Official Luthiers Forum!

You guys are making my head spin....

Water cooled PC? Does it use water from the streams on Mount Fuji?



WAY over this guy's head...

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Wow, we sure have a lot of computer-savvy folks here! I can't add much of anything to the discussion, except to provide some experience.

In January 2004, I bought an eMachines model M5312 at Best Buy. It has an AMD 2500+ processor, 512mb RAM, a 60gig hard drive, and a Radeon IGP320M graphics chipset.   Probably a bit long in the tooth now, some 2-1/2 years later, but I can't complain about its performance.

The notebook's features, including a wide screen with an actual width of 13-1/8" (I just measured it), plus a $250 rebate are what sold me. At first I figured I would use it "some" and still used my desktop almost exclusively. But then I took it on a trip a month later, and it has been my primary machine ever since. Another month or so went by and I bought a wireless router, so I could have the machine out in my shop.

It has been very reliable -- no problems at all. The only disadvantage about it that I can report is I use it so much nowadays for surfing the online luthier-related forums that it is impacting the amount of work I get done.

When Vista comes out, I have no plans of updating this machine. XP runs great on it, and does everything I need.

Best,

Michael

_________________
Live to Play, Play to Live

I've been pricing a laptop daily on Dell's site for a couple weeks now, and I'm frankly SO Sick to Death of their shifting prices around constantly, that I may never buy another computer from them again in my lifetime!
I saw a nicely loaded laptop with great 4-yr warranty go from just under $1700 to $2600 in one day! Then it drops back down, and jumps around by another $120 up and down at any given time. Trying to nail them down on a price is impossible, and it keeps you always on the losing end of things. I'm sure they blame market fluctuations in price for all the changes, but it's ridiculous. They should just build them and sell them based on their cost instead of future costs. It's lunacy, and really turns me off.


Not sure why I'm even considering a Dell, considering if something goes wrong with it, even under warranty, they replace parts with remanufactured parts, and that's IF you can get the person in their Customer Service department who took English As A Third Language in elememtary school to actually understand what you're saying. I certainly can't understand what They're saying so I guess that's all good, right?
Don Williams38932.693587963

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Hehe...I enjoy reading about all the experiments with water cooling and the insurmountable problem of keeping the computer comfortable..somehow computers and water just CANNOT share the same space!!!

We have "experienced" the joy of over heating PCs, so we found a novel solution..

Our main PC, some put-together 2800 piece of junk is out in our dining room, on a cold heat-conducting quarry tile floor. The leads go right into the living room through a small hole in the wall...eliminating the "jet engine" sound of the processing fans, and enabling my husband to get some exercise when he needs to use a DVD...

The main point of all this is that the 2nd computer I use is a Dell.

Downside: you have to ask for the backup disks should you wish to reformat the hard drive,

the upside..a decent peice of kit for excellent value and great customer service to boot. Everyone I know round here has a Dell..a reliable company that won't suddenly go bust like our first computer's compnay did, thus rendering potential warrenties void.

Sam Price38934.7480555556

Yeah, Dell is ok, except that they raise and lower their prices more than amything I've ever seen. Right now they're geering up for the "back to school" sales, meaning they are raising their prices so they can put them on sale for what they normally cost.
My big gripe is that since they moved their technical support to India or Pakhistan wherever it is, the people on the other end of the phone don't seem to have a clue. You'll wait on hold while they're asking someone else about your problem, or are looking it up in some convoluted technical manual. And there's a language/culture barrier as well. I know, I know, arrogant American that I am! I just want to talk with someone who has a clue and speaks the same language as me. That doesn't seem too unreasonable to me!

Hey...Michael Dell! You listening????????
You need to get your Tech Support fixed or we'll all stop buying your products...

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Don....

Toshiba or IBM....

That's my not so humble opinion, based on years of living on laptops...

However their XPS laptop looks Tre-Cool and I considered for a short time but it was a chunk of dough and I finally figured if I really wanted a killer gaming laptop then I would clunk down some change for an AlienWare one (but boy are they pricey)...

Cheers

-Paul-

_________________
-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

I just went thru the process of restoring my dell laptop and talking to the folks in India and was very pleased with the service I got. I talked to several people in the course of the problem and all seemed pretty knowledgeable. End of the story is my computer is back up and working and everything normal.

I am thinking Apple for the next go round though.John How38934.8521643519

_________________
Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

What am i doin' here? sorry, wrong thread!

Interesting. I checked out Alienware's website for the first time. I didn't know there was such a thing as a $6,000 laptop. Insanity.
You gaming types really know overkill!
I'm just looking for a computer that will do my basic accounting, website work, and possibly some future CAD/CAM stuff to drive a CNC. Maybe. And I want a nice large screen to keep my tired old eyes from squinting too hard. That's all!
$6,000!!!!!!! Yikes! Sure was cool though!

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Hey, Paul,

Just an FYI,

Apple's new Intel Macs can all boot in XP directly, without emulation. Using Bootcamp, you can boot either XP or Mac OS.

_________________
now known around here as Pat Foster
_________________
http://www.patfosterguitars.com

Well I just got back from CompUSA, looking at laptops. Have you folks ever dealt with a saleperson who knew less than you do?
Yup. That was what I got stuck with.
I started out telling the guy what aplications I was using, and what my plans were for a laptop.
He didn't have a clue what to recommend. So I asked him about a particular HP computer I was looking at. It had some nice features - built in keypad, big hard drive, decent prcessor, good amount of RAM etc. So I ask him what type of screen it has, a UXGA or an XGA. He thinks it's an XGA. I ask if he's sure, and says, "uhh..yeah." So I say, "Whats the difference between an XGA and a UXGA?" he replies, "Well, it's supposed to be better they told me."
Uh, right. They told him. Great. I'm dealing with a technological fence post.
Then he decides to wow me with his knowledge.
"There's another type too...a WXGA."

So I say:
"Isn't that just the wide version of an XGA?"

"Uhh...yeah"

Me again:
"That's what we're looking at right?"

"Uhh...yeah."

So I try another direction.
"So of all the computers you sell, which ones are built the best with the fewest problems?"
So he starts to make up something about cutomer satisfaction statistics. I can see on his face that even he doesn't believe what he's saying. Long and short of it, as far as he knows, the HP's are the best thing on the market. Sliced bread wasn't as great of an invention.

When he finally realizes he can't help me, (because he realizes how woefully inadequate his knowledge is) he says "Do you have any more questions?"

"No. Thank-you."

"Well if you're interested in Macs, there's an Expert over there in the Mac section too."

"Right....thanks."

Great info, thanks kid...


Don Williams38935.6585532407

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

Don, just to clear up any confusion (hopefully). Wikipedia has a good article on display resolutions. Skip the reading, at the bottom, there is a chart that explains the difference between VGA, XGA, UXGA, etc. Here's the link: display resolutions

_________________
Joe Breault
Merrimack, NH
Perpetual novice

Thanks Joe Bro!


Did you have fun at Newport?

Sounds like I want the highest screen resolution available for doing CAD work eventually, which seems to be UXGA on a laptop. I'll end up with WUXGA, which according to that nifty site isn't quite as good as the narrow version, but still great.


Don Williams38935.7583796296

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

If they really knew their stuff that well, they'd be doing something that pays better than walking the floor at CompUSA.

I had a guy at Best Buy tell me once that optical digital audio was superior to coax digital audio "because light travels faster than electricity."

To their credit, people that work at places like that have to deal with some pretty awful customers sometimes. I saw a guy just reaming a salesperson and throwing a fit once because the customer didn't understand what "price after rebate" meant in the advertisement.

_________________
______________________________
Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Yes, I agree. I was very polite to the kid (college age or older, I might add) and not the least bit disrespecful or condescending.
Although it was tempting...

I guess I was expecting a computer store to have sales people who knew a lot about computers.

So Hesh, what you said about "native resolution" makes me wonder if the UXGA is overkill for me. Most of the tim I'm going to take the resolution down so things are big enough for my tired old eyes, except when I do graphics/CAD work. Even then, I'm uncertain what I'll do. Makes me wonder if the lower res screen on the laptop would be sufficient and then have say a 20" ViewSonic lke I have at work for the CAD stuff, so long as the display driver can handle the higher res external monitor...make sense at all? If so, I can save $150 on the laptop to put toward the external monitor.
What do you think?

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

For most general CAD work the SXGA or even the XGA would be fine, especially if it's mostly guitar parts and stuff like that. The resolution becomes a bigger deal when you're working with architectural files and the like where you really need to be able to see lots of information at once and drawings become very "busy." My next setup at work will hopefully be dual 20" widescreen...

_________________
______________________________
Jonathan Kendall, Siloam Springs AR

Don...

This is why I do all my research before I buy anything electronic anymore, the internet is great for looking up technology and getting information. I never ever go into any electronics store and ask the sales people, they need to make comissions and usually are woefully ill equipped. Even with my T.V. I did all my research online, asked a few savvy friends and then walked in and said I want this model, I never gave them a chance to sell me on anything

I warned you the Alienware's were pricey, but in their defense they are probably the best computers/laptops out on the market today in terms of performance and quality. But the question is can you get from point A to point B in a Jet Powered Ferrari or will lesser car do the same thing and meet your needs and budget

Hesh has a good point about the resolution on the laptops, I actually do watch movies on my laptop when I'm out on the road but the reason I got the 17" was so I could run Rhino when I'm not at my desktop. Mine is WSXGA (Thanks for the link Joe) and Rhino seems run nice and quick on it.

Hey Pat, It's about time they got around to doing that, I'm not really a big fan of dual boot systems unless you have a specific need for it (like your a systems guy or something or an engineer). But it would be cool to have an Apple laptop and load XP on it natively, I like OSX but let's be honest most apps and games run on Windows.

Cheers

-Paul-

_________________
-Paul-

Patriot Guitars

Alienware's stuff looked really cool, and wasn't that much more than the other stuff out there. I decided to load one up to see how expensive it could get and was really shocked at the almost $6K price. That was a hoot. I haven't ruled one out, especially since everyone seems to think they're such great quality. I have a budget, and if I can get what I want within that budget and an Alienware can fit into that, I may go that route.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."

For alienware prices you can get a macbook pro. My friend's alienware
had a lot of connection options, but was easily twice as heavy as my
powerbook, and about twice as thick. As far as external monitor support
goes, you hook the monitor in, don't have to do any adjustments in the
equivalent of control panel each time, and the graphics card isn't even a
concern simply because of the way it goes about doing it. Even on this
here old powerbook of mine, I can hook a 23" display and use any
resolution up to it's highest, not my computer's.      

Don't forget folks, Dell owns Alienware now!

_________________
Don Atwood
Arlington, VA

[QUOTE=Don A] Don't forget folks, Dell owns Alienware now! [/QUOTE]

THAT explains the similar layout to the customized order page. Virtually the same, different graphics.

Anyone have any opinions on the HP laptops? I like the built-in keypads, but I'm not terribly excited about the shiny-glass screen. I much prefer the matted screen surface, which seems easier on the eyes. Other than that, they seem nice.

_________________
"I want to know what kind of pickups Vince Gill uses in his Tele, because if I had those, as good of a player as I am, I'm sure I could make it sound like that.
Only badly."