McPhee

You can't run 64-bit programs in 32 bit Vista, no. As a whole though Vista x64 is the better product. It's faster, more stable, more reliable and more secure than Vista x86 (the 32-bit one). The downsides being the driver support isn't quite as good as x86 yet (although not far behind) and you can't run 16-bit applications (basically really old stuff, but some programs use 16-bit installation programs and as a result won't install). Most stuff has 64-bit drivers now, but it's worth checking before you buy. If you're worried then play it safe and buy x86 instead. EDIT: Check out this thread for a pretty up to date view on Vista 64: http://techreport.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=55764 Had a read myself and it doesn't look like any of them were having driver issues. Given that was in December things should be even better now.

The headline rumour is that it's Rage Against The Machine, Metallica and a 3rd American headliner. It's not likely to be Foo Fighters. Even The Killers seems a bit uncertain, Brandon Flowers said they aren't going to tour Sam's Town any more so unless they get another album out this year i wouldn't count them as certain yet. Theres always the chance that he changed his mind though

N-E Meet-up? Think im going this year. It gets talked about every year but for some odd reason nothing ever happens and we end up at V/Leeds instead. This year im determined to do all 3! The Offspring getting announced is amazing! Really want to see them again! Lost Prophets have been great the last twice i've seen them and with Incubus a strong rumour im well happy! It's all about Leeds/Reading this year though. I mean how the hell does one UK festival get Rage AND Metallica to play?!?!?! Sure Rock AM in Germany managed it but they always have the best line-up in Europe!

AMDs do, OEM processors don't. Intel do OEMs too. It's for people who use 3rd party coolers, saves paying for a cooler you're not going to use. You either need to buy Retail versions or a seperate cooler.

Can't wait for Lost Odyssey, it looks immense!

Im in! I do think we should get to choose our own teams though. I know why you'd want to do it at random, but in all honesty it is just going to cause arguments. You'll have some of the best players going out early on because they're team mate can't keep up, they aren't going to like that. From the point of view of a forum moderator, i don't want to have to deal with that sort of shit. If you do random teams and fall outs start happening then i'll lock this thread and you won't be allowed to discuss the Halo 3 Tournament on the boards. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but i know how bitchy some people can get. We don't really want any added trouble.

EDIT: AMD Athlon X2 3600+ Abit NFM2S 256MB Sapphire x2600XT 1GB MicronMajor PC2-6400 RAM 80GB Seagate HDD Samsung DVD-ROM (SATA) Asus TM-250 (inc 300W PSU) Akasa AK-860AF CPU Cooler Total: £199.52 I admit to cheating here though. I get free P&P from Scan, it should be an extra tenner! :p It's available to anyone though: http://www.avforums.com/forums/scan_offer.php Caris mate, you're spec is missing a CPU cooler

Ouch! Now that is a challenge! Any chance you could find out what hard drives are in his current machine? If it's a SATA Hard Drive then he could just salvage that and the optical drive(s) from that machine. He could then use the money saved for a half decent graphics card!

I wish i could have joined, but i don't get a strong enough WiFi signal to play on Live any more. Sorting it out this week then i'll be back in the game!

Oh yeah, one other thing. Are Barebones units (i.e. just add a CPU, HDD, DVD Drive and RAM) cheating? Am i taking this too seriously? Am i really this bored on a Saturday night? 2p to spare!

Design brief? Is it for day to day office work? Gaming? Music? Movies? Is it for use in the bedroom, office or living room? Makes a huge difference to what parts need to be used (even if there isn't a huge deal of leeway for £200). Also are 2nd hand parts allowed?

Im not sure how difficult it will be, but i can link you to some guides if you like? Overclocking isn't guaranteed either, each individual chip has it's own limits. Just because most people can get theirs to 3GHz doesn't necessarily mean you're chip can get past 2.5GHz. I bought an Athlon BE-2300 and can't get it past that (yet) EDIT: Hang on, is there any reason why we're looking at Intel CPUs here? Just looked at PC Option's AMD systems and they are cheaper and come with better motherboards as standard. CPU: AMD Athlon X2 4200+ Mobo: Asus M2N-MX SE RAM: 2GB DDR2 667MHz HDD: 160GB Opt: DVD-RW OS: Vista Home Premium x64 That lot costs £252.84 IMO that's a better deal. You can either go with the 2600XT and end up more than £40 under budget or squeeze an ATi 3850 in. So on one hand you can get similar performance to the Intel for less and on the other you can get better games performance for the same price (the difference won't really be noticeable on the desktop)

Great idea, tis quite good fun! PAINT FTW!

Get the E2160, Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro (tick box near the bottom of the page) and the P5K-SE. The SE isn't the best around, but it's the best value for money that PC Option have listed. Had a quick Google and people are getting that chip up to (and past) 3GHz on that motherboard! The same sites seem to have the E2140 at 2.6-2.8GHz

You don't sound like you really need an 8800GT, but something a bit better than the 8600GT would be a good idea. Try this from PC Option: Intel E4400 Processor 2GB DDR2 800Mhz RAM Asus P5KPL ATI 3850 512MB 320GB Hard Drive DVD Writer Vista Home Premium 64-bit £493.87 In terms of power it's similar to my machine, but with a slightly less powerful graphics card. I can run pretty much anything around on High - Max settings and get decent frame rates, so this should serve you well. The only exception is Crysis, where this will probably get you to medium settings. It's also £100 below budget, which can't be bad

You can already use GH guitars with Rock Band, you just can't use the Rock Band guitar with GH. I wonder what the Wii version will do differently? There must be something (other than not getting any DLC)

It happens to everyone (or at least i know i've been there). The secret is to date for fun. Find someone you can have a good time with and keep it light-hearted. Sadly i screwed this forumula up and seriously hurt someone over Christmas. I didn't mean to, i just didn't realise how much she liked me until she told me. Basically it had turned serious in her mind, but not in mine so i ended it You can't really keep a relationship going where one person wants to settle down and the other doesn't... So yeah, i've kind of lost track of what my point was now and got all depressed I'll turn my thoughts towards the girl im (hopefully) meeting up with tomorrow night, that should cheer me up!

First thing i'd recommend is to forget spending £2500 on a desktop computer. Gaming laptop maybe, but for a desktop it's just throwing money at the problem! Theres also no such thing as future proof. Basically the more money you spend the less benefit each pound gives you. By the time you pass the £1k barrier (for the base computer) you're looking at overpriced "extreme" kit. This is the stuff that will be re-released for half the price in a couple of months time. Case point; it costs an extra £150 for 170Mhz clock speed on the new Intel Quad Cores. You wouldn't even notice that! For laptops look at this one: http://www.rockdirect.com/viewNotebook.php?pName=XTREME%20770 Desktop-wise i'd recommend building it yourself. If you take gaming and computers seriously enough to spend that sort of cash then you'll benefit from understanding how they work a bit more. Go for something down these lines: Intel Core2Duo E8400 Processor - £130 Scythe Ninja Extreme CPU Cooler - £30 Abit IP-35 Pro - £110 ATi 3870X2 Graphics Card - £260 Creative Soundblaster Xtreme Gamer - £60 2x2GB PC2-6400 RAM - £65 500GB Western Digital AAKS Hard Drive - £65 Samsung DVD-RW - £18 Corsair HX-650W - £85 Antec P182 - £90 24" Dell 2407 Monitor - £430 Logitech DiNovo Edge Keyboard - £110 Logitech MXRevolution - £55 Logitech Z-5500 5.1 Surround Speakers - £200 That lot should total up to about £1700 without shopping about too much. The components are all great build quality and you'll be able to play Crysis pretty much max'd out on a 24" monitor! For upgrades you could add an SSD drive (very fast and silent hard drives) at the end of the year and a Blu Ray writer when they fall in price. Theres also room for another 4GB of RAM, PhysX card, network card (wifi etc.) and TV tuners. Forget about Crossfire and SLI, they're expensive, bad value for money and offer comparatively small gains. When you need the extra power just sell the 3870X2 and buy a new graphics card, games will never rely on SLI/Crossfire to be played.

A bit of good news for a change! I really hope this deal goes through because at the moment there really is no competitor to Google. That company is just eating everything in sight! I'd rather not see Microsoft gain more power, but i'd prefer that than have Google the owner of the whole internet! Hopefully they rebrand too, never did like Yahoo or MSN. Windows Live ain't too bad though

By no exams i meant i finished 6th Form almost 3 years ago. Theres nothing to put conditions on : peace: Whats the night life like? :p To be honest most of what i need to know relates to my course, so i'll have to find that out directly from the uni.

Just been reading the new student finance stuff, never realised in changed! I got about £3k to pay off my tuition and accommodation last time, both of which came to £600 more than the loan! Then i had £40 a week from my parents (i was in catered accommodation, so in theory i didn't need much) Now the loan is like £4k after fees are paid?!?!?!! Thats crazy! Stupid amount of debt to get in to, but at the same time i wont be poor this time round Should be getting about £8/hour from work too, not sure how many hours i'll do yet though... Why didn't i read that bit sooner, i've been worrying! I'll know soon enough, my offers will be unconditional because im not taking any exams. They might all turn me down on the basis of late application, but hopefully they'll take pity on me! I only decided to return to uni at Christmas, and then everything went to hell. I doubt anyone wants to know how much has gone wrong in the past month, so i won't go in to details but basically i had too many other things on my mind to think about uni Whats Hallam like? I've never even seen the place, just did what research i could from here...

I dropped out of Uni after my first year. I was studying Comp Sci with AI, and although i was good at the course i just found that my heart wasn't in it. I only chose it in the first place because people kept telling me i was talented and that i'd go far in that industry... That was nearly 2 years ago now! Hopefully i'll be starting a new course in September, Culinary Arts Management! I really can't wait! This is the sort of course i wanted to do in the first place! I've applied to: University College Birmingham Sheffield Hallam Manchester Metropolitan University of Ulster Thames Valley University The last 2 are just filler though, don't want to go to London or Ireland! Anything you want to know just ask. I'd really recommend forgetting about which uni is best though, it doesn't matter all that much. At the end of the day employers don't just look at you're qualifications, they look at what else you've achieved and how you've developed through University. Being happy with the place you're at is 100 times more important than being at the best place. You'll do better in the long run.

You can get most 360 games cheap, heck Halo 3 is available for £18! It just depends how cheap you are after and what sort of games you like...

No probs, i fess up that the only reason i knew was because i did it myself when i build this machine I was all like WTF! My new comp is broken?

Ah well I figured you would, but no harm in asking...