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- Category: Video Cards Visit#: 194352 Post Date: 2004-05-06 07:28:06
Will my 8X AGP video card work in my 4X AGP slot?
Ans: Will my 8X AGP video card work in my 4x AGP slot?
This question is not answered as easily as it might seem.
First let's establish a few things you need to know to answer this question.
What is AGP 2.0
AGP 2.0 is a 1.5V AGP slot capable of 4x,2x and 1x speeds.
What is AGP 3.0
AGP 3.0 is keyed like a 1.5V AGP 2.0 slot, but it only uses 0.8V of power. It supports 8X, 4X, 2X and 1X speeds.
Rule #1: Speeds are backwards compatible
AGP Speeds are required to be backwards compatible. This means that an 8X video card MUST be able to run at 4x, 2x, or 1x speeds. However, this does NOT necessarily mean that your 8X card will run on a 4x slot.
Signalling Voltage incompatibility
Because speeds must be backwards compatible, Signalling Voltage is where incompatibilities arise. Basically:
- All 8x cards are 0.8v AGP 3.0 spec
- 8x cards will fit in 1.5V slots, and can tolerate the voltage, but will NOT run properly
- 4x cards can be either 1.5V or 0.8V
- 2x and 1x cards are either 3.3V or 1.5V
- Except in the case of the 8X cards, using the wrong voltage card with the wrong motherboard can result in damage in card and board
- If you install a card of incompatible voltages with the motherboard's specs, the card will NOT run
The connectors on AGP video cards are keyed in such a way that you can only install equipment that have compatible Voltage keyed connectors. Normally the key of the card determines its signal voltage. AGP 1.0 and AGP 2.0 cards using a 1.5V key will signal at 1.5 volts. However, AGP 3.0 devices can tolerate 1.5V - they won't be destroyed, they just might not work properly.
The Bottomline
The bottomline is that your 8X video card can theoretically be safely TESTED in any 1.5V motherboard for compatibility. But if you know for a fact that your board only runs 1.5V AGP 2.0 spec and your 8X AGP 3.0 card runs only 0.8v spec, then the two should NOT be compatible one another. At the very least it will be unstable, if it runs at all.
However, we've had a lot of users tell us that their AGP 8x cards work on 4x only motherboards. This is likely due to the fact that some AGP8X video cards are in fact universal 1.5V capable AGP3.0 cards that can run on either 1.5V or 0.8V (remember, AGP speeds are backwards compatible, only voltage incompatibilies cause problems). The other possibility
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- Category: Displays Visit#: 61862 Post Date: 2004-02-27 09:14:59
How do I clean my LCD or Laptop Screen?
Ans: Unlike a regular CRT monitor, an LCD is more prone to physical damage. Here are some general guidelines on how to clean your LCD screen, whether you have an Apple eBook or a 24" wide LCD screen:
- A nice homemade concoction for the cleaning fluid is to get something around 50% isopropyl alcohol. Isopropyl alcohol is a nice all purpose cleaner that can also be used to clean your heatsink. You can find 90% pure isopropyl alcohol at a local drugstore, but DO NOT USE it at full strength!! Mix at least 1 part water to 1 part of the alcohol to water it down. This approximately 50% mixture is the recommended cleaning method by Apple! Everyone that we've recommended this to has told us it worked EXCELLENETLY!
- Do not use any harsh detergents, especially anything like Windex or any product that contains amonia. Strong cleaning and amonia products can etch the screen surface and can cause the plastic to become cloudy or streaked.
- Clean using very, very soft cloths. Some people swear by microfiber polymer cloths (also used to clean camera optics), but others use something as simple as a clean sock (flipped inside out). Usually we recommend you stay away from anything even remotely abbrasive, such as paper towels, or old clothes.
- Commercial products DO exist to help clean your screen: you can find LCD cleaning pads at local stores like Fry's, Futureshop, etc.
- Some people use "Nice'n'Clean" or "Klear Screen", but the 50/50 water/isopropyl alcohol is usually just as good and cheaper (actually, Klear-Screen and many other cleaners are often just a 40-50% isopropyl alcohol solution).
- Never EVER try to peel or scratch off any dried "gunk" from your LCD. Use a cleaning solution... it works, trust us!
Do you find this answer userful? Yes No So far 1399 vote(s) for useful, 204 vote(s) for unuseful
- Category: Memory Visit#: 47295 Post Date: 2003-10-27 05:16:47
What is the Mhz Speed of PC2700, PC3200, PC3500, PC4000, or other types of DDR DRAM?
Ans: The numeral portion of DDR memory represents the "MB/s" of the RAM, so PC2700 is rated at 2.7GB/s (2700MB/s) and so forth. However, when configuring your RAM the names of the memory are actually related to their speeds as follows:
PC2100: 266Mhz
PC2700: 333Mhz
PC3200: 400Mhz
PC3500: 433Mhz
PC3700: 466Mhz
PC4000: 500Mhz
PC4200: 533Mhz
Note that many of these RAMs are NOT officially recognized by standards committees because technically anything above DDR400 speeds are not officially supported by chipsets.
Most of the really high speed RAM such as 433Mhz and above (PC3500 and above) go beyond standard specs and are useful for FSB overclocking above 200Mhz.
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- Category: Overclocking Visit#: 62460 Post Date: 2003-09-25 07:18:37
How do I clean my CPU/Heatsink? What should I use?
Ans: For optimal heat transfer the contact point between your CPU core and the heatsink should be both smooth, flat and clean. If the surface is not smooth enough you can always lap it to reduce the imperfections on its surface, but for cleaning, we often get asked just what cleaners to use, how to clean the chip, and how safe it is to clean the chip using various methods.
Clean the surfaces of the chip die or core using a solvent such as high-purity isopropyl alcohol or an acetone. Both of these are available at a pharmacy, druge store, super market, or hobby shop. First apply the solvent on a lint free cloth or the tip of a Q-tip and use that cloth or q-tip to swap or wipe the core. People keep asking what a LINT FREE cloth is... basically any cloth designed not to leave any lint behind or pick up and drag any abbrasive solids - eye glass or photography lens cloths are good examples. If you're using acetone as a cleaner you might need to wipe it off with isopropyl alcohol after because acetone has a slick quality about it.
To clean the ceramic surface of an AMD Athlon and Athlon XP CPU (that's the reddish-brown area around the CPU core) you can use dish detergent, isopropyl alcohol, or a citrus based cleaner. Apply using q-tips if you are having trouble with getting between components. Don't use mineral spirits here though just in case you get it on the core. Modern P4 and Athlon64 chips have a heat spreader that cover the ceramic - the spreader can be cleaned just like a CPU core.
For basic cleaning jobs on the heatsink you can use isopropyl alcohol or acetone again, however a product like Goof Off, carburator cleaners, or mineral spirits (or even super high 99% pure isopropyl alcohol) might be more effective. If you have some old thermal paste, thermal pad, or thermal putty left over on the heatsink you probably have to use the latter products just to get a good cleaning. If you use something like the mineral spirits or carburator cleaner wipe down the heatsink with isopropyl alcohol when you're done. For the heatsink you can clean using paper towels instead of using a lint free cloth. Facial tissue or bathroom tissue will leave behind lint so we recommend avoiding it.
When cleaning your CPU or heatsink we recommend you start out by cleaning your hands or using a pair of plastic gloves. If you do use gloves, make sure you're using the clear plastic disposable gloves that you can get at a superstore (the ones used for stuffing turkeys and reading newspapers) and NOT the surgical gloves used in labs and hospitals - these latter gloves have a layer of powder that would be an additinal impurity on your heatsink/cpu. If you don't use gloves, clean your hands using dish detergent like Dawn or Palmolive - these are good enough to strip away some oils but not leave some sort of nutrient or chemical residue. (in other words, don't use soaps like Dove or moisturizer soaps or dish washing machine detergent).
Cleaning your CPU/heatsink is an important step during the installation of your CPU/heatsink. Contaminants like old, dried, or less effective thermal paste or finger oils can reduce the effectiveness of your new paste. Lint, hair and dust can reduce surface contact and adversely affect heat transfer. Remember, on some CPUs the contact surface is only the size of a your fingertip, so the contact between surface areas is extremely important.
Do you find this answer userful? Yes No So far 1125 vote(s) for useful, 314 vote(s) for unuseful
- Category: CPU/Component Cooling Visit#: 62460 Post Date: 2003-09-25 07:18:37
How do I clean my CPU/Heatsink? What should I use?
Ans: For optimal heat transfer the contact point between your CPU core and the heatsink should be both smooth, flat and clean. If the surface is not smooth enough you can always lap it to reduce the imperfections on its surface, but for cleaning, we often get asked just what cleaners to use, how to clean the chip, and how safe it is to clean the chip using various methods.
Clean the surfaces of the chip die or core using a solvent such as high-purity isopropyl alcohol or an acetone. Both of these are available at a pharmacy, druge store, super market, or hobby shop. First apply the solvent on a lint free cloth or the tip of a Q-tip and use that cloth or q-tip to swap or wipe the core. People keep asking what a LINT FREE cloth is... basically any cloth designed not to leave any lint behind or pick up and drag any abbrasive solids - eye glass or photography lens cloths are good examples. If you're using acetone as a cleaner you might need to wipe it off with isopropyl alcohol after because acetone has a slick quality about it.
To clean the ceramic surface of an AMD Athlon and Athlon XP CPU (that's the reddish-brown area around the CPU core) you can use dish detergent, isopropyl alcohol, or a citrus based cleaner. Apply using q-tips if you are having trouble with getting between components. Don't use mineral spirits here though just in case you get it on the core. Modern P4 and Athlon64 chips have a heat spreader that cover the ceramic - the spreader can be cleaned just like a CPU core.
For basic cleaning jobs on the heatsink you can use isopropyl alcohol or acetone again, however a product like Goof Off, carburator cleaners, or mineral spirits (or even super high 99% pure isopropyl alcohol) might be more effective. If you have some old thermal paste, thermal pad, or thermal putty left over on the heatsink you probably have to use the latter products just to get a good cleaning. If you use something like the mineral spirits or carburator cleaner wipe down the heatsink with isopropyl alcohol when you're done. For the heatsink you can clean using paper towels instead of using a lint free cloth. Facial tissue or bathroom tissue will leave behind lint so we recommend avoiding it.
When cleaning your CPU or heatsink we recommend you start out by cleaning your hands or using a pair of plastic gloves. If you do use gloves, make sure you're using the clear plastic disposable gloves that you can get at a superstore (the ones used for stuffing turkeys and reading newspapers) and NOT the surgical gloves used in labs and hospitals - these latter gloves have a layer of powder that would be an additinal impurity on your heatsink/cpu. If you don't use gloves, clean your hands using dish detergent like Dawn or Palmolive - these are good enough to strip away some oils but not leave some sort of nutrient or chemical residue. (in other words, don't use soaps like Dove or moisturizer soaps or dish washing machine detergent).
Cleaning your CPU/heatsink is an important step during the installation of your CPU/heatsink. Contaminants like old, dried, or less effective thermal paste or finger oils can reduce the effectiveness of your new paste. Lint, hair and dust can reduce surface contact and adversely affect heat transfer. Remember, on some CPUs the contact surface is only the size of a your fingertip, so the contact between surface areas is extremely important.
Do you find this answer userful? Yes No So far 1125 vote(s) for useful, 314 vote(s) for unuseful
- Category: Storage Visit#: 172686 Post Date: 2003-09-20 22:06:32
How do I install Windows XP on a Serial ATA (SATA) drive?
Ans: If you are installing Windows XP on a system where you only have Serial ATA Drives you might encounter a problem where Windows does not seem to detect your Hard Drive and reports "No mass storage device found" during an installation (this occurs in Windows NT and Windows 2000 as well). This is because there are no SATA HD drivers in Windows XP/2K/NT and you need to load 3rd party drivers (just like with many SCSI drives).
To do this do the following:
- First make sure that the drive is actually detected by the SATA controller. You should see something either in BIOS, or on bootup that indicates the drive is detected.
- With the Windows XP install disk is in the CD-ROM drive turn on your system and go into the Windows XP installation
- Now at the installation screen, which is blue, note very carefully at the bottom of the screen for the text that asks you to press F6. You MUST press F6 and then provide drivers for your SATA drive. These drivers usually come from your manufacturer or motherboard on a floppy disk. Make sure you load up the drivers before you continue!!
- Installation should continue as normal now. remember to take out the floppy disk containing the drivers so that Windows XP setup can reboot.
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- Category: Windows XP Visit#: 135895 Post Date: 2004-07-27 18:06:31
Where are my Outlook Express Files Stored?
Ans: Make sure show hidden files is enabled under Windows Explorer under Tools->Folder Options->Views->Show Hidden Files and Folders
The DBX files that Outlook Express uses are located in:
c:\ (or whatever drive windows resides on)
Documents and Settings
Username (your username)
Application Data
Identities
GUID Identifier (random string like {3B0FA092-2222-1111-A1B2-111A1AA1AAA11}
Microsoft
Outlook Express
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- Category: Storage Visit#: 45148 Post Date: 2004-10-19 04:59:02
What is NCQ (Native Command Queueing) and Why do we want it?
Ans: This explaination is an excerpt from our Nforce 4 Tech Preview.
One area that SCSI had over both parallel and SATA drives was Native Command Queuing (NCQ). Traditionally hard disks on the consumer desktop side process disk requests in a linear fashion. This can potentially be a very bad thing and to understand why, there has to be a basic understanding of the physical structure of a hard disk. Hard disks are made up of platters or disks, much like a compact disk. Each platter is divided into tracks which are concentric circles, tracks are divided into sectors. Each platter is read by one or more heads. Seeking data is fastest when the data resides on the same track. Moving between tracks is time consuming. Consider the case where there are three pieces of data, one on the outermost track, one on the inner most track and one on the outmost track. In a traditional hard disk, the data on the outer track would be read first, then the data on in the inner track second, and finally the third piece of data on the outer track is read. This is not efficient and the time it takes to move the head is the seek time. If the head movement can be minimized, the seek time will decrease accordingly. This is where NCQ comes in - NCQ can rearrange the order of instructions so instead of moving from the outer track to the inner track, both pieces of data may be read from the outer track first before tackling the inner track.
NCQ requires both controller and hard disk support, so unfortunately NCQ will not work on most SATA drives today but most disk manufacturers will support NCQ in the very near future.
Do you find this answer userful? Yes No So far 939 vote(s) for useful, 446 vote(s) for unuseful
- Category: CPU/Component Cooling Visit#: 77192 Post Date: 2004-04-25 22:02:15
How do I apply thermal paste properly?
Ans: The key to applying thermal paste is simple - you want the surfaces to be clean, and you want only the MINIMAL required paste to get the job done.
The most common mistake for beginners is to apply too much paste. You'll no doubt see this type of problem with stock heatsinks that were installed at factories; whether its for CPUs, Northbridges, or Videocards, the stock sinks tend to have huge gobs of regular white (non-silver) paste.
Step 1: Clean everything
You have to clean both the heatsink and the CPU die thoroughly. This is especially true if some previous paste or goop or tape or anything else is on the heatsink or CPU die. Note that we are saying the die - do NOT clean the whole CPU!!
Step 2: Apply a small amount of paste to CPU die
No matter what paste you are using, try putting just a small amount on the CPU die. For smaller Athlon XP and Intel CPUs you really only need something like the equivalent to half a grain of rice. For people with heatspreaders, you would need to use more. But start off with as little as you think would give a super thin layer. It's always better to have too little to start (because you can add some more after Step 3 and repeat).
Step 3: Spread the paste out
Using something with a clean edge, spread the paste out across the whole of the die. Most people use something like a credit card, stiff business card, or razor. Make sure not to scratch the surface if you use something sharp!!!
How thin should you spread? 1mm thick is a good rule of thumb, but you won't be able to measure it so you're going to have to just eyeball. I like to make sure that the paste is so thin that it looks like it barely coats the surface. We have a FAQ on why should thermal paste the layer be so thin if you're curious.
Step 4: Install Heatsink carefully
Make sure when you install the heatsink that you don't accidentally rub the heatsink around, or angle it such a way that might smear the paste away from the cooler base contact area.
Additional Options
Some people suggest that after you clean the heatsink you apply a very, very small amount of paste to where you estimate the die will be, and then wipe it down until only a slight haze remains. I personally do this on all my permanent installs for peace of mind but there is likely no real benefit.
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- Category: Storage Visit#: 24852 Post Date: 2004-03-04 18:29:28
I installed a new Hard Drive, but Windows XP/2000 do not show a drive letter?
Ans: The problem here is that the drive has not been "initialized" or formatted yet.
When you install a brand new HD into WinXP/Win2K, it gets detected in your system by the installation wizard and its drivers are installed. Normally you know this because it will inform you that a new drive has been installed and will ask you to reboot. However, upon rebooting you might not see a new drive show up in Windows Explorer.
First, check to make sure your drive is detected by Windows in the Device Manager:
Go to Start Menu > Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager
And find your drive under Disk Drives. If you do NOT find the new drive listed there, then there is an actual installation error.
If your drive is in Device Manager but NOT in Windows Explorer, you must check Drive Management:
From the Control Panel, get into Administrative Tools (if you are using Classic Mode you will see Administrative Tools right away, but if you are using Category View you will need to find Administrative Tools within the Performance and Maintenance option).
In Administrative Tools, go into Computer Management. There you should see the Storage section with the Disk Management section.
Under Disk Management, on the bottom pane, scroll down until you see your new disk listed. It should display something like "not initialized". Right click and select to initialize or format the disk. From there you can follow the prompts.
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- Category: Memory Visit#: 23176 Post Date: 2003-09-06 06:19:02
Do I need to use certified or "matched" Dual Channel DDR memory to run in Dual Channel mode?
Ans: To answer this question you really have to break down how it is that companies "certify" or "match" Dual Channel memory modules.
What is Matched or Certified Dual Channel Memory?
Companies like Corsair, OCZ, and Mushkin produce what they call "dual channel" memory, or Dual Channel Kits. These are sold in pairs, so for instance you might buy a 512MB or 2x256MB Dual Channel Kit, which consists of 2 sticks 256MB DDR memory paired together by the manufacturer.
Companies don't just throw two sticks of RAM together to produce these kits, but they don't necessarily produce a totally different batch of RAM either. Testing or qualifying Dual Channel memory might involve something as simple as a QA technician booting up a pair of RAM in a Dual Channel motherboard and ensuring they work together under a set of conditions, or it could be more complicated, including so called "SPD" optimisations and even chip selection (we're inclined not to put much trust in the latter claims).
For your purposes, you should assume that Dual Channel memory is qualified through testing. Companies will claim that every pair of Dual Channel memory is tested prior to being packaged. Corsair memory is even packed with stickers using serialized numbers so you can easily find out which two modules were paired at the factory (OCZ on the other hand, have not been doing this as of the writing of this FAQ, and so if you buy multiple kits from OCZ you might not be able to distinguish which modules is matched with which).
Will Non-Dual Channel Matched RAM work in my motherboard then?
From our experience and from talking to various users, we've found that there is a strong chance that your DDR memory will work in Dual Channel mode as long as it fits the requirements of Dual Channel operation (two of the same types of memory, same size modules, both with similar timing settings). We've even seen situations where people put two different types of RAM together and had no problems.
A good estimate would be to assume that 3 out of 4 attempts to put two unpaired DDR sticks into Dual Channel operation will work. We've seen claims as high as 9 out of 10 probability. The ONLY thing you can lose by buying "single channel" memory for use in Dual Channel mode is that manufacturers will not provide support and replace your memory if it won't work in dual channel mode, whereas if Dual Channel memory fails to work in Dual Channel mode, the manufacturers will help you resolve the problem and possibly replace the memory to ensure proper Dual Channel operation.
Can I damage my board or RAM if I use non-Dual Channel Certified RAM in Dual Channel Operation?
You can't really damage your board just by trying to run two sticks of identical, but otherwise unpaired memory sticks in Dual Channel mode, but be aware that sometimes a board cannot handle the SPD settings of memory in Dual Channel mode (yes, even if you have paired memory this might be an issue!). This means that for some reason the SPD timing settings are incompatible with the board and prevent the board from being able to POST. The only solution in this situation is to put in another stick of RAM who's SPD might reset your BIOS settings.
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- Category: Memory Visit#: 14251 Post Date: 2003-09-18 06:57:55
What is Registered Memory and unbuffered memory and should I use it for my system?
Ans: Registered memory contains registers or buffers that take care of signal distribution to all the DRAM on a DIMM. Because the buffers take one full clock cycle (2 DDR clock cycles) to buffer the control and address signals Registered memory has a higher latency than unbuffered memory. The tradeoff is that buffering increases the reliability of high-speed data access which is critical for server operations.
As a general rule of thumb, Registered modules are only used in Servers and Mission Critical systems where reliability is crucial - this is particularly true in situations where a lot of large data is being moved. Regular home users and performance users will not get any benefits from Registered memory, and might actually see a slight decline due to the higher latency of the buffering.
Just how much the performance is degraded is hard to say. Latency in general won't result in massive changes in performance - we're talking about single digit percentage influences in the lower range here (2-5%)... but honestly, if you are building a performance system even a 3% drop in performance is not going to be acceptable to you.
Do you find this answer userful? Yes No So far 635 vote(s) for useful, 130 vote(s) for unuseful
- Category: CPUs & Processors Visit#: 124451 Post Date: 2004-01-19 19:24:15
What's the fastest CPU available? What CPU should I buy?
Ans: There is no definitive answer for either question. Different processors perform differently under various applications which is highlighted in many benchmarks. Depending on the focus of the end user, it is more beneficial to buy a certain type of processor. At this time (Athlon 64 / Intel P4), generally AMD performs better on gaming applications while Intel excels in Media Encoding. The end user will have to decide what is more important to them.
High end processors always have a price premium. Unless you absolutely must have the latest and greatest processor, it is recommended that an end user buy a step or two down because the price different can be in the magnitude of 100 to 300%. The difference in performance is clearly not worth the price differential.
Do you find this answer userful? Yes No So far 833 vote(s) for useful, 1384 vote(s) for unuseful
- Category: Displays Visit#: 28592 Post Date: 2004-01-21 00:09:51
What is the Native Resolution on a LCD and why is it important?
Ans: The native resolution on a LCD can be thought of as the maximum resolution on a CRT monitor. The big difference is that CRT monitors can display images at a lower resolution without picture quality loss while a LCD monitor has to rely on interpolation (scaling of the image). A LCD has to scale up a smaller image to fit into the area of the native resolution. This is the same principle as taking a smaller image in your favorite image editing program and enlarging it; the clarity you had with the smaller image loses its sharpness when it is expanded. This is especially problematic as most resolutions are in a 4:3 ratio (640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1600x1200) but there are odd resolutions that are not notably, 1280x1024. If a user was to map 1024x768 to a 1280x1024 screen there is going to be distortion as well as some image errors as there is not a 1->1 mapping with regards to pixels. This results in noticeable quality loss and the image is much less sharp. Some resolutions work well however as in the case of a 1600x1200 LCD and a 800x600 image. Since 800x600 is an integer factor of 1600x1200, scaling will not adversely affect the image.
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- Category: Video Cards Visit#: 17820 Post Date: 2004-01-16 20:42:44
Should I keep Vsync On or Off?
Ans: Vsync should only be disabled when benchmarking so that the videocard and processor are not being limited by the display. Frame rates will appear higher with vsync off but the amount of information displayed is limited by your monitor in that instance. A monitor with an 85 Hz refresh rate will only display 85 frames per second even if the videocard is rendering 400 frames a second. The visual quality may decline as a result also because some frames could be skipped as a result of excess rendering so the interpolation between the first frame and the next frame displayed could be off resulting in 'tearing' or jerkiness.
Do you find this answer userful? Yes No So far 565 vote(s) for useful, 303 vote(s) for unuseful
- Category: Overclocking Visit#: 10080 Post Date: 2003-11-19 16:44:22
What are the true Mhz speeds of the Athlon XP chips?
Ans: The actual clock speed, multiplier, FSB speed and core type of Athlon XP processors are as follows-
| AMD XP Processors & Their PR Rating | | PR | MHz | FSB | Multiplier | Core | | 1500+ | 1333 | 133 | 10.0 | Palomino | | 1600+ | 1400 | 133 | 10.5 | Palmoino | | 1700+ | 1467 | 133 | 11.0 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 1800+ | 1533 | 133 | 11.5 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 1900+ | 1600 | 133 | 12.0 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 2000+ | 1667 | 133 | 12.5 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 2100+ | 1733 | 133 | 13.0 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 2200+ | 1800 | 133 | 13.5 | T-Bred | | 2400+ | 2000 | 133 | 15.0 | T-Bred |
| 2500+ | 1833 | 166 | 11.0 | Barton | | 2600+ | 2133 | 133 | 16.0 | T-Bred | | 2600+ | 2083 | 166 | 12.5 | T-Bred | | 2700+ | 2167 | 166 | 13.0 | T-Bred | | 2800+ | 2250 | 166 | 13.5 | T-Bred | | 2800+ | 2083 | 166 | 12.5 | Barton |
| 3000+ | 2167 | 166 | 13.0 | Barton | | 3200+ | 2200 | 200 | 11.0 | Barton |
Do you find this answer userful? Yes No So far 562 vote(s) for useful, 415 vote(s) for unuseful
- Category: hardwarefaqs Visit#: 7442 Post Date: 2004-01-16 19:12:46
What is the multiplier of my Athlon XP processor
Ans: The actual clock speed, multiplier, FSB speed and core type of Athlon XP processors are as follows-
| AMD XP Processors & Their PR Rating | | PR | MHz | FSB | Multiplier | Core | | 1500+ | 1333 | 133 | 10.0 | Palomino | | 1600+ | 1400 | 133 | 10.5 | Palmoino | | 1700+ | 1467 | 133 | 11.0 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 1800+ | 1533 | 133 | 11.5 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 1900+ | 1600 | 133 | 12.0 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 2000+ | 1667 | 133 | 12.5 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 2100+ | 1733 | 133 | 13.0 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 2200+ | 1800 | 133 | 13.5 | T-Bred | | 2400+ | 2000 | 133 | 15.0 | T-Bred |
| 2500+ | 1833 | 166 | 11.0 | Barton | | 2600+ | 2133 | 133 | 16.0 | T-Bred | | 2600+ | 2083 | 166 | 12.5 | T-Bred | | 2700+ | 2167 | 166 | 13.0 | T-Bred | | 2800+ | 2250 | 166 | 13.5 | T-Bred | | 2800+ | 2083 | 166 | 12.5 | Barton |
| 3000+ | 2167 | 166 | 13.0 | Barton | | 3200+ | 2200 | 200 | 11.0 | Barton |
Do you find this answer userful? Yes No So far 562 vote(s) for useful, 415 vote(s) for unuseful
- Category: CPUs & Processors Visit#: 7442 Post Date: 2004-01-16 19:12:46
What is the multiplier of my Athlon XP processor
Ans: The actual clock speed, multiplier, FSB speed and core type of Athlon XP processors are as follows-
| AMD XP Processors & Their PR Rating | | PR | MHz | FSB | Multiplier | Core | | 1500+ | 1333 | 133 | 10.0 | Palomino | | 1600+ | 1400 | 133 | 10.5 | Palmoino | | 1700+ | 1467 | 133 | 11.0 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 1800+ | 1533 | 133 | 11.5 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 1900+ | 1600 | 133 | 12.0 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 2000+ | 1667 | 133 | 12.5 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 2100+ | 1733 | 133 | 13.0 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 2200+ | 1800 | 133 | 13.5 | T-Bred | | 2400+ | 2000 | 133 | 15.0 | T-Bred |
| 2500+ | 1833 | 166 | 11.0 | Barton | | 2600+ | 2133 | 133 | 16.0 | T-Bred | | 2600+ | 2083 | 166 | 12.5 | T-Bred | | 2700+ | 2167 | 166 | 13.0 | T-Bred | | 2800+ | 2250 | 166 | 13.5 | T-Bred | | 2800+ | 2083 | 166 | 12.5 | Barton |
| 3000+ | 2167 | 166 | 13.0 | Barton | | 3200+ | 2200 | 200 | 11.0 | Barton |
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- Category: CPUs & Processors Visit#: 10080 Post Date: 2003-11-19 16:44:22
What are the true Mhz speeds of the Athlon XP chips?
Ans: The actual clock speed, multiplier, FSB speed and core type of Athlon XP processors are as follows-
| AMD XP Processors & Their PR Rating | | PR | MHz | FSB | Multiplier | Core | | 1500+ | 1333 | 133 | 10.0 | Palomino | | 1600+ | 1400 | 133 | 10.5 | Palmoino | | 1700+ | 1467 | 133 | 11.0 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 1800+ | 1533 | 133 | 11.5 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 1900+ | 1600 | 133 | 12.0 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 2000+ | 1667 | 133 | 12.5 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 2100+ | 1733 | 133 | 13.0 |
Palomino/T-Bred | | 2200+ | 1800 | 133 | 13.5 | T-Bred | | 2400+ | 2000 | 133 | 15.0 | T-Bred |
| 2500+ | 1833 | 166 | 11.0 | Barton | | 2600+ | 2133 | 133 | 16.0 | T-Bred | | 2600+ | 2083 | 166 | 12.5 | T-Bred | | 2700+ | 2167 | 166 | 13.0 | T-Bred | | 2800+ | 2250 | 166 | 13.5 | T-Bred | | 2800+ | 2083 | 166 | 12.5 | Barton |
| 3000+ | 2167 | 166 | 13.0 | Barton | | 3200+ | 2200 | 200 | 11.0 | Barton |
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- Category: Displays Visit#: 17598 Post Date: 2004-02-25 19:44:49
What is the correlation between a LCD monitor's millisecond rating and a CRT monitor's Refresh Rate?
Ans: ms vs hz Milliseconds and Hertz are inversely proportional. 1 second = 1000 ms, and 1 hz = 1/s. So to convert 15ms into hz it would be 1 / (15 ms * 1 s / 1000 ms) = ~67hz
Here is a small chart detailing some of the more common LCD ms ratings and their relationship to Hz. Notice the non-liinear relationship between milliseconds and hz. As milliseconds get smaller, the corresponding hz gets larger a lot faster.
|
Milliseconds |
Hertz | |
35 |
28.57 | |
30 |
33.33 | |
25 |
40 | |
20 |
50 | |
18 |
56 | |
16 |
62.5 |
|
12 | 83.3 |
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- Category: Peripherals & Connectivity Visit#: 16112 Post Date: 2004-01-19 21:22:01
What's the difference between the different USB speeds?
Ans:
| USB 1.0 | 1.5 Mbps |
| USB 1.1 | 12 Mbps |
| USB 2.0 low speed | 1.5 Mbps |
| USB 2.0 full speed | 12 Mbps |
| USB 2.0 high speed | 480 Mbps |
Unfortunately the USB 2 moniker has been somewhat convoluted with marketing shenanigans and manufacturers are advised to drop the low/full/high speed notation so that consumers are not confused which means that a potential USB 1 device can be marketed to be USB 2 because of compatibility reasons.
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- Category: Motherboards Visit#: 77144 Post Date: 2003-08-21 21:00:18
How do I monitor my motherboard temperatures and fan speeds?
Ans: Software by Manufacturers
Many of the tier 1 motherboard manufacturers now bundle overclocking and monitoring software with their motherboards. Gigabyte and MSI for example have their EasyTune and PCAlert/FuzzyLogic software, respectively, that lets you monitor and tweak your system settings in real time without having to reboot into the BIOS.
3rd Party Software
If your manufacturer does not supply their own software, you can check out some 3rd party free software like MotherboardMonitor. MotherboardMonitor can be minimized as a tray icon or used as an OSD overlay (On Screen Display) so you can always keep an eye on your sensors.
Another good package is Speedfan. As the name suggests, SpeedFan is intended to help you control your fan speeds, but it also includes monitoring of temperatures, fan speeds and voltages. It can even monitor your hard drive temperature (if your HD supports it) and also show S.M.A.R.T. info. Pretty cool huh? Check out SpeedFan here.
Hmonitor is also highly recommended because it includes a software cooler that kicks in when your CPU is idle (this saves energy, reduces idle heat, and might also reduce fan noise if you have temperature sensing fans). You can check out Hmonitor right here.
http://www.hmonitor.com/
Linux Hardware Monitoring
For Linux environments, we use lm_sensors, a free linux package that is continually updated by the lm_sensors team.
Lm_sensors comes in RPM packages or as source that you can compile on your own system. We set up lm_sensors on the servers running Neoseeker.com using the source package and it's no picnic, but it works and it works well to monitor temperature, fanspeed, and voltage depending on what your hardware monitoring reports.
We recommend you check out their site here:
http://secure.netroedge.com/~lm78/
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- Category: Storage Visit#: 9981 Post Date: 2003-09-21 20:20:15
Will my ATA-66, ATA-100, or ATA-133 work on a motherboard that only supports ATA-33 or ATA-66?
Ans: Most hard drives (including drives by Quantum, Seagate, and Western Digital) should be backwards compatible with older ATA technologies. So if you have a motherboard who's controller only supports ATA-33 operation your drives should automatically work.
Some users have reported that they need to use the drives with older, 40-wire IDE cables to get a more advanced drive to work with their older ATA controllers or motherboards, and still others have found they need to use manufacturer provided software to disable the higher speed modes.
Either way, the newer ATA-100 hard drives will NOT damage your older motherboard.
Even if these newer drives work however, they will operate at the fastest speeds supported by your motherboard rather than the speeds the are rated for.
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- Category: CPU/Component Cooling Visit#: 21909 Post Date: 2004-04-25 22:03:23
Why do I only need to apply a thin layer of thermal paste?
Ans: Thin is in!
No we're not talking about weightloss, we're talking about thermal paste. Everyone advocates applying a thin layer of paste, but why? The reason is actually quite simple.
The idea for a thermal interface (like thermal paste) isn't really to transfer heat from the CPU to the heatsink. Now right about now you're probably thinking "this guy is crazy". All I'm saying, is that the thermal interface is merely there to facilitate the heat transfer; remove the inefficiencies, let's say. Read on to see what I mean.
Gaps are the enemy
Imperfections on the surface of both the CPU die and the Heatsink create an imperfect contact point between the two surfaces. The CPU die and Heatsink might look pretty smooth but when their surfaces meet, the sometimes invisible imperfections on each surface leave gaps in their contact. Air in the gaps acts as a really inefficient heat conductor. These gaps are what thermal paste is meant to fill, so that instead of having poor heat conducting air in those gaps, you have much better conducting thermal paste.
Now many of these gaps are microscopic, so much so that you would never notice that the enefficiencies were there at all. But your CPU temperatures will show it: no one in their right mind would run a CPU without a heatsink and thermal interface simply because the raw contact of the two surfaces will NOT transfer enough heat to maintain what enthusiasts would consider to be comfortable temperatures.
So now you know why properly applying thermal paste means applying thin layers of paste.
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- Category: Motherboards Visit#: 15190 Post Date: 2003-09-10 03:12:42
Do I absolutely HAVE to plug in the ATX12V 4pin connector on P4 motherboards?
Ans: Many P4 motherboards (and even AMD motherboards) have an extra 4 pin ATX12V (square) connector to which you are asked to connect an ATX12V power connector from P4 compliant ATX 2.03 power supplies. This connector is designed to provide extra current on the 12V rail - most manuals will say that this connector provides extra power for the CPU and it is recommended that you connect the ATX12V plug if your power supply provides one.
If your power supply does NOT provide an ATX12V connector you might be wondering if you can still safely run your motherboard. Well there IS a chance that the motherboard can get damaged, but we've seen situations where, even by accident, users have forgotten to plug in the ATX12V connector and yet they are running their systems just fine. The real risk is in having inconsistent voltage supplied to your components, which can result in intermittent problems (such as spontaneous reboots).
The best solution, if you don't have a P4 power supply with this extra plug, is to buy a 4pin molex connector that converts your regular 4pin molex power to a 4pin square connector for your motherboard. Also, some motherboards today have inline 4 pin connectors that replace the need for the 4 pin square connector. With these you can connect using the regular device power connectors from your power supply. As with any other issue, read your manual carefully to make sure you are connecting everything correctly.
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- Category: Memory Visit#: 29286 Post Date: 2003-08-20 23:06:53
What is CAS Latency and how do I "tweak it"?
Ans: CAS Latency is all the rage nowadays because of all the attention on high performance RAM from OCZ, Corsair, and Mushkin.
What is CAS Latency?
CAS stands for Column Access Strobe (conversely, RAS stands for Row Access Strobe) and CAS Latency is the amount of delay that you have to wait between the CAS signal and the data being pushed from the RAM pins. CAS2 latency essentially means we have a 2 cycle delay, and CAS3 has a 3 cycle delay: hence the lower the CAS, the lower the latency, and the better your performance.
The sequence of events is something like this:
- The "row" of the memory address is accessed and RAS is activated
- RAS-to-CAS delay
- The "column" of the memory address is access and CAS is activated
- CAS delay
- the data is pushed to the RAM pins
Is CAS Latency a HUGE factor in performance?
Memory timings in general account for a performance difference. The proper memory timings can result in as much as a 2-4% difference in application performance, but CAS settings alone will probably only account for an even smaller performance increase.
CAS is not always an important factor either: different applications will have different memory requirements and CAS only comes into play at one stage of the memory access: you still have to worry about the RAS-to-CAS delay. Also, your CAS will only be effective for memory intensive situations or situations where memory is accessed a lot.
In consideration for whether you should choose CAS2 or CAS3 DRAM, I'd suggest going for CAS2 whenever possible (ie: when the cost is about the same). The performance difference is not huge but it's still there. Also, even if you have RAM that's not rated for CAS2 operation, you *might* be able to try it out. We've known many cases where CAS can often be tweaked a little with no ill effects.
Always check your memory stability using memtest86 when tweaking your RAM!
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- Category: Storage Visit#: 22971 Post Date: 2004-07-14 20:08:08
How come my hard drive in XP or Windows 2000 only shows up as 137 GB when it is actually >137GB?
Ans: If the BIOS is upto date, it should support 48-bit hard drive access. Windows however does not support this by default. Update to the latest service pack and add this key to the registry -
To enable 48-bit LBA large-disk support in the registry:
1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
2. Locate and then click the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Atapi\Parameters
3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:
Value name: EnableBigLba
Data type: REG_DWORD
Value data: 0x1
4. Quit Registry Editor.
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- Category: Displays Visit#: 17425 Post Date: 2004-03-29 02:36:11
Do LCD's Have any Energy or Radiation benefits over CRT Monitors?
Ans: LCD Displays Use Less Energy
As a rule of thumb, LCD's generally use around 1/2 to 1/3 the energy of an equivalent CRT monitor - some sources peg the energy savings at around 60% on average. The Samsung super slim profile, slim bezel 172x 17" LCD for instance consumes 40W, while an equivalent 19" CRT monitor like the Samsung 955DF or the Viewsonic P95f consume around 100W. If you use your monitor at home 10 hours a day, you'd save about $20 a year on your electricity bills alone.
Even in standby mode an LCD will consume less energy than a CRT - LCD's use around 3 watts while CRTs can consume 5-8 watts in standby.
Other things to take into consideration: There is less heat polution from LCD's - in summer this might mean your overall heat output from your computers is lower, which means you spend less on air conditioning.
LCD's emit fewer harmful radiation
CRTs emit VLF and ELF (Very Low Frequency and Extra Low Frequency) electromagnetic radiation (caused by the scanning electron beam in the CRT tube), while LCD's do NOT. These EM emmissions are considered by many to be harmful to health.
Discarded LCD's have fewer harmful ecological chemicals
Regular CRTs have lots of glass, mercury and lead which, when disposed of incorrectly, is very harmful for the environment. LCD's have a higher cost of production but they also have fewer such problems when being discarded.
LCD's have better contrast, and require less ambient lighting
Because LCD displays are more visible even in slightly lower ambient lighting conditions (with fewer of the fatigue problems associated with CRTs), you can potentially save energy on lighting costs while using LCDs.
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- Category: Silent PC Visit#: 14420 Post Date: 2003-09-17 00:19:09
How do I know how loud a fan is based on it's noise specification (in decibels or dB)?
Ans: In acoustics, the decibel is used as an absolute indicator of sound power per unit area. Abbreviated as "dB", this measurement is defined as the power per unit surface area. To give you an idea of scale, 0dB is the threshold of human hearing and 120-140dB is the threshold of pain.
For the purpose of CPU coolers, case fans, hard drive coolers etc, many users have noted that the actual decibel specification of the device has limited correlation to the physical noise produced by a fan - this has to do with standards in measurement and also due to how fans generate noise in the first place.
Fan noise can be attributed to:
- the movement of physical parts
- the vibration of whatever the fan is mounted on (such as a plastic mounting bracket as in the case of Antec, or just directly onto the case panels)
- the space around the fan
Depending on the manufacturer, the fan noise measurement may be so different that you can NOT rely on measurements supplied from a manufacturer to compare potential noise from products by different manufacturers. The only REAL way to know the difference is to set up a controlled environment to measure the fans. However... you can generally use the decibel measurements to compare fan noise of products from the SAME manufacturer. For instance if you already know that one fan from a manufacturer is rated at 36dB and the other fan is rated at 50dB then you can sort of estimate the relative noise of the coolers.
Because decibels are a logarithmic scale, human perception deems that an increase of 10dB is about double the volume.
Below is a chart we made to show you visually some real world noise in decibel levels. (note that the chart is not to scale... the upper decibel ranges are more widely spaced to emphasize the fact that at the upper ranges even small decibel changes would result in a very large perceptive noise change).
The sound level in the average residential home or in a quiet conversation is about 40 dB. Average conversation volume is about 60 dB, and typical home music listening levels are about 80-85 dB. Those live band performances? About 110 dB, and a jet engine close up is well into the pain threshold. For the purpose of coolers, active cooling can range from 20db to the higher 60dB range. The lower 20dB range is very very rare for active cooling, since water cooling is also around that range.
As a general guideline, a good typical range for coolers is 26-40dB for relatively quiet cooling. Remember though that manufacturer specs CANNOT properly give you an absolute idea of the noise that the fan will make.
Did you know?
A decibel is one-tenth of a Bel, a unit named for Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone. The Bel is rarely, if ever used anymore.
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- Category: Video Cards Visit#: 22584 Post Date: 2005-01-05 19:09:46
What is multisampling (antialiasing technique)?
Ans: The basic idea behind multisampling is to embed the intelligence behind antialiasing inside the core of the GPU, in hardware. This makes the GPU more complex, but rewards the user with higher quality and higher performance.
Multisampling works because the GPU itself is "aware" that multiple samples will be used to calculate the final pixel color. You can think of these extra samples as extra "virtual pixels." The GeForce3 GPU has wider data paths internally so it can handle these extra virtual pixels without slowing down its standard rendering speed. In fact, the GeForce3 GPU can compute these “virtual pixels” or additional samples at full speed, with no reduction in engine performance whatsoever. These wider data paths enable GeForce3 to use the same texture data for all of the samples in the pixel and significantly reduce the memory bandwidth required to texture all of the AA samples. Memory bandwidth can be the performance bottleneck for high-resolution display modes and becomes even more constraining when antialiasing is used.
Quoted from NVIDIA Corporation
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- Category: Video Cards Visit#: 17905 Post Date: 2005-01-05 19:05:27
What is supersampling (antialiasing technique)?
Ans: Algorithmic antialiasing techniques involve "sampling" the content of each pixel at multiple locations, meaning that the color is computed at more than one location inside the area covered by the pixel. The results from these "samples" are combined to determine the final color of the pixel. These samples are essentially additional pixels, used to increase the effective resolution of the image to be displayed. If the edge of an object falls partially inside the area of a pixel, its color and the color of another object that partially fills the "area" of the pixel can both be used to calculate the final color. The result is smoother transitions from one line of pixels to another line of pixels along the edges of objects, where aliasing is most obvious.
"Supersampling" is an antialiasing technique that is simply a brute force approach and is used in NVIDIA's GeForce2 GPUs and other modern graphics processors. A graphics processor that uses supersampling renders the screen image at a much higher resolution than the current display mode, and then scales and filters the image to the final resolution before it is sent to the display. A variety of methods exist for performing this operation, but each requires the graphics processor to render as many additional pixels as required by the supersampling method. Additionally, because the graphics processor is rendering more actual pixels than will be displayed, it must scale and filter those pixels down to the resolution for final display. This scaling and filtering can further reduce performance.
The degree of scaling in a specific supersampling mode is often identified by the ratio of pixels in the unscaled image to the number of pixels in the final, scaled output. For example, 2x supersampling writes twice as many pixels to the frame buffer as would be required without antialiasing. 4x writes four times as many pixels. As you might guess, supersampling causes a substantial drop in performance as measured by frame rate. If the graphics processor renders four times as many pixels, then the frame rate will be one fourth what it was in the standard display mode. In fact, the performance drop can be even worse than the "x" multiple of the supersampling setting because of the scaling step mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Quoted From NVIDIA Corporation
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- Category: TV Tuners Visit#: 13761 Post Date: 2004-06-28 20:45:36
Are LCD's good for gaming?
Ans: If you're like other gamers you often look at LCD's as a beautiful addition to your gaming system, however, you've also either read, heard, or experienced some of the problems LCD's have with games.
The problem lies in the refresh rate of LCD's. LCD refresh is listed as the millisecond rating of the display. The lower the milliseconds, the FASTER the display. Early LCDs had as high as 35ms ratings, which correlates to 28.75Hz refresh! On a CRT anything below 60Hz refresh would result in an unstable image, but LCD's don't rely on scan lines and do not flicker, so early models could get away with REALLY low refresh rates.
You can see how refresh rates and milliseconds relate here.
Low Refresh is Bad
This super low refresh rate resulted in the famous streaking, blurring, and tearing of the image in high paced games. If you don't get dizzy you'll probably get a headache or just get frustrated.
Newer LCD's are better for gaming
The newer LCD displays tend to have 16ms and 20ms ratings. These are "ok" but no purist could possibly play on these things without noticing the lagginess. Advanced models in the 17" and 19" range can be found that have 12ms ratings - that's equivalent to an 83.3Mhz refresh rate.
In our various reviews of Samsung's 172X 12ms display we find that 12ms is a fair bit better than even a 16ms model, but a CRT is still going to be king for twitch games like Doom, Half-Life, and other first person shooters.
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- Category: Peripherals & Connectivity Visit#: 66013 Post Date: 2004-06-01 00:37:04
How do I export songs from my iPod?
Ans: The easiest method is to download Ephpod, a free iPod utility that is much like iTunes. Ephpod allows the export of mp3 files to your hard drive without restrictions unlike iTunes. Another way is to allow the iPod to be mounted as a hard drive with Music Match and then find the directory on the iPod that contains a large set of folders. In the subfolders are strange files with mp3 extensions. These can be dragged to the hard drive and imported into your favorite media player but this method will not have meaningful file names so using Ephpod is recommended
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- Category: Video Cards Visit#: 12636 Post Date: 2004-06-28 20:33:21
Is there an easy way to tell what voltage my video card actually is?
Ans: Some motherboards will get damaged if you use the wrong voltage PCI card.
You can tell the voltage of the video card if the card is made to spec. The AGP slot has multiple knotch or "key" configurations. To determine what your voltage is, look at the connector and check to see what the "keys" look like. Follow the below illustration to determine whether your card is 1.5V, 3.3V or 0.8V
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- Category: Motherboards Visit#: 35132 Post Date: 2003-08-24 02:48:32
Award BIOS Beep codes
Ans: The Award BIOS basically only reports either memory or video problems in its beep codes. Worse, the codes themselves sometimes refer to one OR the other item being the problem, or else it's the motherboard at fault.
Beep code brief:
1 Long Beep: Memory problem
1 Long Beep and 2 Short Beeps: Video error
Continuous Beeping: Memory or video problem
Any other beep pattern: Most likely Memory problem
1 long Beep: Memory problem
Something is wrong with the memory installed. Check out the troubleshooting memory problems FAQ for details. Note that there could also be something wrong with just accessing the memory (ie the motherboard has a problem).
1 long beep, then 2 Short Beeps: Video error
The motherboard is not able to access the video card for some reason. Either the video card is not working, it's memory is not accessable, or it's BIOS may be corrupt. This error code could also mean something is wrong with the motherboard.
Continuous Beeping: Memory or video problem
This is a tricky situation... likely the problem is either memory or the video. This can also be found when the motherboard is faulty.
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- Category: Storage Visit#: 12072 Post Date: 2003-09-21 20:12:31
Do I HAVE to use an 80 wire IDE cable for my hard drive?
Ans: A standard 40-wire IDE cable WILL work with ATA-33, ATA-66, ATA-100 or ATA-133 drives but it will only allow 33MB/s performance. However, it is recommended that you use an Ultra ATA 80-wire/40-pin cable no matter what your drive rating for several reasons:
- 80-wire/40-pin cables offer improved data reliability and signal integrity by adding 40 more ground wires than standard 40-wire/40-pin IDE cables. The extra 40 strands in an 80-wire cable act as insulators between the 40 signaling strands to prevent and reduce crosstalk.
- Using an 80-wire cable allows for the use of ATA/66 and ATA/100 modes with drives and systems that support these rates. If you have an ATA/100 or ATA/66 drive without the 80-wire cable, the drive will only run at 33MB/sec.
- You can use an ATA/33 drive on the same cable as an ATA/100 drive, and with a current controller that provides independent device timing, it will not affect the operation of an ATA/66 or ATA/100 drive. This is not possible with a standard 40-wire IDE cable.
**Answered with excerpts help from the WD KB.
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- Category: Motherboards Visit#: 34090 Post Date: 2003-08-24 17:19:27
AMI BIOS Beep Codes
Ans: The AMI Bios (American Megatrends Inc. Bios) is a very common BIOS that has a pretty descriptive beep pattern. Note that as with other beep codes, these codes can also occur if something is wrong with the motherboard, so the codes are only useful if the motherboard itself is reporting the error properly.
BIOS BEEP PATTERN:
| 1 short | DRAM refresh failure |
| 2 short | Parity circuit failure |
| 3 short | Base 64K RAM failure |
| 4 short | System timer failure |
| 5 short | Process failure |
| 6 short | Keyboard controller Gate A20 error |
| 7 short | Virtual mode exception error |
| 8 short | Display memory Read/Write test failure |
| 9 short | ROM BIOS checksum failure |
| 10 short | CMOS shutdown Read/Write error |
| 11 short | Cache Memory error |
| 1 long, 3 short | Conventional/Extended memory failure |
| 1 long, 8 short | Display/Retrace test failed |
Detailed explanations:
1 short: DRAM refresh failure
The circuitry used to refresh the DRAM has failed.
2 short: Parity circuit failure
This relates to parity checking. The circuitry used to check the parity bit on system memory is failing.
3 short: Base 64K RAM failure
There was a problem with accessing the first 64Kb of memory. Swap out each memory stick to try and see if you can bypass the problem. Try swapping between various slots too. This error occurs if the motherboard is also failing so if none of your RAM works then the motherboard might be at fault.
4 short: System timer failure
The motherboard is toast (some timer or other on the circuit is failing)!
4 short: System timer failure
The motherboard is toast (some timer or other on the circuit is failing)!
5 short: Processor failure
The CPU is returning an error, or the motherboard cannot use the CPU properly. IMPORTANT NOTE: Don't confuse "processor failure" to mean "processor is dead"... if your CPU is dead the system shouldn't even power up at all, so it could possibly be a short, or a problem in a component that is interfering with the system. The processor might not be functioning properly or the motherboard might be having some problems (compatbility between components need not be outruled), but the processor is not "dead".
6 short: Keyboard controller Gate A20 error
The Keyboard controller is not working. This controller controls the keyboard and also the A20 Gate that access the HMA (High Memory Area).
7 short: Virtual mode exception error
The processor can't complete it's test of virtual mode.
8 short: Display memory Read/Write test failure
The motherboard cannot write to the frame buffer of your video card. Something is either wrong with the video card, with the video card memory, or the motherboard. Btw if the system continues to boot this is not unusual: this is not a stop error code.
9 short: ROM BIOS checksum failure
The ROM (read-only memory) that stores the BIOS code has failed its checksum error. This checksum is used to ensure that the BIOS code is correct each time you boot up, and the error likely means that the BIOS code has been corrupted somehow. The code is stored usually on a BIOS chip that can often be replaced. Some motherboards even have what is known as a "Dual Bios" system which will allow you to use a second BIOS chip in case of the first having failed.
10 short: CMOS shutdown Read/Write error
Unlike the ROM BIOS checksum failure, the CMOS shutdown failure indicates that the user BIOS settings somehow cannot be accessed by the motherboard. This usually indicates something is wrong with the motherboard.
11 short: Cache Memory error
The motherboard cannot verify the secondary L2 cache.
1 long, 3 short: Conventional/Extended memory failure
Conventional/Extended memory failure means that the system is reporting an error with the DRAM sticks that you have installed in your system. The most likely problem is either fault RAM, or improperly seated RAM (try reseating the RAM or moving it around to different slots).
1 long, 8 short: Display/Retrace test failed
The video card retrace has failed. This is usually a problem with the video card, or with the motherboard.
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- Category: CPU/Component Cooling Visit#: 6743 Post Date: 2004-01-15 19:06:43
What is a Heatpipe and how does it work?
Ans: A heatpipe is a method used for cooling made famous by Shuttle in their SFF computers.
Heatpipes are hollow, cylindrical tubes partially filled with liquid that can vaporize. Heat is absorbed when the liquid turns to vapor in the evaporation process and the heat gets released as the vapor rises. The cooling vapor condensates back into liquid form and is returned back down to the bottom of the cylinder.
Heatpipes transfer heat through the cycle of evaporation and condensation of the liquid within the pipe. Basically heatpipes are placed near the source of heat, and transfer the heat along the pipe away from the heatsource thanks to the cycle of evaporation/condensation.
Image obtained from Heatpipe.com
A. Heat is absorbed in the evaporating section.
B. Fluid boils to vapor phase.
C. Heat is released from the upper part of cylinder to the environment; vapor condenses to liquid phase.
D. Liquid returns by gravity to the lower part of cylinder (evaporating section).
Some users speculate that the orientation of the Heatpipe could affect its performance, given the theory behind the heat pipe this is actually not a bad assumption. In fact, for industrial applications, the design and orientation of a heatpipe would be very specific to maximize performance. But in a CPU or video card cooler, the impact may or may not be as significant.
What we've found at Neoseeker during our reviews is that whether a heatpipe based cooler is standing upright, or standing on its side, the cooling performance difference is less than 1 degree Celsius - so in our real world testing that sort of orientation difference does not seem be a huge factor. Temperature differences resulting from orientation were slight and are likely the result of variations in the test environment.
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- Category: Storage Visit#: 30907 Post Date: 2003-09-20 22:08:25
Why is my SCSI, EIDE, Serial ATA drive not recognized during Windows NT/2000/XP installation?
Ans: Problem:
An EIDE, SCSI, or Serial ATA (SATA) drive is not
recognized during the installation of Windows NT/2000/XP. The installer reports
that there is no drive present for the Windows installation, even though the
controller recognizes the drive.
Cause:
The drive may not be
detected during the installation of Windows because you have not yet loaded the
drivers for your EIDE, SCSI, or SATA
controller.
Resolution:
During the initial installation of
Windows, you will need to press F6 almost immediately when "Setup is inspecting
your hardware..." appears on the screen. You will then be asked to provide any
mass storage controller drivers you may have. At this point, use the drivers
supplied by your controller manufacturer. After performing the steps above, the
drive will be recognized and the install should continue without
problems.
Note: In many cases, specialized ATA or RAID ports, SCSI
ports, and SATA ports integrated directly into the motherboard must have their
drivers installed as shown above.
Supplied by the WD KB.
Do you find this answer userful? Yes No So far 322 vote(s) for useful, 370 vote(s) for unuseful
- Category: Windows XP Visit#: 15231 Post Date: 2003-11-24 17:24:48
How do I uninstall Windows Messenger?
Ans: There are two methods to remove Windows Messenger. If one method does not work, try the other.
Method 1
From your Start Menu, select Run and type the following command:
RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
Press Enter.
This method thanks to the comment by Steve.
Method 2
In Windows XP Microsoft does not appear to allow you to uninstall Windows Messenger. For many users this becomes an annoyance as Windows Messenger loads up all the time regardless of whether you use it.
To UNINSTALL Windows Messenger you first have to unhide it from the Add/Remove Programs list.
To do so look for a file called sysoc.inf in your C:\Windows\ directory or C:\Windows\Inf directory. Open this file with Notepad and look for:
msmsgs=msgrocm.dll,OcEntry,msmsgs.inf,hide,7 Notice the word "hide" in that line? Remove that, save and close the file. Now go to "Add or Remove Programs" in the Control Panel and then click on the "Add/Remove Windows Components" button on the left hand side of the list. In that menu you should see the entry of Windows Messenger!! Uncheck that entry and click Next until you are done.
Do you find this answer userful? Yes No So far 290 vote(s) for useful, 218 vote(s) for unuseful
- Category: Memory Visit#: 5232 Post Date: 2003-09-18 07:05:33
What is ECC Memory and Should I Get it for my system?
Ans: ECC stands for "Error Checking and Correction". It's a technology that allows the memory to not only detect memory errors but also correct them on the fly.
Some of us who have been around computers longer may remember the old parity memory that used to be on sale at a slight premium over regular memory. ECC and Parity memory share some likeness in that both can detect errors in the memory, however, ECC takes it one step further by correcting the error and preventing it from affecting your application.
ECC is for servers
Realistically, ECC is something only a server or mission critical system would need (sort of like Registered Memory) because memory errors are very rare and because the number of errors likely to be experienced by a system is proportional with the amount of RAM on that system - since servers tend to have a few Gigabytes of memory, and because they are on 24hours a day and also deal with huge amounts of pretty important data, it's not hard to figure out why ECC is considered a must for any serious server application.
ECC Slows down Boot time
Another reason why you wouldn't want ECC in a regular system is because once ECC checking is enabled you better be prepared for the longest RAM check you've ever seen in your life. It is literally several times slower than regular memory checking during POST.
Do you find this answer userful? Yes No So far 241 vote(s) for useful, 79 vote(s) for unuseful
- Category: Motherboards Visit#: 12520 Post Date: 2003-08-21 21:09:52
What is a tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 motherboard manufacturer?
Ans: Motherboard manufacturers are divided into groups, which we call "tiers". Some people feel that the tiers represent quality, price, or reputation, but typically the "tier" of a manufacturer represents its sales volume in the industry.
Tier 1 Manufacturers
Tier 1 is the top tier of manufacturers and is dominated by Abit, Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI(Microstar). These manufacturers each sell over 1million motherboards a MONTH! Actually this tier was only occupied by 3 manufacturers for a while, and so we sometimes referred to the tier 1 manufacturers as the "Big 3".
Tier 2 & 3
After tier 1 things get a little less easy to remember. Epox and Soyo are tier 2 manufacturers while a company like FIC and Soltek are tier 3 manufacturers. Again this has little to do with quality as it does with sales volume and perhaps name brand recognition.
If you pay close enough attention, the Tier 1 manufacturers tend to have the largest R&D teams and large OEM sales and marketing teams, and so their products come with more bells and whistles (in the form of bundled software and utilities) and with fancier boxes and manuals. However, even the tier 2 and tier 3 manufacturers today are striving to improve their packaging and their documentation and bundles, so don't make assumptions about product quality/bundle purely based on tier.
Essentially, the "tier" of a motherboard manufacturer is more something to easily classify the size of that manufacturer and for bragging rights.
Do you find this answer userful? Yes No So far 258 vote(s) for useful, 146 vote(s) for unuseful
- Category: Storage Visit#: 4367 Post Date: 2004-02-10 22:44:11
What is RAID?
Ans: RAID stands for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. RAID uses multiple disks to increase performance and/or reliability. Many motherboards today support RAID in the forms of RAID0, RAID1 and RAID0+1. There exist other modes including RAID3 and RAID5.
Advantages of RAID include - improved performance and/or reliability
Disadvantages of RAID include - cost- multiple disks are treated as one array (2 60 gig drives for example will be treated as 1 60 gig array in a RAID configuration), reliability in RAID0 mode, efficiency- striped mode does not equate to a 100% performance boost. There is a certain overhead to RAID.
RAID0
In a RAID 0 configuration, multiple disks are used to stripe data. Striping means spreading out the data over multiple drives. Since we are writing to multiple disks we are not bound by the performance limitation of a single disk resulting in greater performance since we can a) write to multiple disks simultaneously and b) read from multiple disks simultaneously.
The problem with RAID0 is reliability. If one disk fails, the entire array fails. This does not sound too bad until you consider the fact that the probability of failure doubles when compared to a single disk. How does this work? Take a look at the probability tree below. Manufacturers claim roughly a 1% failure rate (I call shenanigans on that number but we'll believe them for now).
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