Author Topic: Ace's Done Deal (Read 19993 times)

Bill · « **Reply #120 on:** July 30, 2006, 12:52 hrs »

So, is there an update? Progress? Can't open the cardboard box?

I know, you can't find the plug.

Bill

scuzzy · « **Reply #121 on:** August 04, 2006, 00:35 hrs »

Hey, you jester doofus, you...

Make sure you look at this: Scot Finnie's Best Antivirus of 2006

Ace · « **Reply #122 on:** August 04, 2006, 06:49 hrs »

It would seem... Apparently I did take your advice as I am waiting.

I've received some boxes: Madden 2006, WordPerfect 12, Kaspersky v6, but not a really big box.

Antivirus products seem to be popular for a day, or so. Or they get a version right, then change it so it isn't. I am of the opinion that Symantec is much like AOL; for people who just don't want to bother and want someone or something to do it all for them (to them). Norton must have been named for Ed Norton. At least the old unit is virus free... Well, according to Norton, I guess.

ace; this stupid Russian or Eastern Euro or whatever dang product better work, dangit.

Buffalo2102 · « **Reply #123 on:** August 04, 2006, 09:07 hrs »

Despite the title of this thread, I am guessing that this still far from a "done deal"?

Buff; another Pizza Poast

Ace · « **Reply #124 on:** August 04, 2006, 11:27 hrs »

There seems to be movement today, and things are finally progressing.

And, no, that is in no way a reference to the pizza I had for lunch yesterday. Geez.

Strangely, prices have remained the same for the last couple weeks, except for the video card which jumped $10 (so glad I got that in, before). During the interim, I would think an invigorating discussion of pizza would be a fine way to spend the afternoon.

Ace; next I'll probably get some stupid link sent to me on "Bob's Top Pizzas of 2006" review

Bill · « **Reply #125 on:** August 06, 2006, 09:02 hrs »

Here's the best I could find:
http://www.we8there.com/search_results.php

Seems the magical, mythical land...isn't big on pizza.

'Course that's understandable anywhere that streets are named Grape and margaritas are popular.

Bill

Ace · « **Reply #126 on:** August 08, 2006, 09:54 hrs »

Well, thanks for sending all that info on pizza but the dang poast is about my dang new computer. It's being tested, as much as my patience, right now.

Hey; does anyone have recommendations on a lovely downloadable motherboard/CPU stuff monitor? I really liked Everest Home but now it appears to be no longer free (and I've had glitches trying to download the new free temporary version). I think I've got Motherboard Monitor on the old Monarch now, which seems ok; had that on an old PC World disc. I liked how Everest would drill down into every component and list it and categorize things as a "one stop shop" on any hardware item.

Ace; hope I'm not monitored.

Neon · « **Reply #127 on:** August 08, 2006, 10:34 hrs »

It's unfortunate that Everest is no longer free, although at least it's only $20. Sisoft SANDRA is very similar, but it's a little more expensive.

Motherboard Monitor does not offer as much hardware info, but is good for temp, fan, and voltage monitoring. It is no longer in development, but it still works on many mobos - you'll just have to try it to find out.

SpeedFan and hmonitor are similar in function to MM, so you might give those a try.

Check the disk that came with your mobo. Many mobo manufacturers include a monitoring app, although I think most of them are poorly designed.

scuzzy · « **Reply #128 on:** August 08, 2006, 14:32 hrs »

Do a Google search: Everest Home Edition

You can download the free version 2.2 through MajorGeeks.com, as well as others.

Ace · « **Reply #129 on:** August 08, 2006, 15:42 hrs »

I had tried the link here, and then gone directly to Everest (Home) Home, but hadn't tried a second third pary link. 6th party, as it were. I'll go with that once I get everything else in place.

I am not going to "Google" it, however, since you already provided a link.

Ace; I wonder what happens if you google Google?

Bill · « **Reply #130 on:** August 12, 2006, 17:29 hrs »

You get 100k refernces to 'google.' Wha'dathink? Almost as many references as you get when you google 'Jester.'

I wonder what would happen with 'doofus?' To borrow a phrase....

I thought this was about pizza?

Bill

scuzzy · « **Reply #131 on:** August 17, 2006, 13:01 hrs »

Hey Doof, what's up with the computer?

I thought I'd be nice by offering to buy it from you. By the time you get the computer it will be outdated and worth about $39, which is what I'll give you. I'd pay the extra 39 cents for the postage, but I'd just have to deduct it back out for mailing the check.

Tell the Monarch flutterby people to go ahead and ship it directly to me. I'll send the check as soon as I receive it. Really, I will.

Scuzzy; I'll just defrag it and sell it back to Ace for a handsome profit. Then I'll laugh all the way to PayPal.

Ace · « **Reply #132 on:** August 18, 2006, 06:23 hrs »

Actually, "what's up" with the computer is that it is. I'm poasting from it as we speak. Well, keyboard.

It actually did arrive wonderfully packaged from a lean and not particularly thick legged FedEx lady Wednesday. Sleek and piano black-like in its Sonata II splendor. It promptly went into a boot disk failure mode immediately upon starting up that evening... I attempted to install Windows and it collapsed inward like a black hole, stating it could not recognize that it had any hard drive whatsoever.

I remember seeing one when I peeked inside upon its arrival, so I wanted to tell it that I did think there was one.

I emailed and posted (sic) at the Monarch Support forum, and got not much of a response at either except finally a few civilians there and later my favorite (only?) tech saying check the SATA cable. Being familiar only with gut wrenching IDE cables, I doubted it could come loose that easily but lo, the red rascal had pulled up slightly from the WD unit. And then, it booted.

I had to uninstall MacAfee, which had been stuck in it, as I had no interest in that. Loaded Kaspersky, which got nearly through a required update and then blew the last item. On 2nd try, it took. The rest of the night was moving Earthlink from a simple starter connection (for the antivirus upgrade) that didn't show anything weblike to my disk with the original version to a download of Total Access that took over an hour to this AM, where at least things look more like I thought.

Pretty much nothing else is in it; the HD look is a sliver in a big ball of nothing.
Only other immediate weirdness is a "You don't have SLI" statement from my nVidia Settings on startup, like it's expecting a 2nd card to drop from the sky any moment. And some pop up firewall thingy just squealed at me, but as far as I know I'm just on the Windows one unless Kaspersky anti-v also includes one.

Lots of software to come. It's gonna take awhile... But at least everything is glowing in a blue aura; the unit, my Altecs, the LG... I'll poast a summary statement on the whole affair.

Ace; shoot, $39 covers about 3/4 the cost of the stupid $50 DVI cable I had to get.

Bill · « **Reply #133 on:** August 18, 2006, 09:42 hrs »

Hey, congratulations. At least now you've got something new to complain about. Splendiferous, or not.

Good luck with the XP firewall, ha.

Bill

Buffalo2102 · « **Reply #134 on:** August 18, 2006, 09:50 hrs »

Quote from: Ace on August 18, 2006, 06:23 hrs

Only other immediate weirdness is a "You don't have SLI" statement from my nVidia Settings on startup, like it's expecting a 2nd card to drop from the sky any moment.

You can get rid of that by following nVidias' advice here.

NVIDIA SLI Solution Thingy (Link edited by Scuzzy)

Buff; some shortcut!

Ace · « **Reply #135 on:** August 18, 2006, 10:35 hrs »

Bill; for real. Buff; thank you! I just thought I'd hunt through the settings and find it, but obviously it's above and beyond the range of reason.

I've never had XP firewall actually "do" anything, so I'm thinking the pop ups I got weren't from it. I can't see that Kaspersky has a firewall anywhere, and I couldn't just keep the MacAfee one (either had to trash the whole package or keep it all). I'll see if it squeals and shows, again.

Ace; probably I'll add a 2nd card at some point and it won't recognize it...

Ace · « **Reply #136 on:** August 22, 2006, 06:50 hrs »

Well, all's well that ends.

In summation, the carefully selected Monarch Furia has arrived and is up and running. Well, down near my right foot, and running.

Some might disparage me from not assembling the parts and building it myself, but after ripping out my old mobo and installing the one Scuzzy so graciously had lying in his yard with the appliances I really had enough of sticking my head into a computer case. Especially with the front panel itty bitty connectors, which do require me to get up close and personal to even attempt to see what goes where.

The Monarch took about a month to get here after ordering; it took awhile to get going, then jumped into their 7 stage build process, got to the end, went backward with a configuration issue, plowed ahead, delayed, shipped. Arrived DOA, with a disk error unable to load Windows. Discovered the SATA cable worked loose from the WD HDD that it failed to recognize, which allowed it to take off and fly. So I did actually assemble part. And have had my head in it a few times.

It's an Antec Sonata II case; nice that the side panel lifts off, and no screws. The inside is surprisingly sparse; there's a hood over the CPU and cards, and the other end is covered over the power supply and bundle. I verified the card and memory were as ordered. It's got a steady swoosh; kept with the single standard fan per Scuzzy (and Antec's) advice. Otherwise:
* Cost of parts matched New Egg; since order and purchase things have gone up... eVGA 7600GT card went up $10, case a couple bucks, CPU went down a few bucks but now back to price I paid; 3800+ single core. Did not do the dual core thing as a 3800+ X2 was $40 more and to get the same mhz it really would have cost more. Thanks to Cars and Neon for going over the core rates and productivity.
*Where I put my money: Memory. Got 2GB (two 1Gig) DDR2 800 Patriot ("gaming") sticks. No sense with DDR2 to start cheap and then have to replace 2 sticks. Plus figure that should be a primary boost to performance. Cost on those has jumped $15 since I bought.
* Where I didn't: single video card. Will watch for same card to drop in price and probably try the SLI track later. I installed Madden06 and Call of Duty. Call of Duty plays as expected; maxing out the video and it cruises along. Madden looks like TV at maximum resolution.
* Biggest suprise: I really like the 19" LCD LG monitor. I got a 4ms/high contrast model, and it actually looks 3D. Much brighter and more vibrant than the old MAG CRT. Haven't touched a thing on it; naturally used the DVI connect instead of the VGA (and had to buy that cable, for $50 - 10 ft).
* As a WordPerfect fan picked up WP Office 12 for $20 online (incl shipping). Smooth operation; I had WP8 from back in the Quantex days that had glitches so glad to dump that. Also have MS Office installed too.
* Thanks to Buff got the SLI balloon to burst. Amazing how quickly this boots. Naturally, doesn't increase dial up speed too much...
* Thanks to Scuzzy did get Everest Home from Major Geeks; also have the CPU ID from our site installed. Running in the 40's... So was the old machine, at the end, so quite an improvement with the ASUS board Scuzzy shipped at exhorbitant costs. Bless his heart.
* Went with Kaspersky antivirus. Seems just fine.
* Have a Sony duo for DVD/CD play and burning. Have burned CDs but haven't tried a DVD yet.
* Since ASUS worked to bring back the old one from the dead went with the M2N SLI Deluxe for this one. Reasonable price, at a mid point between the cheapest AM2 and the ultra versions $50 more. "Cool and Quiet."

So that's how it all turned out. I got the old Monarch clean and tidy and humming, and gave it to my brother in law. So thanks to Saoirse and Johnny and Scuzzy and Bill and Pat's offer of a rental unit and Leo from Monarch and all who helped with that repair. And Neon and Pat and Brad and Cars and Scuzzy and Bill and all who pointed out parts and features and advised on what to get on a new one; as you see I used someone's advice on every part. Except for Scuzzy, who said to wait. That was just nuts, but the rest was really sound and helpful so thank you.

Ace; zoom zoom

Bill · « **Reply #137 on:** August 22, 2006, 07:27 hrs »

I'm glad it all worked. Now I'm envious.

Bill; what's a little help between......

Ace · « **Reply #138 on:** August 22, 2006, 08:19 hrs »

Well, talk to Scuzzy and see what he has back in the supply room. Just watch out for the exhor

Criminy, I hate spelling exhorbitant. I don't even know if I got that right. Anyway, if I ever get a gun I think Call of Duty will help me pick one out. I don't know if I'd rather go with the Thompson submachine gun or a rocket launcher. I do know I'd rather parachute in behind the Nazi troops guarding the beach that come right up from the water on D Day like you do in Medal of Honor. There was no way I was gonna get off that beach. I guess a lot of guys probably had that same feeling.

Ace; for real. Of course, RTCW taught me how to take out a giant mechanized ghoul Nazi.

Neon · « **Reply #139 on:** August 22, 2006, 09:24 hrs »

Quote from: Ace on August 22, 2006, 08:19 hrs

Well, talk to Scuzzy and see what he has back in the supply room. Just watch out for the exhor

Criminy, I hate spelling exhorbitant.

Huh? exhorbitant ___________ ? Some sentence somewhere lost its noun. Unless exhorbitant is now a noun. It probably refers to an orbital body that is no longer orbiting.

Anyway, I am somewhat mollified that Scuzzy has something exhorbitant, or else has an exhorbitant. I thought for sure you were about to type exhorcism, and that Scuzzy would have been renting out his supply room to exhorcists for the performance of exhorcisms. OK. Glad we sorted that out.

Oh yeah, congratulations on the new system! I hope it serves you well for years to come.

Ace · « **Reply #140 on:** August 22, 2006, 10:50 hrs »

I don't know; I doubt if Scuzzy exhorcizes. Exorcises. Whatever they do. I've never exorcised a demon, but I have hacked a lot of them up in Diablo.

I think he has an orbital body, for the most part.

Thanks again for all your recommendations; if anything goes wrong I'm going to blame you guys anyway.

Ace; but not for the hard drive cable. I blame Monarch for not gluing it on right.

scuzzy · « **Reply #141 on:** August 22, 2006, 17:14 hrs »

I would like to disparage Ace for not assembling the parts and building the computer himself.

I told him several times he'd be better off building it himself. But did he listen? Noooooo... Ace never listens to me because he has abnormally big feet that he uses to go to MAC-Donalds. Then he gets fat, round, stubby, little fingers from eating there that prevent him from plugging in his computer.

If Ace had built the dang thing himself he could have at least enjoyed it for a day or two before it became an ancient dinosaur, sort of like himself.

Scuzzy; an Aceosaur is a scary thought

Bill · « **Reply #142 on:** August 22, 2006, 17:18 hrs »

But they're so dang old, you could probably outrun them. And, I'm told, they have funny, as in 'odd',little toes that prevent them from running very fast anyway.

Bill

Ace · « **Reply #143 on:** August 22, 2006, 17:26 hrs »

I already ran this morning, and won, so I'm not going to go out again today.

And my fat little fingers are not that dang chubby, dangit. Hold it.. oh, shoot.

Like a Scuzzyopterix is gonna set any land speed records. Look, I'll have you know that dang thing wasn't obsolete until I got that cable fixed and it actually booted up. Until then, it was pretty darn near cutting edge. For the price.

Look, if this ASUS has a northbridge, and a fan on it, then I think I coulda figured that one out. But I'm not saying I'm gonna put the battery right-side in or connect front panel stuff or the really high tech aspects. I did get both printers installed, so I'm pretty much ahead of the game there. And was able to blow up all the tanks, so far.

Ace; and Kaspersky said everything is ok, if anyone's asking.

Buffalo2102 · « **Reply #144 on:** August 23, 2006, 06:44 hrs »

I'm real glad that Ace didn't build it himself. He bought a pre-built PC and this thread still ran into 5 pages - imagine if he had built it himself! The Pizza poast would pale into insignificance.

Buff; mmmmmm pizza.

Ace · « **Reply #145 on:** August 23, 2006, 09:40 hrs »

Oh, you just wait.

Look, why is it everydangtime I get to poasting about this dang pc you or Bill or other people named "B" start switching the dang topic to pizza?! Criminy, like every dang poast has to come back to pizza. What's so dang wrong with changing the subject to the auto industry or Paramount not signing Tom Cruise or what SouthPark's gonna do with that one or Whiz's addiction to isopropyl alcohol or who else is plugged up or where the heck JA went to this time or if Pat's ok? Geez Louise.

Or if Castro was abducted by aliens and had a probe, done. Something like that.

Ace; I'm probably gonna do 2 more pages just on "why is Microsoft trying to patch my dang Office" and "where in the heck is all the clip art for WP12?"

Bill · « **Reply #146 on:** August 24, 2006, 12:26 hrs »

You know, if you find the dang clip art soon, you'll be able to poast pizza pictures before this dang thread dies. Hurry up, dangit.

News:

Author Topic: Ace's Done Deal (Read 19993 times)