Off-Topic Thread

Stainless_Steel

game4it70 wrote: »

Its amazing the amount of IT people (no offense to the guys that do ) that dont have the faintest clue about hardware.

It's amazing the amount of IT people that don't have the faintest clue about IT.

slowlydownwards

Saw this on digg the other day. Those of us old enough to remember (or care) will certainly nod in approval.




Source

Monotype

There's a thread about this in the games section. I would adjust that a little to...



I would agree that games used to be damn hard to get past a few levels in. I thought that I had got far on some of the ones I used to play on the C64, but looking up completion videos, you realise that you're not even close.

Solitaire

Fail stock image is fail :P

Added irony is that it doesn't even have a three-year warranty :pac:

Lafortezza

Where's the best place to order a custom built PC these days? My last PC was from when Komplett let you pick the bits and pieces and OS and put it together for you and I'd like the same sort of service.
I'm not skilled enough and don't know enough about PCs to order parts and assemble myself, so I basically want it to arrive, I plug in the cables and it's good to go.

Requirements: I'll be using it for gaming, usual browsing and downloading. I'd like it to be able to run games like Battlefield 3 with zero problems. Also it would be nice to have it fairly as bulletproof as possible. Minor PSupply problems with my current PC wrecked my head before they were fixed.
Budget is very flexible, I'll probably invest in a 22-24inch monitor and peripherals at the same time.

A quick search of the forums mentioned Ankermann PCs as being ok? Although some people mentioned issues with after sales service.

Monotype

Your best options are to
1) Build it yourself
2) Get someone to build it for you (there a thread of voluteers who will do this for you)
3) Pick out your parts and pay the €20 assembly fee to hardwareversand.de

Ankermann aren't very good. I'd recommend you seek alternatives.

What is the budget, do you need a keyboard, mouse, operating system.

Finally, post all this in a new thread to get everyone's attention.

deconduo

If you're in Dublin I'd be happy to help you build one

Tea_Bag

[rant]

WTF Nvidia you absolute ****s your cards are only marginally better than the AMD equivalent yet much more expensive.

case in point, the HD6970 vs GTX 580. you'd be very lucky to find a GTX 580 that isnt at least €100 more than the 6970 equiv.

and the bench comparison? a few fps shouldnt cost mahoosive extra power draw and a €100 slap in the face.

and why do you always have to be so skimpy on your Vram? 1gb just isnt going to cut it in near future games, and coming out with 1280mb... is just odd.

AMD isnt perfect either. get your fecking act together with 3D gaming. its here already, stop tip toeing around the subject. im about to spend €480 on a GPU i dont want from your competitors. if you had somethign comparable, id buy it. and ive never been impressed with your driver support. why does it add so much bloatware to my PC?

does anyone else just get angry with when reading through news/reviews about how these billion dollar companies still arent making stuff perfectly by now? there is always at least 3 faults you can find in their products, something with they should be able to correct in this day and age.

/rant

Lafortezza

Monotype wrote: »

Your best options are to
1) Build it yourself
2) Get someone to build it for you (there a thread of voluteers who will do this for you)
3) Pick out your parts and pay the €20 assembly fee to hardwareversand.de

Ankermann aren't very good. I'd recommend you seek alternatives.

What is the budget, do you need a keyboard, mouse, operating system.

Finally, post all this in a new thread to get everyone's attention.

Thanks for the replys!
1) I've installed a new gfx card but thats as far as I've gone in terms of getting my hands dirty with a PC. Wouldn't know enough for anything more complicated.
2) I wouldn't mind at all paying someone a few quid to do this, I'd be a bit worried about if something broke either during construction or at a later date down the road. Might just be less hassle to get it pre-made?
3) This was my original plan, was wondering if hardwareversand.de is the best place or is there an Irish company that would be a good alternative?

Budget is likely around 1300 ish, could stretch that a bit as I'll probably need a bog standard keyboard, a gaming mouse, Win7, possibly a new monitor.

My current PC is going ok, just creaking a little, and I like shiny new tech, so I'll probably be looking to buy a PC or order parts in the next month or two.

Monotype

That's the cost of high end hardware. You'll always be paying 50% more for 10% extra performance. Or 100% extra cost for 5% more power. You see this all the time with the top GPUs and who/whatever holds the spot for top processor (typically ~€1000 for destops).

TBH, I think the prices aren't too bad. You could always do with a bit cheaper, but for €150 you can run most games at today's standard resolution (HD) while previous generations required investments of €350 or so. This is more to blame on the slow pace of software rather than a fast pace of hardware though.

AMD said they'd have 3D in their 7000 series, or so? I think that they've done a good job dragging themselves from the dirt of their 2000 series - keeping in mind that they are heavily in debt.

Things that I find annoying are the re-labled GPUs (and both companies are especially guilty of that) and messing with naming schemes (5850 > 6850) is a bit sad too.

deconduo

Lafortezza wrote: »

Thanks for the replys!
1) I've installed a new gfx card but thats as far as I've gone in terms of getting my hands dirty with a PC. Wouldn't know enough for anything more complicated.
2) I wouldn't mind at all paying someone a few quid to do this, I'd be a bit worried about if something broke either during construction or at a later date down the road. Might just be less hassle to get it pre-made?
3) This was my original plan, was wondering if hardwareversand.de is the best place or is there an Irish company that would be a good alternative?

Budget is likely around 1300 ish, could stretch that a bit as I'll probably need a bog standard keyboard, a gaming mouse, Win7, possibly a new monitor.

My current PC is going ok, just creaking a little, and I like shiny new tech, so I'll probably be looking to buy a PC or order parts in the next month or two.

Start a new thread with this post as the OP and I'll have a build for you in that one

Monotype

Lafortezza wrote: »

Thanks for the replys!
1) I've installed a new gfx card but thats as far as I've gone in terms of getting my hands dirty with a PC. Wouldn't know enough for anything more complicated.
2) I wouldn't mind at all paying someone a few quid to do this, I'd be a bit worried about if something broke either during construction or at a later date down the road. Might just be less hassle to get it pre-made?
3) This was my original plan, was wondering if hardwareversand.de is the best place or is there an Irish company that would be a good alternative?

It's not too difficult and easily learned if you are willing. With a bit of patience, you could have it set up inside a day. If you get stuck, there's always a forum to help you. You'll have learned something and will know your PC better and will be better able to solve problems yourself.

I haven't really come across any Irish building company that's recommend-worthy and komplett haven't done them in a while. Komplett often have a few good deals but their RAM and PSU selections were very poor last time I checked (RAM can be easily sorted with memoryc.ie).

Headshot

lads when is the AMD Bulldozer out?

deconduo

Headshot wrote: »

lads when is the AMD Bulldozer out?

AMD seem to be following in Duke Nukem Forever's footsteps with Bulldozer :P Currently its scheduled for Aug/Sep but who knows.

Headshot

deconduo wrote: »

AMD seem to be following in Duke Nukem Forever's footsteps with Bulldozer :P Currently its scheduled for Aug/Sep but who knows.

thanks for the reply

Im thinking of upgrading my computer and this seems the right choice for me
My poor computer doesnt like crysis 2 dx 11 :pac:

hence the upgrading

Monotype

They said Q2 for a long time, which gives them 3 days to release, but a vague later or some time this year seems to be period given now.
I have to say that compatibility is looking very good for these - MSI and Asus have a list of compatible AM3 motherboards which can take an AM3+ CPU with a bios updates - 890FX, 890GX and even 880G seem to be mostly compatible.

Solitaire

They said Q2, past tense, and AFAIK switched to saying Q3 or early Q4 a while ago.

Anyway, Komplett fixed that pic And in the middle of the heatwave (or humidwave ) I get an email from those cheeky feckers in HWVS asking me if I'd like one of their wonderful fan offers

Tea_Bag

I'm sure everyone has read their fav tech news site today?

bye bye flash memory. its been good knowing you.

Fluffy88

I don't have a fav tech news site, I don't even have a non-fav one

Linky please ...

deconduo

Fluffy88 wrote: »

I don't have a fav tech news site, I don't even have a non-fav one

Linky please ...

http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/30/embargo-ibm-develops-instantaneous-memory-100x-faster-than-fl/

Fluffy88

Does this mean I shouldn't bother building a new computer this year with 8Gb of crappy old flash memory RAM and an SSD? This will be really cool, but it's probably going to take a year or two to hit the market, won't it?

ChimpyGamer

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Does this mean I shouldn't bother building a new computer this year with 8Gb of crappy old flash memory RAM and an SSD? This will be really cool, but it's probably going to take a year or two to hit the market, won't it?

Well, you could always upgrade, it's really down to whether you can wait for the new memory hardware to come out

deconduo

I would guess the technology won't be on the market for at least 2-3 years (if not more) so you should be fine.

Fluffy88

deconduo wrote: »

I would guess the technology won't be on the market for at least 2-3 years (if not more) so you should be fine.

haha yeah that's what I was thinking. And if you allow for the initial crazy prices to go down a bit, then building a computer in the next 6-12 months is probably the best idea.

Tea_Bag

yea there really is no need to hold off, its at least 2 years away. its just exciting stuff. I love that it'll go through a cheaper manufacturing process than flash memory, and still be a damn sight better than flash. in 3 years time I can see there being no need for RAM anyway. ultra fast SSDs will replace their dependancy.

/need an extra 8gb of ram for a project? no problem... *uninstalls a game to free up some space*

Monotype

Cool. As everyone says, you won't see this for a while. They won't give all their best cards in one go, so expect to see an abundance of half-way and crippled versions to get the most money out of people!

Solitaire

This kind of toss really offends me. A bunch of Boardsie friends are oohing and aahing over it. Because its only a normal size laptop yet it has an "i7" CPU with a "2GB" graphics card.

Yeah... an i3 dual-core with added Turbo and a GPU weaker than the one inside the CPU... and this steaming pile of dung is on "offer" for the low, low price of €1400...

I hate scammers, I hate Dell, and God I hate eGay :mad:

Leman

It could be worse. If it were a Mac it would be €2000.

Monotype

If it says "i7" it must be good - and isn't the size of the graphics memory is the most important thing? - And not only that but you're getting an XPS. An XPS! Also, you're paying €20 more than the dell site, so it's reassuringly expensive.

In fairness, it's not a bad laptop overall. I'd give them the €399 for it. The only thing is that I'm not sure which one you'd be buying though as there seems to be two different laptops in the pictures!
It's nice how they listed the turbo speed as the processor speed. Maybe adding up the cores (or even the threads) would make it seem even more amazing, but perhaps people have copped onto that one?

Solitaire

Everyone knows that i5 can mean a dualcore with HT or a quad without it. Nary a single non-techie realises that Intel released a few dualcore i7s as well. They've worked together with grifters to scalp a lot of people that way.

Monotype

Unless you're dealing with them every day, you're not going to know everything that Intel have out. Anyone with half a brain should know to search to see what you are buying. Fair enough if you don't know what a dual core is and most people won't know a 3.8GHz P4 from a 3Ghz i7 - But if you have even limited knowledge you should be able to make sense of some of intel's specifications page and not buy into the deceptive marketing and branding. The IT world is plagued with letters and numbers that mean nothing just to make whatever they're selling seem better than competitors.

Fluffy88

Not sure if anyone here would be interested in this or have already seen the thread but I found it amazing and I'm guessing most people here would appreciate the article too. So I'm gonna link too it here

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056326018

There is a link to an article about an amazing virus that was released in 2009. It's a long long article but if you have the time it's extremely interesting, well worth a read.

Leman

What's a Virus?:pac:

Fluffy88

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Not sure if anyone here would be interested in this or have already seen the thread but I found it amazing and I'm guessing most people here would appreciate the article too. So I'm gonna link too it here

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056326018

There is a link to an article about an amazing virus that was released in 2009. It's a long long article but if you have the time it's extremely interesting, well worth a read.

Absolutely fascinating read. thanks

Monotype

Didn't think I was going to read all of that, but it was a good read.

Leman

Well, I haz a sad.

Turns out Komplett were given a faulty batch of An Post tracking codes, which means everything ordered from the 6th hasn't even left the post office yet.

Trust me to order on the 7th eh?

3 Weeks for an SSD.

Monotype

They should give you free delivery for the mess up! ...oh wait...

Headshot

got my Corsair Professional Series HX750W today, a sexy beast

Its amazing how fast Amazon are. Dispatched Wednesday, received today.

Bacon and Cabbage

Solitaire

Stupid stock cooler had it coming! :pac:

Tea_Bag

Solitaire wrote: »

Stupid stock cooler had it coming! :pac:

I disagree. I think the stock one is the hottest of the two.


/oh lord

Tea_Bag

short review on Gmails phone that they have now and HWVS RMA:

had to call HWVS for an RMA of my 2 6950's that were broken/wrong product.

dont have a landline, and knew it would cost a fortune from my mobile, so i was gonna use skype but ive never been impressed with them for calls. always flakey.
tried gmail, topped up credit via my VISA and the credit came through in under a minute. €10 credit for €12.50. similar to skype if not €1 more.

calls to germany are 2c per minute. cheaper than skype anyway

HWVS lady that answered spoke good english and only struggled on technical details (BIOS switch on the 1 6950 is broken) but she knew what i was talking about anyway and was clearly tech savvy, more than i can say for any other customer support team.

she went straight to the point and told me she can have DHL pick it up tomorrow and i dont need to print any sticker or anything, just attach a copy of my receipt. happy days.

said i should receive my replacements in a week and a half, which isnt a bad turnaround tbf and she took that im in ireland into account for it.

gmail was spot on, no problems. i could have been calling from a land line for all she knew.
cost me €0.14 in total, and thats only because i kept ringing the wrong number

all round, im very impressed with HWVS, and wouldn't hesitate to vouch for them in the future moreso than i do already.

deconduo

Tea_Bag wrote: »

short review on Gmails phone that they have now and HWVS RMA:

had to call HWVS for an RMA of my 2 6950's that were broken/wrong product.

dont have a landline, and knew it would cost a fortune from my mobile, so i was gonna use skype but ive never been impressed with them for calls. always flakey.
tried gmail, topped up credit via my VISA and the credit came through in under a minute. €10 credit for €12.50. similar to skype if not €1 more.

calls to germany are 2c per minute. cheaper than skype anyway

HWVS lady that answered spoke good english and only struggled on technical details (BIOS switch on the 1 6950 is broken) but she knew what i was talking about anyway and was clearly tech savvy, more than i can say for any other customer support team.

she went straight to the point and told me she can have DHL pick it up tomorrow and i dont need to print any sticker or anything, just attach a copy of my receipt. happy days.

said i should receive my replacements in a week and a half, which isnt a bad turnaround tbf and she took that im in ireland into account for it.

gmail was spot on, no problems. i could have been calling from a land line for all she knew.
cost me €0.14 in total, and thats only because i kept ringing the wrong number

all round, im very impressed with HWVS, and wouldn't hesitate to vouch for them in the future moreso than i do already.

Yeah HWVS customer support is great, as long as you ring them and there's an English speaking rep around. You never get anywhere with them if you try emailing.

Tea_Bag

Yea I didn't have time to waste with emails. I wasn't put on hold or anything it was the first lady I spoke to so I guess I got lucky. She was so appologetic about her English the whole way through the convo but it was near perfect.

She did say though that pictures on the website were only representitives of the actual product. Not great news, and I doubt they'll be sending me stock 6950's so let's just hope I get decent custom cooled cards.

Solitaire

I emailed them due to an issue with my order and they fixed everything within 36 hours. In English

Tea_Bag

Why are you only on late at night sol?

Monotype

... or so early.

Good to know that they're easy to deal with and your google phone review (although google probably record everything!).

Tea_Bag

AFAIK Microsoft is the only company with that patent who intends on listening for key words and terrorism stuff. I think Windows 8 will have a built in Skype competitor.

Skype use heavy encryption on both ends of the call so I'm not sure they're able to record you.

Come to think of it, Google usually doesn't care for privacy laws anyway so yea, it was possibly fully recorded.

Solitaire

Tea_Bag wrote: »

Why are you only on late at night sol?

Monotype wrote: »

... or so early.

Actually I'm on most of the day, just saw this now (and after an extended period of borked interwebs besides!) :P

Trevor451

Tea_Bag wrote: »

AFAIK Microsoft is the only company with that patent who intends on listening for key words and terrorism stuff. I think Windows 8 will have a built in Skype competitor.

Skype use heavy encryption on both ends of the call so I'm not sure they're able to record you.

Come to think of it, Google usually doesn't care for privacy laws anyway so yea, it was possibly fully recorded.

You do realize that Microsoft bought Skype right?