DL.TV

episode 234 (1x234)

Air date: May 29, 2008

STUFF • Loyd Case of ExtremeTech.com joins Robert on set. • Today's Tech Pic of the Week is from Loyd. He shows off his new Solar Panel Array. If you the full story on all the ins and outs of Loyd's solar installation experience, click HERE for Loyd's article on ExtremeTech.com. • PC Magazine's Nicole Price Fasig takes a look at the SP8PRT Digital Picture Frame and Printer from Smartparts. • And now the questions for Loyd: Questions 1 is from John of Reno, NV: I'm building a new system and looking for a processor recco. I'm will be doing some light gaming, video transcoding, and regular computer stuff. The CPUs I'm considering are the E8400 and the Q9300. Both are in my price range and I like that they're 45nm. Which should I go with? Questions 2 is from Harry of New Jersey: I am beginning to spec out a PC to run MS Flight Simulator. I am planning to build the system around a quad core processor, however I am a bit confused about what to do for the video boards. What would be his recommendation for a 4+ monitor solution for a flight sim? Questions 3 is from Yosuan of Miami, FL: I'm planning on building a ATI/AMD Spider Platform based system and thinking of running 4 graphics card, I was wondering what power supply do you recommend and how many watts? Questions 4 is from Rick of Dallas, TX: What do you think the future of discrete graphics really looks like? With ATI's 480 on the horizon and Nvidia salvo's most likely to follow soon after. Do you see discrete graphics becoming more and more powerful maybe with multi core chips or do you see CPU's with build in graphics like AMD's Fusion or Larrabee becoming the true future? Questions 5 is from Anthony of Chicago, IL: Lately I've noticed the temp of my graphics card (ATI Radeon X1900 XT) is running about 80C idle. I've been getting the warning message while gaming where it tells me that it's getting to hot and it's lowering the clock speed to keep it from melting. Everything in the PC i