What have I done....?!

[Goliath]

Well, a lot of crap happened to me today...

First of all, I deposited a loan check (because I'm not going to get my first full paycheck until the end of September), so I had to go to Sioux Falls to do it (because that's where the closest branch of my bank is...).

While I was there, I dropped by Best Buy and couldn't resist picking up a RoboSapien (http://www.wowwee.com/robosapien/robo1/robomain.html)...these things are as cute as a bucket of kittens! It can walk, it can pick up and throw things, it can hit stuff, it can dance, it can fart and say "Excuse me!"...and it's even programmable!!

I also got new shoes...

And a kickass leather trench coat that I ordered from ebay arrived today...it fits like a dream, and will be a perfect part of my "Neo plus 160 pounds" costume... :P

But that's not the half of it...before I go further, I should lay out my four step plan to the ultimate geekgasm...

Phase I: Get a widescreen HDTV for use as a computer monitor (and as a TV...I guess...).

Phase II: Get a new bitchin', top of the line computer.

Phase III: Get a receiver and surround-sound speakers.

Phase IV: Buy months worth of food, barricade myself in my apartment, and never leave. :muahaha: :D

So, I've been poking around a bit, doing a bit of research about HDTVs and prices...I decided to stop by Ultimate Electronics.

Well, they were having a sale on HDTVs....and there was no down payment...and no interest until January 2006...and....and....

Well, let's say that I'll have one of these (http://www.ultimateelectronics.com/shopping/product/detailmain.jsp?itemID=3829&itemType=PRODUCT&RS=1&keyword=Samsung+HLP5063) along with some accessories delivered next week.

At first, I was kinda scared about adding on one more monthly expense, but I sat down and figured it out and I should still have more than enough money to get by.

So, Phase I is essentially complete! MUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

[Roland98]

You are truly a king of geeks. :bow:

[livius drusus]

Yeah, but the time you will have paid for gargantuo there, the new ones will be 5 times as hot and 10 times cheaper.

(A buddy of mine just bought a shit-kicking Alienware monster laptop for his brother in Kuwait. Of course, he simply must keep it safe for a year until lil brer comes home. And wants the new hotness. And lets Pat keep the monster. Devious bastard. It's so money though. So, so money.)

[Scotty]

Although I like that HDTV, I would have sprung for a DLP HD front projector and ordered a piece of movie theater screen and made my own.

Just me though, it would cost a bit less, but then again, that no interest til 2006 is pretty tempting.

What do you want to do with the computer you are thinking of getting? That is the first step in finding what you want and whether you need the most current or just the best ;)

I love being geeky. The HDTV I just bought had a DVI connector on it, so I hooked up the laptop, but the 1280x720 (which is I think 1080i HD), got cropped on the screen and I couldn't get it to uncrop. Sucked. Looked pretty good though, the amount I could see.

-Scott

[Goliath]

You are truly a king of geeks. :bow:

Awww.... :blush:

Yeah, but the time you will have paid for gargantuo there, the new ones will be 5 times as hot and 10 times cheaper.


Shhhh! :order: :wink:

Although I like that HDTV, I would have sprung for a DLP HD front projector and ordered a piece of movie theater screen and made my own.

The idea definitely occurred to me, but I just don't like how the HD projection image looks...the picture seems too light, soft, and grainy.


What do you want to do with the computer you are thinking of getting?


Oh, the usual...lots of gaming, posting here, checking e-mail, TeX, and por--umm...I mean....educational material. Yeah, that's it. :P :innocent:

I won't be able to get the computer for awhile, but when I do, I figure that half the conversation between me and the computer salesperson will go roughly like this:

"Okay, I want a motherboard that can hold at least 2 GB of RAM, and I want you to hook up two of your fastest processors to it. Slap as much RAM on that sucker as you can, too--and use the best stuff you've got."

"What's the biggest hard drive size you got?" ... "Good! I'll take three of them."..."Yes, I know, we'll have to use a bigger tower. That's fine."

"I'll also need the best video and sound cards that you have. The sound card will have to support surround-sound."

"I'll also need one of those switches that you hook up to two computers and that lets you switch which computer is displayed on the monitor and which computer is controlled by the keyboard and mouse."

"And finally, I need a good DVD-ROM drive and the fastest Dual Layer DVD burner you have."

"Monitor? No, there'll be no need for you to sell me a monitor." :muahaha:

Tee hee! I can't wait...once I get this set up, though, I might not be able to post pictures...my eight foot erection will be in the way! :D

[viscousmemories]

Dude, get a Dell. Or a Compaq. Just don't have a PC custom built for you. I've custom built my own PC's every time for the last 10 years and every time I end up running into something at some point that makes me say, "Dammit! Next time I'm just gonna get a Dell!" In fact I was thinking that this morning as I wrestled with getting the case back on this generic hunk of crap I own.

Anyway yeah you'll pay a little more and get slightly fewer configuration options, perhaps, but at least you'll be guaranteed that all the components work together and that it's easy to work with.

I got that switch you describe that lets you use one keyboard and mouse with two computers, except instead of the typical four-port $100 switch with $25 cable sets for each device, I bought a Linksys all-in-one deal for about $25 itself, shown here (http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=36&scid=45&prid=502).

I'd kill someone for that monitor you're getting. Anyone you want to be rid of? I have a 20" CRT which (knock on wood) has been going strong since I bought it used for $300 like 5 years ago, but I'd much rather have an LCD for the footprint, and I can't even afford the $600 it would cost to get a 19" LCD, much less a 50" insane one. Besides, I think I'd upgrade my Athlon 750mhz PC before upgrading my monitor. :P

[Goliath]

Actually, I've generally had pretty good luck with custom built PCs. In fact, every PC that I've owned has been custom built, and other than replacing CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drives (which fizzle out every once in awhile anyways), the only real problems that I've had were due to viruses or worms (which can infect any computer, generic or not).

On the other hand, I've known people with Dells and Gateways that have had nothing but trouble with them.

IMO a custom built PC can be just as good as any name brand computer, as long as you use parts of decent quality.

As far as the switch, it looks cool, but I'll be hooking the TV to the computer via a DVI cable, so unless they have a DVI version........


I'd kill someone for that monitor you're getting. Anyone you want to be rid of?


Hmmmm............. :devious:

I'll think about it. :D

[Scotty]

The idea definitely occurred to me, but I just don't like how the HD projection image looks...the picture seems too light, soft, and grainy.

This is due to the poor quality screen it is projected on to, that is why you buy the best screen material and make a frame for it. It does clean it up (or you spend the $1000 on a good screen which blows the idea of it being cheaper :) ).

You are going to need to switch between machines why exactly? Why do you need two machines to switch between? I mean, I need that at work when I have a bunch of stuff in the racks, but not at home (I did at home when I ran the Mac, the PC and the Sun box for testing though).

As to building your own machine, it is the only way I will make a PC. I can't stand the manufacturers like Dell and Compaq (HP), I think their products included in the box are much more inferior to what you can buy yourself. Inferior products equal shitty performance even if they might work better together. It isn't the hardware that has a problem working together, it is the operating system that sucks. You know, microsqish asswipes.

My wife's machine I built 3 years (or so) ago, and she almost never turns it off and it has never crashed (disk failure, but it was mirrored), and it EVEN RUNS WINDOWS XP!

I can build and overclock a system that will not crash due to hardware incompatability and will run fast, it just depends on how much you want to spend (and even then I can put together a great system). I ran overclocked 166Mhz (yes a while go) to 200Mhz for over 2 years with only power supply problems (on 90 machines). Honest ;)

-Scott

[viscousmemories]

Actually, I've generally had pretty good luck with custom built PCs. In fact, every PC that I've owned has been custom built, and other than replacing CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drives (which fizzle out every once in awhile anyways), the only real problems that I've had were due to viruses or worms (which can infect any computer, generic or not).

On the other hand, I've known people with Dells and Gateways that have had nothing but trouble with them.

IMO a custom built PC can be just as good as any name brand computer, as long as you use parts of decent quality.
Gateways are complete trash. I've never had or heard of someone having a good experience with a Gateway. Well that's not true. There was this one guy who swore by them, but I think he was high.

I led a project to replace all the servers at a hospital with Dells, which means I personally ordered, configured and managed 30 servers. Not a hardware problem among them. We went on to replace some 1500 desktop PC's with new Dells and again, almost no hardware problems at all. Honestly. In contrast I worked for IBM Global Services for a while and every other new PC or server we got from IBM was in some way defective. :doh:

Anyway you're right that you can and likely will have good luck with a custom PC that's made for you that you don't modify yourself. I should've stated that differently. It's when you custom build your own and/or try to add hardware to a custom built PC that you often run into problems. Even so it's not like it can't or won't work at all, it's just a pain if you're into doing your own tinkering and you find that this card's DMA or IRQ conflicts with that one's, etc. Much of which is admittedly irrelevant in this era of plug and play, so I'll just shut up now. Do what you want. :D

As far as the switch, it looks cool, but I'll be hooking the TV to the computer via a DVI cable, so unless they have a DVI version........
Hmm. Not sure about that. I've never dealt with that high-end stuff. :P

[Scotty]

Oh, and I personally built all 90 machines we used in our offices...just to tell you how geeky I am ;)

-Scott

[Dingfod]

Gateways are complete trash. I've never had or heard of someone having a good experience with a Gateway. Well that's not true. There was this one guy who swore by them, but I think he was high.I was not high when I swore by my four year old 700 MHz PIII Gateway. ;) Sure seem lame now though because we have replaced our PCs at work with 2.8 GHz Dell PCs.


Warren

[pescifish]

Anyway you're right that you can and likely will have good luck with a custom PC that's made for you that you don't modify yourself. I should've stated that differently.
I think that's where my experience would fit in. I bought an Alienware Area 51 (so many customizing options, but all guaranteed to play together) almost three years ago.

The system came with all the full software install disks and a 3-ring notebook detailing exactly how the person put the hardware and software together, complete with initials and date/time for each step. The report included the software run during the burn in period and the results of timing tests.

I have not had anything even resembling a hiccup on this computer (WinXP Pro), ever. Even though it's almost 3 years old, it still performs plenty fast enough for me.

[viscousmemories]

I have not had anything even resembling a hiccup on this computer (WinXP Pro), ever. Even though it's almost 3 years old, it still performs plenty fast enough for me.
Yeah, I've had good experiences with e-machines too (as just another example of a custom builder). My current PC, though, I built myself by buying all the components individually. In fact I have what was once a "top of the line" video card that I'm not even using, 'cause for some reason in this PC it made Unreal Tournament crash, and that was a deal-breaker for me at one time. Come to think of it, now that I don't really play UT as much I should probably put it in...

[wade-w]

Your experience has been quite different from mine, vm. I've been custom building my own PC's for about 11 years now, and have not had anything like the problems you report.

And I've had problems with Dells in the past. Far more than I've seen with Gateways. Once, I got a shipment of 8 Dells, and 5 of them would not boot out of the box. Turned out to be improperly installed video cards. They weren't seated properly, so the POST failed. Easy enough to fix, but for your typical "Dude, get a Dell" customer, it would have been catastrophic. Last year, my mother bought a Dell. She hated it, and was always complaining that it was too slow. I looked at the specs, and it came standard with only 128 MB of RAM. Now, micro$haft may claim that WinXP will run on that, but that is simply not enough memory to run the OS and any real applications.

To my mind, that illustrates the basic problem with buying from Dell, Gateway or any of the other major PC vendors. You don't really know what you're getting in there. Some of the components may be high quality, but others will be trash. If you build it yourself, you know exactly what you're getting. Of course, it helps if you do some research, and make sure everything will play nice together.

As far as I'm concerned, the only real difference between PC vendors is customer support. And ironically, before last year Dell, Gateway and HP all outsourced their customer support to the same company. As far as I know, Dell and HP still use the same company, but Gateway cancelled their contract and went with in house support.

[Corona688]

that illustrates the basic problem with buying from Dell, Gateway or any of the other major PC vendors. You don't really know what you're getting in there. Some of the components may be high quality, but others will be trash. Exactly. Compare a boxed part to an OEM part and you'll be disturbed by just how much they pare away; bus speeds, RAM sizes, cooling components, standard features you "don't really need"... users probably don't need EVERYTHING that's pared away but you can bet they'll feel the lack of SOME things.

[Darat]

Built and configured many "pre-built" PCs over the years. I was even a "certified" (and that is the right word) IBM "engineer" (and that is not the right word :P) back in the days of PS/2 (MCA).

My initial experiences with Dell, when they first came into the UK market were not good. (It may have been just a UK issue.). They had quite "non-standard" motherboards with the weirdest built in audio systems with terrible, crappy graphics chipsets. Plus most of the drivers and such were propriety so supporting them was a pain. For years I would not purchase Dells or even recommend them.

However in the last 3 years or so I started to come across them again and began to be convinced that they were now "OK". Still don't think they are the best for features v price v support (in the UK at least) but they do offer a good "out of the box" solution that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to someone.

In the last 12 months I've been building a lot of PCs based on the Shuttle mini-PC form for friends and families - lots of people seem to want a small OK looking unobtrusive PC. (Probably because so many are now in the living the room and people don't want a huge box just sat there.) They are a range of small compact PCs, quite quiet (and with a bit of customising and tweaking can be made very quiet), look nice and the top of the range models are powerful and I've yet to have one problem..

The thing I really like about the ShuttleXs is that although you mostly buy them "barebones" someone has actually designed and engineered them! Slotting in the various bits and pieces is child play. They come with custom length cables, cable guides built into the casing(s), clear instructions and so on – its really nice to come across a company that has paid as much attention to functionality as they do to features and appearance.

[viscousmemories]

I was even a "certified" (and that is the right word) IBM "engineer" (and that is not the right word :P) back in the days of PS/2 (MCA).
Hehe. Good choice of words. That's how I feel about being a Novell Certified Netware Engineer. :)

In the last 12 months I've been building a lot of PCs based on the Shuttle mini-PC form for friends and families - lots of people seem to want a small OK looking unobtrusive PC.
I've always wanted one of those. I think they're pretty cool looking. The thing is I honestly haven't upgraded my computer since those came out, so I just haven't gotten around to it. It's nice to hear that they're well-built.