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Old 30th January 2009
Broodjegehaktmetmayo Broodjegehaktmetmayo is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Posts: 92
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DrJ View Post
The 430W unit should be OK, but I'd go with about 500W to be safe. It probably will be coasting, but that's fine (as long as you stay in the power range where the supply is efficient).

A couple of other comments: overall the hardware looks good. I'd personally use the on-board audio, but check to see that it is supported. The Creative cards have a bad reputation for drivers, but I've not used them in years, so can offer no specific advice.

There is one other detail you should check: the nVidia driver ("nvidia", not "nv") had issues with using 4GB memory, though this is reputedly fixed in the 177.70 driver. The old work-around was to enable memory remapping in the BIOS, but the BIOS has to support this feature, and not all motherboards do. I *think* ASUS has it, but you should download the manual to check. Again, the new driver reputedly fixes the problem, but I would want to be safe if I were buying a new motherboard with 4GB memory.
Thank you, DrJ

Ok, so actually you are saying that website with its 616 Watt is rubbish. I suspected that already, and I was also more or less 'drifting' towards the 500W, even 'though its twice the cost of a 430W ().

As to the sound: the main reason is that my experience with onboard sound is that as far as quality of the output is concerned it doesn't go far beyond the 'bleep' of my first 286 (). DSP doesn't sound anywhere near a separate Creative sound card, in my experience.

I checked the memory remapping: the Asus-board supports that.

Thanks again: appreciated
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