The Tech Question Thread

doesn't matter, get whatever is cheapest

this is my list of things i would care about when getting a cheap graphics card:

1. does it have a fan? because if it does, it is out. card needs to have passive cooling i.e. heatsinks, because noisy computers really suck
 
doesn't matter, get whatever is cheapest

this is my list of things i would care about when getting a cheap graphics card:

1. does it have a fan? because if it does, it is out. card needs to have passive cooling i.e. heatsinks, because noisy computers really suck

I thought I was going to get some long pros/cons post from you :loco:

i have 109 choices at Newegg under $50 ... anything there that looks interesting?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709 4025&IsNodeId=1&name=$25 - $50


EDIT: this is what I currently have in my PC:
http://www.sabrepc.com/p-2032-dell-...300-le-128mb-pci-e-desktop-graphics-card.aspx

Can't imagine this not being able to go up to 1920. do you think it doesn't because my current monitor has 1680 max?
 
I guess get that gigabyte one, always best to go with the ones with the most reviews so you can read what other people think. Has max res of 2054x whatever so you should be ok, not sure what else an LED monitor requires though over a regular LCD monitor
 
well, bought the 22" version of the above monitor from some dude on craigslist. was brand new in the box for a buck twenty. I think it was some shady deal on his end. he said he got it in a raffle??!? ... riiiight.
had to do the deal in a laundromat in what has to be one of the shadiest areas of the world ever ... Cypress Hills, Brooklyn.

anyway, thanks fo the advice kneegrows on the video card but it turns out max resolution on a card is something that shows up in Display Properties depending on what the monitor itself can handle. so once I plugged it in I could go to 1920 res on the PC automatically. no need for a new video card.
 
anyway, thanks fo the advice kneegrows on the video card but it turns out max resolution on a card is something that shows up in Display Properties depending on what the monitor itself can handle. so once I plugged it in I could go to 1920 res on the PC automatically. no need for a new video card.

i could have told you that actually but i guess i was confused as to why you wanted to upgrade

you can easily compute what amount of display RAM you need for a given resolution

ram = (height * width * (bit depth/8))/1024^2

so in your case, 1920x1080 at 24 bits, anything above 6 megabytes is fine. do you have more than 6 megabytes of ram on your card? yes. you do.
 
Hiren's boot cd is absolutely amazing. One of the best troubleshooting/repair tools I've found. It has EVERYTHING. If you ever lose admin passwords, router passwords, bios passwords; if you ever need to find out if your ram is bad or even to run basic system/bios diagnostics. It also has bootable versions of XP and Ubuntu on it, both of which have some pretty crazy recovery capabilities and... Dare I say network penetrating capabilities. You can even install it on a flash drive and make it bootable.

http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

:kickass: It's been such a life saver as a technician/network operator.
 
My second laptop which I refuse to put out to pasture does not play audio from internal/external speakers. If I were to wiggle the plug in to the headphone jack for several minutes, fragmented audio will emanate. The audio used to hold up if I struck the right position and kept it there by means of a weighted object. Alas, this no longer seems to be the case. My buddy recommended I get an external sound board. Can any of you nerds co-sign this suggestion? Don't want to drop $40 and not fix the prob.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...yMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo
 
external sound boards? Are they real? I investigated external video cards recently for amusement's sake and found there wasn't really such a thing
 
yeah of course it will work, just do it, buy it, do it

external sound cards are the only option if you're looking to do anything semi-serious with audio on a laptop, the built in sound chips always suuuuuuuuuck

i use this for recording on my lil netbook, its cool http://www.alesis.com/io2
 
On my old laptop (the one I'm using now) the cursor jumps to another portion of text while I'm typing without being prompted to do so. Hence, I have to correct every 7th word. Negar, erroneously becomes Negra. I disconnected the wireless mouse, but the problem persisted. Bleh

Ordering the creative soundblaster x-fi on amazon for $30 to remedy my sound issue. I'm also going to dled this program tmrw in an attempt to fix the cursor issue. http://code.google.com/p/touchfreeze/


:devil: