

And an aside of x86_64 generally:

[link]

The native limit of hardware doesn't always dictate the limits of the OS. All the same, x86_64's native addressing is a definite plus for Microsoft Windows users, looking forward.

Trosh Kubyo wrote:

Aside from BYOND I've recently talked to a few of my friends at work, that I happen to know as PC geeks. Most of them have been building rigs for years. They mentioned that if the video card doesn't happen to mention a power requirement that I shouldn't worry about it. They said that 250 watts is pretty standard right now and that as long as I am not getting a beast of a card, I should be fine with the original PSU.

I dunno if I'd trust that, as when the PSU blows, it can take out other parts of your computer. I'd stress you to inquire to the power requirements and check it against your PSU rating. For example, if you only have a 300 watt PSU (not uncommon in prebuilts), you could end up blowing it within a couple weeks, and you'd have no warning.

I've built machines for a few years and well over 300 of them. Don't trust that advice, it leads to hardware failure, blown components, shorten lifespan for the PC, et cetera.

Jerico2day wrote:

CaptFalcon33035 wrote:

I never once mentioned a Pentium 4 D.

You said: "The family's P4 3.0GHz dual processor", there's no such thing, unless the board has 2 physical P4 processors, it doesn't make sense.

A Pentium D is a 64-bit processor, I think I mentioned that mine was 32-bit somewhere. And yes, there are two physical processors, that goes without saying.

I got this PSU and it's worked great: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139003&Tpk=Corsair%20450W