Random Questions

[SWEETSAPRIK]

 

What would you guys recommend a GTX 260 or 280 in price to power ratio?

 

It depends on which GTX 260 you're talking about.

 

 

The GeForce GTX 280 and 260 are based on the same processor core. During the manufacturing process, GTX chips are binned and separated through defect testing of the core's logic functionality. Those that fail to meet the GTX 280 hardware specification are re-tested and binned as GTX 260 (which is specified with fewer stream processors and a narrower memory bus). In late 2008, in order to create more parity between the GTX 260 and the competing HD 4870, Nvidia re-released the GTX 260 with 216 stream processors up from 192. Effectively, there are two GTX 260 cards in production with non-trivial performance differences.

 

I think they also made newer 260's which are 55nm as compared to 65nm, so I guess there are actually three different 260's.

 

I have a GTX 280, and I'm very happy with it. No personal experience with a 260 though.

[poopskin]

I'm planning to build my own computer soon. will i be needing to solder anything? i hope not, i don't own a soldering iron.

[Girish]

I'm planning to build my own computer soon. will i be needing to solder anything? i hope not, i don't own a soldering iron.

lolwut?

 

Of course, not. You'll only need connectors (which you'll get with the PC parts that you purchase) and a screw driver.

[poopskin]

Oh yeah, you only needed the soldering iron if you wanted to wrench out bad capacitors...

[SyphonPayne]

If you can connect Legos, you can basically build a PC (well, if you have common sense . )

 

Google comes up with some good guides, you can try this one for starters, the more you know, the less likely you are to screw something up .

[anus]

Yep, read up as much as you can, but I personally find videos to be WAY more helpful than guides (this goes for anything, not just PC building) so it would be good to have some PC building videos open while you're building the PC .

[SyphonPayne]

I agree (show me, not tell me). I never personally used any videos, but if anyone has any good ones feel free to post them .

[Pico]

Oh yeah, you only needed the soldering iron if you wanted to wrench out bad capacitors...

I don't know anyone who goes through the trouble of removing bad capacitors (or any other basic electronic component) from any part of a computer. Generally, if a part goes, just replace it. Most likely if something like a motherboard or graphics card goes you'll have a bitch of a time finding what exactly broke, multiple things have broke, or you won't be able to just simply replace the part that did break.

 

So no, no soldering what so ever. Basically just plug this part into that spot, this connector to that part, etc.

[SyphonPayne]

I've heard of people removing/replacing bulging/leaking capacitors on mobos, but that's generally what people do when they have old motherboards that cannot be replaced.

 

I would say the hardest part is mounting the CPU heatsink properly, or remembering to put all the wires in every socket necessary . Still no soldering required though heh.

[Abel.]

 

What would you guys recommend a GTX 260 or 280 in price to power ratio?

 

It depends on which GTX 260 you're talking about.

 

 

The GeForce GTX 280 and 260 are based on the same processor core. During the manufacturing process, GTX chips are binned and separated through defect testing of the core's logic functionality. Those that fail to meet the GTX 280 hardware specification are re-tested and binned as GTX 260 (which is specified with fewer stream processors and a narrower memory bus). In late 2008, in order to create more parity between the GTX 260 and the competing HD 4870, Nvidia re-released the GTX 260 with 216 stream processors up from 192. Effectively, there are two GTX 260 cards in production with non-trivial performance differences.

 

I think they also made newer 260's which are 55nm as compared to 65nm, so I guess there are actually three different 260's.

 

I have a GTX 280, and I'm very happy with it. No personal experience with a 260 though.

Very good and well priced card, especially the 216/896 MB versions.

Edited March 28, 2009 by elanman

[Gouveia]

Is there anyway that I can find out what my router's IP address is, and how can I access it

[Edmachine]

You can check the manual. Most definitely is there. If you don't have the manual (misplaced, whatever), try this: Start -> Run -> cmd -> ipconfig /all -> Default Gateway. Should be what you're looking for. Once you've gotten the IP address, just enter it in the address bar of your browser.

[SyphonPayne]

Is there anyway that I can find out what my router's IP address is, and how can I access it

Well, if it's a Linksys, the default router IP should be 192.168.1.1

 

If it's a D-Link or NetGear, could be 192.168.0.1

[Gouveia]

I asked that to try to solve a problem that I can't solve myself, so I'll post here since Steam's support sucks.

 

I can't connect to steam when I'm at my house AND with this notebook. I can connect if I use my old Toshiba, but it won't be of any use since it doesn't run Left 4 Dead. I can connect to Steam on the office using this notebook, but of course it's imposible to play while working. I use a DLink DI624+ Router.

 

I'm desperate to play

[poopskin]

Aiiiiiiiie!

my new computer needs a anti-virus, but the AV that my mom got for her laptop and my old computer (still one install left before the disk is useless) is incompatible with X64 os-es! can someone link to some free Antivirus, ETC. software?

[Gouveia]

Try avast!, it's a great anti-virus and I do believe that there is a 64-bit version of it.

[SWEETSAPRIK]

I prefer Avira, and it works fine on 64bit Vista.

[Pico]

I prefer Avira, and it works fine on 64bit Vista.

Me too

I was at deviantArt.com earlier and for some reason a bunch of "Antivirus 2009!" bullsh*t pops up and tries to download a file, Avira caught it all damn quick.

The most annoying part is that it uses the mobo speaker to beep when alerting. There might be a way to turn it off, but I'm too lazy to figure it out

[Chargr]

So I had McAfee Internet Security Suite from AT&T. But I've been skeptical about it, since I heard its not good. I downloaded Comodo Internet Security's latest version, is it any good? Better than other AV's out there?

[Gouveia]

I've never heard of it.

 

Just don't go with Norton or AVG.

[leik oh em jeez!]

If you OC a CPU, and then put it in a new motherboard, does it keep it's clock or revert back to stock speeds?

[Chargr]

 

I've never heard of it.

 

Just don't go with Norton or AVG.

Well their firewall is known, I think their AV is fairly knew.

 

Also Anyone know how to remove the DNS.Changer trojan, I'm trying to fix my old Windows xp dekstop, and encountered this virus.

 

I can't update some Spyware removers like Malwarebytes btw.

[Pico]

If you OC a CPU, and then put it in a new motherboard, does it keep it's clock or revert back to stock speeds?

It will not keep the same speeds. In order to overclock a processor you modify settings in the motherboard's BIOS that the CPU is installed in. So the values are stored mobo to mobo, nothing physical changes in the processor. So it will go back to default clock level when put in another mobo.

[Rebel]

Is anyone else having this same problem? On my google homepage when I type stuff into the box it never ever used to come up with that drop down box with peoples general searches you know with the numbers by the side. Now all of a sudden its started doing it and I don't know how to stop it! I've deleted the cache/everything else related to the browsing, I've even tried the 'save things I search for' on and off and no difference. Can anyone help me out? It really annoys me.

[SWEETSAPRIK]

Those suggestions are from Google, it has nothing to do with your browser.

 

To the right of the search box click "preferences", then toward the bottom of that page next to "Query Suggestions" check "Do not provide query suggestions in the search box." and save your preferences.

[AndyGanteks]

My Firefox is being slow after the recent 3.0.8 update, pages loading slower then expected, tried other browsers, they load normally.

 

I heard of this issue before, googled, but couldnt find a proper answer how to fix it, i heard you should do clear private data or something, but not so sure.

 

Help, please?

[Rebel]

Thanks Sweets. All sorted now, I guessed it was googles search suggestions since I'd never even think to search for half the stuff that came up!

[gta_player5]

Hello...again. I love you all, but I hate posting in this topic because it usually means that something is wrong with my computer. Last time I posted in here was to ask about my Firefox 3. I ultimately sorted out that problem and hadn't had a problem until NOW! I shall explain the situation.

 

Earlier today I was writing a paper for class and I was on a wireless internet connection; nothing new there. I finish writing my paper, put my laptop into sleep mode, and I leave the room. I get back to my room, where I use an ethernet cable rather then wireless, and I notice that my computer didn't go into sleep but rather it restarted all together. Luckily, I saved my paper and sent it to my professor, so no problems there. However, I had some things open on my Firefox that I was looking at. I open my FF and a lot of things are different. I don't have the favorite tabs right under the address bar anymore, I had about 7 of them and they are gone and I'm missing bookmarks that I had made before my computer restarted and FF shut down. My FF has been acting up recently; it's closed unexpectedly several times in the last month. I uninstall and then I reinstall, however, this doesn't help. I run a virus scan, spyware scan, and I check on the computer's health and whatnot in the maintenance section of the control panel, but nothing was unusual. I uninstall and reinstall again just to do it but FF still does not save the favorite tabs. I have tried adding them again, but if I close FF and reopen the program they're gone. Also, FF doesn't want to record any browsing history, which is the problem I had last time. I don't know how I figured it out last time, it just did.

 

I've tried to be as in depth as I can with this issue I'm having. If any of you can please help me solve this problem, I'd greatly appreciate it.

 

Thank you

Edited April 3, 2009 by gta_player5

[SWEETSAPRIK]

I'm going to assume you've already made sure it's set to save your history, and that none of your extensions have a setting that would override this.

 

I'd try uninstalling and reinstalling again, only this time make sure you clean out all the directories it might leave behind, make sure you remove your profile folder so you're starting from scratch. The problem could also be with a specific installed extension, extensions that are clashing with each other, or sometimes even an extension you've already uninstalled.

 

Just as an example, many extensions don't clean up after themselves properly when you remove them. They can leave entries in your about:config/prefs.js, which can cause problems even though the extension is gone.

 

I suggest trying an extension like infolister, then saving it's output to html, just to make finding and then reinstalling all of your extensions a bit less of a headache. Then backup your bookmarks.

 

Once you've started from scratch you can try FEBE, and use it to back up (and if needed, restore) your entire profile, or just specific bits, in case something happens in the future. I'd suggest doing this first, but if the problem is with an extension, or in your profile folder, then restoring it would just restore the problem as well.

 

If you completely remove all the folders Firefox leaves behind, and still run into problems after reinstall, then it's most likely a problem with a faulty extension, or extensions clashing.

[Rebel]

I recently got my PC back from repair the other week. Now they replaced it with a new motherboard and they checked everything and said there were no more problems. I sent it back because on start up you wouldn't hear the beep sound, or sometimes after getting the beep and logging onto windows it would either freeze on me, or just randomly restart.

 

I got it back and it still happened, so I rang them up and they said it might be my keyboard and mouse usb thing that's causing the psu to think somethings wrong hence the surging itself to stop from damage. So after I tried some different usb slots in the back of my PC since I have about 6. All working okay for a couple of days. Today same thing was happening. So I got hold of a usb mouse and keyboard that are corded and not wireless ( borrowed them ) and now everything's working great again.

 

What I'm asking is, can the wireless usb mouse and keyboard really make the PC do things like that to the motherboard? If so should I just go buy a new keyboard and mouse and it will be okay?