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Disclaimer: I know jack about an NAS. I bought a Synology DS218j so I could have an always-on network storage device to stream movie and TV show files without having my PC on 24-hours a day. The Western Digital white 10 TB drive in my DS218j is getting close to capacity, so I bought and added...

Okay, so I'm a bit behind the times: I've used the same Panasonic Home Theater in a Box system for like 7 years, and have things connected via Optical Audio. But I purchased an Nvidia Shield on Prime Day, and it doesn't have an optical port, so I guess I have to come up with a new connection...

This all started just a couple of weeks ago. I've been extraordinarily busy at work (struggling to put out a rush of proposals before year's end) so I didn't really get a chance to investigate before today, my first full day off in two weeks. I have used simply debrid to get links from various...

I'm not a console gamer (though my 12 y/o is); I've always gamed on PC. But the PS3 has some great exclusive games that I want to play (Last of Us, Uncharted Series, Shadow of the Colossus HD, LBP, etc). I have very little experience with consoles. So here's my question: Is a 250gb slim...

I bought my sister a refurbished Dell XPS X8300 (specs below) off of ebay as an early Christmas gift. When I got it in, I discovered that the Radeon HD 6770 that came in the machine from Dell had been removed (it wasn't mentioned in the ebay ad; I found out about it by looking up the service...

[note: I am posting this from way out in the country where we're spending Thanksgiving; I have very limited internet connectivity, so please excuse any errors] My sister's video card (Zotac Geforce 8800GT 512mb) from her old computer crapped out, and I sent her a spare card (Gigabyte Radeon...

I got a Crucial m4 256gb SSD and installed it as my primary drive a few weeks ago. After a few missteps because of using my old C:\ drive as my new D:\ drive (and the boot sector on it conflicting with the new Win7 install), I did a new clean install of Win7 that seemed to work well. I've been...

Unnn, this is odd. My work machine has a standard onboard Soundmax Integrated Digital HD Audio, playing though a little Logitech LS21 2.1 speaker system. It's worked fine for like 3 years (my Dell Core 2 Duo desktop was changed out last year for an almost identical one due to a MB failure)...

I am building an 4gb/1066 Athlon II x4 system for sister and wanted to use my existing Zotac 8800GT+ Amp! Edition in it, and upgrade my own PC to a 1gb Radeon 5850 (I also wanted to upgrade my mb/CPU to a Phenom II X4 9xx after the new year). The 5850, as all with a clue know, is chronically...

A friend recently purchased a nice refurbished HP Pavilion a6720f (AMD Phenom X4 9550) from Tigerdirect, and had me upgrade the PSU and add a 9800GT video card for him. After setting it up and installing some software for him, I was impressed with the fit and finish of the package. So I am...

The system in my sig has been good to me for a while, and I'd like to do a minor upgrade in anticipation of Left4Dead 2 in a couple of months. Right now I play quite a bit of Left4Dead (1680x1050) and some BF2, but I have my eye on a few upcoming (and recently new) games. So what do you...

I've been using a Viewsonic VX2025wm as my single display for two years with not one single complaint. I've just built a new PC (partial specs listed below; full specs in my sig) with an Acer AL2216W 22" widescreen. After moving the Viewsonic to the new computer and attempting to connect it as...

So I just put together the system in my sig - buying a new cpu, mb, ram, vid card, case, psu, hd & 22" lcd, and cannibalizing the rest from my previous machine. After putting the system together, I'm a bit unhappy with its 10941 3DMark06 rating, so I want to tweak the performance. My new...

So I just put together the system in my sig - buying a new cpu, mb, ram, vid card, case, psu, hd & 22" lcd, and cannibalizing the rest from my previous machine. After putting the system together, I'm a bit unhappy with its 10941 3DMark06 rating, so I want to tweak the performance. My new...

This is my first major upgrade in over three years -- current system in my sig -- and I can spend perhaps $1000 on a new system (the old one is going to my six year old so he'll stop bugging me to play Lego Indiana Jones on my PC ;) ). So how does this sound? CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2...

So my 19" CRT went out with a "hollow"-sounding click and a suddenly black screen (the power LED flashes orange). Luckily I had a spare 17" Dell lying around, but after 19" monitors for 5 years, the 17" screen is teh suck. :mad: So I'm looking for my first LCD (prolly a 20") and CompUSA...

Just got this in an email from a fellow BF2-er: What the hell could EA possibly be thinking? Support has dropped since they released a patch that introduced as many problems (including frequent "crashing servers" and frequent "crash to desktop" bugs) as it fixed, and people have started to...

Did a fast search and couldn't turn up the answer in the first two pages: Cash being an issue, I just got a refurbed SB Audigy 2 from Creative on ebay. I know that Creative loads all kinda bloatware in their included CD, so is there a source for drivers that don't include all that crap? All...

Creative has a refurbed Audigy 2 on their ebay store for $29.99 + tax + shipping = $40.93. I'm looking for a similar card for a lesser total price. The only problem I have with my new MSI's onboard sound is crackling/popping sometimes in BF2; everything else is fine. The Audigy's price is...

Done a search or two, but haven't hit a solution yet. In a new-to-me rig, the onboard sound on a MSI KN8 Neo4 crackles and pops in BF2 only (i.e. in no desktop apps, media playback, etc.). It might happen in some other games (I haven't installed many others yet), but it doesn't in Hitman...

I've looked and looked and found no good answers. Can you get Xfire to start BF2 with one click (i.e. bypass the unlock and advertising popups)? Can you join games that your buddies are already in? If you can, please let me known how. I'm in Houston and generally play BF2 with friends in...

This looks pretty nice, especially to those who're looking for some night combat before the SF expansion pack is released. I'm d/l-ing it right now. Client files for the mod (150mb): Link Mirror 1 Server files for the mod (13mb): Windows server files Linux server files BF2UN.com...

Badass additions/fixes to what is already the best BF2 frontend (IMHO): No adware, spyware and totally free. Buddy List. Master Server List. Sponsor Server. Allows you to quickly and easily join the same server as your friends. Keeps a list of your favorite servers. "Auto-Join"...

So I'm going to give my copy of Half Life 2 to a friend who wants to play but is seriously strapped for cash. I know that the CD key is tied to my Steam account; is it legal/allowable to uninstall HL2 from my machine and install it on his? Would he have to use my Steam login info, or can he...

System specs in my sig. I've purchased additional sticks of PC3200 DDR ( 1x512mb Centon and 1x1gb PNY Optima) and when I put either in my remaining ram slot, the board counts up all the ram, but hangs at "Memory Frequency Is:" and won't allow me to enter the bios. When I pull out the new...

So I have a gig (2 x 512) of Corsair Value Select PC3200 in the system in my sig, and I want to play Battlefield 2 with less lag and stuttering. I'd like to add an additional gig of Corsair (1gb stick) Value Select PC3200 (on sale at newegg for $82, I think). Should there be a problem with...

Downloaded the demo with TrueDownloader in like 14 minutes (thanx for the tip, Ace!) and installed the game just fine, including the DX9c update and the included latest NVidia drivers. Whenever I try to run it, the full screen goes black, then it pops back to about an 800x600 black "window" in...

Ok, I d/led and played a mod that screwed up my copy of Doom3 (Classic Doom for Doom3 ... pretty badass except for this problem). Afterward, when I tried to connect to an online server, I got a "Can't connect to pure server. Missing Media Pak Files..." error. So I uninstalled and reinstalled...

After building my new system (see sig), I refurbed the old machine a bit, and gave it to my 13-year old, using a netgear router/wireless adapter to share the cable modem. What I want is a good, inexpensive filtering package to keep him away from the egregious porn and other nasties. I'm not...

I've gotten my system all set up and I'm very happy with it save for one thing: there was no ethernet port on the motherboard. The device is found in WinXP's Device Mangler (er, Manager), but there's no rj45 connector on the mb at all. I know it's supposed to be mounted above the two...

My Logitech MX Duo and scroll wheel doesn't work in Doom3 (switch weapons). It works in all other programs I've tried (no other games yet; new PC and D3 is the only game I have installed), but D3 doesn't recognize the wheel at all. This is my first wireless kb/mouse, so I'm at a loss. Any...

VNF3-250 won't boot, no video System powers up, all six fans spinning, but I get no video. Getting a single long beep every 5 seconds. There was NO beep when I removed the CPU. Steps taken: Removed ram & tried in different slots (still beeping) Unplugged HD & DVD (still beeping) Removed...

System powers up, no video. All fans seem to be woking fine. Getting a single beep every 5 seconds. There was NO beep when I removed the CPU. Removed ram (still beeping) Unplugged HD (still beeping) Reseated CPU and power (still beeping) Chaintech VNF3-250 AMD Athalon 64 3000+ Retail...

I'm building a system (A64 3000+, Chaintech VNF3-250 mb, 1gb Corsair Value Select, BFG 6800 OC, Logitech Z640 5.1 speakers, all supposed to arrive tomorrow/Friday) and I'm trying to keep everything I can off the PCI bus (currently, there'll be nothing on it). :confused: Is the quality of...

Last Sunday I posted a proposed Athlon XP system spec and asked for advice and comments from the assembled [H]ardware [h]igh priests (http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=794249). The advice I got convinced me that an Athlon 64 system was the way to go. So I decided to add a little more...

Folks, I'm building an Athlon XP-based machine and I want to list the proposed specs for the hardware gurus here to comment upon. This is what I'm envisioning (I have the funds available and I'm ready to order the components, but want informed opinions before I do; * indicates items I've...