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i remember reading (forget where) that two Carrera GT's were wrecked. One as part of a planned stunt, the other on accident during filming.

I've had no problems using Firefox 2.0.0.3 on a Windows XP Pro SP2 Machine.

then you also have to consider the time it takes to remedy a stripped bolt... not so much fun either.

agreed

with the OC BFG you won't notice the difference against the larger capacity 640MB 8800. If you really wanted balls to the wall performance and price wasn't an issue you can get the 8800GTX but that may be a bit excessive.

I had no idea it was from a company, in that case, you have a really good setup, i would just go with that. If you wanted to penny pinch you could opt out of a video card and go from the GeForce 8800GTS 640MB and purchase a BFG 8800GTS 320MB OC which has the same performance at half the cost (it's roughly 300 bucks). But then i don't think that would be covered under any kind of "warranty" offered by the company so it's probably better to go for the regular 8800GTS. If it ever comes down to nickels and dimes to the point where you really need to save money you could always just build a machine yourself. The hardest part of building a machine is purchasing the parts, and if you already have a comprehensive parts list, putting the rig together takes about 15 minutes.

There's nothing "wrong" with the graphics card you chose, i just figured since this computer is built for graphics specifically you would want a setup that is more graphics intensive. If anything, the card you chose is a top of the line performer, but the card is 400 dollars and for a little extra money you could get a dual SLI or crossfire setup to perform faster (and utilize your dual PCI-E slots). If that doesn't float your boat, pickup the best of the best in that series and get the 8800GTX (which is only a 100 or so more but with vastly more performance). Like I said, it's your machine, so pick what makes you happy. I find it strange that two 250GB were cheaper than a 500GB but it's not impossible. If you're going to get two 250GB you can run a combination of RAIDS 1 & 0 (which provides 250GB of secure data) but if you picked up an extra 250GB you could run a RAID 5 (which provides 500GB of secure data) and get all of the benefits of data security but also the added benefit of performance. You should look into this option if you're particular about ensuring the safety of your data and don't mind shelling a bit extra for the harddrive. The only reason i mentioned two PSU's is because you get one with the case and you're purchasing another (upgraded) one. That will give you a left over 400W at the end of the build; if possible you can try to find the same case but sans the PSU to try and save money. I guess I am also a bit confused; is this a computer that you're ordering through a company? Or is this a computer that you are ordering the parts for and building for yourself at home? Edit: Elaborated on the RAID configurations

for someone who works with autocad i'm surprised you didn't go with a PC that is soley graphics based instead of getting a surround sound system two LAN cards and two PSU's. If you can find the same (or similar) case w/o a PSU that'll save you some money since you're buying an aftermarket one anyway. Also premium sound is great if you plan on using the PC for media, but if your concern is simply graphic modelling, then i would suggest going with a more demanding graphics setup (dual or quad SLI NVidia's). If you went with ATI's crossfire setup with 1900XTX's you'd get way better graphics performance (nvidia fanboys can argue but it's been proven) than anything nVidia can offer overclocked or not. Or you can just hold out a little longer since both nVidia and ATI are releasing new cards in a month or so. If you plan to use wireless then having two NIC cards is pointless. Go with either wired or wireless, and if you're going wireless try to go with one of the newer 108Mbps 802.11g cards. Otherwise, if you're happy with what you chose then that's what really matters, people can offer their opinions but you're the one who is going to be using it on a daily basis.

Sorry to jump back to a previous question. Arctic Silver 5 is the most well known thermal compound, but if you're very nitpicky about cooling performance (overclocker's namely) then Coollaboratories Liquid Pro is the best. The only problem with Liquid Pro is you cannot use them with aluminum based heatsinks as it will alloy to it (it has a high gallium content) and appear to literally melt it. The other high performing well known thermal compound is Arctic Cooling MX1, which tests show equal to CoolerMaster Premium and better than AS5. Edit: forgot about coolermaster premium

Congratulations Lightning! I had an 04 Scion xA (same car different body), and i understand your gripes of having non-existant power, though i'm a bit concerned that it didn't come with a tach. I thought that was almost a standard among manual cars built after the 90's (I owned some manual Civics w/o Tachs). You can always have an aftermarket one installed, especially since the "power" in that car doesn't come till nearly red line. I know the xA had a very close set gear ratio so eventhough it had crap power, it was able to getup and go if you needed to. My biggest complaint was the brakes; they were fine in most situations but there was always the occassional brake, steer, honk scenario that it wasn't so good at.

From my experience bluetooth 2.0 is the standard but the device using that standard would have to state that it is A2DP also, otherwise it won't work. Bluetooth 2.0 is native for a one speaker or one ear headset, where as A2DP specifies that bluetooth 2.0 is compliant with 2 speaker headsets. For instance, my phone is bluetooth 2.0 but not A2DP so i can only use one ear headsets on it. Also EDR is a part of the Bluetooth 2.0 standard when it upgraded from 1.2; it's often advertised as something extra for marketing when it is in fact industry standard.

Plus she seems like she'd be more submissive, just look at how long she put up with Kaifun's crap before she left. She probably wouldn't have liked Hikaru in the military, but so long as he's laying it down, she'll stay quiet.

You missed the one where she gets tackled and her head goes 180.

Just scheduled my appointment for FiOS install at my new house, except i'm upgrading from 15/2 to 30/5! :evil smilely: The funny thing is the price difference to get over twice the bandwidth was only 5 dollars/month. So as promised the break down of my service is 54.95/internet 42.95/TV 97.90/month That's really not bad considering i was paying about the same for less channels and slower internet with Comcast about two years ago. The standard 15/2 internet that i've been using is 49.95/month if you get it with the TV, so for 5 more dollars it was definitely worth upgrading to 30/5. There's give and take with fiOS because for someone who doesn't watch TV much it's kind of pointless because the basic package is pretty much every channel except the movie channels. For someone who was going to get the TV anyway, then its great because you get a million channels for a low price.

If i had a 1200hp car it wouldn't look like that atrocity.

What's the highest you can set the multiplier to? Are you going to stick with your current cooling setup or eventually go watercool? I'm kind of big on both; if an OC machine can go air cooled, then go for it, fan noise never bothered me, i'm not a noise freak. But if you want to get a ridiculous result and air cooling just isn't cutting it, then there's no shame in going water cool. I've done both, but for some odd reason i like air cooling better, but for my recent builds i've had to go water cooling by requirement. Oh, and even better news, my birthday gift for this year (March 5th) is my wife giving me an unlimited budget to build a new rig. I'm still not sure what i'm going to do, but i'll be sure to post my results up here.

Hyundai does have a V8 RWD sedan coming out. If they can stick that same formula with a manual 6 speed into something as light as the Tiburon, American companies would be more screwed than they already are. And further than that, the engineer for the V8 was the former engineer for BMW who developed their 4.4liter V8 and their 5.0liter V8. Hyundai also snagged the former head body designer of Audi, so you're basically getting a German car with superior electronics and manufacturing.

who makes good heat sinks now a days; i used to always buy thermalright stuff, but they seemed to have phased out a bit lately. Also mechafan, your setup sounds great but that FX60 will be icing on the cake, and i've always loved OC options being so simple with AMD.

26C is very chilly, is that under full load? I'm so used to seeing my rigs (because of overclocking) in the mid to high 30's at full load.

Also don't be fooled by high wattage numbers. Just because a PSU says it's 600W doesn't mean it will be consistent throughout all three Voltage ranges. Make sure you read lots of different review sites to ensure that you are getting a consistent PSU or you will definitely regret it.

I guess i got carried away and didn't make that very clear in my post

download/upload is 15/2, or 1500kbits and 200kbits for the standard FiOS which is similarly like T3/4 speeds and if you're willing to shell out more money you can get even faster service. The standard service (what came w/my HOA) would have realistic download benchmarks near the 17's and uploads at exactly 2, so it actually tested better than what was expected. When it came to downloading movies, it was usually limited by the allowed bandwidth of the host but the best i've been able to download from like Rapidshare or megaupload was 2 or 3 MB/s (so a 300MB movie takes an average of 3-5 minutes to download). Downloading from multiple FTP sites at once, i've had 3 d/ls going at roughly 1MB/s each. Pictures like huge scans Graham posts take only a few seconds to fully open as opposed to when i had cable before and it would inconsistently open one picture fast but then open other pictures ridiculously slow. *edit* extra 0

Honestly i couldn't tell you because it's included in my HOA, but my HOA fee with Fiber TV and Internet comes out to 179 (HOA takes care of Lawn care, road care, trash pickup, etc.). At my new house which i'll be moving into next week i get fiber service also that's not included in my HOA so i'll be able to give you a definite price for my area (northern virginia) when that happens. I know it varies by area though, and for my area Verizon is the only one with Fiber Optic service (which they call FiOS), but i know Cogent and Comcast are rolling out or have rolled out Fiber service for specific areas also.

Someone in my neighborhood has that exact same headlight kit and front bumper, except not the intercooler, wheels, or gallardo paint.

That's a tough bag of tricks because sending stuff to service is never any fun. The problem with laptops is that there are a lot less trouble shooting methods that the average person can make without tearing the computer apart. The upgrade could've caused more heat throughout the computer which may be taking a toll on the motherboard or the video card. It could be that your video card drivers have become corrupt, it could just be that your monitor is becoming defective. Try rolling back your memory upgrade by installing the old RAM in there to see if it is a heat issue. If this fixes it then you might have to go from a 1GB chip to 2x512 chips though i'm not sure if that will fix it or not. If the memory replacement doesn't work, try reinstalling your video drivers from the manufacturers website (nVidia, ATI, etc.) especially to see if they have updated drivers. Now that you've ruled out upgrading and software, you can determine its either the monitor or the video card that's defective. Trouble with the video card is that they're usually a combo with the Motherboards to save space (now a days you can get them PnP) so you might just have to turn your laptop into a desktop and grab a seperate monitor or give it up to Sony for maintenance. Another alternative if you suspect its the monitor is you can sift through ebay to see if you can find a replacement monitor for your specific model of laptop. At which time you would have to take apart your laptop unplug the dead monitor; plug in the new one, and then screw it all back together. If you feel taking your laptop apart is beyond your expertise then don't do it and just send it off for repair. I've taken apart and fixed a dell with a broken monitor which was pretty easy, and a vaio with a broken CD drive which took me forever. Your Vaio might be different but when i had to take my friends apart, it took me half an hour just to get it apart without cracking the case, and another half an hour to make sure i had all the screws in the right place when putting it back together. In the end it was just that the CD drive had juggled loose a bit from the mother board and all that needed to be done was cleaning the connections and plugging it back in (hopefully that might also be the case with your monitor if you decide to take it apart). You'll definitely never go back to Dial up once you have broadband. I'm among the lucky minority who gets Fiber Optic service as part of my HOA, and it's ridiculously fast even compared to cable. You really don't notice that it's much faster with regular surfing but if you download movies or are looking at high bandwidth photos the difference is leaps and bounds.