Forum Overview :: American McGee's Honda Civic

Why not buy used? by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 10/29/2011, 12:55am PDT Check and see what's available from stores selling machines returned from terminated leases (or traded in on purchases of new equipment) that might be for sale. You can get a reasonably good, refurbished and cleaned machine for about 1/2 price or less. Plus you'll get XP Professional loaded on it as opposed to being dumped into Windows 7 (or worse, Vista). Micro Center here in the Washington, DC area does a lot of this, and their used computers are generally about as good as a new machine, half the price or less, plus you know it works because it's been up and running in regular service for a long time. You'll get a 90-day warranty and you can buy an extended warranty if you think you need it from SquareTrade for not much money. (A 1-year warranty on a $300 refurbished computer is about $70.) As for building your own computer, "been there, done that, got the T-Shirt." I don't have specialized high-end needs so nowadays any computer I can buy either refurbished or discontinued, or even a new machine, for less than it would cost me to build one (plus don't forget Microsoft Windows 7 is charged out to you at full price of around $150 as opposed to the true discounted price the manufacturer pays of about $50 or so.) But the computer I built back around 1995 was nice, it was a Pentium - I went a little beyond the curve instead of going with a 486 - and it was a turquoise blue case, quite attractive. There is nothing so exciting as getting a book on how to build a computer, installing the motherboard, hooking it to the case's power supply, installing the memory and drives, then booting it up for the first time and discovering you did everything perfectly. Then, of course, you suffer the ultimate punishment, what I call "the death penalty," in which you now have the pleasure of doing a brand new install of an operating system from scratch off CD (or now, DVD). But, like most people, I only had the death penalty inflicted upon me once, at least for that machine. I've had to suffer capital punishment many times because of machine rebuilds. I ran with my cyan colored machine for about 3 or 4 years until I had to upgrade for the next game I wanted that required beefier equipment. One thing I'll recommend staying away from is anything from a company called CTX. At the place where I used to work doing tech support, routinely, whenever someone called in that their monitor had died, it was always a CTX. It got so bad we realized the name stood for "Certified To eXpire."

Help me build my new computer by Mischief Maker 10/22/2011, 7:20pm PDT     Re: Help me build my new computer by Mr. Kool 10/22/2011, 11:08pm PDT     Re: Help me build my new computer by Jerry Whorebach 10/22/2011, 11:59pm PDT     You're not going to like this answer, but.. by Mysterio 10/23/2011, 6:01am PDT         Re: You're not going to like this answer, but.. by jeep 10/24/2011, 9:10pm PDT     Sword of the Stars 2 comes out at the end of November. HOPE YOU'RE READY. NT by WITTGENSTEIN 10/23/2011, 9:28am PDT         Cautiously Pessimistic. by Mischief Maker 10/23/2011, 2:48pm PDT             Also: by Mischief Maker 10/24/2011, 9:45pm PDT                 DoW2 was better than 1 in every way =( NT by fabio 10/25/2011, 1:25pm PDT                     Its multiplayer was better, its single player was shittier by WITTGENSTEIN 10/25/2011, 4:59pm PDT                 Whoops my bad, IT LAUNCHED TODAY NT by WITTGENSTEIN 10/28/2011, 3:02pm PDT             SOTS1: Too Terrible To Love by talby 10/25/2011, 4:50pm PDT                 We've had a conversation about it. Thanks. NT by WITTGENSTEIN 10/25/2011, 4:57pm PDT                 SOTS 1 wins by defauls by Mischief Emperor 10/25/2011, 5:19pm PDT                     I think the massive scale is still in there by WITTGENSTEIN 10/25/2011, 5:21pm PDT                     You were right on the mark about things being complexified by WITTGENSTEIN 10/28/2011, 4:20pm PDT                         Whelp, that explains it.... by WITTGENSTEIN 10/28/2011, 4:45pm PDT     Machine I built in July, look at this thread I linked on another site, w/notes by jeep 10/24/2011, 8:57pm PDT         Monitors by Mischief Maker 10/24/2011, 9:43pm PDT             no objections to that monitor but make sure you don't need height adjustment by jeep 10/25/2011, 11:00am PDT                 Oh, shit. Didn't realize that was a budget monitor. NT by Mischief Maker 10/25/2011, 11:29am PDT                 Dell U2312HM it is! by Mischief Maker 10/25/2011, 2:47pm PDT                     I only mentioned it because you talked about LCD shit in the OP by jeep 10/26/2011, 8:56pm PDT                         Input lag is my biggest concern. NT by Mischief Shmup Enthusiast 10/30/2011, 12:02pm PDT                             problem solved then by jeep 10/30/2011, 4:05pm PDT         No longer viewable by nonmenbers :( NT by Mischief Maker 11/11/2011, 11:58am PST             current parts recommend in this post by jeep 11/18/2011, 1:27am PST             Is there some SA temorary public viewing rule I don't know about? by Mischief Maker 01/11/2012, 8:00am PST                 sometimes they block shit by jeep 01/11/2012, 3:12pm PST     Why not buy used? by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 10/29/2011, 12:55am PDT         I forgot to mention by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 10/29/2011, 1:17am PDT             before I just ignore your posts forever: seriously what the fuck is your deal NT by jeep 10/29/2011, 1:59am PDT                 What is your malfunction? He asked on building a computer; I suggested buying NT by Tansin A. Darcos (TDARCOS) 10/29/2011, 7:44am PDT             Holy shit man, an actual blu ray burner, not just a reader? HOOOOOLEEEEEEE SHEEE NT by Eurotrash, mind blown 10/29/2011, 2:39pm PDT         Who do you think I am? Your Grandpa on Welfare? NT by Mischief Maker 10/29/2011, 9:25am PDT             To be fair, your obsession with free games kinda supports his hypothesis. by Jerry Whorebach 10/29/2011, 1:58pm PDT                 I was a poor student when I wrote that article. Now I'm obsessed with DRM. NT by Mischief Maker 10/30/2011, 12:10am PDT     One last question by Mischief Maker 01/22/2012, 9:03am PST         I've got one of those and I've never had a problem with overheating by Fullofkittens 01/22/2012, 9:15am PST     Okay, another by Mischief Maker 01/22/2012, 7:00pm PST         Many do. Windows can burn CDs. Imgburn is a good free CD/DVD software NT by Rafiki 01/22/2012, 8:06pm PST         I use CDBurnerXP (which is free) and have never needed anything else. NT by Fullofkittens 01/22/2012, 8:23pm PST             Sweet! What about DVD and Blu-Ray movie player software? NT by Mischief Maker 01/23/2012, 7:29am PST                 Re: Sweet! What about DVD and Blu-Ray movie player software? by jeep 01/23/2012, 12:54pm PST                     I haven't ordered it yet. Just planning ahead so I have the drivers ready to go NT by MM 01/23/2012, 4:47pm PST                         even the oem ones should come with the disc NT by jeep 01/24/2012, 6:57pm PST                             It didn't come with SHEEEIT! Is Cyberlink my best bet? by Mischief Maker 01/30/2012, 11:47am PST                                 Re: It didn't come with SHEEEIT! Is Cyberlink my best bet? by laudablepuss 01/30/2012, 12:32pm PST