Should I Buy This Computer?

[c0pper]

I have gimp, it can't keep up with adobe.

They aren't creating a brand new program each time...they just add new stuff to the previous distro.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

On the Memory thing.

It's a bit confusing.. see... it's a case of software following the hardware. 32bit x86 cpus can only address 4Gb of ram. Older cpus were far less. Except the Intel Pentium II... It could address 64Gb of ram. Thats all they were designed to talk to. So, software was designed within the specs. There is a rub though... say you hafve a Video card with 256mb of ram... thats 256Mb of memory address space the cpu locks as unusalble to the software. Follow? Now, add a few add-on components... such as a network card, a sound card, an I/O contoller.. Hey.. all of them need a memory address range too....

Notice if you will.. most motherbaords support 4GB of ram max. You can put 4GB on that board. The software can't address all of it. On average a x86 based pc with 4gb of physical ram will have 2.5 to 3.5 GB of ram availible to the OS.

64Bit cpus can address a great deal more ram.. cant remember how much off the top of my head... but now the limit is built into the mainboards. Some boards, with the right generation 64bit cpus(with in the last two years), can remap video card memory and PCI memory addresses above the 4gb limit... Which result in you being able to use more of that 4gb of ram.. but not all of it.

[c0pper]

On the Memory thing.

It's a bit confusing.. see... it's a case of software following the hardware. 32bit x86 cpus can only address 4Gb of ram. Older cpus were far less. Except the Intel Pentium II... It could address 64Gb of ram. Thats all they were designed to talk to. So, software was designed within the specs. There is a rub though... say you hafve a Video card with 256mb of ram... thats 256Mb of memory address space the cpu locks as unusalble to the software. Follow? Now, add a few add-on components... such as a network card, a sound card, an I/O contoller.. Hey.. all of them need a memory address range too....

Notice if you will.. most motherbaords support 4GB of ram max. You can put 4GB on that board. The software can't address all of it. On average a x86 based pc with 4gb of physical ram will have 2.5 to 3.5 GB of ram availible to the OS.

64Bit cpus can address a great deal more ram.. cant remember how much off the top of my head... but now the limit is built into the mainboards. Some boards, with the right generation 64bit cpus(with in the last two years), can remap video card memory and PCI memory addresses above the 4gb limit... Which result in you being able to use more of that 4gb of ram.. but not all of it.

I looked into service pack 2, and none of the websites could give me a warm fuzzy on the amount of ram actually available using that os, so I went ahead a got 2 1Gb sticks. I figure that I'm using about 500mb of ram right now, so upgrading to a core2duo and 2gb of ram should keep me happy for some time. If, in the future I feel safe with vista, I can always plug in two more sticks and pull some procedures off the net and get the used mem up as high as I can.

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

Oh yeah.. thats going to be fast has hell. but really, get a differnt soundcard. The soundcard on the 680i boards is getting shitty reviews. Sound quality sucks on the Realtek built in.

When you can drop the cash.. get a Sound Blaster X-Fi Extreme Music if you can find one.. should be about $100-120. They have a new model... X-Fi Pro something or other out now... about $180-200. Get the Extreme Music model.. Same DSP with the same sound quality but no extras like Ram noone has written a program to use that also steals memory address space..

sorry.. rambling... really high....

[c0pper]

Oh yeah.. thats going to be fast has hell. but really, get a differnt soundcard. The soundcard on the 680i boards is getting shitty reviews. Sound quality sucks on the Realtek built in.

When you can drop the cash.. get a Sound Blaster X-Fi Extreme Music if you can find one.. should be about $100-120. They have a new model... X-Fi Pro something or other out now... about $180-200. Get the Extreme Music model.. Same DSP with the same sound quality but no extras like Ram noone has written a program to use that also steals memory address space..

sorry.. rambling... really high....

Hehe, I'm not a gamer...I throw all my music on my MP3 player...

Sound isn't a big deal...system beeps are all I need

[glc]

And why do you keep referring to me as a male? 'Dude' 'Man'? I have an inny, not an outy

I know you have an inny silly, I just call people dude and man and such, if you'd prefer I could call you hun, babe, or dear? which ever you'd prefer!

[c0pper]

I know you have an inny silly, I just call people dude and man and such, if you'd prefer I could call you hun, babe, or dear? which ever you'd prefer!

Hrmmm...Dame, me like 'dame' or 'broad'

[glc]

Dame it is, I don't think I could call anyone a broad

[Msterbeau]

Dame it is, I don't think I could call anyone a broad

I could. Especially my mom.

[glc]

ok, maybe some people, but definitely not my mum

[c0pper]

Auzzies talk cool

[glc]

how's that?

[c0pper]

Mum, mozzies, etc.

[glc]

Ah yes, sometimes I forget to use my aussie to yank converter, I should be more careful so in the future, people will understand me

[c0pper]

Oh, don't stop...

I understand you, sorry if I offended.

[glc]

Dude, are you serious? It takes a hell of a lot to offend me, besides, sarcasm and a dark sence of humor are difficult to express in writing, and often missunderstood as umbrage. But believe me, no umbrage was taken!

[c0pper]

Dude, are you serious? It takes a hell of a lot to offend me, besides, sarcasm and a dark sence of humor are difficult to express in writing, and often missunderstood as umbrage. But believe me, no umbrage was taken!

Hrmmm...ok, but now I may be inclined to indeed get a reaction out of you somehow

[glc]

Please, be my guest

But meanwhile, what are you going to do about your new computer?

[c0pper]

Please, be my guest

But meanwhile, what are you going to do about your new computer?

Oh, it's on it's way... here it is...

CAS: Raidmax Sagitta Mid-Tower 420W Gaming Case w/ Side Panel Window (SILVER COLOR)

CASUPGRADE: NONE

CPU: (Sckt775)Intel® Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU @ 2.4GHz 1066FSB 2x2MB L2 Cache EM64T [+130]

CD: COMBO DRIVE (16X DVD-ROM & 52x32x52 CD-RW) [-9] (BLACK COLOR)

CD2: NONE

CABLE: None

FLASHMEDIA: INTERNAL 12in1 Flash Media Reader/Writer [+10] (BLACK COLOR)

FREEBIE_CU1: FREE! CyberPower Multi-Purpose Carrying Briefcase ($19.99 Value)

FREEBIE_CU2: FREE! Cyberpower Unleash The Power T-Shirt ($19 Value)

FAN: INTEL LGA775 CERTIFIED CPU FAN & HEATSINK

FLOPPY: 1.44 MB FLOPPY DRIVE (BLACK COLOR)

HDD: Single Hard Drive (160GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 8MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)

HDD2: NONE

IEEE_CARD: NONE

KEYBOARD: NONE [-7]

MOUSE: NONE [-5]

MONITOR: ViewSonic VG2230WM 22" Color TFT Active Matrix SXGA+ LCD Display Monitor [+368]

MONITOR2: NONE

MOTHERBOARD: (Quad-Core Supports) MSI P6N SLI-FI nForce 650i SLI Chipset LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2 Mainboard

MEMORY: (Req.DDR2 MainBoard)2GB (2x1GB) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory [+180] (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)

MODEM: NONE

NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD

OS: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition w/ Service Pack 2 [+89]

PPU: NONE

PRO_WIRING: Professional Wiring for All WIRINGs Inside The System Chasis with High Performance Thermal Compound on CPU [+19]

PRINTER: None

PRINTER_CABLE: None

POWERSUPPLY: STANDARD CASE POWER SUPPLY

RUSH: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS

SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS 24/7 LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT

SOUND: 3D WAVE ON-BOARD 5.1 SOUND CARD

SPEAKERS: NONE [-5]

TEMP: NONE (AS SHOWN)

TVRC: None

USB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports

UPS: None

USBHD: NONE

VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TurboCache supporting 256MB PCI-E [-10] (Major Brand Powered by NVIDIA)

VIDEO2: NONE

[glc]

Enjoy!

[Scary Guy]

Get something with multi cores or processors as photoshop is programmed with capabilities to take advantage of that. Might as well go 64 bit too while you're at it. Get a nice video card as well with a nice GPU. I prefer Nvidia but ATI has its merits (and they just got bought out by AMD too).