I think I've had enough of custom PC's and what goes into them
- Thread starter Elvis Starburst
- Start date
Probably couldn't hurt! Though he has a 212 Evo cooler on it, and after how much of a pain in the ass mine has been to adjust, I'm sure he'd have a nightmare making it happen. I haaaaaaaate the 212's mounting method
I've done it. I switched to Mac. And so far, quirks aside... I don't hate it. When I moved my desktop PC aside to make some room on my desk while I move stuff over, FUCK is that thing heavy by comparison. The M1 Mac is zippier than my 10600k too, so that's a bonus. It's way nicer having this mini box vs a tower of any size
I'll throw shade at Apple all day for their arrogance and their occasional design idiocy (who permanently attaches a power cord to their monitors these days?!), but their tech is often marvelous.
The tech is the big one for me. When my family told me all of their Apple computers ran for an average of 7 years, and I couldn't manage half of that for some of my PC components (no matter how "good" everyone said they were from 1000+ sources), I think that's a pretty sweet sounding deal
PCs come in mini boxes as well. HP and Lenovo make them, probably a few others as well. The M1 chip is probably pretty great, though it does have some issues running certain programs because of its different architecture, I believe Adobe Premiere doesn't run that well for example. I honestly can't trust the entirety of Apple hardware even if they may have objectively the best chip, they always make some really dumb engineering mistakes that cause their products to break, and if they don't do that, they probably put some proprietary bullshit in it. Good luck with the desktop though, which probably have much better track records than Apple's horrible laptops.
www.amazon.com/HP-ProDesk-Desktop-Graphics-WIndows/dp/B07V6W7JC8
I've never had anything break on my PCs outside of a power supply, which lasted decently long enough IIRC (it was a power supply from a Sony VAIO that had a Pentium 4 so it's been awhile... funny thing is it actually sparked and shut down one day, then worked the next day and lasted like another year). My last PC that I'm still using the power supply from now I built in 2012 and upgraded it in 2020 just because it was old and could only play stuff like Divinity Original Sin at like 15 FPS.
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Definitely aware. A lot of my choice was cause I'm also sick of Windows' shit too. When you build programs and systems to run on a million configurations, you introduce a million possible failure points. Plus I don't think Windows 11's wannabe Apple design really appeals to me and Windows 10 is... still not as good as it could be. The price to performance ratio for the M1 chip honestly can't be beat for a SOC, especially when grabbing a Mac Mini like I did.
The M1 chip is stronger than my old 10600k, so that's been pretty sick. I've had one program get a little spicy with me, but that's also cause it's held together by spaghetti code, so even Rosetta makes it freak out a little more than usual. Otherwise everything else has been smooth sailing.
Boy I wish tech let me have that kind of track record >3>
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You can install Linux on PCs, which is probably good enough for most people and what they use PCs for. Doing all the normal and basic stuff on Linux is as easy as any other OS. If you need to use specific top tier programs for work or want to play online multiplayer games, Linux has issues. I haven't even looked into getting Windows 11, it really seems like another Windows OS you just skip and wait for the fixed version of it, greatly limiting what systems can install Win11 is not how you get mass adoption of an OS (even though it just takes a few registry tweaks to install it). I don't really care for the look and Win10 is going to be usable for quite a long time still, I think I finally switched from 7 to 10 like 3 years ago or something so I'm still going to use 10 for at least 5 more years as I got my 10 install debloated and really lean. After 10, I might give Linux a whirl myself as Microsoft has made it harder and harder to turn the shit off I don't like.
A lot of people have told me this is an option, and I see where they're coming from. But part of my reason for switching to a different OS (and going from a custom desktop rig to a mini PC) is cause I'm trying to reduce stuff I have to micromanage. Linux sounds like it's full of stuff that I gotta add, tweak, adjust, and apply fixes for just to do certain things and I'm kinda beyond that stage in my life at this point. I don't even wanna do that sort of thing for my PC, let alone on the OS level (more than what Windows 10 needs me to do, at that)
Guh, right?
Yyyyyup, not a fan of it at this point
If you're just using your PC for internet stuff, office stuff, consuming media; Linux is probably even easier than Windows in that regard. Installing Linux's free office software is easier than MS Office; Linux has a package manager sorta similar to the app store on a phone so installing popular software is super easy. Even something like streaming I believe is pretty easy with OBS, which people use on Windows as well. You can even easily try Linux without installing it as when you make a USB stick to install Linux, the stick boots into a full-on live Linux OS that you can do just about anything in, then you can click to install from there. If you're doing anything outside from normal stuff, then Linux can easily become a hassle.
Mmh, interesting. From what I kept hearing it sounded more complex than that. Maybe one day I'll give it a go
It can get complex outside the normal stuff. Like if you're trying to get a game to run or maybe some Windows program you love that you're trying to get to run, you can quickly fall down that rabbit hole of forum posts and very techy talk that's worse than that same hole in Windows as Linux users assume everyone is some tech wizard and tell you to do everything through the command prompt. The Linus Tech Tips Linux challenge series is pretty decent peak into the Linux world; Linus did encounter this really random and rare bug when installing Steam that deleted the GUI interface, which did get fixed shortly after the episode. One of the main objectives of that challenge was gaming and Linux isn't that strong in that, but with Valve releasing the Steam Deck, they are focusing on better Linux game support since the device runs Linux. Multiplayer gaming is hard on Linux because I believe the OS doesn't let programs get the kind of low level access the anti-cheat software wants to have.
This is honestly the total barrier to entry for me with Linux. While I don't do a lot of complex stuff, I at the very least like to have a couple of programs on my computer that might not be easy to get running on Linux. The command prompt absolutely terrifies me too, I have no idea what I'm doing, even if I have the stuff I need to know right in front of me. I wanna be able to just click an installer and call it done, and for it to function... rather than babysit any and every little thing that could potentially go wrong
I'm still using a clearance Gateway laptop that's over 10 years old with Windows 7. I don't think Apple has an exclusivity on stuff lasting a while.
I use quite a few programs that don't have Linux versions and wonder how well they'd run on Linux through Wine (like Mac's Rosetta). The most I ever used Linux (Mint) was my last job where I'd test to make sure everything works on laptops (like the webcam and stuff) before shipping them out and Linux would run on basically every laptop model. I put Win7 on this Dell laptop I bought a few years back and the USB didn't even work. You shouldn't be needing to use the command prompt, it's just that the Linux community is like you should use the command prompt because it's faster and thus you get commands to run when asking for help. In the Linus Linux challenge video, Linux users were complaining that he wasn't using the command line. I also want stuff to just work and why I've always been primarily a console gamer because it just works, PC gaming is a lot better now and it does just work now most of the time. I don't need to be troubleshooting something for an hour for a objectively better experience when I can just play it on a console and have that hour to play the game instead. The way things are going, I think Linux may be less trouble than Windows as with Win10, I gotta make registry tweaks, group policy changes, use 3rd-party programs to disable services (like Windows Update), etc. And in like 5 years when I might consider moving on from Win10, Linux is probably going to be that much more streamlined and Windows will probably have even more bloat to remove.
Not saying it does (and I don't think I was really implying that to begin with), this just seems to be the common track record I hear/see from a lot of Apple product owners. And seeing as nothing I make myself can manage even half that most of the time despite my best efforts, I'm all in with buying something that seems to last a lot longer.
This is extra funny to me cause I kept telling myself I'd build a strong PC for PC gaming I'd eventually get into... and then I just never did partially because of this.
God, even when I did registry edits exactly as people told me to I swear I broke more things than I fixed... I shouldn't have to do that kind of crap, ya know? I hope Linux continues to grow, cause I'd love to see it be an even bigger player, to even possibly being something that isn't seen merely as an enthusiast's option
I've been building my own PCs since about 1995. I can build them OK. I did need some help this last go round in 2018. Troubleshooting, I'd take to a pro. I have no reliable diagnostic tools.
There is such junk in pre-builts, they scare me. I guess I could save myself from bloatware IF I can buy a copy of Windows and install it, wiping the OS off of a pre-built, but now I'm adding the price of the OS. Given pricing these days, a pre-built can look attractive if it includes a decent CPU.
Maybe the shortage is not ended, but waning? This is not a good price, but it isn't the horror show we've lived through for the last 2 years.
EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra Gaming Triple Fan 12GB GDDR6X PCIe 4.0 Graphics Card - Micro Center
There is such junk in pre-builts, they scare me. I guess I could save myself from bloatware IF I can buy a copy of Windows and install it, wiping the OS off of a pre-built, but now I'm adding the price of the OS. Given pricing these days, a pre-built can look attractive if it includes a decent CPU.
Maybe the shortage is not ended, but waning? This is not a good price, but it isn't the horror show we've lived through for the last 2 years.
EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 FTW3 Ultra Gaming Triple Fan 12GB GDDR6X PCIe 4.0 Graphics Card - Micro Center
I remember having to download Japanese drivers to get I think the DualShock 3 controller to work on PC. Now you just plug the thing into the PC and it works with Steam.
Whenever you're doing something you think might break stuff or a major kind of update, image your C: drive first. Then if something goes wrong, you just restore that image and you're back up and running in like 5 minutes. Imaging software is more essential than anti-virus IMO. It's basically a glorified copy/paste.
The product key is embedded in the BIOS nowadays and you can download a copy of a stock version of Windows from Microsoft and install that using the key in the BIOS you did buy as part of the cost of the PC.
NeoSmart OEM Product Key Tool: Recover Windows 10 Product Key From BIOS/EFI
Use this Windows 10 Product Key Tool (free) to easily retrieve your Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 product key from BIOS or EFI.
www.intowindows.com
So, if I retire one PC, I can re-use the key for the new PC? Reboot a prebuilt to OG system w/o bloatware?!?!?!? That would be huge!I remember having to download Japanese drivers to get I think the DualShock 3 controller to work on PC. Now you just plug the thing into the PC and it works with Steam.
Whenever you're doing something you think might break stuff or a major kind of update, image your C: drive first. Then if something goes wrong, you just restore that image and you're back up and running in like 5 minutes. Imaging software is more essential than anti-virus IMO. It's basically a glorified copy/paste.
The product key is embedded in the BIOS nowadays and you can download a copy of a stock version of Windows from Microsoft and install that using the key in the BIOS you did buy as part of the cost of the PC.
NeoSmart OEM Product Key Tool: Recover Windows 10 Product Key From BIOS/EFI
Use this Windows 10 Product Key Tool (free) to easily retrieve your Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10 product key from BIOS or EFI.
Also, good to have some idea how to rescue these things. Long story short (very) I had to revive my daughter's high school laptop for home business purposes. In this instance, HP. Device numbers on bottom help. 9 year old thing is at least good for some music and email.
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It depends, looks like if it's an OEM license (which is most likely) you can't transfer it. I thought you were wanting to buy a new prebuilt and wanted to basically wipe it getting the added bloatware off and wanted to install stock Windows on it vs transferring from one to another.
How to transfer a Windows 10 license to a new PC or hard drive
It might be possible to transfer a Windows 10 license to a new PC, and in this guide, we'll show you how.
www.windowscentral.com