Motherboard questions

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While I am a big fan of Asus kit I would go for the EVGA on the first link. It has half the RAM but a faster GPU clock speed, which I think will get you better performance. The card can always use some system RAM if it wants to for a bit more space.

I am running 2GB of system RAM on my Vista machine, at the moment 55% is in use. I have thought about adding another 2GB but I think most of it would probably sit empty most of the time. I moved the page file onto my RAID5 array so its not too slow on the virtual memory side.

 

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I moved my virtual memory to seperate drive which has given me a lttle performance boost. I think I will get the evga one, its supposed to be a decent card

 

Sounds like a plan.

 

cheers for your advice dude

 

I was surprised just how much ReadyBoost improved performance on my Vista box, even though I have an Intel dual core and 2GB of RAM. Some other message boards led me to believe it wouldn't do much unless you're low on memory. But in fact what it takes advantage of is the virtually instantaneous seek time of flash memory. You still want to use fast memory -- mine's a 4GB Lexar Platinum II 60x SD card -- but the feature is smart enough to know that the hard disk is faster for sequential access and it only caches small files in flash. Anyways, it made the whole UI seem snappier. Only time I don't leave the card in is when I'm using media center, as the TV/PVR seems to confuse the algorithm and the card gets accessed continuously.

Oh, and you don't need to buy a special ReadyBoost "capable" or "enabled" flash drive. That's just marketing boolshiat. Any sufficiently fast drive or card will work. It essentially just creates a special swap file in flash memory. That's really all there is to it. Because it's a single file and flash drives use FAT instead of NTFS, 4GB is the limit though.

 

I have never tried ReadyBoost, interesting to hear it makes a difference in performance.

 

I don't use Vista so I'm not sure ready boost would make a great deal of difference for me, but its good to know for when/if I ever decide to get Vista.

 

Vista is ok, got a few niggles but I like it. Been using it for over a year now. You really need to get a copy and start using it, as it comes on all new PCs these days. At some point you will be required to support it or get asked 'how do I do such and such'.

 

I do plan to do an MCAS in Vista at some point so I'll get a copy nearer the time.

 

They were handing out free copies of Vista Ultimate (32-bit only) at the "Hero's Happen Here" launch events. I see the one in UK happened in March, so I guess it's too late for that side of the pond, but if you're traveling over here they're still holding the event in some parts of the country.

Was kind of ticked off I only got a promotional copy of Windows Server 2008 (one year license -- better than a six month eval I guess) and SQL Server 2008 was still the CTP (pre-release) version. I did get a full version of Visual Studio 2008 Standard Edition out of them though... plus Vista.

My new HP laptop came with Vista Ultimate 64-bit, and other than a few driver problems (with the infamous SigmaTel HiDef audio) that prevented me from installing SP1 via Windows Update, it's hasn't given me much trouble. Now that I'm used to it I kind of like it actually.

Anywho, guess I've gone way off topic now....

 

It is actually a full version made from the demo version especially for the attendees of these events. I also felt the same way when I read the license but there was also a sticker on the front that stated that the heroes happen here attendees are entitled to run this version past the license dates. I was rather skeptical so I emailed MS about it and they cleared it up that it is basically a full version 'in disguise' that has been tweaked a little.

How the heck did you get vista?

 

Hmm, I haven't installed Windows server 2008 yet, so that would be great. As far as Vista it was on the top of the pack... maybe something they added to the event later as mine says "with Service Pack 1" on it too. Had to fill out a form online and they emailed me the registration key.