Anyone have any suggestions about what brand (excluding Dell) of PC would be a good one to order? I need a new PC to be able to play <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" />. (Building my own is not an option since I still have not figured out how to set the time on my vcr without the 800 number).

hello nightmares,

u might want to check these websites for reviews on PCs;

http://www.tomshardware.com
http://www.anandtech.com

of course there are pc magazines that u can check out for reviews & such. i hope these help. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

it matters what price range, i know of many good ones, just need to know what ramge to tel you.

I have an Alienware PC. A bit pricey, but they fully check every last little thing on it. I've had it for 2 years now and i've had exactly ZERO problems with it. Pure gaming Bliss! I am so in love with my computer...did I say that out loud?

Alienware

Thanks I will check out the sites.

Hmmm, price range. Guess it depends on the PC.
The one I just cancelled the order for was going to be around $3300, but after the third shipping delay (this one until the end of this month), I deceided it was time to look at something else.

Is the Alienware PC a desktop or notebook?

Either or I think. Mine is a desktop, but I'm pretty sure they do laptops.

they do. i recommend if your going to spend that much a Alienware. try the extreme one out, maybe edit it, or the medium one, edit it. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

i recommend the aurora. cheaper than the one you cancelled, and edit it to probably better too.

You guys are absolutely crasy buying PCs for 3000$-3300$ .
None computer has to cost more than 2000$ even with ultra new video card for approx 600$. At least until you decide to pay for something absolutely useless, like this supar-alien design.

true, it's only good if you can afford it and WANT the design.. otherwise i'd say invest in parts instead of design

$3300 than I suggest a G5
Well you can't play BD as well but it's realy chic <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

if you can't play <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> then it's essentially useless.....
and 3300 for a useless comp is just <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/stupid.gif" alt="" />

might as well buy <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> & put it on your living room shelf for show only. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

it's best to learn how to assemble your own rig. it's cheaper in the short & long runs as in short, u save quite a bit by not paying installation fees & in the long, u maintain & troubleshoot without paying anybody to do so.

try Tom's Hardware as they have quite a lot of tutorials on assembling your own rig. heck, even videos i think.

I built my own rig several times. It always had problems that I would eventually work out, but to me its just not worth the hassle! You get what you pay for, and Alienware checks every last little detail. I guess it all depends on your tolerance for B.S. I, myself, have a very low tolerance! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

While building your own is a great idea for some but, for the technically challenged people of the world like me, it would actually be a more costly alternative. Buying a new pre-made PC costs around 3300, building one costs the price of the parts, the time trying to put them together, and the cost of a pre-made PC after I ruined all the parts in my attempt to assembly them.

I will check out the Alien PC's. I had bypassed those in my initial look at PC's due to the bad reviews I read about them (and not knowing anyone that had one).


Thanks for the help

You read bad reviews about Alienware? I'd really like to see these reviews!

P.S. Your sig rocks!

same here, can't imagine the alienware PC's having bad reviews

Hm I wish I could affors to buy an 'Alienware' PC here in Oz <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />
Cause I have never read anything bad about them, so yeah if you have the money, don't wanna build one yourself, "Go Alien" <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1650-p3-s1-d1.html

While the site has some positvie comments on the Alienware PC's there seem to be a lot with problems and issues.

Well, to be honest, I was not impressed by their customer service, but my system has never had a problem. Maybe I just got lucky, but my next computer will be Alienware! I hope that doesn't make me a fanboi! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

for those who still want to try building their own system(s), u can also check out Adrenaline Vault for DIY guide on building one's own PC. pretty useful.

Btw, have any of you guys tried using PC with water cooling?

As for me it can be a bit <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/offtopic.gif" alt="" /> but I don't want to create a new thread just about it. My super video card now travelles into the works of the manufacturer. Yep, my beloved 3D Prophet Radeon 9700pro is out of order (I think memory is not functioning). Too much playing, eeh. Had hard times proving local dealer that this card was really purchased from him as I lost that tiny receipt, damn and the dealer just don't care. Good that there are written s/n and pn numbers on the card. So, always keep receipts (though maybe these rules apply to our wild eastern countries only)

Why excluding Dell?

Dell was excluded from my list because they have changed, since the last Dell I purchased.
The last 2 Dell's were delivered early, and when I called them there was a real person on the phone that was proficient in English.

After ordering a notebook XPS system on March 13th I got a ship date of March 30th. Sounded great to me. On March 30th I got an automated phone call stating the delivery date had been delayed till April 5th (I hate automated messages). Ok, so April 5th isn’t forever so I would wait. On April 5th I received an automated call telling me the ship date had been changed to April 26th.

I called to complain about this and ask why (since the website as of today is estimating April 16), I got a person who I think may have been speaking English (it was hard to tell). Out of frustration with the changes and fear that on the 26th I would get another call telling me oops did I say 2004 I meant 2005.
I cancelled the order and have no intention of ever purchasing a PC from them again.

That's fair enough. I was going to buy a laptop through Dell, reading that has concerned me, but I will be purchasing the laptop through my school so I won't need to pay VAT, I haven't heard any complaints about delivery from my computer tech as yet so if that is the only problem, then I'll go ahead. There aren't any other problems with Dell are there?

I am on my second pc from Dell and the only problems that I have had we caused by me. Playing in areas that I have no idea about and trying to make changes to them. When I have a problem with software and call tech support the problem gets fixed. Like with the latest thing, got a popup virus and had to do a full clean of my HD and tech support talked me through the reinstall of everything, took over three hours to do. So I have no complaints about Dell.

The two Dell's I have had have been good. Outside of replacing a motherboard in both (also had to do that with my Sony) they have not had any problems.
However, before you buy it you may want to check out some of the message boards at Dell and some of the current reviews. Seems I am not the only one canceling orders lately (about 4 pages of cancellations). There are a lot of reviews that express problems with the service department. I personally had good turnaround on the motherboard replacements.

I just do not do business with companies I feel have intentionally lied to me, and after reading their order status message board it was apparent that the dates I was given when I placed the order were wrong and they knew it.

[color:"orange"] Btw, have any of you guys tried using PC with water cooling? [/color]


Hmm personally i just don't think electronics and water should be combined, then again maybe there are non-conductive liquids available ?

but as I said that's imo <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

sorry i can't help, egin. i have yet 2 venture into water-cooling method for pc. it should be alright & safe enough, if u make sure all joints won't leak (by applying excess amount of silicon glue) & that u have enough liquid to make cooling feasible. i'm sure u have an idea about this. anyway, check out Tom's Hardware for more info on water-cooling. it even has a video on that.

Thank you <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
I will probably just buy low speed vent., to reduce noise.

Btw, today I purchased new HDD, as my old one is about to going to die.
My new one is, Seagate: Barracuda 120Gb (yay instead of 16). I feel happy and <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/stupid.gif" alt="" /> as I have to figure out how to replace them and the most important how to copy all data. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

I am waiting on how the 64 bit processor from AMD pans out. It relativly cool & fast, but hasn't got lot af support (grafical card don't have 64 bit drivers yet, windows XP 64bit is still in bèta, and most software isn't optimised for 64-bit processors), But I think the 64 bit processor is going to catch steam since Intel is also working on a 64 bit processor thats compateble with AMD's and I am not talking about the Itanium from intel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

what i heard of is that if you order the AMD 64bit , you get the beta service pack2 from winxp with it.
on tom's hardware

but my system can handle all th enecesery programs without a problem. and i can take halflife2 on, soo
it will take some time before i upgrade my computer again.

Best hardware site ever <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

No, you can get the Beta for SP2 for free from Microsoft.

What that article means is, that the Athlon 64 supports the NX-Flag (NX = No Execute), wich is used by SP 2 to protect your System, cause it can avoid buffer overflows. The program will just crash with an exception instead of executing malicios code. You don't need an 64 bit operating system, this works on 32 Bit Windows as well, but not on Pentium 4 processors.

hey egin,

what u cn do to transfer your data in your first HD to your new one;

1. connect your new HD to your system via IDE cable (make sure it's master/slave in relation to whatever IDE device [be it another HD or CDROM drive] that connects to the same cable by setting the pin correctly).

2. fire up your system & go into your BIOS setup IF your computer isn't set up initially to auto-detect IDE drives. u can tell that it does when every time your system boots up, it shows that it detects your HD & CDROM drive.

3. if the HD has yet to be partitioned & formatted, u may need to unplug your old drive & let the new one be the only HD in the system. have your boot disk ready to partition & format that new drive. don't go NTFS (if u're using Win2k or WinXP) yet as u need all the partitions in FAT32 for easier (i mean less hassle) file transfer.

4. if it's already partitioned but not formatted, then u can format the drive easily in windows by going to windows explorer, & right-click that new drive, & choose full format. easy wot? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

5. operation drag & drop. do all file transfer u want via windows but to be safe, put the files in the second partition or others. so long as u don't put them in the first.

6. if i don't make any sense, please go to tom's hardware & find out more on installing hard disk drives.

hope that helps. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Yay, Janggut, great info, you always help me out. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

I don't think this HD is partitioned, I am planning to split it into four (?) partitions for easy defrag or whatever operations with HD I need. I am also planning to format at least one partition NTFS, it is slightly slower but more reliable. I am thinking to make C: NTFS, And NTFS is good for working with large files 4+ Gb. As for your tips on installing thew hardware I hope today I will to that sure I will use your post as a manual (I wonder what if I cut this green wire? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/stupid.gif" alt="" /> BOOM.)

As for copying files, erm, I am a bit lazy, I asked is there software that allows you to copy your files as a drive, with all its integral components.
It will make image and copy everything ie sys files, registry etc. Then I don't have to install everything from scrach. But, from other hand it is always good to format and reinstall everything, to free your resources from junk.

Than you Janggut.

[color:"orange"] As for copying files, erm, I am a bit lazy, I asked is there software that allows you to copy your files as a drive [/color]

Hmm there are various "ghosting" programs available, of which IMHO Norton Ghost is probably the best,I also reccomend Partition Magic, as it always seem to come in handy.

As for partitioning large volume drives, I suggest you stick to 20Gb a partion and have C: for your OS, D: for utilities like PSP, Norton etc. E: for Work related files, F: for games and G: for storage.

I also reccomend you do all these partitions in NTFS, as it is far more reliable then FAT32, and sofar I have had no problems playing any games (hmm aside from Ultima 1&2 <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> ) and your drives will be alot more speedy and functional <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Anyways that's my 2 bytes worth <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Sounds like a good idea. I just wish I could understand all of it. I have a 60G HD and would have like it split in thirds, 1 for OS, 1 for Utilities and web pages and 1 for games.

Yeah, I have heard about ghosting progs, but never tried them myself, as I have never tried roll back for winxp for example. Have you tried copy-image your drive? Does this go smooth?



That's an excellent idea, I always thought I have too much space reserved for system and too little for gamezz. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/evilgrin1.gif" alt="" />



Speedy? I have heard many times that FAT32 is much more flexible and speedy. That was the reason I was planning to allocate less space for NTFS.

Goldy I am not sure, but I think you will loose all your data if you decide to partition your drive, as format goes after partitioning.

I have no plans of loosing all data again. Did that when I reformatted about 1.5 months ago already nd that is not fun.

yohoho!!

u're welcome, egin. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

anyway, about ghosting, i wouldn't recommend it. it's painfully slow & re-configuring your system after u successfully transferred your old hard disk image to a new HD will again take quite an amount of time. it's a lot easier to just install a fresh OS on that new HD & then do HD-to-HD file transfer. better have at least one drive in FAT32 so that when u ever need to transfer files from that HD to another system that uses older OS such as Win9x or ME that don't recognise NTFS, that FAT32 partition will be a blessing.

as for goldy, u can still partition your hard drive via a 3rd party software such as partition magic. that software can split your current partition(s) to smaller sizes. yes, even when u have OS & stuff on your HD.

better double-check with Mea about that. that aussie gal knows her stuff. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/up.gif" alt="" />

[color:"orange"] better double-check with Mea about that. that aussie gal knows her stuff. [/color]

You flatterer you long beard <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

But yes basically Janggut is correct, as for his saying keep 1 partition on Fat 32, well I did the first time around too, but after a while it just became a pain, in regards to speed ... hmm like Linux runs on a type of NTFS, so for the non-believers, well linux has (on avarage) about 2 -3 million lines of code, WinXP somewhere along the neighborhood of 80 million lines of code, and considering that, it is amazing that XP works at all, but for that reason only, I would choose NTFS anytime.

@Goldy Janggut is correct in saying that you can partition your drive with data on it, as long as you use Partition Magic or similar, heck I have done it with 3 different OS's installed (on separatePartitions of course)and shifted the various OS's to C: just to see which was more suited to me.

@Egin yes Ghosting is slow (painfully so at times) but safe, whereas moving files from an Old drive to a new drive, after installing the OS, means that any programs you had installed you will have to re-install, so in the long run it takes the same amount of time.

For instance on my Utility drive I have something like 50 -60 programs installed and to re-install them update them to current versions is well a nightmare <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

However it is up to you, 1 more thing Partition Magic is basically made for dummies (no insult intended) so it is extremely easy to use just follow the prompts <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Oh and if you look around you can probably fins a 30 day trial demo either on the net or on a magazine disk <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

yay, Janggut and Mea thank you <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Now I see that even after you image-copy you still have to adjust many things like registry, file pathes and even reinstall programs. Thats a headache and I think in this case it is more possible that errors occur such as driver or file pathes conflicts. Is is safer just to install everything from beginning.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

@Egin
That is a good point and I am glad you made it. It is to much of a hassel for me so I am going to leave my HD the way it is.

Yay, you may congratulate me, I am sitting behind fresh and renewed system. Did it today, there are still lots of programs to be installed however. Couldn't find drivers for my sound, and now I have zero games installed. Imagine, there is just five shortcuts on my desktop <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

Everything went fine except partitioning and formatting with Seagate software from the official site. Crap.
But, finally I was rewarded, now my machine works like a dynamo <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Thank you all for support and wise words. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

PS Damn, I hate my new keyboard. There is sleep button right next to r-shift. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/memad.gif" alt="" />

[color:"orange"] I hate my new keyboard. There is sleep button right next to r-shift. [/color]

Why use the sleep function anyway, just disable it, it is in Help& support somewhere or else under power management <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Thank you Mea. Yes, I will disable it, stupid button. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/devil.gif" alt="" />

water is a nonconductive liquid

[color:"orange"]water is a nonconductive liquid [/color]

your kiddin me? so what happened to my distributor in my car when it got soaked ???

So its safe to take the TV into the bathtub with me? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

No, take a heater in case the water gets cold.

Its the impurities in the water that make it conduct, pure water won't conduct electricity

I think Muskrat is right. Distilled water simply doesn't conduct electricity. But I think that tapwater does. Which is why you shouldn't drop your non-waterproof radio in the bathtub.

Anyway, getting back to the subject. If I may recommend something is that you wait for PCI-express motherboards, with DDR2 RAM slots. PCI-Express is going to replace AGP, which is where your graphics card goes. It would be a shame if you wanted to upgrade your computer next year, only to find out that your motherboard is outdated, and that you need a new one.

Also, another suggestion: Get a 64bit processor by AMD(but don't forget the matching 64bit motherboard), not only are they super fast, they're relatively cheap too. And once Microsoft releases a 64 bit version of Windows, you'll be able to use it to it's full extent.

I believe the Athalon64 3000+ is currently the best processor in terms of perfomance/price.

permit me to say a few words of caution.

don't jump on the technological wagon that fast. & that means u too, tovi. for your own good, that is. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

if anybody remembers DDR400 RAM technology which went commercial sometime last year, it wasn't as good on board (by that i mean real life) as on paper. firstly, it wasn't stable (prone to noise probs due to it running at very high frequency) & secondly u couldn't have more than two of those RAMs on your motherboard. the overall signal noise generated will cause your system to be very unstable. 3rdly, it's not as fast as expected. in another words; over-hyped. do check out reviews done in Tom's Hardware on DDR400 RAMs & motherboards, especially the early adopters.

which is why i'm still on Win Me & not on the Win XP wagon yet. not that Win Me is that good but i don't want my hard disk to chug like my old '65 opel kadett when bloated with Win XP. maybe i'll wait for SP3 or SP4 before jumping on that unstable wagon.

anyway, PCI express looks & sets to be the next generation for graphics port but not without hiccups. same thing goes with 64-bit whatever (processors, RAMs, HDs, motherboards, etc). let the technology get mature & stable before going for it. same thing also applies for people who set their eyes on DVD home theatre systems. DVD technology has yet to mature as well. u can see manufacturers are toying with propriety technologies (sony, toshiba, chinese companies, etc). in the future u'll see blue-ray DVD, HD-DVD, double-sided DVD, DVD-RAM of assorted technologies, etc.

so u see it doesn't really pay to be the early adopter.

my $0.02 by-product.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/offtopic.gif" alt="" /> Check out the big old brain on Muskrat! Yeah, he's right though. Pure water will actually vapourise before it conducts. A tiny, tiny imbalance in pH or ion content will dramatically increase the conductive potential.

My advice on PC buying, get a new one! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

[color:"orange"] Check out the big old brain on Muskrat! Yeah, he's right though. Pure water will actually vapourise before it conducts. A tiny, tiny imbalance in pH or ion content will dramatically increase the conductive potential. [/color]

Okay so now that we are full circle, I don't think it is a good idea to use water and electronics together <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

As I have a very sure feeling that "pure Water"is awesomely expensive <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

It shouldn't be that expensive. To create it, all you have to do is heat it, cool it, and catch it in a big ol' bucket. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

i think it'll be easier to just buy that water. anybody heard of distilled water for your car battery? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

Sorry folks we are talking about "Pure Water" not distilled or boiled but pure, as in nothing nada nix but water <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Its actually not that expensive. About 30 bucks for 1L water from the aldrich chemical company. Conductivity <2x10e-6 S/m. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
That's fairly pure, most ions in there are less than 1 part per billion.

And tomorrow's useless fact will be...

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />