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neodragon

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#1 neodragon

Member since 2003 • 1593 Posts

You actually have a pretty good base system if you want to play Crysis on "ok" settings.

You are using an integrated graphics chip, so you need to check if you have an open PCIeX16 slot for a graphics card. If you don't, you need a new motherboard.

The next thing to check is what slot your processor is, if it's AM2 you have a lot of options for a processor. If it's 939 you'll need to look harder.

You have 1gb of ram which should be enough to start, for Crysis graphics card will help the most, then processor, then ram.

You can find all this information using the System Profiler "Sandra"

17 years ago

neodragon

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#2 neodragon

Member since 2003 • 1593 Posts

I have to write an essay on a theoretical piece of technology, and I have decided to propose a new form factor, 'CTX', Component Technology Extended.

This form factor solves the problem of the average consumer not knowing how to upgrade their machine, and not knowing what each component does. It could also be used in an educational setting with see-through components for better understanding of the hardware.

Form factor:
Involves a vertical motherboard with a manufacturer specified number of identical serial slots. The board is located at the back of identical enclosed slots in the case. Requires a massive shift in hardware manufacture, as all components would be re-engineered to fit a slot design (wide enough to support optical drives) and a serial interface. When the machine boots up, an advanced POST detects hardware id and physically routes BUSes according to device position on the board by using a shifting portion of the pcb (eliminating potentially dangerous software control of the voltage and data pathways). This implies that an end user could turn off the PC, change the position of or swap their processor, and immediately turn it back on. Devices that would use the slot interface include: video cards, audio cards, hard drives, optical drives, memory, card readers, and controller interfaces.

Many areas of concern arise from this design:
Q: How would heat flow be addressed?
A: Components would be basically encased in their own heatsink, which would be further encased by the completely metal case itself. The case would be maximally ribbed to increase surface area. (*Please suggest how thermal contact should be made in the slots*)

High heat components could be placed in "water slots", which could be touching the water cooling flow of the case. Especially hot components would come with instructions for applying thermal compound to the (bottom?) of the slot and leaving the component there permanently.

Q: How would rear I/O work with front loading slots?
A: The motherboard would have 'dummy' I/O (DVI, Audio etc.) that would interface with a given card when it is detected. Certain cases would also support small boards that face the opposite direction that can be "SLIed" to your main motherboard for professional I/O devices.

Q: How would the consumer be prevented from pulling out a critical component during operation?
A: The board would physically lock in those components after POST (boot disk, cpu, video card etc.), while allowing storage volumes, card readers, and the like to be hot swapped to other machines.

Q: What if a component requires more power/bandwidth?
A: Cases can be modded to remove the divider between two slots so that literally "double slot" components could be plugged in.

Q: How will power work?
A: SATA type power interfaces will be used for every component, voltages being determined and physically routed during POST.
*Electrical people, is this possible?*

Q: What else would be a standard of this form factor?
A: All cases would include a simple LCD readout of the current W/h being used by the system to promote conservation and using the lowest power components for a given applicatin.

Q: Aren't there very complex circuits on a motherboard that are specific to certain components?
A: * I'M NOT SURE, PLEASE FIND THE FAULTS IN THIS DESIGN *

Thanks for reading, I would be very grateful if you posted your thoughts/ideas/suggestions/fixes. :D

17 years ago

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#3 neodragon

Member since 2003 • 1593 Posts

Thanks, don't want to lose those again.

Anything else I'm forgetting?

17 years ago

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#4 neodragon

Member since 2003 • 1593 Posts

I'm going to be reformatting soon and I want to make a checklist of what to backup. Please add if you can think of anything. I don't want to forget anything.

Pictures
Screenshots
Images
School documents
Spreadsheets
Presentations
Photoshop documents
Game saves
Hard to find installers
Videos
Music
Source Code

17 years ago

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#5 neodragon

Member since 2003 • 1593 Posts

Wattage with these companies is complete bs.

What you really want to look at is the amperage on the 12v rails. If it's a multi rail power supply with 18+ amps on each rail even a "500W" power supply should power any system, but yu really need to read professional reviews for stability under load testing. You will really regret buying a loud and unstable power supply. I reccomend Antec and PCPowerandCooling

17 years ago

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#6 neodragon