I would never advice Plasma since they die rather quickly and the resolutions are often limited while being slower then lcds in general.
LG or philips are probably the best quality for the money and they are quite fast too.

have a look at the best models around here
http://www.digitalversus.com/t ... l-hd-tvs-article-364.html

those guys know what they are doing while testing, i'v bought a few screens from their reviews and it was bang on.

I believe you simply need to get a ATA(IDE) to SATA adapter. nothing more. this will give you the possibility to use an older ATA(IDE) drive with a current SATA connection.

I still have one that i received with my Abit NF7-s like 8 years ago.
I attached a picture so you see what to look for.
this adapter is plugged in the back of your ATA(IDE) drive.
Hope this helped you out.

Quote from Royal[Ricer] :

OMG

WOW. IT is "Laptop".... I dont think i have ever felt stupider in my life... LmAO... where the hell did i get labtop from? What a fail.

you are joking i'm sure... good one

I guess it might be to late to help you out but other users might find the info handy and since its simple...

You are probably using a DVI cable (digital) and in the options/preferences of your graphic card driver (Catalyst/Nvidia) you should have an option to disable scaling.
Only digital cables will have this option. Analog don't scale, they fit instead, like VGA cables.

exemple attached.

Quote from Whiskey :

PS: I'm waiting for my card to arrive

I'm excited for you

Quote from theirishnoob :

ive the 5850 1.28 gb... and i must say its a beast for the price ( bought mine like a week before they went half price.... Fml )easily maxed cod playing 64 man FFA.

well, it is true it can be a pain when you purchase a card and that card drops its price soon after. But hey, thats life and it doesn't mean you got stolen from. On that subject, all the recent GTX460 owners might bite their fingers of when the Radeon 6770 comes out next month.

Oh i agree totally, 15'' isn't for today anymore since a long time already.
I also agree on your cpu limitation but i doubt its the case with LFS in my dinosaur's case exemple.

I tried the dino with a 19" screen today (just for fun of testing i guess)
So, 19" (1440x900) with a 6600GT 128M AGP it averages 55FPS, thats around what my Ati9600Pro does on 15" (1024x768) with a sempron 2GHz

AMD X3 720BE Unlocked X4
Gigabyte 790X-UD4
4GB DDR800 12-4-4-4
ATI Radeon 4890 1GB
Enermax Liberty 620W
Seagate 7200.12 500GB

Edit: forgot the main part...

Logitech G25

Last edited by sfkilla, Mon, 13 Sep 2010 23:14.

There is a cheap one previewed here
http://www.youtube.com/user/si ... tonight#p/u/4/ukY9bN4K0vk

try to go past 11min.

PS: i subsribed to them last year and always enjoy their weekly reviews.
There should be more like them.

Hope this helped you out.

Quote from dadge :

the reason you're getting good fps is because you're running on such a small monitor. what's the default resolution for that 15"? 800x600?

Off course, i am aware that the low resolution is the reason why it runs good but by the time i bought that system, a 17" was probably out of the budget range. It was just a small note to inform that you don't need a beast to have fun with LFS

And yes, the native resolution of that 15" was indeed 1024x768, which is perfect to watch HD ready content by the way, hence why i use that dinosaur as a mediacenter pc.

Thanks for the info

LFS isn't really optimized for multithreads, therfore it isn't taking profit of the amount of cores you might have. If i remember, its only using 1 of my 4 cores most of the time.

Anyway LFS runs great even on old rigs, i played it on one of my home dinosaurs and it ran 90FPS on 15" with this:
- Pentium 4 HT 3.2GHz
- 2x512 DDR500
- Nvidia 6600GT AGP
- WD 500 SATA

and around 70FPS on 15" with this:
- AMD Sempron 3000+ 2Ghz socket A lol
- 2x512 DDR333
- Nforce2 Shuttle SN41G2
- Ati Radeon 9600Pro
- WD 160 ATA

sorry for the off topic here

*agrees*

I have a 4890 myself, love it, but i wish it consumed less.

I built a system for a friend last year and i chose a TX650, even though he started with a single 5770. Today he has 2 in CFire and it runs great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13KmeunwLWA

I have a question for you GenesisX

Do you run LFS on 3 screens with your 5770? if so, how does it run and what settings have you got it on (screen res and graphic options)
I run LFS maxed out on my 4890 and never go below 400FPS while hot lapping, and between 150-200fps online. and this on 1920x1080.
I'm wondering what frame count you're getting with 3 screen on a 5770 (if you do)

If you had to buy one today for your system, A Corsair CX400 is at 45€ and probably the best you can get at that price, although i would advise a VX550 to give you some room for futur upgrades.

To be honest, i never look at the wattage of a psu, i always look at the specs for the different rails (3v 12v etc) but mainly the efficiency (80+) and try to keep some room for futur upgrades.
I bought an Enermax Liberty 620W, 3 years ago and its been a joy using it and probably many more years to go.

People tend to under estimate the need of a good psu, it is often the first thing i buy for a system and i never hesitate even it it costs a bit more.

Yes, you should be fine. It seems you have 20A+22A for the 12V rails and this will probably be around 30A in total accumulated.
Don't need more

Thats not bad considering its delivered to your door

Quote from Whiskey :

Do I need to know anything about this card/brand?

Yes, you should know that Sapphire is the most sold brand for AMD graphics and that VaporX is one of the best overal coolers, so in other words, you can't go wrong.
150€ is a bit high though, i can get a 5770 vaporX for 153€ so you shouldn't pay more then 130€ + shipping for a 5750 vaporX.

Too bad you can give me your psu specs, would have been nice to know what your limits are but nevermind.
The 5770 is definitely a better choice and it also only need 1x6pin from the 12v rail. (Make sure you use the default PCI power connector from your psu) don't play around with adapters.

But your prices are quite high there...!
I'm in belgium, and a 5750 Ice is around 125€ and a 5770 Vapor-X is only at 153€, so try to find better prices if you can.
Don't buy a cheaper xfx model or other cheap models (that only use 512 of ram with gddr3 instead of 5 etc, try to get a Vapor-x or simply get a default generic model from sapphire instead).

EDIT:
there are plenty of good reviews out there that show what a 5750 series can do...
i don't like guru3d too much but have a look here http://www.guru3d.com/article/ ... eon-hd-5750-iceq-review/1
the card is tested with an i7 so your score might differ slightly but its also on 24" 1920x1200 so this lets you imagine what a 5750 can do with your 1440x900 res
also remember this review was with older drivers ...
ps: don't take guru3d psu requirements into account, he asks 40A on the 12v rail of your psu but 30A is more then enough , even with a 5770. I think he discussed this in his forums but never edited the review.

Last edited by sfkilla, Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:10.

Could you type in the reference of your psu? (name, version), so that i can check the specs out. In Wattage, 450W is reasonable.

Sure it all depends on the budget, but its not that bad at all, consider the gpu (120) + psu (65) = 185 and you will have more then enough for your 19" space. Even consider a 5770 which is perfect for 22" and even very good in 24" and only around 30€ more.
All in all, in your situation a 200€ investment is an excellent deal and with your X3(still upgradeable for free) and 4GB of ram, you won't need more for a long time.

Edit: I forgot to precise, with a 4850, you'll definitely need a stable psu since it pumps twice as much as a 5750, so to think of before you buy.

Good luck with it

...with a 19" resolution, a 5750 is really the best you can get for your proposed 120€. Games like Mafia II will run just fine and Call of duty too.
even If you had a 22" with 1680x1050 res, it would still run fine but with a few less intensif feature like AA etc...

You should also consider older cards such as 4850 (like others kindly suggested) BUT only if its a real bargain AND remember that the 4800 series are hot and consume a lot more then the 5000 series. This also reflects on noise and heat in your pc case.

For your PSU, you don't need a beast, but don't go for a noname!, corsair makes proper psu's for relatively cheap prices and in your situation, a VX450/VX550 are a must if you want something good for a few years to come.

Finally don't under estimate the potential of unlocking your fourth core!
I own a 720BE myself and a similar gigabyte board, unlocking the fourth core gave me a 15-25% boost in many games, GTAIV, AVP, and many others, games get more and more multithreaded nowadays , so the more cores, the better

So, a good psu, a 5750 or alike and unlocking your fourth core, should give you a nice boost and good for a few years to come i guess.
As for LFS, well, a 5750 could even run it with 3x19" with decent settings , if your passion goes that far in the futur, never know, lol.

Hope this helped you out a bit.

Quote from Whiskey :

Processor........AMD Phenom II X3 720 @ 2,80GHz
Mother board...GIGABYTE MA790XT-UD4P AM3 790X
RAM.............. 4GB @ 1333MHz
Graphic card... ATI HD2600XT

I guess I'll need a new power suply aswell, but thats another matter hehe

Thx in advance

If i was you, i would buy a proper power supply first its essential for a stable system.
For your GPU, what games do you play? and what screen resolution do you play on?

For 120€ max, and for Ati, there aren't too many choices.
Take into account that in todays performance charts, a stock HD5670 is equal to the old HD2900XT (i have both) and therefore, you already know that a 5670 is already a good 15% faster then your 2600XT and, consumes a lot less, then in your upper limit, you could look for a pumped up HD5750 which is good enough up to 22" resolution (1680x1050) etc...

Also ,the new HD6000 series come out in 2 months time and the first models are probably in the price range you are looking for...

Try to answer the question about your games and screen i posted above and this should show what you are aiming for.

Just in case you change your mind...
look at this one, might fit your needs?

http://www.behardware.com/news ... anless-from-gigabyte.html

I have a funny question in my mind, i thought i'd share it...

How many Demo users have a wheel?

I think it might simply be a driver issue because your card is still on AGP.
The best advice i can give you is to uninstall the ati drivers from the control panel (if you get there), choose the complete removal of all ati driver on your system, then simply reboot and since your card is on AGP, i don't advice trying higher drivers then 10.2 anything above is useless to AGP cards anyway.

I still have a pentium 4 with a Ati 9600 pro 256M AGP and it runs above 60FPS constant on 15" res, which is not bad at all for an 8 year old rig.

Good luck!

Excellent race guys... wow, its amazing how realistic sim races look when you have some skills behind the wheel, and such a maturity in the way to try to overtake, i wish most LFS drivers were that cautious or should i say pro?

Thanks for sharing, i had to race just after i saw your video.

Nice Work guys... [voted]