no lah... people usually recommend those brands becos they have lots of choices within consumers' budget.. there are better brands for psu and casing, but it's just that sometimes they are considered expensive to the general public... if someone asks me "i have a budget of RM1000 for a casing, what casing would u recommend?" then there tons of other choices besides cooler master. same goes for the psu. anyway, psu and casing is pretty important for gaming, although they're not the top priority... ur psu must be able to support the gc u're using. and the casing should have good airflow to cool down the system. just tell us the budget and the other forummers would be happy to help u

This post has been edited by danny_sp15: Oct 26 2009, 03:33 PM

Xigmatek does offer good value on their PSUs, but better brands exist if you have the money. Both OCZ and Corsair are the main choice of hardcore enthusiasts looking for the best of the best. And who can discount the legendary PC Power and Cooling?

As for casings, I feel that Cooler Master does offer the best bang for buck ones on the market. Their HAF series provides the best airflow and cooling performance among a majority of competitors who often price their products at a much higher premium. Though it can be said, the looks of both aforementioned cases don't appeal to all and the lack of filters in the HAF 932 is just disgraceful.

Super Noob Question...
Anyone know lowyat which store got sell 120mm fan filter?

okay here comes super noob question.

can someone explain what is RAID 0, 1,2,3 for HDD's?

I don't always trust Wikipedia, but here they do provide some good info about RAID configurations.

too complicated la that one, any simpler explanations?

Lol.

Well, first let's start with RAID 0, or data striping. What it does is it distributes the data that you write to it, or read from it, over two separate HDDs effectively boosting both read and write speeds. Take for example you are writing a 100MB file to your HDD. With a RAID 0 configuration, your system will write 50MB to one HDD and the other 50MB to the second HDD. The one problem with this is data security. Should one disk fail, you will lose all your data.

RAID 1 is for redundancy and is also called data mirroring. Unlike RAID 0, it offers no performance boosts. What it does instead is it will write the theoretical 100MB file I mentioned above to both your HDDs. This means that even if there is a failure of a single HDD, you still have a perfect back-up in the form of your second, mirrored drive.

RAID 10, or 1+0, does what its name suggests. It will first mirror data, then stripe it to two HDDs. Mind you this requires a grand total of four HDDs but affords you the performance of a RAID 0 configuration and the redundancy of RAID 1.

RAID 0+1 or RAID 01 practically does the same thing, with it striping data before mirroring, as the name suggests.

RAID 5 and 6 are called data striping with parity and frankly they are quite complicated to understand. But the performance you can gain here is minimal as compared to the aforementioned four other RAID arrays. One thing they do offer above all else is good read speeds, lousy writes and somewhat decent redundancy.

Did that answer your question?

This post has been edited by Loki[D.d.G]: Oct 26 2009, 08:32 PM

okay, im starting to get the picture here. the other explanations on the web too complex...

wanna ask about amd phenom x2 550BE and x3 720BE. can they surely be unlocked, or depends on batch, type of mobo, etc etc?

Can a DDR2 RAM substitude a DDR RAM and vice versa?

Guys, will it have a difference if i use 4x512mb ram using 4 four strip in mobo instead of 2x1gb in 2 strip?

Depends on batch, motherboard requires at least SB710 southbridge ... and luck.

If you mean replacing the RAM on your motherboard, yes only if your motherboard is one of those combo-memory version. DDR is not pin-to-pin compatible with DDR2.

Under normal usage, there is no difference.

the laptop is Compaq Presario V1000. the RAM tat comes with it is 128mb DDR SDRAM 266MHz. Do u think it can be replaced with 512mb DDR2 533MHz RAM??

Thanks!!

What if i use it for gaming? And what kind of usage will it have difference?

hi, I am Athlon 64 user, with DFI nF4 Infinity board, would like to ask if my mobo can support 1TB / 1.5TB HDD?

SB710 southbridge, means from 770 chipset onwards? i see most of the people who unlock uses 790GX mobo. if i'm not wrong, 790GX uses SB750 southbridge rite?

This post has been edited by dlwl: Oct 27 2009, 03:09 PM

Hey guys lets saying i'm running a rig with Quad core processor, GTS250 and 1TB HDD

Which PSU would you recommend?

different is you use up 4 slots and slightly a little more voltage..

want to ask pro here.

which way is good to pasang CPU cooler?upward or backward?

this is for TRUE 120 on XFX780i..

thanks a lot

This post has been edited by POKAUS: Oct 27 2009, 03:42 PM

Absolutely no

No difference. The good thing is it might increase overclocking margin a little, that's all. Bad thing, it stresses your chipset more, thus more heat.

No problem, as long as it supports SATA interface, you're good to go.

Yes to both questions. You might find SB710 on certain 760G/740G motherboard though.

Xigmatek NRP-PC502