TWO HEADS BETTER THAN ONE?
I’m building an Athlon 64 system with an Asus A8N-SLI
Premium motherboard, an AMD 64 4000+ CPU, 2GB of
OCZ PC 4000 DDR500 memory, a Maxtor 300GB SATA
hard drive, a Plextor PX716SA/SW SATA optical drive,
a Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme soundcard, and an Antec
TX640B case. Would I get better performance with one
nVidia 7800 GTX, or two 7800 GTs? If two GTs is the
answer, will I need to upgrade the power supply?
—Warren HunterYou’re building a powerful system, Warren, and
we were with you all the way up to your choice
of enclosure. While there’s nothing wrong with
Antec’s TX640B case, per se, the power supply
that comes with it is insufficient for dual-video-
card configurations. Two GeForce 7800 GT cards in
SLI will outperform any single GeForce 7800 GTX
card—even the 512MB variety—but you’ll need at
least a 500-watt PSU to drive them.ALL QUIET ON THE DVD FRONT
I’m experiencing strange problems with my
computer’s DVD burner. My PC’s BIOS doesn’t rec-
ognize the drive at first. The drive appears when I
go into the BIOS to fix the problem, but it refuses
to save this configuration to memory. Windows
XP nonetheless “sees” the burner just fine, and it
plays audio CDs, but I don’t hear any audio when
I use it to play movies. The fact that the CDs and
DVDs I’ve burned with
it play on stand-alone
DVD players serves
only to compound my
confusion. I’ve updated
all my drivers, I’ve
flashed the PC’s BIOSDiagnosing and curing your PC problems
with the latest version, and I’ve even changed
DVD burners—all to no avail.
—Patrick PolizziYour audio problem could be related to your
DVD software. If you set up the player to
output digital audio, for instance, you won’t
hear anything from analog speakers. Poke
around in the program’s configuration menus
and make sure its audio settings match your
speaker system (2.1- or 5.1-channel analog,
for instance). As for your DVD drive, disconnect
each end of its ribbon cable and check for bent
pins on the motherboard and on the drive; if
you find any, straighten them very gently. If that
doesn’t solve the problem, set the master/slave
relationship using cable select, as opposed to
a manual configuration. If you’re still having
problems, try swapping out the ribbon cable.ANTEC ANTICS
Recently, while playing Call of Duty 2 , my video
display became corrupted and then my entire PC
crashed. Rebooting and restarting the game didn’t
solve the problem, so I booted in Windows’ Safe
Mode and reinstalled my video drivers. Believing my
videocard to be the problem, I swapped it out for an
old TNT-2 card and everything worked fine (except
for the serious lack of performance). I described
this state of affairs to BFG’s tech support, and they
promptly issued an RMA and replaced the card. The
only problem is that I experienced the exact same
problem when I installed the new card. Next, I tried
something I should have done before I blamed my
problem on my videocard: I plugged a different
power cable into it and everything worked fine. So,
should I replace my Antec power supply, or just stop
using that particular rail?
—James FrankfordWell, that just goes to show you that things
aren’t always what they seem. If you don’t
need to use the power supply’s “bad” rail, mark
the cable with some brightly colored tape and
tuck it away inside your case. If you don’t like
the idea of leaving a bad rail hanging around
inside your case (or if you’re going to need
it at some point), replace the PSU. Don’t tosshow (^2) IMPROVING YOUR PC EXPERIENCE, ONE STEP AT A TIME
Ask the Doctor
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✂
If you’re going to run dual videocards—
either CrossFire or SLI—make sure
your power supply is strong enough to
handle the load.
Is your PC taunting you with error messages, ill-behaved software, and
recalcitrant hardware? We’ve got good news for you: The Doctor is in!
Drop him a line at [email protected] with details related to your
problem, and he’ll prescribe a concoction that’s sure to ease your pain.
58 MA XIMUMPC APRIL 2006
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- Do you fi nd the tone of the writing to be:
❒ The right mix of fun and informative
❒ Too serious
❒ Too silly - Do you fi nd the content of the magazine to
be:
❒ Below your level of expertise
❒ Just right for your level of expertise
❒ Diffi cult to follow - How would you rate the content of the disc?
❒ Too many games, not enough apps/utilities
❒ Too many apps/utilities, not enough games
❒ Not enough content, period
❒ The disc is just right
❒ I don’t get the disc - Rate the following sections of the maga-
zine, where 1 = I like it; 2 = I neither like nor
dislike it; 3 = I don’t like it:
Quick Start
Head2Head
Watchdog
How-To
Ask the Doctor
R&D (White Paper)
R&D (Autopsy)
R&D (Previews)
In the Lab
Reviews
In/Out
Rig of the Month - Do you prefer stories that:
❒ Tell you how to do something to your PC
❒ Tell you how to do something with your PC
❒ Inform you of new technologies and products that
will be available in the future
❒ Inform you about products available for purchase
right now - Do you build or buy your PCs?
❒ I build my own
❒ I buy prebuilt - Which cover line is most interesting to you:
❒ Copy Your Movies and Music
❒ Build Your Own Laptop
❒ Tested: Radeon X1900
❒ Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD
❒ Wi-Fi Wonders
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