got a new PC...

[crinkles]

my existing one was a bit outdated in '05 when i got it. well, i got my tax cheque back, and felt in a spending mood. we will use this computer for the next 6+ years. so i went, well, for gold. (relatively).

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad Processor Q9650 (3 GHz, 1333FSB, 12MB)


Memory 8GB (4x2GB) DDR2 800MHz SDRAM Memory


Monitor Dell(TM) S2309WFP 23" Full HD Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor (Full HD1920 x 1080 at 60 Hz)

Video Card NVIDIA GeForce GT220 1024MB DDR3

Hard Drive 640GB SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive with Native Command Queuing



operating system is Vista Ultimate SP1, 64 bit, with free upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out.

what do you guys think?

I may get back into playing some computer games. I would like to get the laetst flight sim, and monkey island games. loved monkey island 1, 2 and 3!

Also, my wife wants to start her own internet business.

my existing PC really struggles with web pages - fan starts up when the most basic graphics come on.

for the same price, i could have gotten a pretty weak apple system. but i am no fanboy LOL.

Got 8% discount with deal due to my employer having a discount deal with them online.

 

[simple_gifts]

Looks good; any new PC I buy will have 8Gb too.

Here is what you have to look forward to....

20 hour upgrade

Just kidding, the 20 hours is a worst case scenario (which with Windows happens 99% of the time)

 

[Familyguy]

Nice system, though I probably would have opted for an Intel i7-based machine given your 6 year ownership horizon.

I have a machine of approximately the same power as yours (though only 4gb RAM) and have been fiddling with Windows 7 on it. Upgrading from an older Windows 7 version to the last public release candidate was about 45 minutes.

Good luck with the new system!

 

[crinkles]

Originally Posted By: Familyguy
Nice system, though I probably would have opted for an Intel i7-based machine given your 6 year ownership horizon.

I have a machine of approximately the same power as yours (though only 4gb RAM) and have been fiddling with Windows 7 on it. Upgrading from an older Windows 7 version to the last public release candidate was about 45 minutes.

Good luck with the new system!


yes in hindsight the i7 looks the goods, but would have pushed the price beyond what i was willing to pay. it was still expensive, but at least the tax man paid for it (sort of)

 

[ToyotaNSaturn]

a Quad-core (non i7) is plenty fine. I just setup an Asus quad-core for a person recently, did an in-place upgrade from Vista 64 to Win 7 64. They are happy with it.

I would keep the i7's for the hard-core enthusiasts & gamers due to the fact the costs are higher as you mentioned.

 

[Volvohead]

Hold out a little longer. The new i5 and socket 1156 stuff is just now coming out. It will offer near 1366 performance at significantly reduced costs.

But other than the high cost (and heat), you can't go wrong with an i7 setup at the moment. Nehalem in all its versions is a very potent architecture.

The flip has now flopped. W7 won't be as much of a resource jump from XP as Win2k and XP were from Win9x. HW is once again ahead of the SW . . . for a while. It's a good time to buy HW, as even the lower Core2 stuff will have a good service life.

 

[tmorris1]

Originally Posted By: crinkles

...but at least the tax man paid for it (sort of)


The tax man had nothing to do with paying for this. He gave back your money that he kindly held for you without interest... You were just getting back the money that they took from you. I hate it when people say this. I know you probably know this, but it still irritates me.

 

[CivicFan]

This makes my everyday clunker with Pentium 4 and 512 mb RAM look very outdated (it's a 2003 Compaq laptop).

But I do not have issues with the internet, and can run Office 2007 without issues. Admittedly, it's a very lean machine.

 

[Familyguy]

Originally Posted By: CivicFan
This makes my everyday clunker with Pentium 4 and 512 mb RAM look very outdated (it's a 2003 Compaq laptop).

But I do not have issues with the internet, and can run Office 2007 without issues. Admittedly, it's a very lean machine.


Heh. I recently moved and probably threw out parts for about a dozen complete Pentium3/Pentium4 computers (including about 80 20-40gig 7200rpm hard disks). Nobody wanted the stuff even though it was all functional.

For about $350-400, you can buy a complete computer and flat screen monitor at Walmart that will run rings around P3/P4 stuff. Time marches on.

 

[crinkles]

Originally Posted By: tmorris1
Originally Posted By: crinkles

...but at least the tax man paid for it (sort of)


The tax man had nothing to do with paying for this. He gave back your money that he kindly held for you without interest... You were just getting back the money that they took from you. I hate it when people say this. I know you probably know this, but it still irritates me.


yes yes i know this, and was only being silly. it IS my money. it was just money that i didn't need desperately elsewhere or wanted to invest, and found a good use for.

 

[Lyondellic]

As with any Microsoft O/S, I recommend reformatting the hard drive, or drives, and performing a clean install of Windows 7. OEM computers come preloaded with too much trial-ware and other utilities that are designed to save newbie users from themselves. I like to get a fresh start and use an external USB drive to transfer music, pictures, videos, email and documents after performing each clean install. I recently bought a $350 Acer AX1300 that came preloaded with Vista Home Premium, wiped the hard drive and installed the final (RTM) build of Windows 7 Professional. I then found a 20" Acer LCD widescreen display for the insanely low price of $99 and tossed out my old Viewsonic A70 17" CRT.

 

[crinkles]

Originally Posted By: Lyondellic
As with any Microsoft O/S, I recommend reformatting the hard drive, or drives, and performing a clean install of Windows 7. OEM computers come preloaded with too much trial-ware and other utilities that are designed to save newbie users from themselves. I like to get a fresh start and use an external USB drive to transfer music, pictures, videos, email and documents after performing each clean install. I recently bought a $350 Acer AX1300 that came preloaded with Vista Home Premium, wiped the hard drive and installed the final (RTM) build of Windows 7 Professional. I then found a 20" Acer LCD widescreen display for the insanely low price of $99 and tossed out my old Viewsonic A70 17" CRT.


yes, i will probably do that. how hard is a clean install to do? is it as simple as setting to boot from a dvd, then formatting the drive and re-starting the PC? i'm not too great at it all. I HOPE they send me a Windows 7 DVD, and it not an online kind of thing.

 

[Lyondellic]

Originally Posted By: crinkles
Originally Posted By: Lyondellic
As with any Microsoft O/S, I recommend reformatting the hard drive, or drives, and performing a clean install of Windows 7. OEM computers come preloaded with too much trial-ware and other utilities that are designed to save newbie users from themselves. I like to get a fresh start and use an external USB drive to transfer music, pictures, videos, email and documents after performing each clean install. I recently bought a $350 Acer AX1300 that came preloaded with Vista Home Premium, wiped the hard drive and installed the final (RTM) build of Windows 7 Professional. I then found a 20" Acer LCD widescreen display for the insanely low price of $99 and tossed out my old Viewsonic A70 17" CRT.


yes, i will probably do that. how hard is a clean install to do? is it as simple as setting to boot from a dvd, then formatting the drive and re-starting the PC? i'm not too great at it all. I HOPE they send me a Windows 7 DVD, and it not an online kind of thing.


Performing a clean install of Windows 7 is pretty simple. Just enter BIOS during the boot process (Usually by pressing Delete or F10) and change the boot sequence as follows: DVD drive as 1st boot device, HDD-0 as the 2nd boot device. Save and exit BIOS, then press any key when prompted to boot from a DVD or CD. Windows will load the required setup files, then reboot automatically. Disregard the prompt to boot from the DVD or CD and the setup process will begin. When prompted where to install, I typically delete and format partitions on the hard drive that contain a prior installation of Windows. You will be asked to enter a user name, password, time zone, Wifi network key and a Windows activation key. The installation process takes about 30 minutes in all. The key is to have all of your important files backed up on either a USB thumb or external hard drive. This includes any driver files and software that you want to install once the O/S installation completes. It sounds much more difficult than it really is and there are a lot of sites that contain detailed pictorial instructions on how to perform clean O/S installs.