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The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition
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Any Flaming Results in a Temp Ban or Worse. Your Choice!!!
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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17. February 2009 @ 18:10 |
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Good job Fred :D
Nice Sig russ ;)
Well, I finished my taxes. Should be seeing a return with in 2 weeks or so. then its newegg shoppin time, LOL
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
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AfterDawn Addict
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17. February 2009 @ 18:12 |
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Fred that is GREAT!!!!! I'm glad that Russ helped you thru it and you are satisfied with your product... Oh and it's beautiful NOT to have that extra crap in there innit?? :D Good luck buddy and keep us informed. ;)
...gm
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AfterDawn Addict
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17. February 2009 @ 18:13 |
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Originally posted by Sophocles:
Cooler Master Centurion 534 case
I do like your taste in inexpensive cases and Scythe makes some decent fans. It should be quiet enough to even quell Sam's near obsessive compulsive search for quiet.:P
Sophocles,
I like the case very much! The big surprise was the PSU that came with it. It's well designed and very quiet. Looks nothing like the one in the Newegg pics at all. It has a 120mm fan on the bottom, rather than the air inlets on the sides and back like the one shown on Newegg.
The case itself needs a little improving in airflow in order to cool better, but the fan locations are all there, so it's easy enough to get it perfect. I pulled the stock rear fan and replaced it with a 53 cfm 1200 rpm Silverstone. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835220031 I moved the fan I removed to the front to help cool the sideways mounted HDDs, and added a Silverstone 80mm set to 1300 rpm as an exhaust, to replace the almost useless CPU Air Duct. The lower 120mm intake on the side cover doesn't do anything that I can see. Probably good if you are using a Video card, to help cool it. All in all, I'm very happy with the first AMD x2 I've ever built for myself, and so glad that I built it! In spite of a total of 5 case fans, it's extremely quiet! I've given it a mild 500MHz OC to 3.2GHz, although I had it as high as 3.7GHz using AMD Overdrive and the ACC. I'm quite happy with the performance at 3.2GHz, so that's where it's going to stay, until I can afford the new Phenom II to put in it. I'm one happy camper! LOL!!
Best Regards,
Russ
GigaByte 990FXA-UD5 - AMD FX-8320 @4.0GHz @1.312v - Corsair H-60 liquid CPU Cooler - 4x4 GB GSkill RipJaws DDR3/1866 Cas8, 8-9-9-24 - Corsair 400-R Case - OCZ FATAL1TY 550 watt Modular PSU - Intel 330 120GB SATA III SSD - WD Black 500GB SATA III - WD black 1 TB Sata III - WD Black 500GB SATA II - 2 Asus DRW-24B1ST DVD-Burner - Sony 420W 5.1 PL-II Suround Sound - GigaByte GTX550/1GB 970 Mhz Video - Asus VE247H 23.6" HDMI 1080p Monitor
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AfterDawn Addict
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17. February 2009 @ 18:30 |
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Originally posted by omegaman7:
Good job Fred :D
Nice Sig russ ;)
Well, I finished my taxes. Should be seeing a return with in 2 weeks or so. then its newegg shoppin time, LOL
Oman7,
It should be a nice sig. I made it from your Pic and PhotoShop! LOL!! My scanner died after all these years, and I don't use one often enough to even consider replacing it! One will turn up, one of these days! LOL!!
Thanks for the Pic,
Russ
GigaByte 990FXA-UD5 - AMD FX-8320 @4.0GHz @1.312v - Corsair H-60 liquid CPU Cooler - 4x4 GB GSkill RipJaws DDR3/1866 Cas8, 8-9-9-24 - Corsair 400-R Case - OCZ FATAL1TY 550 watt Modular PSU - Intel 330 120GB SATA III SSD - WD Black 500GB SATA III - WD black 1 TB Sata III - WD Black 500GB SATA II - 2 Asus DRW-24B1ST DVD-Burner - Sony 420W 5.1 PL-II Suround Sound - GigaByte GTX550/1GB 970 Mhz Video - Asus VE247H 23.6" HDMI 1080p Monitor
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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17. February 2009 @ 18:48 |
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Originally posted by theonejrs:
Originally posted by omegaman7:
Good job Fred :D
Thanks for the Pic,
Russ
No problem buddy. Im in the process of learning photoshop among other things. Im diving in VERY deep to computers :D My skills are growing vastly with each passing day :D Its my hopes to be THE ONE some day, LOL. Nah, nothing too special, but certainly recognized maybe.
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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18. February 2009 @ 06:02 |
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Wow, your system can't use very much power Russ.... You can tell a coolermaster PSU from the next room at a LAN party.
The case you use though, the 534? Is it much like the 532? I was quite impressed with how that case performed in the system I built for my cousin.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 18. February 2009 @ 06:04
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AfterDawn Addict
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18. February 2009 @ 18:51 |
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Originally posted by sammorris:
Wow, your system can't use very much power Russ.... You can tell a coolermaster PSU from the next room at a LAN party.
The case you use though, the 534? Is it much like the 532? I was quite impressed with how that case performed in the system I built for my cousin.
Sam,
Here's the link to my case.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119159
Judging by the way it keeps things cool, I would say it has very good airflow characteristics. Temps are Super!
The temps are, R to L, Green=CPU, Dark Red=NB/GPU and the Purple=System temp. The two black ones are the HDDs, and the last one is the CPU Fan speed. Ambient temp is 21C/71F. I don't think it's possible to get the temps much lower than that, even though it's a bit chilly in here at the moment. The Sun's up so it will be getting warmer shortly! Here we are a couple of hours later at an ambient temperature of 24C!
As far as the PSU goes, that was a big surprise to me as it's a completely new and much better designed 460w PSU that the old one! Here's the old one.
And here's the new designed one.
The old design took air in from the front of the PSU. Considering that the majority of the warm air is behind the intake point, the air somewhat stalls around the top R corner of the case. The new design is a much better designed PSU, and a lot quieter than the old design!
I've discovered that Sandra Benchmarks for AMD's, are totally worthless! Please remember that I went from a bad E6750 to a Pentium D-940, OC'd to 3.55GHz. In fact using the D-940 at 3.55GHz, even though it's Sandra Performance numbers are much higher than the 7750BE, kicks the D-940's ass in performance all to hell at a stock 2.7GHz! The 3.55GHz D-940 never came close to the results of the E6750 yet the 2.7GHz 7750BE is marginally faster encoding the same test media, than the 3.55GHz E6750 was, with about 40% less MIPS! IMO all Sandra actually does since Sisoft stopped supporting Sandra 2005, is feed people's Egos! I'm pretty sure you will remember when I bitched about the huge gain in the numbers when Sandra 2007 came out. I mean, which one was correct, the 22,000 MIPS 2007 showed for my E4300 @3.355 or the 17,000 or so MIPS it showed with 2005? I think the then upcoming Core 2 Duo had a lot to do with that. Everest went the same direction too! Both companies barely support AMD at all! They saw the end of AMD's rein coming and geared their software pretty much to suit Intel results!
I really like this computer, and I am so glad that I built it. It does everything that the E6750 did and is better at encoding. I was wondering how the games I do play would look and play with somewhat slower video than the old 7600GT? It's better in every way! I know from playing Age of Empires on Oxi, with it's on board 6150 graphics, if you have two 200 man armies, and start building a lot of stuff that the video will eventually get dis-jointed where you think the mouse is acting up! I upped the Video Frequency to 800MHz and use both the 128MB Sideport memory and 256MB of the main memory and can run three 200 Man Armies with no sign of a slowdown in anything! Good Stuff!
I guess what I've accomplished here is to demonstrate how to properly do a Decent quality build on a budget. I had $650 to work with, so I concentrated first on what I wanted to have when finished. The MB, CPU and Memory were final, there were no options there! Everything else was looked at carefully, although I did blow it on the Lite-On ODDS! I managed to get two duds! LOL!! I like the Pioneer's I replaced them with. My total cost including Sales Tax and shipping was $550, with a $30 MIR coming from Corsair, so final cost will be $520. Add to that the $75 it's costing to repair my monitor, and I'm still under budget by about $50! For my efforts I wound up with the Best 790GX Motherboard, the best AMD x2 in it, and the best Memory available for the price at the time. I think it's safe to say that I made a wise choice in the case & PSU. Other than the two bad Lite-ons which were replaced the next morning by the Pioneers, and a bad round IDE cable, it's been the perfect budget build in terms of bang for the buck, for my needs. I'm extremely pleased with how well it all turned out!
Best Regards,
Russ
GigaByte 990FXA-UD5 - AMD FX-8320 @4.0GHz @1.312v - Corsair H-60 liquid CPU Cooler - 4x4 GB GSkill RipJaws DDR3/1866 Cas8, 8-9-9-24 - Corsair 400-R Case - OCZ FATAL1TY 550 watt Modular PSU - Intel 330 120GB SATA III SSD - WD Black 500GB SATA III - WD black 1 TB Sata III - WD Black 500GB SATA II - 2 Asus DRW-24B1ST DVD-Burner - Sony 420W 5.1 PL-II Suround Sound - GigaByte GTX550/1GB 970 Mhz Video - Asus VE247H 23.6" HDMI 1080p Monitor
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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19. February 2009 @ 04:56 |
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The noisy coolermaster units are the 120mm fan units like the one in your second photo. I don't know anything about the older 80mm boxes.
The HD3200 is far better than the Geforce 6150, without a doubt, but I would still place the 7600GT ahead of either.
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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19. February 2009 @ 15:07 |
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Probably silly but...Im really liking that this new board. It doesnt mind 2 printers on post. My msi, I had to disable legacy support. It was causing post times to be 2-3minutes. Or I simply had to shut them off. Trivial amount of time I know, but when im in a hurry or feeling impatient, thats quite a bit of time that doesnt need to be. I think it has something to do with the printers having USB pic bridge, or whatever the heck its called, LOL. Obviously alot of thought went into this gigabyte board! :D If it continues to impress me, I may just be a customer for life :D
Its got a little competition. My asus is 8 yrs old. And the MSI has been a solid performer. So far, the gigabyte is getting nothing but praise from me :D
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
AfterDawn Addict
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19. February 2009 @ 16:20 |
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I made an interesting discovery last night. I though maybe that my ODD
problems might be related to my OC! I decided to up the SouthBridge volts a little. I added 0.1v to the Southbridge, and the I/O speed went up dramatically! It now boots up completely in 61 seconds, with all drivers and software loaded, and ready to use. I have absolutely no idea why the voltage increase did that. Any ideas as to why? I know the Southbridge handles the Sata and IDE drives, as well as doing a few other things but I just didn't expect it to boot up so much faster and I'm curious why. I mean it normally has to address the Anti Virus, My Disc Stakka, HD Audio, Ati Catalyst and the Lan. Now they are done before Looney Tunes stops playing! An amazing difference for just adding a tenth of a volt! I'm just wondering, how come and what other people have to say about it?
Russ
GigaByte 990FXA-UD5 - AMD FX-8320 @4.0GHz @1.312v - Corsair H-60 liquid CPU Cooler - 4x4 GB GSkill RipJaws DDR3/1866 Cas8, 8-9-9-24 - Corsair 400-R Case - OCZ FATAL1TY 550 watt Modular PSU - Intel 330 120GB SATA III SSD - WD Black 500GB SATA III - WD black 1 TB Sata III - WD Black 500GB SATA II - 2 Asus DRW-24B1ST DVD-Burner - Sony 420W 5.1 PL-II Suround Sound - GigaByte GTX550/1GB 970 Mhz Video - Asus VE247H 23.6" HDMI 1080p Monitor
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bigwill68
Suspended permanently
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21. February 2009 @ 13:37 |
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@Russ
I feel if you tell a person how to do it and they still don't understand take (control)..lol nothing wrong with alittle networking...I can control both my systems and only have to be in of one turn on and turn off,file tranfer,burn and see both screens and etc now I can check my system from work if need be by remote control even if it's not running start it right up and turn it off...
my two systems in 1 pic below remote action
my connection
this comes in handy when others that need help and not sure by be there seeing what's goin on with there system but the trust issues also will be another thing some people just don't let you in on there systems like that unless they trust you too...fix it
Will...
Done out of Here!
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 21. February 2009 @ 13:44
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Red_Maw
Senior Member
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21. February 2009 @ 16:01 |
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It looks like I'll be reinstalling XP in the next week and since I've been wanting to put the OS on its own HDD for a while this is as good an opportunity as any. Not sure on what HDD to get, definitely going with WD after my last experience with seagate though. Was thinking of getting a Western Digital Caviar SE WD800AAJS 80GB because it's cheap, but at that price I'm beginning to question its reliability. I was also thinking of getting one of these two since they're faster. At those prices though I feel like I'm wasting my money since I can get 1TB drives for less.
What are your thoughts on a OS HDD?
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 21. February 2009 @ 16:06
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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21. February 2009 @ 16:21 |
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My 500gb WD AAKB (IDE) is very responsive! My AAKS 500GB is even more responsive. My AAKS and FALS 1TB transfer among themselves VERY nicely. I swear it was meant to be, LOL! Ive never ran an OS on the FALS drive. But the other two are AWESOME!!! You wont regret it. I suppose now that ive said that though, its possible that ive hexxed it, LOL
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
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Red_Maw
Senior Member
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21. February 2009 @ 16:45 |
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Hahaha I certainly hope you didn't hex it. I'd been eyeing the FALS 1TB too, looks like it would replace my annoying Seagate, which is scheduled for removal this weekend anyway, very well :) Getting a small drive would be cheap and would probably work fine but in the end that isn't my style lol. At this point I'll probably dump the Seagate in the closet, get a FALS and just not use my Raptor for storage.
Currently I have two WD drives (AAKS & Raptor) and really like them both. The amount of data I've pushed about on them is staggering yet both seem to be in good shape still.
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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21. February 2009 @ 17:12 |
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Originally posted by eparker89:
Hahaha I certainly hope you didn't hex it. I'd been eyeing the FALS 1TB too, looks like it would replace my annoying Seagate, which is scheduled for removal this weekend anyway, very well :) Getting a small drive would be cheap and would probably work fine but in the end that isn't my style lol. At this point I'll probably dump the Seagate in the closet, get a FALS and just not use my Raptor for storage.
Currently I have two WD drives (AAKS & Raptor) and really like them both. The amount of data I've pushed about on them is staggering yet both seem to be in good shape still.
I know exactly what you mean :D
The FALS is nothing short of amazing. Its extremely smooth, fast, and search times are the quickest i've seen! Well worth every penny!!! Infact, I wouldnt mind another one. I just dont know about the 2TB drive yet. Im concerned that the F/W may not be ready yet! Plus having 4 platters seems like that would limit its full potential. Heck, i'd rather buy 2 1tb drives than the 2TB drive at this point. 1. its cheaper to buy 2 FALS drives, and 2. its not been tested enough!
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
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Red_Maw
Senior Member
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21. February 2009 @ 17:56 |
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Felt the same way about the 500GB vs. 1TB for a while (which explains how I ended up with 4 four of them lol). It is time to get a 1TB though; being able to back everything up on one drive is going to be nice.
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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22. February 2009 @ 20:20 |
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AfterDawn Addict
7 product reviews
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22. February 2009 @ 21:29 |
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Originally posted by cincyrob:
whats the deal with seagate? they used t ohave a 5 year warrenty. now its only 3 years.unless your looking at the ES.2 drives. thinking of the 1tb WD1001FALS drive OM7 likes so much.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...2136284
Well...I'll tell you what. I spent almost twice that when I bought mine. And I DON'T regret it! :D
To delete, or not to delete. THAT is the question! |
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redice
Senior Member
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22. February 2009 @ 22:25 |
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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23. February 2009 @ 07:37 |
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Originally posted by redice:
cincyrob
seagate cut there warranties to 3 years now instead of 5 years on select ones.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/15305-Seaga...es-on-HDDs.html
i know you were talking about getting the cool masters HAF case. did you ever get it?
after reading that article, it sounds to me seagate is saying to hell with the consumer. that is the main selling point for me was the 5 year warranty.its funny look at WD they are now offering the 5 year warranty on their drives. sure some are still 3 year warranty but most are going with 5 year warrantys.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcom...N82E16822136062
as for the HAF,not yet ive used the money i had for it else where. but i will have it soon.
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AfterDawn Addict
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23. February 2009 @ 08:54 |
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Originally posted by cincyrob:
Originally posted by redice:
cincyrob
seagate cut there warranties to 3 years now instead of 5 years on select ones.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/15305-Seaga...es-on-HDDs.html
i know you were talking about getting the cool masters HAF case. did you ever get it?
after reading that article, it sounds to me seagate is saying to hell with the consumer. that is the main selling point for me was the 5 year warranty.
I saw the change a while back and that's the reason for my questions earlier in the thread. I've liked both companies for some time now and I've always had one or the other for OS drives but it seems that WD is drawing me in for the next purchase. :)
Originally posted by RedRob:
as for the HAF,not yet ive used the money i had for it else where. but i will have it soon.
Yeh how is that hair plug surgery going?? :P
------------------------------------------------------
Got a question for you lappy people. I've just purchased this memory for a friend. It's compatible and all but my question is the "playing nice with others" dilemma. lol. His other "stick" is 512, I just bet on it going along like the desktops do. Hopefully I was right and if not he at least doubles his memory. :D tia for any responses....
...gm
link to RAM in case you missed it...
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redice
Senior Member
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23. February 2009 @ 10:39 |
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cincyrob
same here,i liked seagate 5 year warranty as well on all there drives. That was also a selling for me. however, i do like there hard drives but i may have to look into WD a little more.
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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23. February 2009 @ 11:20 |
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Seagate's dropping of their warranty to 3 years put me off - usually, warranty drops come hand in hand with drops in build quality, and among the horrific firmware issue with the recent drives, I just don't trust modern Seagates any more. A shame, as the .12s are the first quiet Seagates for a long time.
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ddp
Moderator
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23. February 2009 @ 13:00 |
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gm, as long as it is compatible with his laptop then should be alright.
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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23. February 2009 @ 13:02 |
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i haven't had alot but all my drives have been Seagate and the 5 year warranty was the deal breaker.i do have the WD 500gb GP drive that i love. i cant hear it at all and is fast. tbh i think the next drive i get (maybe this week) will be the 1tb WD101FALs drive. gonna see if i can hunt around and find it cheaper. but $129 for it is a great price.
GM they told me i had a 3 week waiting period for my plug they had some guy from Lubbock Texas with a big melon they were working on....LMAO.. just funning buddy
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