coppertrucker11 said:Is it possible to grab a 2.5" external hard drive, pop it out of its casing, and then toss it into a laptop, a PS3... you name it?
Sure enough, you can—but just keep in mind that those external drives almost always use slower disks (usually 5400 rpm), and you’re essentially paying an extra premium just for the enclosure itself. If your main goal is simply to get a drive for a PS3 or a laptop, I’d suggest just buying a bare 2.5" internal drive instead—you could opt for a faster 7200 rpm model, or if you stick with 5400 rpm, it'll likely be a bit easier on your wallet. For instance: Seagate Backup Plus Slim 320GB at 5400 rpm comes $123 as an external unit, whereas a standalone Seagate BarraCuda 500GB at that same 5400 rpm speed would cost $110. Alternatively, a Seagate FireCuda 320GB which features a 7200 rpm spindle and a 16 MB cache would run at $137 (just the drive itself), though it'll definitely be snappier than the other options mentioned.
Now, if what you actually meant was buying an external drive just to swap out whatever is currently in your PS3 or laptop—or perhaps putting your old internal drive into an external case to repurpose it—then you'll need to hunt for an external drive where the housing isn't a nightmare to open without breaking it. In my experience, that isn't exactly a walk in the park with something like the Seagate Backup Plus Slim 500GB we discussed earlier... (plus, you'll void your warranty the second you crack that shell open). In that specific scenario, your best bet is probably just buying a bare drive and a separate external enclosure.🙂
Nathan Reyes59 said:But which one specifically—the 4850, 4870, or 4890?
All three are solid choices, really—it just depends on what else you're running in your rig. What kind of CPU are we talking about? How’s the power supply, the motherboard, and your monitor setup? Resolution plays a huge role here, too.
You're forgetting about the 4830 😉
It’s actually pretty tough to pin down an exact value, since there are basically a million different iterations out there—different cooler designs, PCB revisions, factory overclocked versions, varying amounts of memory... plus, of course, you never know how much the previous owner pushed the card through overclocking or just generally beat up on it.
Seagate Backup Plus Slim 500GB—if you ask me, that’s your Best Buy right there. Now, if you're looking for something with a bit more flair in the casing, Seagate My Passport 500GB might be more your speed.
Since I don't have any clue which specific monitor you're working with here, my best advice would be to start by digging through the user manual—it’s usually the best place for those initial troubleshooting steps. Beyond that, I'd suggest doing a quick Google search for the specific issue combined with your exact monitor model number... it might just save you a lot of headache.
What’s really the point of trying to force older drivers to run in compatibility mode? It feels like extra work for very little payoff. Like what Casey Long2 was suggesting earlier—it’s probably much simpler to just grab the driver meant for Windows 7 32-bit and call it a day...
Please, don't go poking around inside that power supply. First off, you’re looking at a serious risk of electrocution if you touch any of those capacitors—those things can hold a charge long after the plug is pulled. Then, even if you survive that, there's the risk of installing a fan with insufficient airflow, which is basically a recipe for turning your PSU into a smoke machine. In short, I wouldn't dream of opening up a power supply unless you know exactly what you're doing. 😉
The Corsair Builder CX series is actually manufactured by Delta Electronics—it's essentially their entry-level power supply line. To put it simply, even though it carries the Corsair name, it doesn't share the same high-end pedigree you'd find in their more premium models 😉 If I were in your shoes, I'd just pick whichever one you prefer between Cooler Master and Corsair; honestly, you can't really go wrong with either of them 😉
It really comes down to choosing between the Radeon HD 5770 or the EVGA GTX 470. Honestly, everything else in that lineup seems way overpriced when you consider how little extra performance you actually get for the jump in cost.
Honestly, memory capacity stopped making much sense a long time ago. But I think Nvidia just made their biggest blunder yet: GT440 cards equipped with 3 GB of VRAM... Of course, these will end up being stuffed into budget office desktops—machines that'll eventually have more video memory than actual system RAM...
It isn't actually stronger—it's actually a bit weaker than what you're looking at. If you take a moment to look through some reviews, like this one, you'll see it's really just a low-end card. It’s performing below a Radeon 5670, and honestly, it even falls behind something like a 240 GT...
The reviews are already out, 6870, 6850 — Bit-Tech has covered them in this instance, though there are plenty of other outlets to check out as well. Over there, they definitely justify the price tag when you stack it up against Nvidia, so I’d imagine we should see similar value here in the States.
Just let enough cards hit the market first—once the supply catches up, those prices are bound to settle down. Since they’re sitting right in that specific performance bracket, you'll likely see similar price points popping up once people actually decide to list them for sale. At that point, it really just comes down to hunting for the best bang for your buck 😉
I was just catching up on some deep-dive reviews over at Bit-Tech—really interesting stuff. I guess we’ll just have to wait until they finally hit the shelves here in the States and the market prices settle down a bit a little more. 🙂
Let’s be honest—it’s all just guesswork at this point. Right now, we're basically operating on assumptions—like how the high-end tier (which used to be the 58*0 series) is supposedly shifting toward the 69*0 range. Or how the 68*0 is meant to be the successor to the 57*0 line... and so on. My logic is pretty simple: if the 6870 eventually drops in price—once that initial "early adopter" premium fades away—and lands somewhere near what the 5770 costs, while actually delivering specs that sit right between the 5850 and the 5870... then I'll finally know exactly which card is going to replace my aging 4850. 🙂
That’s actually pretty brilliant—in a cynical sort of way. I assume they’re banking on people picking up the Gamer or Builder series within this specific price bracket, since those models sit right around that same power level... In short, this is a pretty low blow on their part.😢
It looks like we’ll be sticking strictly to recommending Corsair and Cooler Master for the mid-range from here on out...
What resolution are you actually running at? In my experience, having 1 GB of VRAM really only starts to make a difference once you hit 1080p or higher. If you're playing at anything lower than that, honestly, 512 MB handles things just fine without much trouble. Regarding the noise levels—that’s a bit of a tricky one because it depends entirely on which specific version of the card you've got. There are a million different designs out there, each with its own unique cooling setup, so it's tough to give you a single, definitive answer. Which exact models are we talking about here?
Right-click on "This PC" and head over to "Manage," then select "Disk Management." Once you're in there, look for the specific volume that doesn't have a designated drive letter next to it—like C: or D:—and it’ll likely be labeled as "unallocated space." From there, you'll want to initialize the disk first (you can find that option by right-clicking the field), and then go ahead and format it—which is tucked in that same menu. After that, you should be all set to assign it a letter via the "Change Drive Letter and Paths" option.