My new (monster) PC!
Wednesday, June 24, 2009 by Snowman | Discussion: WindowBlinds
Finally! After some 2 months without a proper working PC I finally got my new machine, and what a machine it is... wow...
Intel Quad Core Q9300.
8 GB DDR2.
Radeon HD4850 X2 w/2 GB DDR.
1 TB + 400 GB HDDs. (ain't running out space any time soon...)
Remote control for Windows Media Center.
Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit.
Windows Experience Index Score: 5.2
It's running oh so ever moothly, but sure wasn't a smooth start, no sirey!
It came with 'only' a Radeon HD4850, but I already had a HD4850 X2 at hand, so I wanted to swap the two.
But that turned out to be a 'complicated suggery'...
First of all... as with my other machine, the HD4850 X2 didn't fit onto the motherboard - the SATA connectors blocked it from being seated properly in the PCI-E slot.
The blue connectors on the left picture are the SATA connectors, the green slot is the PCIE, and the 4580 X2 covers somewhat well down over the (white) PCI slot....
On the right picture you can see how the 4580 X2 would be seated. That just doesn't cut it 
Here are the two GFXcards:
The 4580 X2 is about 25% longer that the 4580 that came with the machine. That in it self caused some problems. I had to remove a couple of brackets mounted beside the motherboard. Luckily they served no necessary purpose, so no harm in removeing'em.
The black cover had to go too... This proved to be in the way of the SATA connectors, so off with it!
Now it fitted properly! 
And off I went to install Vista. Sadly it's "only" Home Premium. I've been used to Ultimate so far, but the DVD had become too scratched to even be read. At least I got the option of choosing English as language! 
But.... after having battled with the setup and installing/uninstalling tons of software/drivers (it's incredible how much "garbadge" is being installed on these prebuild machines...) I dove into the Disk manager to partitionate the HDD.
Dunno what went wrong or what I did wrong, but the next time I rebooted......
"bootmgr.exe is missing
Press ctrl+alt+del to reboot"
Aw crap....
Luckily I had, for once, made the backup/recovery DVD's just before I started fiddleing with the partitions. I normally never make those.... 
Anyway... I had to reinstall Windows already after having had the machine less that 24 hours. New record!
But now it's been running happily for nearly 12 hours without a hitch!
The only nag I have come about is that no USB connection (memorycard/stick, external HDD) can be 'active' when booting. That prevents Vista, for whatever reasons from booting. Must be a 64 bit thing. Or what?
Here are some pics of the beast:
Outside:
Inside (with original GFXcard):
Outside, turned on:
Snowman is a happy PC-camper again!
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Reply #4 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 8:33 PM
Ah, very nice indeed, know that feeling well of a new pc, feels great, but tends to keep you up late at night for the first few nights, going to bed at ungodly hours only to struggle to work, but what a great feeling huh, anyway , check your bios, on the usb thing, that shouldnt be a problem with booting, i think you might want to disable usb boot, and then you wont have a problem, just a guess, but i think a pretty good one
Reply #5 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 8:36 PM
Also you might want to get some right angle sata cables, that might free up a little space and install problem as well, you said your used to ultimate, well in the future you can use the "anytime upgrade" to get the ultimate, if you get a few xtra bucks, for a comparison i purchased vista ultimate 64 OEM here in boston for 189 bucks a couple of weeks ago
Reply #6 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 8:37 PM
Nice system. I just ordered a Intel Quad Core Q9550 CPU myself.
I read this as your Ultimate DVD was scratched so you install from a Home Premium DVD.
With anytime upgrade, I thought all Windows Vista DVDs contained all of the versions and you chose the one that you have a license for. I know my DVDs are that way. In that case you could use your Ultimate key after all.
With specs like yours, I would think it would score a 5.9...what's scoring 5.2?
Edit..I missed the picture of the scores...you might be able to tweak the ram timings in CMOS to match the ram better
As for the usb problem, check in CMOS to see if "boot external USB device" is on and try turning it off.
Reply #7 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 8:52 PM
"I have no idea what you're talking about", he said at 02.45 AM....
Luckily I'm in the first of a three week summer vacation
With anytime upgrade, I thought all Windows Vista DVDs contained all of the versions and you chose the one that you have a license for. I know my DVDs are that way.
I may just have a look into that, IF it becomes necessary.
With specs like yours, I would think it would score a 5.9...what's scoring 5.2?
Click the image to see the result
As for the usb problem, check in CMOS to see if "boot external USB device" is on and try turning it off.
Alllllllrighty then! Sweet! I do remember seeing that option, now. Thanks for reminding me, both of you!
Reply #10 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 9:51 PM
Hey Snowy...did you try this? LINK
Or this maybe? Might be worth trying before throwing the OS Disk away...
btw...that's a great machine. Better lock your door. I'm tempted!
Reply #11 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 10:28 PM
hey cool set up can't wait for my turn congrats
Reply #12 Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:00 AM
Congrats on the new machine, Snow...
My scores...[on a 32bit Win7] came out at...
Processor..7.4
Memory...7.7
Graohics....6.8
Gaming Graphics...6.8
Primary HD...5.9
Base score....5.9 [maybe I need to RAID] ....
....Reply #15 Thursday, June 25, 2009 5:29 AM
Wow...HG, you need to start with a monitor upgrade before your peepers give out. 
Jafo...you need one of them newfangled SSD drives.
Reply #16 Thursday, June 25, 2009 5:29 AM
Could have been an much better setup with much better components. This setup was surely made by an not so experienced guy. However, it will still perform nice. Grats.
Reply #17 Thursday, June 25, 2009 5:49 AM
grabs magnifying glass...WHAT?? oh wait need hearing aid too...
Reply #18 Thursday, June 25, 2009 6:05 AM
Of course it could have, but he probably got what he could afford. Why do people always have to say shat like that? Jealousy? All around assedness?
Nice "Rig" snowman. Put the metal to the pedal and the thing to the floor.
Reply #19 Thursday, June 25, 2009 6:52 AM
ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!! YOU GOT SPEED BRAKES ON THAT MONSTER?!?!
Place fire extinguisher three feet from said monster. Turn on monster then..........................RUN LIKE HELL!!!
Snowman. Hope you have lots of fun.
(i are so jealous...i are beside me now)
Reply #20 Thursday, June 25, 2009 7:22 AM
Could have been an much better setup with much better components.
Of course it could have, but he probably got what he could afford. Why do people always have to say shat like that? Jealousy? All around assedness?
Nice "Rig" snowman. Put the metal to the pedal and the thing to the floor.
I have to agree with the monkeh man, that's one nice setup.
I imagine Snowman would have liked one of the i7 machines but since he has a newborn in the house I bet he was watching his expenses. Heck with a new baby, the formula and diapers alone could put you in the poor house.
Good thing he picked it up...it will give him something to do during all those sleepless nights.
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Reply #1 Wednesday, June 24, 2009 8:14 PM
Congrats! Isn't it just like Christmas or something???