Little Puck Interview| Author | Post |
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| zuluaskono Member  7 Posts 6/07 |  Posted - Dec 24 2009 : 11:02AMWalter's thread touched on some of my issues, but not all. After doing a search of the site, I thought I'd start a new thread. Here's my situation: My current Windows XP PC is having some issues and I'm looking to replace it with a Windows 7 one. One of the things I'm looking to improve is the playback of large ( > 1Gb files ) that reside on an external hard drive. As in Walter's situation, playback will freeze at times, especially when using the slider bar to move ahead in the video. I'm trying to figure out where I get the most bang for the buck, and where I might be approaching overkill. So what are the most important attributes to have in my replacement PC in order to have smooth playback at the highest clarity? - Processor speed - System memory - Discrete vs. integrated graphics/video card - Internal hard drive size - Anything else? Also, I'm looking to buy another external hard drive to replace one that may or may not be failing. Is buying one with Firewire (1394a) or even SATA connectivity worth the extra expense, or will improvements in some of the aforementioned areas suffice? Again, I will be playing some very large files. I should mention that I'm not a gamer. The new PC will be used primarily for downloading, storing and playing back porn. Thanks for any advice, and Happy Holidays to all!!!  [Link] |
| Jordan1 Member Fishing, a fun hobby! 490 Posts 7/08 | Posted - Dec 24 2009 : 11:10PM Go to Start-> All Programs-> Accessories-> System Tools-> System Information. Once the info has populated, Copy & Paste the info here. Make sure you edit out any personal info first such as User Name, or any other info you don't want made public.  [Link] |
Bill  All-Star Member 5334 Posts 6/00 | Posted - Dec 25 2009 : 12:01AM [Link] |
| Harri Patel Senior Member #SDNY he's all yours. -- Michael Steele 5110 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Dec 25 2009 : 10:24PM For a point of comparison, I recently put together a Windows 7 machine with an AMD Phenom II X2 550 CPU, one 1GB stick of PC6400 RAM, and a Radeon 4650 graphics card; it has no problem at all playing HD video. [Link] |
| Jordan1 Member Fishing, a fun hobby! 490 Posts 7/08 | Posted - Dec 26 2009 : 11:38AM The other issue is with programs being able to work because it takes the author time to catch up and work bugs out for a brand new OS. I'm glad I didn't bother with Vista as I'm constantly hearing about issues with it. Microsoft is supposed to be suing Nvidia because they claim that they're the ones responsible for giving Vista a bad name because of bugs in their video cards. [Link] |
| Harri Patel Senior Member #SDNY he's all yours. -- Michael Steele 5110 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Dec 26 2009 : 2:23PM I ran the Win7 beta for several months and had one problem (with a beta, third party, antivirus program). I ran the Win7 release candidate for several months and had zero problems. I've been running Win7 Home Premium for about a month and have had zero problems. [Link] |
| zuluaskono Member 7 Posts 6/07 | Posted - Dec 27 2009 : 10:52AM OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600 OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation System Type X86-based PC Processor x86 Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 10 GenuineIntel ~3215 Mhz BIOS Version/Date Award Software International, Inc. FB, 5/11/2007 SMBIOS Version 2.3 Windows Directory C:\WINDOWS System Directory C:\WINDOWS\system32 Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1 Locale United States Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "5.1.2600.5512 (xpsp.080413-2111)" Total Physical Memory 2,048.00 MB Available Physical Memory 1.02 GB Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB Page File Space 3.83 GB Page File C:\pagefile.sys What I'm currently looking at is a Dell Studio Slim PC with: - Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Q8300 (4MB L2, 2.5GHz, 1333FSB) - 6GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4DIMMs - 500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ - Discrete ATI Radeon HD 4350 512MB Graphics Card - Windows® 7 Home Premium There's not much upgrade potential with this model, but I'm able to customize it as shown above, and hopefully that will suffice for my needs. I'm also looking to get a LaCie 500 GB external drive for additional/redundant storage. It has Firewire A connectivity, which will work with the new PC. It looks as though Firewire is preferable to USB 2.0 for purposes of speed and efficiency. I'm aware of the caveats regarding new Microsoft OS's, but I figure 7 has been out long enough that most of the bugs have been worked out. Additionally, 7 has gotten favorable reviews so I'm willing to take the chance. I still plan to run Microsoft's compatibility utility to see if my monitor, printer, etc., will work with 7. Thanks for the responses everyone! I welcome any additional thoughts. [Link] |
| Jordan1 Member Fishing, a fun hobby! 490 Posts 7/08 | Posted - Dec 27 2009 : 5:39PM How much space do you have available on each of your drives? The closer to 15% you get, the worse the performance gets. Try clearing up your Desktop by deleting unnecessary stuff and consolodate as many things into folders as possible from your Desktop and everywhere else on the computer. Loose files all over the place don't help. Then try these two things if you already don't have them. I've posted about these in the past somewhere in another thread. Revo Uninstaller CCleaner Revo Uninstaller is excellent at speeding up a pc after using it's Junk Files Cleaner. Revo Unistaller is also excellent at uninstalling programs because it removes everything from the uninstalled program in the Registry. Just follow the instructions carefully and you won't have a problem. For uninstalling programs, basically just check anything in bold and follow the prompts. Sometimes you will have to click the + until you get to something deeper in the Registry that's in bold. To use the Junk Files Cleaner: After opening Revo Uninstaller, at the top left, click on Tools-> Junk Files Cleaner just below under Optimazation-> Click on Scan above on toolbar-> after scanning is complete, click on Delete located next to Scan. For CCleaner, make sure you use both the "Windows" and "Applications" tabs when cleaning files. After that, use the Registry button located on the left. Also very important, if you don't want passwords etc. to be erased, make sure to uncheck Search Autocomplete under the Windows tab under the Windows Explorer subheading. Using CCleaner and Revo Uninstaller in conjunction with one another is a good idea since they target and remove junk from different areas of a pc. I don't know that the order matters, but I use CCleaner first and then Revo Uninstaller. Also make sure that you don't have any malware on your computer that may robbing you of RAM and running up your CPU. [Link] |
| Jordan1 Member Fishing, a fun hobby! 490 Posts 7/08 | Posted - Dec 27 2009 : 5:43PM In fact, Christmas day I was speaking with a friend that came here to visit with their family and left their Vista laptop behind because it wasn’t working correctly and the damn thing is only 6 months old. She’s in the process of having it sent in. Since I wasn’t able to physically look at any of the machines, I can’t be absolutely sure what the issues were that caused the failures. It could be a buggy motherboard, the issue with the video card I spoke of earlier, a software (or hardware issue other than the motherboard), and last but not least, the OS. When I asked what the manufacturer stated caused the problem, in almost all cases they didn’t know, or the manufacturers explanation in the paperwork they read to me was vague. It’s also possible that the manufacturers could in some cases be solely responsible for some of the issues since they hi-performance tune them to meet their standards; hence why Microsoft doesn’t honor tech support for OEM OS’s unless you pay an arm and a leg. I don’t personally know anyone that has put together a pc from scratch and installed the unadulterated version of Vista. From your anecdotal experience, it may be inferred that if the hardware is set up correctly and the operating software hasn’t been fiddled with, or very minimally, the Vista OS is stable. [Link] |
| BigBobxxx Senior Member 2681 Posts 5/04 | Posted - Dec 27 2009 : 7:10PM Windows 7 could be thought of as "Windows Vista Service Pack 3"  It truly isn't much different than Vista, certainly not in an "advancing the OS" kind of way. The bottom-line is that, people -- especially corporate users -- were sticking in droves to XP SP3, and not "upgrading" to Vista. Microsoft had to bring out a "new" OS, and leave "Vista," at least the name, behind. So, do not be fearful of Windows 7, as it has already been through it's consumer-financed beta test when it was called Vista  BTW, I'm still running XP SP2 and loving it! I did buy the SP3 CD, however, so I will be able to "upgrade" to SP3 in a few months (when MS discontinues support for XP SP2 -- XP SP3 will be supported until 2014). I have no plans to buy Windows 7 (or whatever) until I need to buy a new computer -- and it comes factory-installed (and by that time, there should be at least Windows 7 SP1 in the marketplace). IMHO, factory-installed in a computer designed to run the new OS properly, is almost always the way to go. The initial problems with Vista had a great deal to do with (a) people trying to install it onto their XP machines (these are the horror stories, btw), and (b) the initial "Vista" computers that were sold that, were so marginally functional for the new OS, and were severely lacking in RAM and video capabilities from the manufacturers. Vista, factory-installed on computers designed and equipped to run the OS, actually turned out to be OK. (Not unlike the Windows ME fiasco, where people who installed it onto their existing, older machines had nothing but headaches.) [Link] |
| Harri Patel Senior Member #SDNY he's all yours. -- Michael Steele 5110 Posts 3/03 | Posted - Dec 27 2009 : 8:14PM And I don't know why you're talking about Vista, because I wasn't. Edited by - Harri Patel on 12/27/2009 8:16:17 PM [Link] |
| Jordan1 Member Fishing, a fun hobby! 490 Posts 7/08 | Posted - Dec 27 2009 : 9:08PM In other words, much like most after-market high-performance additions to a vehicle, the warranty is voided by the car company once something has been added to the car that makes it different than when it left the factory.Sorry about that. I realize that. When I referred to your build, I just forgot to mention Windows 7. The reason I brought up Vista was because of the issues that arise from a new OS and Windows 7 is so new that I don't have much info on it yet and I think there aren't that many people that have it because it was released so close behind Vista; and a lot of the Vista and XP users are reluctant to try out Windows 7 after all of the negativity that has come about from Vista. For example, I have a lot of friends and family, and not one of them have Windows 7. [Link] |
| zuluaskono Member 7 Posts 6/07 | Posted - Dec 28 2009 : 7:23PM Again, the only problem I'm currently having is that large files (typically InTheCrack vids > 1GB) will freeze for a while when starting or when I use the WMP slider to move ahead in the vid. My current PC still has some issues, though, regardless of how I optimize the other stuff. The fan has become noisy (which is often a prelude to stopping altogether) and for some reason a reboot will hang and I have to PFkey my way into the BIOS to start up. The box is about 3 years old, so I'm flirting with the idea of getting something new. I can still use as a back-up if needed, and the hard drive would provide me some additional storage. [Link] |
| Jordan1 Member Fishing, a fun hobby! 490 Posts 7/08 | Posted - Dec 29 2009 : 6:17PM BTW, make sure when/if you decide to run Revo and CCleaner that your external hard drives are attached. I recommend installing them right away on your new computer if you get one. Use Revo to uninstall any program(s) on it except Norton or MacAfee. One of these usually come installed on the computer. If at some point you decide to uninstall either one of them, you should go to their website and download and use their removal tool since it is supposedly specially designed to remove everything from the registry. That's not to say that Revo won't do an equally good job, but in this case it might be better to let their software get rid of it. [Link] |
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