Got my new PC today!

[Newc]

Prices for SSD are still too far off IMO. For the same money I can get a 1TB or larger 7200 RPM drive. As with any "new" tech like SSD, there's always the chance of "we make them so fast we can't guarantee quality", and it runs fine for 6 months then disintegrates.


And Adobe Audition 3 is now freeware? Hafta check that out.
I did try CompatMode on the other programs with my Win7 upgrade, but Poser still crashed on startup more often than not, or during rendering otherwise.
PSP 9 I think didn't even open.

Then there's BFD2 which I use for drums, and while it does work with Win7, and there's a 64-bit patch, the patches beyond the version I have now removed the ASIO options, which I frequently adjusted on the fly to correct performance issues (playback vs export). Those patches are required for anything over XP.


DonP - TigerDirect is having sales all the time. They're advertising a processor sale at the moment (just went and checked to see where the fuck my power supply is and apparently they mailed it, rather than UPS'd it - or rather, UPS mailed it). $289 for an i7-4770 (which was cheaper than mine at $335 )
I almost went with the gaming laptop for ~$1700, but that's all I need is to take that to work with me I already drag my laptop to work and my MOTU interface and a guitar

[Newc]

Looks like I'm either stuck with Audition 3 or Adobe is about to lose me as a customer - everything's part of their "Creative Cloud" bullshit, with monthly subscription fees.
Didn't see where Au3 was "freeware" on the site. May have been a promo they did before converting everything to "vaporware"

[micha]

No, I don't have a creative cloud, but I remember I had to register and enter my email somewhere...
I got it from here:
http://www.chip.de/downloads/Adobe-A..._59763773.html
you might give it a try. The site is safe (chip is one of the biggest computer magazins over here), but I'm not sure wether you'll be able to install an English copy as well.

This will get you to a Download link on the adobe homepage.
But you should be able to find the english version as well.

The download is called CS2, the monthly fees came with CS6 IIRC.
It's the 2007 Version. They stopped supporting it and shut the activation-system down, so anyone can get the key now.
(They kindly request only people download it, who once bought either AU or their Reader.)

I never bought AU, but I own several pieces of hardware that came with Adobe products, so I don't feel too bad about it.

You own AU anyway if I got you right. Just search for CS2 instead of their latest one and you should be fine.

[DonP]

Talking about SSD drives, we tried one. Kelp loading Win 7 64 bit on it, it would work for a while, then forget the MBR. Finally gave up on it.

[Hellbat]

I would never go back to a disk based boot drive. Never. Unless they somehow designed one faster than SSD.

A good name brand one is expensive, no doubt, but the performance advantage is so large that I consider it money well spent. But I also just installed a 780GTX, so my computer gets most of my 'mad money' thrown at it. Unlike guitars, the wife can't really tell that major changes go on in the box.

At least she inherits my hand me down parts. Her new PC got my 680. ( Totally not so I can also play games on her computer though. )

[Newc]

Yeah, I already got Audition 3, so unless 4 just has gee-whiz wowee wow wow features, I'm good.

Tiger Direct has a 120GB SSD drive for $85. They also have the same 2TB 7200RPM drive I just got for...$85

DAMMIT! Had I waited til this week to order it, I coulda got the same system for less

[xenophobe]

That's kinda what I was going for. My first self-built PC was 5 years old before I found a game whose "Recommended System" exceeded it

Yeah, a lot of people say "don't buy flagship products because you're overpaying", and while that was sort of true a decade ago when every new 6m-1year iteration would be 30-50% faster, that was when hardware was catching up to software limitations, now that trend has reversed.

Your new system will be crazy fast... I'm sure you'll love it!

DOS-based games like Doom, Carmageddon, Tomb Raider, Blood, Duke Nuke 'Em, and quite a few others ran smooth as glass. The first Rainbow Six and Star Wars: Rogue Squadron ran just fine as well.

My current/old desktop could run Oblivion about as well as the 360 did, but the 360 runs Skyrim a lot better, even with the lowest settings and LOD and everything else turned off

It's crazy how all of those old DOS games are being turned into Android apps. I have Quake 1 and 2 on my HTC One and they play amazingly well. Enough to where I can actually finish the whole game without being bothered by a touch interface.

Even if I can't get Win8 drivers for my SB Audigy PlatPro sound thingy, the MOTU I have is USB, and works just fine with my laptop, so I shouldn't have to spend anything on sound for it.

Are you really that set on upgrading to W8? I wouldn't do it unless your monitor is touch-capable, personally.



SSD? I haven't bought one yet because I leave my system running 24/7. It doesn't need SSD, I have a 7200rpm Barracuda, and while it's not lightning fast compared to the SSD, it also doesn't have the problems associated with one. I have far too much data on this one to get a SSD anyway. Sure, I know I'd love the speed, but I don't reboot my system that much at all. Vista seems to like a reboot every 45 days or so and that's my average uptime.

[Newc]

Well, WIn7 and 8 Pro 64 were offered for the same price. Had I researched it sooner, I would have gone with 7 since it's been out longer and has more patches to correct bugs and work better with current hardware/drivers/etc. I still haven't opened the package so it's returnable (trade-back for Win7 if possible).

I really don't think my 55" TV is touch-capable, and hopefully Win8 doesn't require one. If so, it's going back for Win7.

I don't reboot unless it's necessary, either. Usually when I do, XP says it can't find the MBR of one of my drives, or Himem Sys is missing or corrupt, or some other bullshit.
I hate rebooting my Vista laptop because it loads all the OEM crap that Toshiba never updated, and I have to sit through 20 minutes of "can't load this, can't load that, problem with such and such, do you wanna send an error report" before I can even get it online.

That one's getting a larger HDD and an non-branded Windows install (Vista Pro, or 7 Pro) just to end the bullshit.

The SSD hoopla reminds me of when Linux came out - everyone saying how great it was because it was totally user-configurable......assuming you were a computer programmer, of course. Thousands of dollars in Windows-based apps would be merely wasted drive space. "Yeah, but you could program your own version of Photoshop, Pro Tools, Premiere, 3ds Max, etc etc".

Yeah. Right. If I could I'd be doing it, getting paid a ton of money to do it, and running Doom on a Silicon Graphics workstation

I'll wait on the SSD bandwagon. I still say there's going to be a massive collapse of that market when they're made so quickly there's no QA, and millions of drives simply disintegrate because of it.

Then my pokey-ass 7200PRM spinning-disc "old man" drive will still be running, while someone tries to launch a business that can reassemble the ceramic dust inside your SSD housing so you can get your data back.

[DonP]

You could go SCSI with 15K drives but they were noisey when I bought them years ago. I'm sure they are likely better now, but check first.

[micha]

Who's storing data on an SSD anyway?
I have about 8TB of data at the moment on nine drives, about 90GB of that are on SSDs, mainly the OS, couple of programs and Games.
SSD is too expensive for saving data on and you still couldn't watch a movie in 20 seconds, even if your hard drive would be able to read it that fast, so why would you want to?
Just put on the SSD what benefits from higher reading rates. The idea of putting your whole data on SSDs is just stupid.
They are not able to replace HDDs at the moment.

[xenophobe]

I hate rebooting my Vista laptop because it loads all the OEM crap that Toshiba never updated, and I have to sit through 20 minutes of "can't load this, can't load that, problem with such and such, do you wanna send an error report" before I can even get it online.

You should be able to uninstall that. If you can't, I feel bad for you.

You could go SCSI with 15K drives but they were noisey when I bought them years ago. I'm sure they are likely better now, but check first.

Yeah, I used to run an Enterprise SCSI with 10k drives, but that tech is now extremely expensive compared to a typical SATA drive. The main benefit of going SCSI back in the late 90's early 00's was that SCSI took the burden of processing off your CPU. With systems as fast as they are, that 3-5% performance hit no longer matters and isn't 3-5% anymore.

[Newc]

When SSDs are capable of replacing HDDs, then I'll look into them. I still have cassettes from back when CDs were still an option.

I've previously tried uninstalling the vendor apps. There's no listing for them. They don't even show up in the list of Startup services/programs in the Admin Tools. Probably wouldn't do any good anyway - the iTunes crap is in that list and completely ignores my settings (Disable auto start).

And my power supply finally came late today
M$ just loves to print a 25 character serial number on a 2" sticker with 1/4" margin - good thing I have a magnifying glass

Had to fight to get the HDD plugged in - the bays are sideways, and though the SATA cable had a right-angle plug (YAY!) the power cord didn't (BOO!) so I had to remove the drive, turn it around, and then feed the power cables through the bay cage.
Thankfully these drive rails are push-pin type instead of screw in.

The next big innovation I see in case designs is having power and data connectors in the bay cage for each slot, and then you just plug your PS into each bay that needs it. Better than stringing cables all over your case, resting on your fans, or putting pressure on your cards.

[Newc]

THIS THING KICKS ASS! OMG Skyrim runs so smooth, and it's on Ultra High!

[DonP]

That's what my kids said.


To Xeno, my only gripe about SSD was a bad experience with it loosing the MBR. Now it's a $120 paper weight.

My SCSI systems with 15K drives are still very fast for being a dual P3 1.3GHz system with Windows XP. But the noise get old

[len]

killer specs!!
just nerdgasmed too..

MSI z87-gd65 gaming (heat sinks are dragons! )
i5 4430 (should have opted for the K)
16 gb crucial
2 x gtx 660 sli
ssd + a few more hdd for good measure (page file not on OS hdd)
3 brand new Dell s2340m monitors...running (5760 x 1080) dual and triple monitors are the fricken bomb
win 8.1 pro most people hate 8...it's my job to convince them otherwise
Klipsh pro media
cat 7 mouse..hundy for a mouse? this mouse is a panty dropper

5760 x 1080 gaming is off the chains..Crysis 2 and 3 on ultra is the shit...
might get another gtx 660, 3 more monitors and an i7 k