god damn f&#%ing PC
Out of context: Reply #24
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- Boz0
iDp,
here's an advice with total honesty:
1st. OSX is less pain in the ass simple because it doesn't have registry like Windows XP, everything else is pretty much the same thing with one difference, it looks nicer, though it does impact system performance here and there on Dual G5 2.0 with all the GUI stuff. A lot of people I know turn off fancy GUI working on Macs. With Windows XP just install the software you work with and don't install shareware and stuff like that. Just keep it professional as you would on a Mac. You will have no problems with registry bloat or anything stability wise. If you really want to install something install it on that other PC you'll have as a file server or print server once you buy new computer. Trust me, this is the best way to make your PC computing an incredible joy. Everything will work flawlessly and if I might add faster then on OSX.
Short productivity advice. Once you buy new computer and install only the things you work with like AntiVirus, Spybot or AdAware, SPs for XP, and your creative software, once you setup all of the parameters on your comp to your liking, use Ghost of Acronis TrueImage and make an image of your system. This way, if you ever want to do a clean install, just recover your system, you will be up and working without frustrations in 30 mins TOPS. You just backup your data. Ok let's continue.
2nd:
PC problems that you described and with most users come purely because of lesser quality hardware components. When you pay for a cheaper component you are actually not just buying lesser quality component you are getting badly written drivers. This is where all of the problems arise.
The more stable appearance from Macs come exclusively because Apple constantly puts the same components in every machine and they test it. That's all. They don't use anything better then on PC and OSX is not the main reason for their better performance. Believe me.Since you are educated in building your own computers this is what I would suggest.
DO NOT SAVE MONEY ON PC COMPONENTS. You are paying $3k for a Mac so why can't you build a great PC machine for $2k with proven components from companies with great driver reputations. Believe me, this is all to it.Dell, eMachines, Gateway etc use noname or some SHTIZ@#! chinese manufactured components and that's why I think that people still have problems with these brand name computers as well. They want to make money, and there's another reason why building your own computer makes sense even more.
If you decide to listen to me, here are the component manufacturers that I would recommend to buy from. Again, I'm telling you this in complete honesty because I built computers for a big hardware company in Europe a long time ago and nothing I mean nothing else proved to be more reliable.
Oh, before I list the companies and components, ALWAYS buy the best component that manufacturer has to offer, YOU WILL again definitely spend less money then you would buying a Mac, of course not as $800 to Mac's $3k ratio, but still significantly less.Manufacturers:
Motherboards - ASUS
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P4 platform : ASUS P5AD2 Premium (925X chipset or wait a week or two for new 925XE with 1066 Mhz new FSB)
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AMD platfrm: ASUS AV8 DlxCPU:
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Your personal preference, but for our work I still suggest Intel. AMD does have raw speed, however it doesn't really shine when under heavy work load and some encoding stuff you might need for web stuff.GRAPHICS CARDS:
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Only ATI. Believe me, they had issues before with drivers a while back but they are rock solid now. Don't listen to people telling you go for NVidia. I've used ATI from VGA Wonder XL days with 1 mb of video ram and I've NEVER EVER had problems. Colors are beautiful, picture rock steady and video hardware decoding/acceleration has always been hardware. NVidia as it's been proved has hardware/engineering bugs in hardware video area even in 6xxx series. It cannot be fixed until they come up with new chip.MEMORY:
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CORSAIR CORSAIR CORSAIR and not the value ones (although you can), but go with XMS series. Lower latencies and build that cannot be matched! ROCK SOLID! I've tried EVERYTHING else and still came back to Corsair.HDD
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Pretty much what you want. Don't get fooled with stories about RAID 0 working faster. Not true. With RAID controller integrated on a motherboard, CPU utilization becomes so high (sometimes up to 30%) that it kills any performance benefit. You would probably see some performance boost if you disabled internal RAID controller and used PCI external one, but in the long run, why fuck around with this for 5% speed gain. Just get a nice 160gb 7200k drive, or if you want Intel platform get new Maxtors 250 Maxline III SATA II with Native Command Queing. These drives are TOP of the line SATA drives with whoping 16mb of cache. They even blow WD Raptors (@10k) out of the water performance wise. I said Intel platform because new 925X-925XE chipsets support NCQ (Native Command Queing) which boost performance as well. AMD doesn't have this. Maybe in these new NForce4 chipsets, but I'm not 100% sure.POWER SUPPLY!!!!
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This is VERY IMPORTANT.
I would personally suggest 480 W and above and ONLY from Antec or if you want TOP TOP TOP of the line with no compromise (of course very expensive) go with PC Power Supplies and Cooling company. ( http://www.pcpowercooling.com/pr… )
If you decide to go for Antec my suggestion is definitely and without a doubt the cream of their PSUs ( NeoPower 480W with new ATX V2 standard and Active PFC), believe me this PSU kicks serious ass. Of course this is for ATX type of mobos, if you go for Intel new PCI-X platform (that's 915/925X/925XE chipsets) you will need EPS12 24pin PSU for LGA775 socket for new P4s. In that case for go for Antec TRUE 550W EPS12 it comes with 24pin connector.BURNER:
Best of the best right now is Plextor. Although I certainly agree I think they are waaay overpriced. And they are not that much better then anything else. My personal suggestion and this is proven, go for Pioneed 16x Model DVR-108 or NEC 16x Model ND-3500A. These 2 are top of the line as well, silent, fast, write Dual Layer @ 4x, have proven reputation and cost around $70.CASE and OTHER STUFF:
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There's not much left here to name. Cases are probably the best from Cooler Master, Lian-Li and Antec (and it that order). If you are on budget no doubt Cooler Master Praetorian is INCREDIBLE. Extremely inteligent design, removable MOBO tray and shizzle. It's really up to you to pick. Again don't be a cheapass here too, you won't your system too look nice, but you also want to have great cooling. This is very good case comes in.If you listen to my advice and go this route, YOU WILL not have problems, GUARANTEE.
Just to show you the cost for the top of the line components machine here is the list with prices:
- COOLER MASTER Praetorian PAC-T01-EK
- ASUS "P5AD2 Premium" 925X
- ASUS ATI Radeon X700 PRO (great!)
or X800 XT you want to game like crazy
- Intel Pentium 4 560 3.60GHz Retail
- Antec 550W Power EPS12V/24pin
- 1 Gb CORSAIR XMS2 Series DDR2-675Mhz
- Maxtor 250Gb 7200k (16mb cache) SATA II, NCQ
- Pioneer DVD+RW/-RW DVR-108PRICE: $1,780.00
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Add another 1gb of DDR2 ram
PRICE: $2,135.00
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Replace X700 with X800XT
add $377.00. With 2gb of ram
it comes to $2,520.00
---Let me assure you this machine will work flawlessly and extremely snappy. It might not be faster in all aspects as oppose to dual G5, however it will be really up there because of the whole new platform, new DDR2 ram, better graphic subsystem, new SATA-II standard and you won't have problems as you described. My advice software wise to solve those spam/virus/adware problems once and for all is:
- SpyBot or Adaware as you know.
- Buy full version of Norton AntiVirus 2005 Pro. It does everything for you transparently. No problems at all.
- For spam there's only ONE real solution that works incredibly. Cloudmark SpamNet. The subscription is $3-$5 a month but who gives a shit it does the job so good that it will bring tears of joy to your eyes :). Integrates with Outlook/Outlook Express.
Also try avoid using IE of course, but if you really have to SP2 is a must. My advice only now after Firefox 1.0 is finally released and bug free is to use that instead of IE. Works with everything and is a blessing for ActiveX shit if you don't have SP2.Trust me you'll have a great PC experience.
Cheers.