Another computer advice thread

[nate]

I bought a Dell XPS not too long ago. maybe 8 months ago ? anyway, I'm happy with their phone help with it so far.

I had one problem when Power DVD launched and asked for an update, then something took a shit and I ended up having to reinstall XP. I hadn't had the comp long enough to have a ton of installs to re do. I bought a TB external HD and saved my stuff in safe mode (it just wouldn't boot to normal desktop) and the tec helped me re install...I'd never installed an os before

anyway..if you get Power DVD, loose it.

no idea what the problem is with delivery dates, mine came on time. but having lived with it for a while I'm happy.

my last comp was an NT workstation I kept using for 10 years

[Octopod]

Well I am glad to hear someone say that they have decent tech support still after all the bad story you hear about it now

[Octopod]

Anyone have an opinion on the Acer Aspire 5532 laptop? I am thinking of getting one for my wife for xmas. I was going to get her a netbook but I saw that Best Buy has these for $350.00 which is less than most of their netbook prices. Is the ATI mobility Radeon HD 3200 graphics chip decent for playing less graphic intensive games? Like could it run Ultima Online alright?

[Octopod]

God damn it. Dell canceled my order. They sent me an email on the 23rd and I just checked that email to see if by some miracle my comp had shipped. Apparently I had 24 hours to respond to that email and I didn't. After waiting for over 20 mother fucking days. I'll take this as a sign. I never want shit to do with Dell again. I'll find another comp or I'll just build one. Shit.

[nate]

boy that really sucks ! sorry this happend to ya. thay have had some really good deals lately. oh well.

[Hobie-wan]

If it was for an order, why they hell wouldn't they try calling? Surely they want your money.

[lordofduct]

God damn it. Dell canceled my order. They sent me an email on the 23rd and I just checked that email to see if by some miracle my comp had shipped. Apparently I had 24 hours to respond to that email and I didn't. After waiting for over 20 mother fucking days. I'll take this as a sign. I never want shit to do with Dell again. I'll find another comp or I'll just build one. Shit.

I stopped buying from dell back in 2000 or so. Freakin' retarded company... ugh. My step mom had purchased a machine from them and when it showed up it wasn't the specs we ordered and they had added a printer to make up for the fact or some crap. We didn't need a printer, we had a damn nice printer/scanner/copier combo in the office already... what the hell do we need this stupid bubblejet printer for!?



I don't know about you, but ever since I learned to build my own computer (around 2000 as well) I haven't purchased a prefab since. I don't know, it just feels like I know my computer better when I build it. If something goes wrong I know who to blaim and I can go in and figure out what it is.

Yeah this means the first couple years was a lot of learning and smacking my head trying to figure out what the hell is going on. But once I got over that hump, no 'tech support' can match my ability to do it my damn self. And to me that's worth a shit load more then any tech support fees! And at the lower price of building it myself having to replace a little part every once in a while isn't that bad... usually by the time something breaks I was going to upgrade anyways. Lastly it doesn't come preinstalled with all that shit software Dell loves to incorporate into the damn install (which is how they make their money, most of their profits come from all the demo-ware they shove in the machine).



I'm not saying you should build your own machine... just telling you what I did to do it. And what to expect.


I look at it like a car. I don't get them damn check up warrenty bullshit things on cars either (the manufacturer warranty of course... but tune ups and oil changes... bah). I can do that my damn self for the same price or cheaper. It takes a little know how, but not much, and in the end you're better for it. You know what makes your car run! As my dad explained when I was a teen and he taught me to change brakes, oil, etc etc... "You're going to be driving a car all your life, and I'm not going to always be here to help you fix it... so learn it now while you're still young and just get that part over with."

The computer is pretty much the same. You'll be using computers for the rest of your life, they aren't going anywhere. And most of the parts have warranties on them anyways, what is the Dell tech support (or any other companies) giving you? They're giving you oil changes for your computer. Wow, how freakin' hard is that!?

[Octopod]

I am thinking about building it my self but I have never built one before so it feels a bit daunting. Is Newegg the best place to buy parts? The thing that seems the most confusing to me is getting a case that is compatible with the motherboard and getting a motherboard that is compatible with everything else.
I figure I will stick with the Core i7 860 as I have read a few things that state it is better than the 920 and both are pretty much $275. I was thinking maybe a Core 2 instead but they are almost the same price as the i7s. Is Western Digital a good company for hard drives? Is a 650w Corsair PSU good enough? I thought people say RAM is cheap, why is 8 GB of Corsair DDR3 RAM $245? How the hell do I know what version of the GTX graphic card to get with so many versions of the same damn card? Should I even get a GTX 260? Will this build play older games alright?
Is anyone willing to answer these questions for me?

Edit: Do I really even need to spend this much on a comp? All I want it for is school work, the internet and some video games. I want to beable to run dosbox and other emulators for old cRPGs and play the Infinity Engine games and other games from that era but I also want to be able to play Fallout 3, Borderlands etc. I also want my computer to be upgradeable.

[Octopod]

*Sigh* I went and bought a Dell from Best Buy. I am just too intimidated I guess. Almost the same computer I had ordered before but it has a GTS 240 graphics card and a wireless n networking card. It is also all black instead of white but that is whatever really. I did get a much nicer moniter though. I got a LG W2361V. 23", 50000:1/50000:1 Dynamic 1920X1080 2ms response time. Actually I have no idea what the 50000:1 means or if 2ms is that much better than 5ms but it sure looks nice. I am ashamed, I should have built my own.

[lordofduct]

response time is how frequently the screen can update. lower values are better because it means the screen refreshes that much sooner.

Think of it like framerate... just written instead in duration as opposed to frequency. Higher framerate is better, well if we recorded that framerate as a duration (how long a single frame persists) you'd get response time.

The reasoning for describing it in response time is that the LCD doesn't refresh consistantly. It's like a hard drive and seek times, it CAN seek this quickly, doesn't mean it's going to, because some times it doesn't have to. Unlike with framerates which are forced, a frame MUST update consistantly, and thusly we describe it as a frequency.




50000:1 is the contrast ratio. It's the ratio of light to dark. It means the brightest point is 50000 times brighter then the darkest spot on the screen. But that's kind of abstract...

See in an LCD screen there is a backlight. This light is persistent, it doesn't turn off in spots because it's usually a couple bulbs or LED lights. You can't turn off pixels off it. Instead the crystals of the LCD are translucent and have the ability to display 3 colours (Red Green Blue) and alter their opaqueness (the ability to allow light through). Now none of these crystals can be 'perfectly opaque' and there is always a degree of space between each crystal cell. Light escapes even when completely opaque (black). The measure of quality of transparency to opaqueness range the LCD crystals have is the contrast ratio.

So higher values on the left (the 50000) mean better.