Also, I would like to study and obtain my A+ certification. How long does it take and when and where can you take the tests to certify you. I think that may eliminate a lot of these questions I post on the BBS.
Send me your email address. I can send you ALOT of study material that I used recently. Also, check out passitnow.com. Great site for certs.
I think you should just read some hardware articles on the net before you jump for a certification www.tomshardware.com www.anandtech.com www.hardocp.com all these sites review different computer parts and accessories, this should also help you out with choosing your video card. They provide different kinds of benchmarks for games, video encoding and stuff like that
The closest place i usually go here in town to get all my computer parts for memory is Axion www.axiontech.com Some of the best prices on stuff.
Pun... the Radeon Series of cards will work fine. I have a Radeon 7500 and it has handled every game I have thrown at it so far...I imagine that any of the 64M VRAM cards will work for just about every game there is...and can be had for under 100. re: A+ there are tons of books on the subject....also...get every book you can find on hardware..even old books will have information that you will find useful.
man R2k have you played today's games? My Geforce3 used to run everything at full detail and ever since these new crops of games started coming out I have to run it at medium settings or sometimes even low. Sometimes I don't even feel like playing some games because they run so slow and take up so much space
Smart man -- Axion's my favorite in Houston. I occasionally buy from http://www.directron.com, but I don't really like them. I *LOVE* Axion though. Online, http://www.newegg.com is great!
I stopped going to directron after many issues i had with them when we were getting parts for clients computers...mainly waiting more than and hour and half one time for a small part. I haven't been back since i am not sure if there service is any better now. I have been buying parts from axion for my computer company for almost 5 years now and have nothing but good reviews for them.
You have had about the exact same experience with them as I have. Several years ago, they had a little disclaimer on their site that if you didn't place the order online, it was like 5% more. I got bitten by that once, and I decided not to go back unless I needed to. Well, obviously I've been back since then, and every time, I wait FOREVER for them to bring out my order while other people come and go while I wait. A lot of times it's for something REALLY simple and small. Also, this one lady always gives me the evil eye when I go in there . . . Now, I did have a great experience last time I went (about a week ago) to their new location, and I got my stuff in less than five minutes, but that's bound to be a one-time thing. Five minutes is usually my average at Axion though. The guys at Axion are really nice and very knowledgable. I almost always buy from them if I can, but every once in a while they won't have something and directron does . . . I actually wish I were in charge where I work so that I could use Axion a lot more than we do, because I have always had such great service from them.
Yeah Axion really helps me out. It also helps that they are really close to me. The only other place i go to is Bass Computers but not as much. They usually have some good deals on stuff they get from dell etc that aren't too bad but for most everything i go to axion.
I like Directron because their selection is so good. They're always busy when I get there before they open. There're about 10 people waiting to get in when I get there. I've been to Axion a couple of times and they're never busy. I go in there and there's probably 1 or 2 people ahead of me after they've opened. I'd buy from either. I love Directron's selection of cases. It's among the best on the 'Net. I've never had a problem with either one.
I also bought my case from Directron, I usually buy all my stuff from newegg but I've also gotten a hard drive or two from Axion
OK here is another question about building a computer. It something I've never done so here goes: In my current computer, the one I am posting on I keep getting blue screens and error messages and I keep getting several different ones. I'm thinking it may be a RAM issue or maybe the motherboard isn't XP compatible. Anyway, I want to take it out of my current computer nd hook it up to my new computer that will have all new components. The thing I'm worried about is; that may be a bad idea since the drivers for all my old hardware is located on this hard drive, I mean I don't know how windows would react having those drivers on there then having to deal with recognizing new ones. Could I do this without any problems?
If you have windows XP installed on the hard drive right now as long as you don't change the mother board it will take all the new hardware and the drivers are not going to make a difference. You are going to have to install the new drivers for all the new components. If you get a new motherboard, then forget about it because you will have to do a complete install. (part of XP security) To be honest if you are getting that many errors right now then i would really recommend doing a backup on all your important data, building the new computer and starting fresh with your OS and transfering your old data. That is honestly the best way to 1. figure out if your hardware had some problems. 2. fix a lot of the problems you might be having right now. Either tranfer the data to another computer if you have a network, or if you have a CD burner just burn your information.
admittedly...my gaming time lately has been pretty close to nil...so I guess Im generalizing about something that I dont know for sure...so Ill bow to other's more up to date knowledge there.... the most current game Im playing is NBALive04.. not necessarily true... I switched out a new mobo a while back on my XP system, and the only hassle I had was going thru numerous reboots while installing the new drivers for all the hardware. If you are using a version that has been activated with MS, and it detects a lot of new components, you will have to go thru the process of re-activating it. is that what you were referring to Stack?
Well your activation being with XP Home Edition i guess that what version your talking about. I have dealt more with XP Pro, which tends to give you a bit more problems when you do a big MB swap. Just by experience i don't do a MB swap without reinstalling. Originally when we were going through training they were saying that it's better if you do a clean install cause you might get a lot more errors if you do a MB swap or as you stated you have to reactivate it, basically proving that you are not trying to just take the hard drive out and copy it and put it in another computer with the same Serial Number.
