This was kind of an urgent question, so I posted it in a seperate thread.
I have located another relative in USA (lol) who is willing to buy me a new 6600GT and send it to me here. And, I think I will get it for free.
When I checked up some websites they describe the agp cards as agp8x and do not mention whether the card will run in agp4x mode. So my question is:

WILL ALL AGP CARDS LABELLED AS AGP8X GUARANTEEDLY RUN IN MY AGP4X MOTHERBOARD?

There are also some cards that say they are agp8x and also pcie compatable. Do these cards run on agp slots as well as pcie slots?

This is some good news for me, and I would not like to make the wrong choice of graphics cards. But some of the websites I check only say the card is agp 8x, they dont mention whether the card will run in agp 4x or not.
If someone can please confirm this quickly, I would be grateful.
Thanks for all your help, this forum is definitely the most helpful thing on the internet.

Sarosh

8x cards run on 4x motherboards.

No, cards cannot be agp and pci-e. They are physically different slots. You can get a 6600GT in EITHER pci-e OR AGP. But a single card will be one or the other.

Please help survivors of Hurricane Katrina!

www.redcross.org

Which of these two cards do you think is a better bargain?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150157

I will upgrade my power supply to a 400W one if I get either of these. Which of these do you think I should ask for. I dont intend to overclock either of them or unlock any extra pipelines in the 6800. If I used them out of the box, which will give me better performance.
The 6800 has a 256bit archiceture, but its core speed is quite slower than the 6600GT.
What do you guys think about this.

Sarosh

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150157

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125168&CMP=OTC-pr1c3watch&ATT=14-125-168

Sarosh

Dude, if I could do it, I'd reach into this monitor, grab you by the head & slam your face into the keyboard a few times to try to knock some friggin sense into you!!

heropsycho, TMP-Man, anyone else who's been following this saga, please help me in trying to convince dsarosh what a stupid idea this is!

dsarosh, read this & try to understand:

You have an outdated S478 system that runs at 533FSB & only has a 4X AGP slot! You should NOT be investing any more money in it! Do NOT waste a single rubee on another video card!!

Wait until you hear back from AOPEN!!

Wait until you hear back from AOPEN!!!

Holy crap, Jam! lol....

"Milk was a bad choice!"

rofl lmao lol...

I have a stick gif animation where he bang his face to a keyboard... =P

TMP-Man

Asus P5P800-SE
P4 506 @ 4100Mhz 1.525v
Thermaltake CLP0024 w/ 2000RPM FAN + AS5
1GB Corsair 2-3-3-5 DDR400
40GB 5400RPM/120GB 7200RPM HD
Radoen 9500 mod 9700 @ 375/600 CHS+RHS

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xx5-seBZ-4&search=crazy%20keyboard

Aopen have not replied to me recently, and I dont really know if they will do anything for me. I had overclocked the card, and if they say that my warenty is void because I overclocked the card then I have just wasted my time with them.

My relative in usa is more than happy to buy the part for me and is also willing to find out ways by which I can replace the part if he thinks I ordered the wrong part. Why shold I say no to a free graphics card dude, ha. I am not really spending much money at all, and am not forcing anyone to spend money on me. He just sounded very happy to buy whatever part I wanted, so I am picking from these two cards.
You are probably going to hate me even more for this jam, but after the 6600GT had gone dead I also kind of messed around with it because I was prepared to throws it out. If aopen find out that I have messed with the card I dont know how much they will help me out. Rather than wait for Aopen to do something (which they may not do at all) I might as well enjoy a few more months of gaming on a new card before everything in my computer goes dead.
Besides, I think it is better to get a new xfx card than a repaired aopen card. I did some reading and aopen is not considered one of the best brands, while xfx is considered one of the best brands for vedio cards. I think it will be better to have a brand new xfx card than a repaired 6600GT, which was refurbished in the first place.
And you are right about savig money too jam, but then I also think to my self that life is once, and I too am growing old. Maybe its better I spend some money on the things I enjoy rather than saving money and getting bored each day. Although I am sure I wont be spending money on this card. I assure you that he is willing to help me out, I have not forced him in anyway. He runs some printing business, so I guess 150$ wont really be much for him.

Sarosh

Ha, jam you are going to make people here start believing that I am some crazy, paranoid guy here who just buys hardware left and right. I am not some crazy teenager obbessed about buying hardware, I am a 28 year old guy, and my only interesting in computing for the last few years has infact been gaming.
People here will stop helping me out if you yell at me dude.
http://sarosh.8m.com/images/sar.jpg

I dont mind using a m/b which may be slow and crappy compared to your standards, as long as I can enjoy a couple of hours a day gaming. Gaming has always been a great recreation for me between my work, and is the one thing I dont mind spending on.

As for Aopen and the 6600GT, before sending the card to taiwan I had told you that:
1) I had overclocked the card.
2) The card was refurbished. And although I didnt tell them that, I think they may be able to find that out by checking their records for my serial number.
3) I have no receipt or bill of any form. I dont even remember the online store from where the card was purchased.

However, you seemed positive I still took a chance with the warrenty, and I dont know what good will come out of it. Even if I would have done everything right with the rma number and all that, they could still have detected that the card was overclocked and voided the warrenty.

I am not really sure why you criticize me for spending on the things I enjoy. Except for the graphics card, I dont really care about upgrading my computer. My psu is 4 years old, and I dont care to remember how old my mouse and keyboard are now. They are functional, thats all I need. Since my college years it has been my habit that after few hours of work or study I take a gaming break. I dont really care about getting high frame rates, as long as I get the "recreational break" I need for the 10 mins.

You are still confident that aopen will do something about my card, and I really hope your wishes come true, but I am beginnign to think that may be I should have started looking for a new graphics card a few weeks ago rather than wait and hope.

Sarosh

"People here will stop helping me out if you yell at me dude."

Too late! Although I don't think Jam's "yelling" at you had anything to do with that.

"Milk was a bad choice!"

So Now you are saying that all you guys are going to ignore me over here?
Jam sounded confident that aopen would help me with the warrenty and so I send the card to taiwan, although I didnt follow the right procedure they still promised to help me out. I have followed jam's advice wherever possible. He keeps calling my system crappy when I get around 3000 3d mark05 points on it, and the max that a 6600GT can get is 3500 points.
He calls my computer crappy, he calls my computer chaps as untrustworthy, he says they make a fool of me and rob my money, I dont know how he can come to such conclusions without even meeting me or my hardware chaps.
Anyway, I think jam has ended any chances I had of getting help here. Jam treats me like a fool and now the rest of you are not going to help me out because you guys think I am a fool too.
Thanks jam.

Sarosh

dsarosh,

What does it take to get thru to you? The RMA process takes time...in my experience, 4-6 weeks & that's when done properly. It's only been two weeks plus you did it incorrectly. And because of the shipping problem, AOpen may not even have the card yet!

"...after the 6600GT had gone dead I also kind of messed around with it because I was prepared to throws it out"

That's just wonderful! We go thru all this BS to try to help you & you've been lying to us the whole time? That's just great! Talk about a waste of time.....

You are impatient & stubborn. You come here for help but 99% of the time you ignore it. And your "you only live once" analogy about buying parts doesn't hold water because if you truly believed that, you would have upgraded to a S775/PCI-e system like was recommnded to you back in November.

http://www.computing.net/gaming/wwwboard/forum/5795.html

http://www.computing.net/cpus/wwwboard/forum/12512.html

You certainly don't need me to make you look bad...you've done that pretty well on your own.

I have no intention of arguing with you dude, but its obvious that you have some sort of superiority complex and you just blindly like to blame others.
I tried upgrading my cpu for a few months, and when I could not I had said that my next cpu would be a dual core cpu. But since a friend has been kind enough to help me upgrade to a 2.53GHz cpu (which is more than i need dude, trust me) my next cpu will be a quad core after atleast another year, and that is the end of that matter dude. Why do you keep insisting on me to buy a new cpu and psu when I tell you repeatedly that I am VERY HAPPY WITH WHAT I HAVE.
My crappy m/b has never dissapointed me one time, its all that I need. You called my power supply a "crappy no-name brand" but it has worked flawless for me for 4 years now. I have no idea how you come to conclusions dude. Your solution to all problems seems to be "change your crappy m/b cpu".

And if you remember from 6 months ago I had said something like "i am taking a risk with a refurbished part for the first time, if it lasts me 6 months that would be cool."
The card lasted me 8 months, and I was prepared to throw it out. But I sent it for warrenty anyway, just to see the experience of how international warrenty works.
Read the subject of my intial post: "6600GT gone dead-REASON". I was looking to find out more about how parts failed and whether it was overclocking or whether it was because it was refurbished. I was NOT looking to get that card repaired my dude. I just took that chance anyway.

Anyway forget it dude, I thought forums were a place were people could discuss as friends and offer advice and share their experiences. You have not listened to anything I have said. All you have been suggesting is "upgrade your crappy m/b cpu". I dont meant to stress you out in anyway, you must have your own business to take care off and I dont intend to irriatate you. But I have been clear before too when i have stated that I dont come to this forum for "buying advice". The only thing I buy is vedio cards, I am happy with the rest of the computer. I come here to discuss and learn, it does not matter what you suggest what I shold buy because I have to chooose from the choices available to me, not the choices available to you.

Sarosh

The programming forum never get's this angry

I am not angry at all, and infact would like to appologize for being "stuborn" or stupid or whatever he thinks of me. But I have always been honest and said that I come here to learn and discuss, I dont come here for "buying advice". I am not angry and would like to offer my appologies to jam but also end the matter.

Sarosh

I really don't see any problem of getting another 6600GT AGP for his old S478 system IMO... If he were to go with LGA775/PCI-E setup, he would have to buy new CPU/Mobo/ New DDR2 memory, new ATX 2.0 power supply w/ at least 25A on 12v rails (recommanded by intel) and a PCI-E graphic card. Given that he already have 2.53Ghz P4 + 1GB RAM and invest in LGA775/PCI-E, seems like kinda a waste to me IMO... I remember seeing some guy w/ a P3 and X800 AGP graphic card and some other guy w/ a Pentium MMX and Radeon 9800pro AGP in this forum, so its not that much big of a deal. It's their money and they can spend it anyway they want, but the truth is if you don't follow expert's advice, be prepare to bump into more "walls" and do not regret for what you did eariler... My 2 cents...

If you can get the 6600GT AGP for free, then get it. As for the RMA from Aopen, if you get the replacement card back, don't open the video card package and hence sell it on ebay. Those 6600GT AGP go for $75-$110 depending on brand and speed... Otherwise, be happy w/ the free replacement from your relatives...

TMP-Man

Asus P5P800-SE
P4 506 @ 4100Mhz 1.525v
Thermaltake CLP0024 w/ 2000RPM FAN + AS5
1GB Corsair 2-3-3-5 DDR400
40GB 5400RPM/120GB 7200RPM HD
Radoen 9500 mod 9700 @ 375/600 CHS+RHS

TMP-Man,

dsarosh & I have a long history. I (& others) have been "trying" to help him for at least 9 months & you'd really need to go over all the old posts to understand what we've gone thru to get to this point. As a matter of fact, I believe you were in on several of them dating back to when he 1st started asking about video cards & CPU upgrades.

He bought his 1st FX5200 against our** recommendations, then when he realized it wasn't good enough, he bought a 6600GT even though we** told him that it would be bottlenecked by his weak CPU. When he realized that his CPU was in fact bottlenecking his card, he upgraded his CPU...once again, against our** recommendations. Then he overclocked the crap out of his card, fried it & bought another FX5200 to replace it, even though he knew from his past experience that the FX5200 sucks. Now he wants to buy another 6600GT rather than wait out the RMA from AOpen. Would you call what's he's done cost effective??

If he would have taken our** advice way back in October/November, he'd be sitting pretty with a S775 setup & PCI-e card...but that was "too expensive".

** "our" & "we" refer to everyone who attempted to help him. I certainly wasn't the only person answering his questions & for the most part, "we" were all in agreement on what he should do, but he didn't heed our advice.

"I have always been honest and said that I come here to learn and discuss, I dont come here for "buying advice"."

As someone independently looking at your posts after the fact, although you may have come to these forums with those intentions, that is not what you ended up doing. You were given solid advice repeatedly from which you could learn and failed to do so over and over. What you ended up doing was posting for sympathy. You ended up doing whatever came into your head without heading what others have said here.

I don't have a problem with that except for the fact you keep posting and wasting people's time. I wouldn't want to answer your questions either if you're not going to listen to me most of the time.

From another person, yes, your motherboard in fact does suck (not going into why right now because you're not gonna listen). So does your power supply. It may have been able to power equipment from four years ago, but it's not good for newer stuff in particular the video card.

And yet here is another example of how you're not listening. You think since it worked for the last four years, it's fine now. My PSU is NOT the same PSU I had four years ago. You are failing to recognize your system is now more power hungry than it was four years ago. You also think that if you plug it up and everything powers on, there's no problem. Did you take a multimeter to it? I'm guessing no. How much experience have you with PSU's going out due to lack of power for all the equipment? I've seen it all the time, and I've also seen it take out other equipment when it does go, usually with a "pop" sound. That is where Jam "got all that" from; it's called practical experience.

But you don't want to hear that, do you? You either don't want to admit the PSU needs to be replaced because it costs money, or that it wasn't a good decision to buy in the first place. Either way, I don't really care. The PSU should be replaced regardless, whether you want to admit it or not.

And THAT is why I don't want to answer your posts. It has nothing to do with Jam. I would have given you very similar advice, if not the exact same advice, and you'd have done the exact same thing. Giving you advice is like rearranging deck furniture on the Titanic.

You'll keep coming back posting about variously mysterious issues that repeatedly point to PSU or crap motherboard. When you finally decide to replace them, you'll ask what you should buy, we'll tell you what to get, and you'll come back with "but my hardware chap said buy this instead, so I did", and the problems will keep happening as if magically, or the computer gods have forsaken you.

Personally, I prefer not wasting my time on that kind of thing.

"Milk was a bad choice!"

"I dont come here for "buying advice" "

Oh really? Would you like me to list all the times you did that exact thing?

Let me clarify something. I have absolutely no problem with the fact that you bought a refurbished card...I buy refurbed motherboards & video cards all the time. Generally, a refurbed card is nothing more than a customer return...it may or may not have been defective & repaired. More likely it's because some clueless individual bought the wrong card for his/her needs & returned it for a refund. It cannot be resold as new, so it's labeled "refurbed" & sold at a discount, but basically you're getting a brand new card with full manufacturer's warranty. Newegg no longer calls these items "refurbished", they now call them "open box". However, if you connect ANY card to a weak PSU then try to overclock the crap out of it, you run the risk of damaging it.

I don't have a "superiority complex" but I do despise stupidity. You're trying to turn this whole mess around on me when YOU are the one that f**ked things up. You damaged your card, then jumped the gun on the RMA & apparently have caused a huge delay because you were overanxious & didn't follow the proper RMA procedure. In the meantime, you went out & bought another FX5200, even though you used to own one & admittedly were very unhappy with it. Now, instead of waiting for AOpen, you plan on getting another 6600GT? How can you possibly say I had a hand in ANY of that?? That was all your doing my friend. And to top it off, you called a friend/relative in the USA & suckered him into buying you a new card & you justify it by saying "he can afford it?"

Nice....

Yea dude, but besides graphics card I dont spend anything on my computer, so its ok.
And I am not really spending much. Before the 6600GT I had a fx5200 for 2 years. And I would have carried on without the fx5200 using the onboard graphics, but I could not adjust to its slow speed.
I found a 6800XT agp4x card for 150$ and that is a good deal for me. Thats 6750Rs for a 6800XT where as an 6600GT cost 9,300Rs here. If it is not too much trouble for my relative I am definitely going to ask him to buy that card and will pay him for it, although he may not be happy about me offering him "payment" for helping his relatives.
I am not blaming you for anything my dude jam, I consider you the helpful dude. But I can tell you one thing for sure, I am not going to upgrade anything in my computer untill it fails on me, except my graphics card. I have played all the latest games on this 4x m/b and have been very very satisfied. I was satisfied with the fx5200 for two years dude, I am not a gaming fanatic and dont demand the best.
Its just that now going back from 6600gt to fx5200 is kind of depressing, so I am finding ways to go back to the 6600GT.
Dont worry dude, I appreciate all your help, and I am definitely not blaming you for anything.

Sarosh

"But I can tell you one thing for sure, I am not going to upgrade anything in my computer untill it fails on me, except my graphics card."

Thank you for making my point so beautifully.

"Milk was a bad choice!"

Jam said,:
***************************************
He bought his 1st FX5200 against our** recommendations, then when he realized it wasn't good enough, he bought a 6600GT even though we** told him that it would be bottlenecked by his weak CPU. When he realized that his CPU was in fact bottlenecking his card, he upgraded his CPU...once again, against our** recommendations. Then he overclocked the crap out of his card, fried it & bought another FX5200 to replace it, even though he knew from his past experience that the FX5200 sucks. Now he wants to buy another 6600GT rather than wait out the RMA from AOpen. Would you call what's he's done cost effective??
******************************************
Sorry dude, may be I was not using proper language, but you got this all wrong. I purchased my first fx5200 sometime in 2003/04. I dont have the builds so I cant remember the date, but I do remember that I had purchased it for around 100$. I had kind of set aside my budget as 100$ and tried not to buy a graphics card for more than 100$, because honestly I dont need a powerful cards, its more of a temptation than a necissity. I purchased this card from www.ebay.in and when I did I didnt even know that these forums existed. So this forum has nothing to do with the purchase of my first fx5200. Then about 8 months ago in oct 2005 my cousin was coming to India and I started searching for a graphics card for about 100$. At that time I didnt even know the difference between the 6600 and the 6600GT. I did lot of reading and eventually realized that the GT had much faster clock speeds and memory speeds than the 6600. I tried to find out as much as I could about "refurbished" items, but getting a refurbished 6600Gt for 100$ was still a very good deal for me because just a few years ago I had purchased an fx5200 for 100$ and so I told my cousin to buy it.
And yes, I did overclock it. There were many that said "overclocking is the best way to get more out of your money". There were many that bragged about how they overclocked their vedio cards. If overclocking is so risky I dont know why anyone does it in the first place. I made the mistake of overclocking, and I lost the card, no regrets dude. I spent some days trying to find things out here, I test the card at my hardware chaps place, I found out the prices of a new xfx 6600GT (200$) and after I was prepared to say goodbye to some gaming I thought I would come to this forum and see what people would say about vedio cards and blowing them up. I dont need anyones symphathy,my dude. I have no idea how you come to such conclusions about me, may be its the way I type that makes you think this way about me.

As for PSUs, jam said "some 300W psus are better than some 400W psus". I didnt understand that a psu had to have a name to be good. Now Just because my psu has no name it is bad? And I dont even know about the name, maybe its there somewhere but I cant read the name. In anycase, its only the 6600Gt that has got spoilt. You said if the psu was weak it would go "POP" and take out some parts wtih it, that has not happened. My computer is still fine, only the 6600GT has gone dead.

And finally, I dont pester my relatives to buy me parts. They are all very happy to help me out. Anyway, getting a 6800XT with 256MB and 256bit archeceture for 6750Rs is a good deal for me because an 6600Gt cost 9,300Rs here. I better by the new xfx for 6750Rs rather than use the repaired, refurbished aopen card, if they ever repair it for me. If I am able to get this card I will buy a new 400W psu, because 500W is a bit too costly for me. I have no idea what kind of details to look for in a psu, but I will have to consult another forum on that.
I dont remember asking any question here like "should I buy this" except for this question. I have come to this forum "after" the purchase/incident just to get some knowledge or discussion. I came to this forum 2 days "after" my 6600GT blew up, not in the hope to get it repaired, but just to learn and talk. I have asked questions such as "what is the difference between these cpus" or "will both these cpus work on my computer" but I dont remember asking many questions like "should i buy this?".

Sarosh

"As for PSUs, jam said "some 300W psus are better than some 400W psus". I didnt understand that a psu had to have a name to be good. Now Just because my psu has no name it is bad? And I dont even know about the name, maybe its there somewhere but I cant read the name. In anycase, its only the 6600Gt that has got spoilt. You said if the psu was weak it would go "POP" and take out some parts wtih it, that has not happened. My computer is still fine, only the 6600GT has gone dead."

You apparently know better than we do about your PSU. We obviously don't know what we're talking about. So stop asking.

"Milk was a bad choice!"

Sorry, apparently I was mistaken about the initial purchase of the FX5200, but I am sure about all the other stuff.

"jam said "some 300W psus are better than some 400W psus". I didnt understand that a psu had to have a name to be good"

Yes, I did say that & if you'd spend anytime researching, you'd know what I mean. Good PSUs are built with good components & good components cost good money...& brand name manufacturer's are the ones that use good components.

You can buy this 600W PSU for $18:

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=ESTAR-600-N&cat=PWR

Or this 300W PSU for $48:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103015

Which one would you go for & why? More wattage is better, right?

"You said if the psu was weak it would go "POP" and take out some parts wtih it, that has not happened. My computer is still fine, only the 6600GT has gone dead"

It has not happened...YET!

And do you know for sure what caused your video card to go dead? Overclocking? Probably. BUT what does overclocking do? It causes the card to require more power & if the PSU isn't capable of delivering that power stably, what do you think might happen? Either the card or the PSU will fail...in your case it was the card. Here's what I wrote in your other thread, obviously it hasn't registered in your brain yet:

"The PSU is THE most important component in your system. You can have the greatest board, CPU, video card, etc, but if your PSU is crap, your entire system is crap...plus there's the risk of frying components."

I provided you a bunch of references in that thread...a link to the ATX12V 2.xx standard so that you could read it over & know what to look for. A quality PSU will conform to the spec. Unfortunately the spec is a "guide" not a "rule"...manufacturer's are free to do what they please & can make whatever claims about wattage/amperage they feel confortable with. Generally speaking, a reputable manufacturer will conform to or exceed the spec, but that means their product will cost more. I supplied a list of many popular/reputable name brand PSU manufacturer's in your other thread.

And in that same thread, broncodeuce wrote this:

"....let's be realistic..it's a cheap, no-name power supply..AND it's 4 years old..even the best components fail after a time..some last a long time, others not so long. if it was me, i'd suck it up and order a decent psu, you don't have to spend $100, but spend at least $50 man..don't waste your money on a junk 400w either, as you'll probably be worse off than you are now..your hardware guys may not be intentionally trying to con you, but if they aren't, then they aren't the most knowledgable people and you should still be looking to somene else for advice (these forums, for example)..i've read a lot of your posts..you come here, ask for advice, then tell us why your hardware guy disagrees, and do it anyway..it's frustrating because you're throwing your money away.."

I will buy a 400W psu if I get the 6800XT.
Do you think I should do it even for the fx 5200, or is 300W enough for now.

Sarosh

you just don't get it!

>:(

Report Offensive Follow Up For Removal

I was about to answer the question, but then I realized it won't make any difference. :-)

"Milk was a bad choice!"

P.S. Anyone reading "Waiting for Godot" and need some type of plot guide or summary, if you read this thread, you'll understand the book... :-)

"Milk was a bad choice!"

6800XT Spec 8 pipleline 300-350Core 600-700 GDDR 256bit memory

6600GT Spec 8 pipeline 500-550Core 900-1100 GDDR2 128bit memory

So a 6800XT is not much better than 6600Gt in terms of performance... In fact, its even slower than 6600GT which my friend did a bench couple months ago on a PCI-E system w/ LGA775 3.2 P4...

6600GT ~ 8.2k 3Dmark 03 ~3k 05
6800XT ~ 7.8k 3Kmark 03 ~2.8k 05

TMP-Man

Asus P5P800-SE
P4 506 @ 4100Mhz 1.525v
Thermaltake CLP0024 w/ 2000RPM FAN + AS5
1GB Corsair 2-3-3-5 DDR400
40GB 5400RPM/120GB 7200RPM HD
Radoen 9500 mod 9700 @ 375/600 CHS+RHS

Thanks jam,
I am trying to leanr all I can about PSUs so that I make the right choice when I buy one.
I read the specifications for the 300W psu for 48$ at newegg. It claims to have a mean time between failures of 1lakh hour at full load, thats pretty awesome. Thats over 11 years of life at full load, if I have calculated properly.
I thought I would also share another interesting thing I learnt from my friend in India. He is in a different state in a bigger city where people do much more with computers than here. He said that when he purchased his psu from his hardware guy, that guy actually "replaced" some capacitors or something and put in some good quality parts. My friend was saying that even a 400W psu may not be good enough if the capacitors are not of good quality, so he had someone specially put in good quality capicators in his psu. I just thought I would get your opinion on this, do you think thats possible, or he is just giving me long tales.

Sarosh

Why would you buy a PSU with bad capacitors and go through all the time and effort to replace them?! Why would you even replace capacitors when good PSU's don't cost much?!

Here's a thought: BUY A GOOD PSU FROM THE GET GO!

"Milk was a bad choice!"

I couldn't have said it any better...

Thanks a lot dudes. I was actually telling you what a friend had told me months ago, I was not going to do anything about the capicators my self.
Thanks a lot to everyone who answered. And Jam, if you like I can keep you updated if and when Aopen give me some news. Let me know if you would like that.
Thanks and regards.

Sarosh

This just keeps getting better and better...

I would offer advice, but after reading every single post, I don't think that would be wise.

haha,
Besides advicing me to replace parts of my computer which have worked perfectly for 4 years I am eager to hear any other advice. Please go ahead.

Sarosh

"Besides advicing me to replace parts of my computer which have worked perfectly for 4 years I am eager to hear any other advice. Please go ahead."

How about be receptive to good advice, period? Sometimes it's the right thing to do is replace parts. But again, you don't want to hear that.

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www.redcross.org

Ok dudes,
I have to appologize because you guys feel that I dont take any of your advice.
I would like to end this discussion with a final explanation from me, if you dont mind another lenghty post.

First of all, I do appreciate all your replies and your time. I know that Jam is a a very helpful person, and although sometimes he may type differently I know for sure that he means well.

I have to explain to you guys my situation here about buy hardware and my relationships with my hardware chaps.
Firstly, I have no means of buying parts online unless someone from Usa buys them for me.
Secondly, except for vedio cards, I dont feel comfortable about buying anything online.
1) Even if I would get a 250GB hard disk for half the price for which I could get a 160GB hard disk from my hardware chap, I would prefer to buy from my hardware chap. This is not only because he will give me 5 years warrenty, but also because if something goes wrong with the HD all I have to do is give it back to my hardware chap and he will give me a standby replacement HD to use while he gives my HD for warrenty service.
2) I know that amd machines are cheaper and faster than intel machines. But if I buy an intel cpu/mb my hardware guy will give me a 3 year warrenty and he assures that the problem will be solved in 21 days. May be in USA amd offer excellent warrenty service, but where I live the warrenty service of amd is said to be poor compared to that of intel. So although some may suggest that I should buy an amd machine for gaming, I still might purchase an intel machine to get the peace of mind of having a good warrenty service that intel offers here.
3)While I appreciate all the suggestions you guys give about which parts to buy, I can only choose from what is available to me locally here. When I had to purchase a 17" monitor and cd rom, I chose LG because I know that that they have a service stating right here close by, and so getting them repaired will not be a problem.
4)In all my experience with my hardware chaps till date, I dont have a single reason to not trust them. I can write pages about why I feel so, but I will try to make it short.
When I purchased my P4 1.7GHz, the P4s were just newly launched here. My computer was one of the first few P4s that my hardware guy assembled. My harware guy was telling me lots of stuff about how they require more power and more "ventilation" than the P3, but at that time I didnt understand any of the fuss. My hardware guy gave me a cabinet that is made of solid metal, and is still bigger than some cabinets sold today. I didnt like the idea of such a big, heavy cabinet back then, but now I know that bigger cabinets are good for proper air flow and ventilation. He gave me a cabinet whihc has vents in the front below the floppy drive. I didnt like this too because I though it would only lead to more dust going in, but now I know that vents in the front are useful to draw in cool air from the front. My cabinet had 2 usb ports in the front, and I didnt use them for almost 2 years, I only use one of them now regularly for my webcam. He also gave me 2 extra audio ports on the front of my cabinet, which I am only recently using to connect my headphones. My point is that I have faith in my hardware chaps. The power supply I have came with the cabinet attached, and if he has selected that power supply for me then I truely cant believe that it is "crappy". Maybe it does not have a name, or maybe it had a name sticker at the back which I might have removed, but I can assure you guys that my hardware guy will simply not give me anything crappy, specially a power supply, which he himself had told me needs to be a good one for the P4s. One time I had gone to his shop to buy a keyboard which had extra shortcut keys. He didnt have such a keyboard in stock so I returned. A few days later he came to my house with the keyboard and the extra plug that converted the small parallel port into the larger circular port I had that time. And he is the proprietor, not just an engineer or technician. They respect my dad because he was the vice chancellor of the university here, and they are very happy to help him out, and I get to reap the benifits of this relitionship too.This is the kind of service we get from our hardware chaps. He is very particular and very through about everything he does. This is just one example of the good service we have got from him over the years. I just feel that if he has selected this power supply for me then it is a good one.

4)I checked the specifications of many 6600GT cards and they say "300W or above".
They do not say that a 300W psu will make the card go "POP".
5) I checked the total power consumption of my computer using an online power calculator, and it is still below 300W with all the hds and ram and cd roms
6) If nvidia have specified that the 6600GT will work on a 300W psu, then why wont it work on mine, mine is not "crappy".
7) I dont know much about electronics, but I know of devices failing when they are subjected to voltage or current surges. I dont know how my vedio card can demand more power from my psu. It can only work at its rated power ratings.
8) If my psu would not supply enough power to the 6600GT, then the drivers would pop up a warning window and the driver would "automatically slow down the clock to prevent damage".
9) Jam himself said that his refurbished asus vedio card went dead after 12 months, mine is gone dead after 8 months, after all the overclocking and misuse I put it to. And there is lot of misuse I havent told you about, such as lose power cables, etc.

I have to repeat that I am by no means an expert and that all the points I made above could well be totally absurd. I am just saying that these are the thoughts I had to myself, I am not saying they are correct in anyway.

I ADMIT THAT MY 300W POWER SUPPLY IS INADEQUATE AND I NEED TO UPGRADE IT.

I just wanted to offer a final explanation to you guys since you thought I was not taking your advice seriously, but quite frankly, your buying advice wont help me much because I can only choose from what my hardware chaps can offer me. I think I have been clear about this earlier too.
And I really dont have reason to complain, my hardware chaps give me great deals. My dad upgraded from his Pentium MMx cpu to a prescott cpu with 1mb ram(speed either 2.4 or 2.6, dont remember now). The printed price on the cpu was Rs9000/-, but we got a cpu, inter m/b, 256MB ram, cabinet and power supply for Rs.13000/-. Our hardware guys have always given us excellent deals, he only asks that in the bills we should not demand for the price of each individual item, just accept one bill with the total price.
I have full faith in my hardware guys, and I just had the feeling that if he has selected a 300W psu then it is not crappy, and I just felt that you guys are repeating the same thing over and over.
However, I accept that my 300W cpu is not enough, and if I happen to get a new vedio card, I will definitely upgrade it. I am going to stick to using the 300W psu for now, and if I have made a bad decision, may my computer go "POP".

I have to repeat one final time that I am by no means saying that any of the technical stuff I said above is correct. I am simply laying out my reasoning to you guys. This is the way I used to feel, and so you guys may have misunderstood that I dont listen to your advice.
If you guys allow me to post here again, I will be very specific about the kind of advice I am seeking, but it most definitely wont be about buying any computer part online.
With regards and thanks to all,
Sarosh.

Sarosh

"I ADMIT THAT MY 300W POWER SUPPLY IS INADEQUATE AND I NEED TO UPGRADE IT."

That caught my eye.

But then so did this...

"However, I accept that my 300W cpu is not enough, and if I happen to get a new vedio card, I will definitely upgrade it. I am going to stick to using the 300W psu for now, and if I have made a bad decision, may my computer go "POP"."

I didn't bother reading the rest. Just thought that sums this up well.

Good times...

"Milk was a bad choice!"

1. All new seagate hard drives give u 5 years of warranty... Hitachi, WD and Maxtor offers 3 years...

2. Most motherboard give you 3 year warranty if purchased retail. Including boxed CPU also...

3. LG is a very large company and if the most product you purchase from them goes bad fast, I don't know how they earn the name of "Life Good".... Should be "Life Bad" or "Life sucks"...

4. When buying a video card, 300 watts is minimum requirement for 6600GT, meaning for average user has 1 optical drive, 1 hard drive, stock cpu and less than 3 fans, adding a 6600GT w/ 300watt should be enough to run it. However, if you have 2+ optical drive + 2+ Hard drive + overclocking the GPU and CPU, that will increase the load on the PSU = higher chance for components to fail due to insufficient power from the power supply...

5. Even though you check the power consumption from the calculators, did you also check the efficency and real power output of your power supply? Your power supply could be deliery max of 50% efficiency, meaning you only getting 150 watts from 300 watt max... That is why you want to go for name brand like antec, enermax, fsp, pc-power cooling, zalman... etc
Otherwise, why would a 600watt el-cheapo power supply cost more than a 300 watt name brand power supply?

6 and 7. See 5.

8. Assume you are using coolbits to overclock your graphic card, did you even read the warning for it, like overclocking causing xxxxxxxxxx.... ??????

9. You get what you paid for, otherwise, why refurished is cheaper than new?

TMP-Man

Asus P5P800-SE
P4 506 @ 4100Mhz 1.525v
Thermaltake CLP0024 w/ 2000RPM FAN + AS5
1GB Corsair 2-3-3-5 DDR400
40GB 5400RPM/120GB 7200RPM HD
Radoen 9500 mod 9700 @ 375/600 CHS+RHS

Correction....

"Otherwise, why would a 600watt el-cheapo power supply cost more than a 300 watt name brand power supply?"

What I meant is less....

TMP-Man

Asus P5P800-SE
P4 506 @ 4100Mhz 1.525v
Thermaltake CLP0024 w/ 2000RPM FAN + AS5
1GB Corsair 2-3-3-5 DDR400
40GB 5400RPM/120GB 7200RPM HD
Radoen 9500 mod 9700 @ 375/600 CHS+RHS

I phoned up my hardware guy again and asked him if he remembered the name of the PSU he had sold me 4 years ago. He said it was a "VIP Power supply". I asked him "are these the best ones". He said, they are not the best, but are "good" ones.
I found some reviews. This is for a new 450W psu from the same company:
http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/article.jsp?article_id=51000&cat_id=641
Please read the whole review to get an idea of the importance of warrenty and price in India.

Please also read this, mine is the VIP 300W, second column.
http://www.kunhar.com/vipcabinets/downloads/smps-comparision-chart.pdf

These are the only two links I could find. If someone else finds some el-cheapo bad reviews about this power supply please pass on the links to me.
Thanks.

Sarosh

All that review really says is that the PSU has certain connectors & can be bought in India cheaper than an Antec PSU. It doesn't mention voltages, amperages, load testing, etc. My guess is VIP paid TechTree to write a favorable review just to bolster sales.

Here's one of the comments about the review that pretty much sums it up:

"man just take a look at the PSU review in THG & this review-wat a world of difference! the only thing that this site has fer it is that it takes Indian Products into consideration & thats it!!!"

But hey, in TechTree's defensive, they apparently did test it:

"We ran this setup for the entire day without a single system crash or error. Simply perfect!"

It ran perfect for a whole day? WooHoo! Where can I buy one of the reliable powerhouses??? LOL!!

Did you bother to read the comments from people who actually own one?

"This PS is crap.If not this at least the 400wat supply from the same supplier. Don,t buy it unless you are sure that you are getting a good performing PS. The voltage in the PS i got from VIP fluctuates a lot. Moreover its performance is even worse than the PS available for one third it,s price."

"Hi guys, I don,t know about the quality of this 450 watt supply, but my experience with the 400 watt power supply from the same VIP brand has been very bad. What I got in return for a hefty price was sheer crap. The voltage levels fluctuate. 12+ level never crosses 11.5 and 12- never comes below 12.5. And it fluctuates a lot."

And regarding your obsession with guarantess...here's some words of wisdom from the classic move, "Tommy Boy":

Tommy: "Here's how I see it. A guy puts a guarantee on the box 'cause he wants you to feel all warm and toasty inside."
Ted: "Yeah, makes a man feel good."
Tommy: "Course it does. Ya think if you leave that box under your pillow at night, the Guarantee Fairy might come by and leave a quarter."
Ted: "What's your point?"
Tommy: "The point is, how do you know the Guarantee Fairy isn't a crazy glue sniffer? "Build model airplanes" says the little fairy, but we're not buying it. Next thing you know, there's money missing off the dresser and your daughter's knocked up, I seen it a hundred times."
Ted: "But why do they put a guarantee on the box then?"
Tommy: "Because they know all they sold ya was a guaranteed piece of sh*t. That's all it is. Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it guaranteed, I will. I got spare time. But for right now, for your sake, for your daughter's sake, ya might wanna think about buying a quality item from me."

Let's face it dsarosh, you see what you wanna see & you hear what you wanna hear. No matter what anyone in these forums tells you...even if the info is backed up by several people & numerous reputable websites...you will take your "hardware chaps" advice over ours. So why do you continuously bother to waste our time? Just buy whatever he's pushing.....

Jam, it has to be YOUR bull! :-)

Seriously, people, just stop providing advice to him. It's as pointless as man nipples.

"Milk was a bad choice!"

Yea, I will always buy what my hardware guys says, that was never the point of this discussion anyway.
The antec is the best power supply available in india, and VIP is widely considered the second best. I am very happy to settle for the second best, I absolutely dont need the best components in my PC.
I read the user reviews, different users have different experiences. But the vast majority are satisfied with these power supplies.

About warrenty, may be I didnt explain my self better. I buy what my dealer suggest because "HE" gives me good warrenty service. Wheteher it is a simple mouse, or UPS or hard disk or monitor, he has given me a standby component to use. LG will definitely repair my monitor in 21 days, as they do world over, but LG will not give me a standby monitor to use while they are repairing my monitor. But my hardware chap will give me one of his own monitors to use as a standby monitor untill my monitor is repaired.
I dont think a hardware guy would sell me a "piece of sh!t because if that piece were to go dead then I would simply go and dump that piece on him and ask him to give me a standby piece while he gets the sh!t piece repaired. I see no point in hardware guys selling bad quality pieces and offering warrenty on them, that would simply mean more trouble to him and loss of clientel. That is the reason they are reluctant to sell amd systems here, because amd warrenty is troublesome here, but intel warrenty is fast and efficient.

Thanks for inserting a joke in your reply jam, but are you still insisting that my hardware guys give me crappy parts? Would a crappy psu still be running after 4 years, and it even handled an overclocked 6600GT for 8 months? You are simply repeating the same thing over and over and over again. We are not even sure that my 6600GT went dead because of my psu. Your refurbished card went dead after 12 months, mine went dead after 8 months (of rough usage).
Did you check the pdf file link I sent you? You yourself said "some 300W psu are better than soe 400W psu, and if that table is correct then your words have come true jam. My 300W psu is infat better than most 400W psu available in india. The only better alternative is antec, but I am very satisfied settling for the second best psu if it will last me 4 years, thats a good deal for me.
http://www.kunhar.com/vipcabinets/downloads/smps-comparision-chart.pdf

I have seen what my hardware guys offer me here, and I have heard what they have told me year, and I have found absolutely nothing wrong with anything.
He gave me a 300W psu 4 years ago with a P4 1.7GHz which has worked perfectly for me for 4 years and even handled the overclocked 6600GT for 8 months. You still think that psu is crap just because "it has no name".

Sarosh