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Author Topic: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff  (Read 2832 times)

Brad Johnson

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Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« on: October 15, 2009, 05:56:53 PM »
Talk about a crash course in new technology...!

Curiousity got the best of me and I pulled the cover off the new machine.  Wow, have things changed!  Stuff like SATA, HDMI, and PCIe 1, 2, 4, and 8x.  And the heat sink on the processor is HUGE. 

The box has a 350w Liteon-branded power supply.  I expected it to be a big 'ol thing but it's tee-tiny compared to the hulking 200w unit in my old box.

It also has Samsung branded memory, two 1GB sticks of PC2-6400.  I expected some kind of no-name or Dell-branded stuff.

It also has a multi-media card reader installed that wasn't in the original description, plus built-in 1394 and HDMI ports.

Not bad. Not bad at all. =D

Office is here and the RAM should arrive tomorrow.  Hopefully Dell will get the Win7 upgrades out on, or very near, the 10/22 official release date. (I also found out that the Win7 media from Dell will be a complete-wipe-and-reinstall).  I'm ready to get this hoss up and running.

Brad

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It's all about the pancakes, people.
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RocketMan

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #1 on: October 15, 2009, 09:49:16 PM »
I just noticed something:
1) Brad and fistful never post at the same time.
2) Both of them are all geeky busy learning new stuff about computers.
3) They both...uh, well, I don't want to mention that one.

Could Brad and fistful be the same person...?
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If there really was intelligent life on other planets, we'd be sending them foreign aid.

Conservatives see George Orwell's "1984" as a cautionary tale.  Progressives view it as a "how to" manual.

My wife often says to me, "You are evil and must be destroyed." She may be right.

Liberals believe one should never let reason, logic and facts get in the way of a good emotional argument.

Brad Johnson

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #2 on: October 15, 2009, 09:51:19 PM »
You really know how to insult a fella... =D

Brad
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It's all about the pancakes, people.
"And he thought cops wouldn't chase... a STOLEN DONUT TRUCK???? That would be like Willie Nelson ignoring a pickup full of weed."
-HankB

vaskidmark

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #3 on: October 15, 2009, 11:12:18 PM »
Quote from: RocketMan on October 15, 2009, 09:49:16 PM
I just noticed something:
1) Brad and fistful never post at the same time.
2) Both of them are all geeky busy learning new stuff about computers.
3) They both...uh, well, I don't want to mention that one.

Could Brad and fistful be the same person...?



stay safe.

skidmark
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Perd Hapley

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #4 on: October 15, 2009, 11:18:42 PM »
Hey Brad, the new computers also have something called a "hard drive" now.  You should check it out.  And did you know the floppy drives are 3.5" now?   :O
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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #5 on: October 15, 2009, 11:46:38 PM »
Quote from: fistful on October 15, 2009, 11:18:42 PM
Hey Brad, the new computers also have something called a "hard drive" now.  You should check it out.  And did you know the floppy drives are 3.5" now?   :O

Can you still get a floppy drive?  Have not seen one in years - ever since those CD thingummies apparently caught on.

stay safe.

skidmark
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If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege.

Hey you kids!! Get off my lawn!!!

They keep making this eternal vigilance thing harder and harder.  Protecting the 2nd amendment is like playing PACMAN - there's no pause button so you can go to the bathroom.

Perd Hapley

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #6 on: October 15, 2009, 11:51:15 PM »
I'm trying to ease him in gently, to this brave new world of flash drives and such.  The poor guy probably thinks "Iphone" is a sentence.   :lol:
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RocketMan

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #7 on: October 15, 2009, 11:53:53 PM »
Just hold off on telling him about the difference between SATA and PATA.  Too much at a young age, and all that.
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If there really was intelligent life on other planets, we'd be sending them foreign aid.

Conservatives see George Orwell's "1984" as a cautionary tale.  Progressives view it as a "how to" manual.

My wife often says to me, "You are evil and must be destroyed." She may be right.

Liberals believe one should never let reason, logic and facts get in the way of a good emotional argument.

Jim147

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #8 on: October 16, 2009, 12:09:46 AM »
Just wait. We can get him running his Win ME in Virtualbox and then take him to doing a duel or even a quad boot system. And then running several VM's inside of that.

More power Scotty a new version of Ubuntu comes out in a few days. =)

jim
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Perd Hapley

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #9 on: October 16, 2009, 12:25:30 AM »
How are we going to explain to him that the internet is not a series of tubes?  Is he really ready to see a wireless LAN yet? 
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crt360

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #10 on: October 16, 2009, 01:34:18 AM »
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For entertainment purposes only.

Brad Johnson

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #11 on: October 16, 2009, 10:05:47 AM »
Quote from: fistful on October 15, 2009, 11:18:42 PM
Hey Brad, the new computers also have something called a "hard drive" now.  You should check it out.  And did you know the floppy drives are 3.5" now?   :O

You mean I have to replace all my 8" floppies?  What about my 5 MB cabinet hard drive?

Tubes? Virtual? CD? Iphone? Interwebz?  My head hurts now.  Dang new fangled business.  Why can't they leave a fella alone.  It's a communist plot, I tell ya!

Brad
« Last Edit: October 16, 2009, 10:09:00 AM by Brad Johnson »
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It's all about the pancakes, people.
"And he thought cops wouldn't chase... a STOLEN DONUT TRUCK???? That would be like Willie Nelson ignoring a pickup full of weed."
-HankB

lee n. field

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #12 on: October 16, 2009, 11:07:23 AM »
Quote
(I also found out that the Win7 media from Dell will be a complete-wipe-and-reinstall).

That's not Dell, that's everybody.  Such is my understanding.  Probably a good idea anyway.

Quote
Can you still get a floppy drive?

If you have to. 
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AZRedhawk44

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #13 on: October 16, 2009, 11:20:59 AM »
Quote
If you have to.

Can you use some other sort of media than floppy to add a driver for your root disk system on a Windows XP/Vista/7 installation?

Big problem for lots of servers when Server 2003 came out, but didn't have an extensive SCSI/RAID driver library in it.  And servers started stream-lining by eliminating such unnecessary hardware as floppy drives.

I had to go out and get a USB floppy drive for one of my servers at my last job.  I don't remember the server model, but Dude - it was a Dell.
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Marnoot

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #14 on: October 16, 2009, 12:08:42 PM »
Quote from: AZRedhawk44 on October 16, 2009, 11:20:59 AM
Can you use some other sort of media than floppy to add a driver for your root disk system on a Windows XP/Vista/7 installation?

Big problem for lots of servers when Server 2003 came out, but didn't have an extensive SCSI/RAID driver library in it.  And servers started stream-lining by eliminating such unnecessary hardware as floppy drives.

I had to go out and get a USB floppy drive for one of my servers at my last job.  I don't remember the server model, but Dude - it was a Dell.

You can in Vista & 7, but I've always had to use a USB floppy for such XP installations.
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Mabs2

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #15 on: October 16, 2009, 04:32:59 PM »
Quote from: Brad Johnson on October 15, 2009, 05:56:53 PM
Talk about a crash course in new technology...!

Curiousity got the best of me and I pulled the cover off the new machine.  Wow, have things changed!  Stuff like SATA, HDMI, and PCIe 1, 2, 4, and 8x.  And the heat sink on the processor is HUGE. 

The box has a 350w Liteon-branded power supply.  I expected it to be a big 'ol thing but it's tee-tiny compared to the hulking 200w unit in my old box.

It also has Samsung branded memory, two 1GB sticks of PC2-6400.  I expected some kind of no-name or Dell-branded stuff.

It also has a multi-media card reader installed that wasn't in the original description, plus built-in 1394 and HDMI ports.

Not bad. Not bad at all. =D

Office is here and the RAM should arrive tomorrow.  Hopefully Dell will get the Win7 upgrades out on, or very near, the 10/22 official release date. (I also found out that the Win7 media from Dell will be a complete-wipe-and-reinstall).  I'm ready to get this hoss up and running.

Brad


PCIe?  350w?  This is a NEW computer?  I hope you didn't pay more than a few dollars for it.
=p
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Tallpine

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #16 on: October 16, 2009, 06:37:37 PM »
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How are we going to explain to him that the internet is not a series of tubes?

But you can create "pipes" on your PC and even give them names  :laugh:
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Brad Johnson

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #17 on: October 16, 2009, 07:13:26 PM »
My head hurts now. I need a beer.  :laugh:

Brad
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It's all about the pancakes, people.
"And he thought cops wouldn't chase... a STOLEN DONUT TRUCK???? That would be like Willie Nelson ignoring a pickup full of weed."
-HankB

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #18 on: October 18, 2009, 12:32:53 AM »
Quote from: Brad Johnson on October 15, 2009, 05:56:53 PM
PCIe 1, 2, 4, and 8x.  And the heat sink on the processor is HUGE.

No 16x on a new computer?  :|

I hate my heatsink. If I need to take the CPU or ram out of my computer the mobo has to come out of the case.


Quote from: Jim147 on October 16, 2009, 12:09:46 AM
duel or even a quad boot system.

You can get your operating systems to duel??
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Brad Johnson

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #19 on: October 18, 2009, 01:12:17 AM »
Quote from: KPT on October 18, 2009, 12:32:53 AM
No 16x on a new computer?  :|


Has one.  That's where the vid card currently resides.

Brad
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It's all about the pancakes, people.
"And he thought cops wouldn't chase... a STOLEN DONUT TRUCK???? That would be like Willie Nelson ignoring a pickup full of weed."
-HankB

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #20 on: October 18, 2009, 07:39:42 AM »
A light weight power supply is not necessarily A Good Thang.
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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #21 on: October 18, 2009, 10:20:33 AM »
Quote from: crt360 on October 16, 2009, 01:34:18 AM
teh new Brad Johnson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTLqng2We0E

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Perd Hapley

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #22 on: October 18, 2009, 11:03:21 AM »
If you'd like to learn more computer stuff, why not buy a good, used server to play around with?  Though I'd have no idea where you could buy one.  No idea at all. 
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Gewehr98

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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #23 on: October 18, 2009, 12:43:05 PM »
Tease.  HP ProLiant Tease.  =|
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Re: Learning all kinds of new computer stuff
« Reply #24 on: October 19, 2009, 11:42:51 AM »
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If you'd like to learn more computer stuff, why not buy a good, used server to play around with?  Though I'd have no idea where you could buy one.  No idea at all.  

A good, [used] server. ...

That Lite-on pwr supply is garbage.  Compare a 350w lite-on to a 600-750w retail power supply.  Powering the same components totaling say 300w, the lite-on will draw more power, dissipate more heat, and won't last as long (on average).

That said, as far as I can tell, the typical power consumption of desktops is way below the capacity of 700-1000w power supplies.  I have two quad-core desktops running a total of 8 sata drives, two LCDs.  One has a Radeon 4870, the other has a craptastic radeon 2600.  My UPS says all of this (both computers + both LCDs) is drawing around 350-390W in normal use.  Cranking up a game on the 4870, I've never seen it go above 450W.

I'd love to know if someone has first-hand knowledge of an actual desktop that requires an 800+ watt power supply.  Except maybe some insane thing that has 4 graphics cards... I'm thinking two cards or less because even most gamers do not get more than two high-end graphics cards for one system.
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