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#1
My PC experience :(
Hi,
This is going to be a big story, nay rant but if you want to read it go ahead.
I made my own custom PC in late 06' basically being my setup now. It started off working well but now I think of it have had graphics problems and problems in general every since. After upgrading the video card after a very brief time and buying a new one, I didn't really consider the problem transferring over.
Then a period of frequent shop visits were starting to begin. Firstly my motherboard died and then my PSU was faulty. I was at school and didn't have time to not own a computer for the 3-5 weeks it takes to get the equipment back from warranty so I had to replace it. That being a worse motherboard to save money and a new, better power supply. This time I chose Corsair not Thermaltake as I wanted a high quality piece, especially considering it could have been partly the PSU's fault my motherboard died.
Then... months later booting started to fail, I sent it back to the repair shop and they told me the PSU was faulty again. Offering to replace it, I sent it in for warranty while using an old PSU for the time being. I got it back a month later all new in package, reinstalled it and is my current PSU now.
While this was happening I upgraded to an Gigabyte ATI 4850 and kept having screen flickering issues. Now I attributed this to the drivers at first, so I reinstalled, found older versions etc but nothing seemed to work. I ended up reformatting my PC for a fresh install of Windows.
So with 8GB ram and graphics issues I could never multi task while playing games because whenever something got demanding it would flicker and freeze. Recently I bought a POV GTX 460 as I think Nvidia are if something better quality and more stable. By this stage it had become quite bad conditioned (4850), the fan was a bit dented and just looked like shit. I attributed this to the graphics problem. As I thought it was probably over heating because if I played games in lower resolution and didn't alt tab it seemed to work pretty well.
Now my GTX 460 is doing the same thing. I am not sure whether its overheating or more likely maybe my ram that is just not liking any of these video cards and creating this problem. Since it's happened to everyone I've owned now I think about it and I've changed motherboards and PSU's.
Now I chose high performance OCZ platinum ram which I thought would be good quality and maybe it's this that is causing it. Now if it is and there isn't some setting fix, I will have 8GB of bunk ram.
PC's are so open, there is so much variety in terms of software and hardware that there is a big room for error. I think it's pretty shit I have to deal with 'hardware not liking each other' issue when technically they should work fine with my PC.
I've been a PC user since I was a child and about 4 years ago I bought a macbook 13". The screen was pretty damn small, but it was very portable and well designed in the most part, although I never was a fan of those 'suck in' dvd drives. I had virtually 1 BSOD's in the 3 or so years I used it and rarely encountered any software problems or was in a need to reformat.
Coming from windows everything felt simplified and inturn quite boring. The navigation seemed slower but navigating it found to be very neat. No random files and folders and random DLL's. Although installers and such were kind of a disappointment, some applications just had a few folders but nothing much to 'browse' into. Although nowadays they have a 'show package' function which opens up inside the application and shows all the files.
The desktop was just... kinda boring. There wasn't much to do or play around with because they work pretty well without any need to fiddle. So I found myself becoming bored if I was just aimlessly on my computer.
Macs are made for the hardware used. So hardware issues are very rare. And with this comes a higher price, less customizable, less variety (games, programs) operating system.
Stability wins over any aspect when it comes down to it for me.
Don't get me wrong, I love my PC. I built it, the case, the parts were all specific and unique. But there has been a price I had to pay for it. And this normally doesn't happen but the percentage chance that this can happen is just too high. Encountering faulty parts alone should be VERY low. The way they manufacture them has no soul, Chinese slave labour and producing by the millions. Even though mac do the same, there standards are probably higher compared to a bunch of different brands, some cheaper than others trying to make cash.
I took a real look for the first time about how many threads this site has, that are basically, all problems. It's pretty overwhelming. And not that I am dissing this forum or anyone on here. These guys ****ing rock, quick reply's, knowledgeable, and overall nice people.
I didn't come into this trying to bag out PC or promote mac, hell I don't own one anymore. But this was my experience with both platforms. I've seen both sides. And I guess I just hate the fact this had to happen to me.
I built my friend a computer a year ago and it's still going strong, hardly any problems. But for the few percent that get ****ed, it really sucks.
I think most apple uses have an ego the size of a plane, but for those that don't they just like it for their own reasons.
I'm thinking of getting a Mac for my next computer. Although I dislike iMac's as they are so limited and the only other system option would be mac pro, that's where it would really be at. If I had the money and considering I might be working in the IT field I may get one. I might even just keep upgrading my PC and end up buying a macbook pro as apples laptop range are very well designed. I mean they are so slim, etc.
This was more of a vent than an intelligible post but I felt the need.
I don't mean to offend anyone.
Peace