Unfortunatly it is quite common, like cars they are not built like they used to. HPs and Compaq's for years were power horses. I would even venture to say that they are close to the thought on Laptops as throwaways.
However, the upside to towers is that you can just replace parts that either die, get out dated or start having conflict problems because of the other hardware that is newer.
To give you an idea, at home here we have enough parts that normally we can swap out until that part dies or build a temporary computer that will last till we can afford the parts to buy newer parts and the only thing that seems that we don't replace is the case itself.
Lets pray for credit so you can start anew. Is this tech offering to "build" the new PC ?(If so find out what gear he plans to put in and get all the specifics to make sure he isn't building you a house made out of cards. )or for you to get like a packaged Dell?
The power supply went after a year - and got replaced. The power supply was like 2x's better than the old one - could that damage the motherboard or processor?
No. The rating on a power supply means the total power it is able to supply (pun intended. :) ) In other words, take your typical Dell. Probably has a 200 watt power supply. Enough to power the MB, a hard drive, a cd rom, and a floppy drive. Now, the owner goes out and buys a nice 16x dual layer dvd writer and installs it. All of a sudden, they now have all kinds of crazy problems with lock ups, etc. Dell tech support (man it's hard to type the words Dell and Tech Support in the same sentance!) tells them the dvd writer must be bad. The person goes and exchanges the dvd writer for a new one and installs it. Same problems as before. Another call to Dell. Support person tells them they must have some file system problems. Has them restore the pc to factory specs. Neglects to tell the customer that they will lose ALL their Quickbooks data that they have for their business. After system restore, the computer continues to crash, lock, all kinds of weird problems.
I brought all that up because it is a true story. Happend to somone I know. It was at this point that someone gave her my name and she brought her computer to me. I installed a 300 watt(I think...been awhile back) power supply and everything was fine.
Anyway, the whole point as it pertains to your question is, a higher rated PS will only let you power more items than a lower rated one. Each 12 volt lead is still only 12 volts.
Lets pray for credit so you can start anew. Is this tech offering to "build" the new PC ?(If so find out what gear he plans to put in and get all the specifics to make sure he isn't building you a house made out of cards. )or for you to get like a packaged Dell?
Good advice. Or you can contact the poster known as Wasway. He has been building machines for all my clients for a year or so now. Does very good work and he's very reasonable. Just promise you WON'T get a Dell. You know the old saying, "Friends don't let friends buy Dells"
Very cute rick , my first computer had a tape drive... I guess young whippersnapper is a realtive term . Its ok I will take it.
I worked in the industry for quite a few years before I ever owned my own computer. First job was RPG programming on a Wang machine. Worked for 5 years as a Unix sys admin/Informix/Oracle programmer. Got my first Access/vba programming job back when Access version 2 was newly released. Told them I had a lot of experience with Access. In truth, I had never seen it in my life. (I'm a REAL quick learner. ) Now I do dot-net programming (VB and VC++ with a little c# mixed in for good measure). Mostly mundane boring web based apps.
Yeah, my first computer also had a cassette drive - it was a Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer (aka Trash 80 CoCo).
I wrote my own programs for giggles back then and belonged to a club for it. There's still people who use them and write for them. Supposedly, they're very upgradable.
Someday, when you an hour or so to kill, do a Google on 'em - it's interesting as hell to see what people are still doing with them.
But I digress...
No, this will be my last PC... I got a little Apple laptop this fall and I'm smitten with it (it's a powerbook Pismo - with all the bells, whistles, and accessories - plus it was upgraded with memory nicely.) Then, Hubby got a G5 iMac Duo Intel for Christmas (I'm on it now.) I want an iMac of my own - or perhaps even a Mac Mini - either way, I love the logic behind the OS. It just feels right.
Dell is NOT an option. No way! I've always thought they were overrated.
But I haven't heard from the Geek Squad yet... we'll see...
LOL I was referring that the Dell would be like a deck of cards as well. :D Bluze caught on. ;)
I am really glad you just took it back to them. I had a Trash80 as well!! Then a Tandy HX 1000 (8088 oooh attached keyboard! LOVE the TGA! HAHA) Though I orginally was speaking of my C64 with the tape drive, that after I bought the hard drive when they came out I tried putting GEOS 1.0 on it and blew the hard drive LOL. Started over and went with basic all over again.
Of course you love the logic of the OS, especially now. Its based off of Unix! Why not just take a install friendly Linux download for your pc and install Linux? It is more user friendly than it ever has and is not like the orignal 5.2. Doing some command line things mike make you feel nastalgic.
I was talking to hubby last night about how tired I was of Microsoft coming out with a new OS every 5 years that made most people's old PCs obsolete instantly and required more and more memory all the time. We started tossing around OS options.
So...
I understand that it would clean off my harddrive, most likely... is that true? That's no biggie - I just got everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - on DVDs all backed up nicely.
What else should I know?
I'm in such a rebellious mood after this rash of problems that I'm tempted to do it just to get away from Microsoft (but still have Office... sigh...)
Check out Open Office. Runs on all flavors of linux and is compatible with most office programs, includiing Micro$oft. http://www.openoffice.org/
If you are thinking of trying linux, I suggest you try SuSe. It's as easy to install is Windoze and all free. Downside, you have to download 5 disc images and make the CD's yourself but if that's too much hassle, pm me your address and I'll send you copy's.
Me, I prefer Free-BSD because it's a lot more like Berkley Unix. But I don't reccomend that for a newbie.
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GodsGirl2
Unfortunatly it is quite common, like cars they are not built like they used to. HPs and Compaq's for years were power horses. I would even venture to say that they are close to the thought on Laptops as throwaways.
However, the upside to towers is that you can just replace parts that either die, get out dated or start having conflict problems because of the other hardware that is newer.
To give you an idea, at home here we have enough parts that normally we can swap out until that part dies or build a temporary computer that will last till we can afford the parts to buy newer parts and the only thing that seems that we don't replace is the case itself.
Lets pray for credit so you can start anew. Is this tech offering to "build" the new PC ?(If so find out what gear he plans to put in and get all the specifics to make sure he isn't building you a house made out of cards. )or for you to get like a packaged Dell?
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Bluzeman
That's right, you young whippersnappers! In MY day, all we had was 8 mhz and that was darn good enough for us!
Rick
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Sushi
You forgot the, "And we were THANKFUL" part, Bluze
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Bluzeman
Oops your right. "And by God, we WALKED to school every day! 2 Miles! And it was uphill! Both ways! And we liked it!
Rick
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GodsGirl2
Very cute rick :P , my first computer had a tape drive... I guess young whippersnapper is a realtive term . ^_^ Its ok I will take it.
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Bluzeman
I brought all that up because it is a true story. Happend to somone I know. It was at this point that someone gave her my name and she brought her computer to me. I installed a 300 watt(I think...been awhile back) power supply and everything was fine.
Anyway, the whole point as it pertains to your question is, a higher rated PS will only let you power more items than a lower rated one. Each 12 volt lead is still only 12 volts.
Good advice. Or you can contact the poster known as Wasway. He has been building machines for all my clients for a year or so now. Does very good work and he's very reasonable. Just promise you WON'T get a Dell. You know the old saying, "Friends don't let friends buy Dells"
I worked in the industry for quite a few years before I ever owned my own computer. First job was RPG programming on a Wang machine. Worked for 5 years as a Unix sys admin/Informix/Oracle programmer. Got my first Access/vba programming job back when Access version 2 was newly released. Told them I had a lot of experience with Access. In truth, I had never seen it in my life. (I'm a REAL quick learner.
) Now I do dot-net programming (VB and VC++ with a little c# mixed in for good measure). Mostly mundane boring web based apps.
Rick
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ChasUFarley
Thanks for all the notes...
Yeah, my first computer also had a cassette drive - it was a Tandy TRS-80 Color Computer (aka Trash 80 CoCo).
I wrote my own programs for giggles back then and belonged to a club for it. There's still people who use them and write for them. Supposedly, they're very upgradable.
Someday, when you an hour or so to kill, do a Google on 'em - it's interesting as hell to see what people are still doing with them.
But I digress...
No, this will be my last PC... I got a little Apple laptop this fall and I'm smitten with it (it's a powerbook Pismo - with all the bells, whistles, and accessories - plus it was upgraded with memory nicely.) Then, Hubby got a G5 iMac Duo Intel for Christmas (I'm on it now.) I want an iMac of my own - or perhaps even a Mac Mini - either way, I love the logic behind the OS. It just feels right.
Dell is NOT an option. No way! I've always thought they were overrated.
But I haven't heard from the Geek Squad yet... we'll see...
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GodsGirl2
LOL I was referring that the Dell would be like a deck of cards as well. :D Bluze caught on. ;)
I am really glad you just took it back to them. I had a Trash80 as well!! Then a Tandy HX 1000 (8088 oooh attached keyboard! LOVE the TGA! HAHA) Though I orginally was speaking of my C64 with the tape drive, that after I bought the hard drive when they came out I tried putting GEOS 1.0 on it and blew the hard drive LOL. Started over and went with basic all over again.
Of course you love the logic of the OS, especially now. Its based off of Unix! Why not just take a install friendly Linux download for your pc and install Linux? It is more user friendly than it ever has and is not like the orignal 5.2. Doing some command line things mike make you feel nastalgic.
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ChasUFarley
Funny you should mention Linux...
I was talking to hubby last night about how tired I was of Microsoft coming out with a new OS every 5 years that made most people's old PCs obsolete instantly and required more and more memory all the time. We started tossing around OS options.
So...
I understand that it would clean off my harddrive, most likely... is that true? That's no biggie - I just got everything - and I mean EVERYTHING - on DVDs all backed up nicely.
What else should I know?
I'm in such a rebellious mood after this rash of problems that I'm tempted to do it just to get away from Microsoft (but still have Office... sigh...)
Whadda ya think?
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Bluzeman
Check out Open Office. Runs on all flavors of linux and is compatible with most office programs, includiing Micro$oft. http://www.openoffice.org/
If you are thinking of trying linux, I suggest you try SuSe. It's as easy to install is Windoze and all free. Downside, you have to download 5 disc images and make the CD's yourself but if that's too much hassle, pm me your address and I'll send you copy's.
Me, I prefer Free-BSD because it's a lot more like Berkley Unix. But I don't reccomend that for a newbie.
Rick
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