John Dunn Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 I have a Dell desktop 8200 that I got 2 years ago, not top of the line, but a good machine. The thing aggravates the heck out of me. I will state now that I am basically computer illiterate. All I want from my computer is to be able to surf the internet, play games, edit home movies/pictures, and prepare the occasional powerpoint presentation. So....what I get is a computer that I will install a new game on, and then it won't work, or vapor locks after playing for two minutes. There is no intuitive or easy to follow instructions on how to fix it, just obscure error messages and the prospect of hours on the phone to tech support, if you hit the lottery and can get a person on the phone. Then you download a spy killer program that is more annoying than the spyware it was designed to counteract. Constantly pops up saying it is time to buy. Click the close X and it takes you to the company's web site. Burn in hell hackers! And everyone else who comes up with this crap! I finally get frustrated enough to start over with a clean slate, but I can't format c: from the command prompt because evidently there is some volume in use somewhere, whatever the heck that means. If someone can tell me that a Mac can fix even a third of these frustrations, I am there. You don't have to be a mechanic to drive a car, I don't want to become a computer tech to use my computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Ankeny Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 John: Video editing and high zoot gaming are very resource intensive applications. If there is a problem with the architecture in your machine, a new game will find it and bingo, the blue screen of death. Video editing can also cause problems unless the machine is spot on. I put up with all kinds of problems with inferior machines locking up with Adobe Premiere all the time. I don't know Jack about a Mac, but I do know the WinTel platform can be computer hell. I do know users are migrating to Macs for the very reasons you describe. Good luck. PS I am surrounded by some pretty hot boxes at work, but my home machine is a Dell 266 with Windows 95 and I have been using it forever. I optimized the machine for applications available at the time and I have not fallen victim to software bloat by upgrading software. I need a new machine and I am not looking forward to the hassles I know will start the minute I open the box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJPoLo Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 If someone can tell me that a Mac can fix even a third of these frustrations, I am there. A Mac can fix more than a third of those frustrations. Get a new or used Mac, run OS X.3. Enjoy iMovie and iPhoto for your movie and picture editing and cataloging needs. Use Safari to surf the internet (with "block pop-up windows" enabled). Microsoft makes an OSX version of PowerPoint. Lots of cool games are available. You will never look back. -Chet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 A mac will only solve half of your problem! Your movie/pictures editing will be a breeze, but your gaming will suffer hugely as alot of the games STILL aren't available in mac format! Best bet is to call Dell, tell them what you wanna do and buy a new computer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooter Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 Gaming is always one of those tricky issues. Sometimes there's a conflict that neither you or the manufacture can resolve. For instance, the game Blackhawk Down will crash on my computer on a regular basis. The only thing the company can suggest is updating ALL of the drivers, which didn't fix the problem. Plus if you don't have the latest and greatest, don't expect that good of a performance with newer games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 PC's are steaming piles shit. And because engineers love to tinker with crappy computers thinking they can make them better, I'm damned to use a PC for the remainder of my internment on this earth. You don't have to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loves2Shoot Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 A good video card makes life nice with a PC but they are almost as much as some low end PC's. I can do massive graphics on my PC and it doesn't glitch, but then again I paid for a machine that was designed to do that. To do movies and games a good video card is a must, they suck up a lot of reasources. As far as heaping piles of shit, there are many computers sold that are not designed to work right, but to sell cheaply. I've had great PC's but then again I spend what it takes for what I want them to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynn jones Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 hi john, here's a couple of suggestions: 1. don't reformat your hard drive. getting all the old programs and windows updates is a pain in the A$$. but if you want to reformat, you'll need to boot from the A drive in DOS mode. 2. buy some more memory. it's very cheap these days and not to hard to install. 3. for gaming, get a better video card as previously suggested. 4. give us some details about the machine, mhz, hard drive, memory, etc. good luck lynn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 Get out of the Dell thing... Sometimes these damn' proprietary systems won't let you add/delete/replace components very gracefully, and then there you sit with a system you can't alter/upgrade/tinker with very well. Get a good video card when you re-build (which you should do if you're determined to continue 'gaming' on it). Lynn is right; make sure you have PLENNNNNTTTTYYY of RAM. PC's are NOT steaming piles of s**t if you build them right. Talk to someone (employ a consultant or known friendly, knowledgeable geek) and plan for a better system that will do what YOU need it to do. If you lived in Eugene I'd be on your front doorstep in five minutes....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 PC's are steaming piles of shit. The PC has been a work in progress for two and a half decades and still uses the same crappy architecture as Rev. 0. and I get to play musical interrupts when installing new hardware. Not only is the hardware outdated garbage, MS killed or altered some fantastically wonderful features. I'm stuck with Winhell's MORONIC memory caching BS. The former stupidity KILLED the ramdisk, the most incredibly useful thing ever. There is NOTHING better than running an app totally out of ram. We're talking SMOKING performance. I'm stuck slogging throught the unneeded disaster known as the Registry - which replaced the incredibly useful, benign, and manageable (and understandable) .ini file. Run! Run away while you can... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 Get out of the Dell thing... Sometimes these damn' proprietary systems won't let you add/delete/replace components very gracefully, and then there you sit with a system you can't alter/upgrade/tinker with very well. Dell's are open architecture. Just like building your own, but they do the work! They're really very good about it to, IF you know what you want! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 Sounds like a PC is like an off the shelf 1911. Running games or editing video would be like shooting Open with it, or the Bianchi Cup. Software, memory, speed....equates to ammo, mags, grip & stance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gun Geek Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 Hmmm, how about this: Option 1: HK, Glock (sorta), Mac Does what it does out of the box, works great, always, if you follow instructions exactly. If you want it to do more you have to by another (different) one. Expensive to start with, must buy parts from the original manufacturer/namesake. Get used to "not designed to do that, so don't ask" Get out of the Dell thing... Sometimes these damn' proprietary systems won't let you add/delete/replace components very gracefully, and then there you sit with a system you can't alter/upgrade/tinker with very well. I would have said that about a Mac! Option 2: 1911 of any flavor, wintel Holds out the promise of great performance, often doesn't meet that promise, very flexible, lots of 3rd part parts, lots of manufacturers, can go into major death jams, fun to tinker with. So many options you don't know what you really want to do. Get used to "I can make it do that, it will be $XX" OK, I'm into stream of con thinking today... "Steaming pile of shit" - very vivid image! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 John, WE're in the HATE forum --- I HATE my Dell LAPTOP at the moment! Stop reading here if you're not interested in suggestions: If you are, whether they're MAC or PC related, there are people on these boards who can help you out with fixing your problems, whether they involve fixing/upgrading the 8200 or making the switch to MACs, or doing both --- because you're paying attention to my two cents: Some games can be the the invention of the devil as far as making previously reliable PCs run like crap after they're installed. If you're serious about gaming, and want to stay on the PC side of things for maximum selection, dedicate a computer to just gaming. Rehab your 8200 for that if you can --- or buy a box built for gaming. If you decide to rehab/upgrade the 8200 for games, then decide whether you're sticking with PCs or changing to MACs for the e-mail, photo and video editing. I've used personally owned PCs and company owned MACs for all my photo needs professionally for the last decade or so. If it wasn't for the cash I've got tied up in applications, iTunes, iPhoto, and iMovie would be enough to make me switch in a heartbeat.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoNsTeR Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 You know the deep, dark secret of hardcore computer guys? We hate computers worse than anyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benos Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 Ditto to Chet's reply. Get a Mac and never look back. be Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Dunn Posted August 18, 2004 Author Share Posted August 18, 2004 Thanks for the replies, when I bought it, it had the best video card for gaming available on the option list. I haven't played a game on it in over a year, because I got sick of buying games that subsequently wouldn't work. I bought a Playstation 2 that I don't like as well as computer gaming, haven't played with that in months, but it does actually work. I'm not doing any massive editing, just digital Photos of my kids, and I hope to create an edited DVD of some home movies. We are having the local computer store geniuses out to fix the PC, I think I'll let my 4 year old play on that, start looking at Macs. PC's are steaming piles of shit Right on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geezer-lock Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 You know the deep, dark secret of hardcore computer guys?We hate computers worse than anyone. What we hate are PC's. We LOVE computers, real computers. Anything with command line! geezer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D.Hayden Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 You know the deep, dark secret of hardcore computer guys?We hate computers worse than anyone. Monster... I have to turn you in for telling.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diehli Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 Would it help if I said I hated your computer, too? Mac, baby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter Grrl Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 You know the deep, dark secret of hardcore computer guys?We hate computers worse than anyone. It's not the computers - it's the software and the damned idiots that write it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shipster Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 It's not the computers - it's the software and the damned idiots that write it! Right on Shooter Grrl. The best bet is to leave the games to X-BOX or Sony Playstation, because games are hell on computers. Eight years ago I stopped all games from being loaded on the home computers. If the kids or myself wanted a game you bought it for the Playstation. Ever since then (I've lost count of the number of computers I've owned) I have been trouble free. Games on computers are EEeeeevil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiG Lady Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 Hey, all my computers were just fine until Windows 98 came along!!!! I stuck my tongue out at Win Me, shrugged my shoulders at Win 2000, and fully embraced (for lack of better term) Win XP. I've got a better system now than ever. But not having built the system last December quite fully by myself (I actually knew very little about it at that time)(the geeky trend on my part came right afterwards), I'd have done some of the components differently NOW. But I was adamant about XP even at that time. Win 98 was killing my system. Even though I work with some 'big' softwares (Photoshop, QuarkXpress, some Macromedia stuff, and graphic imagery files), I've just never had much trouble with my PC (except for the aforementioned OS). I'm getting ready to add more RAM (no big deal), but that's about all.... for now. Heh-heh. I refuse to get into a Mac-vs-PC war. It's as pointless as an American presidential election. I think the point to be made here is that games put stress on normal computers and should be relegated to dedicated computers or their own game device format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 I refuse to get into a Mac-vs-PC war. It's as pointless as an American presidential election. I think the point to be made here is that games put stress on normal computers and should be relegated to dedicated computers or their own game device format.[/color] I agree completely. Games should be on a dedicated computer. The advantage that I see in current MACs for people who don't need or want to deal with apps like Photoshop, is that the folks at Apple have made it really easy with iTunes, iMovie, and iPhoto. The biggest draw there for me is iTunes --- it simply rocks! About ten of us in the office have loaded one of the computers with about 100 different CDs --- and we're all enjoying being exposed to each other's music.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooter Posted August 18, 2004 Share Posted August 18, 2004 Not trying to start a PC vs. Mac war either. But here's some interesting reading. We all know most graphic artists and photographers use Mac because they are faster at running programs like Photoshop. Well here's a comparison between 2 high end PC vs. 2 high end Mac. This was done by professional photographers. http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_pag...cid=7-6451-6410 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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