With the aid of a new golden quill, a new hair cut and a holiday to look forward to (god knows I need one after helping you guys sort out your computers for the last year) I’ll be writing this article with even an even greater degree of wit and excitement. Over the last few weeks a couple of you have been posting about their computers under performing and crashing in games, I’ll also be looking at one lucky sod who is buying a HD 4870X2 as well as looking at a thread on media players. In addition to this we have seen a very rare thread in the basement about an Apple Mac going wrong and finishing off with how to buy a laptop.
What’s the use of a new computer when you’re not getting the performance you expect from your new hardware? Both Roman Clone and Wheelchair are having ongoing issues with recently built systems that are causing them a lot of grief.
Originally Posted by
Roman Clone
My PC has not been giving the performance I've wanted. I've tried getting the latest drivers, I've tried overclocking, I've tried everything I can, it seems its performance is only decreasing.
I can't even get 70 frames where people with only 8800 GT's, 2 GB's of RAM, and some random Core 2 are getting 125+ in games...
My specs:
MSI 680i
ECS 8800 GTS 512MB
WD 500 GB Caviar
4 GB DDR2 800 MHz
Intel E8400
Originally Posted by
Wheelchair
I may have is incompatibility with my Intel E8400 and my ATi 4850, maybe. My next purchase will be an Nvidia card. 
Nvidia I Just wish my Computer would work after I dumped over a grand into it... I'll most likely take back my 4850.
It’s sad to read stories like this, people have worked hard to afford these computers yet when they come to enjoy them they cause them a lot of grief. Sadly this is the risk you take when you build your own machines, if you don’t regulate air flow correctly or tidy your cables (a common mistake when building your own PC) away components will get hot and crash. In Roman Clone’s case his card has a habit of setting its memory clock rate to half of what it should be.
In the basement we always try our best to identify what is causing the problem and work out a solution, however sometimes your best bet is to simply return a product if it’s still in warranty
Above is a picture of the
HD 4870X2, this the fastest video card on the market today (but also the most power hungry so if you plan to purchase one of these make sure your PSU can power it) so its know wonder why gamers like Dark Legion are pondering if he should get the 4870X2 or not.
Originally Posted by
The_Dark_Legion
A lot of people say that the latest ATI card is better than the GTX280 but it has some driver problems like playing Oblivion and Crysis on really low frames. but if you download the latest drivers will the problems go away? Is it worth getting it although it has some risks? or should I get it and download the driver update?
I haven’t heard of any problem with the card being able to run games like Oblivion or Crysis (although Crysis still doesn’t scale well on ATI crossfire cards). But as TemplarLord points out,
Originally Posted by
TemplarLord
Every new card has trouble with drivers, but later the problems are resolved with newer and newer drivers... At least this is how I see it :/
The HD 4870X2 is a great card but before you commit yourself to buying one you should look at whether your actually going to need one. Most people still play PC games on monitors that range from 17” (1280 x 1024) to widescreen 22” monitors (1680 x 1080) and at those resolutions a 4870X2 isn’t cost effective for new games (Crysis aside). Unless you play on a screen that can deliver 1920 x 1200 or above then the HD 4870 X2 with its 2Gb of GDDR5 memory comes into it’s own. On top of the expense of buying the card you would probably have to look at replacing your PSU as well which could be another £100 on top.
A common area for discussion in the basement that I haven’t reported on much is the area of media players. After reading
through this thread it’s clear everyone has their own preference as to how they to listen to their music and watch DVD’s.
Originally Posted by
TemplarLord
Windows Media Player is my personal fav, doesn't use a lot of resources, it's stable and easy-to-use.
Originally Posted by
Noble Savage
Originally Posted by
Freddie
I've used loads of Media players in my time but the best one bar none to be Media Portal.
Your going to get a lot of suggestions like Winamp, VLC, Windows Media Player etc, but I can assure you I have used all of those and more and Media Portal blows them away.
Originally Posted by
Roman_Wolf
Definitely (sp – Fred) real player. First it plays all normal format. also has a great easy to use library. and further more, it can play the real format (.ra, .ram ...) that no other player (that i know of) can play. using .ra and .ram is a good idea cos they're much smaller than mp3s and others.
Originally Posted by
Wheelchair
There’s a neat little program called Jet Audio, I would try it out. (Don't let then name fool you!)
If your new to computers or if you have never used your computer for playing media files (music, movies etc) I would suggest you stick to Windows Media player for music and use VLC for playing DVD’s (Power DVD is a programme many of us get free with a retail PC DVD reader, I stopped using this because I found it very unstable and was prone to crashing at the wrong moment).
Once you’re a bit more comfortable with media players I would suggest trying something like Media Portal, combine this with a remote control you can watch just about anything your want from the comfort of your sofa (if your using it as a HTPC).
It’s not often we get threads about
problems regarding Mac’s, so it was quite a surprise to see Romanos IV posting about a problem with his keyboard.
Originally Posted by
Romanos IV
Hi all!
I have a McBook keyboard problem. It' been one month when my McBook had problem with the button. I mean, I was pressing a button but the PC was writing sth else in the screen. It was automatically fixed in 5 minutes. But, yesterday, when I was typing a message, suddenly one button stopped responding. after some minutes, 4 more buttons did the same. The only way to write these letters is only by copying-pasting this letter from the screen. What should I do? I know I can go to change it, but it's too expensive.
Rep award included!( and a lot of it!)
A quick look on google revels there has been a problem with Macbooks and keyboards and Apple released an update to fix some of the issues last December. However Romanos already has the latest drivers and the problem still persists. This is very sloppy from Apple and very unusually as they are normally quick to respond to problems whether it’s hardware or software. Despite this, Norge had the best solution,
Originally Posted by
Norge
Don't buy Mac. Problem solved.
Sorted.
Former Helios reporter for the Thema Diva Shaun (as in Shaun of Dead) is of to Univeristy and requires a laptop for his studies.
Originally Posted by
Shaun
So I'm going to university in just over a week, and I need a new laptop. It's been ages since I upgrading my desktop PC so I've largely forgotten about PC parts and haven't kept up...
My budget isn't much, but it doesn't need to be able play any new games or anything (MTW would be fine and that's six years old). So any suggestions?
Well first good luck to Shaun at University I hope all goes well for you. And for all of all of you who have been posting in the basement asking about laptops please read the last paragraph of Shaun’s post – ‘it doesn't need to be able play any new games or anything’ , I’m glad someone has been listing to me.
Since Shaun will be using his laptop for, office apps, Firefox, media players, BBC iplayer etc he could pick a decent laptop for just under £400, which would include a Intel Centrino dual core CPU, 2Gb of ram and a 160 HD and a 15” screen or he could get a laptop with a 17” screen (ideal for watch DVD’s and iplayer) with a slower Celeron CPU for less money.
That’s all from me for this edition, I hope you enjoyed reading it and found it useful.
Regards
Freddie
Freddie for Phalera
