Friday, February 05, 2010
My Computers Level Up!
It doesn't seem all that long ago that my old, now defunct, gaming computer was a brand-new, top-of-the-line model built in part to play the then-new RPG Oblivion at full graphical settings. It had two SLI-linked NVidia 7600s (these were, combined, well over a third of the cost of the entire system), liquid cooling, AMD Dual-Core CPU, a "massive" 300 gig HD, and a lot of awesome.
I bought its replacement from the same place I purchased the original, ibuypower.com. This is my third system I've bought from them, and I won't say for sure it'll be my last. They are a budget gaming system shop - not the only one - but they are kind of the "devil you know." My new system - as an emergency replacement - was a bargain-priced $700 system that came with a 1 gig NVidia 9800GT, a 750 gig HD, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8500 (2x 3.16 gHz cores), plus the usual odds & ends. Including a mouse, keyboard, speakers + subwoofer, flash media reader-writer (apparently they picked 'em up on clearance and were adding them for something like $1 to systems), DVD R/W, etc. It's nowhere near the bleeding edge, but it runs rings around my old system. I blame, principally, the intel cores running about 30% faster than my old AMD dual-core machine.
After my wife's system had enjoyed an accident during shipping that broke the HD off the mounting rails and bounced it around inside the bay (needless to say, it didn't work anymore when it arrived), I went ahead and sprung for an improved packing option for this budget beast. I didn't want to have to wait for a replacement to anything. This packing option, from what I could tell, was simply one of those insta-pack bags that fill with foam over the main bay area opposite the motherboard, holding the other cards (all one of them, in my case) in place and cushioned. So they had about a 4x markup on the cost of those bags and a minute of a shipper's time to put it in there. Ah, well.
It may have helped keep the loose screw that was rattling around inside the case from flying out and damaging anything during transit. I was far more disappointed in finding that in my case. I guess QC doesn't shake the system to see if it rattles (probably a good thing), and heaven knows I have done that before when building a system. But it didn't fill me with warm fuzzies when I pulled the system out of the box.
Beyond that, however, the new computer seems to work fine. The only other pains I experienced were self-inflicted. I opted to use my old hard drive as the main HD. Lacking any extra mounting rails, I had to use the ones from the old system - which are a little too big. So now I can't close the side-panel on the system until I get new rails (or I get creative with a cutting device). Because the system was so sparse on the inside of the mid-tower, it was easy for me to plug in the second hard drive, and swap cables around to make the old one the default master.
Man, I remember when I had to change pins and plug in much uglier ribbon cables with a twist for the slave system to do this stuff - computers are definitely easier to work with on the inside now!
With that all done, the new system booted and with some adjustments and loading in of new drivers, it looked like my old system. I had to reactivate Windows, Symantec Anti-Virus, and a couple other pieces of software that balked at me changing all my underlying hardware. Unfortunately, one of the programs refused to reactivate due to server issues - Torsion, by Sickhead Games. It's an editing tool for Torque-based development. However, it still let me use it - with only a nag screen at the beginning - so it wasn't a crushing problem. (Update: Sickhead very quickly let me know that they are aware of the problem and are working on resolving it.)
I also had to remember how to set up the secondary hard drive, format it, and give it a drive letter under Windows XP. Yes, I'm still using XP. But a quick Google search refreshed my memory, and it's working great now --- with 720 gigs of space still free!
The new system doesn't have wireless, either... so I was forced (!) to plug actual cables in through my old switch. For my pain, I was rewarded with much faster Internet access, making me wonder why I didn't give up on the wireless-ness on the old system a long time ago.
So - except for the mounting-rail issue and Torsion's activation glitch, I seem to be good to go with the new system. Of COURSE I had to test it out, and I was quite pleased. Everything seemed to run faster. While I didn't notice a much faster frame rate in Left 4 Dead (it already ran very well on the old system), it definitely loaded faster. I blame the CPU.
And - major bonus - Fallout 3 runs on the new system! I never got far past the exit from the vault before, as I was dealing with crashes and hangs that often required a system reboot every 5-10 minutes. I had zero problems with the new system. So it feels like I have a new game to go with my new machine.
The joys of hardware upgrades weren't done there, however. A friend of mine recently upgraded the memory on his antique Dell laptop of the same era as mine. He gave me his old memory cards - which doubled the RAM on my laptop. A quick test (I didn't want to pull myself away from the new desktop) made me feel like I had an all new laptop. Apparently Windows, the anti-virus software, and the various drivers really, really want to combine forces to eat a half-gig of RAM all by themselves. Since that's all the memory the computer had to begin with, it made for a painful experience. Now, however, it is ripping along contentedly. Frayed Knights ran *GREAT* with the full gig of RAM. Previously "problem" zones loaded & lit very quickly. We're talking about about more than an order of magnitude improvement in load times.
The machine even seemed to boot faster. This makes me very happy.
So now I have two zippier computers to work with. Neither are souped-up gaming powerhouses, but they are plenty appropriate for my needs. For now, at least, geek life is good.
(UPDATE: Corrected the specs. It was late at night when I typed those --- apparently my brain had already logged off for the night).
Labels: Geek Life
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 5:49 AM (Permalink)
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Awesome cool! Always fun to have new stuff! =)
Regarding Torsion: Was it that you couldn't connect to their server or...?
Regarding Torsion: Was it that you couldn't connect to their server or...?
Yep, server connection problem.
And they let me know in less than an hour of me emailing them that they are aware of the issue and trying to get it resolved. So they are on the case!
And they let me know in less than an hour of me emailing them that they are aware of the issue and trying to get it resolved. So they are on the case!
You probably should have bought Windows 7 with your new machine - you're inheriting all the problems of your old machine by not doing a reinstall.
Windows 7 is quite nice too. My computer recently got pummeled pretty hard on the way to Germany, and I had to reinstall a new OS (didn't bring my Vista disks or key with me) - and 7 is good.
Windows 7 is quite nice too. My computer recently got pummeled pretty hard on the way to Germany, and I had to reinstall a new OS (didn't bring my Vista disks or key with me) - and 7 is good.
# posted by 
: February 05, 2010 10:26 AM
: February 05, 2010 10:26 AM
I always recommend at least 1G RAM with any WinXP system, and at least 2G RAM for Vista. I suspect 7 is closer to Vista than XP in this regard, but I'm not certain yet.
Upgrading RAM if it's low will significantly speed up any system.
Upgrading RAM if it's low will significantly speed up any system.
"1 meg NVidia 9800GT, a 750 gig HD, Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8500 (2x 3.16 mHz cores)"
... there's something very wrong with those specs. Hint: A Nintendo 64 has a face-melting 93.75 MHz processor and 4 megs of RAM (expandable to a mindblowing 8 megs with the expansion pack).
... there's something very wrong with those specs. Hint: A Nintendo 64 has a face-melting 93.75 MHz processor and 4 megs of RAM (expandable to a mindblowing 8 megs with the expansion pack).
Re: Windows 7, yes, you want at least 2gb of hard RAM in the machine. It will run on 1gb, but sluggishly. I've experienced this on a laptop and a netbook both.
Windows 7 is definitely good, but upgrading to XP could be problematic.
It copies the ENTIRE hard drive of the old system to a Windows.old folder. You could then copy out the stuff you wanted or needed and delete the folder when finished. It will require re-installation of programs, so expect some overhead there.
I'd suggest you consider a new system drive, and just install Windows 7 on that, and transfer the rest of your software over from your old system drive. That's probably your best upgrade path.
Windows 7 is definitely good, but upgrading to XP could be problematic.
It copies the ENTIRE hard drive of the old system to a Windows.old folder. You could then copy out the stuff you wanted or needed and delete the folder when finished. It will require re-installation of programs, so expect some overhead there.
I'd suggest you consider a new system drive, and just install Windows 7 on that, and transfer the rest of your software over from your old system drive. That's probably your best upgrade path.
I bought my current PC from them and I directed a friend who was in the market for a new rig their way as well.
They usually have some amazing deals around and just after Christmas. If you want a new system around that time, check them out.
They usually have some amazing deals around and just after Christmas. If you want a new system around that time, check them out.
I had nothing but problems from iBuyPower machines. My previous employer bought half a dozen machines that were supposed to be built from new parts; they were in fact built from refurbished parts.
One machine's motherboard died. We sent it back to them. They replaced it with another one which was also refurbished. That one died too. (In the meantime we independently switched out the power supply and tested the other components in other machines.)
The third one they sent was also refurbished, but at least it worked.
Other machines also had issues with dying motherboards, but by that time we had a small supply of spares.
Not to mention that it would have been cheaper to build the machines myself.
When I move back to Utah, I'll build you your next computer (or maybe it'll be the one after that) at cost ;)
One machine's motherboard died. We sent it back to them. They replaced it with another one which was also refurbished. That one died too. (In the meantime we independently switched out the power supply and tested the other components in other machines.)
The third one they sent was also refurbished, but at least it worked.
Other machines also had issues with dying motherboards, but by that time we had a small supply of spares.
Not to mention that it would have been cheaper to build the machines myself.
When I move back to Utah, I'll build you your next computer (or maybe it'll be the one after that) at cost ;)
I'm glad the laptop RAM helped as much as it did. My old Dell does admirably with 2 GB RAM, which is the max that an Inspiron 6000 will even handle. My problem is it's running vista, which is worse at memory management than XP or Win 7.
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