Hope everyone is well and had a good Christmas or the nearest equivalent thereof.

I've been really sick for quite a while and I'm not out of the woods yet.  A lot more testing, prodding and so forth to go through.  If that wasn't enough, I had a bout of pneumonia - always a barrel of laughs - and to put the tin hat on it all, my graphics box rolled over and died.  Totally, absolutely dead, disks trashed (I tried 'em in me other box), motherboard totalled and everything.

So, I'm now effectively a non participant in this here 3D malarkey - the box I'm using for t'internet is even slower and crappier than my late lamented graphics machine - until I can get the wherewithal to buy a replacement.

Ain't life grand?  

Hang in there Sam, good upper lip and all....

Will be thinking about you.

Well that is a desperate end to 2012 and start to 2013.  I hope things improve for you particularly on the health front.  I can empathise, to a degree, as 2012 was not a good year health wise for me, but at least I had my 3D stuff to keep me occupied.  You seemed to have all of my 2012 bad luck and a lot more dropped on you all at once.

I hope your fortune changes soon and you have a great PC to play while being in the best of health.  Fingers crossed and I will be thinking of you also.

Please keep us up to date as you can or your Internet connection will allow.

I have an ASUS quad core motherboard in a case sitting around that you are welcome to. It was my deceased husband's computer. I've cannibalized the hard drive and memory to my computer, but they're pretty cheap right now. Just let me know a shipping address and I'll box it up and send it to you.

I hope you feel better soon Paul! I've been wondering where you've been. Though I haven't been around much myself either.  I was without a computer for a bit, and now that I have a new one, something went wonky and I lost all of the data on my external hard drives, even though the drives still work, it was like they have both been completely reformated. Tried several programs to recover data, but there is nothing there to recover. So I'm out of Poser. I lost all of my content and runtimes and it's just too much effort to download everything again and reinstall runtimes.

My old computer has the following parts that are still good:

2 gigs memory
Fan
A motherboard of some kind
A power supply unit
DVD burner

If you are interested I can look up what they actually are and if you are interested, and the bits fit into Glitterati's Motherboard and case, I can ship them across the pond to you :)

Bugger :(

I'm more than sorry to hear that Paul...

...I'd been wondering where you'd got to and how you were doing.

I hope your health picks up soon, first and foremost, of course.

Right now, I can likely supply you a hard drive or two, depending exactly what you needed there, and whatever memory would be compatible with Glitterati3D's cased CPU and motherboard, if her offer is an option for you. Let me know...

Quote - Bugger :(

I'm more than sorry to hear that Paul...

...I'd been wondering where you'd got to and how you were doing.

I hope your health picks up soon, first and foremost, of course.

Right now, I can likely supply you a hard drive or two, depending exactly what you needed there, and whatever memory would be compatible with Glitterati3D's cased CPU and motherboard, if her offer is an option for you. Let me know...

I'll pull out the receipt for the MB and scan it so we all know what will fit/not fit. It will probably be late tomorrow, though. I have a class I have to attend tomorrow.

Good to hear from you again.  Like Acadia, I too wondered where you went.  Get back to good health, you have a beautiful family to take care of.

i wish you well, & hope all goes good for you.

Best wishes, especially on the health front. If you'll tell me what kind of memory Glitter's MB uses, I probably have several gigs lying around. Will be happy to send it to you.

Sorry to read that! I am wishing you the best. The board has not been the same without your humor (humour in your case!)

Eric

Thanks, everyone.  The offer of the PC is lovely and I really appreciate it.  Thing is, I live in the UK, so shipping could be prohibitively expensive.  I'll PM you my address in any case and you can always stop by if you're in the area.  :)

As for my health, well, the good news is I don't have prostate cancer; the bad news is, nobody yet knows what's wrong so they're going to cut holes in me to take a look around.  :)  

Glad for the good news-I hope they figure it out- and find a way to help you recover!

Quote - Thanks, everyone.  The offer of the PC is lovely and I really appreciate it.  Thing is, I live in the UK, so shipping could be prohibitively expensive.  I'll PM you my address in any case and you can always stop by if you're in the area.  :)

As for my health, well, the good news is I don't have prostate cancer; the bad news is, nobody yet knows what's wrong so they're going to cut holes in me to take a look around.  :)  

sam, you have our sympathy.  I hope things will improve for you.

How much in US dollars would it take to get you up and running again?

What all do you need?

skee.

Hope your surgery goes well. When u do get ba k I to 3d at least your runtimes will be well organized. 

I hope they find out soon for you. Uncertainty can be very stressful. Best of luck with your surgery, we'll be thinking of you.

Hope everything goes well with you.

Dude! I was wondering what happened to you. Hope you get better real soon! ^ ^

Take care cousin, I think 2013 has started better for some than for others, been there with the health stuff, hell i live it lol, hope you do what the Doc says and get better soon  best wishes me an the mrs

Well, I have looked everywhere for the documentation, and can't find it.  In the morning, I will crack open the case and start writing down pertinent information.  As I said, it was my late husband's, so he must have put the documentation in a file somewhere that I've packed away.

I really don't think shipping will be prohibitive as it weighs practically nothing.  And, since I'm buying a home, it's time to clear out stuff I don't need to move anyway, so you'll be doing me a favor taking it off my hands into someone's who will put it to good use.

I still have a hard time parting with his things, and know it will be useful for someone will make that easier.

The links below are directly from his order, placed 3/26/2010

Case:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3250925

MB:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4433878

Processor:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5619520

Dude you and your computer get well asap. Miss your witt and wisdom. Thoughts are with you and the family for a speedy recovery on both fronts.

Thank you all for your kind words and offers of help.

@ Skee - I don't know and besides, I wouldn't contemplate asking anyone for money.  I don't object to people giving bits of PC kit they don't need but other than that, well I'd consider it to be very impolite (at best) for me to go a-begging.  :)  I do appreciate the kindness, though.  

OK, I understand you not asking for money.... I just want to know what you would need and the cost of it. I would like to help. If the cost of shipping a computer to you would not  work, maybe if it was purchsed there for you that would work. what would you need?

I have plenty of computers that I have repaired what do you need.

Do you still have all your programs?  windows?

skee.

I just checked online and the shipping isn't bad at all:

Priority Mail® International Expected Delivery6 - 10 business days Post Office Price$48.75 Online Price$46.31

Sorry to her Sam, keep your chin up, and hope you feel better soon.  That sucks when those things happen, especially all at once! :sad:

Sorry to hear about the mystery illness.  Hopefully it's something easy to deal with.  But it not being cancer is a good thing; cancer is pretty rough, the treatments can be rougher.

Again, thanks one and all for your kindness and concern.  I'll keep you posted as and when I know more.  Right now I'm trying to take things easy and get plenty of sleep.  Needless to say, it ain't happening, due to the two small noisy people.  :)

As for what I'd need to get a functional PC, the way I read things, I'll need a graphics card of some description.  Acadia says she has a Power Supply but I don't know if it's suitable, since the electric supply here is totally different from Canada/USA.  We use 240v @ 50hz, you guys, I believe, use 120 @ 60hz.

I may be able to get those things here for not too much money; I just don't know at present.

you can switch the PSU over.

got a brand new ATI HD 6450 Silent 1GB DDR3 here for ya. I got it for a replacement for my old Ge9600, but we did'nt work out.. only used it a coupla days.

PM me an addy and I'll get it in the post to ya.

I don't have any spare parts atm, but I'll send along lots of good thoughts ;). As to those offering pc parts....ur wonderful :).

Laurie

Quote - Again, thanks one and all for your kindness and concern.  I'll keep you posted as and when I know more.  Right now I'm trying to take things easy and get plenty of sleep.  Needless to say, it ain't happening, due to the two small noisy people.  :)

As for what I'd need to get a functional PC, the way I read things, I'll need a graphics card of some description.  Acadia says she has a Power Supply but I don't know if it's suitable, since the electric supply here is totally different from Canada/USA.  We use 240v @ 50hz, you guys, I believe, use 120 @ 60hz.

I may be able to get those things here for not too much money; I just don't know at present.

The case actually comes with a 450 watt power supply.  Of course, I have no idea how that might work in the UK.

I'll ship this off early next week - been busy with my house closing - so shipping Monday or Tuesday.  We've been forecast some snow today, and I'm not getting on the road with these idiots!  All they have to do is say the S word and they freak out!

the PSU should have a voltage switch on the back. just flick it over to run 120 or 240.

I did with my machine moving from canada to the UK.

I've got memory and a hard drive, I believe... compatible with Glitterati3D's case / motherboard and cpu.

SATA disk I believe from the spec, as far as I can see... and 800 MHZ DDR2 240 pin RAM. Looks like 4 GB limit on the motherboard. I should be able to max that out for you no problem.

I'll dig it all out and post it to you too.

I should have a compatible PSU kicking about if needs be too.

However looking at the spec of the case she linked to, there is a voltage switch on the back of the PSU, so you should be grand there. (edit: cross-post there)

Hope having a system to escape on a bit helps :)

But yeah get some R&R... maybe all you can do till you know more.

I'm worn out with just one of those radgy wee folk (number two is still in the post) and I'm in pretty good health at present!

Thanks, folks.  I wasn't sure if it'd have switchable voltage.  My defunct box did, the internet one don't.

Installing everything should be a long, tedious process.  Fortunately I have backups of software and content, or I'm able to re d/l 'em if need be.  There's bound to be one or two losses along the way but it's better than never having any of it back.

As for the small people, Ilona will be 2 in a few weeks.  Both of 'em are noisy and shouty and generally really good at finding things they shouldn't do but doing them anyhow.  

One thing just occurred to me...

Is the machine 32 bit?  If so, I'll have to see if I can find my XP disc.  Otherwise, advice on a new OS would be welcome.  I'll want some version of Windows, but which one?  

Get Windows 7 64 bit...you'll never regret it. LOL The home version should be fine ;). It's the best version of Windows ever. Heh. Ya can probably pick it up on Amazon or something for cheap ;).

Laurie

Quote - One thing just occurred to me...

Is the machine 32 bit?  If so, I'll have to see if I can find my XP disc.  Otherwise, advice on a new OS would be welcome.  I'll want some version of Windows, but which one?  

The processor is 64bit.

Quote - The processor is 64bit.

That makes the choice easy. LOL

Laurie

yes... C/PM

wait. what?

and edlin for word-processing.

Thanks, all!  As you say, Laurie, the choice is simple.

Well, I've been having a quick look around and I can get W7 Pro for about £80.00  Is that a good deal?  And would I be better off with it, as opposed to Home Premium?  The difference is only about 10 quid.

Comparrison chart here :) Likely not any differences you'd care about ;). I'd go for Home.

Laurie

Right you are, Laurie.  Thanks!  :)

other than the ram limit, everything you can get in pro, you can duplicate in home with shareware / freeware anyway... often done quite a bit better as well.

Good to know.  Thanks, mate.

Really, all I want it to do is run Poser, Wings and a few other graphics things.  It'll be nice to have a render with BB's stuff finish in less than 18 hours. :D

And, when the time comes, I will be asking for advice on suitable shaders for me Daleks.  For just about every damn thing, in fact.  Oh, and lighting.  And everything else. :D  

Yeah, as already suggested, Home Premium should do you fine, I would think...

You'd only really need pro if you're requiring to hook it up to a Windows domain, on a business network, and that sort of thing.

http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/software/operating-systems/windows-7-home-premium-642684/review

EDIT... hmmm, posted a link to Amazon, then realised it was for an OEM licensed copy...

I guess you'd qualify for an upgrade version though?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Microsoft-Windows-Premium-Upgrade-Vista/dp/B002DGS81C/ref=sr_1_1?s=software&ie=UTF8&qid=1358713576&sr=1-1

Regarding installing the upgrade version...

http://www.pcworld.com/article/174710/microsoft_says_windows_7_install_workaround_is_legal.html

Because you're arguably building a new system, you'd possibly qualify for the cheaper OEM license too.

However the downside of that is you can't then legally move the license to another PC.

Thanks for the links, Chris.  I've seen the full version cheaper elsewhere, though.

Oh, btw, I won at the Tribunal.  Forgot to let you know.  :)  

Quote - Thanks for the links, Chris.  I've seen the full version cheaper elsewhere, though.

Oh, btw, I won at the Tribunal.  Forgot to let you know.  :)  

Nice one... glad to hear you prevailed there ;-)