The Computer Thread

1.86 gHz. Ouch.

How is Ubuntu, by the way? I was thinking to use it for my office PC/internets surfing, because Windows is overpriced and I only use it for gaymen.

Ninja. I'm not familiar with Pentium, other than the fact that i3 is better.

edited 19th Jun '12 12:52:13 AM by Shaggy

If anyone in the thread wants to kidnap me, I don't mind. We'd just be in their van drinking Mountain Dew and watching MLP for days on end

Well, it's a 5-year-old rig, so the fact that it can run Skyrim at low detail is already a miracle by itself.

AMD A6340m (quadcore @ 1.5 ghz) Ati radeon hd 7670m + integrated ati 6570 (not sure about the number) 6 gb ram 500 gb hdd

And the framerate goes completely bollocks when trying to play arma 2

If any question why we died/ Tell them, because our fathers lied -Rudyard Kipling

@Shaggy: Ubuntu's come a very long way in the past few years. And with the Wine compatibility layer, you'd at least have a shot at running most of your games.

I might have to run Ubuntu, then.

If anyone in the thread wants to kidnap me, I don't mind. We'd just be in their van drinking Mountain Dew and watching MLP for days on end

I'm building two computers for people. What do you rate for the following:

First computer, used for office computing

• i3 2100
• ASRock Z77 Pro4-M
• Integrated graphics, on the motherboard.
• 250 GB hard drive, SATA 6 GB/s, 7,200 RPM
• 8 GB RAM, 2x4
• DVD drive
• Case with 500 watt PSU.

Second computer, for gaming:

• i3 2100
• ASRock Z77 Pro4-M
• Radeon 7850
• 1 TB hard drive, 6 GB/s, 7,200 RPM
• 8 GB RAM, 2x4
• DVD drive
• 600 watt PSU
• 20" widescreen monitor

First comes out at $400, second comes out at $800.

Thoughts? Advice?

edited 22nd Jun '12 7:24:24 PM by Shaggy

If anyone in the thread wants to kidnap me, I don't mind. We'd just be in their van drinking Mountain Dew and watching MLP for days on end

Noooo don't buy everything from Microcenter! Only the CP Us, and if applicable, the motherboards are cheaper there.

No need for the Z77 Pro4-M too. And avoid those PS Us!

For the office one, get this motherboard: Biostar H61MU3B ($67) For the gaming one, get this motherboard: Biostar H77MU3 ($87)

For the office one, get this PSU: Corsair CX430V2 ($47) For the gaming one, get this PSU: Seasonic M12II 520W ($70)

Here's a cheaper HD 7850 with a better cooler and faster clocks: Sapphire HD 7850 ($254)

Then get this case for both: Xclio 320 ($40)

You DO NOT cheap out on the PSU.

I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.

>Onboard Video Chipset: none

>Maximum Memory Supported: 16 GB

No thanks.

The reason I'm buying everything from Micro Center is because the customers are taking me out to buy the parts. They don't want to spend a lot of time on this.

Also, Newegg is the biggest rip off ever. Go here.

The case with power supply for the office computer is cheaper and comes with a PSU. Saving money there. As for the gaming PSU, I'm getting a 600 watt at a lower price. I'm not "cheaping out," I'm getting more wattage for their money.

edited 22nd Jun '12 7:58:48 PM by Shaggy

If anyone in the thread wants to kidnap me, I don't mind. We'd just be in their van drinking Mountain Dew and watching MLP for days on end

Fine, fine, fine.

Oh, the Z77 doesn't have integrated graphics too.

Because it's in the CPU. :rolleyes:

Disregard my post then. You obviously know better. Makes me wonder why you're asking for our thoughts and advice in the first place...

edited 22nd Jun '12 8:17:49 PM by entropy13

I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.

The Z77 has a seperate chipset for graphics, not just using the graphics in the CPU. The purpose of this is to take stress off of the CPU.

And I was asking for advice to make it cheaper. Not raise the price.

Also, the point of paying me to build them a PC is for convenience. So by asking them to give their credit card information to a bunch of different vendors, you're taking away the convenience factor.

edited 22nd Jun '12 8:57:27 PM by Shaggy

If anyone in the thread wants to kidnap me, I don't mind. We'd just be in their van drinking Mountain Dew and watching MLP for days on end

I think I just nuked any credibility I have at computer competence.

The other day I followed an unknown-to-me bad link, and my desktop system (typing this on my laptop, which I know is clean because I barely ever use it ) got hit with the Sirefef trojan.

In the course of cleaning that out, several other nasties were found by Malware Bytes that my normal MSE didn't catch, and I've no idea how long they were there.

Now, I've cleaned out everything I could find, between MB, MSE, and ESET's online scanner, but I'm still getting something trying to change the associations of .log and .txt files, being stopped only by WinPatrol intercepting the attempts. At this point all I can think of is to wipe the desktop and reinstall from scratch.

All your safe space are belong to Trump

...ouch.

Do you think you can get it functional?

I suggest searching for the virus-y stuff.

edited 23rd Jun '12 8:05:59 PM by Shaggy

If anyone in the thread wants to kidnap me, I don't mind. We'd just be in their van drinking Mountain Dew and watching MLP for days on end

WTF Shaggy? The Z77 has no "separate chipset for graphics" of its own. The Z77 is just the southbridge. To put in laymans terms, the Z77 is just the "road" for data to pass through, whether it's the SATA ports, the USB ports, the CPU itself, or the PCI-E slots. Oh and the RAM slots. It has no "separate chipset for graphics", as it only provides the "road" for which data will be transferred from the HDD, through the CPU's integrated graphics core, and out of the HDMI/DP/DVI/VGA slots and into the connected monitor(s). Of course, if you have a video card in the PCI-E slot, then it would pass through the HDD, SATA port, Z77 chipset, CPU, back through the chipset, to the PCI-E, through the video card, then out as visual data to your monitor.

Nah, I shouldn't have told you that, that would be too much facts for you to handle.

Since you're insistent on the cheaper PS Us, I'll just leave these here:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/TiVECO-TVPS450-Power-Supply-Review/1436
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Coolmax-V-500-Power-Supply-Review/1366
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Logisys-PS350MA-Power-Supply-Review/1293
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Logisys-PS600A12-Power-Supply-Review/1211
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Apevia-Turbolink-ATX-TL450W-BK-Power-Supply-Review/1212
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-Elite-Power-350-W-Power-Supply-Review/1184
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/iMicro-PS-IM400WH-Power-Supply-Review/1072
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/Cooler-Master-eXtreme-Power-Plus-600-W-Power-Supply-Review/1034
http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/12/17/diablotek_phd650_650w_power_supply_review/1

And I didn't make things more expensive since for the more reliable, a bit more expensive PS Us, I put in a cheaper motherboard that has all the features you already need. And the videocard was cheaper too, even though it was the same thing. But the prices aren't the same for Microcenter, so I may have made it more expensive if you exclusively buy from there, but then again the more expensive PS Us would be worth it since they won't be frying the other parts anyway...unless of course, you insist on those cheap PS Us...who am I to stop you anyway? I'm not as knowledgeable as you in "tech matters" anyway...

edited 23rd Jun '12 10:56:04 PM by entropy13

I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.

>here

>Specs

>Onboard Graphic Chipset: Intel HD Video

Yep, definitely doesn't have a separate chipset for graphics.

edited 23rd Jun '12 11:55:20 PM by Shaggy

If anyone in the thread wants to kidnap me, I don't mind. We'd just be in their van drinking Mountain Dew and watching MLP for days on end

Shaggy, I did try to find what's trying to trigger the file handler change, without success.

Right now I'm probably just going to wipe and reinstall, as I'm totally out of ideas and there's a reason this laptop isn't used normally (read: it sucks other than having been within my budget at the time).

Though, I am giving consideration to wait until I can get ahold of a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium (XP Pro SP3 at the moment), though, if for no other reason than that eventually I'd like to have more than the 3 GB of memory that 32-bit Windows is limited to. Without wanting to turn this into a bash thread, WTF is your problem, MS? Other 32-bit OSes can handle more memory than that just fine.

edited 24th Jun '12 6:00:34 AM by Nohbody

All your safe space are belong to Trump

This is an OS from the same guy who said this:

"When we set the upper limit of PC-DOS at 640K, we thought nobody would ever need that much memory. — William Gates, chairman of Microsoft" source: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/09/08/640k-enough/

Of course, Gates has vehemently denied ever saying this and knows enough about computers to wipe away any evidence of him saying this in Microsoft data storage.

Personally I think the quote attribution is bullshit fueled by people looking for something to use as a snappy Take That! against Gates, as all those claiming he said it decline to mention both where and when the statement was supposedly made, but that's neither here nor there.

Anyway, I decided to just reinstall XP for now. 1) I didn't want to wait for a purchased copy*

to be shipped, and 2) the money would be better used by helping to pay off bills than to buy something that, objectively viewed, is much more a "would be nice" than "must have".

edited 24th Jun '12 7:05:14 PM by Nohbody

All your safe space are belong to Trump

Not to mention as worded, Bill Gates was only recalling the time when he made an educated guess based on the information available and sounds like he regretted that decision, as it turned out his guess was wrong.

Lubuntu with Wine is good if you can't afford Windows.

Or you could just go to the Pirate Bay and use Windows 7 Loader by Hazar.

If anyone in the thread wants to kidnap me, I don't mind. We'd just be in their van drinking Mountain Dew and watching MLP for days on end

I admittedly haven't really looked at Wine within the past few years, but at least as of that previous look it still had compatibility issues.

The "LUNIX IS TEH SUPERIAR OPERATING SYSTEM" clowns (talking online in general, haven't seen such used yet in this thread) prodding something of a tendency of mine towards contrarianism don't help matters any.

(Nor does laziness, to be honest. Windows has its faults, to be sure, but they're familiar aches instead of icepicks jabbing into my eyes from the glare of a screen showing MAN pages. )

All your safe space are belong to Trump

Linux sucks until you customize it to look and feel like Windows, which takes FOREVER.

And Wine works pretty well for gaming, works flawlessly with Steam, that is.

All I really need it for is word processing, music, and internet, so if I can get it to work, I will.

If anyone in the thread wants to kidnap me, I don't mind. We'd just be in their van drinking Mountain Dew and watching MLP for days on end

I'm liking that PC Part Builder link, by the way. My only gripe is that it doesn't appear to take bundle deals into account.

...that or I'm just not looking hard enough.

Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.

I literally just did a double facepalm after you posted that Shaggy.

Now, if you're actually correct, please post that at a tech site like Tech Power Up!, Tech Report, or [H]ardocp. Make a thread there entitled "Z77 chipset has integrated graphics".

http://techreport.com/articles.x/22755

Check the diagram on that page, which is from Intel. Do you see "Graphics" as a part of the Z77 chipset?

edited 28th Jun '12 9:46:55 AM by entropy13

I'm reading this because it's interesting. I think. Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, over.

That block diagram shows Processor Graphics, but it's in the Intel Core box. So does that mean that you need a Core chip to have integrated on-chip graphics capability? I'm a bit fuzzy on what that diagram is trying to convey.

Not that I'd go that route, unless it was in a machine that simply doesn't have the room for a standalone graphics card, like a netbook or a thin client box (probably doesn't have graphics as a high priority anyway).

edited 28th Jun '12 10:44:20 AM by pvtnum11

Happiness is zero-gee with a sinus cold.

Do you? Answer: Yes.

edited 28th Jun '12 5:44:39 PM by Shaggy

If anyone in the thread wants to kidnap me, I don't mind. We'd just be in their van drinking Mountain Dew and watching MLP for days on end