New Acer Aspire laptop.

[DrNomis_44]

Hey Everyone,


I just recently bought myself a brand new Acer Aspire laptop computer as a replacement for my old Dell laptop which died on me, here's a pic of the new laptop:




I've got all my DAW software installed on it and all my midi controllers and the new Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 usb audio interface are working with it, now I'm finally able to get my music mobile again.


Laptop Specs:


CPU: 8th Generation Quad Core Intel Core(TM) i5-8265U CPU @1.60Ghz with Turbo Boost up to 3.9Ghz.

Installed Ram: 8Gb DDR3 (I think that's what it is).

HDD: 250Gb SSD.

OS: Windows 10 64 Bit.


It features WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity as well as an HDMI port and LAN port, has four usb ports, one of them is a usb 3.0, one is a usb 3.1 and the other two are usb 2.0.


I did a quick check in Windows Device Manager and even though the CPU is a Quad Core, it actually shows up as an 8-Core CPU, my guess is that's because each of the four cores can handle two threads simultaneously, my old Dell laptop only had a dual-core i7 CPU in it, so the new laptop's CPU has more processor grunt, just what's needed for music production and live performance.


the advantage of running a 64 bit OS is that it can make use of more memory if it is available, on the other hand, due to the limitations of the 32 bit architecture, a 32 bit OS can only use up to a maximum of 4Gb, why is it better to have an OS that can use more memory than 4Gb?, pretty simple really, when your computer is running the OS, plus any bits of software, and any audio, all of that ends up being loaded, or written into Ram, or Random Access Memory, if the Ram is full and more data needs to be written into it so it can be worked on, the computer needs to copy all the data into a space on the HDD known as the page file, this takes a bit of time to do and chews up resources that the computer would otherwise use for doing it's tasks, more memory means less time writing data into the page file.

[Andy40]

Looks good Doc. looks good

[colin2121]

Good choice Doc.
Win 10 is a problem though when it goes into update mode. Really slows the laptop.

[dave.king1]

Good choice Doc.
Win 10 is a problem though when it goes into update mode. Really slows the laptop.

I make sure I hit all of the software & OS updates the day before I need the laptop for recording duties, the desktop does it overnight after the scans are finished so it's rarely a problem

[DrNomis_44]

Yeah I always make it a point of getting all the windows updates out of the way first, nothings worse than having the computer spontaneously reboot itself right in the middle of a recording session where you're recording that epic guitar solo you're improvising off-the-cuff and will probably never play it again the same way, just cause Windows downloaded a huge update without you knowing and it needs to reboot to install the update properly.

[DrNomis_44]

Good choice Doc.
Win 10 is a problem though when it goes into update mode. Really slows the laptop.

I agree, but in the most recent cumulative updates of Windows 10 Microsoft added controls for re-scheduling the updates for when the updates are downloaded and installed so you have more time to save any work that you're currently working on, I think Windows 10 is a big step up from Windows 8, which seemed a bit clunky to me, having been used to Windows 7, and how it would go straight to the desktop after login, I never really liked Windows 8's Metro screen where you had to click on the desktop icon to get to the desktop, my old Dell laptop originally came with Windows 8 pre-installed.

[dave.king1]

I agree, but in the most recent cumulative updates of Windows 10 Microsoft added controls for re-scheduling the updates for when the updates are downloaded and installed

I've had 10 Pro from the get go and scheduling has always been available

When I was running Win 8.1 Pro you could select the classic desktop view so that was OK too

[DrNomis_44]

Over all, I've ended up really liking Windows 10.

[DrNomis_44]

Just spent the best part of yesterday and this morning trying to get my laptop's WiFi working again so I could get online, earlier yesterday, for some unknown reason, I could not get the WiFi to connect to my TP_Link WiFi router, I kept getting a code 10 error message in Windows 10's Device Manager for the driver for the Intel Wireless AC 9560 device driver, I used my desktop PC to get online cause it is connected to my WiFi router via a long Cat 6 Lan cable, and went to the Acer.com.au website, I tried updating my laptop's Bios and it didn't seem to fix it, tried downloading/installing the most up to date driver from the Acer website, that didn't fix it either, I decided to do a complete backup and clean install of Windows 10 on my new laptop, even that didn't fix it, had to use my mobile phone in usb tethered-mode just to get online, I know for a fact that it wasn't my WiFi router that was causing all the trouble since my Nintendo Switch games machine could connect to it via WiFi, and then it was when I was preparing to do another clean-install of Windows 10 that my laptop's WiFi suddenly started working again, not exactly sure what I did to fix it, although I did try turning-on WiFi in Network and Internet in Windows settings, and then entering the security password, my guess is that something was getting in the way and causing the WiFi to glitch-out, anyway WiFi is working again after so many headaches.

Talk about frustrations....this definitely takes the cake., but I'm glad I persevered and prevailed in the end.

[dave.king1]

Unless you have Gigabit router and LAN card Cat 6 is a waste of money, also a lot harder to keep tidy as the bend radius cannot be as tight as the more flexible CAT 5e which in the right environment can run to Gigabit anyway.

Premium NBN maximum evening speed is only 100Mbs, not likely to get faster any time soon and limited to network speed bumps due to traffic beyond your ISP

Just my thoughts on the matter