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Pearl Jammzz - Oct 8, 2003

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  Curtis Oct 13, 2003
Looking at newEgg, they don't seem to carry that particular fan. On the one you are looking for, the last three letters of the model number should be "L1A". newEgg seem to have the 24V version of that fan, but not the 12V version. You'll have to look around at other places to find one.

EDIT: newEgg does seem to stock the Zalman 7000A-AlCu... HSF. This is a good HSF, plus it comes with a pretty quiet fan and fan speed controller for slightly less cost than the SLK900u. Cooling performance is very good. It does need a fair bit of space around it, though...

 Alexvrb Oct 14, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Scared0o0Rabbit@Oct 13, 2003 @ 09:47 PM



 oh boy, tom's hardware  



In any case, not everyone has that problem with vibration of the drive, I for instance don't have any hdd noise.


I know that. I was saying that HDDs DO create noise, and some of them ARE annoying. Someone was saying that HDD silencers make your HDDs hotter: This one doesn't, in fact it makes it slightly cooler. Someone else said that coolers were generally useless: That doesn't even make sense, air intake and exhaust can help cool a hot PC. Gallstaff even mentioned the Zalman earlier, but he didn't realize that it DOES decouple the HDD from the case slightly, instead of just screwing it directly in. Not as much as complete suspension, but its more solid and it both silences and cools. I'm *not* saying everyone needs it, but if you have hot/noisy drives, this is one solution that works.

I was also recommending he take a look at the new Deskstar 7K250 drives. Whatever you think of Tom's Hardware, they do good reviews. These drives are a latecomer in the current generation of HDDs, and they perform quite well. So if you could pick up one of these for a reasonable price, it'd be worth it.

Actually, what you should do sometime is take off your side panel, and listen to your HDDs. Then shut down, unplug their power, and turn your PC back on. That's a good way to get a feel for how noisy they are. My friend has 3 HDDs, and alone they aren't noisy. But with all three of them on, it is noisier than his fans (though not by much) and if you didn't know better you would think it WAS his fans...

 gameboy900 Oct 14, 2003
Yes make sure the fan you use for the heatsink has RPM reporting or your PC will NEVER boot. The mobo uses the RPM speed to determine if the heatsink is working and no RPM measurement makes it think that the heatsink has failed and shutsdown the CPU to protect it.

 Pearl Jammzz Oct 15, 2003
They dont seem to have the 9500 pro I wanted (pretty sure that's the one i picked out) so any advice on a video card? tryin to get performance but at a good price....I am on a budget.

 Pearl Jammzz Oct 15, 2003
I looked at the other fan model....it look good?

http://www.buyextras.com/papano80babe.html...

 Alexvrb Oct 15, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by BJammzz@Oct 15, 2003 @ 07:27 PM



 They dont seem to have the 9500 pro I wanted (pretty sure that's the one i picked out) so any advice on a video card? tryin to get performance but at a good price....I am on a budget.


A 9600 Pro would be a good alternative. They perform very close to the new 9600 XTs, and whoop the FX 5600s. I don't recommend a regular 9600, but if you MUST get one, be SURE it has a 128-bit memory interface - not all of them do. Whatever you do, avoid the 9600 SE models, they ALL have a 64-bit memory interface. That really cripples performance. So again, I recommend a 9600 Pro - make sure the clock speed is 400Mhz core / 600 Mhz DDR memory. Some companies claim their card is a 9600 Pro, but its actual clock is not at the standard 400/600. I might also mention that 9600 cards are pretty good overclockers. You could get it up to some pretty good levels with minimal work, although its decently fast even at stock speeds.

Does that help any?

 Pearl Jammzz Oct 15, 2003
helps a lot...what flavor of 9600 pros is the best? I was look at the ATI one and one other one......apollo devil monster 3.....stupid name but looks good.

 Gallstaff Oct 15, 2003
Dude check around I love my 9500pro to death but Newegg couldn't keep up with demand. I was one of the lucky ones. Check pricewatch and the like cause they are out there I know it.

 Alexvrb Oct 16, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by BJammzz@Oct 15, 2003 @ 11:42 PM



 helps a lot...what flavor of 9600 pros is the best? I was look at the ATI one and one other one......apollo devil monster 3.....stupid name but looks good.


The Apollo Devil Monster 3 card looks good. Proper 400/600 speed and all. You'll notice what I meant about some companies either not listing the clock and memory speed, or listing their lower speeds. Like the crappy powercolor EZ version, which only has a 400Mhz memory speed.

Anyway, 9500 non-pro can be purchased for around the same as that Apollo Devil Monster 3 card. The 9600 Pro will win that fight, and its a great overclocker too. The 9500 Pro is a good card, especially if you use the Omega drivers (if you use a 9500 Pro and don't know what these are, you'd better find out). However, the CHEAPEST 9500 Pro I see here on Pricewatch is $192. Ouchy.

Another alternative would be a 9800 SE. It only has 4 active pipelines, but if you use the soft-mod install option of the Omega drivers... you're looking at full 9800 performance for pretty cheap. Seeing as how 9800 SE can be had for $169 at newegg, and even slightly cheaper elsewhere if you want to dig around on pricewatch.

The choice is yours, you couldn't really go wrong with either the 9600 Pro or the 9800 SE. 9500 Pro is pretty hard to find now, and it isn't cheap. If you wanted to try and get a good deal on one of those you could use ebay. But the same could be said for any graphics card, more or less. It's also a bit of a hassle if you're trying to get a whole computer together, you'd probably end up waiting for the GPU.

 Pearl Jammzz Nov 19, 2003
Well, here is what I think I have decided on (minus the monitor). Lemme know what you kids think...all stuff is from newegg except the 2 things stated otherwise. Any feedback on these other sites? take a gander:

Case: Antec PLUSVIEW1000AMG $68

PSU: ENERMAX EG365P-VE(FM) $45

Mobo: A7N8X Deluxe $119

CPU: Athlon XP 2500+ $90

Vid: ATI Radeon 9500 pro (from allstarshop.com) $229

RAM: (2) CORSAIR 512MB PC3200 $172

HDD: Seagate 120GB 7200rpm EIDE $101

Keyboard/Mouse: Logitech Cordless MX Duo $70

Optical Drives: SONY CD-RW Model CRX225E1 $41

-LITE-ON XJ-HD166/XJ-HD 165H $32

Cooling: Thermalright SLK-900-A (heatsink) $38

-Pansonic Panaflo FBA08A12L (from buyextras.com) $10

_____

$1015

 Scared0o0Rabbit Nov 19, 2003
why not pc2700 ram? your pc before any overclocking will be running with a front side bus speed of 333, which is 2700 ram. If you're going to be overclocking you should probably just get some samsung I thinkt he brand was 2700 ram.

 Scared0o0Rabbit Nov 19, 2003
Oh and if that fan you are buying for your heatsink doesn't have an rpm monitor on it, make sure atleast one fan in your system does, cause most pc's won't boot unless it detects the rpm's.

 Pearl Jammzz Nov 19, 2003
I am gunna OC the FSB to 400....that's why I am gettin 3200.

Also, I am still not sure on the HDD.......any other opinons/recomendations on that would be nice.

 Pearl Jammzz Nov 19, 2003
was lookin at newegg and Hitachi has the good looking drive...Hitachi 120GB SATA Internal Hard Drive, Model 13G0253. it's 118 bucks but from the review they have a link to it gets a lot better performance than the seagate one and they say it's pretty quiet which is a plus.

Hitachi a good hdd maker?

 racketboy Nov 19, 2003
aren't Hitachi the formerly-known-as-IBM drives.

I'd stay away from them.

I'd recommend Seagate, WD, or maybe Samsung

 Pearl Jammzz Nov 19, 2003
i think they are.....but wanna know ppl's past experience w/ them.

 racketboy Nov 19, 2003
if you want lots of good HD info and opinions, check out storagereview.com

 Pearl Jammzz Nov 19, 2003
from the site they say it's pretty damn good, specially for the price and such.

 racketboy Nov 19, 2003
if you want a good price, you can always grab the big brand ones (Seagate, WB, Maxtor) at the chain stores when they have rebates. Sometimes you can get them for about $.50/Gig

 Scared0o0Rabbit Nov 19, 2003
hitachi took over the deskstar line of hdd's from ibm (I think that's what they were called), dunno about the sata though. I do know that I've heard that the drives have gone down even more in quality since hitachi took over. I usually give maxtor or western digital my money, they've never let me down, seagate has also never let me down but I prefer maxtor and WD.

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