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A new PC


khunsanuk

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Hi,

It is still a bit too difficult to tell since I haven't ran anything heavy yet. I did notice that programs start up a lot faster, but that of course has to do with the faster harddisk.

I might get to do some 3D stuff again soon, if that is the case I will most certainly see an improvement.

Sanuk!

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Still running a '96 pentium clone, 133 clocked to 166. Had a bit of extra ram slotted in. New soundcard fitted. 17" monitor at the start of this year. Runs okay but it's a bit noisy.

Anyone interested in starting an old computer club? Nah, didn't think so.

tongue.gif" border="0

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quote:

Originally posted by Flashermac:

So Viking, where are you? AMD or Pentium? What's your advice?

(Got enough overheating problems with my old Cyrix. Won't get one of them again.)

Flash,

Intel everytime for me. I have just seen too many problems with AMD cpu's. Mostly though and to be fair i dont mind AMD's its just i find alot of software that wont run on an amd computer. Navigation, travel agents, medical software. Also i find some software writers wont support their software unless its on an intel cpu. Just a cop out most likely.

The less said about Cyrix the better.

Cheers.

Viking.

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quote:

Originally posted by ALHOLK:

Operating systems from Microshaft have the abillity to crash any hardware and their definition of Preemptive multi tasking is the capacity to crash several tasks simultaeously without waiting for each other.
laugh.gif" border="0laugh.gif" border="0laugh.gif" border="0laugh.gif" border="0laugh.gif" border="0

Alholk,

Too funny. laugh.gif" border="0

I'll have remember that line about multitasking.

But at least Microsoft has perfected Plug and Pray. Just plug your new device in, turn on the PC, and pray Windows detects the correct hardware, then pray it installs the proper driver.

Can't wait to see Windows XP or .NET. laugh.gif" border="0

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Khun Sanuk,

I'm intrigued to hear whether you notice any difference.

Last Christmas, as my present to myself, I replaced my Pentium PII 233 Mhz, 128 MB Ram, 6 GB HD (I don't remember the video card and other stuff) to a 1.4 Ghz Pentium P4, 256 MB Ram,15 GB HD, 32 MB video card.

Quite honestly I dont see any difference in the speed of the machine. I thought I was moving from a Deux Cheveaux to a Ferrari and expected to at least feel it was flying even if it was only a marginal improvement.

I'm a bit of a computer idiot though and dont do anything clever like databases or programming or network admin or stuff like that.

Use Word a lot. Use Excel very extensively, running loads of highly complex macros which I have written to manipulate financial data, and occasionally fool around with Photoshop and some other graphics programs. Of course surf the net but as before use a 56K dial up connection so did not expect any change there.

But it feels the same, hence my intrigue about your experience.

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Wowzer:

You should notice a HUGE increase in performance, from starting the apps to Excel calculations. Your PC should be on the order of 2x to 3x faster in calcing stuff. If you have a large spreadsheet (I run financial structuring spreadsheets) it really should be self-evident. If it is not, then something is wrong. Problem is that it could be any number of things. Probably why folks haven't said anything is that it is difficult to diagnose something like this over the internet cause there are lots of stuff: Fixing the virtual memory so it is a constant instead of fluctuating; making sure video drivers are up to date (this is extremely key especially for TNT2 machines); proper settings in the bios for memory, cache, HD, etc.... yadda yadda yadda.

Sorry to hear you are not getting the performance you should be getting, but it really should be like moving from an Ford Escort to a street Ferrari.

AMD vs INTEL: My experience with AMD's is from the K7 to the Athlon. Neither my friends or I have had any problems with the AMD's at all. We run the standard office suites, adobe graphic packages, and a few of us black box financial structuring software. We have not had problems with overclocking, acting as gaming clients or servers. Would not hesitate in buying either. True, there are programs that specify Intel for support, but have had no problems (including some legacy DOS based products).

Plug-n-Play: yes a huge improvement, although over 3/4 the time I have to download updated drivers from the net for optimal performance.

<<burp>>

[ May 29, 2001: Message edited by: gummigut ]

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Gummigut

Thanks for your comments. I wasn’t really seeking help, seems to me to be wrong to clog up a board about Thailand and its nightlife with dumb questions about computers (not least because I probably wouldn’t understand the answers anyway!)

Its just that I did not get the speed increase I was expecting with the new machine and wondered about Khun Sanuk’s experience with his.

Not that I’m complaining too much though it operates far faster than my brain and comprehension take up. I run fairly large workbooks in Excel. (I counted the number of worksheets on one that I was just working with and there are 71 sheets (includes about 10 charts) with a macro or two on each sheet and numerous links to other workbooks with more macros, and it all runs and updates without fuss.) (Would be a lot less complicated if I could reference the last entry in columns or worksheets which change on an irregular basis – yes I know it’s the address function, but I’m buggered if I can ever get it to work right.)

Your comments were very helpful though as I checked the Intel website and see that I am about 6 Bios updates behind the curve, and they seem to have had an issue recognizing and accessing hard disks as they include a fix – so next weekend I shall back up and try updating that lot and look for the latest drivers for all the other stuff. (So if you never hear from me again you will know what’s happened!)

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Wowzer:

I know more than my fair share about spreadsheets, feel free to drop me a line describing how you are setting up the sheets (or send me a copy with dummy info if it is context sensitive) and I'll give you my comments.

You mention you are continuously looking for the last cell in a range. Is the left hand side of these ranges dates? If so, you can use vlookups in conjunction with If statements and customized formatting to get what you want. You can get fancy with macros as well (I know VBA as well).

<<burp>>

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Lads,

please don't give me any flack but I have to inject a little variety in here...

I have a 500 Mac Powerbook and it's running 9.1, I've just got OS X and will install this weekend.

No crashes, plenty fast, viva la Mac

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