Gotta love technology!

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So my buddy/gym partner/Work IT guy talked me into ponying up thirteen hundred bucks for a big ol' shiny new computer and convinced me that we could just order the parts and construct it together. Seemed reasonable and though I haven't the money, there's always credit. It's been five years since I got a computer and I'm ready to get something that can last me another five; this looks to do the trick. So two weeks later, all the parts ship and I have it sent to my office. We rent a zipcar, drive it all back, roll up our sleeves and count the packages. Everything's shipped and we're ready to start when we open up the case and the front of the case is broken off. The plastic screws that hold the front of the case on have been sheared off. So back it goes and now I have thirteen hundred dollars worth of hardware and software, all of it rendered temporarily moot, because a few sprigs of plastic failed.

Post your "for want of a nail" tech laments here.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 31 March 2006 02:58 (twenty years ago)

as a vet of several diy machines, i can say that there's never been an assembly that didn't have a surprise trip to the local computer shop.

i've had the wrong part in a box.

i've had a motherboard with a sticker running in the wrong place causing a short. (so that's why it was cheap!)

i've just been stupid and bought the wrong part.

missing pins. missing connectors.

most lcd screens have a bad pixel somewhere staright out of the box.

dust from hell.

missing manuals. especially no fun with cases...

OS cds that wouldn't work.

cd-roms that didn't support bootable discs. (so the OS couldn't install without trickery.)

fun setting clock multipliers and bus speeds so all the components function... "oh wait, now the video card is toast! oh shit, how do i reset the BIOS again?"

etc. that's what i remember. :)
m.

― msp (mspa), Friday, 31 March 2006 03:28 (twenty years ago)

My shiny new gaming desktop box was great, but bafflingly crashing a lot when overworked. I then realised all it was missing was one damn 5 inch case fan. Now it is cooler it works fine.

(I fried 2 DVD drives before I found this out though dohhhh.)

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 31 March 2006 04:07 (twenty years ago)

Boy am I looking forward to this.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 31 March 2006 04:07 (twenty years ago)

I am going to buy a shuttle pc for a MythTV box... anyone ever do MythTV

― Houdini Gordonii (ex machina), Friday, 31 March 2006 04:32 (twenty years ago)

Don't go shuttle, go for one of the Via EPIA mini-itx, good myth and linux support, much cooler running, passive cooling is a real possibility and the chipsets feature hardware video decoding. They also support nice features such as booting from flash drives and the like.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 31 March 2006 05:55 (twenty years ago)

four weeks pass...

Here we go again. New case finally got here and we're short a pair of SATA cables. Off to the local m+p computer store that I've never been in; let's see what they have to tell us.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Saturday, 29 April 2006 19:44 (twenty years ago)

and the motherboard doesn't support ddr2 ram.
and we can't seem to get on the internet.

― robinn edgerton (edgertor), Sunday, 30 April 2006 01:50 (twenty years ago)

although, now we sort of seem to be able to, but my tech pal is grunting and working on my computer and is doing mystical voodoo that makes no sense to me. At this point, I just keep saying "You know that I don't know what you're doing, right?" and him saying "yeh, yeh".
we've been doing this for six hours.

― robinn edgerton (edgertor), Sunday, 30 April 2006 02:34 (twenty years ago)

5 years eh? I think you are buying the wrong sort of computers.

― Mac Rules, Sunday, 30 April 2006 02:46 (twenty years ago)

The mac you bought five years ago for $2300

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 30 April 2006 04:32 (twenty years ago)

The mac I bought 5 years ago was a little over $1000 brand new and it is currently running on the latest OS. I installed an ATA card, a dvd-r drive and a second 250gb internal hard drive for about $300 total. I have no plans of buying a new computer in the next 5 years and I leave it on 24 hours a day.

― Mac Rules, Sunday, 30 April 2006 05:26 (twenty years ago)

Get out more often.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 30 April 2006 05:45 (twenty years ago)

oh haha i see because of the 24 hours comment no you fool i leave the house with it on in sleep mode which kicks in after 15 minutes you do not deserve punctuation

― mac rules, Sunday, 30 April 2006 06:24 (twenty years ago)

Probably more because you're a droll anonymous type who posts unhelpful rubbish.

― Andrew (enneff), Sunday, 30 April 2006 06:32 (twenty years ago)

buy a mac

― mac rules, Sunday, 30 April 2006 06:44 (twenty years ago)

People who buy parts to build PCs (or b0xen for Linux et al) dont care for your Mac dickwavery. Saying "haha I just bought a Mac and it worked" misses the point so widely you may as well have posted on another board. Its all about the enjoyment of building your own kit, and saving a lot of money.

Also, upgradeability and customisation!

― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 30 April 2006 07:25 (twenty years ago)

No one ever shouts at a good cook "BUY EXPENSIVE TV DINNERS!" do they.

― mei (mei), Sunday, 30 April 2006 14:25 (twenty years ago)

buy a mac

― mac rules, Sunday, 30 April 2006 16:22 (twenty years ago)

You know what, I'm convinced! I'm gonna go buy one RIGHT FUCKING NOW.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 30 April 2006 19:47 (twenty years ago)

buy two

― mac rules, Sunday, 30 April 2006 20:01 (twenty years ago)

John, I've been reading your blog since pretty much the beginning (No Love CD was AWESOME) and, unless I'm misremembering things, you've had far more than your fair share of computing woes (often pretty spectacular -- losing an entire Firefox profile and a monstrous MP3 library, etc.?). I wish you all the best with this latest machine.

― caek (caek), Sunday, 30 April 2006 20:02 (twenty years ago)

would never have such problems on a mac

much cheaper too!

― mac rules, Sunday, 30 April 2006 20:04 (twenty years ago)

No one ever shouts at a good cook "BUY EXPENSIVE TV DINNERS!" do they.

-- mei

pwn3d!

― fandango (fandango), Sunday, 30 April 2006 20:15 (twenty years ago)

good cooks don't constantly fry shit you pay way too much for.

ub3r pwn3d!

― mac rules, Sunday, 30 April 2006 20:18 (twenty years ago)

not really

― fandango (fandango), Sunday, 30 April 2006 20:28 (twenty years ago)

yes

― mac rules, Sunday, 30 April 2006 20:39 (twenty years ago)

http://www.marotti.com/images/smallsize/Family/big%20yawn%20(Small).jpg

― fandango (fandango), Sunday, 30 April 2006 20:45 (twenty years ago)

Caek, you're not kidding. I've had some pretty serious learning curves chucked at my head, most of which I've been able to trace back to lack of knowledge (about virus protection, backing up files, running a gazillion file itunes library with 256 megs of ram) and so forth. The new hardware was purchased with past problems in mind and should hopefully head future issues off at the pass with sheer hardware overkill (Athlon 64 CPU, 2 gigs of DDR ram, 1.2 terabyte hard drive) and somewhat more selective software application (helpful IT fella is going to set up all software in advance and try to goofproof where I'm less likely to pick up malware/adware/flotsam whilst surfin').

Worth noting: I have no problem with macs; some of my best friends and graphic designers I know use them! However:

1) I'm much more USED to PC's; I've been using them for two decades or so and they're what I know. Plus I like to be able to upgrade, I really ENJOY knowing I can crack the case with impunity. As frustrating as scratch-building is, it's awful interesting. I think I'm (minimally) qualified now to build one of these suckers on my own now.
2) I bought this before boot camp dropped, which admittedly might've swayed me to give second thoughts.
3) The cliche'd-but-accurate dipshit macolyte haughtiness (perhaps you're familiar with the syndrome) always makes me wince when I consider switchin'.

PS: Glad the ol' No Love disc is still a winner. I think the current Lucky 13 mix, which I'm currently penning whilst flipping back and forth from ILX, is pretty solid too. Lemme know!

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:08 (twenty years ago)

that's right, fandango, you're tired, infantile and boring.

― moviefone, Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:09 (twenty years ago)

Forkslovetofu, you make some good points, but I'd like to address some issues, such as:

1) buy a mac
2) buy two macs
3) macs rule

― macs rule, Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:11 (twenty years ago)

not doing a very intelligent job of concealing your changed identity there trollface :D

And you'll have to wave your dick a bit harder I can't seem to see it yet...

― fandango (fandango), Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:12 (twenty years ago)

People act like nobody upgrades macs or something. I don't get that. Not only can you upgrade Macs with incredible ease, the shit just works. No 3rd party bullshit to worry about. I screw stuff into the holes, hook up the cables and surprise: it works. I don't have to actually DO anything complicated. Plus, the machines themselves are practically bullet-proof. I am only talking about the desktop machines. As far as I can tell, if you buy a cube, iPod or a laptop, you're basically an idiot with too much money and, like a foreign sports car, you should expect your overpriced gadget to self-destruct. Macs major fault is that their "switch" products are not as reliable as the standard desktop model. Old macsters don't seem to have nearly as much trouble as the people who switch over, though, so I don't know why that is.

― macs rule, Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:16 (twenty years ago)

not doing a very intelligent job of concealing your changed identity there trollface :D

You're kidding me.

And you'll have to wave your dick a bit harder I can't seem to see it yet...

I don't have my webcam hooked up.

― moviefone, Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:17 (twenty years ago)

I don't have my webcam hooked up.

I'm sure they'll write that driver eventually....

― fandango (fandango), Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:18 (twenty years ago)

Oh and the machine! I forgot!

We got it up and running fine actually. We had to take a 256 stick of ram and crack the enclosure on an external drive to use as a boot disk from my current machine to get XP up and running, though; so rather than deal with the hassle of slow installation of the gazillion programs I'm putting on, we tabled this until he switches out the RAM to ddr and we can get some SATA cables.

Even so, we tested out keyboard, sound, mouse, all drives, all ports and a monitor and had XP chuggin' fine; so everything worked out fine, really. Just gotta wait till we have all the right parts until this old machine heads upstairs to attach to our living room's turntable/CD/tapedeck amp, then it's wireless network and CELESTIAL JUKEBOX time, yay!

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:19 (twenty years ago)

I'm sure they'll write that driver eventually....

I'll let you know as soon as I actually get a webcam, which would be right around never. Actually, the driver it's part of OS X, I think. You know, like any printer you buy that is OS X compatible will just work? Yeah, webcams are the same deal.

― macs rule, Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:21 (twenty years ago)

Nice! Congrats, Forksclovetofu! And it only cost you thousands of dollars and lots of time, hard work and frustration! I bet you look forward to doing that again in another 5 years!

(am I being too obvious a troll now?)

― macs rule, Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:23 (twenty years ago)

Also:

"So my buddy/gym partner/Work IT guy talked me into ponying up thirteen hundred bucks for a big ol' shiny new computer and convinced me that we could just order the parts and construct it together."

"The mac I bought 5 years ago was a little over $1000 brand new and it is currently running on the latest OS. I installed an ATA card, a dvd-r drive and a second 250gb internal hard drive for about $300 total."

Explain again how your $1300 computer is much better than my $1300 computer? Dual DVD-R drives, 7 USB ports, GEForce 7300 GS graphics card, Klipsch speakers and 17 inch HP LCD flatscreen DVI/VGA monitor, fwiw.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:25 (twenty years ago)

http://ochan.steveospage.com/stevespics/penismightier.jpg

― macs rule, Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:26 (twenty years ago)

Yes, I do have a large penis; why do you ask?

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:30 (twenty years ago)

multi-xpost, I know what you mean about enjoying tinkering with the insides. I don't build 'em anymore as it's difficult to avoid a moral commitment to fix tedious software problems, but I am called upon to do the odd upgrade. I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy it. Hell, I despywared a friend's laptop this afternoon and the systematizing part of my brain was like HELL YEAH.

Boot Camp has pushed me over the edge I've been on for a couple of years: I will never recommend a PC again. People who know they need a PC (you included) won't come to me for a recommendation, and people who don't know what they need want all the help they can get. Boot Camp takes away the only reason to recommend anything else (Half Life 2).

Being a Mac zealot myself, I'm more than familiar with the patterns of tiresome aloofness and self-satisfied arrogance that goes with owning them. In our defence, we don't start off that way. It's owning such flawless hardware that makes us like that ;->

Lucky 13 is working out great so far (actually listening to Rubber Biscuit as I type). Really looking forward to the rest. The Bells is crackers. All this great music, with which I am utterly unfamiliar, is naught without accessible writing though.

p.s. BACK UP.

― caek (caek), Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:39 (twenty years ago)

I was waving my dick, but it is proportionally small. Look how close to the balls it is!

― macs rule, Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:41 (twenty years ago)

Hardware failure stories: total iBook failure requiring logic board replacement twice in the first year, partial failure requiring optical drive replacement within a month of purchasing, nearly destroying it trying to upgrade the hard drive (finding those screws is like finding a lady's bean to flick). This last one involved a trip to a jewellers to drill out the screw. What fun.

― caek (caek), Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:42 (twenty years ago)

caek, thank you for confirming my earlier sentiments about idiots with too much money.

― macs rule, Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:55 (twenty years ago)

I have plenty of stories of PC hardware failures if they would be of use. It's just that I work in a teaching lab of 30 desktop G5s, so I see more Macs day-to-day.

― caek (caek), Sunday, 30 April 2006 21:58 (twenty years ago)

I think the rule with macs is don't buy anything until it's been out for at least a year and you have researched what kind of problems people are having with the shit. By the time you get around to buying it a year or two later, for cheap, the kinks have been worked out and all those early adopters didn't do themselves any favors.

― macs rule, Sunday, 30 April 2006 22:28 (twenty years ago)

I agree. Sadly, my iBook is now four years old and not up to the (i.e. my new) job, so I will be forced to live dangerously with the Intel one when it eventually drops. Apple + new enclosure + new insides = fucked. Such is life. Exciting though. And I'd still rather have an iBook than a Powerbook (this is even true now I'm spending other people's money).

― caek (caek), Sunday, 30 April 2006 22:32 (twenty years ago)

okay, so here's where I am now: computers up and seems fine, but no sound from the right channel. Speakers work fine on old computer, but right channel isn't reading at all for new computer even when I use headphones. Just reinstalled sound driver and nothing. Do you suppose I need to go in and make sure that those itty bitty cables are attached on the motherboard? This seems to be the last hurdle; anybody know anything?

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 14 May 2006 00:13 (twenty years ago)

scratch that, motherboard pins it was.
damn, but that felt good. Okay, we live.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Sunday, 14 May 2006 00:47 (twenty years ago)

I recently bought a compaq for 400$ and it has worked great. But I dont know if it is a power king

― Mr Jones (Mr Jones), Sunday, 14 May 2006 05:23 (twenty years ago)

http://www.macgen.com/powerking/images/powerking.jpg

― rrrobyn (rrrobyn), Sunday, 14 May 2006 05:53 (twenty years ago)

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