Tue Apr 30 02:27:32 2002
Did you get my avatar from your iBook's space screen saver?
11
Tue Apr 30 17:14:06 2002
He hasn't posted for ages, though, so I'm glad someone else picked up the avatar in his absence.
Tue Apr 30 22:36:07 2002
Wed May 1 11:26:00 2002
M.
Wed May 1 14:09:09 2002
Wed May 1 14:18:26 2002
Wed May 1 14:43:04 2002
Wed May 1 17:26:26 2002
Wed May 1 18:41:38 2002
He shall help Magus keep his sanity :)
Wed May 1 18:50:44 2002
M.
Wed May 1 19:16:23 2002
Postcount ++
Yes.
Wed May 1 20:25:28 2002
Wed May 1 20:32:22 2002
Wed May 1 20:42:42 2002
Wed May 1 20:44:17 2002
"Maybe" I'd say "yes" to buying a faster PC if the PC companies, as a whole, had some clue that quality is important(Compaq, Gateway, HP) but "no", most don't seem to.
m.
Wed May 1 23:01:55 2002
Wed May 1 23:05:47 2002
Build it, and he will come.................
Wed May 1 23:08:45 2002
from AllYorBaseRBelong2Us posted at 1:41 pm on May 1, 2002Thanks, AYB.
AYB is silly :)He shall help Magus keep his sanity :)
Wed May 1 23:25:57 2002
from AllYorBaseRBelong2Us posted at 4:05 pm on May 1, 2002
yesBuild it, and he will come.................
I doubt anyone could get *that* excited about building a new PC. I know I never have.
Thu May 2 00:12:32 2002
Thu May 2 11:54:48 2002
Madan avoids that.
M.
Thu May 2 12:38:23 2002
Thu May 2 15:00:26 2002
from Madan posted at 7:54 am on May 2, 2002
Madan afraid of IRQs, BIOS and other non-Mac-related material.
Madan worries too much about things that will rarely, if ever, affect him. Or do you still worry about extension conflicts as well? ;)
Thu May 2 15:03:00 2002
Thu May 2 15:18:16 2002
Thu May 2 18:25:58 2002
Madan afraid of IRQs, BIOS and other non-Mac-related material.
Building your own computer in 2002 is like playing with Lego. You remember Lego? You have a bunch of stuff, and you "click" it so it all fits together, and then you press the power button and it goes "beep!" and then you install Linux...
Oh wait! That's what you do if you are a total loser with no life! No, you install your nicely pirated non-WPA version of Windows XP, and you live happily ever after.
Thu May 2 19:13:48 2002
Not ancient dusty stuff mind you, just old enough that the OS is newer.
Thu May 2 19:54:10 2002
Thu May 2 20:30:04 2002
I've been worrying for nothing?
But, how do I know all the pieces will work?
M.
Thu May 2 20:33:47 2002
You can try asking on ARS but you'll probably just get a lot of noise.
And like I said, don't buy the absolute latest thing.
Thu May 2 20:46:41 2002
dual P3 850s
Super Micro P6DBE
512MB Crucial SDRAM
Pioneer 116x DVD
NEC (can't remember model, will check) CDRW
Hercules Game Theater XP
Elsa Gladiac GeForce II MX
Netgear FA311
2 Western Digital 7200 drives totaling 90GB
I'm happy with it.
Thu May 2 21:40:35 2002
But I'm not building one yet.
I'm going to wring my Compaq dry.
Might as well. I payed for the bitch.
M.
Fri May 3 00:43:25 2002
from Madan posted at 4:30 pm on May 2, 2002
So all that crap in A+ books isn't really *that* imp. for PC assembly and setup?
The A+ books (and older tests) cared a lot about old legacy stuff. If you're building a 486 or installing an ISA network card into a Novell server, then it'll be of interest. But since (IMO) 1997, these things just aren't that important. I built a box to run BeOS... A vintage 1997 Intel LX-based motherboard (this predates the champion BX) with dual CPU & dual SCSI, and standard PS/2, USB, serial/parallel... the standard ports you'd find on an ATX mobo. 4 PCI, 2 ISA, AGP. I put in a modem and 2 NICs. Before installing Be, I was contemplating making it a server, so I installed Win2K Server. Did I have any IRQ problems in using either OS? Nope. Never had to worry about it -- IT JUST WORKED. And the only time I accessed the BIOS setup was to make sure that it was configured to boot from the CD before the HD... which it already was by default.
Seriously, you've gotta let the old FUD go. ;)
I've been worrying for nothing?
Well, pretty much, IMO.
But, how do I know all the pieces will work?
Why do you think that they wouldn't?!?
OK, that's probably too generic, because I am aware of people reporting problems with some specific situations. Since I haven't looked at every such situation, I can't comment on them. However, I build dozens of computers a year for me, for friends, for family, for business and for customers. I can honestly tell you that I have not had any hardware incompatibilities. None. I have not had an instance where one piece of hardware just would NOT work with another. Period. End of story.
I have bought both name-brand and no-name stuff over the course of by building history. While I prefer to use products from companies I am familiar with, there are some times when I have to take a chance on parts from (for example) Taiwanese companies I've never heard of. But you know what? This stuff works. I don't know how else I can explain it. I guess if it's built to spec (wrt slots) and has drivers for your OS, it'll work. I guess that's why these companies make products, but that could just be wild speculation. ;)
Hell, even with all the people that complain about Creative Labs' sound cards, I've been running an OEM SB Live! Value for 3+ years now -- in several P2/P3/Athlon boxes that I've built for myself. It's still going strong, and hasn't NOT worked with any other hardware I've ever used. The only older part I have in my system is my HP keyboard, which I've been using since 1998.