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I have the Soyo SY-K7V Dragon+ with on-board Promise FastTrak Lite RAID with a pair of 40GB IBM 60GXP drives striped in a RAID-0 array. I ran SiSoft Sandra 2001 and scored something like 43000 (under WinME). The trial version of Sandra wouldn't run under WinXP, so I don't know if that performance ca...

My brother installed the AIWA CDCMP3 in his car a year ago. It doesn't have quite as high a signal-to-noise or FM sensitivity rating as the Kenwood, but it costs a lot less. Most automobile listening environments are pretty noisy, so the difference in S/N may not be noticeable. The display is very c...

I like the Alpha PAL-8045. Installation is a bit tedious (you don't want to use this cooler if you're trying out the pencil trick several times). It fits fine on the Soyo SY-K7V Dragon Plus. I can get as much cooling out of the PAL-8045 with a quiet (low-rpm) 80mm fan as I can out of a PAL-6035 with...

You can forget about that "strict six-month" product cycle. NVidia has missed that cycle the past two times with NV20 (GeForce 3 / Ti 500/Ti 200) and again with NV25 (GeForce4 4600/4400 Ti). The GF3 Ti 500/200 were just a stop-gap, not a new product. I tend to agree with Damage that NVidia intention...

Photoshop 5 runs just fine on Athlons, Durons and K6-2s. It won't run on a 486.

I am in favor of IDE for most uses. If reliability is a concern, can't you do IDE RAID-1 (mirror) or RAID-5 (0+1) for less than the price of a single SCSI drive (including the cost of host adapter and cables)? At one vendor, a 73GB 10k rpm 4.9ms Ultra-160 drive goes for $775 while a 37GB 15k rpm 3.4...

That sounds very disconcerting. One day when you turn your computer on and the 75GXP goes "CLICK CLICK! CLICK CLICK! CLICK CLICK!", that's the end of it. :sad: Fortunately, IBM replaced my dead 45GB 75GXP with a new 60GB 60GXP. I certainly hope that the problem doesn't carry over to the newer 60GXP ...

Sad. There is just so much wrong with that. I'll pick on something other than the Style vs. Substance APL vs. MSFT argument: How did a GeForce2 MX-200 ever get rated better than a GeForce2 MX-400? The GF2MX200 is almost exactly HALF as fast as the GF2MX400 in 3D. That's so slow as to be unacceptable...

Here's a comparison of a couple of dozen video cards on a P3-800. That shouldn't be too far from what you're looking for. They also tested with a K7-1200, so you can see the difference that the CPU makes. http://www.rivastation.com/vgacharts_e.htm Expect older video card prices to fall when the new ...

The benchmarks I've seen put the NForce 420D performance around a GeForce2MX-"250", a whole lot slower than a GeForce2MX-400. This is disappointing, considering the theoretical bandwidth available to the IGP. I doubt that anyone will consider the NForce's on-board video to be suitable for serious 3D...

Opinions? Everybody has one... I like the AthlonXP 1700+. It's a great bang for the buck. I bought the OEM chip with an Alpha PAL-8045 heatsink. This giant heatsink is a bit tedious to install but it provides good cooling even when equipped with a low-rpm (QUIET) 80mm fan. If you're not going to ove...

Wow! My network is puny in comparison: Main system: AthlonXP 1700+ on Soyo SY-K7V Dragon+ running WinXP Pro with on-board VIA 10/100 Second system: Duron-933 (OK, it's a -750 at 7x133) on ASUS A7M266 running WinME with Intel 10/100 Video Recorder: SonicBlue ReplayTV4040 with 10/100 Router: Linksys B...

I had a 45GB 75GXP drive. It died suddenly after less than a year of use. "CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!" IBM's warranty return website is easy to use. The automated system gave me an RMA and they replaced the defective drive with no hassle. IBM sent me a shiny new 60GB 60GXP in exchange. I restored from my ...

I had an old Gateway VX900 (Hitachi 751) for a long time. It was great in its day, but the newer monitors are much better. I bought a Samsung 955DF last Spring. It was cheap, but I was disappointed with the image quality (or the <b>lack</b> thereof). I ended up replacing it by the end of the year. M...

Main system: VisionTek GeForce3 Ti200 plugged into a 22" Viewsonic PF815.

System #2 (Used more for web browsing than for gaming): 3dfx Voodoo5-5500 connected to a 17" Hitachi CML-170SXW-B.

Before I got the GF3 Ti200 in November, the #2 system still had a 4MB RIVA 128 (yuck!).

I am running two 40GB IBM 60GXP drives in a striped array on the built-in Promise FastTrak Lite RAID controller on the Soyo K7V Dragon+. When I first got the motherboard (in November), I installed WinME and ran SiSoft Sandra 2001. The drive benchmark result for the array was consistently something o...

1. 512MB PC2100
2. 512MB

AthlonXP 1700+ stock speed 1.47GHz
Duron 750 at 7x133=933MHz

The RAID_IDE jumper should be set to pins 2&3 for regular IDE, or pins 1&2 if you want to set up an array. The other thing you need to do is go to the Soyo Combo page of the BIOS setup to enable or disable the RAID controller there. I've used mine both ways. I'm currently running WinXP Pro on a 2x40...