My first post,need advice please

[Ravage777]

This is my first post in a techi hardware forum(god i always wanted to be in a place like this :lol: )as a result i have a few things to ask that might help me be a somebody here.

#1-How do i post my statistics for my custom computer,i mean i could state them but i always see people have a screenshot of some kind,where do i go to get that info so i can post it at the bottom of my posts everytime with a screenshot?

#2-I have 4 gigs of ram on Windows XP Home with SP2.Is there anyway to enable it because it seems it wont use past a little more than 2 gigs for some reason?(i got Windows Vista but my motherboard and video card didnt support it a few months ago so i figured i'd just go with my XP until Vista gets some more driver support)

#3-I read in a few places that air cooled is basiclly better over all than water cooled,i would like some advice on this before i add 19 fans to my system please.

#4-My computer guy that works on my system has told me that i can raid 2 Raptor 40 gig drives and still keep my 3rd 120 gig Raptor drive for my "OS" with my fourth 700 gig drive for storage but the Geek Squad at Best Buy said thats not possible and i dont know enough to be sure whoes right.I mean thier "GEEKS" for christ's sake.They cant be wrong...can they? 8O

#5-just to be sure i read that a 40 gig drive is faster than a 120 gig drive because the distance around the disk is smaller to access therefore it accesses faster.Is this right even though its a raid system since i want to raid 2 Raptors for maximum speed?

Sincerely
Ravage777

680i SLI Nvidia motherboard
4 gigs of the fastest gig sticks Comp USA had for sale
120 gig drive and a 140 gig drive(although neither raided nor raptor at this point)
528 mg GeForce 7600 video card
Pentium Dual Core
cd-r\cd-rw\dvd-r\dvd-rw\floppy 5.1
Viewsonic 19" 3ms
1k BFG power supply

 

[apt403]

#2-I have 4 gigs of ram on Windows XP Home with SP2.Is there anyway to enable it because it seems it wont use past a little more than 2 gigs for some reason?(i got Windows Vista but my motherboard and video card didnt support it a few months ago so i figured i'd just go with my XP until Vista gets some more driver support)

Nope, sorry. 32bit OSs cant utilize more then 2gb of ram, the only way for you to take advantage of 4gb of ram would be to use a 64bit OS.

#3-I read in a few places that air cooled is basiclly better over all than water cooled,i would like some advice on this before i add 19 fans to my system please.

High end air cooling will always beat low and middle end water cooling, but a high end water cooling setup will perform MUCH better then any air cooler ever could.

#4-My computer guy that works on my system has told me that i can raid 2 Raptor 40 gig drives and still keep my 3rd 120 gig Raptor drive for my "OS" with my fourth 700 gig drive for storage but the Geek Squad at Best Buy said thats not possible and i dont know enough to be sure whoes right.I mean thier "GEEKS" for christ's sake.They cant be wrong...can they? 8O

I'm really close to going into a Best Buy with a katana to teach those Geek Squad bastards a lesson. 90% of 'em dont know crap about computers. Yeah, it's totaly possible to do.

#5-just to be sure i read that a 40 gig drive is faster than a 120 gig drive because the distance around the disk is smaller to access therefore it accesses faster.Is this right even though its a raid system since i want to raid 2 Raptors for maximum speed?

Um... The patters on standard 3.5" drives are all the same size. 40gb drive, 750gb drive, access times will be about the same. Raptors are faster because the platters spin at 10,000 RPM instead of 7200 RPM like most HDDs.

Why a Pentium? Is it a place holder? Even the slowest C2D will kick the crap out of almost any Pentium.

 

[Ravage777]

Thank you for helping me.I got a pentium dual core because i'm in Alaska and the only store to get most modern stuff is Comp USA and they said they couldnt order the Extreme Dual Core because thats what i wanted.Besides today reading here i never heard mention of what you said.Im going to have to spend some long hard time researching what you said because in no less than 2 yrs. i plan of having a 8-10k$ gaming rig of the GODS!This is just my starting platform.
Could anybody tell me where i go on my computer to get a screenshot of my computer specs?
Oh,and that information about the ram was a real bummer,does that mean unless i get the 64 bit version of Windows Vista my ram wont fully work on it either?Because i currently got the 32 bit version but supposedly i can upgrade it through some deal to 64 bit but since it is to new for my system(or my system to new for Vista-havent figured out which yet)i havent figured it was important enough to do yet.

Thanks a Bunch
Ravage777

Thanks for helping me with the specs thing,as soon as im done editing this post ill go do it,i was writing this when your post appeared.

 

[Ravage777]

I cant find my ram boxes,i think i might have accidentally tossed them because they were so small because i save my boxes just for this purpose.
How do i find out what kind of ram i have in my system so i can write it in the specs now that i lost my boxes? All i remember is it was 275$ for 2 gigs is all?

WAIT i found my reciept and it says PNY PC5300.
Does that mean anything?
it doesnt say like what ddr it is or how many pins its got or whatever.You know all that techi stuff i need to properly display.

 

[Ravage777]

I edited my post while you were writing again sir.
So i dont need that information on my ram because i figured it was important because before Comp USA switched my 240 gig hard drive with a 120 gig drive and said they didnt i switched my ram to 1 gig sticks instead of half gig sticks that were the same price because they were the fastest but they also originally told me my motherboard had 8 ram slots but i found out differently from a different consultant so i switched it because i wanted regardless 4 gigs of ram?

Sincerely
Ravage777

 

[apt403]

Newegg ships to Alaska, the price is kinda high, but probably much cheaper overall then buying everything from CompUSA.

You dont need to use Windows Vista, there are 64bit versions of XP as well.

There should be a sticker on the ram, listing the make, model, speed, ect.

 

[Ravage777]

Yeah Comp USA did me wrong maybe later ill leave a post with the whole month and a half story.
The stickers on the sticks though i wont mess with,i pay the comp guy for that because he knows what hes doing.My brother went to ITT for 3 yrs. to do that stuff before he went to work for the goverment so i cant go digging in the innards of my computer.Might break something.Is there another way?
Also the guys at Best Buy turned me on to New Egg and now that i got my connection going i think ill use them since a friend turned me on to this in home repair place that fixed what Comp USA couldnt do in 1 and a half months in 3 days although hes still out researching on how to get my system to boot from disk.

Sincerely
Ravage777

Oh and i cant seem to find a 64 bit version of XP anywhere,i have looked hard to and even Comp USA says they cant order it.How would i go about getting a 64 bit version of XP?

 

[apt403]

Try CPU-Z.

It's really not that hard btw, take the side panel off, push 2 tabs down, remove the stick, after reading the sticker just press it firmly back in the slot. It's really hard to screw up, as long as you dont install the stick backwards or something to that effect.

64bit Pro, OEM

 

[Ravage777]

DUDE! Your scaring me! 8O
Ive heard those stories about machines catching fire.


Sincerely
Ravage777

Seriously though ive got a nice case and i can see inside of it but they look like they got clips of some kind and i dont want to screw nothing up and i could static charge the board and short it out or something.

Is there like a DX page i could look at or something,once a technical service representative had me access it but i dont remember how to get there.

 

[apt403]

8O

From an incorrectly installed ram stick? I guess that might cause a fire... You would total the stick and the slot before hand though, and to do so you would have to apply insane amount of force, there's a notch so they can only go in one way.

Anyway, with CPU-Z, CPU, ram, and mobo info can be had.

 

[Ravage777]

Okay ill try it but only if you stay here so i can tell you if i had to break out the fire extinguisher or something.
Okay?

Sincerely
Ravage777

 

[Ravage777]

Oh should i turn off the machine first?

Sincerely
Ravage777

 

[apt403]

Yeah, your system, or atleast your ram stick, will suffer a painful death if you dont.

Try CPU-Z first.

 

[Ravage777]

Whats CPU-Z?
I got the key to my case out and im ready to go,so i turn it off pull it out,take a look and re-insert.
You lost me at the CPU-Z part though

Sincerely
Ravage777

 

[apt403]

CPU-Z, it's a program, you asked how you can find your ram info through windows.

CPU-Z home page

 

[Ravage777]

Okay thanks,i prefer that method,By the way since i had my computer ready for emergency maintenence i figured id ask.
Comp USA when they put my computer together put in all my fans blowing in and my comp guy changed just the one on the side blowing out but another consultant told me the one in the back should blow out as well.
Does that make a huge difference?

Sincerely
Ravage777

 

[apt403]

Yeah, there will be a temp difference. Most of us have a fan or two blowing air into the case, and another 1 or 2 blowing out, that way cool air is always moving across the various components.

 

[Ravage777]

Bummer,seems the computer people up here in alaska have a hard time.After a month of trying to make my computer work i finally asked the guy working on my system at Comp USA what his experience was and he said he took computer class in high school for 2 yrs.
I still cant get my System to boot from the disk because nobody can figure out how to set the bios for my controller card so it will boot from disk but still make all 4 of my drives work.
Comp USA made it boot but 2 drives were inoperable and my comp guy got all 4 drives to work but now it wont boot from disk and hes still researching.
I would think after 2 yrs. of high school that for 165$ they could install a fan right. JEEZ!

 

[Ravage777]

Thanks for all the help Fellas.
Moral of the story is...Always ask for at least 4 yrs of high scholl experience before you have sombody build your new custom

Sincerely
Ravage777

Oh and always have them record your part #'s with a witness present so they dont replace your 240 gig SATA drive with a 120 gig IDE drive and then say they didnt.

 

[apt403]

A month? 8O Wow, after a couple weeks I would have just returned everything and had a custom pc shop like ABS or IBuyPower build it.

 

[Ravage777]

Actually it was a month and a half and after my cousin was tired of driving me there every 3 days just to get it home and the re-set button didnt work,power light didnt work,2 of the drives didnt work ect.. ect.. and they never returned my calls i decided to use this computer repair expert my cousin reccommended.They failed to even plug in 2 of my fans one time and everytime after bringing it home i found something wrong i had to turn around and drag it back up there.
Then the manager told me its not possible for them to steal my drive after they told me for a month and a half that the card just wouldnt support anything over 140 gigs but it says on the box it supports up to like 350 i forget.So my comp guy took a look and said i got beat out of a drive.
But oh yeah the manager says its not possible so i guess its not possible.I guess my coffee must be low on LSD or something. :lol:

Sincerely
Ravage777

Bless You kind sirs for your help by the way

 

[EXT64]

Wow, that is really bad luck! You don't really have to worry too much about static, just touch the case before plunging in and you will be sufficiently discharged. I've completely disassembled (and replaced half of the parts) the computer in my sig at least three times without ever having trouble with static (though I have had plenty of other trouble).

What is this card you keep mentioning, can't your drives just plug into your motherboard (or are these SCSI drives or something)?

I suggest having your front fans blow in, side blow on the CPU w/ a duct, and back fans blow out. This has kept my OC'ed FX-60 below 40C (below 30C idle).

 

[Ravage777]

Yeah i was talking with the tech guy from the phone company that just got this sweet 6000$ dell right after this fiasco and he said it didnt suprise him considering half the Comp USA stores in the country have closed in the past year.
He said thats probably the reason that they closed is that they dont have a clue as to what theyre doing theyre really only good for buying parts.
Just be wary of repair people walking off with your parts because from what i can tell everybody does it the same and without proof that they replaced your parts with a more shabby type you dont have a leg to stand on.
Otherwise i would have taken them to court.Theres a big difference between a 240 Gig SATA and a 120 Gig IDE drive
Unless you record part #'s at the location they say even your reciepts dont hold weight because theres no way to prove that reciept is for the one that was "supposedly" in the computer you brought in. :roll:

Sincerely
Ravage777

My card only has 2 Ide plug ins and from what im told i now need one to go to my supernaturally changed hard drive and the other has to go to the pci card itself.As for the fans im tired of messing with them.The reason it blows in is the fan is installed backwards,so ill just wait and hopefully if my rig doesnt overheat the next big price im putting into my computer is 19 more fans.Thats when ill get the fan stuff right and demand somebody on gods green earth install it facing the right direction.

 

[hassa]

Nope, sorry. 32bit OSs cant utilize more then 2gb of ram, the only way for you to take advantage of 4gb of ram would be to use a 64bit OS.

Umm -not quite correct - a 32 bit OS can access a 4GB namespace. The reason why the OS doesn't show 4GB of RAM as being available is that installed hardware (e.g. GPU, BIOS etc...) require part of that address space as well. Hence you get 4GB minus what ever this amount is = less then 4GB available RAM.

Plus on some 32bit OS's, there are switches (e.g. PAE) you can enable that will allow greater then 4GB of memory to be available (due to mapping a 32bit address space to a slightly larger one - e.g. 36 bit - this give enough room for 4GB of RAM plus the hardware reserved space).

Oh, and I know Alaska is remote and hence there are probably less trained techs going around, but letting someone who learnt at high school near by box - no way...

 

[EXT64]

I seriously would suggest doing your own repair work. It may be a headache sometimes, but I am sure with a little research and asking people on these forums, you can do a great job (better than BB or CUSA) and have fun. Personally, I think building the comp is half the fun now that I have done it.