New Gaming PC

[Shuemue]

Thanks, I caught that after reviewing the list for the 79th time since I got to work this morning. This is the one I will be ordering: EVGA 512-P3-N841-AR GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail - http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6814130325

That should be a really nice video card. If your budget is comfortable with the higher price than the 8800GT, it's definitely worthwhile.

As for the G-Skill RAM, I've been told they're a pretty solid brand, a friend who does a ridiculous amount of pc builds/upgrades uses them sometimes.

[mootsfox]

I'd avoid ASUS boards with nVidia chipsets. After NF4, they kinda lost how to make them correctly and they generally suck. I'd go with any of Gigabyte's, DFI's or ASUS' P35 offerings.

The next video line from Nvidia is probably coming out in June, so you may want to wait for a bit if you can. ATI's GDDR5 cards (HD4870 series) are also starting their release in June, both series of cards are expected to be 20-50% faster than the 8,9 and HD38 series respectively.

[Xanthe]

I'd avoid ASUS boards with nVidia chipsets. After NF4, they kinda lost how to make them correctly and they generally suck. I'd go with any of Gigabyte's, DFI's or ASUS' P35 offerings.

The next video line from Nvidia is probably coming out in June, so you may want to wait for a bit if you can. ATI's GDDR5 cards (HD4870 series) are also starting their release in June, both series of cards are expected to be 20-50% faster than the 8,9 and HD38 series respectively.

Also regarding the ATI 48xx series cards coming out, they will supposedly support lossless 7.1 HDMI audio output, meaning it will be fully HD. This is the clincher I've been waiting for to start building my gaming HTPC.

[Ninjadik]

My PC came in and I decided I wanted to put it together by myself. haha unfortunately I am having a few issues. The case has a wire labeled 1394 and I think I am supposed to plug it in to the mobo but I can't find the slot for it and the manual doesn't say.

Everything else is working good I believe although I am having a problem with my hard drive. After starting windows up and all that, I would right click the C: and it would only show 170GB available and 3-4GB used. I have a 500GB HD so I do not understand why its reading only 170GB.

Anyone have any clue as to what the problem is on either issue?

Thanks

[Fallso]

1394 cable would be firewire, it's possible your mobo doesn't have a firewire adaptor (I wouldn't worry though, not many devices make use of it).

As for the HDD issue, I had that with my new computer. Just re-format and when you choose the new volume size, make sure you put in 500GB.

[Xanthe]

It's won't actually be 500 GB, it'll be closer to 465.7 GB. The drive has ~500,000,000,000 bytes, but that isn't quite the same as 500 GB. Here's an explaination (not mine):

It's because when they claim 500 gigabytes they're actually saying you get 500,000,000,000 bytes.

That 500,000,000,000 bytes is divided by 1024 to get the actual number of kilobytes (kilo being 10^3 in a normal metric sense, but 2^10 in a binary sense). That mathematical operation results in 488,281,250 kilobytes.

That 488,281,250 kilobytes is divided by 1024 to get the actual number of megabytes (mega being 10^6 in a normal metric sense [which is 10^3 x 10^3], but 2^20 in a binary sense [which is 2^10 x 2^10]). That mathematical operation results in 476,837 megabytes.

That 476,837 megabytes is divided by 1024 to get the actual number of gigabytes (giga being 10^9 in a normal metric sense [which is 10^3 x 10^3 x 10^3], but 2^30 in a binary sense [which is 2^10 x 2^10 x 2^10]). That mathematical operation results in 465.7 gigabytes.

Condensed, you have:
500,000,000,000 bytes = 488,281,250 kilobytes.
488,281,250 kilobytes = 476,837 megabytes.
476,837 megabytes = 465.7 gigabytes.

Also important to note is that your 500 Gb drive most likely has more than 500,000,000,000 actual bytes. My two 500 Gb drives each have 500,105,736,192 bytes. My 1 Tb drive has 1,000,068,870,144 bytes.

Fallso is right though, you just need to do a full format of the drive and set the partition size to the maximum allowed, roughly 465.7 GB. Just wanted to throw this out there in case you're wondering why you're still "missing" 35 GB even after reformatting.

[Ninjadik]

1394 cable would be firewire, it's possible your mobo doesn't have a firewire adaptor (I wouldn't worry though, not many devices make use of it).

As for the HDD issue, I had that with my new computer. Just re-format and when you choose the new volume size, make sure you put in 500GB.

Thanks for the explanation and such. I have two USB plugs on my mobo, USB1 and USB2, can i plug the firewire in to USB2?

[Fallso]

No, I don't have experience with firewire personally but I'd assume it would have to plug into a firewire pin on your mobo, so I wouldn't try it (especially if the manual doesn't mention firewire).

[Ninjadik]

Cool, thanks again!

[Cephius]

Don't plug it in unless your mobo has a firewire (1394) header. Your mobo manual should list all the ports and headers, plug it in if its there. If its not its not a big deal, its just another port for transferring data (a little faster than USB2.0 I believe).

As for your hard drive, right click my computer -> manage -> disk management and look for your hard drive there. See if it isn't partitioned or something that would cause it to report a smaller drive than you really have.

[Isiolia]

IEEE-1394 is the standard for Firewire. "Firewire" is just Apple's name for it, which at least at one point a company had to pay to use. Hence why Sony calls it i-link, etc. There's a 400Mb/s and an 800Mb/s version. IE, a little slower than USB 2, and almost twice as fast as USB 2 (though I haven't seen Firewire 800 ports on much outside of Mac Pros).

It's a completely different interface from USB. If your motherboard doesn't have it, then just don't connect the plug to anything. While it's not uncommon per se, Firewire is definitely not on every board out there. The main thing you'd wind up using it for would be video (DV camera, etc) these days, and if you wind up wanting it, a PCI Firewire card is $20-30 or so.

[Ninjadik]

Thank you guys for helping me through this. I am almost done. I have one more issue though... lol sorry

I have an old storage hard drive that I plugged in and I dont know how to make it work. When i right click the start menu and explore, the drive shows up. The problem is, when I try to click on it, it says i need to format it. Unfortunately, I cant do this because I have so much stuff on there. The new HD i purchased is the one I set windows up on, I dont understand why its not reading my secondary drive unless it has something to do with the BIOS or something. Sorry if this is confusing but I am having a hard time explaining it. Basically, I want to use my storage HD from my old PC as the storage HD on my new PC.

Thanks again!

[Cephius]

Are you using Vista?

If so, there's a way to force Vista to recognize it without formatting. It's a pretty involved process, I have a document on it somewhere, I'll go look for it if you do have Vista.

Otherwise, can you throw that hard drive back in the old computer, and transfer the files you need to save to the new computer, then format the old drive?

[Ninjadik]

I am using XP....

I can't do that because the master hard drive on my old PC is 150GB large while the storage drive is 500GB with about 400GB used. I thought the storage HD would be plug and play? Is there any other solution?

Thanks

[Cephius]

Mmm, none that I'm aware of really. You're gonna wanna back it up to somewhere. Ask a friend to borrow a large enough external maybe? Just long enough to hold your files while you reformat the hard drive you want to reuse.

[Ninjadik]

That looks like the only option I have left. Everything is up and running now, thanks again for all the help!