Gonna update, would like advice.

Re: the login thing. You can also use TweakUI for XP to force Windows to always login a particular user. The &quot;force-you-to-login&quot; thing happens if you install the .NET runtimes because they add the ASP.net &quot;user-id&quot;. Go figure. <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>1. Is DDR2 or Dual-Channel DDR better? Dual-Channel seems to be aimed at gamers- why? Is DDR2 @ 800Mhz really twice as fast as DDR 3200 @ 400Mhz? <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> DDR2 is somewhat better than DDR. Right now the performance advantage is a bit limited, IIRC, but you should go with DDR2 if only because that´s the new avant-garde memory standard and it´s a natural evolution from DDR. <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>Are there any compatibility problems with either? I run a bewilderingly large collection of software here, so whatever I get needs to play nice. Stability and lack of errors in my 3D applications is a priority, but I also want to wring every ounce of speed I can out´ve the machine´s basic hardware at the budget I can afford. Which is, needless to say, not unlimited. <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> My computer uses DDR in Dual-Channel mode, and the sticks aren´t even a matched pair <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> Everything works fine, though. Just make sure to get decent-quality RAM such as Corsair. <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>2. Is there any point to buying a Geforce 7800 over a 6800 GT? And how much difference does the type of DDR really make? It doesn´t seem to be a big factor in the cost... <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> If you can afford it, get the 7800. The video card experts I know say it´s worth it. <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> (I´m still using a Radeon 9600 Pro, as I´m not much of a video card purist) <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>3. Does anybody have any real clue as to what Athlon 64s really perform better than others? I´m not talking just speed here... I´ve done a bit of reading about the different cores, and I´m wondering if a Toledo core wouldn´t be worth a bit more $$$ just to save power and heat loading. I don´t care about heat as much as most folks do (I run caseless, with a huge copper heatsink with 90mm fan), but I hate wasting power that could be used by the SATA drives and GPU at peak loads. <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> The newest Athlon64s support SSE2, which could be a bonus in the right circumstances. <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>2. I tried running with the Pagefile entirely in RAM, but it wasn´t terribly stable. What factors into the stability of such a method? The last time I did this, I hadn´t upgraded my power supply, so my theory is that I might have not had enough power available to keep voltages stable at peak loads. Are there any other factors that might have led to poor performance? <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> The pagefile entirely in RAM also deprives your programs of the ability to swap out to the hard drive if they need to, which may make them behave poorly. Just my theory, though.

7800 is Shader-3.0-ready and consumes a little bit less power (idle: 7800 GTX: 114 W; 6800 GT: 123 W; 6800 Ultra: 127 W ---- full: 6800 GT: 190 W; 7800 GTX: 199 W; 6800 Ultra: 202 W). And of course it is faster, it is ... really fast. No, I am not NVidia-addicted.

Alrght, I won´t say it <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>. *Hops off silently, hoping that the Mullah doesn´t have the RR service enabled as well* <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

hop off.

You mean that you do?!? Ah, poor, poor Mullah *shakes head sadly* <img src=smilies/icon_smile_tongue.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>.

Silly rabbit, I turned off all but the most important core Services long ago, and I do have a firewall. I´m not terribly worried about the login issue- nobody has physical access to the box, and the Services that would allow remote manipulation are all turned very much off. Read a scary article at one point about the ... &quot;helpful&quot; screen-sharing functionality built into XP, and then did a multitude of tweaks, like disabling Remote Assistance and Remote Registry (brrr... that´s a stupid idea) and a huge bunch of Registry tweaks... which, unfortunately, all was in the misty ages past. As usual, I am surrounded by the many weird things that I have very rapidly figured out how to do, and then just as rapidly forgotten again <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> So now my machine logs in sans pass again, but I think it´s fairly safe from random intruders. I never keep ports open or anything, so I´m not likely to get attacked by random bots, not that they could do much with the box once they got there- I have just about every port-related service turned off, because I only want the machine to be able to access the Internet- it doesn´t serve anything, and if I ever wanted it to, I´d turn that back on. If I can remember how (kidding- that part I remember from the last time I had friends over for some fragging on the LAN). I know that that level of security isn´t going to stop anybody who´s serious, but it´ll stop script-kiddies and other junior llamas. Which is all that I´m worried about, anyhow- if you annoy somebody with real skills enough that they´re going to make your day unpleasant... well, you might as well just unplug the router and go enjoy that weird, non-geeky thing called Outdoors that I have heard so much about but never seem to visit, except while driving through it in a well-insulated automobile <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

&quot;Silly rabbit&quot;? Sounds like somebody has been spending too much time around the Mullah. Not a good sign... <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

*nitpicks*<img src=smilies/icon_smile_tongue.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>I have 2ghz dual-channel Crucial Ballistix which does the job nicely. <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> Ouch the memory latencies must be horrendous!<img src=smilies/icon_smile_tongue.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> Btw he means 2GB for those who might have been confused...

my typing fingers develop a life of their own at times!