heat sink replace or clean

[turbosat]

Way too complicated for me! I just went to CompUSA, all the other MB were over 200bucks, which I didn't want or need, and a couple for under 80-which scared me due to unknown brand names. I just needed an internet capable machine, by start of business Mon. I couldn't do much more research without internet, and if I'd taken the time to learn what sata is and all this other stuff I would've been down 2weeks,lol. My work is related to the mortgage business, the most complex thing I do with my computer is download loan documents in a pdf file. (and with the market as it is right now, there hasn't been much work for me in the last 2 months, hence trying to get a working computer back cheap as possible!) The Giga-byte board I wanted was sold out, and those kids at CompuSA know about as much as I do on new pc parts-nothing.
There's a lot of options out there for personal computers these days, makes the head spin. I heard one kid working at that store say he had $4000 in his computer.

 

[charper1]

$4000 what an idiot or likely talking smack. I am an owner that would be more proud to exclaim I have a machine I hand built for less than $1500 and I will bet money it will run circles around his $4k PC, and mine is bulletproof stable too.

I assume you did your own install right? Why shop at a box store? The internet (even with tax & shipping) still is usually near 25% cheaper and MORE selection to boot. (no pun intended)

 

[whiteyanderson]

you can spend as much as you want especially on a gaming machine. if you're in the market for a new computer maybe it's time for the big switch... maybe an iMac.

 

[charper1]

yuck! please god no!

 

[turbosat]

This came up suddenly, and I didn't have time to wait for , and IF I might get my order. I live in the rurals and ups tends to just throw things on anybody's house that they think is near mine, and mark it delivered (try to find an internet seller who gives you the option of "Signature Required" delivery on their checkout page)
And yes, I put it together myself, not wanting to wait for some shop to get to it.
Reading more, this really is a gamer mb, with this 'Crossfire' technology, provided I wanted to buy the Intel cards I guess I could do some heavy gaming. Maybe I might want to someday but not soon. I just needed to be ready for end of month. I close loans, and have to be ready to print docs and
zoom when I get a call or somebody else gets called.

 

[whiteyanderson]

yuck! please god no!

LOL as a former PC tech for too many years, let me just say that the Mac OS is so very refreshing. it's amazing how much time is actually spent... computing. the previous (of which i own the 24" model) and latest version of the imac are great machines.

anyhow this was only a suggestion not an excuse to start a debate. the OP looked like he may be interested in getting a new PC and with a new machine comes vista (probably) and with every new vista user comes a new mac user.

good luck with your quest. whether you roll your own or buy pre-assembled enjoy. and yes, you can build a nice windows gaming rig and spend as much as you want to. last machine i built was for a "no expense" guy he dropped about $3500 on parts alone. that's the beauty of windows i guess- tweak till death.

i don't consider myself one of "those" turtle neck wearing Mac owners. i see the pros and cons to both windows and apples. i was a windows diehard until starting to use a Mac at work for photo retouching.

 

[Bogy]

turbosat, there certainly is a lot more built into today's motherboards that used to require an additional card. Remember the "good old days" when running out of slots was a frequent occurrence. By the time you added a video card, audio card, ethernet card, modem card, cards for parallel and serial ports, scanner card, and going way back, an ide adapter card and card to add an additional 64k of memory, having enough slots was a real issue. Today, the only slot on my motherboard I am using is the PCI-x.

I love guys who tell you after you have bought and installed something what you coulda shoulda done. I also live in an area where if I don't have time to wait for the UPS guy to deliver something (I don't have to worry about him leaving something at the neighbors, he just leaves stuff in my garage, its more of a problem if something requires a sig), I don't have much choice.

While I am also the kind of guy who will take pride in building the best computer I can for the least money, there is no doubt that a serious gamer could have 4 grand in his computer. My present computer has a mb that is a little better than 2.5 years old. I made sure it had the PCI-x slot, but didn't buy the card for another 4 or 5 months, until the cards got better, and the prices came down. Then I bought 2 nVidia 6800gt's, one for my box, one for my son's. When I bought them the price had dropped from about $600 each to $300 each. My son recently pointed out that its really time to upgrade. He can't play all the games he wants to anymore. A really serious gamer would want to install something like the 8800Ultra, which will run $600-800. Of course the REALLY serious gamer will want two for a SLI hookup, and will probably want the water cooled version.

 

[whiteyanderson]

I love guys who tell you after you have bought and installed something what you coulda shoulda done.

actually if that was meant towards me, i was under the impression that he was still searching. which is why in my original post i stated "if you're in the market"... i may have misread.

 

[Bogy]

actually if that was meant towards me, i was under the impression that he was still searching. which is why in my original post i stated "if you're in the market"... i may have misread.

No, it wasn't directed at you.

 

[turbosat]

Hey I was just shocked I guess at the prices of some of these parts, that are available now. I haven't looked at any pc parts for about 3yrs lol. I never heard of a 'pci=express' so I didn't know what one was when i was trying to figure out what MB to buy (the one I had been using had 5pci slots ! and this new one only has 2, plus the 2 pci express slots) I am a linux user and rarely have to boot Windows, occasionally to keep my dhcp connection alive since my linux version didn't have support for the DSL modem I have. Luckily they do now.
And, my OS which is 2005 model linux did find and configure the onboard lan on this new mb. It's really nice to have a faster machine though, still being surprised by it=should've upgraded 2yrs ago. But, some of us get caught up in making a living and if something don't break, I usually let it ride.
Mostly I was just happy to have assembled what I bought, and have it work!!