Computer, what are you using?

[jpbaily1]

What are you using for your computer?

Speed, Dual core, Dual quad, SCSI drive, Memory???

I may need to get a new computer or add memory at the very least.

Intel Celeron E1400 @ 2.00 GHz

2.01 GHz, 1.99 GB of RAM

[Guest wbottomley]

If you're on Win XP, it will only recognize a max of 3.25G of memory.

My new show pc which does a ton of other things is a Dell workstation 380, dual core 3.4G processor, with 2G memory, and 80G HD. It runs on XP pro SP3.

Things running on this pc include LOR, MS Expression 4, Zara Radio, Wget, and maybe LED curtain software.

It's refurbished bought off of ebay at $260.

So far it's running like a Singer Sewing machine!

[Dennis Cherry]

I just bought one of these on Saturday.

Checked it out with a friend of mine and he said this is a steal.

http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Dell-Optiplex-745-Penitum-D-3.4Ghz-2G-400GB-XP-Pro-PC-Refurbished/4568748/product.html


Shipping is only $2.95.

[DavidPeterson]

jpbaily1 wrote:

What are you using for your computer?

Speed, Dual core, Dual quad, SCSI drive, Memory???

I may need to get a new computer or add memory at the very least.

Intel Celeron E1400 @ 2.00 GHz

2.01 GHz, 1.99 GB of RAM

If you get a new system, you don't need SCSI. SATA would be fine. I use a 64 bit system, with Windows 7. I like the newer Intel processors.

And dual LCD monitors is killer for sequencing.

[Denny]

I use a seven year old dinosaur to run the show. I sequence either on my four year old laptop with minimal everything specs or a souped up, quad core desktop which is the media center for the house. In short, if it meets LORs minimal requirements, which I believe are Windows 98SE, then it should work with LOR.

[George Simmons]

In the last couple of weeks I "traded" my own 7-year old dinosaur for a fairly low-end HP dual core processor with 4G of system memory running Windows 7. It's a difference that's truly mind-boggling! Until now I'd always been dis-satisfied with the way LOR software ran. Not anymore! What a pleasure it is now to see how fast and responsive the software actually is! No more waiting for the sequence to run in the visualizer after pressing the"play" button - now it is instantaneous. No more waiting while sequences open or save. No more lag time of twenty seconds or more while sequences load the first time through a show... It's all good now...

And my apologies to all who have tried to help me troubleshoot problems over the past couple of years that weren't really problems at all - just symptoms of a computer that needed replacing worse than I thought it did. Even though the machine was well within the specs that LOR (and playing Solitaire) requires, there is indeed a BIG difference between what is required and what is preferred.

JP - adding memory to that Celeron processor isn't going to help very much. I was running a 2.8 GHz Celeron and it was so over-matched by the world around it that when I upgraded RAM (quadrupled) I hardly even noticed the difference. Save the money...

[Denny]

George,

I agree on the sequencing part, that's why I like to use the new desktop with the quad processor and max memory. It flies when sequencing. But the dinosaur works great for running the show, very little memory required. I even used it to run four networks with nary a hiccup. But as cheap as computers are anymore, it doesn't really make sense to use something with the minimum requirements. Actually, perhaps LOR should revisit their stated minimum requirements and establish "recommended requirements." Those minimums worked fine with LOR I, but with all the new goodies and capabilities in the sequencer, I think the minimums are highly taxed when sequencing now.

[ErnieHorning]

The "minimum requirements" is the minimum to run the program and not necessarily the minimum for you to enjoy using it.

Windows 7 will run on some old computers that originally came with Windows 98. It will also take abut 20 minutes to boot up to where you can use it. It will run faster than 98 too but would you want to put up with that?

I've seen some software that also specified the minimum system for the best experience. This is really the level that you're looking for and not just "will it run".

[jpbaily1]

Thanks, the dual monitor thing I had not thought of.

Makes perfect sence.

My next up-grade.

[Max-Paul]

All I can add to this is if you are buying a laptop. I would stay away from laptops that "Share" video memory with the system Ram. I think that is part of the Visualizer problems I am having. And the best refresh rate for the LCD screen that you can afford. I can run the same sequence several times and either two out of three times an element will light or wont light for the same point in the song.

[Donny M. Carter]

jpbaily1 wrote:

Thanks, the dual monitor thing I had not thought of.

Makes perfect sence.


I run an older HP, but just upgraded to use dual monitors. I freakin love having duals. I turned my new 24" monitor vertical and now I can see about 50 channels on the screen. Here is is pic of my former guest room, now named "Carter Christmas Lights Command Central".
 

Attached files

[Donny M. Carter]

Pic of my dual monitors. They work great!!

Attached files

[ainsworth]

Max-Paul;

I was running into the same issue with the visualizer. If I minimize the sequence window the visualizer will run with no "skips". On my machine at least, the visualizer skips were due to the sequence window scrolling and refreshing.

Also, this is the last week Microsoft will support XP-sp2 machines. If you are still using sp2 you really need to upgrade to sp3! How do you know if you have sp2 or sp3?

start - control panel - system

the window that opens will tell you what service pack you are using. The sp3 is free.

[JoelSturman]

I have a few favorite places to look for cheap computers:


www.revonate.com (Acer and Gateway Refurbs)


www.dell.com/outlet


www.pcconnection.com


www.tigerdirect.com


www.newegg.com



Like others, I run the show from a very old IBM NetVista. I do most of my sequencing at home, but occasionally I can stay at work and use my 3x 24" monitors (neener neener :-)

[Ralph D]

Morning everyone. Windows 7 is not the only fix here, what has to go along with it are three other things. All the skipping and stuttering problems I had, and I spent a ton of time trying to find a way to fix it. I did the windows clean, reg cleaner, taking programs off the machine. Wiping the system and re-installing windows with no blot wear. None of that ended up working. Here is what i did and why.

Video card, you really need to have a video card in your pc that has its own ram it’s called dedicated ram, either 512 or 1 gig. If you have a choice get the one gig, if your pc uses shared ram, that’s not good, that means it shares the ram “memory” that is used with the rest of the pc. So you really need a dedicated video card. This is why you skip and shudder when the screen refreshes.

Ram, you need to have extra ram, if you have under 4 gig of ram and using windows seven that’s not good either, talk to any pc teck, no matter what people are saying, windows 7 does not perform its best when using less than 4 gigs of ram. And if your video card is shared, and you don’t want to buy the right video card then I would buy no less than 6 to 8 gig of ram. But I’m not sure if more ram is the fix when the video card is not dedicated ram. and this is moot if you have a 32bit system. then you max out with 4 gig of ram.

Processor speed: all I can tell you is that it makes all the sense in the world. Better chip, better speed for possessing, better performance out of your pc.

After a few months of trying to fix all the problems with my pc, I gave in to the idea my pc didn’t have what it took to give me what I needed now and in the near future. I went on to http://www.microcenter.com

and found just what I needed and at a great price. I hate spending money, but this was the best money I could have spent.

Here is what I have now.

A gateway desk top, Intel core I5 chip @ 2.67 ghz,, nvidia, 1 gig dedicated ram video card, 8 gig of ram and windows 7, 64 bit home premium system.

If you want to look for this system on microcenter online its model number DX4831, I DID HAVE IT UPGRADED TO A BETTER VIDEO CARD.

Now I know a lot of us will say, I have an old pc/laptop and they work fine and that’s great, BUT! For us that are having all these problems like I was, after doing all I could, this is how I fixed all my problems. Let me ad, I have never had a pc that runs so well. That’s my 2 cents.

GOOD LUCK