# Bought a new Dell PC and Chief Architect



## festerized (May 19, 2007)

I purchased new Dell PC and Chief Architect :thumbsup::clap::notworthy
It was time to upgrade my older 8.0 chief to a newer version, so while I was at it a bought a new Dell PC.
I didn’t buy the program from Amazon; i got it much cheaper up grading my existing program 
Chief Architect Home Designer Pro 10

Can’t Waite to set it up, I received my Chief today and will have my PC next week. I’m planning on running a Dell 32” screen for the main screen and a Dell 23” screen for my side screen.
Here are the specs for the PC, I went nuts on the upgrades

1 OptiPlex 980 Minitower Base Standard PSU 
1 OptiPlex 980, Intel Core i5 Dual Core Processor 650 with VT (3.20GHz, 4M) 
1 4GB,Non-ECC,1333MHz DDR3,2X2GB,Dell OptiPlex 980 
1 No Monitor Selected, OptiPlex 
1 GB NVIDIA GeForce GT330 Graphics w/ Single DP & Single DVI, Full Height, OptiPlex 
1 1TB 7,200 RPM 3.5" SATA, 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive with NCQ and 16MB Cache, OptiPlex 980/780 
1 Windows 7 Professional, No Media, 32-bit, Optiplex, English 
1 Windows 7 Label, Optiplex, Fixed Precision, Vostro Desktop 
1 Dell Back-up and Recovery Manager for Win7, MUI, Latitude, Precision, OptiPlex, Vostro 

1 16X DVD+/-RW SATA,Data Only,Dell OptiPlex Desktop or Minitower 
1 Roxio Creator Dell Edition 10.3, No Media, Dell RLOB 
1 Cyberlink Power DVD 8.3, No Media, Dell Relationship LOB 
1 1TB 7,200 RPM 3.5" SATA, 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive with NCQ and 16MB Cache, OptiPlex 980, 2nd HDD 
1 Mainstream Processor Heat Sink,Dell OptiPlex 980 Minitower 
1 Adobe Acrobat 9.0 English and French,BND,Dell OptiPlex Precision,and Latitude
1 Microsoft Office Starter 2010,OptiPlex,Precision and Latitude 
1 Microsoft Office Professional 2010,English,OptiPlex,Precision and Latitude


----------



## jhammer7 (Nov 19, 2009)

That's great, are you installing the computer components or will that come ready to go?

I'm running Pro 9 and will probably upgrade to 10 soon, I'm working with a 32" main monitor and a 20" side and it works great.


----------



## festerized (May 19, 2007)

Unless I can cut it with a saw and bang on it with a hammer I’m not touching it. Dell is putting together the PC
My upgrade was only $295.00 from $495.00 so not a bad upgrade. Chief sent me an $800.00 coupon upgrade to the full program, not sure I need it but my new PC can handle it. Contemplating spending another $1000.00
Duel monitors is the only way to go, I multi task a lot which explains why my posting are short.


----------



## cbscreative (Dec 17, 2008)

Congrats on the new system! If I am understanding your specs correctly, the W7 is the 32 bit version? You should be getting the 64 bit version, especially with the rest of the specs. 32 bit won't fully support all your RAM. It's probably a typo or misunderstanding because I find it hard to believe Dell would put a 32 bit OS into a system like that.


----------



## JustaFramer (Jan 21, 2005)

Yeah don't let them put a 32 bit OS into that system.


----------



## CookeCarpentry (Feb 26, 2009)

Dual monitors...now that is something that always intrigued me.....

Oh boy, I am really technologically handicapped.....:shutup:


----------



## festerized (May 19, 2007)

Thank you guys for pointing that out!!!!!!!!!!!!
Took me 4 phone and a threat of cancelling my order to finally get an American on the phone but I is switched over to 64 Bit as recommended.
Ok now that I have switch what is the difference?
The salesman told me newer systems use 64 and older software will not run on 64, is this correct?


----------



## cbscreative (Dec 17, 2008)

festerized said:


> Thank you guys for pointing that out!!!!!!!!!!!!
> Took me 4 phone and a threat of cancelling my order to finally get an American on the phone but I is switched over to 64 Bit as recommended.
> Ok now that I have switch what is the difference?
> The salesman told me newer systems use 64 and older software will not run on 64, is this correct?


You're welcome, I'm glad it was caught before you took delivery. 

You shouldn't have a problem with 32 bit apps running on a 64 bit system. Form my understanding, W7 will mimic the 32 bit for apps that can't recognize 64. That's pretty much the same principle as Win 3.1 or 95 apps running on XP even though XP is very different from the old "9x" OS's. The early versions of 95 were still 16 bit.

One difference you'll notice is more multi-tasking ability. You can have several hungry apps open at once and not lose performance. The i5 processor will help with that too. A really big difference is 32 bit can only utilize 3.8 GB of RAM. Your new system should be expandable to at least 8GB, probably 16. Even at the 4 you're having it shipped with, the 64 bit will run a lot faster. I don't even know what the RAM ceiling is on 64 bit without looking it up, but I'll guarantee it will be a long time before computers even come close to reaching it.


----------



## cbscreative (Dec 17, 2008)

CookeCarpentry said:


> Dual monitors...now that is something that always intrigued me.....
> 
> Oh boy, I am really technologically handicapped.....:shutup:


Mark, if you don't spend a lot of time on the computer, dual monitors is probably just a nice feel good prestige. Some of the benefits of dual could be achieved with a good size wide screen. For example, if you're answering an email and you want to have the email and your response side by side, you could do that with a big enough wide screen.

However, I imagine the software you guys use might be a screen hog like mine is. Having the extra screen real estate is nice. And if you spend much time on the computer, you'll wonder how you ever got by with a single monitor.


----------



## Mike's Plumbing (Jul 19, 2010)

That's gonna be sweet!!!


----------



## festerized (May 19, 2007)

My 21 year old neighbor kid said he could have built the same PC for $400.00 less. 4 beans not to worry about killing a $2500 machine is worth every penny.

While I have every ones attention, just landed a 19 home sub division in my area, Guy saw my lettered van a few months ago, sent him a price and just called me for the go ahead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That was money well spent for lettering up my van (it was free) I let the print shop use my trailers when they need them.:notworthy:notworthy
With my new found wealth It looks like chief architect full version is looking prosperous :clap::clap:


----------



## Mike's Plumbing (Jul 19, 2010)

Oh man...that's great news!!!!!! I'm really happy for you.

I just landed a plugged toilet a couple minutes ago......speaking of which...gotta run!:laughing:

Mike


----------



## JustaFramer (Jan 21, 2005)

Win7 Pro 64 bit will run 192gb's of RAM. LOL More than likely your hardware be the limitation in achieving the 192 gigs.


----------



## festerized (May 19, 2007)

JustaFramer said:


> Win7 Pro 64 bit will run 192gb's of RAM. LOL More than likely your hardware be the limitation in achieving the 192 gigs.


Dude English plz, What does running from a dodge ram pickup have to do with my pc?
I really need to know all this stuff, LOL I went to college for two years to learn how to repair slot machines and it’s still all Greek to me!


----------



## JustaFramer (Jan 21, 2005)

festerized said:


> Dude English plz, What does running from a dodge ram pickup have to do with my pc?
> I really need to know all this stuff, LOL I went to college for two years to learn how to repair slot machines and it’s still all Greek to me!


:laughing: 

Should I even suggest dual-booting 64 bit Ubuntu linux also? :whistling :shifty:


----------



## festerized (May 19, 2007)

JustaFramer said:


> :laughing:
> 
> Should I even suggest dual-booting 64 bit Ubuntu linux also? :whistling :shifty:


Is that French? :blink:


----------



## JustaFramer (Jan 21, 2005)

African


----------



## cbscreative (Dec 17, 2008)

festerized said:


> Dude English plz, What does running from a dodge ram pickup have to do with my pc?
> I really need to know all this stuff, LOL I went to college for two years to learn how to repair slot machines and it’s still all Greek to me!


That post was probably as much to me as you. I indicated in post #8 that I didn't know the RAM ceiling without looking it up. Where your computer is shipping with 4 GB, the 64 bit W7 will go as high as 192 on RAM. That means very little now since your system probably won't support more than 8 or 16 GB of RAM. It really just means that the computers of the future could go as high as 192 before a new technology, such as 128 bit, will need to be implemented. We shouldn't have to worry about that for at least 2 years. 

In plain English, don't worry about it. Your computer will be fast.

The advantage to buying a name brand system like Dell is you shouldn't have to worry about hardware compatibility issues within the system. Be careful with future upgrades and get professional advice before changing your current configuration. The kid who could have saved you $400 probably knew what they were doing, but there is always some risk. Dell has to warranty their systems, so they test configurations (or are supposed to) to be sure conflicts aren't a problem.

Plain English again, don't open the case and put anything new inside w/o getting professional advice first.

I also advise installing your apps on at a time and testing your performance before installing another. If something causes a significant issue, it's easier to identify if you don't install everything without testing. Then if you find one giving you trouble, you can decide if it's worth putting up with issues to have it installed.

Congrats on the new job too!


----------



## JustaFramer (Jan 21, 2005)

Without knowing what mobo it is :shifty: :laughing: It's hard to say but most of the new ones will support 4 gig sticks so the more slots the mobo has the more you can put in obviously. But most are maxing out between 16-24 gb.


----------



## J F (Dec 3, 2005)

Congrats on the new screamer (no, not the girlfriend) and the new project fester...nice. :thumbsup:

I had a machine built 4 years ago for chief, and it's interesting that it was very near the price of yours ($2,600)...it still works great for X3, but I'll probably need to replace it for X4, and I'm sure I would notice an improvement right now, from my current set up.

It's always nice to get a new 'puter. I've used dual screens for probably 5 years now and find it difficult to work from a single screen. It's amazing how much easier things are with 2 screens...might have to go to 4 when I move up to the next system. :shifty:

I'm still on XP...


----------



## J F (Dec 3, 2005)

Steve's tellin' all of us...don't be dumbasses...like we all are. I don't backup nearly enough...do YOU?


----------



## JustaFramer (Jan 21, 2005)

festerized said:


> I saw a few cheap company’s saying they can do it cheap as well, it’s kind of like a HO finding a contractor on CL, you get what you pay for. The pics on that hard drive are extremely valuable to me and I won’t just give to any company


Yeah I hear yah, I forget sometimes I live in Seattle. Tech stuff is saturated here. Prices are different.


----------

