Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with 32

TV Woes

ashaw — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:59:17 -0800

I'm looking for a 32inch or larger TV under £500 give or take, I've done weeks of research which has resulted in greater head scratching. Knowledge needed from someone who knows his 1080Ps from his 100MHZs. I'd love to hear names of specific models. First of all, is 1080P worth it? I heard it's negligible for anything under 40"

Secondly, I don't fully understand what 100Mhz is, but I know it looks pretty good, especially for fast movies and games. Worth it?

Finally, I'd like something with pretty good sound, and a reactive remote control that isn't sluggish.

Big ask i know, but it's a big investment for me and I don't want to screw up!

Thanks Mefi!

Building a uber powerful gaming pc, need your help

spinko — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 15:03:44 -0800

Building a uber powerful gaming pc, what parts to buy as I don't want to be a sucker. Need your help. Intel Core i7 I currently own a Mac (macbook pro 4gb) for business, even through it is fast in bootcamp. I want better for MMO's and FPS games. This is strictly a gaming machine, and needs to be future proof. I haven't built a computer in 2 years, so I have gone abit rusty.

My budget is £2000 (~$3500) just for the box. I already have a 30inch Cinema display, so I want to play games at the natural resolution (2560 x 1600) with a good 60+ fps.

Here is my list of what I want.

CPU:
Core i7 940 (2.93ghz quad + hyperthreading) ~£470
I want to overclock this cpu as much as I can. I have seen this processor get to 3.4ghz with no problems. I will need a good Motherboard or fan to do this.

The extreme version, is it worth it?

Should I wait for a faster processor coming out in a few months?

HDD:
Raptor 300gb (10k rpm)
or
SAS Hdd's (15k rpm) I dont know too much about this, is it worth it?

Is their any benefit of having a solid state hard drive for bootup OS?

Im not too bothered about size, I don't need 1tb as I only need it for games (300gb max)

PSU:
750, 1000 or 1500 watt? do I need more power for overclocking? or is it just money down the drain.

Video card/s:
The new cards confuse me

SLI cards x2: Does this actually improve gaming performance, or shall I keep with a single 1gb graphics card? Nvidia or ATI?

Others:
Need a good Motherboard, memory (to match the mb) and video card.

Motherboard needs to be good for overclocking.

Also, I may go with Vista 64bit dual boot with XP 32bit. I have heard about something better than software dual boot. Cannot remember what it was.

Memory is limited to 3gb on XP 32bit, however can handle more that 3gb on Vista 64bit. Is it worth going for 64bit Vista for gaming or stick to 32bit non dx10 XP? (I went over to Mac due to Vista, last year for business).

Memory will have to match the top FSB if possible. Unless you cannot see any difference.

Anything extra that will improve performance?

Instead of building my own, could you recommend a pre-built spec. I live in Spain but go to the UK frequently. I know Falcon NW will ship to Spain for $400, but the benefit is the warranty, negatives are the power supply. However building it myself each equipment piece has warranty.

Thanks if you can help.

Vista-filter: So I've got a Lenovo T61p that came with a Vista Home Basic 32... I have Lenovo's "Vista Business 64 recovery CDs" coming to me via UPS this week (don't ask why, it's complicated...) So my questions are:

Glendale — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:47:17 -0800

Vista-filter: So I've got a Lenovo T61p that came with a Vista Home Basic 32... I have Lenovo's "Vista Business 64 recovery CDs" coming to me via UPS this week (don't ask why, it's complicated...) So my questions are: 1 - When the discs arrive, assuming that they've got a full version of Vista Business 64 on them (there are 9 discs, so it's possible!) can I pop them in and just "upgrade" my 32 bit Home Basic, or am I gonna need to wipe and do a fresh install?

2 - Should I even mess with Business 64 at this point, or should I pick up a copy of Business 32 (or even stick with XP..) I'm worried less about driver support, and more about applications...

3 - How sweet is 1920x1200 resolution? (I already know the answer to this one ;)

I use the machine for everything from .NET programming to hardcore 3D gaming.