I’m building my first desktop system in many many years now and getting back up to speed on all the hot topics is taking a while. I’m leaning towards getting the GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H which is based on the 780G northbridge so it has the integrated graphics with the hybrid crossfire feature (and also is miniATX size and has audio optical out, HDMI…). Review here and here continued... [more inside]
posted by joshgray on Mar 11, 2008 - 4 answers

Will I fry this chip? [more inside]
posted by zackola on Oct 18, 2007 - 10 answers

What are the most energy-efficient microprocessors currently available in mass-market PCs/laptops? [more inside]
posted by nyterrant on Apr 12, 2007 - 5 answers

While in the middle of doing my taxes the other day, my monitor went to displaying a weird character over and over over the entire screen. The computer wouldn't respond at all, so I shut it off manually via the power switch on the back. Since then, whenever I've attempted to start it up, the fans come on, the hard drive clicks a couple times, as usual, and then nothing. The fans keep whirring but there's no beep, no usual startup process, and nothing ever gets displayed to the monitor. [more inside]
posted by DyRE on Apr 16, 2005 - 3 answers