Took the 64 bit plunge

[MilesAhead]

I took the 64 bit plunge. Picked up this machine just yesterday:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9180432&type=product&id=1218046803721

So far I've only tried one avi=>dvd conversion in FAVC but it looks like about the same fps per core as my dual core AMD pc. It is nice to see 4 copies of QuEnc running and Core Temp showing all 4 cores at 100%. I tried some other encoding apps but multi-threading definitely benefits from the quad cores much less than multi-processing. The other conversions I tried I only got maybe 10 to 15% more fps than on the dual core.

Going to see about putting DVD-RB on next I think.

About the only thing annoying is for some reason they put this bright purple power LED just above the dim green disk access LED. Esp. if you have the machine on the floor it's tough to look through the bright light trying to see if the disk LED is flickering. Had to cover the purple LED with a black cardboard rectangle. Everything else seems really smooth though. It takes a bit of work to boot but it shuts down fast.

Oh, and for shell extension lovers(if there are any besides me here) I did find out that the workaround on MS site does work. If you have a 32 bit shell window as source and dest then drag & drop menus from 32 bit apps with shell extensions will usually show up and function as expected.

I made a little Hotkey app just to make it easy to open up the 32 bit shell windows. I'm still checking it out but it seems to work ok afaict.

[copyless]

If you like the aero, leave it on but if you shut it down and just stick with the regular windows it really speeds things up. I used mine for about a year with all the aero stuff on and then decided I would shut it off and try it. After I turned it off, with three items still in my sidebar, my computer will cold start in about 68 seconds and shuts down in 18 seconds. Which other than yours being AMD and mine Intel, I think we have close to the same machine, I mean of course yours is a newer graphics card also.

[MilesAhead]

Thanks for the info. It is weird because it doesn't feel any faster just running an app, like surfing the web or whatnot, until you load it up. I tried a full movie DVD burn and it was the steadiest of the DVD burners I've owned so far. I really like the machine. Seems smooth and quiet. It is kind of weird to look in task manager and see 5 GB memory free though. It's
like I did a double-take first time I looked in the performance tab.

[copyless]

It really does seem like overkill, I guess until more items use the 64bit technology we won't really ever use anywhere near that amount of memory. I mean before SP1 I could use about a half a gig more (shows how much SP1 cleaned it up) but since that, I have tried about everything I can think of and can not make it use more than 2.5 gigs or so. Of course I think (if I remember correctly) your graphics card can access somewhere around 2GB of memory.

I had forgot I did make one other change to my machine (apart from changing the original 4Gb of RAM to 8 the day I brought it home) I also changed my HDD to a 32MB cache.

Anyway I think most likely you will really love the machine, I know I mine has been really good to me, Vista 64bit and all.

[MilesAhead]

I can't complain about the bang per buck. I'm not into gaming or any super intensive graphics but I'm glad I'm done with windows that flicker when you drag them on the desktop. Still I got a lot of good use out of that old P4 PC. So far this one is very enjoyable to use. Seems rock solid.

[gonwk]

I took the 64 bit plunge. ....
So far I've only tried one avi=>dvd conversion in FAVC but it looks like about the same fps per core as my dual core AMD pc....

Hi Miles,

Well Congrats on your New Toy!!! I can see you are strictly an AMD guy ...

Q1: Did you do like of Compariosns before deciding on this model? Also, probably cheaper than building it yourself ... right!?!?

Q2: btw, you have to tell me how is the GPU nVidia 9600 running ... do you do any Gaming!?!? Also, see how HOT it gets.

Q3: How in the world FAVC is working for you on Vista 64-bit? What Vista version are you running? And what version of FAVC?

Q4: Which Codecs have you installed on your desktop?

Thanks,

G!

[MilesAhead]

I did read about the Phenom chips as they were coming out and if I went with Phenom I wanted to get the 9850. The graphics card has 768 MB onboard ram but it's the lowest score in WEI citing low gaming performance. So if you're a gamer I guess you'd want a different GPU. Myself I just want to be able to draw a few fractals and drag windows around on the desktop without flicker.

The HD is nice. It's Raid 0 and the HDTune benchmarks are about 125% of my Sata II drive on the 32 bit Vista machine. Like I say, it doesn't feel snappier than my dual core but it doesn't seem to be phased by doing a lot of tasks. The burner is much better than the one on the dual core. I've been trying to clean off some of the OEM trialware burner and game stuff and tune the services. It is a slow booter. I was at 120 seconds reboot time. I changed Superfetch to only cache boot files, turned off some services like Lightscribe and a bunch of DVD floatsome that came installed. I have it down to 91 seconds reboot at this point.

I did put on the Paragon Drive Backup Express freebie 64 bit version and did a backup with it. Seemed to go ok.

On FAVC I used the 64 bit version 1.07. I got errors at first, then I installed the Vista Codec Pack from the link Chewy suggested and also installed AviSynth 2.5.8. DVD Flick and AviDemux are working. Have DVD-RB installed but I haven't run any jobs with it yet.

On the GPU temps and all that I tool a look around on MajorGeeks and googled but I didn't see a good temp monitor. Core Temp with 4 cores maxed out running 4 copies of QuEnc the temp got up to around 54C. It idles around 35C. Seems smooth and quiet.

I just have to tune things up a bit more. Now I have to read up on Raid stuff because I don't know what can get fritzed and how to fix it. I'll be leaving the partitions alone until I think I know what I'm doing. But I have plenty to keep me busy for now.

[MilesAhead]

@gonwk another note on FAVC 1.07 .. at least in the 32 bit version there was a bug in the audio processing for AC3 if you used Aften. For AC3 I just check QuEnc and it zooms right on through.

[gonwk]

... On FAVC I used the 64 bit version 1.07. I got errors at first, then I installed the Vista Codec Pack from the link Chewy suggested and also installed AviSynth 2.5.8. DVD Flick and AviDemux are working. Have DVD-RB installed but I haven't run any jobs with it yet ... .

Hi Miles,

THANKS for the detailed response ... lots of Great Pointers in your response.

So as far as Vista Codec Pack all we need the Chewy's link .... which is to the 32-bit version. Because I have seen also one specifically for the 64-Bit Vista.

Q: I wonder if Chewy would tell us what would happen if someone installed both versions!?!?

G!

[MilesAhead]

As atifsh suggested, it may be a good idea to uninstall any codecs you have, then install the Vista Codec Pack. That's how I started with my 32 bit Vista machine. At first the regular codecs I would download from free-codecs didn't work in Vista. After a few months I could get rid of the codec pack and install the individual ones like Koepi's xvid etc..

The machines are coming out with 64 bit installed so it shouldn't be long before the developers fix up their codecs and whatnot to be compatible.

[admin]

There's a x64 component add-on pack for Vista Codec Package.

The 64-bit add-on complements the 32-bit version, so you need the 32-bit installed first.

A new version was just released today as well (plus a new beta pack for Windows 7, for those that have the beta already).

[Chewy]

Q: I wonder if Chewy would tell us what would happen if someone installed both versions!?!?

It's a good thing you all have admin, cause I haven't the foggiest idea

Still in the stoneage with xp, 32 bit, single core and ffdshow

I wonder if I'll be able to get server 2010 in a 128 bit version?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.157256

[gonwk]

There's a x64 component add-on pack for Vista Codec Package.

The 64-bit add-on complements the 32-bit version, so you need the 32-bit installed first.

A new version was just released today as well (plus a new beta pack for Windows 7, for those that have the beta already).

Hi Admin,

THANKS ... You answered my Q ... so I will do the following ...

1) Uninstall my existing Codec Packs (per atifsh and Miles reminder).
I believe all I have is AviSynth, FFDShow, XviD.

2) Install Vista Codec Pack 32-bit.

3) then Install Vista Codec Pack for 64-bit.

I will post back if anything crashes ... or if it works like a charm.

Thank You All!

G!

[atifsh]

woah this shark bites ...

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=129390

[MilesAhead]

woah this shark bites ...
http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?s=9466Nero Serial Removed&showtopic=129390

For a second there I got paranoid. I just found an app on my system called BeepApp.exe in SysWOW64 folder. I put it in my autokiller but something tried to keep launching it. There's only a few references on google and nobody seems to know what the thing is.

Naturally I've been doing a lot of downloads to get my system set up but I'm not sure where this thing came from.