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Guest Max Cowgill

Rumors of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

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Guest Max Cowgill

Hi everybody! Miss me? Some of you may have noticed that I haven't been around for the past 3+ weeks and I'd like to explain my absence. I received a new video card for my computer a few weeks ago and, upon installation, proceeded to burn out most of my components :) So, after 3 weeks, several hundred dollars, 3 different motherboards, 2 CPUs, 4 sticks of RAM, 5 video cards, 3 HD reformats, and 3 Windows re-installs, I finally have a working computer again! Unfortunately, I had to switch back to Win9x (98 to be specific) and am no longer running Win2k, but I'll probably switch to XP in the next month or so anyway. The good news is I installed and ran FS2k2 Pro for the first time :) I'm still in the process of tweaking but everything looks great and runs good so far. Just in case anyone's curious, my new system specs are as follows: AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (overclocked to 1.54GHz (11.0 multliplier x140MHz FSB)) 100% stable so farSoyo K7V Dragon Plus mobo (integrated 5.1 audio, lan, RAID)256MB Crucial PC2100 DDR RAMTNT2 M64 32MB card (booooo!)Antec case w/300W PSUI retained all my old drives (56x cd, 19GB HD, floppy) as well as my old 56k modem and 19" monitor. Future plans include (but are not limited to): GF4 Ti 4200/4400 128MB (next week hopefully), another 256MB stick of DDR RAM, DVD drive, CD-RW drive, some nice speakers, faster/bigger HD, Windows XP.Max Cowgill

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Guest

Damn, I had Max in the Avsim "Dead Pool", I was just about to collect my payout.MikeKOCF

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Howdy Max :-waveI too upgraded last week to a XP1900+ and 8 hrs in the cpu fried. :-(I am pondering the decision to try again and I have been looking at the Soyo K7V Dragon Plus or one of the ASUS mobo's. Did you do some research and why did you finally choose the Dragon ?SteveCYYZ

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Guest Max Cowgill

Steve, I chose the Dragon because it was the only DDR Socket A mobo the store had in stock :-lol It is a great board though. Tons of features, great overclocker (I'm testing different FSB settings as we speak), haven't had any stability issues yet (knock on wood). I would definitely recommend this board to anyone who is looking at KT266A chipset mobos. Onboard 5.1-channel sound, LAN, and RAID are great features (for me anyway).Max Cowgill

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Just be careful about what RAM you place in the Soyo Dragon+. I have two of them, with one that refuses to operate with the third stick of memory in the socket nearest the CPU (3 X 256) 768MB. The other is unstable with the third stick. They are both rock solid with two sticks or 512MB. The Soyo forum is rift with this problem and SOYO doesn't seem to know what to do about it.Other than that, the Soyo Dragon+ is a great MOBO!

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Guest SD Sim

I see dead people... :-lol :-wave

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Guest SoarPics

Nice to see you back, Max.If you need any help getting that new box tweaked just right, feel free to e-mail me.:-lol :-lol :-lol :-lol Regards,

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Max, welcome back...I also went "away", but just for one night and mine was voluntary....or at least almost.Nearly 6 months ago, I decided to build a system similar to urs, so I started to do my homework and search out for some deals. Found a sparkel 350 supply that Elrond had recommended months ago for cheap, but last week a power outage burned out my old power supply so the upgrade got started! Adding the new power supply got my old box working well, but u know how it feels to be adding stuff to a box...so I bought the rest of my stuff.I saw comparisons between the chipsets months ago, which showed the via kt266a vastly superior to the competition (course until the kt333 showed up), and reading about your mobo I was tempted....pricey thou...like 150 or so...so I went with a less featured but still regarded by Tom Pabst as a stable board from shuttle, the ak31ver3.1Although slower than the soyo the shuttle with kt266a is still faster than the competing chipset fastest boards and it only cost 80.put a 1700+ on it with a stick of 256mb ddr from micron...and its a computer. I didn't change anything on my harddrive, cuz I figgered the devices were largely going to just have the same drivers re-written over top, and I didn't have any trouble, except with fs2002. It locks, and folks have written that this can happen if you don't start fresh with drivers. So perhaps I'll go ahead and clean that up.Cheers,Bob Bernstein

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Guest PaulL01

Great to have you back Max!Sounds like you got a nice box there! Should keep you till this Fall huh? :-lolGlad to see yer up an running and that you got FS2k2 loaded. :)So, how the heck did you burn up your box putting in a Video card? :(Paul

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Guest Max Cowgill

Thanks Paul (and everyone else for that matter) for the welcome! I'm enjoying my new system so far, and am still tweaking for optimal performance but I'm definitely enjoying it. I've got a decent overclock going here with my CPU, considering I'm just using the retail HSF (146MHz FSB x 11.0 = 1.61GHz/XP 1900+) and I may push it even further. I'm finding that this TNT2 M64 is really holding me back though, and I'm not getting anywhere near the performance or level of detail I should be because of it. Paul, to answer your question about how I burned up my 'puter, let's just say I'm never buying an IBM Netvista system again, no matter how cheap it is :-lol Those things just weren't meant to be upgraded AT ALL. Stupid AGP slot literally broke open in the process of installing the new video card, and when I placed the old one back in it started to smoke on me. :( Managed to fry my CPU, RAM, and I assume both video cards in the process. I think, however, that the new video card I received may still be functioning, but I'm a bit too hesitant to put it in my new system and fry everything again :( Max Cowgill

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Guest PaulL01

Sounds like you had one of those "computer out the window" experiences that you read about from time to time, how frustrating!Nvidia announced today that the NV30 will be launched in August and considering the problem that the GF4TI has with anisotropy you might want to just wait before you purchase your new card, I was tempted to pick up a GF4200 recently but have decided I'm going to stick it out till the reviews come in on all the latest cards.Take Care,Paul

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Guest Max Cowgill

Paul, I wish I had enough patience to wait for the NV30, R300, or even Parhelia512, but I don't so I'll be buying a GF4 Ti 4400 (decided on the 4400 now, I'll be buying at BB so might as well pay the extra $50 over their 4200 price for the 4400) in one week ;) Besides, this system is just an intermediary system until the Clawhammer debuts this fall and I can piece together a system built around either the Athlon-Clawhammer or Opteron CPU, then I'll get a next-gen vid card and sell my current system. Rant-Mode on: I'd just like to say I HATE this video card. I think a Voodoo2 would look better and probably be faster too. Average FPS in FS2k2 right now are around 16, capped at 22. I don't exactly have all features at their highest levels either... ATC and sound are completely turned off (no speakers), auto-gen @ dense setting, vis 100 miles, effects off, cloud density @ 60%, fs2002.cfg "Terrain" settings as follows: [TERRAIN]TERRAIN_ERROR_FACTOR=4.800000TERRAIN_MAX_VERTEX_LEVEL=19TERRAIN_TEXTURE_SIZE_EXP=7TERRAIN_AUTOGEN_DENSITY=3TERRAIN_USE_GRADIENT_MAP=1TERRAIN_EXTENDED_TEXTURES=1TERRAIN_DEFAULT_RADIUS=5.000000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_RADIUS=8.000000TERRAIN_EXTENDED_LEVELS=1and blurry textures from my nose to the horizon :( Oh well, that's what I get for blowing all my money on a CPU and mobo... I swear, this hobby is worse than crack! Or am I the only one who blows his entire paycheck week in and week out in the search for better FS performance? ;)Rant-Mode off: Sorry, everyone's gotta b*tch sometimes ;)Max Cowgill

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