Larian Studios Forums General Chat What PC to buy

[color:"orange"] better double-check with Mea about that. that aussie gal knows her stuff. [/color]

You flatterer you long beard <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

But yes basically Janggut is correct, as for his saying keep 1 partition on Fat 32, well I did the first time around too, but after a while it just became a pain, in regards to speed ... hmm like Linux runs on a type of NTFS, so for the non-believers, well linux has (on avarage) about 2 -3 million lines of code, WinXP somewhere along the neighborhood of 80 million lines of code, and considering that, it is amazing that XP works at all, but for that reason only, I would choose NTFS anytime.

@Goldy Janggut is correct in saying that you can partition your drive with data on it, as long as you use Partition Magic or similar, heck I have done it with 3 different OS's installed (on separatePartitions of course)and shifted the various OS's to C: just to see which was more suited to me.

@Egin yes Ghosting is slow (painfully so at times) but safe, whereas moving files from an Old drive to a new drive, after installing the OS, means that any programs you had installed you will have to re-install, so in the long run it takes the same amount of time.

For instance on my Utility drive I have something like 50 -60 programs installed and to re-install them update them to current versions is well a nightmare <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

However it is up to you, 1 more thing Partition Magic is basically made for dummies (no insult intended) so it is extremely easy to use just follow the prompts <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Oh and if you look around you can probably fins a 30 day trial demo either on the net or on a magazine disk <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

yay, Janggut and Mea thank you <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Now I see that even after you image-copy you still have to adjust many things like registry, file pathes and even reinstall programs. Thats a headache and I think in this case it is more possible that errors occur such as driver or file pathes conflicts. Is is safer just to install everything from beginning.

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@Egin
That is a good point and I am glad you made it. It is to much of a hassel for me so I am going to leave my HD the way it is.

Yay, you may congratulate me, I am sitting behind fresh and renewed system. Did it today, there are still lots of programs to be installed however. Couldn't find drivers for my sound, and now I have zero games installed. Imagine, there is just five shortcuts on my desktop <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

Everything went fine except partitioning and formatting with Seagate software from the official site. Crap.
But, finally I was rewarded, now my machine works like a dynamo <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Thank you all for support and wise words. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

PS Damn, I hate my new keyboard. There is sleep button right next to r-shift. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/memad.gif" alt="" />

[color:"orange"] I hate my new keyboard. There is sleep button right next to r-shift. [/color]

Why use the sleep function anyway, just disable it, it is in Help& support somewhere or else under power management <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thank you Mea. Yes, I will disable it, stupid button. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif" alt="" />

water is a nonconductive liquid

[color:"orange"]water is a nonconductive liquid [/color]

your kiddin me? so what happened to my distributor in my car when it got soaked ???

So its safe to take the TV into the bathtub with me? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

No, take a heater in case the water gets cold.

Its the impurities in the water that make it conduct, pure water won't conduct electricity

I think Muskrat is right. Distilled water simply doesn't conduct electricity. But I think that tapwater does. Which is why you shouldn't drop your non-waterproof radio in the bathtub.

Anyway, getting back to the subject. If I may recommend something is that you wait for PCI-express motherboards, with DDR2 RAM slots. PCI-Express is going to replace AGP, which is where your graphics card goes. It would be a shame if you wanted to upgrade your computer next year, only to find out that your motherboard is outdated, and that you need a new one.

Also, another suggestion: Get a 64bit processor by AMD(but don't forget the matching 64bit motherboard), not only are they super fast, they're relatively cheap too. And once Microsoft releases a 64 bit version of Windows, you'll be able to use it to it's full extent.

I believe the Athalon64 3000+ is currently the best processor in terms of perfomance/price.

permit me to say a few words of caution.

don't jump on the technological wagon that fast. & that means u too, tovi. for your own good, that is. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

if anybody remembers DDR400 RAM technology which went commercial sometime last year, it wasn't as good on board (by that i mean real life) as on paper. firstly, it wasn't stable (prone to noise probs due to it running at very high frequency) & secondly u couldn't have more than two of those RAMs on your motherboard. the overall signal noise generated will cause your system to be very unstable. 3rdly, it's not as fast as expected. in another words; over-hyped. do check out reviews done in Tom's Hardware on DDR400 RAMs & motherboards, especially the early adopters.

which is why i'm still on Win Me & not on the Win XP wagon yet. not that Win Me is that good but i don't want my hard disk to chug like my old '65 opel kadett when bloated with Win XP. maybe i'll wait for SP3 or SP4 before jumping on that unstable wagon.

anyway, PCI express looks & sets to be the next generation for graphics port but not without hiccups. same thing goes with 64-bit whatever (processors, RAMs, HDs, motherboards, etc). let the technology get mature & stable before going for it. same thing also applies for people who set their eyes on DVD home theatre systems. DVD technology has yet to mature as well. u can see manufacturers are toying with propriety technologies (sony, toshiba, chinese companies, etc). in the future u'll see blue-ray DVD, HD-DVD, double-sided DVD, DVD-RAM of assorted technologies, etc.

so u see it doesn't really pay to be the early adopter.

my $0.02 by-product.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/offtopic.gif" alt="" /> Check out the big old brain on Muskrat! Yeah, he's right though. Pure water will actually vapourise before it conducts. A tiny, tiny imbalance in pH or ion content will dramatically increase the conductive potential.

My advice on PC buying, get a new one! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

[color:"orange"] Check out the big old brain on Muskrat! Yeah, he's right though. Pure water will actually vapourise before it conducts. A tiny, tiny imbalance in pH or ion content will dramatically increase the conductive potential. [/color]

Okay so now that we are full circle, I don't think it is a good idea to use water and electronics together <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

As I have a very sure feeling that "pure Water"is awesomely expensive <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

It shouldn't be that expensive. To create it, all you have to do is heat it, cool it, and catch it in a big ol' bucket. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

i think it'll be easier to just buy that water. anybody heard of distilled water for your car battery? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

Sorry folks we are talking about "Pure Water" not distilled or boiled but pure, as in nothing nada nix but water <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Its actually not that expensive. About 30 bucks for 1L water from the aldrich chemical company. Conductivity <2x10e-6 S/m. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
That's fairly pure, most ions in there are less than 1 part per billion.

And tomorrow's useless fact will be...

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