Hello Everyone,

Wacom released new drivers for the PC and the Mac yesterday.  As usual, my desktop center didn’t notify me, but my friend Miguel did.  If you aren’t having any problems, then you may not need to upgrade.  Per usual back up your settings, uninstall old drivers and install the new  drivers.  Disconnect your tablet, too.

OK, so I have told you folks that I was in the market for a new computer, but before I bought it, I wanted to install Windows 10 on my old system.  Many of you will remember my post about the difficulties I had with Microsoft support and then never got Win 10 loaded.  They did take copious notes.  But many folks told me it was my system or me or both.  It wasn’t.  A couple of days ago, I decided to try the upgrade again.  Fingers crossed, I started the upgrade.  It took less than an hour.  I had no problems…well…there was one minor one with Outlook, which is a Microsoft product.  I must tell you, everything I had seen about Windows 10 looked inviting.  I really wanted to use it from the get go, but it just wasn’t possible.   Maybe those copious notes did help, because now everything is working fine.

OK, so what computer did I buy?  As you know, I was considering going Mac.  I looked at a Mac Pro and an Alienware Area 51.  Both machines looked mighty fine, but I went with the Alienware Area 51.  Why…old versus new is the answer.  The Mac Pros haven’t been updated in a while and talk on the street indicated that there would be a new Mac Pro out last August and continue to this day.  I had to buy before the end of the year.  I simply couldn’t wait any longer and I didn’t want to buy the current Mac Pro and have a new one come out a week or two later.  I know…I’m crazy, but that is how I was thinking.

So, what did I get with my Alienware Area 51.  It is a screamer!  Here are some of the basics.

Intel Core i7-5960X (8-cores, 20MB Cache, Overclocked up to 4.0 GHz w/ Turbo Boost)

32GB Dual Channel DDR4 2133MHz (8GB x4)

Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 with 4 GB GDDR5 each (NVIDIA SLI Enabled)

512 GB SSD 6Gb/s Main + 8TB SATA storage

Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 @ 5GHz + Bluetooth

Alienware 1500 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply

Win 10 Pro (64 bit) English

OK, that’s enough stuff.  I’m sure you don’t care about key boards, monitors, speakers, and optical drives.  Maybe I will take some pictures it is all set up, or not.  In the meantime, check these screen shots from Alienware’s web site.  I do love the design of it.  It is so much easier to get to the ports.

My new Alienware Area 51

Ports are easy to reach. I will probably have mine on top the desk, though.

I did purchase one thing that has been a big disappointment.  I got Laplink’s PCmover with a high-speed cable.  They offer 24/7 free installation service as well.  Don’t believe it.  I tried contacting them for three days and stayed on the phone about 30 minutes each time.  At the end of the 30 minutes, I would get a recorded message telling me they were having trouble with their phone systems and to call back later.  I was able to do all the required setup without tech support help, but when it came time for the actual transfer, it was going to take 156 hours.  What?  Instead, I have reloaded the software manually and am transferring data via my network.  I was really disappointed in PCMover.  The hype promised to move software and data…sigh.

Well that’s it so far.  I have a few more goodies coming and I’ll talk about them next time.

I hope everyone has a fabulous Holiday Season and the Best New Year ever.

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