I got a new PC today

rather than lose sleep and mind over my computer I decided this morning to get a new but inexspensive computer. I will get the old one fixed if I can. My intention was to get a cheap computer and use it for backup. I am rather limited in retailers unless I go a bit further afield than I wanted to so I trotted off to PC Richards.

Alas, I had called them and understood that had a good stock of computers but the carry only HP desktops. A lap top is expensive and since my cousin in New York does not have a computer or Internet access not much sense to get one. They did have a couple of nice ones.

Arriving at the store I was directed to a plump, middle aged man. Sadly we had a serious communication problem. He insisted that the features I wanted were not available and had never been available in computers. Numbskull. Why do I get along with younger men and have such problems with older men? However I won. After a few minutes of battling with me and trying to persuade the senile old lady that she didn't know what she was talking about he gave up and directed me to a very nice looking black mank man who knew something about computers. He was gracious, friendly, helpful and in no way condescending. We looked at lap tops, we looked at desktop and then he showed me the top of the line. A HP, yes, but it had a Radeon (sp?) video card. Not NVIDIa. I looked at the computer, it lookied at me and love blossomed. 8 megs of ram, plenty of hard disk, lots of ports, everything a gal could desire. I looked at the price and wept but I had received some money in my banking account that very morning. Wasn't sure if the bank knew it was there but he said no problem, make deposit and the computer would be held for me until the account cleared. I walked back to the computer, hugged it and laid my weary head on its top. True love. I need a new stove but since I can't do much in the way of real cooking who cares. Beans, Maccronie and rice are fine with me if I can have a decent computer.

The man, Sam, went over the specs with me, explained things I didn't understand graciously. Excellent salesman, he let me sell myself. He said the video card would give me far better graphics for my games. I haven't installed any games yet because I rushed over here to tell ya'll and see what was happening. He figured up the cost of the PC and a 3 yr service contract. Ouch that really hurt. PC Richards does the servicing no third party and that I really liked.

The charge cleared the bank and I and my new love were wed. Now setting up a new computer is not easy for me because of my eyesight but at least this time I was familiar with with W7. Even though in the search for telephone numbers I did something weird with my hand held magnifier I struggled through the initial process, got the windows magnifier working and scruied over here. No One Favorite.

My problem is that in order to load my games I need to disable something and blast if I can recall what it is called or how to do. HELP! Can someone help me?

Oh the graphics just based on this site are awesome. I knew jez was a good artist bbut not how good she really is. Magnificient. Cara, your forum banners are, what can I say but AWESOME. Skyrim here I come. I am ready for you. 11/11 can't come too soon for me.

I really do like maccroni.

Congratulations Nakia. I hope this new machine will serve you well!

Thank you for the compliment regarding the banners. Truth is, I'm not very computer savvy. I can get computers to do what I want more or less (often less than more) but that's pretty much it. I work in an empiric way which has served me well so far but I recognize my limits.

Are you talkin' about disabling the UAC? If so, not a good idea. The way I install games on Win7 is by right clickin' the setup.exe and runnin' it as Administrator.

Thanks,OldCoot. I will try that. Oblivion as I recall was the biggest problem. Actually this computer seems more friendly or maybe I have finally learned to live with W7.

Gadzooks, the graphics are great why does anyone use NVIDIa. Sam, the salesman, was right. Wonder what Morrowind would look like? Wouldn't fix the pathing though. I may install Oblivion and take a look. It mau be a blasted HP but so far it runs like a dream come true.

I'm runnin' an nVidia card right now, but my next step is this:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6799927&Sku=H231-6850

If the game gods smile on me never again will nVIDIa be my video card. This is awesome. The computer is upgradable so with the service contract I hopefully will get a few years out of it.

OH! i am so happy you got a new pc! i have no idea what i have i just get what my mother use to have. but that is cool because that means i still have good stuff XD

It is my understanding that cards vary quite a lot not only according to the brands. I've picked up an Nvidia and a series number that was fit for gaming (I always forget the numbers), some of them are just no good for game. It all depends what you want to do with your computer.

All I knowis after years of NVIDIA I am struck speechless. I am using the same monitor I used with NVIDIA and the same games. The graphics are stupendous, awesome, wonderful. There are probably even better video cards around but I am one happy person.

Bothe processor and the Video card are AMD

I got the best card I could when I bought my PC. I've chosen it in order to play Fallout 3 on ultra settings with all the eye candy turned on and I remember when I first launched the game. My old computer had an Nvidia card but not as good as the one I have now and it made such a difference. I remember how the world seemed to come alive and all the effects simply blossomed.

It seems to me that the salesman understood that you are into gaming and sold you a PC with a good card for gaming.

the slesman was very good. He wasn't condescending to me as some are who assume when I say games I mean scrabble or something similiar. He appeared o know The Elder Scrolls. He patiently showed a lot of machines and discussed things with me before casually showing me this expensive machine and rather off hand telling me about the video card. He knew a hard core gamer. He didn't even try to sell me a new monitor although he said there is a third hookup that would give even better display. He really seemed to know his computers and I think loved them. It was still fairly early and almost no customers in the store so he wasn't rushed. He made a good sales and I got a machine that should last me a long time. I like that PC Richards does the servicing themselves instead of putting it out to a third party. I don't have to deal with someone in India just my local store.

That's really nice to have someone reliable nearby. It cost a little more but at least you don't have to worry about shipping your computer when it breaks down...

Post up the specs Nakia, I'd be interested to see them

I would love to, Paul, but when I go into the Control Panel for the System Specs it won't let me copy them as I have done in the past when needed.

As I said the processor and Video card are AMD. 8Gigs of RAM. The video card has its own RAM not sure what it is I think 3.5 but I will have to check the device driver. Hard Dis is something like 1.7 TB. TB??? Sounds like our Naional DEBt to me. When did we start dealing in TBs? If it means what I think it means I'll be dead before I use it up.

Let me know what info you want and I'll try to get it.

Interesting thing is that computers are actually cheaper when you realize what you are getting for the same price you paid for an older computer.

I could have gotten a very nice laptop for around 5 or 6 hundred after rebate.

I'm not sure a laptop is the best option if you have trouble reading the screen. A laptop with a screen bigger than 17" (which is what I use mainly) is too unwieldy.

Also 1.7 TB may look like a lot but in my experience the more memory space you have the more memory space you end up using. I remember when I first got my old PC with 16 Mo of RAM and 2 Gigs of memory. I thought it was huge!

I was looking at the laptops more because I didn't like what the first salesman was showing me. The cheap desktop was inadequate for my needs even as a backup I didn't need a monitor only the tower. He even thought I would be impressed by the tower. I told him I didn't care what it looked like I was only interested in what was inside. We had a communication problem

You are correct, Cara, about the memory it did rather overwhelm me at first but if Skyrim is as good as I hope it to be I will use gigabytes like crazy. Two PCs ago I realized that 25% of my hard drive memory was devoted to Oblivion. I got Passport simply to have extra storage for my Ob files. I am a magpie when comes to keeping things.

What is ironic is that nowadays we depend on computer databases to keep our stuff and the problem is that even if we may burn DVDs nothing is as reliable as a real print. The truth is that if we were to be deprived of computers we would be back to the stone age in no time.

Nakia

TB = Terabyte

1 Terabyte is 1000 Gigabytes

So your 1.7TB hard drive is 1700 gig, in 'old money'. Sounds a lot but wait until we start getting texture packs for Skyrim

I got rid of Fallout 3 to save some space, I had more than 20 Gigabytes in there... Trouble is my Fallout New Vegas folder is getting bloated with all the stuff I store and the stuff I'm using.

So yes, a drive is never too big.

I guess memory is like money the more you have the more you use.

I was wong I don't have 1.7 TB of Hard drive. I only have 1.35 TB. What will I ever do without that extra memory?

Memory is all about lies!!! We never get the memory we think we have.

I do love my new computer. Not just because of the wonderful graphic card but I am always discovering new things. It runs like a dream except for one thing. When I have been on for a couple of hours it starts doing strange things. Internet Explorer starts freezing up and refusing access sites. If I click back it usually returns to the previous screen. I may have made a post and clicked submit but Internet Explorer says it can't access that screen. I back up and the post is posted.

Ocaccionally I exit game to do something else and Windows starts the game up again. It is almost as if Windows is either tired or bored and wants to play its own game. I know it is only artificial intelligence and that isn't true.

I also dislike intensely those programs that pop up and insist they need to be updated when I am playing a game or working on something. Then Windows does an update without telling me and insists that it has to close.

Always does that when I am in the middle of something and do not want to quit.

Weird. I no longer use Internet Explorer but I don't know if it's the program that is acting up on your PC or if there is a memory problem -since after a few hours you experience these problems and I guess that restarting Windows fixes the problem.

I thinkit is Internet Explorer. I have Mozilla Firefox but just haven't had the time or energy to set it up. Temember my vision problem sometimes makes a hard chore of what is simple for others.