Author Topic: Computer help..moving forward  (Read 8592 times)

Offline 2bighorn

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Re: Computer help..moving forward
« Reply #45 on: April 14, 2019, 03:32:39 PM »
Do I need to get sound card or anything else for internet hook up?

No, your motherboard has both.
Quote from: ASRock
Realtek Gigabit LAN
7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC892 Audio Codec), Nichicon Fine Gold Series Audio Caps

Also, I just have the disk for Windows Office 7 I believe,  I don't believe I have the old windows 7 code. Would that work as well?

Just Google for one of many product key finder utilities, like ProduKey or similar. It'll find your Win 7 key.

Then go to https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10
and download windows media creation tool.
It's best to use USB flash drive (min 8GB).
Once you assemble your new PC, boot from USB drive, install Windows 10 and activate it with your Win 7 key.
As of today, that still works.
« Last Edit: April 14, 2019, 03:34:23 PM by 2bighorn »

Offline fudgums

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Re: Computer help..moving forward
« Reply #46 on: April 14, 2019, 04:05:32 PM »
The old PC is pretty messed up at the moment, not sure  if I could pull it from there or not.
"Masters of the Air" Scenario - JG27

Offline Bizman

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Re: Computer help..moving forward
« Reply #47 on: April 15, 2019, 01:33:46 AM »
How badly messed is the old PC? If you boot from the Win7 CD you'll find the option to repair your computer. Running chkdsk /r for the drive including the OS in the Command Prompt may fix the system so you can boot it at least once to get the key. The CD/DVD is just a generic media to carry the installation files and as 2bighorn said you can fully legally download it from Microsoft.

Better yet, you can use another PC to read the old HDD: https://www.howtogeek.com/64600/how-to-recover-windows-and-software-keys-from-a-broken-computer/

By the way, did you deliberately opt the SSD out from your last listing or did you just forget it? Note that the motherboard you chose has an M2 slot for a more modern SSD so if you choose one don't limit the speed to the SATA bus. That said, an SSD in any port is so fast you most likely can't tell any difference in normal use.

For the RAM speed vs. CPU 2bighorn addressed earlier, I found this quite thorough yet layman-ish article: https://www.pcsteps.com/7932-real-ram-speed-mhz-cas-latency/. There was some interesting information concerning new AMD systems and their ability to use higher speed RAM so you may want to read it. But as has been said, RAM speed doesn't affect FPS in games so your wallet is a good judge there.

https://www.pcsteps.com/7932-real-ram-speed-mhz-cas-latency/
Quote from: BaldEagl, applies to myself, too
I've got an older system by today's standards that still runs the game well by my standards.

Kotisivuni

Offline atlau

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Re: Computer help..moving forward
« Reply #48 on: April 15, 2019, 09:23:05 AM »
I browse the following thread every now and then.

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapcsales/new

Every now and then it has some pretty great deals if you dont mind waiting to get some parts for your build.


Offline mikeWe9a

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Re: Computer help..moving forward
« Reply #49 on: April 15, 2019, 12:46:41 PM »
Your motherboard comes with wired LAN and onboard audio, though no speakers or wifi, so you'll either need speakers or use a monitor with built in sound, and an ethernet connection to your modem/router.

Mike

Offline Denniss

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Re: Computer help..moving forward
« Reply #50 on: April 15, 2019, 06:07:11 PM »
SATA is not a Bus system. M.2 is just a slot which may support either SATA or PCIe storage or both, some of them are just for Wifi modules.

For normal use a 'good' NVMe SSD (like 970 Evo) is a waste of money - too expensive per GB. 'Bad' NVMe with QLC Flash (like intel 660, Crucial P1) are cheap but drop down to SATA speed relatively fast and for long writes may even drop below HDD speed.
NVMe has its strengths if you often access/write large files such as databases or video/audiofiles during editing.

Offline Bizman

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Re: Computer help..moving forward
« Reply #51 on: April 16, 2019, 01:58:48 AM »
SATA is not a Bus system. M.2 is just a slot which may support either SATA or PCIe storage or both, some of them are just for Wifi modules.
Sorry for the inaccuracy due to my bad English. "Connector" might be a better word here?
Quote from: BaldEagl, applies to myself, too
I've got an older system by today's standards that still runs the game well by my standards.

Kotisivuni

Offline guncrasher

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Re: Computer help..moving forward
« Reply #52 on: April 19, 2019, 03:41:41 AM »
something to tell you about the ssd.  about 5 or 6 years ago this guy was gunho about ssd's statistics and this and that to prove ssd's would last forever.  well i decided to prove him wrong and use actual real life data.  so i bought that ssd and left it outside of my case, that same fricking ssd is still outside of the case where i kick it almost everytime i turn on the computer, once or twice got splashed with beer as i dropped one, i cleaned it fast.  I once ran the vacuum cleaner and damaged the cables but the ssd is still on the carpet going strong.

damn things last forever.  so my apologies to whoever it was that proved me wrong. I am gonna leave it on the carpet till it dies.  i do back up my sistem everytime on another hd, regularly just it case, i just dont think i will ever need it.  I also have a hitachi that i kicked dropped when i bought it new about 10 years ago or so.   i have two hd's but only the ssd is connected at all times unless for back up.

the ssd is the samsung 840 evo bought in 6/14/14.  I last upgraded my computer 8 years ago.  damn time flies



semp
you dont want me to ho, dont point your plane at me.

Offline FBDragon

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Re: Computer help..moving forward
« Reply #53 on: April 21, 2019, 05:22:13 AM »
Dumb question for you guys, how do you select which drive to use? I have both in my new rig but everything just downloads on the SSD card. I just don't know how to use it yet. :cheers: :salute :bhead
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Offline Bizman

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Re: Computer help..moving forward
« Reply #54 on: April 21, 2019, 05:33:54 AM »
Dumb question for you guys, how do you select which drive to use? I have both in my new rig but everything just downloads on the SSD card. I just don't know how to use it yet. :cheers: :salute :bhead
No dumb questions, only occasional dumb answers...

First question: Have you formatted the HDD so Windows can see it? If not, right click the Windows logo in the lower left corner and choose Disk Management. You should find your HDD there. You can then partition it to smaller chunks or just format it to one large. There's other options as well but keep it simple unless you really know what you're doing.

After formatting you should see the HDD (or its partitions) in the Explorer, having a drive letter assigned to it. And then you can choose whatever you want to put there; install programs, create folders, whatever.
Quote from: BaldEagl, applies to myself, too
I've got an older system by today's standards that still runs the game well by my standards.

Kotisivuni

Offline Pudgie

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Re: Computer help..moving forward
« Reply #55 on: April 22, 2019, 07:48:33 PM »
something to tell you about the ssd.  about 5 or 6 years ago this guy was gunho about ssd's statistics and this and that to prove ssd's would last forever.  well i decided to prove him wrong and use actual real life data.  so i bought that ssd and left it outside of my case, that same fricking ssd is still outside of the case where i kick it almost everytime i turn on the computer, once or twice got splashed with beer as i dropped one, i cleaned it fast.  I once ran the vacuum cleaner and damaged the cables but the ssd is still on the carpet going strong.

damn things last forever.  so my apologies to whoever it was that proved me wrong. I am gonna leave it on the carpet till it dies.  i do back up my sistem everytime on another hd, regularly just it case, i just dont think i will ever need it.  I also have a hitachi that i kicked dropped when i bought it new about 10 years ago or so.   i have two hd's but only the ssd is connected at all times unless for back up.

the ssd is the samsung 840 evo bought in 6/14/14.  I last upgraded my computer 8 years ago.  damn time flies



semp

I remember reading those posts back in the day, Semp…………………….

Can't remember the then player's handle (could search up the threads I suppose) but I also remember the heated back & forth postings between this player & Skuzzy as well concerning SSD usage\endurance back then. Made for some entertaining reading...……………………….

 :)

Just to post that I also ran similar tests myself to prove it out either way and so far to date my results are mirroring yours (I started running SSD's exclusively in all my boxes since 10-19-12...have used 4 different brands of SSD's-OCz, Plextor, Muskin and Samsung, 3 different types-SATAIII, PCI-E and NVMe….so far all w\o any hint of issue, sector loss or speed reduction w\ all except the 2 PCI-E SSD's still in active use (both PCI-E SSD's are spare for the moment, 1 is a Plextor M6e BE 512Gb HH-HL PCI-E SSD, 1 is a Samsung SM951 128Gb M.2 PCI-E SSD).

But also in fairness I run mine in conjunction w\ 16+Gb of system mem (best protection against writebacks as most data will stay in system mem caches once put\read there while most avg programs are running and are only written back to SSD's when box is powered off due to the massive amount of spare available addressible system mem for the OS to use....Win 10 WILL use it, too) and configure all potential writebacks to 1 dedicated SSD where the pagefile is kept. Ran test using AHIII running w\ Windows Performance Monitor also running in the background along w\ 16 other background processes running using 16Gb system mem w\ Win Perf Mon configured to record the number of write backs (or pageouts if you prefer to call them that) occurring from system mem to virtual mem (SSD in my case). After playing AHIII over 2+ hrs pulled up WPM and it recorded 0% writebacks to the SSD (was reported that AHIII would make a lot of small writes to a HDD\SSD while the client was running so I tested for that) so from this result I don't even worry about this any more as it shows that the 16Gb of system mem along w\ the built in SSD management in Win 7 OS on (this is even better in Win 10) made this a non issue concerning SSD usage on my boxes so all my boxes are therefore configured w\ min of 16Gb of system mem and a dedicated SSD for pagefile duty only in case the box does need to write out w\ the OS set to dynamically set up\manage the page file on the single SSD so haven't had any SSD-related issues at all since (over 4 yrs run time on both mine and wife's boxes) w\ the dedicated SSD's showing less than 1 TBW (total bytes written) and they're 128Gb SSD's so they've got a TON of life left before they even start to show any effects of wear. Since the OS sees it has an entire SSD's partition to use as a page file it doesn't even try to set up\use a page file on the other 2 SSD's so they are spared of this as well so the only writes they see are whenever I download something, update a driver, install a new app, delete something or physically shut down my box (I also have the OS to purge the page file during shutdown as well to try to stress it further). To give an example of just how this is stressing my SSD's here is the TBW data on each SSD in my current box in sig below (ran same SSD's previously on my Intel X99 build from 7-19-16 on then moved to current AMD box built on 4-17 then moved to the current Fractal Design Meshify C case then installed custom WC loop in 9-17): Samsung 950 Pro 512Gb NVMe SSD (OS\apps\drivers) @ 8.0 TBW, Samsung 850 Pro 128Gb SATAIII SSD (page file only) @ .73 TBW, Samsung 850 Pro 512Gb SATAIII SSD (Win Libraries\storage\downloads) @ .92 TBW. Of the 8.0 TBW on the NVMe boot SSD better than 90% of that comes from shut down\power off of PC when the OS writes the system mem caches back to the NVMe SSD (or the drive on which the OS is installed...usually the boot drive) before power off (when you're talking about 16Gb of system mem over several hrs of run time that's a LOT of stored data to provision\write back). All SSD wear leveling data comes from using Samsung Magician 4.9.7 SSD Management software also actively running in the background...……….

As you can see, these SSD's aren't even scratched as the current "wear" is less than .25% of all active bytes over 2 1\2+ yrs of usage...…………………….but I also have a couple of SATAIII SSD's (the OCz Vertex4's that have been in use since 10-19-12, 1st in my Intel X79 box then a short stint in my Intel X99 box then moved to the wife's Intel z87 box where they're still plowing along just fine some 6 1\2+ yrs later used in tandem w\ a Mushkin Stealth 1 TB SATAIII SSD under 16Gb of Mushkin Stealth DDR3 2133 DC 4Gb x 4 mem kit...……….

Yeah I admit it......I'm a geek and my boxes are geeked out to minimize SSD performance\damage issues...……………..

Mostly overkill but I like it that way!

 :D  :salute
Win 10 Home 64, AMD Ryzen 9 3900X, MSI MPG X570 Gaming Plus, GSkill FlareX 32Gb DDR4 3200 4x8Gb, XFX Radeon RX 6900X 16Gb, Samsung 950 Pro 512Gb NVMe PCI-E SSD (boot), Samsung 850 Pro 128Gb SATA SSD (pagefile), Creative SoundBlaster X7 DAC-AMP, Intel LAN, SeaSonic PRIME Gold 850W, all CLWC'd

Offline Chalenge

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Re: Computer help..moving forward
« Reply #56 on: April 22, 2019, 08:16:34 PM »
Ripley, and he's still here under a different name.  :aok
If you like the Sick Puppy Custom Sound Pack the please consider contributing for future updates by sending a months dues to Hitech Creations for account "Chalenge." Every little bit helps.

Offline fudgums

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Re: Computer help..moving forward
« Reply #57 on: April 28, 2019, 07:15:32 PM »
So we wrapped up some things at work, and getting ready to pull the trigger. How does this look?

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/xmgMsZ

CPU: AMD - Ryzen 5 2600X 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($179.99 @ Amazon)
Motherboard: ASRock - B450 Steel Legend ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($109.99 @ Amazon)
Memory: GeIL - EVO SPEAR 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3000 Memory  ($80.88 @ OutletPC)
Storage: Samsung - 860 Evo 500 GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($79.99 @ Amazon)
Storage: Western Digital - Caviar Blue 1 TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive  ($44.89 @ OutletPC)
Video Card: MSI - GeForce GTX 1660 6 GB VENTUS XS OC Video Card  ($219.99 @ Newegg)
Case: NZXT - H500 (Black) ATX Mid Tower Case  ($69.17 @ Amazon)
Power Supply: SeaSonic - FOCUS Plus Gold 550 W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($79.99 @ SuperBiiz)
Total: $864.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2019-04-28 20:14 EDT-0400
"Masters of the Air" Scenario - JG27

Offline guncrasher

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Re: Computer help..moving forward
« Reply #58 on: April 29, 2019, 12:08:15 AM »
dont forget a usb self powered hub.  for your joystick and throttle.  it helps a lot.


semp
you dont want me to ho, dont point your plane at me.

Offline Bizman

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Re: Computer help..moving forward
« Reply #59 on: April 29, 2019, 12:50:34 AM »
Looks good to me, no obvious weakness there. Plus what semp said about the powered USB hub, it can help keeping the controllers sound.
Quote from: BaldEagl, applies to myself, too
I've got an older system by today's standards that still runs the game well by my standards.

Kotisivuni