new computer quote

[kmcleod]

My 2 cents...(and I work in IT - gulp, !!!)

- Router - NEVER trust the router from the ISP, always go with your own, either Netgear or Linksys will do the job will

- PC - go with a badged box from someone well known, the Dell sounds good, however, put as much RAM in it as you can !, and if anything goes wrong gives you someone to go back to.

- Windows - go with windows 7 professional, none of the Home versions are work a damm

and is all that fails - go spend a lot more money, buy a macbook pro, load VM onto it and use that to run anything the MAC cannnot do,,,

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

@Dibs: option 2 I was told about by an MCSE about 10years ago, so there might be more to do somewhere but as I said I haven't tried it.

and no I have never ever formatted a whole HDD that I hadn't backed up.. Not even once, honest. Nor have I ever ran "rm -rf /root" from a unix command prompt. Lets face it doing something like that is just plain silly.. *cough**cough*

I agree fully with kmcleod, he has pretty much summed it up.

O2 routers leave a telnet back door to the router open with superuser privs for their support personnel.

 

[Dibs-h]

@Dibs: option 2 I was told about by an MCSE about 10years ago, so there might be more to do somewhere but as I said I haven't tried it.

I have enough MSCE books to keep a log burner busy for a while, but never came across that.

For an installation on an unformatted disk - windows installs on the boot partition and that is the default location for the pagefile.

Having said that we are digressing and probably boring the pants off poor old DW. :wink:

Windows 7 - never tried that, what's the consensus? Good, bad or plain leave it alone and run? Assuming the hardware isn't all new and shiny (i.e. expensive).

Cheers

Dibs

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

win 7 best os in a long time.. though I prefer linux..

 

[Chems]

Linux is for n00bs, unix is where its at.

 

[jlawrence]

Not used win7 yet, but have heard good things about it.
As for using an unformatted disk as a pagefile - never heard of that before. I find it abhorrent even the idea of the OS deciding to use a 'random' unformatted disk as a pagefile without being told to.

As for backups. hmm, now when was the last time I actually checked mine .
I know about 10GB of 'important' stuff is backed up to various sources every night can't remember the last time I bothered to test them though. However, what isn't backed up is all my movies/music on my main fileserver. I've absolutely no idea at all what I'd backup 3TB+ of stuff to - other than another set of HDD's. It would take an absolute age to recapture all the various files but there's no chance at all of swmbo letting me mirror that drive system.

Unless you're going to play with 3D stuff or serious video editing then practically any modern machine will do fine for home use. The kids might not get bragging rights at school, but so what. You could buy them an xbox with the money saved from not buying a top flight modern CPU and/or graphics card.

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

from memory when I built mine.

gfx card: £450
cpu: £180
m/b: £150
psu: £100
RAM: £120
case: £150
Monitor: £300
HDD1: Free
HDD2: £60
DVDRW+/-: £120
misc fans heatsinks: £100

But 2years ago that out spec'd almost all prebuilds, now it's mid range..

re the unformatted part: I was told about it and I assume you would need to tell windows to use it via a setting somewhere, I never looked into that method. I believe it worked similar to the *nix swap partition.

 

[devonwoody]

Sorry about the lack of response on my part in the thread but I have not received email notifications again on this item.

The router is still playing up, its a TP-Link 54mbps wireless G router, model TL-WR340G.
The aggro is that when I boot up and then go to i/e or o/e it fails (the lead goes direct from the router to the pc), I recover the situation by pulling the power lead out of the router for around 20 seconds, replug and I then get my web connections on the PC ok. The laptop on wireless connects up without pulling the power out.

The reason for updating the desktop is like buying a new motorcar the biggest and fastest I can afford!

I do use Painter 11 which is very demanding, I would like to go back into train simulation modelling and that needs two harddrives for backup purposes for safety savings.

I am not convinced to buy from Dell, I would rather purchase from a private dealer to get back up, I am at the present time trying to get support out of Toshiba on a laptop problem (i/e8 will not work with Java and adobe flash) and they will not help on the third party problems and I expect Dell are the same.

BTW how can I reinstall i/e8 on a windows 7 home edition which originally came in a OEM edition and part of the recovery system. It wont seem to have a uninstall option in w7.?

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

Control panel -> programs and features -> turn windows features on and off. Untick IE8. reboot, sameplace and retick.

very few places will support java etc as it's not their software. But most small pc repair business will give advice for free. also there are a lot of forums that will help you. Google is the tool of choice.

I also recommend installing firefox or chrome as a secondary browser as if something is playing up in ie it can be hard to tell.

I strongly recommend buying from dell as they are very good, and tech support is good to.. a good cheat here is buy your PC from the small business section of their site as then you get business support which is in ireland and not india. also the tech guys are better quality.


Another little known fact about dell is if you get 3year accidental damage dell, dell only keep parts for 2-2.5years, so if your pc was to say fall down the stairs or have a horrible accident with water and was totalled you get a brand new computer of equivalent spec.

 

[devonwoody]

Thanks Pvt. so I dont have to reinstall i/e8 that instruction kinda refreshes i/e?

Yes I have got firefox and chrome installed it the only way that flash and java work on the web for me with full workings at the moment, I even have to sigh on to virgin using chrome when using the laptop.

I live in a bungalow so dropping from a great height would make Dell mad.

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

it uninstalls and reinstalls. IE8 is part of the OS in win7.

I find Firefox with the "IE tab" addon is a complete replacement for IE.

 

[devonwoody]

Thanks just booting up the laptop to give it a whizz.

 

[devonwoody]

PVT, no it failed to let me sign up to my virginmedia web connection.

I think the only way I will get to the bottom of this is if I can somehow uninstall i/e8 and get a new version from the web. The method above only reinstalls the existing version.
I think there is a 64 bit conflict somewhere although I am only using the 32 bit option when I used the recovery disk on this toshiba.

If I follow your first instruction and untick do you think I could go to the web and then download a i/e8 and leave the check box alone in that program change dialogue or would checking it again return me to square one like the first try you suggested.

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

it might, though i don't think so as unless you bought the special European version IE is part of the OS. So uninstalling it (permanently) isn't recommended and reinstalling it again will just use the system files.

I'd be more inclined to try removing and re-adding adobe and java as generally my response to IE problems in work is OS reinstall as it's is generally quicker and less hassle than dealing with IE.

 

[devonwoody]

it uninstalls and reinstalls. IE8 is part of the OS in win7.

I find Firefox with the "IE tab" addon is a complete replacement for IE.

Pvt. searched for that IE tab in firefox (in tools add ons) but could not find, any link available ?

 

[Pvt_Ryan]

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419/

 

[devonwoody]

Thanks pvt. ryan

 

[RogerS]

PVT, no it failed to let me sign up to my virginmedia web connection.

I think the only way I will get to the bottom of this is if I can somehow uninstall i/e8 and get a new version from the web. The method above only reinstalls the existing version.
I think there is a 64 bit conflict somewhere although I am only using the 32 bit option when I used the recovery disk on this toshiba.

If I follow your first instruction and untick do you think I could go to the web and then download a i/e8 and leave the check box alone in that program change dialogue or would checking it again return me to square one like the first try you suggested.

Jeez....I know I bang on about the Mac but if ever there was a reason for me not to go back to a PC, it's all the grief that dw is going through.

 

[devonwoody]

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419/

blow me down not available for 3.6 10 of firefox which is my version

 

[devonwoody]

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419/

As mentioned in another thread I have made firefox my default browser now on my desktop.

However if I update firefox it goes to 3.6.10 and that link is not available in this version.

Do you think I should upgrade however?
.