An article on getting biggest bang for the bug: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=539&tag=nl.e622

Direct line to the mobo section: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/?p=538

Hey, thanks for posting - I almost missed this.

I'd never even heard of BTX til you mentioned it. Looked it up on Wikipedia and seems pretty interesting. If utility rates continue to climb - with oil prices rising and people still having a visceral reaction to nuclear power (eventhough the new pebble bed reactors are meltdown proof), I think BTX just may start to catch up.

However with upgrade cycles getting stretched out, it will probably take a while. If there's any hope, it will be in the next 6 to 9 months when Microstiffie releases the first service patch for Vista. Most people won't touch it with a 10 foot pole til then. A lot of experts are even saying that Vista SP1 will be the real Vista since MS released it way too early - half-baked one might say. Sorry if this offends anyone but that's what I got from PC Magazine and they definitely have their finger on the pulse of the industry.

I sometimes have stretches of several day and even weeks where I'm pretty much a basket case and recent weeks have been on the rough side. I just put all the pieces together yesterday and installed boinc (I've b*tched about boinc a lot but it runs ok on dual core machines even though it still ignores your idle preferences).

I used the hard drive from a slower computer but it wouldn't boot so I had to do an "upgrade" and reinstall Win XP over the existing installation. This screwed up a couple of drivers (like a cd emulator) but otherwise everything went smoothly and the puppy is cranking out work units.

I was disappointed that the bios for the m/b gave me absolutely no overclocking options whatsoever, but that's what you get for going low budget. It's ok though, it still beats the pants off the old machine. It also has an option for tv out but I'll have to try to track down the m/b connector I need. This machine is in my "family" room where the tv is so it might be something to check out - either that or get a graphics card for this - right now i'm using the on-board graphics.

The old machine is currently out of commission. I tried to install the o/s on the 10 gig drive I transplanted into it but i can't get it to boot from the dvd drive. The bios sees it but it won't boot from it.

Joneill003

Boinc is supposed to let you tell it to chill out when the computer is in use. You set the amount of time it should be idle before it starts crunching but it ignores this. The problem is supposed to be fixed with the next release.

I've often fantasized about getting a water cooling unit and playing with the voltage settings but I'm not that hard core of a tweaker.

The problem with the cd is interesting. When I had the HDD and the DVD on the same cable in a master/slave config, it wouldn't recognize either of them. When I put each on their own cable as a master, it recognized both. The HDD is on the first IDE channel and the dvd is on the second. What I'll probably do is create the 8 or 9 floppies for you need for an XP install and do it that way. Then I should be able to see if the o/s can also see the drive. Or I might just try swapping the cables or breaking out a new cable. I deal with cr@p like this all the time - it just goes with the territory when all of your machines are home built and always being fiddled with.

Thanks for the advise.

The Hitachi 1TB drives are selling for $449. Now if I only had $449

Yeah I have learned the hard way, and been reassured on several occasions, that computers run on smoke. When you let the smoke out, they don't work anymore. Most of my problems have been PSUs blowing up in my face. I used to work on HP computers for factory warranty repairs and those little slim-line machines get bad PSUs all the time. Sometimes all I had to do was plug it in and it would blow up right then and there, other times, when I hit the power button it would blow up. Always good times there.
I agree about Maxtor. Not a fan at all. I have had good luck with WD and better luck with Seagate, so Seagate it is for me. I like their 7200.10 3GB/s SATA series, although they get pretty toasty under load. I try to get a hard drive cooler or throw a case fan next to the drives to keep them cooled off. If I ever find a drive with bad sectors it goes right in the trash. I don't even bother with them unless there is a warranty or something, then I get it replaced.
I am a member of Costco actually, but every time I go in there I usually end up ogling the 46" Sony LCD TV I want.
knock on wood, so far I have been pretty error-free in my home computer building experiences. I have tempted disaster too. I've worn socks and stood on carpet. I have never rubbed a balloon on my head and touched a stick of ram though. Maybe one of the old PC100 sticks I have laying around. That might be a fun experiment