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cmdrmonkey

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#1 cmdrmonkey
Member since 2004 • 994 Posts

This is why I only use boards with intel chipsets. Stability is the most important thing when picking out a motherboard. It's a more important consideration than performance IMO.

I used various nForce and nForce 2 mobos back in the day with my Athlon XP and never found one that was stable. Since then I don't touch nVidia motherboards. They should stick to making video cards. The fact that AMD doesn't make their own chipsets is why I no longer buy their processors.

Intel Processor + Intel chipset = stability. Otherwise you're just asking for trouble. Send that 680i crap back and get a 975X board.

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#2 cmdrmonkey
Member since 2004 • 994 Posts

I'd be worried about ip address conflicts. Typically you would use a switch instead. A switch isn't expensive.

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#3 cmdrmonkey
Member since 2004 • 994 Posts
D-Link 4300 Gaming Router
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cmdrmonkey

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#4 cmdrmonkey
Member since 2004 • 994 Posts
Why so much disrespect for the R9700? The Radeon 9700 was one of the most revolutionary video cards ever created in its day, and one of the biggest leaps forward in performance ever. It was basically the original DX9/SM2 card. It sent Nvidia back to the drawing boards after their "dustbuster" fiasco with the FX5800. In answer to the original question, it should run HL2 just fine. You may even be able to run more recent games like FEAR, albeit with reduced settings. Just don't expect to be able to run the most recent, intensive games like Supreme Commander. Basically, it was such a powerful card in its day that it has held up pretty well over time. My brother has an R9700pro and is still able to play most games to this day.
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#5 cmdrmonkey
Member since 2004 • 994 Posts

If you want the best PSU money can buy get a PC Power and Cooling PSU, probably either the Silencer 610 or 750.

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#6 cmdrmonkey
Member since 2004 • 994 Posts

It's pretty hard to go wrong with either NewEgg.com or ZipZoomFly.com

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#7 cmdrmonkey
Member since 2004 • 994 Posts

I have the Zalman 9500, which is similar.

Sandwich the CPU area of the motherboard between the plastic backplate (which you put on the back of the motherboard) and the plastic front plate (put it on the front of the motherboard) using the four screw holes around the processor. Use four screws to screw the backplate and frontplate together. Apply your thermal paste to the processor and possibly the heatsink (follow the instructions included with the paste). Lower the heatsink down onto the processor. Make sure the fan is facing the back of the case/motherboard.

Take that metal bar thing with the hole in the middle and two screw holes (one on each end). Put the center hole on the metal bar over that screw-looking thing in the middle of the heatsink.  Screw the two ends of the metal bar thing into the holes on the plastic front plate. It needs to be tight so it won't fall off, but don't go nuts tightening it either.

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#8 cmdrmonkey
Member since 2004 • 994 Posts
Personally, I like playing games that are years ahead of their time on a technical level. That's why I like the PC platform so much. Catering to the lowest common denomiator is what's holding PC gaming back lately. If you look at the PC games of the late 90s when PC gaming was at its apex, they were always pushing forward. They were literally years ahead of anything on the consoles. Supreme Commander is just like its predecessor Total A: it's a game that's probably several years ahead of its time. There's no other RTS I can think of with this kind of scale. And the nice thing about games that push the envelope is that they are usually flexible. You can tweak some settings and play them now, and in a few years when you have a new PC, they will be even better because you can crank the settings up even higher. Besides, do the system requirements have anything to do with the inherent quality of a game, which is what a review is intended to measure? I would argue no. While they're at it, they might as well start docking Xbox 360 and PS3 games points because they won't look good unless you're willing to buy an expensive HDTV. But they would never do that because Microsoft and Sony pay too much for their reviews.
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#9 cmdrmonkey
Member since 2004 • 994 Posts
I also fail to understand why a great game like Supreme Commander should be docked points simply for having high system requirements. Looking back, most of the all time great PC games have pushed the envelope with regard to their graphics, and almost invariably had high system requirements. The original Total Annihilation is a perfect example. In fact, I would go as far as to argue that Total A had even steeper system requirements for its time than Supreme Commander. Very few computers in 1997 had the RAM to run the largest maps in Total A. Honestly, I get the impression that Gamespot has become so "console-ized" that it just doesn't understand how to review PC Games properly anymore, which is why I trust PC Gamer alot more than I trust gamespot. I lost all respect for Gamespot when they only gave Half-Life 2, probably the greatest game of all time, a 9.2, and gave that dog turd of a game Halo 2 a 9.4.
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#10 cmdrmonkey
Member since 2004 • 994 Posts

9/10. Good to go for quite awhile I would say.