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Looks good over all. Because of the potential top power draw, you might want to make sure this runs on its own circuit at home. If you're not going to run tri- or quad-SLI, the 1600W power supply is over kill, so you might consider a 850-1000W unit instead. eVGA can be hit or miss, so consider...

How often do you use the optical drive? A standard size CD/DVD/Blu-Ray disc is about 5 inches across, so getting those dimensions is a tall order. I'm suggesting you may consider an external drive as one idea. Another idea is to look at a slim, notebook style drive. It would require a mounting...

Here's some things to consider before dropping all your money: -What game(s) you'll play on this and what resolution (1080p, 1440p, what)? -How much you want to spend on this. -Are you set with sticking to a Micro ATX motherboard -Are you able to run with 1 video card? With 2 video cards...

It's a dual-slot card. Having said that, running 2 of those things in a small case might not be a great idea. If you're using something larger than a mATX case, it should be okay (assuming good airflow). You could also e-mail Gigabyte for the exact dimensions, but I would imagine they have taken...

I don't know what order you installed the OS's, but for best results, it should be XP first and then 7 and the Windows 7 drive should be your boot drive. It's been a long time since I played around with dual booting, but that typically set you up well. If you haven't installed much, it might be...

Yeah, the front panel connectors don't click in place like you might find on SATA connectors. Some motherboards come with a jumper block to make it easier, but outside of that, the connectors haven't changed in over 20 years.

Agreed. If it's just Skyrim giving you fits, you can upgrade your entire system and the problem won't go away. I've done that before on several occasions, and ended up with disappointing results. Hardware is only part of it. You can have the best hardware on tap and see it brought to its knees...

What power supplies are you using? I mean, I've had one or two die in my day, but having a rash of them seems pretty odd and typically, low-end, garbage units go OR you have something going on with the socket or circuit the computer is on. No power supply tester is going to be able to tell you...

I've never used a power supply tester myself, but my first thought was if it has a manual. If it didn't come with it, there should be something on line. I don't know if there's a universal standard to the testers, as I imagine snagging a multimeter might be more useful. Not sure on the first 2...

What kind of a budget are you looking at? What CPU do you have now?

Not too commonly. Also, just a heads up that the forum for that stuff is only accessible once you have 50 posts.

Well, first off, I would check the current cooler for dust build up and that it's still seating correctly. Also, make sure the fan is still spinning as well as any case fans that might be in there. What are the specs of the system anyway? Include the power supply brand and model. Heat could be...

It can depend on your environment too. For example, my temps run cooler during winter and hotter in summer, so while it's not the end all answer, it can factor in to that some what. Core 2 Quads also weren't the coolest running things, and the closest thing I have is a Core 2 X6800. I didn't...

I forgot about the 66 MHz ones and I think their might've been PCI-X (eXtended, not Express) at a 133MHz bus. That's old school stuff.

Not much anymore. Years ago, it did, but if you see a PCI slot on a board, it's a 32-bit one. PCI Express replaces PCI and unless you're tinkering with pre-Core processor motherboards (especially server and workstation motherboards), the information isn't really needed since any new PCI cards...

I've upgraded 2 Windows 7 Ultimate rigs without hassle so far as I can tell. The problems I'm aware of seem to stem from the Microsoft App Store (or whatever they call it).

I suspect a sensor issue, which if it's from one on the motherboard isn't one you can replace, but you may be able to disable the alarm in BIOS. As far as an update goes, I don't think a BIOS update is going to solve your woes here. You might want to check out a temperature monitoring program...

First you need to determine what you're doing with it. Is this a gaming machine? Are you looking to run multiple VMware clients at once? Or, is this just something for grandma to look up recipes? Then you look at what budget you have to see where to go with that. Some items that can be...

The RAM on a video card has no bearing on what RAM works on a motherboard. What work are you looking to do with this system? Depending on what you do, the graphics provided on the CPU may already be sufficient and negate a need for a discreet card. Also, how much were you looking to spend on...

And there's the trick. There are three major lines (also referred to as rails) coming from the typical unit: +3.3V, +5V and +12V. In the past, the 3.3 and 5V lines were the heavy hitters until the introduction of the Pentium 4. That's when a shift towards a higher use of the +12V rail was used...