NON-game game-playing purchases :) - Tell us about the HARDWARE and NON-GAME SOFTWARE you've bought FOR playing games. :-)

It is indeed important to know the capabilities of your hardware and to know what you are buying. Me for example I prefered the Intel Motherboard for the overal good performance, stability and reliability. Also the tasks that I use my system for are heavy, so good hardware was needeed. Except playing games, I use very much Virtualization software (Virtual PC, VMWare, VirtualBox),which rerquires memory and CPU power, I zip-unzip large files, rip music and videos, create cds, movies, slideshows, convert and many more.

Now I think about an SSD for overall better performance and higher speed and responce. I thought to use it as a boot Drive, which means install the OS and applications on it to rise the system performance. @Draclvr I am aware of the supportet technology of my motherboard.

Oh, I figured you knew about the ISRT and was just wondering if you were going to make use of it. I'm planning on using my SSD as a boot drive too. When I enabled the ISRT on my grandson's computer, I thought it best because there are 4 users and it would have taken much more "management" to make sure all the data was put on the HDD and not the 60 GB SSD. One nice thing about Windows 7 is that you can use the Library feature to change the location of your files. There are just a few other tweaks you have to make to keep temp files etc. off the SSD. Now, I just need to find the time to get into my case and do it!

Um, I have 2 books that're on the way to our house (for my online classes) - can this forum (thread or whatever) include computer book purchases, also?

Just wondering.

No I don't think school books qualify for this forum.

hatshepsut

Hmm, since this thread is going on and on about building computers and adding this and that hardware and whatever, I think some computer books might come in handy, especially school-type books for dummies like me!

Good Grief! For a minute there I thought my computer had hung up because the scroll wasn't working, but now it is back ... maybe my mouse wandered off the screen. I do have a way of losing it every now and then. Just a short time ago, I learned that the mouse can only disappear to the right or bottom of the screen, but stops at the edge of the left or top of the screen, very handy to know, for me surely.

mindysue wrote:

Good Grief! For a minute there I thought my computer had hung up because the scroll wasn't working, but now it is back ... maybe my mouse wandered off the screen. I do have a way of losing it every now and then. Just a short time ago, I learned that the mouse can only disappear to the right or bottom of the screen, but stops at the edge of the left or top of the screen, very handy to know, for me surely.

Miss Mindy, it sounds like you need to adjust your screen position if your mouse is disappearing like that. Your Monitor documentation should let you know how.

WHAT? Adjust my screen position? What in the world is that? I can't fool around with adjusting anything ... I'm afraid I might accidentally delete my whole operating system and then where would I be?

mindysue wrote:

WHAT? Adjust my screen position? What in the world is that? I can't fool around with adjusting anything ... I'm afraid I might accidentally delete my whole operating system and then where would I be?

I am not sure about your Monitor but on mine I have buttons right on the front so you aren't really using the computer for the adjustment. There is even the option to automatically center the screen on your Monitor. If you are missing the scroll bars and the mouse this should correct it. Its pretty easy....even for you lol. Did you get a new Monitor recently?

Thanks, GreyFuss, I think ...
I have had this square monitor about two weeks, after ditching a widescreen monitor (that played heck with my very old TV series DVDs) after trying it out for a few very worrisome days. This monitor seems to be okay and I like it the way it is. As for my mouse, it can disappear on me even if it is on screen and is something that happens to me with every monitor and computer since I first started using a mouse. I can't really blame either the hardware or software, it's just me and the way I handle/mishandle my li'l mouse. I've even been known to squeeze it too hard!

mindysue wrote:

Thanks, GreyFuss, I think ...
I have had this square monitor about two weeks, after ditching a widescreen monitor (that played heck with my very old TV series DVDs) after trying it out for a few very worrisome days. This monitor seems to be okay and I like it the way it is. As for my mouse, it can disappear on me even if it is on screen and is something that happens to me with every monitor and computer since I first started using a mouse. I can't really blame either the hardware or software, it's just me and the way I handle/mishandle my li'l mouse. I've even been known to squeeze it too hard!

A "square monitor" ? Am I safe in presuming a standard crt monitor ?

Hi Faust,
I would say you are as safe as can be in presuming anything about me or my monitor, but yes, I believe I do mean a standard (what does "crt" mean?) monitor. It has a 19" diagonal screen, so not really "square" I reckon.

mindysue wrote:

Hi Faust,
I would say you are as safe as can be in presuming anything about me or my monitor, but yes, I believe I do mean a standard (what does "crt" mean?) monitor. It has a 19" diagonal screen, so not really "square" I reckon.

I try not to presume much , more often than not , I'm way off base ! CRT stands for Cathode Ray Tube . A crt monitor is the "standard tv style" monitor used years ago . Nobody makes crt monitors anymore . If it works for you , then so much the better .

Woe is me! I have an LCD monitor and a whole new problem. Nevermind the screen or the mouse, now it's sound, like rain or wind hissing through my speaker when I turn the sound up, never was there before. I am using the speakers that came with my Dell computer and the original Dell monitor. The new monitor is an acer V193. Where is the noise coming from and so suddenly with no warning?

mindysue wrote:

Woe is me! I have an LCD monitor and a whole new problem. Nevermind the screen or the mouse, now it's sound, like rain or wind hissing through my speaker when I turn the sound up, never was there before. I am using the speakers that came with my Dell computer and the original Dell monitor. The new monitor is an acer V193. Where is the noise coming from and so suddenly with no warning?

A couple of things . Try to reboot , see if that takes care of the problem . Second , try to reinstall your sound drivers .

Wow, Faust, you are a life-saver!
Like doing a reboot never occurred to me or Tom, so I was practically set to throw my computer, monitor, and keyboard away and get a laptop! How is that for a drastic solution?
Each morning I turn on my computer and don't shut it off until the end of the day. I know enough to reboot when the computer hangs up, usually while playing a game. So this morning, I turned on the power and then booted the cpmputer, and then played FreeCell, while waiting for the pop-up telling me my hard drive is safe (or something like that) to come and go. I have this fear it will interfere with something important. And then went to my email and there I found the link to this thread. I could hardly believe what I was reading ... reboot? So I checked out my speakers and SURE ENOUGH the awful sound was gone and everything back to normal. I'm so happy I could cry! Thanks, thanks, thanks and more thanks!

No problem at all ! You might be surprised that , more often than not (certainly not all the time) , a computer's problem can be solved by a simple reboot . Besides , I've had the same problem happen to me once or twice , & a reboot fixed the problem .

Rebooting.......otherwise known as the "Microsoft solution" within IT circles, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

lakerz wrote:

Rebooting.......otherwise known as the "Microsoft solution" within IT circles, ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Got that right !!

This is the first time I've heard of the "Microsoft solution" but you can bet your bottom dollar that I will always remember it!

mindysue wrote:

Hmm, since this thread is going on and on about building computers and adding this and that hardware and whatever, I think some computer books might come in handy, especially school-type books for dummies like me!

''

Ok, do you guys agree with MindySue that computer books and other types of computer software (including computer education) be allowed to be posted in this forum?

May I say that I agree with MindySue on this?

ABZ you have already asked if you could post your school book purchases and you were given an answer to that question. This thread is for computer hardware and non gaming computer software. There is a difference between computer books and schoolbooks. This is not a thread for school books. General topics would be the place to post schoolbooks.

hatshepsut

I got this off of ebay last night : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133319

I should get it by mid week , as the seller lives just one state over from me .

Very nice Faust

hatshepsut

My new video card arrived today ! Going in , I new that the Nvidia 4 series cards ran a bit warm , but so far , I'm not seeing it . Idle temps have been mid 40's to 50 degrees c . I haven't load tested it yet (I may have to fire up Crysis 2) . So far , I'm a happy camper !!

Very nice Faust! Seems like with all the latest video cards and new processors (heck even memory), heat is becoming issue #1. I always try to spend the extra money during each new PC purchase to buy a design that takes airflow seriously. Thus far I've been very lucky I guess, since I've never encountered a single hardware failure over the past 15 years other than one hard drive becoming a brick. Well, I guess I did have a cd-rom burner die on me also so maybe my memory is just bad, ha ha.