ready-boost sounds pretty cool, I definitely would like to hear how that affects performance. I wonder if I could actually use that ram for rendering. Does it act as physical ram or just a faster virtual ram?

Thanks bob, its nice to see it organized like that.

spanky wrote on Dec 5^th, 2007 at 1:53pm:


It wasn't a mistake, I simply wanted to be sure you knew who was posting that witty piece of information.

-b0b
(...fixed it anyway.)

I just thought I'd mention that I got my first (and second, and third) blue screen of death last night on Vista.  That might be a new record for quickest BSoD on a new OS!

For some reason, Vista BSoD's when I try to install PCMark 2005.  That really sucks because I wanted to compare Vista's performance to XP's performance on the same machine.  Both times I tried to install PCMark 2005, the system crashed with a non-descript BSoD.

The third crash was my fault.  I downloaded Vista-compatible drivers for my Soundblaster X-Fi Fatal1ty, and then tried to install the rest of the Soundblaster programs from the CD.  Apparently, the software on the CD doesn't work with the Vista drivers, so my machine blue-screened again when I rebooted.  It's good to know that safe mode is still in the same location...

Creative has replaced all of their X-Fi installation CD's with a Vista-compatible version.  If you bought an X-Fi before the CD was switched and you want to use Vista, you're pretty much screwed as far as Soundblaster applications are concerned.  Only the driver and a couple of programs are on the Creative website.

I did manage to find a copy of the Vista X-Fi CD on MiniNova, though, so I'm going to install everything else tonight.

Shame on Creative for not hosting the apps on their site, and shame on Microsoft for allowing Vista to BSoD so easily.  What happened to the improved HAL that was supposed to handle application crashes more gracefully?

-b0b
(...will post pics later.)

Wow, that's a pretty decent overclock.  I'm also looking at a Q6600 and an 8800GTX, so it sounds like his rig is pretty similar to mine.  Has he said anything about performance yet?

-b0b
(...inquiring minds.)

That's pretty impressive.  Crysis is an absolute juggernaut of a game when it comes to system resources.  It takes the average "gaming PC" and breaks it into tiny little pieces, making it run home to mommy while screaming like Briney a little girl.

There are a handful of games that I'm really looking forward to playing, including...

• Supreme Commander and expansion - I'm an RTS man at heart.
• World in Conflict - Another RTS that looks excellent.
• Neverwinter Nights 2 and expansion - I've owned the game for months, but can't play it on my current rig.
• STALKER - Yeah, it's getting old, but I love Chernobyl and the game looks sweet.
• BioShock - This game looks incredibly sweet.

There are a couple others, but those ones round out the top five.  I also want to play the new WarHammer 40k expansions, but I might wait until they hit the bargain bin.

-b0b
(...can't wait to play!)

Why are you guys stuck on the 8800GTX?  Yes it is the best of the best, but it is also OMG expensive.  Why not spring for the 8800GT for half the price.  I have not found a game that it can't play yet.

(only tried crysis demo not full game)

Yeah, it's kinda like I told Wes, the plus means better.

When I built the Bobulator IV (the first one with the ubercase), I bought a Soyo K7V Dragon Plus.  Wes rebuilt his PC at the same time and only opted for the Soyo K7V Dragon.  Guess what?  The plus really did mean better, and my system whooped the crap out of his.

Of course, that superior processor and graphics card might have had something to do with that, too.

-b0b
(...w00t!)