tank_rider

The only thing i would disagree with there is the graphics card, you have gone for an SE model which is only 64 bit, i would go for the standard 9550 here, its £3 more expensive, but being 128 bit will make a big difference in performance.

If your going to be ripping from a dv cam (the firewire card suggest you are) then i would include a dvd burner in their, so you can archieve your old footage. Dual layer DVD burners are coming down in price, these burn 8.5gigs onto a disc as opposed to the 4.7 that single layer burners can achieve. I have just burned a few dvd's with all my old footage to save buying another hard drive. Also the price per gig of hard drives at present favours getting either a 120 or 160 gig. These represent better value than an 80 and will give you that bit more room for ripped videos etc. If you intend to play any newish or future games at all, i would advise getting a better graphics card, spending something like £50 should get you a reasonable ati radeon or nvidia. Beware of going for the cheapest card in a particular range though (usually the SE for ATI Radeons) as these are often worse than the similarly priced mid range card in the catagory/number below. I have a sapphire radeon 9550 128Mb, which cost me around £50 a couple of months ago. It is relatively simple to overclock to get a decentspeed improvement to take it up to the same performance as the 9600, and as mentioned is actually better performing in stock configuration than the 9600 SE. Good to see you are going for a decent branded motherboard, and RAM and not making the same mistake i did by going budget. As for the different sockets i don't know anything about them as i didn't get an athlon 64 so didn't do any research into those.

B+ Apparantly I'm 29 :( only 7 years out!! A:Amazing N:Normal D:Dignified R:Revolutionary E:Earnest W:Wild H:Hyper I:Influential L:Luxurious L:Logical Oh and my element is water

As far as i know its the method of writing the disc which is determined by the + and - most aftermarket writers do both these days, although i know that most dell's up until very recently came with +R's. Did you buy your drive as an aftermarket item or was it part of a complete pc, it may well have what type format it writes on the drive front itself.

Chalk up another vote for nero 6, i havent written hundreds of dvd's, but it hasnt fudged one of the 20 or so i've done to date.

i know quick spider is using planet x BMF's front and rear on his ashton, the front is a little on the heavy side, so maybe go for something a little lighter.

get some sturdy wood and make a couple of boxes, or railed sections from that, also tree trunks make quite good bits, try and find a couple of smallish trees that have been cut down recently and get some bits of those. Asides that, pallets and things like that are the best way forward.

not exactly stable or practical though is it tommmmmmmmm (Y)

Most fans come with a straight through 4 pin molex connector so even if you have no spare molex's left you can plug it in, however as you suggest it is better to use the least loaded molex lead. If you want them to ba switchable (such as the extra ones i have just installed) then you will need either a fan controller or do some soldering.

Those compressor things really are silly then (Y) lol Out of intrest how much are complete water cooling systems, as they look really quite funky, and if they are remotely affordable i might look at one for the summer.

having always had a bike, i got into xc at about 17, got a marin hawkhill (still use it for road use) and started to do some dirt jumping on it. Went to a local train station car park where some wooden jumps had been made, met matt staples, started riding with him. Got a saracen x-isle frame from the halfords where i used to work, did a bit of trialsy type riding with matt, did a trials demo at the halfords. Left for uni aged 18, decided to continue dirt jumping, met dave cleaver a few weeks into term. Met steve, josh and the lawson twins (danny smiths cousins) a few weeks after that who all were either starting or already rode trials. Ditched sus forks for rigids mid way through the first year. and have been riding trials for the three and a half years since. Steve, dont worry mate, ill be around in the summer for rides, well have to get something regular going (Y)

my BMI is now 21.48, first time its crept over 20 (Y) i was 7 or 8% fat, last time i had it measured, but its a bit more now, good old winter bulking up then convert it to muscle with lots of riding in the summer :(

The ultimate in overclocking tool really, what sort of temp do they generate at the surface, with no loads attached i.e no cpu running? I've read that people have had P4's up to 4.4GHz and still had temps below 0 :blink: Just out of intrest what do you do with your amazing watercooled computer?

sounds like a nice idea, im planning on having it covered though in my "summer mod"

I can't wait till you get that beast finished george, its going to look immense. I guess i should start doing some research for the summer really.

1. I've seen the stuff about stealthing drives but im not a great fan. 2. Both the rear fans are blowing air out of the case, and i have a pair of fans mounted on a pci card to mix the air virtically, although i like the idea of a roof mounted fan to let the hot air at the top of the case escape. 3. Now your just being sarcastic :blink: and for 4 too :) i have mainly got the stuff as i am planning on getting a better case to mod over the summer, see my description over the third pic :P

Anything that uses the 3d engine will benefit from higher frame rates giving smoother graphics. I have had no problems at all overclocking mine, it is completely stable at the higher speed and i have played several games for hours. The card has a frankly small heatsink and no fan as standard, mine has run without problem in this configuration for a month, but i am getting a cooler that will blow onto the heatsink to ensure temps dont get too high over prolonged operation.

Well all my bits turned up, so i spent most of today fitting them, pics below :P Overall view in the dark Side View in the dark Overall view in the Light, not to hot looking :blink: as afterall its a shit case. Overall im satisfied, and core cpu temps have dropped 10 drgrees due to decent air circulation, so all is well.

when did you come and ride loughborough (Y) anyway, some nice big stuff, looks like you have got used to it really quickly.

I'm currently with E&L and have found them to be more than helpful, the cover for my bike is transferred between my uni and home addresses with a simple phone call. They took a complete spec of my bike at the begginning of the year, along with values and worked out the premium from that, i think mine was about £107 for £1200 worth. I did have to fit a datatag and buy a new lock which set me back around 60 between them, and so was still cheaper than endslsigh. Their policy also includes public liability insurance of up to £1 million, which endsleigh removed from their policy last time i came to renew, hense the switch. Also E&L will pay to replace parts if they break, although i wouldn't think this included the abuse we put our bikes through. I preferred the E&L deal, as for the same price as endsleigh i got a beasty lock and a datatag. Oh and by the way, datatags can be purchased from wiggle for £20, not the £50 you mentioned.

at this very moment in time i am listening to some garage, my housemate is a reasonable dj, and is doing a bit of mixing, so i get to listen through the ceiling. I'm not complaining, as its something differnet to what usually adorns my speakers.

What like the ability to turn up your voltages, my board allows you to alter the frequency of the cpu but not the damn voltage so after more than 1 or 2 MHz overclock the damn thing conkes out (Y)

in terms of your education, i'm pretty sure they will look at what school you are from, however if you take standardised exams and get good results from a poorer school then it shows something about you, i.e you can work on your own initiative, and are clever. Private/grammer schools often boost students performances. As for unis if you have the grades it is making yourself sound interesting and like you would fit in at uni. Thats where your ucas statement comes in.

i have my saphire radeon 9550 128Mb running at a clock speed of 445MHz for any 3d application. This basically gives a 20% increase in the number of frames per second it can process and equates to smoother scrolling graphics in games and CAD. You will need a set of softmod drivers and ATItool to be able to alter the card settings. I would advise setting up the card to run at normal speeds when there is no 3d application running to save your processor running at max speed the intire time. If you need a hand then msn me.

AMEN Dammit why did i think cheap would be ok (Y)