SSD's on new PC's

NiftyDigits

Anyone in?

happyhero

NiftyDigits wrote: »

No need.

Though we will likely look for a suitable firmware update. I think there is one for that board. Check when you get home.

I've tried pressing TAB at various stages on start up but cannot seem to get the BIOS identification string to come up, it just asks how I would like to start the PC ie Windows Vista, is it available within the BIOS as I know how to get in there?

Fightsback

happyhero wrote: »

I've tried pressing TAB at various stages on start up but cannot seem to get the BIOS identification string to come up, it just asks how I would like to start the PC ie Windows Vista, is it available within the BIOS as I know how to get in there?

Press Del or F2 or F11 to get into the BIOS on boot.

NiftyDigits

Write down all of the numbers written on the plate at the back. Art. No. MSN. No. SN. No.

You can send them via PM

esuhl

grumbler wrote: »

As based on my experience, extra RAM can make a big difference for several browsers with many tabs open, but AFAIK you'll need to upgrade to 64bit for this.

It's a common (but understandable) misconception that 32-bit processors only support 32-bits (i.e. 4GB) of addressable memory. But most (all?) 32-bit processors in the last 20 years have PAE (Physical Address Extensions), which can support 36-bit (64GB) memory addressing with paging.

So, a 32-bit Windows machine can support up to 64GB addressable memory, although only 32-bits (4GB) can be addressed by a single application.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

grumbler

esuhl wrote: »

It's a common (but understandable) misconception that 32-bit processors only support 32-bits (i.e. 4GB) of addressable memory. But most (all?) 32-bit processors in the last 20 years have PAE (Physical Address Extensions), which can support 36-bit (64GB) memory addressing with paging.

So, a 32-bit Windows machine can support up to 64GB addressable memory, although only 32-bits (4GB) can be addressed by a single application.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension

I meant upgrading the OS, not the processor/motherboard.
It might be so common that even technical support don't understand this:

The machine will take a max of 4GB however, you will need to use a 64Bit operating system aswell.

This was a reply from notorious Medion to my request in 2009. TBH, I thought I asked them about upgrading the memory from 4Gb, but it seems to be from 2Gb to 4Gb actually. The original OS was 32-bit.

esuhl

grumbler wrote: »

It might be so common that even technical support don't understand this...

Ha! Tiscali technical support couldn't understand the difference between "downloading" and "uploading". And Sky technical support didn't know what an SMTP server was, or that they even had one, let alone how they authenticated users accessing it. I found the solution myself and reported it to them -- they had been telling users that their was an unexplained fault for months as they didn't know how their own systems worked. A month later there were still loads of new forum posts saying that Sky were still saying there was a fault. Obviously they hadn't bothered to make a note of the solution, and were happy to leave thousands of customers without email access for months on end for no reason other than sheer incompetence.

Most "technical support" departments for mainstream brands employ unskilled and untrained call-centre staff. It's not surprising they don't know their ASCII from their I/O.

Retrogamer

I've found fitting an SSD to most machines is the biggest upgrade you can do most of the time in regards to overall responsiveness and speed.

I've installed my OS on mines and most programmes i use regularly as well as a couple of games where loading times are crucial.

On some motherboards you can set up an SSD for caching as well so it takes files that are accessed often and stores them on it so even if the programmes and / or games are on a regular HDD they load up and respond much quicker.