Finally my cashback arrived in the mail today. Acer was giving $29 cashbacks on their monitors, so I wasn't going to knock that back. So that brings my monitor down to $195 (from $224). Of course the cashback wasn't the sole reason I chose this monitor, the price was good, and it seemed to get pretty good reviews on the shop's site and the specifications seemed decent too.
I find it an OK-good monitor, good brightness, I guess the colour is OK, I haven't done comparisons yet... Anyway, anything I design probably won't be important enough to require super-accurate colour reproduction, it would only be personal projects or small time projects that I would have complete control over. Which was one of the considerations when I was looking for one, but I figured it's not that important, so I concentrated on other features...
Like pixel response time which was a big factor because I'll be (and am) playing games and watching movies on it.
As much as 22inch would have been really nice, I felt that the cost wasn't worth it, and a discovered another reason why I wasn't too concerned about not getting 22inch. All of the 22" had native resolutions of 1680x1050 which admittedly is really nice, I also felt that higher resolutions would just push games even further down the track so a smaller one is fine (yeah, I know in three or four years a new graphics card will solve that, running at a higher res... but truly it was more of a price saving justification than really caring about the graphics performance at higher resolutions (oh, apart from Crysis))
And it came with a piece of marketing clear plastic (with words) stuck to the front, which doubles as a handy dust cover, if I remember to flip it back over each night. Actually it'd be really great if I could get a clear piece, because then I could just leave on the front all the time and still see through it normally. (If you look closely on the 2nd-last photo on My New Computer Part 2 - Pictures posting you can just see the tape and the top of the plastic. Anyway, so that's it. Maybe I'll put a photo up of the "cover" and some wattage measurements later.
Showing posts with label new computer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new computer. Show all posts
Monday, March 31, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
Vista (and machine in general) Experience
The System in General
My Windows Experience Index in detail.
Overall the machine works fine, Vista performs quite well, which I suppose would be expected given the RAM and CPU I have. Aero also runs perfectly fine which again you'd hope given my graphics card....
Yep, that's it then.
Yep, that's it then.
My Windows Experience Index in detail.Unfortunatly my CPU is the slowest thing according to Vista. I think that a quad-core would get a higher score. But really that doesn't matter because the score is so high up and only demanding tasks (encoding and some games etc.) would really benefit from quad-core and beyond. (Having said that I intend to be doing some encoding but I'm not really concerned... My CPU will still be current for a long time yet.)
Other things to note: for some reason, possibly the beta BIOS code, I can't resume from standby, and the machine instantly powers up again after going on hibernate... Not really a problem just means that I can't put on standby for a couple of hours like I might like to sometimes.
Other things to note: for some reason, possibly the beta BIOS code, I can't resume from standby, and the machine instantly powers up again after going on hibernate... Not really a problem just means that I can't put on standby for a couple of hours like I might like to sometimes.
And the other thing: Antec made the front audio ports too far back from the holes in the case, so I can't really plug headphones or microphones in. (Unless they are thin)
Friday, February 1, 2008
My New Computer Part 2 - Pictures
Pictures First
Yep it's my processor.
My computer just before I turned it on ititially. Apologies for the blur.
All set up on my desk. (Running Cascades)
Yeah, well. Inside.
Yep it's my processor.
My computer just before I turned it on ititially. Apologies for the blur.
All set up on my desk. (Running Cascades)
Yeah, well. Inside.Friday, January 25, 2008
My New Computer Part 1
Research and Purchase
After much deliberation and research I finally came up with this list:
Prices at Umart Online around the 10th January 2008.
Originally I was looking at an MSI motherboard with an 8600GT but as the weeks went on the 8800 GT came out and became cheaper still.
The problem I had was that as I kept putting it off, the technology kept changing and every-so-often I had to reasses what I wanted to buy. Originally I was looking at getting XP Pro... Then I quickly realised that for only $30 more (OEM - with hardware purchase) I could just get Vista Ultimate!
And in hindsight it would have been easier to get a more expensive motherboard but with built-in Wi-Fi then getting the slightly cheaper mobo and seperate Wi-Fi. Though at the time I chose the Wi-Fi card I chosen a cheaper mobo so the price difference was more acceptable. Then my original mobo ran out of stock so that's when I chose the one I did, and subsequently I didn't think to check the price differences on the new equipment. But oh well, if it's a problem in the future (say like, I actually want an extra pci slot :P) then I can do something about it then.
The Build
Skipping getting it all home, unpackaged and reading the manuals... My first problem was getting the case back panel sheild cover to fit the motherboard. (The mobo supplied one of course) Or more correctly getting the motherboard to fit in the shield. Eventually I worked out that some of the little pointy things that originally were stamped out of the holes, had to point out, some had to be bent all the way back and some could just stay as they were. Once I got the sheild to fit the mobo ports I could easily get the motherboard to fit in the case. Screw it to the standoffs and that was that.
Putting the CPU on was fine: lift up locking lever, take out and keep PnP cap, align the gold triangle on the CPU with the corresponding bit on the mobo, close the lock, and lock down lever. Follow the instructions in the motherboard and cpu book and it's fine.
Followed the instructions in the heatsink and fan assembley however and they didn't tell me how hard we were actually supposed to push to afix it to the motherboard. We had to push the clips in really hard and it was surprising how much the motherboard flexed in the process, but apparently it's ok. Plus it didn't seem to harm it.
The RAM was fine getting in, but you have to push hard, and the locks have to go back to 90 degrees.
The graphics card was pretty good getting in too, execpt for the power cable, as the back of the card was kind of tight with the drive bays.
At this point things get interesting... Connect everything, power cables etc. and try to boot, no POST. Re-seat GPU and ram and try again, no POST
Bring it to a friend's place and swap components (yay, I didn't break anything on installation) , everything works, but I find out that the BIOS needs to be updated to understand my ultra new CPU... So we put his in, flash the BIOS with a USB stick and it works all good. (Thanks again :) ) Put the hard drive, DVD burner, and WiFi card in and install Windows. That's all good.
Windows was installed fine too. I'll put up pictures and my experiences with the system soon hopefully.
After much deliberation and research I finally came up with this list:
| Linksys WMP54G Wireless-G PCI Network Adapter 802.11G (54Mbps) | $39.00 |
| Seagate SATAII NCQ 250GB 7200RPM 16mb Cache | $84.00 |
| Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 32bit version (OEM)purchase with Hard | $249.00 |
| Asus P5K 775, CORE2EE, P35Chipset, 1333FSB, PCIEI6, AUDIO, GbLAN, ATX | $155.00 |
| 2GB (2x 1GB Kit) Value Select PC-5300 (667MHz) Corsair | $69.00 |
| Antec Atlas Server Case - BLACK 550W PSU | $195.00 |
| Asus DRW-2014L1tT 20x DVDRW SATA LightScribe Retail | $42.00 |
| Acer X193W 19 Wide LCD Monitor Silver DVI (HDCP) 5ms 2000:1 ACM | $224.00 |
| Gainward GF8800GT 512MB DDR3 600Mhz PCI Express Dual DVI HDT | $355.00 |
| Intel ATX E8400 CORE 2 DUO /3.0GHz/6MB/1333FSB/LGA775 | $268.00 |
Prices at Umart Online around the 10th January 2008.
Originally I was looking at an MSI motherboard with an 8600GT but as the weeks went on the 8800 GT came out and became cheaper still.
The problem I had was that as I kept putting it off, the technology kept changing and every-so-often I had to reasses what I wanted to buy. Originally I was looking at getting XP Pro... Then I quickly realised that for only $30 more (OEM - with hardware purchase) I could just get Vista Ultimate!
And in hindsight it would have been easier to get a more expensive motherboard but with built-in Wi-Fi then getting the slightly cheaper mobo and seperate Wi-Fi. Though at the time I chose the Wi-Fi card I chosen a cheaper mobo so the price difference was more acceptable. Then my original mobo ran out of stock so that's when I chose the one I did, and subsequently I didn't think to check the price differences on the new equipment. But oh well, if it's a problem in the future (say like, I actually want an extra pci slot :P) then I can do something about it then.
The Build
Skipping getting it all home, unpackaged and reading the manuals... My first problem was getting the case back panel sheild cover to fit the motherboard. (The mobo supplied one of course) Or more correctly getting the motherboard to fit in the shield. Eventually I worked out that some of the little pointy things that originally were stamped out of the holes, had to point out, some had to be bent all the way back and some could just stay as they were. Once I got the sheild to fit the mobo ports I could easily get the motherboard to fit in the case. Screw it to the standoffs and that was that.
Putting the CPU on was fine: lift up locking lever, take out and keep PnP cap, align the gold triangle on the CPU with the corresponding bit on the mobo, close the lock, and lock down lever. Follow the instructions in the motherboard and cpu book and it's fine.
Followed the instructions in the heatsink and fan assembley however and they didn't tell me how hard we were actually supposed to push to afix it to the motherboard. We had to push the clips in really hard and it was surprising how much the motherboard flexed in the process, but apparently it's ok. Plus it didn't seem to harm it.
The RAM was fine getting in, but you have to push hard, and the locks have to go back to 90 degrees.
The graphics card was pretty good getting in too, execpt for the power cable, as the back of the card was kind of tight with the drive bays.
At this point things get interesting... Connect everything, power cables etc. and try to boot, no POST. Re-seat GPU and ram and try again, no POST
Bring it to a friend's place and swap components (yay, I didn't break anything on installation) , everything works, but I find out that the BIOS needs to be updated to understand my ultra new CPU... So we put his in, flash the BIOS with a USB stick and it works all good. (Thanks again :) ) Put the hard drive, DVD burner, and WiFi card in and install Windows. That's all good.
Windows was installed fine too. I'll put up pictures and my experiences with the system soon hopefully.
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