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Hardware / My Computer?
« on: October 29, 2005, 06:13:08 AM »
Hi all,
I just read this post and seeing as it is a month old my 2 cents may not be worth much but here goes anyway.
I ordered an HP a250e Pavillion from Best Buy 2 yrs ago. I had them put some better components in it and had them leave the agp slot open so I could put my own card in. I have never had ANY problems with my rig. Recently, I installed a Nvidia BFG 6800 GT OC card to go w/ the 1gig RAM, XP3000+ cpu, 120gb hd, yada, yada, yada. Anyway the card smokes and tears thru my games (UT2K4, BF2, Far Cry) but, when I installed F.E.A.R. and Quake IV they both crashed the vid card. Trust me when I say, I took exhaustive measures to find the solution (took about a week to isolate it to the vid card) After posting on numerous forums and phone conversations w/ geek type friends I came up with some interesting points about the mass builders, particularly HP/Compaq. They build nice rigs with quality components and their cust. serv is really good. If you are planning on upgrading ANY components that will increase heat output you need to look at the case design to see where you can place more cooling fans GUARANTEED!!!!! HP builds computers for the masses. Not guys like me and you who like to tear the side panel off and get in there and start yanking things out and replacing them. Since I put more ventilation in my rig all crashing has ceased and my cpu temp hovers around 55C most of the time. Remember HEAT KILLS!!!! Oh, and because of all this, I have decided to have Cyberpower build me a new UPGRADABLE rig which I ordered yesterday. Check this little rig out.
http://www.powercolor.com/product_heatbuster.htm
It was advertised on Tom's Hardware site and I would trust him. The really nice thing about this fan is the rotateability (is that a word?).
I just read this post and seeing as it is a month old my 2 cents may not be worth much but here goes anyway.
I ordered an HP a250e Pavillion from Best Buy 2 yrs ago. I had them put some better components in it and had them leave the agp slot open so I could put my own card in. I have never had ANY problems with my rig. Recently, I installed a Nvidia BFG 6800 GT OC card to go w/ the 1gig RAM, XP3000+ cpu, 120gb hd, yada, yada, yada. Anyway the card smokes and tears thru my games (UT2K4, BF2, Far Cry) but, when I installed F.E.A.R. and Quake IV they both crashed the vid card. Trust me when I say, I took exhaustive measures to find the solution (took about a week to isolate it to the vid card) After posting on numerous forums and phone conversations w/ geek type friends I came up with some interesting points about the mass builders, particularly HP/Compaq. They build nice rigs with quality components and their cust. serv is really good. If you are planning on upgrading ANY components that will increase heat output you need to look at the case design to see where you can place more cooling fans GUARANTEED!!!!! HP builds computers for the masses. Not guys like me and you who like to tear the side panel off and get in there and start yanking things out and replacing them. Since I put more ventilation in my rig all crashing has ceased and my cpu temp hovers around 55C most of the time. Remember HEAT KILLS!!!! Oh, and because of all this, I have decided to have Cyberpower build me a new UPGRADABLE rig which I ordered yesterday. Check this little rig out.
http://www.powercolor.com/product_heatbuster.htm
It was advertised on Tom's Hardware site and I would trust him. The really nice thing about this fan is the rotateability (is that a word?).