The Snowball Effect

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The Snowball Effect

Postby BarbaraC » Thu Feb 14, 2013 12:21 pm

When building a new computer for my son, our tech made a mistake on the video card, albeit a blazing hot card. It was a $300 card, which the tech said he'd give me for $125. Such a deal! We looked at my current case, saw it was too short for the card, and thus it began...

Bought a new, larger case along with a bigger power supply.
(Turned out motherboard didn't have the right connection for the card.)
New mother board ordered.
(Husband really needed a computer.)
New CPU to go with new mother board.
New RAM for the new mother board because husband would need the RAM on the older board.
New hard drive for husband because, otherwise, he'd have no drives.
Husband needed Windows, and so that was added in.

All because of such a lovely deal on such a lovely video card. Sheesh!

A long time ago, we had a similar snowball effect, renovating 3/4's of the house because a new refrigerator wouldn't fit beneath a wall cabinet.

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Re: The Snowball Effect

Postby amreinkr » Thu Feb 14, 2013 4:32 pm

So in other words, you now have a brand new computer without planning to purchase one! Funneee!

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Re: The Snowball Effect

Postby BarbaraC » Thu Feb 14, 2013 4:39 pm

I'm glad it wasn't a new refrigerator at half price.

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Re: The Snowball Effect

Postby gpsmikey » Thu Feb 14, 2013 5:52 pm

Heh heh - we just bought a new refrigerator (old one was getting pretty tired after 36 years). Unfortunately, I had to trim 2 inches off the end of the counter for it to fit (new ones are bigger). Let's see, now I need to make a new drawer assembly for under the shorter counter - $250 worth of additional tools etc to complete that task (well, the definition of a successful woodworking project it that it requires at least one new tool .... I'm a success !!! :twisted: )

(these were things I was planning on getting anyway - this just justified them!)

When buying video cards, I always spend time reading the user reviews at places like Newegg - often you will find comments about how it fits the standard case EXCEPT for the connector that hits and makes it impossible to put in most cases. Video cards are notorious for being problem children in cases.

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Re: The Snowball Effect

Postby BarbaraC » Fri Feb 15, 2013 4:46 am

I'm pleased to hear our refrigerator "project" wasn't necessarily unique. Besides months of work and washing dishes in the bathtub, when we were done, the house did what realtors call "showing well," so we figured what the heck? We sold the house and bought another one, which happily included its own projects. Many tools later, we've now settled down into the notion of it's-too-much-trouble.

I knew up front that the card wouldn't fit my current case, so no surprises there. What was a surprise to both the tech and me was that my mother board (pretty darned new) didn't have the right connector on it. Thank goodness my son went through a crash course in who-what-where-when in putting together his own computer because, without him, I would never have gotten out of the starting gate on this thing. All those technical terms, acronyms, and specs were akin to reading Einstein's notes.

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Re: The Snowball Effect

Postby gpsmikey » Fri Feb 15, 2013 4:33 pm

Heh - you want acronyms etc, try networking. Some years ago when I went through the Cisco CCNA networking classes, the instructor told us up front if we couldn't handle a bunch of new acronyms each week, we had no business working in networks :lol:

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Re: The Snowball Effect

Postby BarbaraC » Sat Feb 16, 2013 5:34 am

Acronyms often annoy the devil out of me because they're so overused. I think they're sometimes created for no reason other than a perceived coolness factor, making a person seem in the loop, vastly informed, special. It's like building a room, naming it Special, then stepping inside.

But then, I'm an old goat. :evil:

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Re: The Snowball Effect

Postby gpsmikey » Sat Feb 16, 2013 7:42 pm

I think I prefer DHCP to Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (among the many such critters) :twisted:
Or ARP for Address Resolution Protocol (how your machine finds out it's IP address). Hmmm come to think of it, perhaps AARP is related to that for us old folks that can't remember where we live :lol:

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Re: The Snowball Effect

Postby BarbaraC » Sun Feb 17, 2013 5:46 am

As long as you're in the loop, you can quickly interpret, but if you're not in the loop, you're blocked from information. I've had a devil of a time learning my music software, which contains virtual equipment that's rife with acronyms. They have more than doubled the time for learning which knobs to turn. If you've ever seen a physical mixing board in a studio, you'll have a clue to my problem. I'm learning, but it's more than uphill; it's a cliff.

Still an old goat.

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Ta-dah!

Postby BarbaraC » Wed Feb 27, 2013 7:54 am

With all the hot little parts and pieces finally delivered, my tech put together the computer yesterday. Producer's GPU rating sailed well over 200, and I wasn't even "overclocking," which I won't do because the whole idea makes my brain wiggle like Jell-o. When I shut down for the evening, Windows said "bye" and that was it. This morning when I booted, I stood here staring at the nearly instant Desktop, then realized I'd been standing here brainlessly waiting for something that had already happened. Kind of like jumping from a thunderclap that happened 5 minutes ago.

I'm in love.

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Re: The Snowball Effect

Postby im42n8 » Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:28 pm

It'll wear off quickly ... you'll get used to it. It'll seem like that's the way it should be. And in 6 months from now you'll be starting to wish it were even faster. :twisted:

Dang if it doesn't happen everytime we get used to the new computer! (these darned things are never fast enough . . . ).

:D

Cheers! :D :D :D

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Re: The Snowball Effect

Postby BarbaraC » Wed Feb 27, 2013 1:42 pm

My son was working for a number of years on a duo-core laptop with a couple gig memory, which was quite the nifty thing 5 or 6 years ago, but as software became more hoggish and the things he was doing required a huge amount more in resources, he was waiting longer and longer for the thing to just boot, not to mention do anything else. He's had the new one for about a month now, and he still smiles at it. I hope I can be as appreciative of mine.

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Re: The Snowball Effect

Postby im42n8 » Wed Feb 27, 2013 2:56 pm

I'm champing at the bit to build my next computer. I know I'll be all smiles for a time after I get it. Each new computer has afforded me that opportunity. But, dang if it didn't become old hat after less than a year. Still, it's fun! I'm still in the research mode. I used to build these things but decided to stop. I've bought 3 already built computers since. While nice that I didn't have to do much more than open the box and plug them in, their expandibility left something to be desired. This last one was the last . . . I had higher hopes for it and was let down again. Good computers all but, limited ability to make changes limited my upgrade options.

I'm sure you'll appreciate what you have for quite awhile. But, it'll probably take way less than a year before it becomes "routine" or "old hat." And another 4 or 5 years before you'll want to upgrade (all things being equal). The software keeps getting more "powerful" and, as a result, the computer keeps feeling like it gets slower when that happens.

Well, maybe sometime this April or May I can order all the parts and build the next "dream" machine. :D

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Re: The Snowball Effect

Postby BarbaraC » Wed Feb 27, 2013 3:24 pm

That was one of my considerations: expandability. First off, the case is larger than standard, affording room for larger-than-life motherboard and graphics card with plenty of room left over for pretty much anything else I might want to stuff in there. The case will probably last forever.

From now on, there will be no off-the-shelf computers here. The difference is huge. My problem is that I can spec out a computer but I can't build it. I suppose I could if I were willing to study up on it and then spend lots of scary hours hoping I'm doing things correctly, but I'd rather my electronics whiz did it for me. He guarantees his work, something I sure can't do with my own. I did install a new video card card once. I'll have to rest on those laurels. :D

Barbara
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