What would it take to have a good computer?

T

tothemax6

New Member
Hi all,
My old computer started to seem too slow, so I purchased an Acer Veriton which comes with an i7. Now, when one buys a computer with an i7, one assumes that it is going to work well, and run rather fast.
In reality of course, it is a piece of crap. Indeed it has found ways to be crap that I could not have imagined. So my question is, by what measure can one possibly determine if one is going to get a good computer?
Generally with other products, if you spend more money, if you buy something with higher specs, you generally end up with a better product. If I purchased a car which claimed to have ten times the power, or have ten times the mileage per gallon, or cost ten times as much as my old car, one would generally expect that it would be better than my original car.
Apparently this rule doesn't apply to computers, indeed I have seen no evidence so far that any degree of 'computer upgrading' actually yields a better computing experience (although some of that experience did involve Vista).
So my question is: what would it take? What are the necessary man-hours and/or dollar expenditure required to end up with a good computer? 1000 hours and $20,000 dollars? Does one have to buy a Cray and hire a team to convert it to using windows?
Somebody here must have a computer that they consider awesome. I would love a word for word description of the machine for my reference,
Cheers
 
What problems are having with your machine??

Can you post a link to your machine or the model number...
 
It's an OEM machine. it comes with crapware. i recommend a format of the hard drive and a reinstall of windows.
 
^ That, a fresh reinstall of windows and removal of all the crapware will help you a lot.

Being an Acer, it has probably got a slow hard drive...this is obviously a problem because it will slow down things like opening programs, booting up, shutting down, transferring files, and anything else that relies on the drive.


Speaking from a normal consumer standpoint rather than an enthusiast, a good reliable build with an i7 can be done for well under $850, for a socket 1156 version, and under $950 for a socket 1366. Bringing it up to enthusiast-grade parts would add a couple hundred or more to both builds. This is including the OS but no monitor, keyboard, mouse, or speakers.

As far as man-hours, putting one together shouldn't even take an hour...I can do it in roughly ten minutes, give or take, with another hour or so to have the OS fully functioning.


note: If your Acer was cheaper than that, it's because they often use cheap parts, the worst of which are usually the mobo and the power supply. Sadly, those are also the two most important parts of your system...
 
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jasonn20 said:
What problems are having with your machine??

Can you post a link to your machine or the model number...
Click to expand...

I second that.

I love my comp!

Core i7 920 @3.5 ghz: for daily use, have had it at 4 but is not practical

Asus P6x58D Premium: had nice features for the future, SATA III, USB 3.0

Crucial Real SSD 128GB: Sequential Access - Read:355MB/s Sequential Access - Write:140MB/s. Fast and reasonably priced.

12GB of triple channel ddr3 @1333mhz: Ok kinda overkill but plenty of room for my hardcore programs such as matlab when running the CPU overclocked its at 1402mhz (if I remember, I'm not looking)

2 GTX 295s in quad SLI: I would have gotten 3 480s but I put this together last January and they weren't out or had a scheduled release date.

GTS 250: Dedicated Physx card. Completely unnecessary but when I was buying I had seen the Physx videos on Nvidia's web site and new that Mafia 2 was going to be something I wanted.

Blu Ray reader: No need for a writer since I haven't burned a CD in 5+ years... But wanted HD movie capabilities

Asetek 550lc: I went with liquid cooling for the fact that it makes NO noise and it's a high end system, no reason to skimp here plus was pretty cheap in comparison to what I was expecting.

Windows 7 x64 ultimate: As far as I'm concerned the differences offered do NOT matter to me from home premium and up, but home premium offers only 16gb of ram support and that includes your video memory so I needed more. I also figure I will upgrade to 24GB of ram when the 4gb dimms get cheaper. Ultimate supports up to 192GB if I remember correctly so again overkill but I got it free from a friend that hosted a win 7 party and had several copies left.

Azza Hurrican 2000: 4 230mm fans, 4 120mm fans, huge interior space, bitch'n look, hard-drive trays are nice for quick and easy swapping no need to open the case.

1100W Power supply: This is where it was iffy, and I really still haven't gotten a clear answer on it yet but... It seemed as tho it was enough, it was a recommended amount and I see no problems with it. In the future I will buy a larger one with my next build regardless of requirements simply for peace of mind.

Hope this helps, let me know if you want more info. I can't think of something I may have missed so I may post back if I remember something. I guess it may be worth noting that it cost the same as my alienware laptop with a core 2 duo and nothing special. If I open matlab at the same time on both and run one of my .m files with partial differential equations in it. It will complete the operation and calculations before the alienware gets matlab open :)

Good luck, Jeremy
 
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Cheers for the help fellas,
The numerous problems include: freezing during games, hanging during games, freezing (and by freeze I mean full freeze, no blue screens or anything) whilst using firefox in Ubuntu, internet keeps suddenly slowing down for no reason, slow folder access times (I have to wait for My documents to show me its contents), video playback is sometimes infuriatingly choppy... Well those are the ones which spring to mind as I type.
The details for the machine are:
Computer details:
Acer Veriton M490G- Intel Core i7 860, 2 x 2GB, 2 x1TB HDD, DVDRW, 1GB GT220, Win 7 Pro (64bit) XP Pro Img, 3 yr NBD wty
Genuine Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) XP Pro Image, Intel Core i7 processor 870 (2.80GHz, 8MB L2 cache, 1333MHz FSB), 4GB DDR3 Dual Channel (2 x 2GB), 1TB SATA Hard Drive 7200 RPM, 1TB SATA Hard Drive 7200 RPM, 16x Dual Layer DVD Burner, 1GB GT220 DDR2 DVI HDMI, No additional software, 3 years Commercial Desktop NBD Onsite Response.
Currently I have it running XP, and I have been meaning to put it back to Win7, but I am so used to XP and having used Win7 also I consider it an infuriating user-interface-change-for-the-sake-of-it OS, which was going to cause me to rapidly de-value my PC if it popped up another annoying 'blah blah blah?' message again. However, even under Win7 games were still hanging - and the fact that even Ubuntu will all-out crash for no reason suggests something is very crook with this thing (and it cost $1600).
I am glad to hear the other people do have 'good' computers here, you are an inspiration for me not to give up hope :). Maybe one day I will have a computer that I don't hate ;).
Regarding reinstalling windows from scratch, yes I agree but unfortunately the machine only comes with a factory re-imaging partition (containing XP and Win7). Also I should mention this is not a deterioration issue - the computer was crap from the get-go.
Cheers
 
Make sure all of the correct drivers are installed, then see if that makes a difference. If you are trying to play new games, it isn't a surprise you are seeing poor performance by the way, your video card isn't a gaming card, and was never intended to be so, it is meant for light gaming, but the main focus on video playback.

If you know all your drivers are up to date, and when you got it it had only the OS on, I would get in contact with the seller, tell them your problem and get them to sort it. It sounds like a hardware issue rather than software, on account of the fact that it is happening on several Operating Systems, even on clean installs, which it should be breezing through
 
But again my issue is, why is it impossible to obtain a good computer by reading the information about the computer? I do not have time to be fighting with the supplier to put the machine right, which will stretch out to months and still at best result in a refund. That puts the costs of the machine to me to be 150% of the price at least. What would it take to find a machine, which I then purchase, which following the purchase results in me owning a genuine-completely-working-no-bullsht-no-futher-interaction-with-others-required-machine?
Cheers
 
Well to be honest its mechanical, anything can break and not run right. The best thing you can do is look for a computer that has parts produced by a reputable company. Something that was assembled for you makes it more difficult to monitor quality control but then you don't have to do the work. If you want it done right I suggest you build it yourself. If you want a computer that you don't need to worry about for the next couple of years get and i7 9xx. If you want a guarantee then don't buy one, I guarantee it wont break that way. You can still get a virus in a year or over heat but the most likely scenario would be that you would be pleased with it simply because there is so many good products and the probability of you getting crap again is low. Tell me what you want specifically, do you want suggestions for a new comp? Help diagnosing your current problems? or just to rant? It's fine if you do but if you're looking for help tell me which way you want to go I along with many others here are willing and ready to help you out!

Jeremy
 
tothemax6 said:
But again my issue is, why is it impossible to obtain a good computer by reading the information about the computer? I do not have time to be fighting with the supplier to put the machine right, which will stretch out to months and still at best result in a refund. That puts the costs of the machine to me to be 150% of the price at least. What would it take to find a machine, which I then purchase, which following the purchase results in me owning a genuine-completely-working-no-bullsht-no-futher-interaction-with-others-required-machine?
Cheers
Click to expand...

Normally, everything does work right, but computers aren't bullet proof, just look at this forum to see proof of that.

Flawed products can make it through, and do make it through, and this is why you have warranty, because manufacturers understand that their quality control isn't perfect, and that parts can deteriorate.

The best way to get a working computer, is to build it yourself. You don't get the testing before it is built, however when everything is done right, you know you have quality products in there, not cheap, Chinese crap that most OEM builders put in there, if anything doesn't work it costs less to send the part off for repair, and from the point you send it to the point you get the part back is usually never more than 4 weeks.

I understand it is frustrating to get a computer that should just work, but it has to be put down to "just one of those things"
 
Drenlin said:
^ That, a fresh reinstall of windows and removal of all the crapware will help you a lot.

Being an Acer, it has probably got a slow hard drive...this is obviously a problem because it will slow down things like opening programs, booting up, shutting down, transferring files, and anything else that relies on the drive.


Speaking from a normal consumer standpoint rather than an enthusiast, a good reliable build with an i7 can be done for well under $850, for a socket 1156 version, and under $950 for a socket 1366. Bringing it up to enthusiast-grade parts would add a couple hundred or more to both builds. This is including the OS but no monitor, keyboard, mouse, or speakers.

As far as man-hours, putting one together shouldn't even take an hour...I can do it in roughly ten minutes, give or take, with another hour or so to have the OS fully functioning.


note: If your Acer was cheaper than that, it's because they often use cheap parts, the worst of which are usually the mobo and the power supply. Sadly, those are also the two most important parts of your system...
Click to expand...
Need to add in 30min - 2hr for cable mangement.
 
I would get a program called (memtest86) it is free and it will check your ram for errors. A good machine will run like crap if the memory/ram is faulty and this IMO would be good to eliminate as a problem...

How experienced are you with computers? What anti-virus/diagnostic utility's are you using?

I believe custom built machines are always better than a OEM machines as long as quality components are used. Your machine has good specifications but they do not give the brand on the components they used for the most part...
 
jgoff14 said:
Tell me what you want specifically, do you want suggestions for a new comp? Help diagnosing your current problems? or just to rant? It's fine if you do but if you're looking for help tell me which way you want to go I along with many others here are willing and ready to help you out!
Click to expand...
Mostly I would like to make my current machine work I suppose. I don't intend to simply put it in a cupboard and build a new one myself, because my means are unfortunately rather limited. However, given that it is an i7 it has a strong 'base' if you will, perhaps I could take out some of the other components (like the video card) and replace them with better ones.
So to get ambitious: what kind of card are we looking at if I want to play Crysis (no I haven't tried to yet :))?
I would get a program called (memtest86) it is free and it will check your ram for errors. A good machine will run like crap if the memory/ram is faulty and this IMO would be good to eliminate as a problem...
How experienced are you with computers? What anti-virus/diagnostic utility's are you using?
Click to expand...
I will get this program and see what it says. My antivirus is BitDefender.
Cheers
 
That card should be able to play crysis, just not on uber high settings. Hell, my 4350 can play crysis.
 
=EDIT=

scratch what I said, seems the Acer website, their own website, has the same sort of quality as their products; very poor. It doesn't list their own products properly.

You said that the things which are slow are gameplay, internet, opening files, you get hanging etc, and all of these are when things load, which would indicate a slow hard drive...

What specific hard drives do you have in your system? Take the side panel off your case and it will say on a label on top of the hard drives
 
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Aastii said:
=EDIT=
You said that the things which are slow are gameplay, internet, opening files, you get hanging etc, and all of these are when things load, which would indicate a slow hard drive...
What specific hard drives do you have in your system? Take the side panel off your case and it will say on a label on top of the hard drives
Click to expand...
The drives are both Seagate Baraccuda st31000528as.
That card should be able to play crysis, just not on uber high settings. Hell, my 4350 can play crysis.
Click to expand...
Hmm, well when I get round to putting my computer back to Win7 I will give it a go then.
Cheers
 
tothemax6 said:
The drives are both Seagate Baraccuda st31000528as.

Hmm, well when I get round to putting my computer back to Win7 I will give it a go then.
Cheers
Click to expand...

The drives should be all right.

What manufacturer/model/speed is your memory, and when idle, how much memory is your system using? Open up task manager (right click the clock and click task manager, or ctrl+alt+del) and it will give a percentage of Physical Memory usage
 
The ram is starting more and more to sound bad. Make sure when you run memtest you do it for atleast 8hours. When I had bad ram, and this was completely on one extreme, I ran it for 52hours. I wouldn't have but everything was leaning that way and I was convinced it was bad finally just before then it detected a problem. You could alternatively test each dimm on its own, just take them all out but one and turn it on see if it runs and try another... It could be too that you are low on system resources so as a previous poster said, how much ram do you have, how much is available, and brand model specifics too. I didn't think to look but are you running windows 7? Is it 64bit?
 
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