Ethan

ethanwark https://www.vessel.com/videos/Su_Wqd7Vl https://www.vessel.com/videos/G-DUjgUyY

Considering both Asus and Samsung (and Dell, the other option at that pricepoint) make decent products, it's not as though one of them is dramatically more likely to fail. So unfortunately, it's just a numbers game - a certain number of products will fail. You can't avoid that by using one of these brands rather than another. Your best option is to buy local if you want warranty returns to be possible if needed. Otherwise look at returns policies - see if one of them will pay for postage back (Dell or Asus might do this, but you'd have to check). Best of luck.

They said DDR2. $100 for 8GB of DDR2 is actually a pretty reasonable price. Don't forget it's much more expensive than DDR3.Depends on when it was bought, as well. My 8GB DDR3-1600 cost me ~$100 (in Australia, where prices are slightly higher), which was good 3 years ago. Today, it's horrible value. I generally stick with Corsair. They're great with warranty (as are most major memory makers) and I have mostly Corsair gear (Case, PSU, RAM, Cooler, SSD, memory, etc). That said, it's a preference thing and I am under no illusions of them being vastly superior to the others. Also, guys, OCing potential has more to do with the (mostly bought-in) chips on the side than the assembling manufacturer.

Great thought, although that CPU is certified with that motherboard (plus, CPU is 125W, board takes 140W). It might be worth checking that the BIOS is compatible, but it generally wouldn't even post if it wasn't, so I highly doubt that's the issue. You'd be surprised just how quickly the temps will drop. Checking after reboot is not accurate. Also, some systems won't boot up again until the temperature is below an acceptable level. Either sit there with something like HWMonitor and watch the temps if it fails within a few minutes or if it takes longer (and you don't want to sit and watch), you can get temp logging programs that will write to a text file every so often, so you can check it when you start back up. If you want to make it fail faster, use a stress test, such as Prime95. Generally if the temperatures are okay, it's a Power Supply issue.

Don't spend that little on the PSU, it sounds very risky. If you have to keep your current case and spend more on the PSU, do so.

Check my edited post above. That board has an IDE port.Even a Dual Core Pentium should outperform that Athlon.

I'd ditch the aftermarket cooler, go with cheaper memory (1333 is fine) and get a case/PSU combo if it works out cheaper. Keep the current HDD and DVD drive unless they're both IDE (that boar appears to have 1 IDE port). If you can stretch to a better CPU and GPU, do that.If you can save for a bit and spend a little more, it's a good idea. If you start off with a system that has too many cut corners, it requires more investment later on to bring up to scratch. eg. If you can get an 1155 system, rather than an old AM3+ system, you have more upgrade options, although the IDE DVD drive would probably have to go, so that makes it difficult.

Going to have to agree here.DS, if you had a C2Q already, I'd consider upgrading the current build, but by the time you upgrade the CPU, you're most of the way to a more capable new system, cost-wise. Unless you plan on overclocking, get the base model i5 with a budget motherboard and 4GB DDR3 (which is substantially cheaper than DDR2). With a low power GPU, like the 7750, you could get away with the PSU that comes with most reasonable cases unless you go super-cheap. 400W is fine.

While it certainly wasn't a great PC port, that was more about performance and interface design, rather than game-breaking bugs. For me, the crafting menu controls would cease to function at higher than 720p resolution, but I didn't experience any other major issues. Performance in the towns, especially with earlier drivers, was rather poor, but that's mostly fixed now. While the game itself wasn't on par with the masterpiece that was AC2, it was still a decent game.

Yeah, definitely avoid gaming notebooks if you want thin and ultraportable with good battery life. For your requirements, an ultrabook certainly sounds like the best option. In this day and age there are a lot of a good ultrabook choices, however if you are looking at the MacBook (Air?), make sure you're happy using OSX. While you can put Windows on a Mac, it's not a perfect experience and somewhat defeats the purpose. Buy a computer that's made for the OS you want to run.

GoodBytes, the Korean monitors aren't as bad as you're making out. Sure, if you want to play it safe, go with a Dell/Asus/Samsung 1440p monitor, but the vast majority of people that get the cheap panels are quite content; a large portion have no bad pixels and even lighting. The build quality of the chassis is questionable, sure, but the cut-down circuitry is not necessarily a bad thing. If you need Displayport, then you need to look elsewhere, but basic PCBs mean lower latency for gaming, which is something you need to consider when the latency on IPS panels is already much higher than that of TN. As for compatibility, that's basically a non-issue. If your GPU is compatible with that res and Dual-Link DVI, it will work. The compatibility lists that some sellers display are there to stop people with older non-compatible GPUs from buying them. You'd have the same issue with any other monitor of the same res. They won't cease to be compatible in until Dual-DVI is phased out, which won't happen for a long time (we've only recently lost VGA - good riddance). So while there's a chance that you'll get stuck/bad/dead pixels on the cheap panels (and I think the bigger issue is that you effectively don't have warranty), it's up to the buyer to be aware of the pros and cons and make the decision themself - in a lot of cases, the money saved is worth the risk. That said, if you want a guaranteed good screen, I'll second the suggestion of the Dell U2713. Unless you have an issue with the anti-glare coating (which some people certainly have - it can add a wierd effect. Google dell U27 anti-glare coating), it's the big daddy of 27" 1440p screens, which you can often get at a reduced price when Dell's online store has a sale, as well as through vouchers/coupons floating around the Internet.

I'd argue that it's certainly possible to make a blue PCB work. It's green PCBs that are an eyesore. That said, I'd glad Gigabyte has moved to black PCBs for the higher-end stuff. Here's my rig with a blue Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H and unlocked 6950 1GB. I think it looks alright, save the green wifi card at the bottom. The trick is keeping everything else black and blue.

That's it. No matter how good the keyboard is, they're cutting themselves out of a chunk of potential buyers by sticking with one switch type. I'm an MX blues man, but I'd love to try Greens for a while. Aesthetically, I think the K70 is almost exactly what I'd want. White backlights would be the only thing I'd change.

I'd definitely wait for the K95. The sole reason being that it's fully mechanical. The main reason to have linear mechanical switches (MX Reds and Blacks) is consistency. You start jumping back and forth between mech and rubber keys, that's lost. Keep in mind the K95 has black anodised aluminium, unlike the raw silver finish on the K90. If you're playing MMOs, then you might make use of the macro keys (are you using the ones on the side of the X4 currently?), but if you don't need them, there are cheaper options for backlit mechanical keyboards. For instance, for FPS games, getting more mouse space can be a blessing, so you could consider a TenKeyLess Ducky Shine II, which chops off the numpad on the side so your hands aren't so far apart. It's a personal thing, though. If the Corsair appeals to you (see if you can test one or another keyboard with Red switches prior to buying), then that's all that matters. Good luck deciding and happy birthday for March. :D

While that's a good option from the gaming side of things, the Geforce cards easily beat the Radeon cards in AutoCAD, from the tests I've seen. Neither are going to be playing new games at a reasonable resolution, though.Also, the quad-core argument really depends on the task at hand. A few AutoCAD tasks will be multithreaded (not much in older versions of the software), whereas ones that are either dual or single-threaded will perform better on the higher-end Pentiums. The same goes for all but the newest multi-threaded games, which neither GPU is going to like, anyway. The AMD A10 system is a great option if it suits your needs, though.