14-06-2002 05:39									#31
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

My father works for Compaq. He is a Quality Engineer. That basically means auditor. He does do one other thing that isn't totally auditing: setting up teleconferences about auditing.

I do not like him at all.

Just don't buy Compaq.

	14-06-2002 05:39									#32
	Remove this text

Dude, get a Dell.

I mean, the lack of hassle alone (I selected my options over the phone with the sexy-voiced Ben in about 20 minutes, and then got my computer 5 days later) is worth any extra cost you might incur over building it yourself. And the warranty issue alone is enough to make you want to with a Dell. You get lifetime phone support, and can get a 3-year full service warranty. It costs, but will it be worth it to have to take every little part you get back to the dealer and hassle over replacements?

Plus, with Dell you're pretty much assured of compatability with most software products. Look at Civ 3's compatibility issues. Never had a single problem with the game on my Dell.

Plus, through Dell.com you can get good deals, and you can search the web for extra coupons. I combined a bunch of deals and coupons that effectively lopped $200 off the price of my machine. Free shipping was undoubtedly the best offer (saving $100 alone).

Dell Dell Dell Dell

You KNOW you want to...hehehehe

	14-06-2002 05:41									#33
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

Dell's not perfect. There's a known issue for the Dimension 4100s and newer soundcards liks the SoundBlaster Audigy that results in the SQUEAL OF DEATH. I know this first hand.

A BIOS upgrade is supposed to fix it.

I would also recommend Voodoo if you want the fastest gaming machines on Earth, but they'll cost you a pretty penny (not that I'm biased or anything )

	14-06-2002 05:53									#34
	Tired of ads?

No system is perfect, goes without saying. But that's what's good about Dell...there customer support is really good compared to anyone else.

I got the 4400. Any known issues with that?

	14-06-2002 05:56									#35
	Remove this text

Yeah, they've already patched the 4400 BIOS for the Audigy issue.

	14-06-2002 05:58									#36
	Suffering from ads?

The last time I priced a machine from dell that was similar to what I built it was almost double the cost.

EDIT: Just looked a similar machine to what I'm building after I move (at about $1100). It was about $1700 but with not as good sound card, unknown MB manufacturer and specs, unknown HD manufacturer and specs, not as good monitor. On the other hand it was a P4 where I prefer AMD.

Last edited by SpencerH on 14-06-2002 at 06:08

	14-06-2002 06:10									#37
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Maybe its HP with the special set up discs rather than an original win OS.

	14-06-2002 08:03									#38
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

I'll bring in a third vote for apple.

	14-06-2002 08:05									#39
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

Apple's great if you want to pay more and get less, but have a nice annoying flashy interface.

	14-06-2002 08:21									#40
	Support Apolyton

ok i have a really stupid question, to all of you saying to build your own computer are you adding in the cost of windows and office? i was all ready to build myself a new system then saw how much those would cost and i just decided to wait

	14-06-2002 08:49									#41
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

This is ridiculus. Building your own top-end system is not cheaper than getting a Dell. I'm pretty sure it's about $3500 for all the best parts, plus WinXP, plus Office Pro, plus extended warrenty and complete care....if that much money. Building your own system would easily run that much just for the components (my guess).

The top-end laptop is now about $3800 with all the extras, I believe. Incidentally, they get the highest 3D marks of all laptops at this point, up to 5650 or so 3DMarks (w/ 3rd party drivers and some tweaking).


Top end PC's with tweaking btw, go up to almost 15K 3DMarks, I believe, just for comparisons. ...and I know no other way to benchmark PC's. =-/

	14-06-2002 09:05									#42
	Put an end to popups!

Oh yea, I forgot, I had a screen in my laptop go bad, and Dell replaced it within in the week. I have CompleteCare w/ Onsite techies, so they had someone come out and install it for me.

I'll say this just in case...if you're going to get a laptop, for the love of god, get an Inspiron 8200.

	14-06-2002 09:09									#43
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

quote: the cost of windows and office

The... cost... ??


I wouldn't trust a company enough to build a computer for me. But thats just me (and a large number of others who posted here)

	14-06-2002 09:25									#44
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

I'm fairly happy with my 4-year old Dell (well, as happy as one can be with a 4 year old computer).

	14-06-2002 09:32									#45
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

Damn. What's in that puppy? Were you at one point eyeing an MMX enabled cpu for that bad boy? ...I remember doing that.

edit: I wanted to go from a Pentium 133 to a Pentium 200 MMX or something for like $200.

	14-06-2002 11:13									#46
	Suffering from ads?

quote: Originally posted by Asher Apple's great if you want to pay more and get less, but have a nice annoying flashy interface.

I guess we now know that Asher's Anti-apple threshold is three posts. I would have bet on one, but I guess all his scraps with KH lately took a lot out of him.

	14-06-2002 11:44									#47
	Remove this text

OEMs can be good for high end systems. I recently did a deal with a friend to pull all the good parts out of his HP, pay half, and replace them with cheap parts .

	14-06-2002 11:51									#48
	Support Apolyton

Yeah I have a Dell and their support is pretty good - my power supply died a couple of months ago and they replaced it pretty fast once the problem was identified. Now the modem just died and we'll se how they go.

But what about Comps that run AMD chips like Compaq? I've heard AMD chips sh*t on pentiums these days. I'm considering switching for my next comp.

	14-06-2002 11:58									#49
	Increase Your PM Length

quote: I've heard AMD chips sh*t on pentiums these days. I'm considering switching for my next comp.

That was six months ago. When Intell switched to the 130 nanometer tech they overtook AMD. AMD is faster per clock cycle but they have fallen pretty far behind on frequency now. AMD has a lot bang for the buck but they really need to get their speed up to get even on power again.

	14-06-2002 12:01									#50
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

Even worse is AMD just unveiled its 130 nanometer tech, and it totally sucks. Their new 0.13 chips can't overclock any better than their old 0.18 chips.

And since their heat dissipation isn't much better, and since the chip is so much smaller, it's got less surface area to make contact with the heatsink which is a major problem...

	14-06-2002 12:18									#51
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

Typical. When was buying a comp a lot of people said get one with an AMD chip

But I went for the Pentium

	14-06-2002 13:32									#52
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by Asher Apple's great if you want to pay more and get less, but have a nice annoying flashy interface.

Or do any kind of serious design work at all.

	14-06-2002 13:36									#53
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

quote: Originally posted by JohnIII Or do any kind of serious design work at all.

Yes, because we all know that the outdated and bottlenecked Apple hardware is inherently superior for serious design work, what with the 1GB/s memory bandwidth (compared to 4.2GB/s on the PC), ATA/66 harddrives, and the outdated G4s....

And then there's their OS which is BSD + AnnoyingInterface.

Any design advantages on the Apple platform are purely artificial.

	15-06-2002 10:28									#54
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

Didn't someone make a MacOSX emulator for Windows at one stage?

It was UGLY.

	15-06-2002 13:51									#55
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by Asher Any design advantages on the Apple platform are purely artificial.

Never heard of ColorSync?

	15-06-2002 13:56									#56
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by JohnIII Never heard of ColorSync?

John, incase you haven't noticed, he's not buying a computer for insanely anal artsy people.

And again, it's purely artificial. There's nothing stopping that from being done on a PC. Except of course it being owned by Apple and all.

Besides, it's hardly unique to Apple.
http://www.microsoft.com/hwdev/tech/color/icmwp.asp
http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/digital/color.shtml
http://www.compaq.com/products/monitors/coloreal.html
http://www.color.org/

etc

	15-06-2002 14:10									#57
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

Wow, way to include two links that are nothing to do with the subject.

I couldn't find any details on the Microsoft site (blasted search) but is ICM still document-based, as it was in Windows 2000?

	15-06-2002 14:12									#58
	Get a bigger avatar today!

quote: Originally posted by JohnIII Wow, way to include two links that are nothing to do with the subject.

The subject to me seems to be a college student's computer. Who's the one offtopic?

quote: I couldn't find any details on the Microsoft site (blasted search) but is ICM still document-based, as it was in Windows 2000?

No idea, I've never used it in my life.
I prefer to ground myself in reality, rather than going off into the faery world of artwork.

	15-06-2002 14:18									#59
	Support Apolyton

Hey, if you have to do serious design/print, you need a Mac.

I personally prefer XP to OS X, though, by a mile.

	15-06-2002 14:20									#60
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

quote: Originally posted by JohnIII Hey, if you have to do serious design/print, you need a Mac.

One might consider "color accuracy" to hardly be "serious".

I consider "serious design" to be stuff like AutoCAD, but then again, I think the people who fret over insanely small differences in color accuracies need a reality check.