OT: New PC!

[Baron Munchausen]

AgentZero said:
Good grief. A 1000VA UPS starts at close to eur400. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that the whole VA-Watts thing is basically a matter of how long the unit can last in the event of power loss, right? Or does it affect something else as well?
In the seven years I've been living in Dublin, there's only been one blackout I know of, but it was localized and didn't affect me. So I'm not too worries about blackouts, so much as power surges and the like. Given that, I'm wondering if I'd be better off buying just a surge protector, since the likliehood of a blackout is very low.

A little bit more will get you a 'line conditioner' -- a surge protector plus a transformer that steps low voltage up a little bit. This additional protection is a good thing to have. Utilities also have 'drops' in voltage as well as surges. This is included in a UPS these days, so you're actually getting three different systems in a UPS: surge protection, low voltage protection, and blackout protection.

You might also try searching for used equipment. After all, it's not like a UPS built now is dramatically better than a UPS built 5 years ago. I know you can buy reconditioned UPSes from used computer dealers here in the US. Dunno about Ireland or the EU in general (voltage is standardized throughout the EU, right?)

http://www.usedcomputer.com/classifi...Classified.asp

http://www.refurbdepot.com/index.cfm

[Fyron]

AgentZero said:
Good grief. A 1000VA UPS starts at close to eur400. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that the whole VA-Watts thing is basically a matter of how long the unit can last in the event of power loss, right? Or does it affect something else as well?

The amount of total charge is only the VA rating. W rating is how much power it delivers an a time, so you need a big, beefy one that can deliver 600W or whatever the powe drain was. This does not require a 1000 VA UPS, but rather a 600W one. Maybe 650W to be safe and cover the monitor.

I see absolutely no hard correlation between W and VA ratings on Cyber Power's UPSes. Some are VA = 2 W, some are VA = 1.4 W, etc.

[AgentZero]

It figures that the last thing I'd think of would be the most complicated. On an unrelated note, does anyone know of a good source for hardware release dates? I've heard nVidia's next generation video cards are due out in Feb, and I'm thinking of holding off on my purchase until they do, to take advantage of the price drop on the ones I want.

[Renegade 13]

Have a question for those who might know. I recently added another 1GB of RAM to my system, bringing it up to 2GB (4 x 512MB). All the RAM has clock speeds of 400 MHz, and yet they're running at 333. Anyone know why, or if I can boost it up to the supported clock speed?

[Fyron]

Is every chip of RAM clocked at 400 MHz? All RAM must run at the same frequency, so one slower chip brings it all down. Does the motherboard actually support clock rates of 400 MHz? If so, is there any driver patch or BIOS update about buggy RAM support for the motherboard on it's manufacturer's web site?

[TurinTurambar]

Imperator Fyron said:
Does the motherboard actually support clock rates of 400 MHz?

THAT is the question. And do you have the BIOS settings adjusted correctly?

(Hey Fyron, check your PMs...)

TT

[Thermodyne]

Renegade 13 said:
Have a question for those who might know. I recently added another 1GB of RAM to my system, bringing it up to 2GB (4 x 512MB). All the RAM has clock speeds of 400 MHz, and yet they're running at 333. Anyone know why, or if I can boost it up to the supported clock speed?

Ram speed is a function of the BIOS. Your board may or may not allow you to set the buss to 400MHz (200x2MHz)

Also, some AMD systems will slow the buss to 333MHs if more than a gig of ram is installed.

[Thermodyne]

AgentZero said:
It figures that the last thing I'd think of would be the most complicated. On an unrelated note, does anyone know of a good source for hardware release dates? I've heard nVidia's next generation video cards are due out in Feb, and I'm thinking of holding off on my purchase until they do, to take advantage of the price drop on the ones I want.

If the cards are on time and in quantity, then you’ll see prices on older cards fall in late March or early April. But don’t hold your breath. The 7800/512’s are still little more than vapor and they have been out for months.

[Renegade 13]

The system supports speeds of 400Mhz, since when I had only 1 Gig of RAM, it was running at 400. However, since I do have an AMD system, I'd think the most likely possibility is the one Thermo mentioned, the system slowing it down with there being 2 Gigs installed. I'm not sure WHY it would do this though...

Will also check BIOS settings later.

Thanks!

[AgentZero]

Thermodyne said:

If the cards are on time and in quantity, then you’ll see prices on older cards fall in late March or early April. But don’t hold your breath. The 7800/512’s are still little more than vapor and they have been out for months.

That crunch you just heard was the sound of me biting the bullet. The idea of waiting until Mar/Apr for my new system is not appealing, especially since my current one is in need of a format/re-install that I don't really want to do