Tag: upgrade

I upgraded pc for gtaiv

Posted onAuthorTruXter

I yanked out the old single core  mother board and processor

with Amd754 64bit 3400 mb cpu

and the nvidia 7600 gs 512 mb ram

and two gig pc 3200 ddr  ram

this computer was maxed out, the processor size was the max, the ram was the two gig max and the video card, well they don’t put out much for an agp  slot, for less than about 300 bucks, and still make it worth having.

to install

Athlon  5600+ dual 64bit am2 (2900mghz)

2 gigs pc 6400 ddr2 corsair mem

EVGA nvidia 9500 gt with 512 ddr2

Crazy thing is, the memory will not max out till it gets seated with 16 gigs.  Untill they sell  8 gig mem cards for cheap, and microslop allows you to install that much ( I believe 64 vista allows a large number , unsure what that is.) I will be fine with two gigs.

I of course had an issue installing xp. I kept seeing a lock up while trying to install Vista. So I tried the un-thinkable. I installed Xp 64 bit. Crazy, it fired right up and installed everything smoothly. I whent to all manufacture’s websites and bam…. the drivers  ready and available.

I decided to go onthe regular benchmarking I do.

I started with gtaiii . The game that always lags when ou go through the underpasses, when branches pass over the car, or china town where the banners flap as you pass through. not one hitch,hiccup,fsb burp.

Windows xp 64, the operating system that was such a problem to everyone, now is the best I have ever seen. I can not believe what is going on,.

Next I jumped on vice city, walked out of the safe house jumped in a banshee and headed with teh shoreline to my right. I made it to the malibu club and about a block later… wait … wtf.. what did I see?.. I turned around.. right in front of the parking lot behind the club is a sign. !!! a sign!!! I get out of the banshee to read the sign and it says “no standing, no parking,m2” a bunch of other stuff and something that looked like the back of a bus.

Why have I never seen this before?… Well while I was standing there.  people started walking up .. and they just stood there. Like they where waiting for a bus..  ok.. so the new card, ddr2  and the 64 bit combo just turned something on I have never seen before..   WHAT ?

So I drive around and test my typical lag areas. all was smooth.

I am about to jump into vice city and see what goes on there.

I like my machine now.

Computer upgrading tips.

Posted onAuthorTruXter

There are a few things to First get to know when you are wanting to upgrade your computer. First one is simple. Figure out if the computer is a manufactured or a home built d.i.y. (do it yourself) computer. If it’s a manufactured computer just locate the production number and go to the manufacture’s website and see what upgrades you can get. In many cases it is best to use the parts they offer, unless you know what you are doing. If you do not but want to go the least expensive route, get a techy friend to help you. In most cases it is all about locating the part numbers, such as mother board numbers to find out what type of ram and or video card. I am pretty sure a good Google search will lead you to a safe forum full of people with the same issue, or willing to help you.

If it’s a diy computer, you might want to follow the last two suggestions I made in the earlier paragraph. Locate motherboard part number. Locate motherboard part number here. Locate the video card part number and locate the memory part number. Do the same with the hard drive. I would start with just putting the motherboard’s part number in  Google and let Google do the work for you. You should be able to find a large list of helpful links. Unless the model numbers consist of three  of the letter X. In that case you will not find anything helpful. In 95% of model number searches you will find specifications, unless your part is really out dated. Five or more years old, might be an issue. With something that old, you would benefit more to just shop online for a low cost computer.

If you are wanting to be really up to date and want to do it yourself, I have to say, buy a barebone computer. stick around 199-299 dollars. locate a really recent dated video card that is compatible with your new machine, most decent video cards  on pci-express X16 run anywhere from 50-500 dollars. Don’t be ashamed to buy the $50 one. It will only be slightly less superior to the $500 video card, and they both will be out dated at the same time.

hand full of words to remember when searching

DDR2

Pci-Express

Dual core or Quad core  if you really want to up to date with the very most recent.

500 watt power suply.

Dual layer dvd

multi card reader.

A machine like that should run you from $450 – $5000.  Shop smart on that. Remember there really is a small difference, Don’t listen to the kids that scream about the best. Really the decision is up to you and your needs and wants.  Overkill is and always will be overkill and useless. But an undershot is money wasted.

If you are looking for a monitor to upgrade Here are more phrases.

Refresh rate (lower is better)

Lcd

Hdmi

Wide screen.

Fair range is $12 an inch. But you can pay more if you must. But if you can beat $12 an inch then you are in the good, as long as the refresh rate isn’t stupidly bad.

Good luck with this, if you have any questions, bring it on. I would love to try and help.

A Day With Vista

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Off the bat, I have to tell you, I do not have the fastest or the best machine in the world.
I have a machine that is at the max processor and ram for the motherboard’s capability.
Here are the specs for the machine I am using.
Sis 755 A-2 Motherboard
Sempron 3400+ 64 bit Processor
Nvidia 7600GS 512 mb
2 Gigs kingston 3200 ddr Memory
Sony cd/dvd burner
500 watt power supply

Ok for the past 7 or 8 years, The way I have benchmarked computers and operating systems Would be by playing Grand Theft auto III.
Of course I have since then added vice city and San Andreas to the mix. But GTAIII Is the benchmark for me. If you do not like the game sorry
But please hang with me on this.
For a long time I fought trying to make my computers strong and sturdy enough to handle the demands this game calls out. Computers these days are actually strong enough to handle these demands.
After the install of just straight vista drivers I went to pcpitsop and did my first benchmark of my machine. The score was pathetic. I kind of knew what would happen after I installed gtaIII, But I go ahead and start the game. Before the load screen I get a notice saying that there is some sort of dll missing (sorry all, I did not write it down) . I then hear the game start up but minimized in the task bar. I click the notification and the game takes over the screen. I see this look that took me back to the days of 256 megs ram and nvidia 440 on a 800 meg processor. This game looked wretched. But what do you expect with o/s drivers and not vendor drivers? Well since it’s a newer o/s than XP, I would expect better results than xp, not similar to win 98 on a crap machine. Very pixilated simi laggy but not as laggy as you would think with the way it looked.
After the drivers had been installed I start GTAIII again. Again it gave me the notice of missing dll. When the unnamed player in gtaIII walked out of his hide out I noticed artifacts. The garage was covered with imaging from the walls adjacent to the Entry to the garage. The player had openings so you could see through him in many places. I moved on and walked into the garage and drove the banshee down the ocean blvd to check how the game (typically) lags (with bad bad drivers or bad hardware) as you drive under objects, like the over head train, and trees and bridge. The game was very jaggedly laggy and objects where not being displayed properly.
After the gtaIII test I tried the other two Grand Theft Auto games and got the same mess. I swear the game looks better and plays better on linux with just the linux basic drivers, but the lag is way worse on Linux.
So I did searches for help forums and the like. I found that allot of people with the 7000 series nvidia video cards had similar issues. I never found a solution that worked. No, using older drivers did not help. Until sis/ecs releases more than one gart driver I am pretty much stuck in the same spot.

I did notice that the fonts on websites looked a bit bigger than when on xp.
As much as I enjoyed the looks of Aero (makes me think of Ubuntu) I decided to try turning it off. I used Black Viper’s tips from his tweak site .
The game did not change. and my bench score on pcpitstop only went up 10 points from the first test with base drivers.

Vista test was done 3/29/08. So please wait a few months before you tell me they fixed the operating system. I did try all online update and nothing got better that I could witness myself.
I am now back on xp and my machine runs three times a fast. using the same direct version as I used on vista.. 9.0c

The Parents’ Computer!

Posted onAuthorTruXter3 Comments

Maybe my parents are weird, maybe this normal.

They have a dell, a 900mhz Dell CD ROM and 15 inch CRT and Windows 98SE ME bundle.

Well they keep getting pop ups and spyware. I keep trying to fix it. that was some frustrating stuff. I mean it is said all over the net that the hosts file is located in the windows directory. Well on their machine, it was not. It was no where. S I download mvp’s hosts from his site. their computer had nothing to uncompress zip files. No wonder they think computers are useless. I mean they can’t even get a bundle of Christmas pictures because no one can send them a compressed file.

Ok 7zip came to the rescue. See you can not tell them you are installing stuff you just have to do it. If you tell them you are putting stuff on there ” that ain’t gonna slow it down is it?. does it take up much space? is it a virus thingy?” so just wait till they go to the bathroom and BANG!

Well the hosts file does go in the Windows directory, even if there isn’t one already.

Well now mom opens here browser and sees in the little boxes where the ads used to be “page can not be displayed” and gets mad because I made it ugly.

WTF!

so I tell her I didn’t do it and something must have broke.

I tell her I will look and see if something is broke inside the computer, because “I thought I smelled something burning earlier.”

I open the computer and pull out all of the dust and hairballs and fuzzy stuff. and clean from motherboard to hard drive, yank out the PCI slot modem because I know they have cable. I throw away teh pci slot modem and close the computer and boot up and surf the net a bit, defragment the hard drive run spyware and online virus scanners , when all is done I shut it down and leave.

for the next week I will not be answering their phone calls.

Working on website

Posted onAuthorTruXter

Well everyone, I am not going to take all day explaining because I really have a bunch to do.

I revamped my website and went with css.  well the index is css only. The rest of the site is still html, until I get around to that section. I do have a few pages mostly converted but they are stored in a folder on my desktop labeled “wired”. The issue is I have less link for my site than what I really want.

I like the bubbly look of it right now. Won’t be but four or five months and I will make another change. I really do have an awesome plan in mind (I mean come on listen to the web address) but i also have a job and am not ready for the commitment of  all the services just yet.

Precautions For Building Computers

Posted onAuthorTruXter1 Comment

Use lots of overhead light. Once you have all the parts together, find a flat, smooth, clean, static-free surface. Make sure your clothes are not polyester or you stand a chance of building up buttloads of static and having a merciless discharge turning your junk into… well… junk.

I like using Gatorade lids to hold my screws and small parts in. Yeah Trailer Park Boys-ish, I know, but it works. Working above tile is good, also, so you can hear the small parts when they drop and kinda locate them easier by where the sound comes from. With the tower open and all parts scattered on the table, lower the motherboard in. Take small pin nails and set them through the mounting holes to mark your spot — should take like 6-9 of them depending on board size and tower abilities. Pull motherboard back out and try to not disturb the pin nails. Replace each nail with mounting studs, lower board in, and screw it down. Follow instructions in the manuals for motherboard and instructions from tower to set up power switches and USB connectors. you may sometimes need to split the end connector for the tower speaker so it fits the prongs. Tie back wires so they stay low and out of view.

Insert RAM, CPU, and heat sink. Simply put: Be gentle, be slow, bend no prongs, and scratch no boards

Set in all drives: CD-ROM / DVD / hard drive / floppy drive. Place the power supply in, and take the board connecting the wire strand and try and map the cleanest, least visible route. Then plug it in. Do not crack the motherboard (yes, it can happen)! Do the same with the drives. I tie them to the rack as I go down the line. Keep hard drives away from all magnets — even the case speaker magnet!

The Video card is done pretty much the same way as the RAM. The slit(s) in the card tells you which way it should face.

Get a good look at the inner case. All air paths need to be clear of anything — even wires. Now plan the path your air will flow and then look at your fans to see which direction the blades should face to achieve the airflow you planned.

Close the case, cross toes, plug in all devices for first boot, and press power button. Pray for BIOS/CMOS boot. Press delete and watch temperatures for about ten minutes or until you see that it is getting really hot.

More stuff to keep in mind.