I hate my Computer

[DJPoLo]

I refuse to get into a Mac-vs-PC war.

I agree with you here. While I am a long-time Mac Evangelist, I have five XP machines. And as long as I keep them off the internet, they BLOW AWAY my Macs in terms of performance versus price.

-Chet

[George]

Hi John,

There is a big truth in computing that goes “No machine stays well over the long run when you install new stuff all of the time“. The old mainframe philosophy was that “changers” should be shot on sight.

I will weigh in on the “games are best left to dedicated hardware” side of things. I might even suggest a machine dedicated to PC gaming and another one left alone to do the serious computer stuff. That way you can still go online for tech support when a new game install takes down the fun machine.

Even though I am a Mac preferrer, I believe your game desires will not be satisfied with the sparse catalog of OSX Mac games out there, but I do believe you will have every other desire you have fulfilled on the Mac platform and very reliably too.

The gaming disparity is the real hole in the deal though and I would advise you talk to a good Mac head before jumping into a new paradigm feet first. Feel free to PM me with any specific questions.

Regards,

--

Geoff

[jhgtyre]

Rack up another vote for running seperate machines for each task. I have 5 computers running at home and the one I use every day is the slowest one. It is also the one that I change the least. This combination has resulted in a stable platform for something like 5 years. My gaming computer, a slow poke by current standards, gets wiped on ocassion just to clean up the detrius from all the installing and uninstalling that I do on it.

-ld

[MoNsTeR]

What we hate are PC's. We LOVE computers, real computers. Anything with command line!

Bah, I can hate Unix too Yesterday I transitioned my Linux box from and old-going-on-vintage hard drive to a shiny new RAIDset and it went... slightly less than smoothly.

What really makes Unix suck though are the users/administrators. 'Course, that goes for Windows and Mac too

[raz-0]

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.

No, dells are NOT open architecture. Dell actually does stupid things like.. oh... usinga standard ATX 20 pin wpoer connector, but swapping all the pinouts. Net result is that if you buy a replacement ATX PSU and plug it in you will fry the machine (and quite possibly the PSU).

The real kicker is that dell doesn't do this with every machine, so you ahve to knwo what revision and make of dell you ahve to buy your own replacement part.

Dell boxes are OK, but you should generally consider the only reliably upgradeable part to be the RAM.

Dells use the x86 architecture, which is open, but that is the architecture for the computing part of it. Actual form factor and pin in/outs and whatnot they get a bit odd at times.

As to the original poster, if you REALLY want painless gaming, get a gaming console. It will cost you less in the long run, and there are no compatibility issues to concern yourself with. AS for a computer, they aren't idiot proof. If you want a painless computing experience, buy a new one every year, or learn something about keeping nasty things off your machine (don't think of it as being a mechanic, but rather knowing how to gas it up, top off the wiper fluid, and buy new tires). The other thing you will have to learn (especially in this day and age), is that heat = bad. Heat kills capacitors and causes electron migration in todays ultra micornized CPUs and high speed ram. You wind up with some basic issues like owning a cat measn you need to know how to open up your case and vaccuume out the spare cat regularly or your computer will die young.

And I don't know what spyware program you used, but the free version of ad aware and spybot search and destroy do NOT nag you. There are also some programs out there pretending to be spyware cleaners that are in actuality spyware themselves.

Oh yeah, and never use IE or outlook if you can avoid it. Just because it is there doesn't mean you ahve to use it. Firefox and opera are very viable alternatives. For mail, I like the bat, but thunderbird is free and quite capable.

[shred]

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.

No, dells are NOT open architecture. Dell actually does stupid things like.. oh... usinga standard ATX 20 pin wpoer connector, but swapping all the pinouts. Net result is that if you buy a replacement ATX PSU and plug it in you will fry the machine (and quite possibly the PSU)..

Which system was that?

Standards are what Dell does. Makes things cheaper if you can buy them from multiple sources and make them compete against each other for business.

They've done some odd things over the years now and again (particularly in Servers), but non-standard parts for non-standard parts sake went out in like 1992 or so. What's in there might not match whatevers in the back of Radio Shack ("Fits all PC's"), but proprietary is unlikely.

[raz-0]

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.

No, dells are NOT open architecture. Dell actually does stupid things like.. oh... usinga standard ATX 20 pin wpoer connector, but swapping all the pinouts. Net result is that if you buy a replacement ATX PSU and plug it in you will fry the machine (and quite possibly the PSU)..

Which system was that?

Standards are what Dell does. Makes things cheaper if you can buy them from multiple sources and make them compete against each other for business.

They've done some odd things over the years now and again (particularly in Servers), but non-standard parts for non-standard parts sake went out in like 1992 or so. What's in there might not match whatevers in the back of Radio Shack ("Fits all PC's"), but proprietary is unlikely.

for a 3rd party's tale of shock and dismay go here.

http://www.upgradingandrepairingpcs.com/ar...rade3_01_01.asp

for someone selling the adapter, go here.

http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/dellconverter.html

With todays current crop of video cards often needing additional power connecters to be hooked up to them form the PSU, and sufficient juice on the 12v or 5v rails, you may not be able to upgrade your video card without getting around issues of upgrading the CPU.

Then you have socket standards that dell may or may not adhere to. Like provideing standard mounting options or respecting processor manufacturer clearances. This mainly has to do with them doing their best to keep things quiet using ducted cooling. It's not a bad thing, but it means even though you could slap a faster CPU in there, you may not be able to go out and buy a properly rated heatsink for it. Additionally, even if you can, the dell BIOS are far from the industry norms as far as flexibility and adjustments allowed. So even if the cooling solution can take it, you may not be able to adjust other necessary settings.

Then you have things like slot specs. AGP specs even include such things as how high capacitors can be within a certain distance of the slot, and how far surface mount components and cooling solutions can protrude off of the video card on either side. Dell may or may not respect these standards. They won't have problems fitting any of the components they sourced, but buying off the shelf upgrades might leave you between a rock and a hard place. Unfortunately dell is being joined by a few motherboard makers in not quite getting these types of specs correct in order to shave a few pennies here and there.

Is their ATX power connector an ATX power connector? maybe, maybe not, depends on which model.

Is their AGP slot a real to spec AGP slot? maybe, maybe not. Depends on which revision of which model. Does it matter? depends on what video card you are trying to put in there.

Is their socket 478 a real to spec socket 478? the pin in/outs match, sure enough, but a socket 478 compliant eatsink may not fit.

Then you have proprietary riser card interfaces add-ons like modems, network, or sound, which has been a bain of OEMs in the PC making biz for a while, although it seems to be fading with the advent of more motherboards packing on lots of integrated stuff.

Dell makes a decent computer. However, part of what you pay for is 1) not to have to muck around with those bits in there and 2) calling up dell whenever a bit in there breaks. It caters to those two items and and doesn't care about being friendly for those who wish to do otherwise.