+When I started building my own computers, I would typically go to Newegg and check ratings and reviews for each of the components, then go with that advice. All of my original builds, I used the best Asus motherboards available at the time. P4PE, P4C800E-D, P5AD2E. These are Intel socket boards, and I used the best bank for the buck processor. I used Seagate hard drives. Those machines worked flawlessly, but ultimately all of the boards crapped out except the original P4PE. At the end of the day I'm not that happy with Asus After some time of not building anything, I needed to build another batch, these are within the last two years. This time I went with Gigabyte motherboards and I5 intel processors. I also switched to WD hard drives, just for a change, the Seagates were always good to me. All my machines are running continuously, some are gaming setups, and there hasn't been the slightest hiccup from any of them.
Better yet, you can pick up decent box fer zero $$. Ppl can't give 'em away, anymore. Actually costs $$ to dispose of 'em. I haven't paid for a computer in yrs. Granted, I'm not running the hottest gamer box in town, but running Linux gets me what I need for nada. Finally hadda kick out the jams and splurge fer an LCD monitor, no CRTs lying around. My new Acer 23" is killer. I may join the 21st century if I can find a decent box fer < $200.
Oh yeah, two days ago a 17" CRT turned up, fer free. With 2 keyboards and two mice. I passed. ;)
Absolutely, that's what pissed me off about store bought machines. I was always groveling to Dell, or Compaq for information. Every component you buy, has all the information you need to make it work
Oren, I have built a few systems for self and friends since '94. Still = do upgrades, etc., but now it's less cost (and I have less time now) to = just buy a complete basic system at one of the discount houses, swap out = parts & sell the extra one on ebay. If I had more time, I would still = be building them like you are.
So, just for info, the place I hit first around here in Calif is =
formatting link
A few times a year they will have a basic system less = monitor for $199. Typically it's a no-name brand, but I have bought a = dozen over the years and never had trouble with any of them. Right now = I'm using one called Great Value. (I knew it had to be bottom of the = line. LOL!!) But ended up buying 3 total and all are still humming = away. Only had one USB port go out on one of the, and a $15 USB card = fixed that.
Check out their specials -- they run full page ads in the paper which is = better for me than searching a website. You can view them online also = at
You are not thinking outside of the box, and are suffering from tunnel vision . A properly set-up laptop as the equal to your "big honking box" but with a smaller footprint AND a backup battery I also have no problem hooking up 2 monitors, a keyboard and a backup HD to my laptop
Just because it's "portable" does NOT mean that it cannot perform in a non-portable role as well I have 2 older laptops acting as server and firewall.
Not only are they on a smaller footprint but they also use less power.
I have been partial to AMDs but haven't built a computer for myself in some years (parts for the last buy are sitting in the closet collecting dust (intended as a media PC). Since laptops became more like desktops, I switched and haven't done much with components since.
Tyan or Asus were my choices.
At one time I bought nothing but IBMs. I had zero problems with them, even with the worst of the DeathStars, I had no failures. When IBM got out of the business I went to Seagates but with laptop drives I had a lot of failures, usually at quite inopportune times (traveling). It got so I'd carry a spare in my laptop case. I think this one is a WD, but I'm not sure. It's been fine for three years.
Whatever's cheap. I would buy a writer. They're cheap.
I've had *very* good luck with a cheap 16x10 (1920x1200) 24" Soyo. I bought it five years ago for $260 and it's been great. I also have an older 21" Dell but I don't use it much. I'd use both if I could get a third monitor working reliably on my laptop. I tried one of the USB display adapters but it wasn't reliable.
Nevermind! ;-) I've bought a laptop (wife's) and a netbook in that time, but no desktop stuff.
I used to do that for people (used to build several a day at work - investigating compatible parts) but found that they weren't so competent and tended to blame the hardware. It's much easier to let them buy the $400 special at BestBuy.
How do you hook up two monitors? Even with my docking station (a graphics card doesn't work in it, for some reason) I can only connect one external display. I used a USB adapter (they're *slow* but still useful) but it wasn't reliable enough (worked at first, then nothing, reinstall, worked, nothing...).
Battery "backup" doesn't work, either. When the power drops the system reboots or hangs. That may be a dock problem, though.
When I replace mine, they're dead. My wife's screen died last fall and for some reason it doesn't like running without it. I'll have to try again sometime.
Not as fast, either, but I don't miss that aspect at home.
The Dell Latitude laptop I have has dual monitor support but the second monitor will be a TV with an S-video port. You can then "extend" your desktop to the TV.
The problem you have with drivers is when you are not sure what hardware you actually have. I have a whole cabinet full of boards cards and drives. When I am putting a machine together from my parts cache I often find a card that drivers are a mystery item. The old "free" driver sites have become malware factories, always trying to get you to load crap you don't want. Manufacturers are dropping support on products very early in the life cycle.
The chinks (Lenova) have really screwed up the IBM PC site.
I just "upgraded to a more familiar version" (W7 to XP Pro) on my, new to me, X61 tablet and getting all the drivers was a nightmare. I still have one yellow box on my device manager that I can't resolve.
Yeah. When Oracle bought Sun, the OSS ppl freaked and forked OO to LO, in 2010. Sun was always of a generous nature, but Oracle is a little too shady fer comfort. Oracle finally gave up OO to Apache but LO isn't taking any chances. I opened a buncha .doc's using LO, the other day. Not elegant, but perfectly usable.
I've yet to find a laptop keyboard that is a comfortable to use as my full sized MS keyboard. Even on my wife's 17" laptop. Sure you can hook up all that stuff to it but then you have to take it off if you want portability; always a compromise. Oh, I also have good speakers and a sub woofer too.
Sure it "performs", but just not as comfortable to use at my desk.
CPU is a couple of feet away and not taking valuable space. Not a consideration. I do have battery backup for about 30 minutes with a UPS, but longer does not make any difference once the router goes down. I never had the desire to sit in the dark and work on a spreadsheet.
My computer guy also charges less to work on desktops than laptops and can usually get parts faster an cheaper. If it works for you, fine, but advantages are minimal at best.
I got 2 P4s. Got 'em both free. And I'm way out in the boonies. If I was in a large metro area, could probably find a p4 out by the curb with a "take it" sign on it. $100 of that is fer Winblows 7. I will admit it has a decent P4 and 2G RAM and USB 2.0. Musta been one of the last iterations of that family of Pentiums. I'd pay the $60 if I could get it w/o Win7.
snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Have you tried Raxco's PerfectUpdater? I believe they have a trial version. I suckered into subscribing to it ... It's been almost a year and all updates were done without problems other than rebooting. ASUS X53E laptop w/ Win7Pro
A $99 P4 or $119 i5 off Lease ThinkCenter is about the best bargain you will get - 3 years old, industrial strength, high compatability and reliability Tier 1 machine. Can't ask for more for non video iintensive (not a gamer) machine.
I don't know what all the "bloatware" that you find so objectionable is. I'm sure some of that comes with SOME systems, but it's never been a problem for me. I believe that was more of a problem years ago when systems would come loaded with offers from AOL, Mindspring, and other ISP's, etc.
I recently bought two HP systems about a year apart and they have an HP support assistant on them, and free limited use versions of MSFT Office, but other than that, there isn't anything else. The support assistant keeps track of any updated drivers or bios that HP might have and it will install them if needed and you OK it. It doesn't bother me and I don't bother it. The MSFT office starter software was a plus and I use it. Even if it has other software on it, if your friend doesn't use it, I don't see the big issue.
It would seem in a few minutes you could also just remove the bloatware that you don't want.
Yes, the failure rate is higher in the beginning, but clearly they can still fail at 6 or 9 months too. With a system from HP or Dell then it's their problem. And building the thing for a friend, those failures in the early days would seem to be YOUR problem to then deal with.
I didn't mean to imply that your friend doesn't trust you or that you aren't competent. The common sense aspect you speak of is why I suggested that for me, building a system for someone else or even myself for general purpos use doesn't make sense because you're not saving much, if anything. It's been that way for a decade or more now.
You said elsewhere that he's just using the thing for email and web browsing, nothing special. Hundreds of millions of folks are doing exactly that with all kinds of off the shelf systems so I don't see why his expectations would not be met with a $400 system from say HP. And you can customize those to a reasonable extent, change the CPU, memory, hard drive size, etc.
Being in the position of building a system for someone else today, from as you say a common sense standpoint, is not where I'd want to be because I can see a lot of downside and not much upside. But clearly you can and should do as you please.
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