Intel G41 Express Card X4500 Chipset
Integrated Sound/Video/LAN
Intel Pentium E5800 Processor – Dual Core - 3.20Ghz
2GB DDR3 1066/PC3-8500
Black Tower Case with Power Supply
320GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
24X SATA DVDRW Drive
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64 bit)
USB Keyboard and Optical Mouse

$529*

*Sales Tax, Shipping and Delivery/Installation not included in price
*Please note prices subject to change due to recent flooding in Thailand ]]> http://www.pcsdesk.com/index.php/2012/01/27/business-desktop/feed/ 0 http://www.pcsdesk.com/index.php/2012/01/26/performance-workstation/ http://www.pcsdesk.com/index.php/2012/01/26/performance-workstation/#comments Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:03:51 +0000 Brian Gallutia http://www.pcsdesk.com/?p=1006 Lenovo ThinkStation E30

Intel Xeon E3-1225 Intel Core i3
4GB DDR3 1333MHz UDIMM (16GB Max)
CUDA for NVIDIA graphics cards
500GB 3.5″ 7200rpm SATA Hard Disk Drive
RAID 0,1 Support
Gigabit Ethernet
24X SATA DVDRW Drive
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional (64 bit)
USB Keyboard and Optical Mouse

$869

*Sales Tax, Shipping and Delivery/Installation not included in price
*Please note prices subject to change due to recent flooding in Thailand  

$599 *

*Sales Tax, Shipping and Delivery/Installation not included in price ]]> http://www.pcsdesk.com/index.php/2011/08/02/win7-entry-level-pc/feed/ 0 http://www.pcsdesk.com/index.php/2011/07/14/xp-support-ends-april-8-2014/ http://www.pcsdesk.com/index.php/2011/07/14/xp-support-ends-april-8-2014/#comments Thu, 14 Jul 2011 15:16:40 +0000 Brian Gallutia http://www.pcsdesk.com/?p=1131 It’s been a long-time coming, but it’s finally here.  Microsoft has decreed that Windows XP will be officially retired on April 8, 2014 – exactly 1,000 days after the death-sentence was announced.

The announcement comes from Stephen L Rose on the Windows 7  Team Blog.  You can read the post in it’s entirety here.

So what does this mean to our friends and customers?  Well, if your office is primarily using Windows XP then it is time to get with your software vendors and see what the upgrade strategy is to migrate from Windows XP to Windows 7 (or even Windows 8, when it comes out in 2012).

PCS can strategize with your company on the most cost-effective and efficient way to migrate your network before “the Windows XP axe falls.”  Please give us a call (866.976.9136 / 615.371.9931) or drop us a line – we’re ready to help!

The Snipping Tool can be used to capture a screen shot, or snip, of any object on your screen and then annotate, save, or share the image.

The mouse can be utilized to capture any of the following types of snips:

Free-form Snip: Draw an irregular line around an object

Rectangular Snip: Draw a precise line by dragging the cursor around an object to form a rectangle.

Window Snip: Select a window, such as a browser window or dialog box, that you want to capture

Full-screen Snip: Capture the entire screen when you select this type of snip.

After the snip is captured, it is automatically copied to the mark-up window where you can annotate, save or share the snip.

Personally, I use this tool in my day-to-day communications with clients via email.  It is invaluable in allowing me to illustrate a concept, problem or solution with a program by taking a “snip” of my screen and then pasting that snip in a quick email.

I know a few clients are in the habit of emailing a screen capture by hitting the Print Screen (PrtScn) key on their keyboards, pasting the capture in Word, editing the capture and then mailing the document as an attachment.  Hopefully this tool will make that process a lot easier for some folks.

Please use the following points below to help you determine your upgrade path to Windows 7.  If you have any questions about what is touched on, please feel free to post your comments and questions or drop us a line here.

If your PC is already running Windows Vista…

You should be able to upgrade your system to Windows 7.  Unfortunately, we cannot tell you that all systems that currently run Vista can run Windows 7 due to one of the reasons that Vista got a bad name in the first place: low-end hardware.

When Vista was first released by OEMs and put “out there” for consumption, system manufacturers would put Windows Vista Basic on hardware that barely ran the fledgling OS.  If you have one of these systems, you may want to consider either a memory upgrade to at least 2GB or a total system replacement.  Windows 7 is a great OS, but it’s no miracle-worker and will only run as well as the hardware that it’s on.

If you purchased your PC in the last two years..

Windows 7 is right up your alley.  You should have the CPU and the memory necessary to run new new OS efficiently and effectively.

If your PC is more than three years old..

A hardware audit to know for sure if your system is “up to snuff” is in your future, with the primary focus being on (a) processing power and (b) RAM memory available.  Keep in mind that the minimum requirements for running Windows 7 are:

• 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

If your PC came with WindowsXP and it’s more than five years old..

Forget it – it’s time for a complete system upgrade.  You’ve gotten a LOT of use out of your old system and you should feel good about that, but the  truth is that you’re rockin’ an 8 year old operating system and its days are numbered.  Sooner rather than later, Microsoft will discontinue support for XP (Windows 2000 is already on the chopping block) and we’d rather see you upgrade because you want to, instead of upgrading because you have to.

If you’re contemplating an upgrade to Windows 7, make sure that your system can handle it by either referencing your computer’s documentation or getting with a PCS representative to run a hardware audit.

The 64 bit version of Windows 7 is snappy both on boot times an in program execution.  You won’t be disappointed.

Unsupported Upgrade Scenarios

Upgrades to Windows 7 from the following operating systems are not supported:

• Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows XP, Windows Vista® RTM, Windows Vista Starter, Windows 7 M3, Windows 7 Beta, Windows 7 RC, or Windows 7 IDS

• Windows NT® Server 4.0, Windows 2000 Server, Windows Server® 2003, Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008 R2

• Pre-release in-place upgrades across milestones (for example, Windows 7 RC to Windows 7 RTM) are not supported.

Supported Upgrade Scenarios

The tool is a little over 3MB and installs easily.  Please use the link below to snag the installer:

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta

Please keep in mind that the software is in Beta, so take all results with a grain of salt when running.

• 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
• 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver

Additional requirements to use certain features:

• Internet access (fees may apply)
• Depending on resolution, video playback may require additional memory and advanced graphics hardware
• Windows Touch and Tablet PCs require specific hardware
• HomeGroup requires a network and PCs running Windows 7
• DVD/CD authoring requires a compatible optical drive
• BitLocker requires Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 1.2
• BitLocker To Go requires a USB flash drive
• Windows XP Mode requires an additional 1 GB of RAM, an additional 15 GB of available hard disk space, and a processor capable of hardware virtualization with Intel VT or AMD-V turned on
• Music and sound require audio output

Product functionality and graphics may vary based on your system configuration. Some features may require advanced or additional hardware.  If you need further assistance in determining if Win7 is the right fit for your current computing environment, please drop us a line and let PCS help.