New Laptop or Portable PC

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Davy

The motherboard is to match the graphics card (1GB Asus NX 9600GT DDR3 Graphics Card with HDMi)

Eric

Yachtsman1

[coopernatural]

Eric,

A computer component shopping list is something that keeps for about a week.

Prices/specs change as quickly as that.There are bargains to be had with graphics cards

when they have been knocked off the perch,by the next latest and greatest.

It's a bit like the pop charts.

If the builder is a friend/small shop trader he may not be able to ensure compatibility with all the various components.

Not that it won't work,but there can be problems.

The larger builders like Overclockers will have greater experience with what works well and what dosen't.

They have a good tech department to answer questions on components or possible combinations,as well as a forum.

Worth having a look at the weekly special offers as well.

Get the most for your money,but keep the shopping list up to date.

Davy

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Davy

I am not buying the components, I'm buying a finished piece of kit, I have dictated the spec to a certain extent but not as far as where the builder gets his gear from, come on.

Eric

Yachtsman1

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Finally bit the bullet this afternoon and ordered the new PC, for anyone contemplating up-grading their system, this is the spec for mine.

Case - Thermaltake LanBox VF1000BNS.

CPU - Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 / 1333 FSB, Retail Boxed with Intel ball-raced cooler.

Motherboard - ASRock (by ASUS), G41MH-GE socket-775. Four DDR2 DIMM slots.

Features - 1333FSB, 6 x USB2.0, Gigabit 10/100/1000 LAN port, DVi, HDMI, 7.1 audio

Graphics - Discrete graphics card, 1 Gb Nvidia Geforce GT 220 (PCI-Express x16) by XFX

Sound - Hi-Definition 7.1 premium quality audio chipset

Wireless - Wireless LAN card

Memory - 8 Gb PC6400 DDR2 800Mhz. (4 x 2Gb modules in total, matched pairs).

Hard-Drive - 1 Tb 7200rpm S-ATAII hard-drive, Large 32Mb buffer. Partitioned 50/50.

DVD-RW - Samsung SH-223 multi-format dual-layer drive, black, with Nero9 Essentials

PSU - 750W Quiet ATX Power-Supply by CIT

Keyboard - Logitech UK Windows keyboard

Mouse - Logitech scroll-wheel optical mouse

OS - Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit, DVD & Licence supplied

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions & advice, I will obviously keep the forum up-dated on progress when it arrives.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi All

Quick up-date on the new PC build.

My builder sent the following info today:

I finished the assembly and setup yesterday (Monday). However, a problem came to light almost immediately, whereby the system was not correctly recognising the full 8Gb of RAM. The motherboard BIOS and Windows 7 were only reporting the system has having 6Gb of RAM. (Despite 8Gb being fitted).

I then tried a different brand of memory, just incase there was some sort of fundamental compatibility issue at play. However, a change from Kingston to Corsair produced no change... still only 6Gb out of the 8Gb being reported...

Anyway, I have now traced this to a design limitation built into the Intel G41 chipset, as fitted to the ASRock G41MH-GE motherboard. Frustratingly, there is no mention of this limitation on the ASRock website.

So, I have now ordered an ASUS P5Q-VM motherboard, (the same as the one in your own original spec outline). This uses a different chipset, apparently without the memory limitation. Although it is slightly more expensive, we will not pass this on to you of course.

The new monitor arrived today so I tested it on my LT, the speakers are rubbish, but I'd already determined that from the Amazon feedback. Incidentally I didn't get the Acer monitor, instead I bought the Haans H191G. It worked straight out of the box. However, I cannot adjust the system until it is connected to the new PC.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi All

The Eagle has Landed.

New PC, Windows 7 64bit,like a flipping rocket. Just about to download latest version of PTE and give it a test.

Back Later

Yachtsman1

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi All

I can now fully understand the frustration when the licence key won't take. I have been trying for the last 6 hours on & off to get the key accepted by PTE6. I have copied the "PTE key only" from the original email when I signed up in 2007 onto a word doc & tried to install it when going through the PTE installation wizard, zilch. It's now almost midnight so I'm off to bed. The following SS is what I'm getting when I try to install. The key is

"Key"="0TUv7U97/8q4KNVeZZOldPWtiVloOIDceiUXyds1A9t9VhtOMI/96shrZ1CIxRbGUr9K0r/QPrHf85FXuk+5d1Bqxz69LP9pfnGB/CXbFQLi6KFJT7ShCxRQfwGyk0mg9uc7x9sn5uKpD2yYH2eMcLD********************" with the last 20 numbers deleted for security.

Yachtsman1

[nobeefstu]

Try saving your key as a .txt (text) file ... not a word document. Word documents contain other characters that wont be read properly. Make sure your saved as text file begins with and contains

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\PTE]

**then your key number

** the above registry entry is used for the PTE Key file only ... the Video Builder Key uses a different registry location.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

PHeeeeew, finally got there. I think the REGEDIT prompt from Nobeefstu did the trick (many thanks).

The frustrating thing about all this was I had already loaded Office 97 & Elements 6, which is old technology, both worked fine no glitches whatsoever. :)Nikon NX2 next. PS my Freecom 1TB HD also works fine.

Regards Eric

Yachtsman1

[Guest Yachtsman1]

NX2 & Latest Audacity now loaded.

Yachtsman1

[Ken Cox]

ERIC

before you get too far i would suggest you open one of your older shows with latest ver and rename it and save it and "see how she runs"

ken

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Ken

Already done that without re-naming, all was well.

Regards Eric

PS reading between the lines on all the W7 problems, new installations seem trouble free, upgrades from XP & Vista can be troublesome

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Quick up-date.

Had to download new W7 driver for my Canon IP4500 printer.