Desktops: building a PC versus Buying one Pro's & Con's
ARRGH! (Warning: nit alert.)
by mwooge - 11/3/07 8:24 AM In reply to: building a PC versus Buying one Pro's & Con's by assets2Okay. This is a nit. Your title should be Pros and Cons, not Pro's and Con's. Putting in the apostrophy indicates a contraction ("Pro is") or possesive (as with "Pro's hat").
? is it OSs or OSes
by Dango517 - 11/3/07 10:44 AM In reply to: ARRGH! (Warning: nit alert.) by mwoogeI believe the first because if you spelled it out it would be "Operating Systems" so, OSs.
Depends
by MarkFlax
- 11/4/07 2:43 AM
In reply to: ? is it OSs or OSes by Dango517
If you are talking about Operating Systems in the plural, then it would be OSs.
But if you are talking about something that belongs to a particular Operating System, eg the Operating System's driver, then it would be the OS's driver.
I think, ![]:)](http://www.cnet.com/i/mb/emoticons/devil.gif)
Mark, {perhaps I should go back to school}.
Actually, Mark
by Dave Konkel [Moderator] - 11/4/07 11:31 AM
In reply to: Depends by MarkFlax
It could be OS' or OSs', depending on whether the item in question belongs to one or more operating systems!
-- Dave K. (who can pick nits with the best of 'em!)
Yep you may be right,
by MarkFlax - 11/4/07 1:53 PM
In reply to: Actually, Mark by Dave Konkel [Moderator]
although I thought the apostrophe after the last letter was used for full words where the last letter was an 's', and not abbreviations.
I can't think of any abbreviations at the moment other than OS where a plural might be needed.
So, The Operating System's driver could also become The OS's driver.
But with a word ending in s, eg Atlas, it would become The Atlas' scale is 1:100.
But that's no good because Atlas doesn't have an abbreviation. Can you think of any? The word being abbreviated must normally end in 's'.
Mark
Although you are right about the grammar....
by MarkFlax - 11/4/07 2:40 AM
In reply to: ARRGH! (Warning: nit alert.) by mwooge
perhaps calling someone a nit isn't the right way to post corrections?
Mark
Weighing in at %#& MarkFlax and in this corner mwooge
by Dango517 - 11/4/07 2:50 AM In reply to: Although you are right about the grammar.... by MarkFlax
fight, fight, fight 
put up your dukes Mister.
i believe he was referring to nit as in pick
by jonah jones - 11/4/07 3:13 AM
In reply to: Although you are right about the grammar.... by MarkFlax
as opposed to nit as in wit
.,
but then
by Dango517 - 11/4/07 3:25 AM In reply to: i believe he was referring to nit as in pick by jonah jones
this could be slang from some other country, example Australia, and in that case we may not know what "nit" refers too. In my case here, it would refer too "nit pick".
Build it or Have it Built
by Worldbfree - 11/3/07 1:33 PM In reply to: building a PC versus Buying one Pro's & Con's by assets2With a store purchased PC you are somewhat limited to what you can add to it. Building a PC, offers more future proofing down the road. My first build lasted 5 yrs because over the years I added different components to it to keep it humming along. The CPU was changed out twice and only after I could no longer over clock it to an acceptable speed given the software. My video card were changed out 3 times as new technology continued to emerge. Ditto for the sound card and the Hard drives. When I built my PC, HD and Blue tooth was not mainstream. With emergence of Blue tooth USB dongles I could now go wireless and HD could be simulated by my vid card. Heck, I still remember when $1/gig was a good deal (1Tb = $1000 or $250 for 250 gig drive). I was able to ride out all the BS Intel shoveled our way with this mobo, that CPU. I watched Amd rise from the ashed like a phoenix and kick the "Intel Inside" ass all over the map. Now, I have the fastest Amd has to offer and at an affordable price. Had I purchased a Dell, HP or EMachine 5 yrs ago like I had prior to that, I would now be posting an add on Craig's List "PC for free" It is equipped with Windows Me, 128 MB memory, a 30 gig hd, and a 32mb ati vid card. I'll pay the $100 to the first person who can get it outta here.
quite honestly
by ozos - 11/3/07 7:51 PM In reply to: building a PC versus Buying one Pro's & Con's by assets2i'd like to delinate between "having a PC custom built" and "custom building a PC yourself"
having a PC custom built in a shop is an awful idea, because they'll usually (this is like 99.5% guranteed, sorry to any business owners) rip you off like nothing you've ever expected possible, like charging nearly $100 for a "500W premium PSU" which costs then $14.95 and you can buy online for $9.95
if thats what you consider custom built, then go and buy a Dell
if you are actually building the entire box by hand yourself, buying just the parts from an online retailer like newegg.com or zipzoomfly.com then you'll always clean up compared to the big boys like Dell, because they simply refuse to make high performance computers cheap, because high performance computers count for so little of their sales, yeah, at the ~$500 range you usually can't touch Dell's offerings because they include so much free junk (monitors, printers, etc, its all low quality stuff, but its still included in that $500 and would cost you more money to match)
however once you clear ~$700, they have nothing on an individual builder, at all, and you should NEVER HAVE TO TAKE A CUSTOM PC TO A REPAIR CENTER, if you've built it yourself, because thats just wasting money on something you are initially trying to avoid wasting money on: markup on a basis of the skills being at a premium
I'd go with building it yourself, if you can accept that it isn't going to be instant gratification and that you may have to sit up at 2 AM in the morning putting it back together, or pay through the nose to overnight parts so you can turn in homework due 2 days later, or make a mad-dash run across town to a local computer store, pay 100% mark-up on parts just to turn your system on so you can save files
i've done all of this and more with systems i've built myself, i've also enjoyed almost a decade of never once having to call tech support, wait in line at a computer store, listen to a salesperson or technician try to explain something thats so far over their head they can't even pronounce half of it right, write problems off as "unexplained randomness", pay hundreds of dollars an hour to some kid to run basic repair tasks like anti-virus and anti-spyware on my system, instead i've just been able to sit back and enjoy computing, and generally do whatever I please within my financial and temporal limitations, for example my current computer cost less than an Xbox360, and plays games that systems off the shelf costing over $1000 can't even touch, not to mention I don't just have one working computer, i have close to twenty, just from spare parts and other ventures through a decade of PC building
honestly, its just a lifestyle choice, you can either pick up the phone and dial 1-800-dell and have someone think for you, or you can spend the time and effort to put something together for yourself, fix all of its problems, maintain all of its issues, etc, neither is really right or wrong, just different options, some people don't like dealing with late nights fixing electronics, others thrive
Ozos made a pretty good suggestion
by Dango517 - 11/4/07 2:09 AM In reply to: building a PC versus Buying one Pro's & Con's by assets2Buy a Dell or HP and have it customized. You get what you want and they worry about the compatibilities.
On store bought models there is one important item I'd like to throw in here. Before you buy, check out the mother board this will usually require a visit to the manufactures web site and a look at the specifications for the particular computer your looking to buy. Make sure it has the most versatile CPU socket available and is upgradable. I'd suggest you look for one that can run the most advanced CPU possible the day you buy it. This is often over looked and will determine what CPUs you'll be able to run in the future.
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