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nightcleaver

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With how things are looking with how fast PC games are moving, well...

 

I've always had pretty bad luck with computers, even after doing lots of intense research and using custom configurations. My old computer had me spending another 60 bucks every two months on it, in addition to whatever games I wanted to play, just to keep it running. That's something consoles don't have to deal with - reliability.

 

My current pre-made system, a Dell, is extremely reliable, but I'll have to buy a new computer every couple of years if I stick with it, or shell out an extra thousand bucks to what I would have to if I bought the parts and stuck it together. I currently have a video card, PCI 5200 graphics card, that's good for slideshows, but not for playing games. NWN looks pretty, but everything else drags and has a grainy picture.

 

Unless I buy a new computer before the Xbox 2 hybrid allegedly comes out, I'm going that route. The video card manufacturers have pushed it too far, I think. And computer makers such as Dell shouldn't be selling PC's that don't function with external graphics cards, no less alleging that those same bargain PC's are versatile enough to be gaming machines.

 

I used to think it was scary how consoles/PC's were moving to become one thing, but with how the graphics card market is pushing things, it's looking pretty palatable. As much as I hate monopolies, if the monopoly treats it's customer's right I have no problem with it. People will still buy other computers, and gamers will have it that much easier. It's just games, after all - at a rate of about 1000 bucks a year, I don't really see how it's worth it.

 

MonarchComputer.com looks like a good choice, especially with the easy motherboard-loading tray and small form factor PC's at a significantly better price. And then they allege that their customer ratings are far higher compared to Dell and Gateway, but does anyone have a personal experience with them?

 

So the discussion begins. Change my mind, or agree with me, or even give me some advice.

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If the Xbox(2) would make games with mouse/keyboard support, and let the comsumer buy a mouse keyboard seperately -- or used a USB devide -- they could essentially wipe out PC gaming, because the PC would lose one of the few advantages it has over consoles (read: Xbox(2)).

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

 

- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

 

"I have also been slowly coming to the realisation that knowledge and happiness are not necessarily coincident, and quite often mutually exclusive" - meta

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Consoles are abominations that waste the efforts of developers who could be making games for PC, the foulest of them being XBOX because not only is it keeping some good games from us PC users, its making the dual system games worse because the devs have to take the outdated technology of the xbox into account.

 

 

If I was dictator, Id ban consoles, exterminate microsoft from the face of the planet and make all the PCs run unix-based OS

DISCLAIMER: Do not take what I write seriously unless it is clearly and in no uncertain terms, declared by me to be meant in a serious and non-humoristic manner. If there is no clear indication, asume the post is written in jest. This notification is meant very seriously and its purpouse is to avoid misunderstandings and the consequences thereof. Furthermore; I can not be held accountable for anything I write on these forums since the idea of taking serious responsability for my unserious actions, is an oxymoron in itself.

 

Important: as the following sentence contains many naughty words I warn you not to read it under any circumstances; botty, knickers, wee, erogenous zone, psychiatrist, clitoris, stockings, bosom, poetry reading, dentist, fellatio and the department of agriculture.

 

"I suppose outright stupidity and complete lack of taste could also be considered points of view. "

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What if it made gaming easier, as I suggested, and cheaper, in the long run? It seems to be blurring the lines between console and PC, and with the crap video card manufacturers have been doing trying to oust eachother, I'm beginning to like that. You might not like it right now, but in the long run it could be better for you...

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If I was dictator, Id ban consoles, exterminate microsoft from the face of the planet and make all the PCs run unix-based OS

 

You hate the economy, don't you?

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."

 

- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

 

"I have also been slowly coming to the realisation that knowledge and happiness are not necessarily coincident, and quite often mutually exclusive" - meta

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Hmmm, looks like you either want uber performance or something just isnt right for you to spend 60$ every 2 months.

 

My computer is quite outdated when compared to the newer computers that rich parents get their kids so they can run the newest FPS games at the highest setting, but my computer works fine with most games. Granted, I don't care that much about graphics, I rather play games with good gameplay and story then watching eye candy.

 

As for the consoles, I don't really see the appeal of sever hundred dollars worth of equipment that can only play games.

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The next console generation is going to be interesting. Aside from Nintendo everyone is putting more effort into the online thing. Which is kind of the last bastion of PC gaming along with RTS.

 

I switched more or less 100% to consoles and I couldnt be happier. Everything works out of the box. I dont have any driver hassles and the so called big name games on the PC havnt interested me one iota. Doom 3 et al.

 

On top of that I can rent loads of titles I might want to play but not buy and return any that dont meet expectation withing 10 days.

 

At the moment you can get all 3 consoles for less than a new video card upgrade for a PC. As a non gaming PC costs next to nothing that represents a big saving. Although the games on consoles should drop in price :D

I have to agree with Volourn.  Bioware is pretty much dead now.  Deals like this kills development studios.

478327[/snapback]

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You hate the economy, don't you?

 

 

 

Money is the root of all evil.

DISCLAIMER: Do not take what I write seriously unless it is clearly and in no uncertain terms, declared by me to be meant in a serious and non-humoristic manner. If there is no clear indication, asume the post is written in jest. This notification is meant very seriously and its purpouse is to avoid misunderstandings and the consequences thereof. Furthermore; I can not be held accountable for anything I write on these forums since the idea of taking serious responsability for my unserious actions, is an oxymoron in itself.

 

Important: as the following sentence contains many naughty words I warn you not to read it under any circumstances; botty, knickers, wee, erogenous zone, psychiatrist, clitoris, stockings, bosom, poetry reading, dentist, fellatio and the department of agriculture.

 

"I suppose outright stupidity and complete lack of taste could also be considered points of view. "

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The fact that things on a PC can go wrong and you actually have to put some effort to correct them just adds to the PCs being more interesting IMO.

 

Many times have I felt frustrated at the XYZ game not working, or the XYZ program malfunctioning, but solving the various problems and eventually running the program just gives you a feeling of accomplishment and creativity that consoles may never offer :p

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The fact that things on a PC can go wrong and you actually have to put some effort to correct them just adds to the PCs being more interesting IMO.

 

Many times have I felt frustrated at the XYZ game not working, or the XYZ program malfunctioning, but solving the various problems and eventually running the program just gives you a feeling of accomplishment and creativity that consoles may never offer :p

 

Seriously you have been brainwashed by the low quality of PC software.

It's like buying a car and the dealer saying "Well it's got all sorts of problems but that just means you get the extra benifit of repairing it" :o:p

I have to agree with Volourn.  Bioware is pretty much dead now.  Deals like this kills development studios.

478327[/snapback]

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Hmmm, looks like you either want uber performance or something just isnt right for you to spend 60$ every 2 months.

 

 

You're telling me...

 

 

Maybe it's the house or something, I would be replacing hard-disks and cd drives pretty frequently. Really frequently. And then there would be a new problem arising every now and then for one or another dysfunctional part (later on, my computer would crash variably between 10 minutes and a full 3 hours of work.) On top of that was the crappy video card which wasn't working so well and I needed to upgrade, unbeknowest to me.

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Hmmm, looks like you either want uber performance or something just isnt right for you to spend 60$ every 2 months.

 

 

You're telling me...

 

 

Maybe it's the house or something, I would be replacing hard-disks and cd drives pretty frequently. Really frequently. And then there would be a new problem arising every now and then for one or another dysfunctional part (later on, my computer would crash variably between 10 minutes and a full 3 hours of work.) On top of that was the crappy video card which wasn't working so well and I needed to upgrade, unbeknowest to me.

 

 

That's odd, really odd. I've had my current PC specs for about a year now, and I'm still able to play literally EVERYTHING even if it's not on full resolution (I can play Doom III on High but not Ultra).

 

First, what HDD brand are you buying? There's been known problems with several of the major brands lately, Maxtor, Western Digital, and some other one I don't remember being among them. I've had really good luck with my dual Seagate drives. Also, the cheapest video card, even if it's the same 'model' may not be the same quality as the manufacturer's will take the same GPU and amount of RAM (read technology/model) and totally remake it with software changes, and cooling tech. If you're buying ATI, I'd stick to house ATI cards, or Sapphire, with the occasional Infotek depending on the reviews. Nvidia, house, Chainsaw, MSI, and VIA seem to be best.

 

 

 

I've also found that a well maintained, build your own computer will last a helluva lot longer than one of those crappy in house Dell/HP/Compaq/Sony/Whatever, with the exception of maybe Monarch, Falcon, Alienware, or Voodoo. But even then, those will cost you a heap more money than if you build it yourself, and you don't have quite the amount of knowledge that will be handy for tweaking it down the line when it's on it's last legs before it's upgrade. If you build your own, tweak it out a little, and take good cre of it, it will actually be cheaper than a console in the long run because they absolutely RAPE you with console game prices; so long as you're not the kind of person who pre-orders everything.

 

 

 

Hope this helps. :huh:

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Consoles are abominations that waste the efforts of developers who could be making games for PC, the foulest of them being XBOX because not only is it keeping some good games from us PC users, its making the dual system games worse because the devs have to take the outdated technology of the xbox into account.

 

!!!

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Consoles are abominations that waste the efforts of developers who could be making games for PC, the foulest of them being XBOX because not only is it keeping some good games from us PC users, its making the dual system games worse because the devs have to take the outdated technology of the xbox into account.

 

!!!

 

 

You know he's right; about the Billy Gates Box at least. ;)

 

 

<runs from Billy Gates Box fanbois>

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Hmmm, looks like you either want uber performance or something just isnt right for you to spend 60$ every 2 months.

 

 

You're telling me...

 

 

Maybe it's the house or something, I would be replacing hard-disks and cd drives pretty frequently. Really frequently. And then there would be a new problem arising every now and then for one or another dysfunctional part (later on, my computer would crash variably between 10 minutes and a full 3 hours of work.) On top of that was the crappy video card which wasn't working so well and I needed to upgrade, unbeknowest to me.

 

 

That's odd, really odd. I've had my current PC specs for about a year now, and I'm still able to play literally EVERYTHING even if it's not on full resolution (I can play Doom III on High but not Ultra).

 

First, what HDD brand are you buying? There's been known problems with several of the major brands lately, Maxtor, Western Digital, and some other one I don't remember being among them. I've had really good luck with my dual Seagate drives. Also, the cheapest video card, even if it's the same 'model' may not be the same quality as the manufacturer's will take the same GPU and amount of RAM (read technology/model) and totally remake it with software changes, and cooling tech. If you're buying ATI, I'd stick to house ATI cards, or Sapphire, with the occasional Infotek depending on the reviews. Nvidia, house, Chainsaw, MSI, and VIA seem to be best.

 

 

 

I've also found that a well maintained, build your own computer will last a helluva lot longer than one of those crappy in house Dell/HP/Compaq/Sony/Whatever, with the exception of maybe Monarch, Falcon, Alienware, or Voodoo. But even then, those will cost you a heap more money than if you build it yourself, and you don't have quite the amount of knowledge that will be handy for tweaking it down the line when it's on it's last legs before it's upgrade. If you build your own, tweak it out a little, and take good cre of it, it will actually be cheaper than a console in the long run because they absolutely RAPE you with console game prices; so long as you're not the kind of person who pre-orders everything.

 

 

 

Hope this helps. :lol:

 

No, it doesn't. I'm still saying it could be my house, because it's not the first computer that's had problems. The computer before this last one that I had did last quite a while, admittedly, but not nearly the decad-age to be cheaper than buying all the up to date consoles in that time would be. And still, that computer didn't exactly run without a hitch, and I was probably about two generations behind in terms of the games I could play on it before I upgraded. And when I say, "didn't exactly run without a hitch," I mean it crashed... A LOT. After going through two computers with the same obscure problem, well...

 

And yes, the room temp was perfectly fine. Motherboard sensors all detected that the CPU got a little warm, but it was perfectly reasonably warm and not near enough for the CPU to shut off because of the heat.

 

Then again, my Dell keeps giving me this nonsense about .dll files not being a proper picture file. Doesn't seem to affect anything, save for being a minor annoyance on startup.

 

I used ASUS drives. My brother, who's quite computer savvy, recommended them, and I did a little research myself. This was a few years ago, also, so "recently" probably doesn't mean much about back then. I'll remember seagate for the future, but computer hardware tends to be strangely finicky nonetheless.

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Hmmm, looks like you either want uber performance or something just isnt right for you to spend 60$ every 2 months.

 

 

You're telling me...

 

 

Maybe it's the house or something, I would be replacing hard-disks and cd drives pretty frequently. Really frequently. And then there would be a new problem arising every now and then for one or another dysfunctional part (later on, my computer would crash variably between 10 minutes and a full 3 hours of work.) On top of that was the crappy video card which wasn't working so well and I needed to upgrade, unbeknowest to me.

 

 

That's odd, really odd. I've had my current PC specs for about a year now, and I'm still able to play literally EVERYTHING even if it's not on full resolution (I can play Doom III on High but not Ultra).

 

First, what HDD brand are you buying? There's been known problems with several of the major brands lately, Maxtor, Western Digital, and some other one I don't remember being among them. I've had really good luck with my dual Seagate drives. Also, the cheapest video card, even if it's the same 'model' may not be the same quality as the manufacturer's will take the same GPU and amount of RAM (read technology/model) and totally remake it with software changes, and cooling tech. If you're buying ATI, I'd stick to house ATI cards, or Sapphire, with the occasional Infotek depending on the reviews. Nvidia, house, Chainsaw, MSI, and VIA seem to be best.

 

 

 

I've also found that a well maintained, build your own computer will last a helluva lot longer than one of those crappy in house Dell/HP/Compaq/Sony/Whatever, with the exception of maybe Monarch, Falcon, Alienware, or Voodoo. But even then, those will cost you a heap more money than if you build it yourself, and you don't have quite the amount of knowledge that will be handy for tweaking it down the line when it's on it's last legs before it's upgrade. If you build your own, tweak it out a little, and take good cre of it, it will actually be cheaper than a console in the long run because they absolutely RAPE you with console game prices; so long as you're not the kind of person who pre-orders everything.

 

 

 

Hope this helps. :)

 

No, it doesn't. I'm still saying it could be my house, because it's not the first computer that's had problems. The computer before this last one that I had did last quite a while, admittedly, but not nearly the decad-age to be cheaper than buying all the up to date consoles in that time would be. And still, that computer didn't exactly run without a hitch, and I was probably about two generations behind in terms of the games I could play on it before I upgraded. And when I say, "didn't exactly run without a hitch," I mean it crashed... A LOT. After going through two computers with the same obscure problem, well...

 

And yes, the room temp was perfectly fine. Motherboard sensors all detected that the CPU got a little warm, but it was perfectly reasonably warm and not near enough for the CPU to shut off because of the heat.

 

Then again, my Dell keeps giving me this nonsense about .dll files not being a proper picture file. Doesn't seem to affect anything, save for being a minor annoyance on startup.

 

I used ASUS drives. My brother, who's quite computer savvy, recommended them, and I did a little research myself. This was a few years ago, also, so "recently" probably doesn't mean much about back then. I'll remember seagate for the future, but computer hardware tends to be strangely finicky nonetheless.

 

 

Actually, it was three or four years ago the problems surfaced IIRC. I'm still reading about people having the same problem too. Well, dunno what to say, other than perhaps take a stroll on down to the TSG forums and see if they can help you. :)

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