Com-pu-ter?

[motorbyclist]

Insert Honda ownership there and look in the mirror...

i do also own a yamaha; the honda equivalent was far too pricey and imho the yamaha better suits my requirements

Mate windows rocks. Problems? Pfft.
Windows 7 is an absolute delight to use.

+1

well.... I am a bit annoyed at how they've hidden everything remotely technical (ie, useful) behind endless automagic "oh here, let us fail to diagnose and resolve a problem that you already know the cause and solution to"


a lot like steam, it would be great if it was perfect, but it's pretty good if you just give up and submit to their agenda.

[Danae]

Plus it doesn't let you view gifs in picture viewer...]:

[klyong82]

Just got my new quad core at work to play with Windows 7 (64bit). my plan to roll out windows 7 OS for uni computers in 2010....

[Gremlin]

I have never had any problems with any of my AMD processors, despite numerous shots at overclocking and general idiocy.

Having had to set up a few (while mostly using Intel) it was a game, with the combination of dual core drivers (there was 3-5 from memory) for which ones to install, which ones not to install, to actually get good performance from them. Wrong combination, and you had issues with timing, such as time clocks running fast, games playing at warp speed etc. Hence my reference about Intel running right out of the box, no drivers necessary. Perhaps you don't get quite the nth degree of performance, but for customers, I want reliability.

You get a warranty on your parts anyway, no different to having a warranty on the full system

You are tooooo funny. Now try having shops blame various independent components, or manufacturers refusing to accept the return blaming the problem on another part (and that manufacturer is saying the same thing). Sure, a lot of problems can be tested, memtest for ram etc, I'm talking about the problems that aren't that easy. I've even had faulty memory fly through memtest, then fail at compression.

My i7 system has been great (first one so far), but I've stayed with XP, running 64 bit instead.

[The Stranger:Me]

Get a mac.

Buy a honda.

[The Stranger:Me]

I have never had any problems with any of my AMD processors, despite numerous shots at overclocking and general idiocy.

Hmm, and in the last 10yrs how many have you sold, used or serviced?
Other than a 2 x 486 processors (more than 10yrs ago of course) having had their cache fail (which were probably made by AMD for Intel at that stage anyway) the only other Intel processor failures I have seen have been due to improperly installed/failed heatsinks (usually the former on home built systems).
Lost count of the number of AMD processors that have fried and/or otherwise failed, but it way way exceeds the Intel failures.

[Squiggles]

so he has to pay for two operating systems

Back to engineering for you i think...

[Slyer]

Hmm, and in the last 10yrs how many have you sold, used or serviced?
Other than a 2 x 486 processors (more than 10yrs ago of course) having had their cache fail (which were probably made by AMD for Intel at that stage anyway) the only other Intel processor failures I have seen have been due to improperly installed/failed heatsinks (usually the former on home built systems).
Lost count of the number of AMD processors that have fried and/or otherwise failed, but it way way exceeds the Intel failures.

Yeah, usually everything else dies before the processor does.
The only broken Intel I've had is where I did a stupid thing and manged to bend one of the pins...
But socket 775 sorted that didn't they.

[Reckless]

decide on what processor you want, then choose the mobo then choose the video card, then choose the powersupply then get as much ram as you can afford.

My CAd people would disagree and I thought I'd read here that engineering CAD was going to be one of its uses. My Cad tech's have been saying not how much but how fast. They ware urging all of us to look at the speeds of the chip, ram and motherboard together for a faster machine. Hence the reason I went for 6 gig CL2000 ram over 12 gig of 12800. this made sense now I have it as I'm seldom using the full 6 gig. Even when 3d rendering with several other applications running.

A package computer from whoever, even if its just the tower, is going to be better for most people out there.

Why? Because when it has a problem, you have a warranty (or at least, you should have got one) and really... for your average computer, the tower is not more expensive than building your own.:

I agree gremlin and thats not including the productive time/money you waste building it. I looked at the prices of the i7 920, motherboard, 2 x GTX270, 1 x EVGA9500GT-PCI(to run the third monitor) and a few other bits and pieces on Pricespy and decided to spend the extra $300 or so on a custom build from a specialist gaming rig shop. I wanted to overclock the i7 to 3.6 and wanted them to do it at the shop so they had to get the cooling right etc. As said I have built all my previous computers but looks like the parts margins have gone up and the complete builds have come down. I built just under top spec to get the reasonable prices and didn't do to bad??? The guy at computer lounge said I could have spent another $2000 and gained only 10 or 20%. You tech guys probably buy a lot cheaper but I don't have any friendly doors open into that arena.
So if your looking at a CAD or business rig look at how fast the bits will preform together as well as how big you go in numbers 6 gig fast might be better than 12 gig slower??
Although I do not profess to be any kind of expert in this area!!

BTW always ran Intel chips over the last 12 years and never had a problem. And Nvidia vs Ati. Was always a Nvidia man but have had no problem with my last rig with an overclocked ATI dual head card running two of the monitors and a Fx5500 card in it either. Although I'm back to Nvidia now as they reckon SLI is a better than crossfire at this stage.

[The Pastor]

My CAd people would disagree and I thought I'd read here that engineering CAD was going to be one of its uses. My Cad tech's have been saying not how much but how fast. They ware urging all of us to look at the speeds of the chip, ram and motherboard together for a faster machine. Hence the reason I went for 6 gig CL2000 ram over 12 gig of 12800. this made sense now I have it as I'm seldom using the full 6 gig. Even when 3d rendering with several other applications running.



I agree gremlin and thats not including the productive time/money you waste building it. I looked at the prices of the i7 920, motherboard, 2 x GTX270, 1 x EVGA9500GT-PCI(to run the third monitor) and a few other bits and pieces on Pricespy and decided to spend the extra $300 or so on a custom build from a specialist gaming rig shop. I wanted to overclock the i7 to 3.6 and wanted them to do it at the shop so they had to get the cooling right etc. As said I have built all my previous computers but looks like the parts margins have gone up and the complete builds have come down. I built just under top spec to get the reasonable prices and didn't do to bad??? The guy at computer lounge said I could have spent another $2000 and gained only 10 or 20%. You tech guys probably buy a lot cheaper but I don't have any friendly doors open into that arena.
So if your looking at a CAD or business rig look at how fast the bits will preform together as well as how big you go in numbers 6 gig fast might be better than 12 gig slower??
Although I do not profess to be any kind of expert in this area!!

BTW always ran Intel chips over the last 12 years and never had a problem. And Nvidia vs Ati. Was always a Nvidia man but have had no problem with my last rig with an overclocked ATI dual head card running two of the monitors and a Fx5500 card in it either. Although I'm back to Nvidia now as they reckon SLI is a better than crossfire at this stage.

cads on the extreem end of things tho mate.

[metalhead]

i suggest you check out www.pricespy.co.nz when you findout the parts you want, it takes all the work out of shoppiing around

[Slyer]

Pricespy is good, but unless it's a lot cheaper you should try to get it all at one place. Makes things a lot easier.

[bogan]

Pricespy is good, but unless it's a lot cheaper you should try to get it all at one place. Makes things a lot easier.

yeh a lot of those online place charge quite a bit for shipping and handling, ive even had one that led me to beleive it was gonna be free, my order confirmation even had $0 shipping charge, turns out buried in all the fine print it said shipping charges were calculated on dispatch, doubled the cost of my usb hub.

[Dare]

Pricespy is good, but unless it's a lot cheaper you should try to get it all at one place. Makes things a lot easier.

That's true, these guys are pretty good generally http://www.extremepc.co.nz/ I wouldn't order online from them though there's a bit of a delay. Ordering from overseas is much cheaper even after shipping and conversion, i'd use newegg for their prices but there's almost no way to get it shipped here.

Trademe can be very good but it's about getting lucky, so unless you want the best of the best component for component package systems are a pretty good starting point. Quadro wasn't that much better at higher polys than the equivalent geforce (for costing 5X the price) and you could flash the drivers anyway.

GPU processing is being used more and more in 3D software/rendering so if nothing else I'd max out on motherboard, ram and graphics card(s),Not sure what the situation is in CAD. Intel is a good brand but I can't remember the last time top of the range vs cheap mid range CPU made that much of a noticeable difference in average tasks. What kind of CAD are you looking at?

Interesting point, windows 7 64/32 installs are more stable than the linux in the lounge and the imacs at uni, although we have tortured those pretty badly.

[motorbyclist]

windows 7 even has age of empires II and the conquerors expansion!