Spaztic_Reaper

Ok, ever since I had one of my games crash, which simultaneously corrupted itself and another game that wasn't even running, my comp has been having problem after problem. Just yesterday morning my comp was rebooting over and over until I finally woke up and worked on it. After getting the infamous blue screen of death and resetting my bios I got things up and running again.
Now, however, my one game is still crashing when I start it(I reinstalled the other, it works...for now), and several of my music files have mysteriously disappeared, not relocated, they seemed to have been completely wiped from the hard drive. I consulted my computer science teacher and he suggested that my hard drive may be dieing. Any ideas are totally appreciated cause I'm stumped on this one.

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And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

temeteus82

You could run chkdsk c: /R on command prompt and it will run next boot. to make sure that there is problems and they are fixed. It could take some time if you have one big partition.

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Spaztic_Reaper

Ok, thanks. I ran the scan and it went through fine and after rebooting it said everything was clean, so I'm still not sure on what's happening.

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And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

BlueMak

1) Make sure you back up all your important files.
2) Get ready to buy a new HDD.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

Spaztic_Reaper

Ok, I kinda figured it'd have to come to that. I've been planning a $1000 budget to rebuild my system anyways, but I think now I'll move it up to 1500 for a new hard drive. I was thinking about keeping both drives and putting vista on the new one to create a dual-boot system, but I'm still unsure about vista's stability.

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And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

kris23

people REALLY need to get the BS that Vista is a bad OS out of their systems....

that whole mess was made by a bunch of retarded gamers with systems from 05 expecting to run DX10 flawlessly if they got a shit card.....

Vista is far more stable than XP at release, and was better than SP1, theyre on par with each other now.... but with SP1 now its even better.

Vista Ultimate X64 is the REAL gamers OS for REAL games from 2008. this being said by a REAL gamer and enthusiast.

for your system, i recommend either an Intel Q6600/Q9450 + Nvidia 9800GTX/X2 (performance quad) or AMD Phenom X4 9850 Black Edition and Dual or quad 3870s (cheap Quad Gamer)
with dual or Quad Seagate 7200.11 250GB drives in RAID 0 (the throughput speaks for itself, nothing can topple it)

and 4x2GB DDR2 1066mhz for 8 gigs of RAM.

all encased in a Cooler Master Centurion 590 with 750w of power (power for now and power for later)


that will gear you up for 09

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Spaztic_Reaper

I don't think vista is bad, it's what my laptop has and though it seems to be a bit of a memory waster at times I don't mind it much. I just know vista had some compatibility issues and wasn't sure if it was worth switchin to it, cause I don't know how many of my old apps that run on xp will do if I'm forced to switch them over to vista if my current HDD dies. Hadn't heard about the SP1 though, so that definitely decides for me that I'm gonna get vista for my new system. Wish I could get all those parts you listed but would that fit a 1500 US dollar budget? Considering I got amd and ati, I don't care much for intel or nvidia.

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And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

kris23

with the price of AMD's 9850 and 9750, they give more performance to the dollar compared to the Q6600, they are also more responsive due to the memory controller, all for a similar price to the Q6600

the Q9XXX series of course blasts them out of the way but theyre too expensive so for your price range, an AMD setup is best.

how flexible is your budget? do you think you can add another 100 or so if that allowed you to get a much more powerful setup vs the 1500?

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Spaztic_Reaper

I could possibly flex the budget a bit, but I already went through to look at the possible setup I want, and I think I've got the system I want, it's not the best, but it'll definitely work for what I'll use it for. I know Intel's Q9xxx series outperforms the phenom 9xxx series, but I've never had trouble with AMD or ATI and I don't care much for intel or nvidia. One question though, I shop through newegg and vista 64 ultimate is out of stock and they only have it OEM, I can wait for it to come in stock, but they do have vista 32 ultimate on retail and in-stock, but will the 32-bit OS recognize over 4 gigs of ram? I know the 32-bit version of XP doesn't.

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And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

BlueMak

It doesn't.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.

kris23

dont get retail, its pretty worthless, no one really buys it unless they get new rigs every couple weeks and dont want to get a new OS constantly.

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kris23

heres what i think you should get:

Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST3250310NS 250GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives
get 4 drives in RAID 0, approximately 420mb/s sustained transfer rates, load any game within a few seconds. run any demanding app with great speed.
Newegg.com - Crucial Ballistix 4GB(2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory
get 2 sets, 8 gigs of RAM is quickly becoming the norm for enthusiast level gaming.
Newegg.com - AMD Phenom 9850 BLACK EDITION 2.5GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 2MB L3 Cache Socket AM2+ 125W Quad-Core Processor - CPUs / Processors
most powerful AMD, memory controller gives good response time.
Newegg.com - MSI K9A2 Platinum AM2+/AM2 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard - AMD Motherboards
best designed bang for buck 790FX board.
Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100225L Radeon HD 3870 512MB 256-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics
cheapest 3870, cheapest single slot 3870. good picture.
Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX ATX12V / EPS12V 750W Power Supply 100 - 240 V UL, CE, CB, TUV, FCC, CCC - Power Supplies
best most flexible 750w PSU on market rather cheap too
Newegg.com - Scythe SCORC-1000 140mm CPU Cooler - CPU Fans & Heatsinks
possibly most powerful CPU heatsink in the world, need i say why?
Newegg.com - OCZ OCZTXTCC Memory Cooler For both DDR1 & DDR2 - Memory & Chipset Cooling
RAM cooling, rather good too, good looking, lets you OC RAM better
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Centurion 590 RC-590-KKN1-GP Black SECC / ABS ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases
possibly best in price range case extremely well made and well cooled.
Newegg.com - OCZ OCZTFRZTC Freeze Extreme Thermal Conductivity Compound - Thermal Compound / Grease
OCZ Freeze, best thermal compound available.

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Spaztic_Reaper

Thanks, actually I'd already looked through newegg and selected mostly the same components. Only difference was that I went with a dif case from cooler master, psu I chose was 800w, but what you listed seems a bit more reliable, and the memory I chose was corsair and I'd selected the same sapphire card, only the toxic version of it. Glad you listed thermal compound, what I have is running low.
But you think my cpu and ram will be aight w/o aftermarket coolers for awhile? I don't plan on doing any OC'ing with the cpu or RAM until I've broken the system in a bit.
Another thing, I like vista, and dx10 is nice, but having used both OS's I still prefer XP, so am I really going to get a big benefit by switching to vista?

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And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

kris23

yup, DX10 isnt just pretty graphics, it gives a whole new 4 dimensional world where interaction takes place even better than before, eventually, DX9 and DX10 players will have to be separated into their own particular groups in order to play since DX9 has far more limits than DX10

one thing i dont like its the UAC, those little prompts that constantly bug you. i disable them, just go into the account settings and disable it.

I'd personally get all the cooling in first thing as they are a pain to put in later, the RAM cooler is essential as it has very little dissapating space between the sticks. Phenom runs hotter and im not sure if its thermal capabilities are as good as Intels so i think its a good idea to get it.

what cooler master case did you choose?

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Spaztic_Reaper

Well I was going to go with a CM full tower case, but the $239 price tag kinda scared me away, so I think I'll stick with mid tower, and chose this case instead: Newegg.com - XION Onyx XON-303 Black/Blue Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases I was extremely happy with my XION II case, though it isn't in the best condition after a little accident when moving it to college , and their designs are quite nice, especially this one, and I haven't really heard of any problems with their cooling efficiency.
I was decideing between a gigabyte board and that msi one you chose, and i think i'll go with msi on this one, but I see you have ddr2 800 ram selected and the mobo you listed takes 1066, so I think i'll stick with the 4gb of corsair i chose(might even up it to 8 if I can get my hands on vista 64)

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And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

kris23

DDR2 800 is backwards compatible on DDR2 1066 boards. those particular sticks have better chips than most other memory on the market, they can go to 1066 easily.

thats why i chose them, crucial has same chips as top end corsairs usually and can perform nearly as high.

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Spaztic_Reaper

Ah I see, learn something new everyday I s'ppose. By the way, I've heard vista doesn't cooperate too well with creative sound cards and I really don't want to get rid of mine, so is that true or has it been fixed or was there ever a problem between the two even?

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And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

kris23

whats your card? i use X-fi and PAX, creative drivers suck on both XP and Vista

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Spaztic_Reaper

If I remember correctly, it's the Audigy SE, still using creative's drivers, are there any good modded drivers for it?

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And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

kris23

dont Kx support that card? i dunno

i dont eveen think there ever was an issue with vista to begin with, at worst, all you need to do is get vista to fiind drivers for it automatically, some arent that bad and i know that card doesnt have too much on it so it shouldnt matter.

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Spaztic_Reaper

Alright, cool. Thanks for all the help, now I just need to wait for the money, which I should have the end of this month and hopefully by that time newegg will have vista 64 back in stock.

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And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

kris23

dont waste your money on retail....

Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Ultimate for System Builders Single Pack DVD - Operating Systems

EDIT: dang didnt know that newegg already had the SP1 disks in

Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate SP1 64-bit English 1pk DSP OEI DVD - Operating Systems

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Spaztic_Reaper

Yeah, the SP1 was the one I wanted, but sadly out of stock for now, hopefully they'll have it by the end of this month.

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And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

kris23

i really think you should get a better cooled case, your hardware goes beyond the 'standard' systems around. Xion has always been all flashy and low performance.

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blown503

be sure to tell him though that if he wants to save any money that winxp will work just fine. I did vista and thought it was a waste of money.

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kris23

lol vista isnt a waste of money,

especially x64, its alot more stable and less likely to crash than XP x64

SP1 helps alot too

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Spaztic_Reaper

Well I think this hdd is gonna last a bit longer than I thought, so I had an idea for my new system that I should be beginning to build at the end of this month. I really don't want to go through the hassle of reinstalling everything on a new hdd so I thought about getting the vista x64 ultimate upgrade and then copying the entire hdd to the new one.
Would that work, or am I going to just get a whole new range of problems or end up bringing the problems with this drive to the new one?

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And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

Judas

just a fyi

Vista ultimate is not a real gamers OS.. it's an OS that is over the top..... Home Premium is the best choice for 90% of the populus.... even for me.... i have them both... i wish i only had hp because it's just not worth the ultimate...

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Spaztic_Reaper

Ok, thanks, but now my computer just pissed me off for the last time so I've removed alot of programs that I'll just reinstall with my new OS.
Now, the pc I have now was originally an emachines that I moved into a new case with a few new components. I've dealt with the main components alot, but I've never built a system from the ground up. All I'm really concerned about is the first boot-up and any software issues.
After I've got everything put together with a new, blank HDD all I need to do on the first boot is put the OS discs in so it can begin installing right? Then after the OS is in I'll proceed with updating all my drivers.
Is that right or do I need to configure a few things before installing the OS?

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And when we all looked at our friend while sitting next to the train tracks he put an unlit cigarette in his mouth and about 5 seconds later exclaimed "Shit I coulda sworn smoke was coming out of it, mus' be trippin balls."

BlueMak

Go into the BIOS and make sure the CDROM (as it will probably have it) is FIRST in the boot list.
Also during POST (what you first see when you turn it on, RAM CPU etc) that it detects the CPU and RAM as they are.
If you don't have a RAID, that's all it should be.

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The people who are regarded as moral luminaries are those who forego ordinary pleasures themselves and find compensation in interfering with the pleasures of others(Bertrand Russell)"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil,You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them." - Lt. Gen. James N. Mattis
This is slavery, not to speak one's thought. [Euripides-The Phoenician Women (c.411-409 B.C.)] http://www.macedonia.info/FALLACIESANDFACTS.htm Sic semper tyrannis.