General PC Help Thread - OP updated with useful links - READ

I'm trying to install a 250GB SSD so am attempting to shrink my partitions on my 1TB HDD to the appropriate size so I can create a system image that will fit on the new drive. Unfortunately, I seem unable to shrink C down to a small enough volume, which the blurb says might be due to 'unmovable files'. Is there anyway around this problem or am I just going to have to do fresh install?

You might be better off doing a fresh install anyway.

I'm looking to get a new Desktop PC after having my current one of 5+ years. I only really use it for browsing the net, some document management, emails and music. I've been looking around and found this one...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Desktop-Pr ... words=Acer

Whilst this is at the higher end of the £300ish I wanted to pay, I thought it looked OK for the price. Is there anything anyone can see that would suggest it's gooseberry fool?

I've got a nice HD Monitor and decent 2.1 Speakers so I don't fancy being persuaded to move towards a Laptop, either.

Tom1882 wrote:I'm looking to get a new Desktop PC after having my current one of 5+ years. I only really use it for browsing the net, some document management, emails and music. I've been looking around and found this one...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Desktop-Pr ... words=Acer

Whilst this is at the higher end of the £300ish I wanted to pay, I thought it looked OK for the price. Is there anything anyone can see that would suggest it's gooseberry fool?

I've got a nice HD Monitor and decent 2.1 Speakers so I don't fancy being persuaded to move towards a Laptop, either.

It has integrated graphic, that might cause some issues even if you don't game.

Tom1882 wrote:I'm looking to get a new Desktop PC after having my current one of 5+ years. I only really use it for browsing the net, some document management, emails and music. I've been looking around and found this one...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Desktop-Pr ... words=Acer

Whilst this is at the higher end of the £300ish I wanted to pay, I thought it looked OK for the price. Is there anything anyone can see that would suggest it's gooseberry fool?

I've got a nice HD Monitor and decent 2.1 Speakers so I don't fancy being persuaded to move towards a Laptop, either.

For that kind of price you should be able to get a bit more.

Look for an 4th gen i5, or perhaps an AMD based machine...

What are the rules for matching RAM again? Can you have two matched pairs, or is all 4 sticks the same better?

smurphy wrote:What are the rules for matching RAM again? Can you have two matched pairs, or is all 4 sticks the same better?

I seem to recall that they'll all be throttled down to the lowest speed, but I don't know if that's still the case with a modern build.

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smurphy wrote:What are the rules for matching RAM again? Can you have two matched pairs, or is all 4 sticks the same better?

I usually just go for same brand, same specs. Best option is all the same, just to prevent forest fires.

To match the stuff I have now will be expensive because its a bit older. Might be better off just buying all 8GB of fresh stuff.

same speed and voltage is fine

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PurplePenguin wrote:
Tragic Magic wrote:Just installed my new PSU and all seems good. The weird noises before were definitely from my old PSU so hopefully everything should be okay now. My cable management leaves something to be desired but I'm fairly confident that I've managed to keep them out of the way of any air flow. Hard drive still sounds a little bit dodge but hopefully it's alright.

I bought the same PSU a month or so ago and I've had no problems with it.

Does yours run hot? Just been playing Black Flag and last night was playing Dishonored and the PSU pretty much heats the whole room.

Does anyone else find that videos look awful in Windows Media Player?

I've just re-downloaded No Country For Old Men because I thought my original copy was gooseberry fool quality, but I suspect it's WMP. Why the hell is it so bad?

jamcc wrote:Does anyone else find that videos look awful in Windows Media Player?

I've just re-downloaded No Country For Old Men because I thought my original copy was gooseberry fool quality, but I suspect it's WMP. Why the hell is it so bad?

I'm not sure anyone else actually uses WMP.

Switch to VLC for a better experience.

HSH28 wrote:
jamcc wrote:Does anyone else find that videos look awful in Windows Media Player?

I've just re-downloaded No Country For Old Men because I thought my original copy was gooseberry fool quality, but I suspect it's WMP. Why the hell is it so bad?

I'm not sure anyone else actually uses WMP.

Switch to VLC for a better experience.

I'm aware of that. It just doesn't make any sense. Every film I tried playing looked terrible apart from HD ones. Jaggies all over the place.

Why would WMP seemingly limit the image quality?

Because it is bad.

WMP is gooseberry fool. Why are you using it?

VLC or MPC.

VLC is miles better once you get used to the slightly dodgy looking UI.

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MPC-HC with CCCP codecs and you're riding the train to san fiero.

There are loads of skins for VLC. Actually I'm pretty sure there's one included that looks almost the same as WMP.

I used to use MPC/CCCP but nowadays I just download VLC because it's easy and the same on OSX and PC, I use both equally.

Thinking of getting the Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p laptop to replace my aging desktop (and to free up some much needed living space), anyone had experience of this make before? Hadn't heard of them until I started doing some laptop research :slol:

General PC Help Thread - OP updated with useful links - READ

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