PC Peripherals Tips for buying a new PC - What to avoid

main_trouble said:
WD portable hd have shown huge failure rates
Is it your own experiences or found in some links
If no, don't throw in statements as your perceive

In my own experience, i find Transcend enclosure VERY GOOD and RELIABLE
 
main_trouble said:
WD portable hd have shown huge failure rates.

i think we need more inputs.

guys put experiences about portable hard disks .

hd enclosures are a big no no.

eh? wasnt someone talking abt not fluffing?
 
sTALKEr said:
eh? wasn't someone talking about not fluffing?

jokes apart

i had said hd enclosures are a big no no
why ?
well i have personally used one and had data loss after two months.

my 3 frnds also used hd enclosures for some times(all diff brands)
they were really happy to find use of their 40 gb hd after they already had 250 gb in their rig

first few months went okay.

needless to say after them all of them failed.
2 were able to use hd internally in their pc. one hd totally went kaput and is just lying there.
so i am yet to come across a hd enclosure that doesn't leave bad taste in the mouth.

and if u search for a few good quality enclosures , their prices are so repulsive.
regarding wd portables , well i don't have any personal experience wid them.
but on internet they have been shown in poor light by its users.
also even the shopkeepers have been reported recommending against them due to poor reliability.

since i don't have personal experience wid them that is why i said that we need more inputs here regarding them.
so guys post ur personal experiences with portable hd/ enclosures.
only after we arrive on a conclusion , the stuff would be added to the list
 
greenhorn said:
but newbies too should make an effort and search TE before asking questions. We're not here to rehash the same info every day. I mean, how many 3k speaker recommendation threads do we need ( we just got another one now :p). Also , since TE is growing , we need to be careful what we say not to buy . some mfr might decide to sue us or something due to lost reputation :ashamed:

PS : since you asked politely, here you go http://groups.google.com/group/rec.audio.opinion/msg/2752a4477e3503f8?dmode=source&output=gplain

Bose vs greenhorn?;)
 
nvidia chipset boards(intel )-> avoid them unless u are going to SLI, they have less stablilty , less overclocking potential than intel chipsets

Um, if you want intel and want to play games on onboard gfx, the intel 7XXX series onboards are the only choice you have. Do they have any stability issues ?
 
greenhorn said:
Um, if you want intel and want to play games on onboard gfx, the intel 7XXX series onboards are the only choice you have. Do they have any stability issues ?

stability issues was as compared to intel chipsets(especially i u wanna overclock).

and regarding playing games with onboard gfx , that means user is a casual gamer.

in this department i think amd is ahead of intel with their 780g chipset.

right now both inel/nvidia chipsets dont stand a chance against it
 
main_trouble said:
5. cheapo rams like dynet/tamkor(will make u a constant visitor to their service centres)

I want to add this point, but its already there.

dynet never heard of this manf. but bought because its Rs.200 less than Kingston, Corsair, Transcend.
 
Hi ,
In The SMPS Department if You Take My Opinion The Best is Colorsit 450 Watts if You Want The Chinese ,Better Then The iballs .
 
^ lolol.. u cant be serious about the 'best' part!! There are much better options available from Corsair, CoolerMaster, Seventeam, Antec, to name a few.
 
Nice Thread ..Here are some of my rants/points

1.AMD Rigs-Proccy+Mobo



I am not comparing them with Intel or wotsoever but i do have a point from my personal exp which may come in handy.

AMD rigs in India mostly offer low service satisfaction,i do agree that its really VFM and no one can argue that they come up Performance wise but god forbid u end up screwing up ur AMD rig it might send u packin to buy another rig..Take My case:-

Bought a socket 939 3000+ venice core and ASUS A8N-E in Feb 06 offcourse after discussing here at T.E for arnd 11.5k.

Well n Good

Current Situation->2008

Suddenly around Nov 2007 i had a display problem with my mobo and i decided to send it for repairs ,first to Rashi for RMA

1.RMA Sucks->ASUS

2.No day to day Mobo Repair Guys could find some parts for the 939 as it was discontinued

Would have been an Intel i would have easily got it repaired or would have just Bought another Mobo and Go but in my case as it was 939 both the Proccy and Mobo i was forced to Upgrade both of them :(

To all this im reduced to a useless Board and useless Proccy which neway are on sale in the Market Section.

2.Audio Equipment (Earphones/Headphones/etc etc)

Just ask around for model No's and please give them a listen before buying them..you are the only one to decide what suits u best ,generally ive noticed ppl suggesting all sort of Studio Stuff for normal usage which is sometimes can be a waste of money .

I.E-Bayer Dynamics for general purposes common gimme a break they are standard Studio Monitors we Music Proff swear By but then Money can buy u stuff ..to each his own :)

Neway just look around and decide for urself instead of pickin up top models/recommendations etc like for example EP-630 is just VFM i dont find it filling my music needs id rather go with Philips :)

3.Cooling Products/etc etc



If u dont overclock/etc whats really leet abt putting in 123456789 fans and add LED'S to make ur system look like a star wars Pod .

P.S-just adding a Big IMO

 
ReekingArchvile said:
Nice Thread ..Here are some of my rants/points
1.AMD Rigs-Proccy+Mobo

I am not comparing them with Intel or wotsoever but i do have a point from my personal exp which may come in handy.
AMD rigs in India mostly offer low service satisfaction,i do agree that its really VFM and no one can argue that they come up Performance wise but god forbid u end up screwing up ur AMD rig it might send u packin to buy another rig..Take My case:-
Bought a socket 939 3000+ venice core and ASUS A8N-E in Feb 06 offcourse after discussing here at T.E for arnd 11.5k.
Well n Good
Current Situation->2008
Suddenly around Nov 2007 i had a display problem with my mobo and i decided to send it for repairs ,first to Rashi for RMA
1.RMA Sucks->ASUS
2.No day to day Mobo Repair Guys could find some parts for the 939 as it was discontinued

Would have been an Intel i would have easily got it repaired or would have just Bought another Mobo and Go but in my case as it was 939 both the Proccy and Mobo i was forced to Upgrade both of them :(

To all this im reduced to a useless Board and useless Proccy which neway are on sale in the Market Section.

2.Audio Equipment (Earphones/Headphones/etc etc)

Just ask around for model No's and please give them a listen before buying them..you are the only one to decide what suits u best ,generally ive noticed ppl suggesting all sort of Studio Stuff for normal usage which is sometimes can be a waste of money .

I.E-Bayer Dynamics for general purposes common gimme a break they are standard Studio Monitors we Music Proff swear By but then Money can buy u stuff ..to each his own :)

Neway just look around and decide for urself instead of pickin up top models/recommendations etc like for example EP-630 is just VFM i dont find it filling my music needs id rather go with Philips :)

3.Cooling Products/etc etc

If u dont overclock/etc whats really leet abt putting in 123456789 fans and add LED'S to make ur system look like a star wars Pod .

P.S-just adding a Big IMO

thanx for ur inputs
 
Couple of clarifications.. as to why its not good to generalise ;) :

2. amd phenom-> don't buy them unless u are diehard amd fanboy.(untill better phenoms arrive in india at better prices)

why

-> poor performance(some phenoms slower than even fastest athlon x2- the 6400+).

->tlb bug, it bios workaround will drop performance by 10-20%


->expensive (considering their performance)

->no overclocking(or poor) if u wanna overclock

-> and finally a gem of proccy from intel the core 2

- poor performance versus the X2 will be obvious in apps that can't take advantage of multiple cores.. especially with the lower clock-speed per core on the Phenoms.

- 9x50 procs are out and even available in India. B3 stepping variants ensure the TLB bug is no more!

- Not everyone who picks up a quad core machine overclocks. At stock clocks, a Phenom is still within reach of the Intels C2Qs and can be coupled with much cheaper boards making the platform still VFM.

- The new Phenom Tricore models seem interesting, again if you do not factor overclocking into the picture.

1. sata-3GBps->well devices till today have not been able to fully exploit sata-1.5GBps 's potential after 4 years of it in mainstream. and then arrives sata-3GBps forcing many noobs to upgrade their mobos to support latest drives.however even todays 7200.11 disks will give max of bout 105 MBps. far cry from above 150 MBps promised by sata-3GBps. u can try to downgrade ur sata-3GBps to sata-1.5GBps o ur hd using jumpers. i bet u will not see any diff in hdtach scores.

Saw this being discussed elsewhere, and its a common misconception.

1. Everyone seems to be forgetting the 'burst speed' i.e. the speed between your controller and your hard disk's cache. You probably won't saturate the bandwidth during sustained transfers, but stuff often gets cached on your hard disk's cache that can make full use of this 300MBps bandwidth.

2. SATA 3.0Gbps drives are backward compatible, so there's nothing about people being 'forced' to upgrade to SATA 3 Gbps controllers.

3. Lastly with hard drives always increasing in speed, why wait till you hit the limit before increasing the interface speed? An interface should never be a bottleneck. P.s: Its Gbps, not GBps.

2. ncq-> again all hoopla and no benifit to end customers . forcing noobs to upgrade their mobos(with ahci mode) to support those drives wid ncq. well it is a server tech and not a desktop tech.only time ncq will actually work is when u have(sarcasm intended)

-> u have highly fragmented drive

-> u are running utorrent at ur 2/8 Mbps conn

-> u are at same time playing halo3/crysis(multiplayer preferable)

-> u are also burning a dvd at same time(16x suggested)

-> u are sharing a movie collection on ur 100Mbps lan

-> u also are copying a 200 gb data to ur hd from a portable hd.

Data is very rarely accessed in a sequential fashion from a hard disk. This is exactly why a disk that performs great in sequential data tests like HDTach may not exhibit similar performance gains in a real-world environment.

You also forget that there are 101 processes running in the background that do need to access files every now and then (step away from your computer and notice the hard disk LED flashing every few seconds?).

And once again, its not forcing anyone to upgrade.. its upto end users to determine its benefits before upgrading ;)

3. DVI/HDMI -> we have known since time long time that digital is better than analog. thus dvi/hdmi must be better than vga.

all grafix card today have at least a dvi port , but dvi port lcd are expensive than vga only lcd by about 1500-2000.

a noob(digital is better than analog) would surely gofor dvi one .

to tell u truth i am yet to see any diff b/w them . i have seen lcd's upto 24" and i couldn't notice any(any at all) diff in text/ games clarity etc b/w vga and dvi.

This is one case where I have to agree that public perception of DVI > VGA is correct. However it is also true that LCDs with a VGA-only port tend to have better circuitry optimised for the VGA port than LCDs with DVI + VGA ports, but the quality with DVI is noticeably better.

4 hypertransport 3.0 -> a joke again.

ht1 has a limit of 12.8 GBps and ht3 has 41.6GBps

the thing going around is "u shud buy phenom to take full advantage ht3 in am2+ socket in ur 780g chipset mobo. if u use athlons u will downgrade u mobo to hypertransport 1.0"



well athlons never fully exhausted hypertransport bandwidth. and then creating all the FUD with ht3. man it is a joke. phenoms are poor proccys anyway(sell above) they wont benefit anything from ht3.

so if u want to enjoy 780g go ahead an buy athlons. no need to worry bout ht3

Actually its the other way round, people are encouraged to use HT 3.0 equipped boards for optimal performance with Phenoms. Nothing at all about Athlons or anything else. And again, nothing wrong with providing a higher-speed interface.

5. ddr3 and 1066 mhz ddr2.

well this hoopla has not been made by manufacturers but by "enthusiasts"

well they are super expensive. need expensive mobos. but alas no/little benifit to user except maybe satisfying his ego.

if u really wanna overclock then overclock those sweet c2d proccy's . oc ing ram has little effect on c2d architecture.

Two things :

1. For Intel platforms, it has always been ideal to keep FSB:RAM ratios at 1:1 . 1066Mhz DDR2 RAM will help you touch FSB speeds of 533MHz when overclocking. Considering all the latest E8xxx series come with 333MHz as the stock FSB speed, its still not a lot of headroom for overclocking.

2. Buying higher speed RAM usually gives you better latency settings when down-clocked to lower speeds. Also note the flexibility of tighter timings when running stock, or higher clock speeds when overclocking.

------------

Summing up, I do think you put in a lot of effort. But without ground work, making generalisations like this can be just as misleading as original recommendations :)
 
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