New Computer

[Volk]

My current machine is a Dell, and I've had it for 4 years now. I don't have a major problem with Dell, I just wanted to get more machine for less money. Plus, with my experience with Dells, they are less customizable if you want to upgrade certain parts.

The Army uses pretty much all Dell computers from what I've seen, so I have used a LOT of Dells in these past 5 1/2 years.

[Ziprar]

I'd get a Dell if I needed a whole bunch of machines or had to support more that 2 or 3, but for home purposes I just like the customizability of home-built.  We'll see after I've been in it for 8 more years if you're right Volnar.

As it is, after reading about the issues with the board I was using, I figured it'd be best to just switch to a different board.  2 of the RAM slots caused lockups, plus it would lock up when I was playing around in the BIOS a lot, both before and after I flashed it.

[gr0n]

Yeah, I used to be in the "less money, more upgradeable" camp as well, but over the years I found that about the only thing I could keep when I did a major upgrade every 3 or 4 years was the case (if that).  These days the biggest part of the machine that needs upgraded more frequently (for games) is the video card, which I buy separately anyway, and it doesn't matter if you plug it into a Dell or a home-brew.  Tweaking/customizing the base system accounts for a much smaller percentage of realized performance increase while gaming these days, whereas GPU tweaking seems to be where it's at.  Not too long ago that wasn't so much the case (Celeron 300a, 667 FTW!!!).  Also, The XPS machines are just about as upgradeable as a custom built machine too (not including mobo/psu).

With various discounts and whatnot I can get a similarly spec'd Dell (XPS, etc) machine for the same price that I could build a system for, and while I used to get a huge amount of satisfaction from building my own, I really don't have the time/energy/enthusiasm I once had to do all the research necessary to make a system that is 100% stable.  I'll let Dell do that R&D.

I'm actually kind of jealous of you guys who are still building systems...or maybe nostalgic is the more appropriate term.  Keep on rockin' the home-brew!

[thrun]

I built the very first PC I ever owned (around 99.) I am a late bloomer to the tech game since my parents are ludites.  I bought my last one and will probably never build again.  The cost is about the same at this point and the made to order pc's manufactures don't load your comp down with a bunch of software you'll never use like some of the big box manufactures tend to.

[Redbear8]

I'll keep building them so long as the money isn't more than a prebuilt (of the same quality/power) and I enjoy doing it. I can see myself being in gr0n's shoes one day though. At some point it just won't be worth the hassle.

[Ziprar]

Exactly.  It's more satisfying to me, like a hobby.  Since I don't have to build 'em at work, it's part of the fun of computing for me.  Now, if I had to do this all day every day...

[gr0n]

I was the same way for a long time.  So I completely understand.  More power to you guys!!!

[Jim Tressel]

I hate computers.

[Snackcakes]

I hate computers.

It's just a fad.

[Volk]

Well, I now know the Army also uses a lot of HP computers, both laptop and towers. I'm in a computer lab right now that has 16 HPs in the one room, and there are 2 more rooms with just as many. They are a little slow at times, but that might also be the military internet connection. For some reason we were connected from Germany to Ft. Sam Huston as our hub, when we have another hub 4 hours drive away. Oh well.

I'll probably do home-made compouters for the next couple times, but I don't plan on upgrading the whole system anytime soon, maybe in a few years. I need to save for a second vehicle first.

[Volk]

I think I might add this to my rig as well. It's pretty affordable. PC EZBake Oven

[Ziprar]

Alright, this is crazy.  So I swapped out mobos on Volk's new machine because the original one was a piece of shit.  When I went to set up the RAID, I must've connected the hard drives just right.  The damn thing booted off of the RAID array before I made any changes and went into the Vista installation I had set up using the old mobo.  That's fucked up right there.

[Volk]

So, is that a good thing, or a bad thing?

[Ziprar]

It's an interesting thing.  It means everything's working well so far.  Just gotta wipe and reinstall to avoid driver issues and then add the other 2 GB of RAM.  If that works, next step is to send it to you.

[Volk]

YAY!!!!!!!

I mean, um, that's great. Good job, yeah.