My new (monster) PC!

from WinCustomize Forums

Finally! After some 2 months without a proper working PC I finally got my new machine, and what a machine it is... wow...

Intel Quad Core Q9300.
8 GB DDR2.
Radeon HD4850 X2 w/2 GB DDR.
1 TB + 400 GB HDDs. (ain't running out space any time soon...)
Remote control for Windows Media Center.
Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit.
Windows Experience Index Score: 5.2

*_*

It's running oh so ever moothly, but sure wasn't a smooth start, no sirey!
It came with 'only' a Radeon HD4850, but I already had a HD4850 X2 at hand, so I wanted to swap the two.
But that turned out to be a 'complicated suggery'...
First of all... as with my other machine, the HD4850 X2 didn't fit onto the motherboard - the SATA connectors blocked it from being seated properly in the PCI-E slot.

The blue connectors on the left picture are the SATA connectors, the green slot is the PCIE, and the 4580 X2 covers somewhat well down over the (white) PCI slot....
On the right picture you can see how the 4580 X2 would be seated. That just doesn't cut it ;)

Here are the two GFXcards:

The 4580 X2 is about 25% longer that the 4580 that came with the machine. That in it self caused some problems. I had to remove a couple of brackets mounted beside the motherboard. Luckily they served no necessary purpose, so no harm in removeing'em.
The black cover had to go too... This proved to be in the way of the SATA connectors, so off with it!

Now it fitted properly! \o/

And off I went to install Vista. Sadly it's "only" Home Premium. I've been used to Ultimate so far, but the DVD had become too scratched to even be read. At least I got the option of choosing English as language! :thumbsup:
But.... after having battled with the setup and installing/uninstalling tons of software/drivers (it's incredible how much "garbadge" is being installed on these prebuild machines...) I dove into the Disk manager to partitionate the HDD.
Dunno what went wrong or what I did wrong, but the next time I rebooted......

"bootmgr.exe is missing
Press ctrl+alt+del to reboot"
X|

Aw crap....
Luckily I had, for once, made the backup/recovery DVD's just before I started fiddleing with the partitions. I normally never make those.... O:)
Anyway... I had to reinstall Windows already after having had the machine less that 24 hours. New record! ;)
But now it's been running happily for nearly 12 hours without a hitch! \o/
The only nag I have come about is that no USB connection (memorycard/stick, external HDD) can be 'active' when booting. That prevents Vista, for whatever reasons from booting. Must be a 64 bit thing. Or what?

Here are some pics of the beast:

Outside:

Inside (with original GFXcard):

Outside, turned on:

/me is a happy PC-camper again!

windowblinds
10,625 views 37 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Congrats! Isn't it just like Christmas or something???

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Woo :P

TouchTasks - Access tasks with ease on Windows touchscreens.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting bmetelsky, reply 1
Congrats! Isn't it just like Christmas or something???
End of bmetelsky's quote

Sure is! :grin:

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Ah, very nice indeed, know that feeling well of a new pc, feels great, but tends to keep you up late at night for the first few nights, going to bed at ungodly hours only to struggle to work, but what a great feeling huh, anyway , check your bios, on the usb thing, that shouldnt be a problem with booting, i think you might want to disable usb boot, and then you wont have a problem, just a guess, but i think a pretty good one

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Also you might want to get some right angle sata cables, that might free up a little space and install problem as well, you said your used to ultimate, well in the future you can use the "anytime upgrade" to get the ultimate, if you get a few xtra bucks, for a comparison i purchased vista ultimate 64 OEM here in boston for 189 bucks a couple of weeks ago

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Nice system. I just ordered a Intel Quad Core Q9550 CPU myself.

I read this as your Ultimate DVD was scratched so you install from a Home Premium DVD.

With anytime upgrade, I thought all Windows Vista DVDs contained all of the versions and you chose the one that you have a license for. I know my DVDs are that way. In that case you could use your Ultimate key after all.

With specs like yours, I would think it would score a 5.9...what's scoring 5.2?

Edit..I missed the picture of the scores...you might be able to tweak the ram timings in CMOS to match the ram better

As for the usb problem, check in CMOS to see if "boot external USB device" is on and try turning it off.

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting jpmurph1, reply 4
Ah, very nice indeed, know that feeling well of a new pc, feels great, but tends to keep you up late at night for the first few nights, going to bed at ungodly hours only to struggle to work,
End of jpmurph1's quote

"I have no idea what you're talking about", he said at 02.45 AM.... ;)
Luckily I'm in the first of a three week summer vacation \o/

Quoting CarGuy1, reply 6

With anytime upgrade, I thought all Windows Vista DVDs contained all of the versions and you chose the one that you have a license for. I know my DVDs are that way.
End of CarGuy1's quote

I may just have a look into that, IF it becomes necessary. :thumbsup:

Quoting CarGuy1, reply 6

With specs like yours, I would think it would score a 5.9...what's scoring 5.2?
End of CarGuy1's quote

Click the image to see the result ;)

Quoting CarGuy1, reply 6

As for the usb problem, check in CMOS to see if "boot external USB device" is on and try turning it off.
End of CarGuy1's quote

Quoting jpmurph1, reply 4
anyway , check your bios, on the usb thing, that shouldnt be a problem with booting, i think you might want to disable usb boot, and then you wont have a problem, just a guess, but i think a pretty good one
End of jpmurph1's quote

Alllllllrighty then! Sweet! I do remember seeing that option, now. Thanks for reminding me, both of you! :thumbsup:

Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Congrats on your new toy Snowman:thumbsup:

Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top

And off I went to install Vista. Sadly it's "only" Home Premium. I've been used to Ultimate so far, but the DVD had become too scratched to even be read.
End of quote

Hey Snowy...did you try this? LINK

Or this maybe? Might be worth trying before throwing the OS Disk away...

btw...that's a great machine. Better lock your door. I'm tempted! ;)

 

Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top

hey cool  set up can't wait for my turn congrats :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Congrats on the new machine, Snow...;)

My scores...[on a 32bit Win7] came out at...

Processor..7.4

Memory...7.7

Graohics....6.8

Gaming Graphics...6.8

Primary HD...5.9

Base score....5.9  [maybe I need to RAID] ....;)

Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top

u all suk.. im still usin this.. ;P

 

:rofl:   ....

Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Wow...HG, you need to start with a monitor upgrade before your peepers give out. ;) :-"

 

Jafo...you need one of them newfangled SSD drives.

Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Could have been an much better setup with much better components. This setup was surely made by an not so experienced  guy. However, it will still perform nice. Grats.

Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Wow...HG, you need to start with a monitor upgrade before your peepers give out.
End of quote

 

 grabs magnifying glass...WHAT?? oh wait  need hearing aid too...

Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Could have been an much better setup with much better components.
End of quote

Of course it could have, but he probably got what he could afford.  Why do people always have to say shat like that? Jealousy?  All around assedness?

 

Nice "Rig" snowman.  Put the metal to the pedal and the thing to the floor.

Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top

ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!                  YOU GOT SPEED BRAKES ON THAT MONSTER?!?!

Place fire extinguisher three feet from said monster. Turn on monster then..........................RUN LIKE HELL!!!

:thumbsup:  :thumbsup: Snowman. Hope you have lots of fun.

 

(i are so jealous...i are beside me now)

Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting messiah1, reply 18

Could have been an much better setup with much better components.
Of course it could have, but he probably got what he could afford.  Why do people always have to say shat like that? Jealousy?  All around assedness?

 

Nice "Rig" snowman.  Put the metal to the pedal and the thing to the floor.
End of messiah1's quote

 

I have to agree with the monkeh man, that's one nice setup.

I imagine Snowman would have liked one of the i7 machines but since he has a newborn in the house I bet he was watching his expenses. Heck with a new baby, the formula and diapers alone could put you in the poor house.

Good thing he picked it up...it will give him something to do during all those sleepless nights. :-" ;)

Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top

The only nag I have come about is that no USB connection (memorycard/stick, external HDD) can be 'active' when booting. That prevents Vista, for whatever reasons from booting. Must be a 64 bit thing. Or what?
End of quote

That could be a bio setting in the boot options there Snowman.

Primary HD...5.9

Base score....5.9 [maybe I need to RAID] ....
End of quote

No Jafo just get a HD that is going to run the OS at a faster rate. Like maybe a solid state HD here is a really good one you can get in a 30 gig range for just the OS.

http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/flash_drives/ocz_vertex_series_sata_ii_2_5-ssd

Not sure which or what vendor there would have this. But they say it is rated one of the highest. Not saying the highest -but one of them.

 

Very nice rig there Snowman - I for sure  like the media stuff you have - very nice!

Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top

 kaazz1337  reply #16

Could have been an much better setup with much better components. This setup was surely made by an not so experienced guy. However, it will still perform nice. Grats.
End of quote

If you can't comment constructively, then say NOTHING.

 

messiah1

Of course it could have, but he probably got what he could afford. Why do people always have to say shat like that? Jealousy? All around assedness?
End of quote

 

Exactly!

Cool rig Snowman, enjoy!

Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top

No Jafo just get a HD that is going to run the OS at a faster rate. Like maybe a solid state HD here is a really good one you can get in a 30 gig range for just the OS.
End of quote

And Frogboy's been waxing lyrical about SSDs too.....so maybe it's a clever idea....

....ugh....bang goes the budget even more....;p

Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top

....ugh....bang goes the budget even more....
End of quote

The 30 Gig is about $140 USD.  Not sure what that works out to for you upside down folks.  That doesn't seem too bad for the performance.  How do you verify if your PC can use it?

Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Jafo, reply 12
Congrats on the new machine, Snow...

My scores...[on a 32bit Win7] came out at...

Processor..7.4

Memory...7.7

Graohics....6.8

Gaming Graphics...6.8

Primary HD...5.9

Base score....5.9  [maybe I need to RAID] ....
End of Jafo's quote

Spelling..2.5 :P

Quoting kaazz1337, reply 16
Could have been an much better setup with much better components. This setup was surely made by an not so experienced  guy. However, it will still perform nice. Grats.
End of kaazz1337's quote

Well, I guess you'd have to take up that matter with ACER......
And off course it could be better. But why buy the Concorde to cross if you could settle for an F16 fighterjet?

Quoting CarGuy1, reply 20

Good thing he picked it up...it will give him something to do during all those sleepless nights.
End of CarGuy1's quote

Hehe well CG, she's not that much trouble actually. She's pretty much sleeping through the night ;)