some computer help

[inscribed]

i think mmajunkie's point was: building a computer is ridiculously easy with even the slightest amount of research, and if you can't take a couple hours to educate yourself on something that will save you anywhere from $100 to $500+, then you are most likely either very wealthy or very illiterate.

edit: this won't apply to entry or low/mid level computers which are already built for dirt cheap, as zhorkil mentioned, although i'd argue his numbers a little bit.

[EyeSeeU]

Apple's are for rich fools who think their buying the lamborghini of computers. I mean seriously when have you ever seen any apple product in a retail store on sale? The answer is never, kinda funny eh? I think so. That is why I am a proud owner of the Samsung Galaxy S android phone, an when I receive my 2.2 Froyo update I will be laughing at all the owners of the Iphone 4 and any Iphone for that matter.

[mmajunkie]

It's always comical to me how much passion there is from people hating Apple with little to no real experience with their products or their company.

There is a place in the world for Apple...it may not be your place, but they DO excel at certain things.

[EyeSeeU]

Yeah they excel in overpricing everything they sell.

I've owned Apple products, Ipod, Iphone, blah blah blah, I speak from knowledge, not from ignorance.

[Akoz]

Honestly, the only reason to build your own computer these days is for purposes of customization.

Computer costs have gone down so much in the last 10 years that it doesn't save you any money. You can buy a very good desktop computer for 500$ or less. You can buy a good desktop computer for 300-400$. Just find a good sale.

I bought a top-of-the-line laptop for 800$ not long ago.

Side rant: I can't understand how anyone buys a computer from Apple. Its like buying a middle-of-the-road bicycle (power/functionality-wise) for twice the price of what a normal top-of-the-line bicycle would be. If you want to argue usability, maybe, but not worth it in my opinion (nor do I agree, but I can see how people would)

It's the software you get with it, you find me a desktop that is just as powerful, add up only HALF the kind of software a mac comes with and see if it comes close in price.

On top of that, the MAC OS is extermily stream lined unix format which makes a macs 4g of ram work just as good as a windows OS with 6-8gigs.

I don't own a mac, I dont even own an itunes account so if you think I am a fan boy im NOT, infact I use to HATE mac and tell everyone not to buy one because I thought much like you did.

I have been working with apple @ bestbuy alot and gone through hours of seminars and use functions as well as working with many of them at the geeksquad. They are really nice machines, if only they made top end gaming ones now....

[mmajunkie]

iPod, iPhone...not much experience with their iMac, or Server software, or Garageband or anything else?

They really aren't THAT much more overpriced on certain things. The Macbook starts at a clean 1k...you'd spend 700-800 on a windows laptop of similiar quality. Then most people spend another 50 on A/V, etc. etc. So you spend another 100 bucks for a Macbook which comes with a lot more software, currently a lot lower virus risk, almost 3x the battery life, better warranty support, etc.

[EyeSeeU]

Dude I had an apple computer and you know what Safari did all the time? it would close randomly for no reason, apple has it flaws just like anything else and its overpriced to boot, which is my point. oh perhaps you should try being a little less snappy when people don't share the same opinion as you do. Quit acting like you know it all.

[Akoz]

Yeah they excel in overpricing everything they sell.

I've owned Apple products, Ipod, Iphone, blah blah blah, I speak from knowledge, not from ignorance.

same goes to you, find me a comuter = power, add only HALF the software a max comes with and see if your price comes close.

On top of that, add the hours you will look at installing, trouble shooting all of thosse rpodicts, making sure they are compatable with you version of windows, and when you have a problem and call microsoft who says its adobes fault, who says its the computers fault, then hp tells you its windows fault.

With a mac, it's all designed by the same team and around their OS which they designed. Apples little saying "It just works" is so very true. You plug an apple device in, ot install a max software, it JUST WORKS. Why? Becaus it's all made by the same people.

Not only does it work, but it works more efficintly.

Had a guy coe in while I worked in the computer department, just bought a sony viao computer for 900 bucks, (quad core, 6 gigs of ram) then bought some music recording software for like 500 bucks. When he was trying to record the music would skip during recording, the computer wasnt powerfull enough to record 4 tracks simotaniously without stuttering.

We tested it on a mac book (not a macbook pro) it work flawlessly, on top of that, he LOVED the sound recording software that COMES WITH A MAC.

So now he owns a macbook, 2GIGS OF RAM and has the sfotware preinstalled.

So for 1,000 he has a computer that outperforms a 1400 package he had before.

Yeah thats overpriced, good thing we havnt got into the vodeo... photo editing software or music lesson software... or many other great software that is preinstalled on EVERY MAC.

[mmajunkie]

Snippy? I was asking what your experience with Apple was.

I never said they were perfect, only outlined some of their advantages. MY point was that PC fanatics go all crazy and instead of seeing the advantages and WHY apple charges more for their computers they just get offended when anyone tries to defend Apple's case.

What it breaks down to is this -- You buy an Apple because of it's advantages. Not because you want to play games. If you are not into media, art, photo-editting, video-ettiting, whatever...then it probably isn't right for you. If those things ARE why you use a computer, then a Mac just might be the better alternative.

Don't base your entire opinion of a company just because they charge more and because you had a bad experience with one piece of their software.

[Akoz]

Defintly not perfect. I can tell you I see ALOT less % of apples come for repairs then PC's thats for both hardware and software.

Most Safari problems I have seen are useally with addons.

[mmajunkie]

That's a hard statistic to really judge though because Apple does not have the market share that Windows does.

Yes, Apple computers (based on plenty of case studies) seem to last longer than Windows computers. But there is also far less of them out there to even come in for repair

I've seen many 7-10 year old apple computers that can still run the newest OSX release. Find me a 10 year old PC that can run windows 7 64 bit

[Akoz]

Dude I had an apple computer and you know what Safari did all the time? it would close randomly for no reason' date=' apple has it flaws just like anything else and its overpriced to boot, which is my point. oh perhaps you should try being a little less snappy when people don't share the same opinion as you do. Quit acting like you know it all.[/quote']

Him being snippy? No Offence but your throwing out claims without support? It's over priced this over priced that? How is it over priced?

[Akoz]

That's a hard statistic to really judge though because Apple does not have the market share that Windows does.

Yes, Apple computers (based on plenty of case studies) seem to last longer than Windows computers. But there is also far less of them out there to even come in for repair

I've seen many 7-10 year old apple computers that can still run the newest OSX release. Find me a 10 year old PC that can run windows 7 64 bit

Im tlaking about % in repairs.

I know how many we sell and what percent of that number come in for repair. (This number is not including repaired units not sold by bestbuy) for that would scew the numbers in favor of mac even more =p

It is by far the lowest % I can tell you, while I can't defulge company information such as actualy numbers I can give you to lowest on the list.

Apple is the lowest

Sony doubles that % in second place.

We wont talk about the rest

but I will say this, samsung is now sellng through bestbuy and so far in the last couples of months since release here, havnt had one back. not even one DOB

EDIT: Please excuse my horrible typing! <^.^>

[mmajunkie]

Oh you actually WORK for Apple? Well, I don't like you anymore

I may sound like an Apple fanatic in this thread, but I'm really not. Mainly because what I use a computer for, Apple doesn't really cater to. They are starting to...but it's still not where I would need it to be to justify owning one. I love the company's innovation and design, though I think Steve Jobs might be hurting the company more now than he is helping it.

[Akoz]

hurting the company? wow... I have to be honest, I think he is the THE guy of his time... he nearly single handedly brought apple to what it is. and thats AFTER they got rid of him before...

[f0xx]

Actually, if you look at Apple at the moment and their recent conference concerning iPhone4's antenna problems... I would tend to agree with Zrothum.

PS. This topic has gone quite off

[Akoz]

most other phones have the same issue if you hold them that way, on top of that he gave out bands FREE to reconsicile the problem.

[f0xx]

Ow man, my phone has an antenna problem but it's OK because other phones have it too.

Here, use this diaper, it'll help.

You realise that this phone costs 4 average month salaries in my country? Do you really think if I buy it, I will want to cover it with that silly bumper, just to be able to speak on it? Hah

[Ex-D&Der]

Spiegel:

Generally speaking the cheapest performance upgrade is to max out the RAM. I would do that as a matter of course with pretty much any computer. The usual reason performance is slow is because of hard drive paging (the OS copying things to the drive that don't fit in RAM). Windows has always been bad at managing RAM and caching, so it really needs a lot of RAM to run decently.

Besides that I would defrag the hard disk regularly, make sure there is nothing running in the background you don't need, which saps both processing power and RAM, and perhaps run Norton Utilities on the disk (but don't install it--it now installs so much stuff that it slows the system down considerably. I would just run it from the disk).

If you do all that and it's still too slow, then you should start shopping for a computer. I wouldn't just buy the cheapest computer you can. Figure out your budget, then get the most RAM and hard disk space you can afford. Processor speed is in some sense the least important thing because for a given generation of processors they all become obsolete around the same time, which is basically due to software upgrades (or bloat, depending on how you look at it).

The one thing I can't advise you on is the graphics requirements for games. The graphics hardware, I understand, can have a significant effect on performance when it comes to games. Others here can probably advise you on the requirements for that.

Hope that helps.

[spiegel06]

There have been a lot of useful advice and I have been looking around and so far I found 5 that I am considering. What do you guys thinlk this is more or less my budget max 650. This computer will be my gaming computer while my laptop will be for work/mudding and such.

http://www.computerlx.com/product_view.aspx?product_ID=1157

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6295368&sku=B69-1201

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6401384&Sku=B69-1222

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6256262&Sku=B69-9005

http://www.computerlx.com/product_view.aspx?product_ID=1121

[Akoz]

Just a quick thing while your looking, for a gmaing machine Quad care isn't worth much more then dual core.