6 MA XIMUMPC JUNE 2005
MEMORY ADVICE
FOR A NEWBIE
This is my first time building a
computer and I was wondering
if you could give me some
advice. I plan on getting
a GeForce 6800 Ultra and
already have an Athlon 64
4000+ picked out. Is there any
performance boost in gaming
above 1GB in memory? The
motherboard supports up to
4GB of RAM, but how much is
really necessary?
—KEVIN ELLISRight now, the sweet spot for
performance gaming is at the
1GB mark, but we are rapidly
approaching the day when that
won’t be enough. You may see a
slight performance increase with
more memory in some MMORPG
titles, but for the most part, 1GB is
sufficient. Some might even argue
that 1GB is optimum because most
512MB modules, which you’d use
for a 1GB total, have better laten-
cies than the denser chips used to
make 1GB modules, which you’d
need for 2GB of total RAM. The
Doctor’s advice: If you have cash
to burn or you work with very large
memory-intensive applications, buy
2GB. Otherwise stick with 1GB.ONBOARD SOUND
ANNOYANCE
My computer’s onboard
sound is getting feedback
from everything. I can hear
it when I type, when I move
or click my mouse, when my
hard drive does anything. I
contacted ASRock but they
never responded and it’s been
a month!
—ANDREW SCHMIDTIf what you mean by feedback is a
high-pitched screech, you should
mute or turn down the sensitivity for
any mic or headset you have hooked
up to your PC. You can do this by
opening the mixer (double-click
the speaker icon in your system
tray) and adjusting the appropriate
slider. If the mic or line-in slider
is not visible, select Options, thenProperties, and select those lines.
Then click OK. Once the sliders are
visible in the mixer, you can play
with the sound output to cut out the
interference.
If, on the other hand, what you
mean by feedback is an audible
ticking as you transfer HD or LAN
data, that’s usually a sign of poor
speaker shielding or a poor moth-
erboard design. You can try moving
your speakers to see if that helps
diminish the noise. Or try plugging
in a set of headphones to see if the
interference persists. If the interfer-
ence goes away, you know it’s your
speakers. If the interference is still
there, your motherboard is likely
the culprit. Turning down the volume
may solve the problem, or you can
disable the onboard audio and buy a
PCI soundcard.OLD LOGIN TO NEW
The login screen on my
Windows XP SP2 box is the old
“hit the <Ctrl-Alt-Delete> key
to login in” type. On my wife’s
computer, the screen comes up
and shows the different users,and you only have to click the
appropriate user. How can I
change mine to look the same?
—DAVID MAURICEYou need to enable the Welcome
Screen. To do that, open the Control
Panel, go to User Accounts, then
click “Change the way users log
on to this computer.” Click “Use
the Welcome Screen,” and press
OK. There are some circumstances
where you won’t be able to use the
Welcome Screen, though. If your
computer is part of a Windows
domain or you use certain VPN cli-
ents, the Welcome Screen option is,
sadly, unavailable.CPU THE CULPRIT?
Ever since upgrading from an
AMD XP 2400+ with a 266MHz
FSB CPU to a 3200+ w/400MHz
FSB, I’ve been unable to
completely rip an entire episode
of Star Trek TNG from DVD using
#1 DVD Ripper. I am always
stopped by an IRQ error, which
frequently causes my computer
to reboot as well. My machinehas 1024MB of DDR400 Crucial
RAM in dual-channel mode on
a SOYO KT880 motherboard
with an ATI All-In-Wonder 9000
graphics card and a RAID 0/1
array of four Western Digital
80GB 7,200rpm on a Promise
FastTrak TX2/100 RAID card.
The faster processor is the only
thing that’s changed lately in
my system; previously I was able
to rip all four episodes from a
disc with a single mouse click.
Which of these parts is most
likely too slow for my CPU?
—REED YOUNGYou do own the DVD, don’t you? If
you don’t, shame on you! Taking
money from the pocket of Patrick
Stewart is just wrong. The Doctor
also enjoys ripping DVDs that he’s
purchased, and has found that video
encoding (which is what you’re
doing) is a CPU-intensive task.
You mentioned that you
upgraded to a new proc, but did
you upgrade the heatsink? The
3200+ will generate more heat
than the 2400+, so you’re likelyPESKY POWER
SUPPLY PROBLEMI’ve been shopping for a power
supply for my Intel 875P
motherboard. The problem is
that my mobo has apparently
reached “legacy” status. It
needs the 24-to-20-pin adapter
for the main ATX power
connector. The space inside my
Antec Lanboy is very limited,
and the adapter looks to be
unnecessarily large for anything
except a full tower case. Is there
a way for me to use the ATX
12V 2.0 PSU with my standard
ATX case without the use of
the adapter? Can I hardwire the
20 pin connector directly and
tie off the extra 4 wires safely?
What do you suggest?
—ROBERT WILSONAsk the Doctor Symptom Diagnosis Cure
▲ ▲
While you could perform surgery on the 24-pin connector and trim
out the lines, it’s not a good idea. You’d be wrecking your power
supply’s ability to ever work with the 24-pin connector, which
you’ll definitely need for your next upgrade. If you look at the pin-
outs of the 24-pin connector, the additional 4-points are all on one
side of the connector. If a motherboard has clearance on that side
of the power connector, it’s possible the 24-pin connector could be
plugged directly into the 20-pin port, although looking at our own
D875PBZ mobo, this option appears unlikely. The best solution is
to use the adapter, get a zip tie, ball up the excess wire, and tie it
off somewhere.SUPPLY PROBLEM
The next time you upgrade your power supply, you’ll be
faced with the prospect of using an adapter to make the
24-pin ATX power connector work in a 20-pin motherboard.