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Power supply is a bit of a 'nasty' topic, just as TDP. That's because there's no standard according to which PSU should be measured (neither is there a standard for TDP, Intel measures TDP in a different way than AMD and probably VIA do).

Some manufacturers 'add up' mutually exclusive power channels, that would be: You cannot use those two power lines at the max at the same time. Other's don't.

Suffice to say I'm happy with my 280W Tagan power supply (not even sold today, 350W is the minimum!) which happily powers my 4HD / AM2 dual core / 4 fan / seperate video accelerator PC. Not even grounded, no problems ever.

Video cards is also a bit of a difficult topic, for some 'branches' of workstations (the ones we use at work; quadro and stuff like that), they start at $500 - more than the cost of the entire cheap workstation envisioned in the article. The almost equal 'gamer' versions of those video cards are about only one third of the price.

Carla may use the "Microsoft Mindless Automaton Handbook" title.

Remember, facts can't be copyrighted.

Quoting:Here's your "magic sysrq sequence"

Are you sure that's right? I was learned the line "Raising Skinny Elephants Is Utterly Boring", a.k.a:

Alt+SysRq+r Take control of keyboard from X Alt+SysRq+s Sync to disk Alt+SysRq+e Terminate programs (SIGTERM) Alt+SysRq+i Kill programs (SIGKILL) Alt+SysRq+u Unmount filesystems Alt+SysRq+b Reboot

Wikipedia gives the same in a slightly different order: "Raising Elephants Is So Utterly Boring", "Reboot Even If System Utterly Broken". Makes sense as well to sync disks after programs have been killed.

Quoting:Are you sure that's right?

It's right enough for me. Sometimes it needs to check the filesystems afterwards, sometimes not. But if it doesn't reboot after the "b" strike, then it's hosed anyway.

Well, I wrote it down and stuck it to the back of the monitor.

...and within an hour, used it because XINE reached the end of a short video and LOCKUP. Argh!

I should have gotten a motherboard with nVidia graphics. At least those I know work.

Not necessarily. I've encountered xine hangs on my nVidia card.

The only thing I can figure is that it's a conflict between xine's assumptions and the kernel's reality.

I used to have Xine problems a year ago. I switched to gstreamer-based apps and never looked back.

Interesting. In 6 years I never had a problem with XINE on an nvidia card. It was my old laptop, which finally had the screen cr@p out.

But now, it's got a green stripe across the bottom of the XINE window, there are flashes and lines in the video when it's moving quickly, and little things like locking up the machine that just annoys the heck out of me.

Anyway, I had my choice of mobos and picked this one. I will deal with it, since by any objective measure it's my choice in software that's messing up.

I don't have any nVidia cards but... I've never had a problem with Xine, an app I really like and use regularly. As always, YMMV.

@gus3 I use nVidia cards in every machine I have except my netbook, and I've never had problems with Xine.

> I switched to gstreamer-based apps and never looked back.

Whereas I've had problems with everything but Xine at one time or another. Oh well, as Caitlyn notes, YMMV.

> YMMV

That reminds me of the movie _Herbie The Love Bug_ (the original, with real actors and a script), where they discuss the idea that even with mass production, "identical" things aren't actually identical. Even with the "same" hardware and software, systems end up being just a little bit different.

So when do we reach the singularity? When I try to turn off my PC some day, with it say "I'm sorry Bob, I can't do that."?

That's not a Love Bug, that's a Love Feature! :)

http://www.windowsnetworking.com/kbase/WindowsTips/WindowsXP...

Quoting:So when do we reach the singularity? When I try to turn off my PC some day, with it say "I'm sorry Bob, I can't do that."?

Nah. When we reach the singularity we will all have computers embedded in our skull running 24/7. Go Captain Cyborg! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Warwick#Robotics:_Project...

This is one funny thread. I shall certainly find a way to use the "Microsoft Mindless Automaton Handbook".

Paul will address PSUs in part 2 next week. He was so overcome by having a high-end mobo and quad-core CPU to play with it rattled his composure.

I don't always put much stock in power supply ratings... I've seen a lot of cheap, crappy power supplies (mostly very cheap Chinese built ones) that I'd have serious doubt actually lived up to their advertised specs or that failed within a shorter time than they should have. On the other hand, for example, the last three machines I've built are in the Shuttle xPC "shoe box" case/power supply/mobo combo... And the video cards I've put in them (nVidia GeForce 9x00 chipset) claim that they require way more than the total rated output of the power supply by themselves... But they seem to run stable nonetheless.

Quoting:they seem to run stable nonetheless.

Are you pushing all your hardware to the limits at the same time? I'd try playing something like ET: Quake Wars. The Megatexture features used by the engine will keep your disks busy while the rest of the game stresses your CPU and GPU.

@Sander_Marechal No, the most stressful games I've run have been Doom 3, Unreal Tournament 2004 and the Penumbra Collection. But those all seem to run fine.

> He was so overcome by having a high-end mobo and quad-core CPU to play with it rattled his composure.

I'm right there with him on that one. Except the "high end mobo" part. :^(

Quoting:He was so overcome by having a high-end mobo and quad-core CPU to play with it rattled his composure.

One sure way to contain the enthusiasm, is to let it sit for 24 hours. That's what I did with my AMD64 dual-core. And I really do think the wait calmed me enough to keep me from doing something really stupid.