BQE, Asrock 939Dual-Sata, XP-90, VGA silencer build

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Spod
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BQE, Asrock 939Dual-Sata, XP-90, VGA silencer build

Post by Spod » Fri Oct 08, 2004 7:56 am

I've made my purchases, primarily based on SPCR's recommendations and reading these forums. I'm about to build it, but I've a few questions first.

Is surgical spirit a suitable alternative to isopropyl alcohol for cleaning chips and heatsinks?

Is it worth replacing my BQE's rubber feet with the AcoustiFeet that came with my AcoustiPack for BQE, if the case will be on carpeted floorboards? The BQE feet seem more robustly built and attached, but the (self-adhesive) AcoustiFeet are softer. I don't think I can reattach the original feet after removing them, so I'd like to get advice on this before trying it.

I'd prefer not to suspend the WD740GD Raptor (my sole concession to performance over noise), but will try Antec/EAR grommets, then sitting on a gel ice pack or foam first.
The BQE AcoustiPack comes with a foam piece that firmly wedges between two lowest* HDD trays. If I mount the Raptor to the upper wedged tray, hopefully reducing tray vibrations, will the lack of ventilation under the tray cause any overheating problems, with a Nexus 120mm on a Fanmate in front?

*Any higher and it would block too much airflow.

Other than that, I'll list my components in case anyone can offer any advice. They're all bought or ordered, so don't bother suggesting alternatives unless I've really picked a lemon.

If anyone expresses an interest, I'll report back on how it went.

Antec SLK3700-BQE
2x Nexus 120mm case fans, 2x Fanmates
Super Tornado 400W (could only get A2 in the UK, but I'll try it, and RMA if it has any problems).
AcoustiPack pre-cut for Antec BQE (installation went fine)
Athlon 64 3500+ (0.13μ, but it sounds like 0.09μ is still a bit immature)
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum (nice board, shame it doesn't fit the XP-120)
XP-90 HSF
Nexus 92mm CPU fan (will control speed from motherboard)
Zalman NB-47J for chipset
Galaxy Glacier 6800GT with Nvidia Silencer 5 (won't replace for a while, so I wanted DX9.0c)
Raptor WD740GD (yes, I know the Samsung P80 is quieter, but at least it's FDB, and speed is pretty important to me)
Antec Noisekiller PSU grommet
Arctic Silver 5
2x 512MB Crucial Ballistix PC4000 (only a few pounds more than PC3200)
Mitsubishi FA-404 floppy drive and memory card reader
Pioneer DVR-A08XLB DVD writer (wanted the software & extra quietness features over the DVR-108)
Existing MS Office keyboard, MX-510 mouse & 19" CRT
Oh, and XP x64 beta - if it's too buggy, I'll get regular XP.

Thanks, all, for your help and advice - not just to me, but to everyone!

[Edit - amended title]
Last edited by Spod on Thu May 18, 2006 4:14 am, edited 3 times in total.

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Post by sthayashi » Fri Oct 08, 2004 8:21 am

1) What are surgical spirits comprised of? Normal Isopropyl alcohol contains two ingredients. Isopropyl Alcohol and water. Anything else could leave a residue that reduces thermal transfer (though how significantly would be anybody's guess).

2) Dunno, but trust me, you can use epoxy to put feet back on a BQE. I've done that and I don't think that foot is ever coming off.

3) IIRC, Nexus fans don't like being undervolted. I don't think they operate much below 9v, but that's just based on what I've heard. I'm having a hard time visualizing the other parts you're describing.

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Post by Spod » Fri Oct 08, 2004 11:07 am

Surgical spirit is basically an alcohol based disinfectant that's safe to use on skin and surgical instruments. I've got the bottle in front of me now.
Active ingredients:
IMS BP 95%
Castor Oil BP 2.5%
Methyl Salcylate BP 0.5%
Other ingredients:
Diethyl Phthalate BP

BP just means it's government subsidised or something. I hadn't realised castor oil was in there - I guess that's a big no then, unless it would evaporate completely. I've no idea what the other things do.Perhaps I'll just wipe the TIM off the chipset with something dry & lint free, and leave the other parts as they came.

Regarding the drive cage, just imagine there's a big rectangular cross section block of foam taking up all the space between one drive tray and the one above. It's a tight enough fit that the foam is compressed quite firmly. So there's zero airflow across the underside of the drive tray I'm thinking of using - not even convection. Will it affect drive temps, or will it make no difference since I'm mounting the drive on grommets anyway?

Thanks for your quick reply.

Spod

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Post by Spod » Sat Oct 09, 2004 5:30 am

Well, it's built. A few observations, in case it's useful to anyone.

Just wiped the chipset with gauze to remove the TIM - left a slight whitish translucent smudge, but that's okay, it's only the chipset.

Mounted the Raptor on EAR grommets in the drive tray on top of the foam - very quiet when idle, though I do hear it spin down when I switch it off.

The Nexus fans are very quiet, even on 11V all you can hear is the air noise. Cut the corners on the rear fan to alow it to mount using the EAR grommets - snapped the end off one grommet pulling it through the fan mounting hole with pliers, but it still came through, so that's okay.

Since it's very awkward to get EAR grommets through the front fan holes (which are much smaler), and I didn't want to drill the holes, I just used the 8 self adhesive silicone grommets that came with the Noisekiller PSU - 4 between case and fan, and four on the outside of the fan between the fan and the screw heads. With the Nexus fan, this is perfectly adequate in eliminating any vibration there might otherwise have been.

The Zalman NB-47J wouldn't fit under the nvidia silencer fan because of the position of the chipset on the MSI K8N Neo2. Had to stick with the stock HSF - it's got a high pitched whine, but it's not very loud, and the acoustipack really helps. I'll try turning the fan speed down in the BIOS, for both northbridge and CPU.

I'm rather disappointed with the nVidia Silencer fan - it's by far the loudest thing in the case (though when the case is closed, it's still quieter than my Gateway PII-400 system). Perhaps the fan controller circuitry is controlled by software, and so won't slow the fan down until Windows has loaded - I haven't started installing software yet.

Finally, the speaker and power LED didn't work until I realised that the connectors on the motherboard were upside down relative to the other connectors and the diagram in the manual. A simple mistake, but one to watch out for on this board.

Overall, I'm satisfied with it - especialy if I can get the NB & GPU fans slowed down.

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Post by Spod » Tue Oct 12, 2004 3:55 am

It's hard to say, it's right next to the VGA fan, but off to one side. I'll try disconnecting, and then removing, the fan - if it gets too hot, I could always try clipping the NB47J short until it fits in - even with shorter fins, it should cool adequately. That's a last resort, though.

I also want to say that the BQE front door with acoustipack lining is very effective in muffling CD whine - I can still hear the CD drive (I'm using an old one while I wait for the DVR-A08), but closing the door makes it much less painful to listen to.

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Post by Covak » Wed Oct 20, 2004 9:54 pm

What are the "extra quietness features" of the DVR-A08XLB over the DVR-108?

I'll soon be building a very similar system, so I've found this thread handy. Thanks :) I was afraid the 6800's cooling would be the big problem...

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Post by meglamaniac » Thu Oct 21, 2004 2:02 am

Are Nexus fans solid edge then, not the standard lip edges?
Is this 80mm, 120mm, or both?

Thanks.

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Post by Spod » Thu Oct 21, 2004 3:24 am

The DVR-A08 has a honeycomb shape stamped into the upper dcasing - presumably this makes it more rigid, or disperses vibrations, or changes the resonant frequency - but Pioneer say it makes the drive quieter, and they probably wouldn't have bothered if it didn't have *some* effect.
Also, it has different firmware to the DVR-108, allowing the speed to be intelligently controlled and manipulated from software - the tool that does this can't be made to work with the DVR-108. The DVR-108 has some internal differences in the hardware, and is incompatible with A08 firmware.
Finally, the A08 comes with a software bundle, wh8ile the 108 is drive only. I haven't got any CD/DVD writing software as yet, so this helps justify the extra cost.

The Nexus 120mm has solid edges, but they aren't that hard to cut - 3/4 cuts with a hacksaw and a little filing on each corner, but the plastic's pretty easy to work. A narrow enough power sander would make a great job of it. I looked for a picture, but could only find face-on views that don't show the corners properly.

The 92mm Nexus is a different design, still very quiet but with standard lip edges.

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Post by Spod » Sat Dec 11, 2004 12:54 am

An update - a few people have asked about this, but I'll post the answers here and point them to it, rather than posting the same details in several threads.

I fanmated the NV5 silencer, and with the fanmate set to minimum, the idle temps go up from 57/58ºC to around 62ºC. With the AcoustiPack helping, the graphics card noise isn't noticeable now. The character of the noise has also become smoother. However, since the fanmate plug wouldn't fit the fan socket on the graphics card, I've plugged it into the Northbridge fan header.

Since I still haven't worked out exactly how to mutilate the NB-47J to fit*, I'm running the stock chipset HSF passively. So far, there are no CPU & chipset temperature monitoring utilities for XP x64, so I can't check temps accurately under load. It gets pretty hot, but I hope it'll stay stable. It doesn't quite hurt to touch briefly, but it's not comfortable to keep my finger on. Probably no higher than 65ºC - is that dangerous for a chipset? I'd really like to know.

Of course, fanmating the NV5 on minimum and unplugging the chipset fan has changed the acoustic signature of my system substantially. Once I had the case side off, I realised the chipset fan was almost as loud as the NV5 silencer, and having switched them both off, I had to double take to check that I'd switched my PC on this morning. Then the hard disk started clicking, and I was in no doubt. Having sat here for half an hour or so, I'm starting to notice other sounds, including something quiet, but really high pitched. I think that might be my CRT, though.

I'd forgotten how loud the Raptor was with the case off! I think the AcoustiPack makes a real contribution to it being quiet enough for me. I'm talking mainly about seeks here. Idle noise has never been a problem.

So, with the two remaining sources of noise tamed or eliminated, the system is now about as quiet as I originally planned (though I'm still waiting for that DVR-A08, and the Mitsumi 7-in-1 floppy drive - running with generic borrowed CD & floppy drives for now). I wasn't too bothered about having something I couldn't hear, more just something I didn't notice.
Now that the most noticeable noise is my CRT, I think I can live with that.


*To make the NB-47J fit under the NV5 fan, I'd have to cut off about 2/3 of its height. Otherwise, I'd need to look for a lower profile passive chipset cooler. The MSI one doesn't even have fins, it's just a metal baseplate with a fan on it. Maybe it had to be, to be low enough to conform to AGP specs. Hopefully, it'll prove adequate even without a fan, but I'd prefer a cooler chipset, just for my peace of mind.

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Post by Tibors » Sat Dec 11, 2004 10:05 am

I haven't tried this, so.....
Can you bend the the outer pins of the NB-47J sideways? Then you only have to cut part of the fins.

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Post by greeef » Sat Dec 11, 2004 12:06 pm

I use a contact cleaner from maplin, comes in a spray bottle and promises to leave no residue. Seems to clean my heatsinks very effectively and is only 2 or 3 pounds for a can.

Is there a lot of space around the northbridge? Perhaps a low profile, wider cooler like an old CPU hs would fit? You'd only need to drill a couple of holes, maybe break off a couple of fins to fit the clips.

griff

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Post by icepik » Sat Dec 11, 2004 7:52 pm

Spod, I've got this same motherboard and am struggling to figure out a way to silence the northbridge. How long have you been running with the fan disconnected? I might try that myself for a while and see how it works. I haven't found any heatsinks that come with a low profile stock. I might purchase one of the Zalman chipset heatsinks and shave it down until it fits underneath an NV5 VGA silencer.

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Post by Spod » Sun Dec 12, 2004 12:19 am

Thanks for your responses, everyone.

greef - thanks for the ideas. I may just see if I can pick up some isopropyl alcohol at Boots, as someone suggested on another thread - I can't get to a maplin easily, and I'm not sure it's worth paying postage if I can get something locally.

Regarding CPU heatsinks, I've only got the stock heatsink from the Athlon 64, and that'd be far too big. If I was using something non-standard, I'd be sorely tempted to use thermal adhesive instead of trying to build my own mounting system. It's probably better to start off with the NB-47J. I've already got that, and it's easier to mount.
---
Unfortunately, it crashed twice in a row last night playing Stronghold (quite an old RTS, only requires a PII-300 and a DX7 video card). First time it dropped to the desktop, second time it bluescreened.
I took the side of the case off before I shut the PC down, and while I could keep my finger on the top of the heatsink, closer to the chip it was pretty toasty - I'm not sure what temp, but I didn't want to touch it right at the bottom - self preservation kicked in.

So now I don't know if unplugging the NB fan has made it unstable - or perhaps it's just a glitch with the XP x64 beta, or the new nVidia chipset & graphics drivers I put on last week. But I definitely want to do something about the chipset cooling, so I can be assured that that's not the problem.

When I get the time (probably after New Year now), I think I'll attack the NB-47J with some pliers and a hacksaw. The fins are pretty sturdy, but they will bend with tools. It'll look a mess, but hopefully it'll pick up some airflow from the VGA silencer if I get it right.

In the meantime, I'll monitor stability. Just messing around in Windows, office, email and the web, while folding, it's been fine. I'll have to try a few more games, see if it's specific to Stronghold (which would point the finger away from the chipset).

tibors - do you mean sideways around the curve of the NV5 fan, or sideways away from the graphics card? It's a good plan, but which orientation would be better?

Thanks to a tip from Burcakb, I've got MBM5 installed so I can monitor my load CPU (50ºC when folding) & case temps (~42ºC). The other sensor reads 122ºC, so I'm guessing MBM isn't reading that right.

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Post by AndyP » Sun Dec 12, 2004 2:49 am

You can get Isopropyl Alchohol from Maplin in a big spray can, very convenient and lasts for ages.

Have a look at the DFI nf3 250. This has a passive heatsink that is low profile, and seems to be sufficient to keep things cool enough

http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2198

Suggests that hacking the Zalman should work OK

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Post by Tibors » Sun Dec 12, 2004 7:03 am

I didn't have a specific direction to bend the pins to in mind. Just any orientation where it doesn't hit anything else would be OK I think.

For anybody reading this who hasn't bought a NB heatsink yet: The older (yellow) model from Zalman looks to have thinner pins. They might be easier to bend and cut.

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Post by Spod » Sun Dec 12, 2004 11:09 pm

AndyP - thanks for that. I expect a hacked Zalman should work better than that DFI heatsink, so it sounds like that ought to work reasonably well.

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Post by Spod » Sun Dec 19, 2004 1:01 am

Well, the deed is done, I have an NB-47J under the NV Silencer 5.
I used a pair of needle nosed pliers - the fins are fairly soft aluminium, and easy to bend or break if you can get the space around them. I didn't need a hacksaw.

Rows = parallel to 3D card, columns = perpendicular to 3D card, fins aligned perpendicular to 3D card so as not to obstruct airflow to the GPU fan.

I just bent all but the last two rows (the ones farthest from the GPU) outwards, then removed any fins that got in the way when I tried to install it.

In retrospect, the best thing to do would be to remove the outer two columns of shorter fins, so that there was plenty of room to flatten out the longer fins from the middle. My main problem was when fins in the outer column broke off before I'd got them bent right down, leaving a stub that got in the way of flattening fins from the inner columns.

I ended up removing quite a few fins, that I just couldn't get flat enough, but it still cools adequately. I can touch the base of the heatsink without burning myself now, so it's definitely under 60ºC - maybe around 50ºC at a guess.

So, I'm satisfied with the chipset cooling now. Unfortunately, Stronghold still crashes, so I guess that's a software issue.

Off for Christmas now, so don't expect any updates from me for a while.

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Post by xxkrnxstylezxx » Sun Dec 19, 2004 3:44 am

could you post a picture of how you did the NB47J?

I'm considering buying the K8N Neo2, but the northbridge is holding me back. If I can silence it, I wont have to buy the Asus A8V...

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Post by Spod » Tue Jan 04, 2005 4:59 am

I didn't take a picture at the time (should have done, really), and I have neither a digital camera nor a working scanner (driver issues with XP x64) - however, I appreciate how useful this would be to some, so I'll see what I can do - no promises, though.

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Post by Spod » Fri Feb 04, 2005 7:03 am


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Post by Spod » Fri Feb 18, 2005 4:12 am

Well, I finally solved those crashes in Stronghold - the memory was overheating! Why this didn't crash other, newer games I have no idea.

I'd got it nearly stable by relaxing the timings and changing the voltage, but it crashed again the other day and I had time to investigate properly.
What proved it for me was when I discovered that I could run CAS2, 2-2-10, 1T timings at 2.5V, pass several runs of memtest and everything else ws fine, if I left the case open.

So I've flipped the Nexus on the XP-90 to blow down, and plugged it into a molex to ensure it was getting 12V (it's still quieter than the NV5 silencer fanmated to minimum). The CPU cooler overlaps the memory slots, so this seems to have improved the airflow over the RAM.

I wonder if part of the problem is having to use two adjacent slots to run dual channel - the ramsinks on the Ballistix mean there is very little gap between the RAM modules, and being directly above the CPU, they've been getting pretty hot.

Still I thought I'd mention this, as it's another thing to watch out for if you're using a low airflow setup, especially if the RAM modules are close to each other or the CPU.

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Post by icepik » Sat Feb 19, 2005 8:11 am

Hi Spod,
Thanks for updating this thread. I've found it useful in combating the noise in my own system. I've decided against mounting a heatsink over the chipset for the time being. Instead, the chipset fan is mounted to an external fan controller and the speed is turned down to its lowest setting. This keeps the fan quieter than the NV Silencer in my system.

Like you, I upgraded the retail CPU heatsink to a Thermalright XP-90 just after Christmas. I chose the Vantec Stealth 92mm fan as it's the quietest one I've been able to get my hands on. I can attest to the improved cooling ability of it while remaining much quieter than the retail HSF.

I have one question for you. Do you feel the accoustipak is worth the money paid for it? Did it reduce the noise output of your system by a substantial amount?

Cheers!

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Post by Spod » Sat Feb 19, 2005 11:11 am

I've also had to move the memory to the other two sockets, further from the CPU, to stop them getting so much heat from the CPU/heatsink.

Regarding the AcoustiPack, I agree, it's very expensive, and as Ralf and others will tell you, it's always better to start with quiet components than to try to silence noisy ones. But in a £1400 PC, if I'm spending £15 here and £20 there to get a quieter graphics card, chipset and CPU cooling system, then it didn't seem excessive to spend £40 on something to make everything that little bit quieter.

I didn't test my system without it, as it was easier to install before I put the other components in, but I believe it has made a significant difference to the noise from fans inside the system, I think it is helping to mute the hard drive noise, and there's definitely a massive improvement in CD noise when I close the acoustipacked front door. That alone is worth £20 or so, since reading a CD is the noisiest thing my computer does.

How about this - running the system with the side door off, it's not quiet. I hear noise from the NV5 fan, whooshing from the case fans, and the hard disk, though muted, is pretty loud. With the side door on, it's very quiet. I think that's got more to do with the acoustipack than the steel, but maybe you can compare that to what difference your steel door makes?

Sorry I can't be more helpful - I didn't take the time to test the difference each quietening measure made when I built it, I just wanted to build it quiet and use it!

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Post by Reef » Fri Mar 24, 2006 1:28 pm

I managed to replace my original NB cooler with the Zalman NB-47J and the computer still works perfectly.. And it's super silent!

See the pics:
Image
Image
Image

Hope you'll find em usefull..

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Post by stratusgd » Fri Mar 24, 2006 1:36 pm

Re: NV Silencer noise

One of the easiest ways to ramp down the Silencer is to install RivaTuner. While you can go crazy setting up multiple fan profiles that switch based on temperature, the easiest thing to do is to set up one profile that's something like: 2D - 35%, Low 3D - 55%, and High 3D - 75%, or something to that effect.

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Post by Spod » Thu May 18, 2006 4:13 am

Been away for a while, but since someone had posted, I thought I'd give a quick update.
I've had to replace the RAM - got Ballistix Tracer PC4000, and it was much better. More recently, I've kept getting hard disk corruption. RMA'd the hard disk, but still had problems, so I've replaced the motherboard with an AsRock 939Dual-SATA2.
I think that running without the heatsink fan, before I installed the zalman, or perhaps the mutilation and lack of airflow to the zalman, caused it to overheat. Or maybe all the fiddling caused me to damage the motherboard physically or electrostatically.

Either way, it's much better now. The motherboard only allows 2.5 or 2.7V, so I'm using 2.7. Having to run the memory at a command rate of 2T, and still getting very rare errors in Memtest, but I think I'll just live with it. It survived 35 clean passes before it got any errors. Using the latest BIOS also helped.

The new board is passively cooled by the stock heatsinks, but I replaced the thermal goop with AS5, and I had to use the metal backplate off my old motherboard to allow the XP-90 K8 retention module to bolt onto the motherboard. If you ever have to remove a metal backplate that's glued to a motherboard, nail varnish remover is very useful!

One disappointment was that the board only came with two fan headers, meaning I could no longer fanmate the rear case and GPU fans. But they don't seem too obtrusive for now - for some reason, the GPU fan doesn't sound as obtrusive in the new case - maybe it's something to do with airflow, or being a few inches lower down in the case. Or maybe it's being masked more smoothly by the rear Nexus now running ar 12V off a molex.

Don't know if this'll be useful to anyone, given the now somewhat outdated specs, but it doesn't hurt to let people decide for themselves.

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Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Thu May 18, 2006 8:51 pm

sounds like a great system besides for xp 64 beta

what a terrible thing to do to a computer, windows + beta.

i have a 4200 x2 and a dualsata2 board, 2x1 gig of patriot speediest ram at 1T and almost stock timings (one of them is off i forget which, stock timings for this ram are super low btw)

xp90 is great for the board, regooping with as5 on bridges is key, my temps are low with a single fan exhaust.

A2 is a terrible psu. i had it, chuck it, get a phantom 350, perfect for what we built.

same case too :)

zalman RESerator 1 on gpu/cpu. gpu is 9800pro aiw, same wattage as yours, yours might be less at times.

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Post by Spod » Thu May 18, 2006 9:30 pm

Actually, I eventually gave up on the x64 beta - no drivers for my scanner or Lego Mindstorms, 1 or 2 games wouldn't recognise the OS as XP and refused to install, and I wondered if it was responsible for the instability. I was wrong on the last count, but when XP Home "just worked", and all my software and peripherals were happy, it didn't seem worrth going back for the sake of a little efficiency in OS processes.
When Vista comes along, I'll probably go for the 64-bit version. It'll be much more mainstream than XP x64, and better supported. And maybe by then I'll have got bored of my older games!

(Must update my sig...)

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Post by ~El~Jefe~ » Fri May 19, 2006 7:11 pm

eh. i duno. unless something WONT run on xp pro, i wont bother until it becomes 100% needed.

I dont care about the money. I would buy it if it was worth it and not big brother catering to kiddie crap and corporate morons.

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