cspizz

I'm not up on the latest and greatest. I'd like your suggestions on the top TY DVD-R models or any to steer clear of. Thx!

i know i said i was going to forget this for now, but i'm wondering about an OS and whether i should get a 64-bit os. i'm running win xp pro on my current hp, but i lost the os install cd so i need to buy a replacement. i wanna go 64-bit to max out on memory, but the MS choices are limited and installing a 64-bit linux distro is a lot of change all at once. plus, i think not all hardware vendors make 64-bit drivers. the other option is vista, but i'm loathe to adopt it, especially right now when it's so shabby. i'm thinking my only option seems to be buying xp pro. my problem with that--beside giving $$$ to MS--is that the price of xp has gone up since the release of the aforementioned shabby vista. what to do, what to do.

i thought they were supposed to stay, but some of them look like they're obstructing ports [at least partially]. thx borg.

I promised a lot of dumb questions, so here's another: the I/O panel has a bunch of tabs that I'm not sure what to do with. Some of them are clearly 'punch-outs' that pop in and break off easy. Others are annoying little thin tabs that don't come off easy. Are these supposed to be left on? Do I cut them off? My mobo and case both provide I/O panels, but neither manual says anything about these.

d'oh I shoulda paid more attention. It's not the first time.

But then I'd have to pay to RMA the board. I'd rather just spend $30 on a new SATA burner--not too high a price for my own stupidity...

The DVD-ROM device(s) you are going to use, are those PATA or SATA? Crap! Its PATA. I guess I need a new burner now too. Although, maybe I should keep my burner--it's a brand new LiteOn--and ditch my current PATA drives.

So here's what I've gone with: Case- Anetc Nine Hundred Mobo- ABIT IP35 Pro PSU- Corsair 450VX HDD- 500GB Seagate Barracuda SATA RAM- 4GB [2x2GB] Mushkin HP2-6400 DDR2 CPU- Q6600 Cooling- ASUS V-60 [@LOCOENG- The Thermalright ULTRA-120 is sweet, but pricey, esp. after adding a fan. This HSF reminds me of the Thermal right, got strong reviews at newegg, and was a more budget-friendly solution. I'm going to try it for a while and see.] GPU- None. [i'm going to try my old ATI All-in-Wonder 9000+] I've decided to put off worrying about a 64-bit OS for a while, but that leave an open issue. The new mobo is SATA capable and I got the Seagate to be my boot drive to take advantage of the high speeds, but I'd like to keep my existing set up. That means I either use my old PATA drive as the boot drive or image my current drive and paste the image on the new drive. Does anyone know anything about that off hand? I've never transferred a full image of one drive to another, but I seem to think the drives [or the partitions] must be exactly the same size? Anyone?

you suggested 4gb of ddr2, but I was planning on using my current OS [winxp 32-bit] so won't some of that go unused?

Why do you say? What does this board have that your current board doesn't? Any thoughts on this ABIT IP35 Pro LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX for $139.99 after rebate @ newegg? Also, you suggested 4gb of ddr2, but I was planning on using my current OS [winxp 32-bit] so won't some of that go unused?

No real budget. I plan to play it by ear [or wallet]. I want to build a hardcore system, but don't want to get soaked. I'm with Borg and want one of the new 45nm Intel Quads, but there's a premium to pay on those. A 65nm Duo can obviously be had for much less. What I can't decide is, if I go with a Duo, will I always wish I had sprung for the Quad? Is a new 45nm Quad worth the extra $$, or would I be better off with a Duo and more memory instead? Either CPU will be better than my current [AMD Athlon XP 3000+ 2.16GHz], but I'd like whatever I get to hold up for a while performance wise. I plan to eventually overclock...once I figure out how to do that. I read the thread on your recent build and picked up a fair amount, but I'm not sure if some of the items you chose are right for me or not. I did, however, save the pics of your case interior as a model of organization that I hope to replicate. I'm on board with that, but what should I buy and how much? DDR2 or DDR3? 2, 4, or 8 gigs? What else is important to know or consider here? Let me throw some more things out there if anyone is willing to help on these: mobo I'll need something Intel compatible and want a full-sized board. I've read (here, I think) that the JMicron SATA/IDE controllers on ASUS boards won't allow booting into linux. I'm hoping to pick and fully convert to a linux distro within a year or two, so that would be a problem. I'm not sure how to choose one over another here, except that it needs to be compatible with all the other stuff I buy. case I'm real high on the Thermaltake Armor, Armor LCS, and [especially] the Armor+LCS, but the latter isn't available yet and will be very pricey. I'm also looking at the Antec 900. It's a mid tower and I really want space to work and expand, so I'm worried I might need a full tower. But I'm not going to be doing any modding, and this thing is sweet and more importantly has USB and audio up top and exposed for easy access. I also like the Antec Sonata III 500 for a sleeker, quieter rig but doubt I'll go that route

I'm looking to build my first PC and have lots of questions. I'm looking for other forums or resources good for newbie builders. Any suggestions?

Success and at lightning speed! Thank you all so much for your help and patience. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions as I delve into more advanced and refined burns, but I can at least get basic burns of .avi files to DVD player playable discs now. [it wasn't much good to me to be backing up my DVDs if I couldn't make usable discs from my backup files.] And thanks so much for ImgBurn--it's overwhelmingly generous to give such a spectacular program to the world for free. Keep up the great work!

I've replaced my ancient HP writer with a new Lite-On burner and scrapped my old media in favor of TY discs, but I'm still having problems. Here's my log: ============================================================= I 03:02:31 ImgBurn Version 2.4.0.0 started! I 03:02:31 Microsoft Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 2) I 03:02:31 Total Physical Memory: 1,047,916 KB - Available: 434,232 KB W 03:02:31 Drive D:\ (FAT32) does not support single files > 4 GB in size. I 03:02:32 Initialising SPTI... I 03:02:32 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices... I 03:02:32 Found 1 DVD±RW/RAM! I 03:23:38 Operation Started! I 03:23:38 Source File: H:\torrent\movies\nosferatu\dvd\dvd.iso I 03:23:38 Source File Sectors: 2,138,896 (MODE1/2048) I 03:23:38 Source File Size: 4,380,459,008 bytes I 03:23:38 Source File Volume Identifier: Nosferatu I 03:23:38 Source File Volume Set Identifier: 004E2C150020A307 I 03:23:38 Source File Application Identifier: IMGBURN V2.3.2.0 - THE ULTIMATE IMAGE BURNER! I 03:23:38 Source File Implementation Identifier: ImgBurn I 03:23:38 Source File File System(s): ISO9660, UDF (1.02) I 03:23:38 Destination Device: [1:0:0] ATAPI DVD A DH20A4H QP57 (G:) (ATA) I 03:23:38 Destination Media Type: DVD-R (Disc ID: TYG03) (Speeds: 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x, 12x, 16x, 18x, 20x) I 03:23:38 Destination Media Sectors: 2,297,888 I 03:23:38 Write Mode: DVD I 03:23:38 Write Type: DAO I 03:23:38 Write Speed: 2x I 03:23:38 Link Size: Auto I 03:23:38 Test Mode: No I 03:23:38 OPC: Yes I 03:23:38 BURN-Proof: Enabled I 03:23:38 Advanced Settings - Force HT: No, Online HT: No, OverSpeed: No, SmartBurn: Yes W 03:25:43 Optimum Power Calibration Failed! - Reason: Power Calibration Area Error W 03:25:43 Retrying (1)... W 03:26:04 Optimum Power Calibration Failed! - Reason: Power Calibration Area Error I 03:26:04 Filling Buffer... (40 MB) I 03:26:05 Writing LeadIn... W 03:26:22 Failed to Write Sectors 0 - 31 - Power Calibration Area Error W 03:26:22 Retrying (1 of 20)... W 03:26:41 Retry Failed - Power Calibration Area Error W 03:26:41 Retrying (2 of 20)... W 03:26:58 Retry Failed - Power Calibration Area Error W 03:26:58 Retrying (3 of 20)... I 03:27:11 Abort Request Acknowledged W 03:27:17 Retry Failed - Power Calibration Area Error E 03:27:17 Failed to Write Sectors 0 - 31 - Power Calibration Area Error I 03:27:17 Synchronising Cache... W 03:27:26 User opted to skip the 'Close Track/Session/Disc' functions. E 03:27:26 Failed to Write Image! E 03:27:26 Operation Aborted! - Duration: 00:03:48 I 03:27:26 Average Write Rate: N/A - Maximum Write Rate: N/A ============================================================= I don't know what this means. Please help.

Any recommendations? It seems LiteON, Plextor, and Pioneer are top choices, yes? Is BenQ a drive? Is lightscribe useful? [edit]Also, for media, -R is better than +R? Does DL work as well as SL? Any compatibility issues with DL?[edit]