I've got a new 'Puter!

[sheeny (Al)]

I decided a while ago that it was about time I retired my desktop PC. It is a Pentium 4 2.8MHz running XP with 1G memory and 2 IDE HDDs... so I asked my son (recent Computer Science graduate) to build me a machine.

I took delivery on Boxing day (not really a Xmas present - that's just how it worked out), and have been transferring data on and off since.

It's called "Colossus"...... its an I7 (triple thread ...is that the right term?), with 6GB memory, 60GB solidstate C: drive ("for fast starts and extra street cred" apparently), two 1 TB drives (data and backup), USB3, eSATA slots, 24" LED full 1080P screen, running windows 7 64 bit.

I must say... I like it a lot! ...and it cost me the same price as my last 3 computers each cost in their own time... about 2 grand!

It's nice to have a machine that starts windows quicker than it can do the BIOS checks!

Al.

[acropolite (Phil)]

Congratulations Al, you'll be doubly impressed when you get 64 bit CS running.

[h0ughy (David)]

the more the merrier Al - two or three in the observatory - one to guide, one to image and one as a spare....

[AG Hybrid (Adrian)]

Originally Posted by sheeny

It's called "Colossus"...... its an I7 (triple thread ...is that the right term?), with 6GB memory, 60GB solidstate C: drive ("for fast starts and extra street cred" apparently), two 1 TB drives (data and backup), USB3, eSATA slots, 24" LED full 1080P screen, running windows 7 64 bit.
Al.

Grats on new the machine. Your son knows how to make a modern setup up. I hope he also got you a decent graphics card to run starry nights as you have not mentioned anything about it.

I use a SSD for booting my Windows 7 64 bit as well. From the moment the first windows load screen comes up, its 12 seconds flat till the OS is fully loaded.

In regards to the triple thread. I think you mean triple channel. Sort of a signature dish of the i7 CPU's. It referes to the number of channels of RAM that can send commands to the CPU simultaniously. I'll use a real world example to expand.
Say your in a work place and you have to ask a question to your boss. His office has only 1 door (Your boss is the CPU and the door is the channel - you are the RAM). So only one person at a time can ask a question. But then we have dual channel RAM - thinking here i3-i5 AMD2+ AMD3 CPU's. Your bosses office now has two doors, and he can now recieve and attempt to answer two questions at once. Core i7's have triple channel memory. So now your boss has 3 doors, and now 3 questions can be asked simultaniously. Sounds like your boss is finally starting to earn that enourmous salary he pays himself with. But the i7 processors are real pieces of work. The amount of bandwidth they can process on the Nehalem architecture is astonishing.

Ashame you didnt hold out for the soon to be released Sandybridge chip. Then you would really have some bragging rights

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

Sounds like a beast you should be very happy together I would do almost anything for one like it.

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

Now you have to learn how to work faster to keep up with your computer.

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by acropolite

Congratulations Al, you'll be doubly impressed when you get 64 bit CS running.

Yes, looking forward to that.

Originally Posted by h0ughy

the more the merrier Al - two or three in the observatory - one to guide, one to image and one as a spare....

That's always been high on my list... I gave Lyn the option of my old 'puter if she wants it, but if she doesn't (she can use my new one) then its very likely the old one will have some data pruned off it and will move to the obs.

Originally Posted by AG Hybrid

Grats on new the machine. Your son knows how to make a modern setup up. I hope he also got you a decent graphics card to run starry nights as you have not mentioned anything about it.

I use a SSD for booting my Windows 7 64 bit as well. From the moment the first windows load screen comes up, its 12 seconds flat till the OS is fully loaded.

In regards to the triple thread. I think you mean triple channel. Sort of a signature dish of the i7 CPU's. It referes to the number of channels of RAM that can send commands to the CPU simultaniously. I'll use a real world example to expand.
Say your in a work place and you have to ask a question to your boss. His office has only 1 door (Your boss is the CPU and the door is the channel - you are the RAM). So only one person at a time can ask a question. But then we have dual channel RAM - thinking here i3-i5 AMD2+ AMD3 CPU's. Your bosses office now has two doors, and he can now recieve and attempt to answer two questions at once. Core i7's have triple channel memory. So now your boss has 3 doors, and now 3 questions can be asked simultaniously. Sounds like your boss is finally starting to earn that enourmous salary he pays himself with. But the i7 processors are real pieces of work. The amount of bandwidth they can process on the Nehalem architecture is astonishing.

Ashame you didnt hold out for the soon to be released Sandybridge chip. Then you would really have some bragging rights

Thanks for the explanation, Adrian. There was a time I was right into computer technology as a hobby... that was a long time ago!

Unfortunately, you have to jump in somewhere... there's always something new coming.

Al.