The Official PC building thread - 4th Edition

quote sammy, Ad really need to fix this advert



Yeah that happened to me also.

 

If the ebay seller runs out, I can always spend a little more @newegg. They appear to finally have them. I've looked before...

 

Estuansis,

I don't mean to pee in your cornflakes, but I imagine you will still have problems with that laptop charging. Think about it! The charger runs the laptop, but doesn't charge the battery! That makes no sense at all. For one, the load would be even higher on the charger, running the laptop with it, than just charging the battery, so it makes no sense. Those models were a pain anyway, because it took almost nothing to tear the corner off of the motherboard if you tripped over the wire at a steep angle. I am also amazed that the battery is still good without having been used for a long time.

Oh! Be very careful what Intel chip you use for an 800Mhz fsb. Most laptops, but not all use one more pin then the more standard socket 478.

Russ

 

Not only that but they are very picky about the step of the processor, Intels are very fussy, compatibilty is a big issue!

 

Looks like I'm going right to the source for my Dell monitor this friday. I spoke via chat. Let's just say, I reserved a very good price on it. Looks like Dell beat ebay for once I can hardly wait LOL!

 

Oman7,

Good for you!

Russ

 

Thanks man. I was quite amazed when I went to their site, and saw that they had marked their price down to a reasonable one.

I'm still curious if there is something better in the price range. But perhaps Dell has the bragging rights eh?

 

Well, I think I may have found the problem on my system. I'm transferring files right now, so I can use one of my Black drives for OS. I was gonna use a flash drive, but I just don't see a flash drive accommodating my needs LOL!
I decided to check the smart statistics using speedfan. WD's utility reported nothing wrong with the drive. Well...I'm not sure how to interpret this, but it doesn't look good

 

Also remember SMART doesn't always read drives right. I have a Seagate drive that also shows an astronomical amount of errors on SMART and it's a common error with the program. Though if you really are getting that many errors it can't be good.

 

Given the problems I'm encountering, I have to believe it's at least partially correct I'm now 99% sure, if I switch OS drives, the problem will vanish. Yet another Vraptor that has gone south. I won't trust them again unfortunately. Honestly though, the black drives are no slouches. I wonder what causes that to happen though?

 

Oman7,

If you consider the tolerances in a modern HDD, I would guess, Wear and Tear. Consider that the gap between the platters and the heads is smaller than a particle of cigarette smoke, which will cause physical damage to any mechanical HDD. Fit and finish is everything to a long lasting HDD. The closer the tolerances, the longer the drive will last.

BTW! A number of people have told me that they didn't think I would gain very much from switching to a DDR3 motherboard were wrong. Everything works better on this 990XA motherboard. The sound, which is Blu-ray full rate lossless audio, with a signal to noise ratio of 108dB. You hear everything, even things you never heard before from the same music or movie soundtrack you've listened to before. It's also about 12% faster at any given speed. The motherboard and memory, along with a new tube of MX2 cost me $193.47 delivered, and I think it was a bargain considering what I've wound up with. With all the different adjustments to research, I may well be able to increase the performance difference a good bit more. It's a very happy choice for me, and I couldn't see myself putting any more into DDR2 since I had pretty much run out of update options for the 790X! Now I've got the latest tech from AMD and whatever upgrade future that holds! Bulldozer, at least!:>)

Best Regards,
Russ

 

I got it in february of last year. Directly from Western digital. It was a replacement to another Velociraptor, that kept dropping connection. The bios wouldn't even see it at times. Tried different sata cables to no avail. This ones problem is clearly different. My warranty is good til 2014. But I wonder if I'll even bother. I guess I could cash in the warranty, and then sell the replacement...
I'll probably clone my Veloci to one of my WD1001FALS drives. I've ran one before, and it was quite similar in speed. Provided I don't saturate the drive with too much data Come tax return time, I'll purchase a solid state disk. A good one!

You know what, I think I tested one of my 2000Gb drives with WD's diagnostic. I never tested the Raptor. I just did, and it's showing one reallocated sector count. The only drives I've ever seen reallocated sector counts from, are Raptors, maxtors, and one seagate drive. None of my other drives have any. I'd consider this yet another sign. Even though 1 sector count isn't the end of the world

 

You have definitely ascertained it's not the cable at fault? One reallocated sector doesn't spell doom for a drive, I ran 37GB raptor for two years that I bought for £5 second hand (c.f. £87 for the other one when new), because it had one reallocated sector. It never picked up any more, worked fine for the two years I had it. I still have it now, just don't use it.

 

I'll find a brand new cable for it. If that doesn't work, I'm giving up on the drive. Pretty sure I switched its cable not that long ago. If a brand new one doesn't correct the issue, I think I'll have my verdict

 

Man, I just scared the Ba-Jesus out of myself LOL! I forgot to switch off the PSU's power. When I reconnected the GPU, it powered on! Thankfully my reflexes are very quick. Not as fast as electricity obviously, but apparently the board suffered no ill effects. VERY VERY lucky...
The SMART statistics are unchanged. I plan to continue with my original plan, and clone the data to my Black drive. Then i'll do a complete reformat of the Veloci. And run a secondary OS from it. If it checks out, I'll run it for a time longer. If it doesn't help, at least I'll have the Black drive, til I can replace it with an SSD in february

I really hope I can count on my Tax return :S

 

My black drive is going strong. Absolutely zero lockups The Veloci verdict is not looking good
My future plan is to upgrade to this badboy. What do you think?
OCZ Vertex 3 Series – MAX IOPS Edition
Afterdawn staff member, or anyone who knows. Are update emails sent out, when we edit an existing post? I know 9/10 sites do(E.g. Doom9), but I'm uncertain if afterdawn does. I'm very good about updating posts, but I also want people to receive their emails

 

No, I have never seen any evidence of this happening.

 

ahem, bad drive! wonder who suggested that

 

LOL! I didn't wanna believe it Two lemons in a row is fairly unbelievable when speaking V-raptor. But then, looks like it isn't too uncommon. I won't get another. But I don't think WD is gonna honor a refund at this point.
Does that Vertex 3 look like a good choice? It's certainly one of the quicker