Java won't help.

Wifi drivers won't help.

The 'upload from computer' button in imgur appears to be a flash object. Try updating your flash.

Which sites is this failing on?

 

No wifi. LAN now.

I'll try the Flash updates. Thanks guys.

 

Flash was already up to date.

And guess what? The **** works now, lol. Oh well.

 

So checking the flash version fixed it? You're welcome

 

I guess. I went to update it and wouldn't let me because "already have latest version. Chrome will do this automatically".

 

Just realized my desktop was a bargain basement refurb purchase almost 5 years ago.

I guess it's time to replace it?

 

Been looking at replacement desktops, haven't pulled the trigger.

This morning our current desktop won't boot past the BIOS splash screen.

Was looking at a $328 i5 system on the Lenovo Outlet yesterday...today it's gone, cheapest i5 system is $374.

 

Still a pretty good deal.

It wasn't that long ago when a mid-level PC would set you back $2k.

 

Worth getting i5 over i3? They have an i3 system for $275.

 

The i5, being a quad-core processor, will inherently have a huge performance advantage in multicore-friendly multi-thread environments.

If you are running Win7 or Win8, and tend to have many applications open simultaneously (including many tabs open in Chrome), then the i5 PC will tend to run more smoothly than the i3 PC.

For single-thread applications (most games), the performance difference will be negligible, presupposing that not much else is running in the background.

 

Yay, they added some new models. Snagged a Thinkcentre M92 Tower with an i5-3470 proc, 4 GB of 4 GB PC3-12800 SDRAM, and a 500 GB 7200 RPM HD....for $281.

The HD is the only thing I'm not ecstatic about -- would prefer 1 TB, but for that price I can't complain. I'm hoping the memory is a single stick so I can just get another 4 GB stick to bump it up to 8 GB total. Not sure if the power supply can handle the 8800GTS that's in the current desktop...might swap in the power supply from the dying desktop (unless it turns out that the power supply is what's dying).

Windows 8, though. I guess I'll be investigating the various options to make it more like Win7.

 

I have a 500GB drive in my main machine, plus a 120 GB SSD. I am nowhere near filling either of them.

The only think you really need 1TB+ of storage for these days is media, specifically if you download a lot of HD video. The 2TB drive in my media PC is just about full, and I need to do some housekeeping on that machine.


According to Lenovo's published specs and documentation for the M92, it is a single 4GB stick. It also has four memory slots, so you could go to 8 GB now, and then double it to 16 later.

Specs: ThinkCentre M92p | Lenovo | (US)
Documentation: http://www.lenovo.com/shop/americas/...ower_ug_en.pdf


According to the documentation, the M92 tower may ship with either a 280 watt supply or a 450 watt supply, and it doesn't say specifically which builds of the machine get which supply.

 

Yup, it shouldn't really be an issue -- the HTPC that sits under the TV has a 1 TB drive, and even with a few weeks of shows it's got plenty of room.

Any noticeable performance difference going to 16GB? I do like having a lot of browser windows open...

Yeah, and here's the bad news -- apparently the M92 uses a proprietary power supply/mobo connection. Lenovo sells replacements (of either wattage) but not at prices competitive with typical power supplies.

Not really a big deal -- I don't really do any 3D gaming any more. I just like the idea of taking those display duties off the CPU. If nothing else, I can just get a $25 HD5450 or something that won't stress the power supply.

Regardless, this should be a big performance jump from my current Pentium E2180, 4GB DDR2 WinXP system.

 

There will be a *huge* difference, IF you are driving your system into a situation in which it is making heavy use of the page file (aka swap or virtual memory). You can see a real-time indication of this in the task manager.

All else being equal, RAM gives you the biggest possible bang-for-buck performance enhancement in systems which are operated in paging-heavy conditions. RAM is *MUCH* faster than even the fastest SSD, much less the big spinny-platters things.


That surprises me. But I did some checking, and sure as hell, you're right.

The 450 watt supply will probably run your existing video card, based on the reviews I've read.

if you wind up with the 280, and yet still want to do some gaming, some of the newest-gen video cards from AMD/ATi offer extremely good performance at very low power. The Radeon HD7770 might actually work with the 280 watt supply, and it outperforms my old GTX280 (which required a nuclear reactor to power it) by a huge margin in terms of FPS.

 

Quad-Core Desktop PC with 1TB HD LIMITED TIME OFFER!

Bought a similar one for the wife a while back. Paid $50 more for that one.

 

For what it's worth, be aware that in the common benchmark tests, the AMD A6-3650 in that machine underperforms the Intel i5-3470 in the Lenovo that mgeoffriau posted by a *HUGE* margin. The i5 is literally twice as fast in terms of real-world throughput, despite having the same number of cores and an only marginally higher clock rate as compared to the A6.

On the whole, I tend to avoid AMD CPUs these days. They make some great GPUs, but while I used to be a huge AMD fanboy, their general purpose CPUs have been sub-par ever since they split away from the x86 design in favor of the K architecture back in the mid 90s. In the grand scheme of things, the price difference between an Intel-based and AMD-based machine is trivial as compared to the performance difference.

 

So I, uh, kinda downloaded Hawken to get my mech fix and I kinda sorta wanna get a graphics card to run the settings above medium...and maybe a new cpu cooler..and some more fans and maybe a SSD start up drive.

 

Viper,

I was in a similar boat after my last build. It was a sold performer but not anything crazy. For my most recent build I said scew it I'm going to kick things up a notch. 2 Nvidia 560's, an ssd with the OS on it, liquid cooled.... I can run Crysis 3 just under max settings. It is well worth the investment. For me it was seeing the original Bioshock that was the turning point. On the lowest settings it looked just like my 360, on max though.... Game changer.

 

These things happen.

I've been extremely happy with the Radeon 7770 which I bought towards the beginning of this year. It was inexpensive, runs cool, and easily maintains 60 FPS in TF2 at 1920x1200 with all settings maxed without even going up to full clockrate.

 

Hmm, seems like I have some new terms to learn.

I could use some reading recommendations, if you guys don't mind.