The Computer Thread

Intel's built-in graphics technology is still about a generation or two behind the desktop stand-alone stuff. It is getting better at a rate fast enough to actually worry AMD and Nvidia at the bottom end of the market, particularly at the HTPC level though. And sooner or later, they will release an on-die graphics chip that will play Crysis, 8-)

I'd be more pumped about an on-die graphics chip that runs Minecraft, myself.

Same.

And Crysis isn't really a way of measuring a PC's performance anymore.

edited 28th Jun '12 7:12:44 PM by Shaggy

Which is why I added my custom smiley at the end of that sentence.

8-) - smiles, wears glasses.

I have an Intel HD chipset on my iBuyPower's i3, but I recently put in an Nvidia GT 520 and a 1920x1080 monitor. Come tomorrow, I'll add in two or three additional fans.

Why a 520? It's the lowest performing of all Direct X 11 GPUs.

Because budget? Get a good monitor now, get a good or better graphics card later. I know that because I did it myself.

Better than a GT 440. Plus, DX11 I don't care for so much, since most of the games I care to play these days still use DX9, I think.

Like, yeah, not a stellar performer, but my power supply is closer to the 500W end of things and I now have like three fans blowing air around. Plus, I have a 1920x1080 monitor, and my other computer back in Phoenix rocks 1920x1200 (the one that has the GT 440).

It'll probably at least handle Tribes: Ascend decently.

edited 29th Jun '12 3:03:05 PM by RocketDude

Ah, I was looking at the GT 440 also. All I'll be doing off of it is running a Minecraft Server, so I don't need super-high end graphics.

So I think I just landed a pretty whiz-bang motherboard off of a friend (he built a LAN-box and had no need for it anymore), an Asus Rampage Extreme II, so I'm shoehorned into an i7 processor, but since I'm picking up that, RAM, and two 10k RPM hard drives for no cost at all, I can easily afford to drop 300 bucks on the i7 processor.

I'll probably be re-using some older stuff for now, but I could have this thing built and running pretty quick. All I need to buy is case/power supply, and the processor. 400 dollars and I have a no-frills i7 machine. Then we can upgrade HDD, add RAM and grab a for-real OS (reusing a drive with XP on it, lol) at our leisure.

Then I can save up for an Asus G74.

Try sourcing kit from Ebay.com. You may end up dropping a lot less than three hundred bucks on a decent i7 processor.

I'll try that, thanks.

History time: I remember when AGP graphics cards were all the rage. Good times.

edited 29th Jun '12 6:22:25 PM by pvtnum11

What? I can remember when AGP was vaporware!

I have a 1997-edition of Fix and Repair Your Computer. It is a riot to read nowadays.

That time when 2MB of video ram was considered pretty good, and 4 was almost overkill unless you were doing intense graphic editing.

And you needed two graphics cards to run 3D and 2D apps. Memories.

Just one more reason why I don't like Apple anymore...

...they sue to block out the competition, so they have the market to themselves. What gives? Is this a normal part of running a business nowadays?

Wonder how big the bribe was?

I just don't like Apple because their products are overpriced.

Yeah, there's that angle too. But my ire with them goes deeper than that.

Apple products are no longer overpriced. it's hard to find an example of an exactly equivalent product in which the Apple one is particularly more expensive.

It's more that if you don't want the things in the Apple product that make it more expensive, it's not worth it to you.

Apple's not interested in cheap. But they are interested in putting things in their products that make expensive worth it to some people.

As to patent lawsuits, that's US corporate culture all round. There, fix the patent system or abolish it. US public corporations are obliged to maximize shareholder value; they are under no legal obligation to be nice to their competition.

Same story, no WSJ paywall.

Bet the judge has an Ipod, Imac and Apple's boss on speeddial.

Current New iPad for 699 bucks (64GB wifi), versus 628 for a Toshiba Excite (64GB, wifi). The Toshiba has an SD slot, too. Bam, double the on-board memory for a pittance.

And that's just one quick comparison.

Not worth it to me.

Try looking at this week's UK computer magazine, the peerless "Micro Mart" There is a feature about why computer companies do NOT want you upgrading their keech easily.

Anyway, they were talking about the Macbook Pro and its storage capacity, and mentioned their starting price of £1799 with, get this, a whopping 256 Gb of SSD space. Balls, says I, no nut would pay that much. Pop on to the Apple store and yep, its true, for the Retina display models anyway. If you want 512 Gb storage, which is only another 256 Gb for those like me who were dunces at maths class, it will set you back £2299. Five hundred skulls more expensive. And that doesn't cover the extra dosh if you want 16 Gb of RAM as standard, or a faster processor.

So, saying their kit isn't overpriced anymore is one of those things, like the popularity of soap operas over here, that baffles my tiny little mind.

edited 30th Jun '12 5:04:59 PM by TamH70

So my friend purchased the Razer SW:TOR keyboard. Finally got it, was disappoointed in it immediately.

I've owned two boards from them, a Lycosa and a Lycosa Mirror (the Mirror died due to a nasty liquid spill, and cleaning it methodically didn't rectify it). A nice, simple board, and at the time I got them, I wanted a board that lit up. But since I've been cultivating touch typing for the last several months, I wanted a mechanical board.

Since I had two good experiences with their lesser-grade boards, I looked into buying a Black Widow mechanical. Only... to steer away from it. Reviews indicated that the key caps are frequently misalinged, so the keycaps rub against each other. Sure, some filing paper might fix that, but I'd rather have a board that works right out of the box. Instead, I bought a Das Keyboard Ultimate. It's not for everyone, but it is a really nice board to type on.

http://www.keyboardco.com/ has a wide selection of mechanical typing thingies if you are still looking for them.