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  • #31
    Quoth MacPrince View Post
    I could well be mistaken, but isn't DDR4 RAM only currently used on video cards (GDDR4)?
    DDR4 is right now only used on ATi's 2900XT video card and from the articles that I read, it's not worth the money. Nvidia's 8000 series cards are still the best.

    As for motherboards, they do have DDR3 but from what I hear, the huge cost increase relative to the performance you get is not worth it, so it's a good thing those DD3 mobos are backwards compatible with DDR2.

    And BTW, my new rig has an Asus mobo, it's great.

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    • #32
      Quoth Naaman View Post
      Well I'm just going to say that brand preference is a personal thing

      Since I've generally only brought the top end stuff from Gigabyte I've never found anything lacking (they all come with bells, whistles AND spangly bits plus more back panels and pins than I ever needed). Asus had their issues in the late '90s, on the then brand new, boards that came with extra IDE\Raid and jumperless design.

      Same reason that I didn't buy Seagate drives for ages, it used to be they were uniformly rubbish and Maxtor were the best bang for your buck - fast foward to a couple of years ago and Maxtor drives had an atrocious failure rate and the Seagate Barracudas were the must have drives.

      Things change including our brand loyalty
      I agree with you about Seagate and Maxtor. I bought a Maxtor hard drive when 40GB was considered big, and it failed on me. Maxtor replaced it 3 times and gave me a 60GB on the last one, when that started to fail (constant clicking sound) I just paid out of pocket for a western digital. That drive was great, and it was still working great when I sold my old PC. I have 2 Seagate 250's in my current PC in a RAID 0 setup, and boy they are FAST!

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      • #33
        I get the cranky old folks that want me to fix things by the power of my mind. The ones that don't know anything about computers but have managed to install 15 pop up blockers and 49 ad blockers and then expect me to find them all with the detailed description of "it doesn't work" GAH.
        "If all else fails...blame the dog"

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        • #34
          Quoth sld72382 View Post
          That drive was great, and it was still working great when I sold my old PC. I have 2 Seagate 250's in my current PC in a RAID 0 setup, and boy they are FAST!
          For me, the jury's still out regarding Seagate--too many of those things have failed at work. Yet, the one in my salvaged computer at home works great. I don't know about Maxtor drives, so I can't comment on them. The Western Digital drives I've always used haven't had any problems.
          Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines. --Enzo Ferrari

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          • #35
            Quoth Aressel View Post
            2. Those who are enthusiastic about it and try to learn new things (books, elder college, etc.)
            I really like working with this Type 2 customer. They're just fun to talk to because of how excited they can get about new technology that appeals to them.

            Like the old couple looking for a photo printer to go with their new digital camera and discovering the all-in-one that can scan slides and negatives as well as regular papers. They're THRILLED at the prospect of getting all those slides out of the closet and stored on media that won't make the pictures gradually deteriorate.

            Like the guy (must be, like, 80) who comes in about once every two months for a couple new DVDs and a chance to talk to the computer and home theater guys about all the new stuff coming out.

            Like the couple the other day looking for a Web TV box to replace theirs that had been killed by a power surge. While walking them up to the cash register, the husband bragged to me that his wife had set up the first Web TV box after their son--who is 50-something and an electrician--got confused by it. She grinned proudly, then told me about the MP3 players they'd gotten themselves for their anniversary so they could listen to all their "oldie goldie" songs while gardening.

            And my favorites: Lily and Ruth*. Lily is 85... actually, she's probably turned 86 by now. Her grandsons introduced her to World of Warcraft. She liked it. She liked it so much she came in to my store and bought a new computer from me so she could go home and play her new game. And she's good, too. Ruth was Lily's neighbor. Ruth's husband recently passed away, so Lily invited her to come live in her house as a roommate (Ruth has trouble getting around "these days"). Lily convinced Ruth to get a laptop and a webcam, and now she's writing her personal history and communicating with her children in other parts of the country by video chat.

            Customers like that make up some of the better moments of my job. And now, I can tell all the other older customers interested in computers that, if Lily and Ruth and the others can figure it out, they can too.

            *names changed.
            I suspect that... inside every adult (sometimes not very far inside) is a bratty kid who wants everything his own way.
            - Bill Watterson

            My co-workers: They're there when they need me.
            - IPF

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            • #36
              Yes, I love the customers who will swear up and down that they don't know anything about computers, but then want to argue with you on your conclusions of what needs fixed or what they need to do. Why is it the ones who tell you they haven't a clue about something, want to argue the most about that same thing as if they have some higher knowledge than you?!

              Also, I have only purchased WD drives for myself and others due to their reliability. Lets put it this way, I had a pc with 2 HD's, and this pc was stolen and dumped in the nearby river. Well the police dive team recovered it (still don't know why), and I was able to get one HD to spin right up. Thankfully the one that survived held all of our digital photos and other irreplaceables. It ran for a few weeks like nothing happened. Of course I immediately copied all the data off of it to other media.

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              • #37
                Quoth BravoOrig View Post
                Yes, I love the customers who will swear up and down that they don't know anything about computers, but then want to argue with you on your conclusions of what needs fixed or what they need to do. Why is it the ones who tell you they haven't a clue about something, want to argue the most about that same thing as if they have some higher knowledge than you?!
                Usually, because it'll cost them something...mainly time and/or money. In other words, they want it fixed, but do not want to give up something to make it so. People are cheap bastards that way
                Aerodynamics are for people who can't build engines. --Enzo Ferrari

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                • #38
                  Quoth TNT View Post
                  Caller: Great, because I'm definitely a beginner. I know some stuff, like disabling my firewall and antivirus... bypassing the router, rebooting the modem, then turning on the computer... doing an ipconfig release and renew... checking my network card in device manager. I must sound pretty stupid to you because that's as far as I'm able to go.
                  I want to go back in time and be one of her grandkids.
                  Quoth Shabo View Post
                  Although plugging in the wires from the case onto the motherboard still irritates me. Why can't they just make all the wires attached together instead of having 8 separate little ones that you practically need to use pliers to plug in?
                  Dell has them attached (or did) and it bugged the hell out of me. Not only that, but the connectors were wonky (no markings on either the wires or the mobo header, and the wire colors only vaguely matched what I had worked with...I wasn't about to figure it out through trial and error). I was t/s'ing a Dell box for a client who wasn't sure if the culprit was the mobo, PSU, or case connections. Since everything was proprietary, I couldn't do much beyond saving files from the hard drive.
                  Last edited by Dreamstalker; 06-20-2007, 02:38 AM.
                  "I am quite confident that I do exist."
                  "Excuse me, I'm making perfect sense. You're just not keeping up." The Doctor

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                  • #39
                    Quoth HawaiianShirts View Post
                    And my favorites: Lily and Ruth*. Lily is 85... actually, she's probably turned 86 by now. Her grandsons introduced her to World of Warcraft. She liked it. She liked it so much she came in to my store and bought a new computer from me so she could go home and play her new game. And she's good, too. Ruth was Lily's neighbor. Ruth's husband recently passed away, so Lily invited her to come live in her house as a roommate (Ruth has trouble getting around "these days"). Lily convinced Ruth to get a laptop and a webcam, and now she's writing her personal history and communicating with her children in other parts of the country by video chat.
                    I adore the Lilys and Ruths of the world. The ones that didn't stop learning just because they got "older." My grandmother was actually named Ruth, and she never slowed down. New things would crop up and she'd try them if it took her fancy. She was great.

                    ^-.-^
                    Faith is about what you do. It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are. It's about making sacrifices for the good of others. - Dresden

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                    • #40
                      I talked to a lady once who was on the famed orphan trains as a child. She called in for some internet issue and we got to discussing what she has done with technology. She has an electronic keyboard and composes or plays her songs and downloads them to a memory card to put on the computer and print sheet music or vice versa. I was very impressed and proud, even if she isn't family. Then I got to talk to the 20 somethings that should pick up technology faster and easier, but still like to play dumb like their parents.

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