39 replies to this topic

[SkiBachelor]

How much did your system cost WBSKI? I'm thinking about getting a $3000 Dell XPS system this summer since my seven year old Gateway is now outdated and having huge problems running today's programs.

[Ontariodude]

I'd reccommend making your comp a custom built. Although you need a good deal of comp knowledge in order to do this properly. If you need any assistance or have any questions, you can pm me or just reply to this. I know a an excedingly decent amount of stuff about computers and components myself and some of my friends are even more knowledgable.

WBSKI I like the sounds of your comp. My friend just built a comp with a 1.86 Core 2 Duo and he loves it (overclocks to 2.5 and fully stable). He has what is in my opinion, the best motherboard on the market (EVGA with nvidea 680i chipset) and a very good graphics card (256mb 7600 GT Xtreme edition by XFX). Dual panel setup Those things look so good.

SkiBachelor, I have a feeling you can make a better custom built for less money than the Dell XPS line of systems. Although that is only my opinion.

Will T. (ontariodude)

[SkiBachelor]

Oh I know I could too, but I just prefer having the installation CD which comes with all the correct drivers for that system.

It's just a pain I think to go out and find all the correct drivers that I need. I still need to find the Codac driver to allow my computer to play DVDs once again.

However, they say that name brand systems cost just a little bit more than building your own system now.

[Peter]

Considering that I previously had the free Open Office suite, Office 2007 is a big upgrade. Amazon.com was so cool because they shipped it last week and it arrived on release day plus it only cost $128.99.

[liftmech]

We just got a Dell Dimension last fall, the sticker says 'Vista ready' but after reading this I think we'll stick with XP. Not as good as OS X, but IMHO it approaches Mac.

[Ontariodude]

I'm forever with microsoft products. The only things I have gotten that are Apple are my iPod Nano and iTunes 5 - 7. The number of problems i've had is not worth getting a Mac computer to me. Perhaps if it were a laptop but you just can't beat micrsoft-oriented systems for power, gaming, and performance. Everytime I see a Apple Computer commercial, I just get mad. The amount of stuff that is avalable for windows-based computers far exceeds anything for the mac. I don't think you can make a Mac custom. Microsoft Windows XP is a great OS and I'm sticking with it until the bugs of Vista are fixed. If I have my new computer before then, XP will suit me well.

What are these "advantages" of OS X 10 over Windows XP or even Vista?

This is a quote from a good friend of mine from our forum:

Andrew I.
Macs are excellent computers. There are 3 basic things that hold me back from purchasing one.1:They are unable to game in the least. 2:They are only avalible with mobile Intel processors which do not provide the power and performance i demand from my computer. 3:There is a lack of 3rd party software and other additional gadgets and widgits for its OS.

If anyone is curious, our little forum on computers is http://technoobs.pro...2.com/index.cgi Any consructive comments on the site would be welcome.

Will T. (ontariodude)

This post has been edited by Ontariodude: 01 February 2007 - 11:20 AM

[Kicking Horse]

You know. Ontariodude. Have you ever used A Mac with OS X for a long period of time?

Dont go bashing on other companys if you have not used there Computers alot. Ipods are different.

[Ontariodude]

I honestly don't care about OS X10, because until Apple allows either Intel and (or) AMD processors that aren't mobile (therefore not as powerful) processors into their computers, I'm not going to worry about looking. Mobile processors are simply not powerful as powerful and as good as DESKTOP-orientated processors. Putting REAL processors in their 'desktops' would be a good idea and they are glorifying their new deal with intel way too much. They are hiding the fact that they are mobile processors. Sure its ok with their laptops or whatever Apple calls them (iLap ), but for desktops, it just isn't enough. Now there is one computer that Mac has that is actually good because it has REAL processors in them: one of their desktops has 2 dual core 3.0GHz Xeon processors (these are actually not mobile s479 processors, they are the real thing). Now that thing would be good. But still, its by no means a mainstream computer. (Xeons are for servers) Now don't get me wrong, core 2 mobiles are good, but the real Core 2 Duos are better in performance.

Perhaps this is one the reasons Macs are horrible for gaming (mobile procesors).And yes, my iPod has taught me something. iTunes 7 is a demanding program for a computer (compared to the superior WMP 11). I used to use iTunes for all my music needs but Ive had enough of it freezing and getting corrupted. WMP is a drop-dead reliable program. And considering Macs are less powerful computers, I'd hate to see the problems Macs have with iTunes and all their editing software that is the only thing Apple has going for them. But really, third party software is made to primarily to work with windows (i wonder why.)

BTW, I use computers alot and im not some Canadian Noob like you may think I am. I just stick with the best. OS X i bet is good, but in order for it to be truly good, you need a good platform worth putting it in. I've seen OS X and it seemed very nice although my personal preference is Microsoft and the PC because of the sheer power and performance of today's good systems (most if not all are PCs). The variety and customizabilty is also better. You can make custom-built PCs. With Mac, that is almost non-existent.

I have an old PC, and I love it. I'm building a new one myself this summer and I can't wait.

(When someone insults my intelligence, I respond. If people don't like my response about Mac, its your choice but this is my opinion and I have a LOT more evidence to go behind this.)

I'm not say the Apple OS X is bad, I'm just saying that I believe overall, the PC is better.

Will T. (ontariodude)

This post has been edited by Ontariodude: 01 February 2007 - 12:36 PM

[WBSKI]

Heres my specs with prices

HP Pavilion A1654n with $30 upgrade for a 19inch Samsung Widescreen total cost was $999 CAD on sale!
Came with
Core2D 1.86ghz
Geforce 7500
2 GB Ram DDR2 500+mhz
250GB Samsung Hard Drive (really bad, it already failed but I installed on a new Maxtor 320GB ($110 CAD) and plugged the 250GB drive in and it worked as a slave. Wierd.
Uses SATA-2 (6 or 7 plugs!) and 8 USB, Card Reader, DVD/CD Lightscribe. I think it also has some ATA plugs but I didnt use them. Doesnt directly allow for 2 hard drive, have to get a power cable adapter for it inside the PC.

Upgrade 2x512mb Corsair ram - $50 from a friend (now 3GB)
Secondary screen bought from a friend who got the same deal but didnt need the screen for $140!
320GB Hard Drive Maxtor - $110 overall roughly over 0.5TB, not bad for the price!
Power Adapter for second hard drive (From NCIX) $6
All in CAD overall was $1305 for a perfect system

In my opinion, XPS is a waste of money for what they give you. Its just a High End brand to cost ppl money.

Came with Windows Vista Premium and Windows XP MCE.
Got it during Boxing Day sales..
It runs anything!

SkiBachelor, keep an eye on sales, I got it at Futureshop.

[Ontariodude]

That's a pretty good computer

The Intel Core 2 Duo processors are very good. Even the 1.8GHz Core 2 is very good. My one friend has one of those. My other friend has a very good system with a AMD Athlon 4 X2 4800+ @ 2.4GHz, AMD also makes good processors and they stay cooler better than the Intel Core 2s, but they don't seem to overclock as well and the Intel Core 2 Duo @ 1.86 GHz is a better deal for performance to price ratio. The faster Core 2 Duos are better than anything else out there. The 1.86GHz Core 2 Duo (E6300 model) can overclock to 2.5GHz without a problem with stock cooling. The only issue with overclocking is that if you have a computer made by a company (eg. HP, Compaq, Sony), you either can't overclock or you void your warranty when you do

You just need to remember that the processor isn't everything. Other important things are a good motherboard, HardDrive, video card and RAM. A good display wouldn't hurt either. LCD all the way! My 15 inch does me fine and its probably all my old AGP video card can take w/out extra problems.

If anyone cares to know, this is the system I use:
Sony PCV-RX650 Desktop PC
Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHz Willamette core socket 478 400MHz FSB processor
768MB DDR PC2100 266MHz RAM (1 Kingston Value 512MB, 1 256MB)
Asus P4B266LM mATX Motherboard
Asus RIVA NVIDIA TNT2 AGP2.0 4x 32MB video card (150MHz GPU core speed)
80GB Maxtor 5400RPM Ultra ATA/100 HD
CD-RW/R Drive, CD/DVD-R Drive (both decent drives)
360 watt PS
Windows XP Home Edition SP2
NEC 15inch LCD 1024x768 Monitor
Uber speakers

It's old but it used to be a good one. Among the best in its day of late 2001.

Will T. (ontariodude)

[WBSKI]

Yep, computers go down pretty fast. I might try overclocking to 2.3 or something once the warranty is out of date.

[Peter]

Macs really aren't flawless. My brother has a Power Book that crashed and needed its hard drive to be reformatted. My mom got a new iMac for Christmas and it has frozen at least 10 times and force quit does not work. I have a Dell Inspiron that has been pretty good, not flawless. I really don't think it is fair to say "it just works." I have never used a computer that does not have something wrong with it at some point.

[poloxskier]

Skier, on Feb 1 2007, 05:27 PM, said:

Macs really aren't flawless. My brother has a Power Book that crashed and needed its hard drive to be reformatted. My mom got a new iMac for Christmas and it has frozen at least 10 times and force quit does not work. I have a Dell Inspiron that has been pretty good, not flawless. I really don't think it is fair to say "it just works." I have never used a computer that does not have something wrong with it at some point.

Problems such as you describe are 9 times out of 10 NOT due to the operating system or kind of hardware in the computer. Those kind of problems are due to users downloading malware unknowingly, viruses, and loading up the system tray with too many programs which causes the ram to fill up and the system to freeze or crash. Those problems are not to be concidered faults in a machine but rather the faults of the user. I have used and maintained networks of macs and windows based computers for many years and I have never had as many problems with any mac OS as windows presents on a daily basis. No OSX isnt 100% but it is far more consistant and reliable than windows.

[SkiBachelor]

I beg to differ with that. My MacBook crashed randomly when I booted it up one day and had to restart. It said MAC OS X encountered an error and needs to be shut down.

I've never had any serious problems with my Windows machines, but then I'm pretty careful with what I download and do.

[Ontariodude]

poloxskier, on Feb 1 2007, 09:46 PM, said:

Problems such as you describe are 9 times out of 10 NOT due to the operating system or kind of hardware in the computer. Those kind of problems are due to users downloading malware unknowingly, viruses, and loading up the system tray with too many programs which causes the ram to fill up and the system to freeze or crash. Those problems are not to be concidered faults in a machine but rather the faults of the user. I have used and maintained networks of macs and windows based computers for many years and I have never had as many problems with any mac OS as windows presents on a daily basis. No OSX isnt 100% but it is far more consistant and reliable than windows.

Probably because the User Interface of the Mac is much simpler than that of Windows. That isn't necessarily a bad thing but I think I like the taskbar

[poloxskier]

Ontariodude, on Feb 1 2007, 05:51 PM, said:

Probably because the User Interface of the Mac is much simpler than that of Windows. That isn't necessarily a bad thing but I think I like the taskbar

Anymore the user interface is so similar that it is easy for people to migrate from one system to another. The macs just have a few more user friendly traits and macs also have a system tray and OS core that in my experience is able to handle a more inexperienced user who is more prone to downloading malware and also downloading things that just take up loads of system memory and are hard to remove. Oh and for the record I have had both my mac and Windows based PCs up and running for over 3 years with out a single problem other than an individual program freezing or lagging. This problem with people slandering microsoft or apple over their products stems not from the programing it self but rather lack of knowledge and inexperience of a user who causes a problem and thinks that its the computers fault.

[Ontariodude]

Yes I agree, with any system, you have to know its limits.

Will T. (ontariodude)

[Kicking Horse]

Ontariodude, on Feb 1 2007, 12:59 PM, said:

Now there is one computer that Mac has that is actually good because it has REAL processors in them: one of their desktops has 2 dual core 3.0GHz Xeon processors (these are actually not mobile s479 processors, they are the real thing). Now that thing would be good. But still, its by no means a mainstream computer. (Xeons are for servers)

Ok. So you are saying my 4,500 Dollar Machine with Dual Xeons is a Server? Xeons are not just for Servers.

BTW, I use computers alot and im not some Canadian Noob like you may think I am. I just stick with the best.

You are a Canadian Noob. When you say Xeons are just for Servers. What Processors do you think power the machinces that are used for 3d max and stuff. Some Celo or P4 processor. NO. Most of those machines are using Xeons.

(When someone insults my intelligence, I respond. If people don't like my response about Mac, its your choice but this is my opinion and I have a LOT more evidence to go behind this.)

I did not insult you. If I did it would of hurt your feeling a bit.

my .000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002 Cents.

[Ontariodude]

Don't call me a noob. I am BTW reporting this. I know Xeons are for servers and other more serious workstation computers as are the AMD line of Opteron processors.

Will T. (ontariodude)

[Bill]

Dont try this at home...

http://video.google....904704265757054