Welcome to PC Hell

[nfotxn]

So I had almost forgot how much I hate building PCs until today. Out of the blue my uncle wanted to upgrade the system I built a few years ago so he can play newer games. No problem, I hit up Ars Technica and Anandtech and whatnot to check what the recommendations for mid-level systems are. A trip to the local Taiwanese PC OEM Part Shop, $800 and 2hrs of tedious fine motor labour later I have a spinning fan and four bright red LEDs indicating that shit is fucked up.

What, I used to like this shit? Times change, I suppose, because now it's just annoying and tedious. I'd rather be at the beach, even now in the frozen dead of February. At least the waves blowing across Lake Ontario are interesting.

Tomorrow more debugging and hellish retail return experiences! Heaven have mercy on my sinful sodomite soul.

Comments

[barengeist.livejournal.com]

This kinda sounds like a processor/motherboard mismatch. It can even be something as small as a difference in the revision number of the board required to support a particular CPU vs what revision of board you actually have. Best of luck sorting out what can be a throbbing pain in the ass.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

Word on the street is that it's the ram. Which wouldn't surprise me really. To get a post beep you need the display, psu, video and memory working right. Of which the ram is the most likely to suck 'specially because I got the OEM green bag special PC3200 module.

The motherboard I'm using is very much meant to work with the CPU I got.

[martymcflymo.livejournal.com]

This is what you get for betraying your PC for all that is Apple!

*evil laugh*

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

Oh don't worry, I'm still faithful to his optic white and brushed metal eminence. It's just my uncle wants to play games man... it's the games I swear!

[martymcflymo.livejournal.com]

Come back to the 'dark side' you know you want to!

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

I never left. Well at least not for very long. I have timeshares.

[tonka-cub.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you mean! I made the switch to my Mac (the dark side, the RIGHT side, whatever you want to call it) nearly 3 years ago now. I had enough of imminent blue screens of death, hardware issues, and ugly unintuitive software. Of course there's viruses, spyware and pop-ups too but that's besides the point. You couldn't PAY me to go back to Windoze.

[nfotxn.livejournal.com]

I think both platforms have their applications. Like an older PC for a lot of audio applications has a lot more oomph than a lot of older macs. Although a new Mac is awesome it's got a pretty high base price. Whereas a $1000 PC just as far as straight up audio processing will totally rule. Really the Mac is all about the elegance of application and hardware design, which is really nice to have. It's like driving a nice car. Although sometimes you need just a beater to get to work.

Stuff like all Apple's pro video and audio stuff is just unmatched by the 3rd parties, largely. But they don't have all the bases covered just yet. And until that time I will stay bi-platform.

[http://users.livejournal.com/speedy_/]

PC can be a real headache, also spending lots of bucks and a couple of hours without success can be pretty dissapointing. What about buying a new system?