InfinitePeace

lol. I had a feeling you were going to say that. Someone said D2400 earlier. This is where I'm going to sound stupid. I see 12V and 16V, what's the difference other than voltage, obviously. But what does that mean to me?

Okay, where is a good place to get said powermaster? My current Interstate battery is pretty large, physically.. so I don't THINK size should be an issue, but I'll take measurements and then what, just buy the biggest one I can? Do I need to buy a specific size so it fits snugly in the tray, or should I be more concerned about "electrical" size?

If it is plugged in and recognized via Safe Hardware removal, it may just not be properly formatted. If you are running XP, you should format it using NTFS, it's just a better file system than FAT32. Before I tell you what to do actually, I need to make sure you're running XP because the process is a little different to look at what I need you to check in other OS's. Well chances are you are, so I'll do it anyway. IF XP; Go Control Panel ---> Administrative Tools ---> Computer Management ---> Storage ---> Disk Management (local) and see if you see it in that bottom list of drives at all, posibly not formatted correctly. If it's there it means the OS sees it but it's not in a properly formatted state for usage and you can reformat it properly here. From there you can right click on it and go to new partition, format the ENTIRE partition, give it a name and drive letter etc.. and format it as NTFS. The big thing in there is just making sure the OS sees it so you can rule out any physical or mechanical error.

As someone that has probly... 12 HDDs to his name right now, over the years I've had every brand fail. My last oen just recently was my WD raptor. Before that was a Seagate, and before that was a Maxtor. Before that was 2 Wd's within a week of one another bought at the same time that I think was the fault of poor handling or something. Seagate carries the longest warranty, as was said. The larger seagates, i.e. 750+ have SOME reliability issues, they are more expensive, and slower... at least the earlier series were. I just ordered my third WD 750 SE16 Drive; they are quick, quiet, don't seem to get too hot if you have ample cooling, and as for reliability, dunno yet obviously, they carry a 3 year warranty, but chances are they will fail in the first 3 years if they are going to. I don't put a lot of wear and tear on mine, they are there just to store data, my music drive after 3 years of adding music does still not need to be defragged bc I don't move files around a lot, they just sit there and get played. And I don't remember if it was said, but fyi, Maxtor is now owned by Seagate, so MOST of the newer maxtor models will also carry the 5 year warranty. I don't know that I would go with an off brand myself. They may be just fine, but I will tell you that IF it fails, the RMA process is going to be much easier with one of the kings. I wrote up my WD RMA for my raptor in 5 minutes, and I can just about guarantee you when they get it, they will S.M.A.R.T. it to confirm it is indeed failing, destroy it, and ship out a new one probly that same day (though it make take them a few to get to it). Some good deals mentioned though. Take a look here at the link I posted in the other thread. http://dealnews.com/categories/Computer/St...Drives/301.html

The first game I bought aside from Zelda was Excite Truck and I think to this day is still my favorite. I have almost every game now because I modded mine with the Wiikey. I have nearly 65 games now. By far Mario Galaxy has been the best overall, but Excite Truck is the absolute chit. I just love it. Rent it and see what you think.

I cant believe no one has said UT3 =/ CS:S UT3 MoH: Airborne Xbox Halo3 (When I feel like buying Gold) Guitar Hero.. ha And I've been meaning to buy CoD 4

DDR is going to cost him a little more though, not to mention even more with it being Registered ECC. The deal on drives right now is pretty much that the 750 is where it's at. I just ordered my third one. http://dealnews.com/categories/Computer/St...Drives/301.html I dunno if he needs IDE or has SATA ports in there but just happens to be running an IDE drive atm, but if so, SATA would be the way to go. RAID IMO is silly unless you are striping or want it for redundancy. Striping as in RAID 0, essentially turning two drives into one and increasing your throughput collectively as someone already stated. I did that for a while but then just decided I didn't need the gamble as my changes of having my "one" main OS drive die were doubled, as if one of those striped drives fail, you lose everything. But anyway, the 750's are just about the lowest $/gig right now, unless you find a one time deal on a smaller drive which does happen.. Do the math on every drive you are looking at and youll see what I'm talking about. I purchased one a few days ago on a deal from club IT @ $149 shipped. Not bad.

I'll spend whatever I need to, I've stopped adding up how much this is all costing me because I'm afraid. 2x120 is about the same price as the powermaster the earlier poster suggested, and I don't really want to do 2 batteries if I don't have to. My current battery is almost brand new, that's what sucks, but its a replacement for a bad one I had about 6 months ago so it really only cost me like $60. So, powermaster is the suggestion then? One of those as my main battery in addition to the 180a alternator and I should be good?

Argh, you people are determined to break me just to have a good stereo arent you? Which battery do I need, and how do I know which one will fit in my car? I'm not trying to aska stupid question but there is about 832749832 different shapes, sizes, and models of batteries and I'm educated enough to know that power is not my thing.

So, should I try it with my existing battery just to see how the performance is, or you're positive that I should just do it.. I mean, I can spend the money, but $200 is $200 if I can avoid it.

What makes that particular battery so much better than an average, say interstate battery like I have now?

Well again I'd like to avoid using a second battery all together, I should be able to do that after the alternator upgrade, right?

Honestly, I'm new to the battery game too. Ohiogen recommended a red top and NOT a yellow top. I've actually seen conflicting views everywhere. Right now I run an almost brand new Interstate battery as my main, and was hoping to not have to get a second battery. Care to explain why yellow and not red? I'd like to learn the difference.

They did say that it maxed higher than that... so the "rating" of 180a is more or less a rating that it should never go lower than, theoretically, but at times it will exceed that rating?

I've been toying with the same notion... So the 1500D would be enough for 2 12's? And what about his question about the electrical system, I too have all stock and am curious how detrimental its going to be on MY electrical system. I do have a nearly brand new batttery because the last one had a bad cell, and threw a bolt meter on it just before to make sure it wasnt' the alternator... solid 13.8. So, will a 1500D + a JL 450/4 be too much for my car, or do I need to make modifications? Or just do it and see what happens and go from there or can I damage something?

I just want a clean amp that will put out the power it's supposed to, with enough power for a q, that will be stable and reliable. I've looked at eD, the Rockford BD, possibly Cadence as many say on CAF, and you guys are saying sundown. I don't want to spend a fortune, but ill spend 400ish if I must, less wouldn't suck. But whatever really, just a solid amp that isn't going to give me problems and will produce a clean sound with one of these drivers, whatever I have to pay to get that, I've spent enough in every other department. I still haven't decided on a front stage, taking votes for that...

No? I wouldnt know exactly what I was looking at anyway? I don't ever remember so many conflicting opinions when trying to buy something. What amp gets your vote for the 12" Q then? I've heard sundown mentioned, of which I've never heard of until today.

Okay, and how much do they run? the eD runs 350 shipped and does 1200x1@1ohm which should be more than enough for the one q. Do you think the sundown would be a better match, and if so.. why? 5 yr warranty on the eD is nice too...

Well, the original plan was actually 2 12w6v2's then I compromised on 1 13w6v2. I figured I could save power and maximize output per cube given the slightly larger cone area. But then someone talked me into looking at Fi and I think I'd like to give them a shot... the catch is I need twice the power. I'd like to have 2 12's, but I hadn't really planned on putting 2000 watts to the substage. So, I'm left with one 12 sealed or possibly ported. I just hope that will have enough output. Sundown I'm unfamiliar with, how does it stack up to the rest?