Ranting about Microsoft and Tech Support in India

I can't imagine these prices y'all are bringing up. I recently built my wife a new computer. (She's horribly abusive on them) I think I spent, maybe, $500. I did salvage 8GB of RAM, hard drive, power supply, case, peripherals and DVD drive. And of course, I provided all the software I needed for OS, etc.

Asus Z97-AR ATX MB, i7 3.4GhZ processor, 16GB RAM (added 8GB), and 4GB GeForce GTX 745 video card.

She is happily playing World of Warcraft and chasing electronic nothings once more. I fully expect the system to last her for several years, if not longer. It has always been my feeling that a savvy shopper, even if you buy the premade box systems, can find reasonably priced machines of reasonable quality. Without spending the money that Apple seems to want to charge.

I am still using the same PC that I built about 7 years ago. I haven't upgraded anything on it from the build I did then. It was a high end gaming machine at the time. And still is quite a decent machine now. I think I spent about $1500, at the time. Which was still cheaper then an Apple product.

Exactly. And without the Apple brand on it, people wont touch it, so the apple is the superior product here by far. Although to be fair i tries to compare the two high end all in one versions of win and mac, as a mac mini or the lower end versions can probable be beaten by windows. that mac had a 3.6 Ghz cpu and a 775M, plus a tb of hdd, and a 27' screen.

Tenshinai wrote:


I found an IMac@3.2Ghz for a price that translates to about 2200$ if i use direct currency conversion, which is usually not accurate, more like 1800$ with more realistic conversion...
A 2.7Ghz iMac comes in at 1500$, direct conversion. About 1300$ realistic.

And that Asus all-in-one? WTF? 2600$ for that?
B75 motherboard, lowend.
23" TFT screen, sucks. I can get a decent 27" IPS at 250$, and a quality one at 350$.
GF630M Gfx? Seriously, a lowend mobile gfx card in a system that pricey?
1TB HDD? At that price i wouldn´t accept anything less than SSD+HDD setup. A high performance 1TB HDD is less than 130$.
8GB of SODIMM RAM!? Why is this system called a desktop when it uses laptop parts?
And rounding it off with a i5 3330? Uh, midrange cpu at best.

I´m currently looking at a new computer, which at it´s most expensive would cost HALF of that ASUS system. But would include:
SSD+HDD for max performance and storage size, probably 240GB+3TB.
Z97 motherboard.
32GB highend DDR3, somewhere from 1866 to 2400 speeds.
i7 4790K or i5 4690K highend cpu.
Probably reusing my current 6770 gfx, but getting a new card wouldn´t add more than 150$.

And here i´m usually annoyed at getting so much worse prices than you can get in Netherlands or UK...

I can't imagine these prices y'all are bringing up. I recently built my wife a new computer. (She's horribly abusive on them) I think I spent, maybe, $500.

Nah, that´s a perfectly realistic pricetag nowadays if you don´t need something specific.
It´s about what i got my mom´s and aunt´s systems for.

And my own current system came up to about $800, almost 6 years ago now, and it is still going fairly strong even if it´s with a 20% OC(and some upgrades over time), but since my system runs maybe 16/24 7 days a week, definitely have to start looking for replacement in the near future.

Asus Z97-AR ATX MB, i7 3.4GhZ processor, 16GB RAM (added 8GB), and 4GB GeForce GTX 745 video card.

A nice setup. Although you would likely have been better off with a i5 cpu, it´s only lately with the addition of the 4790K that the i7 have become truly interesting, otherwise just adding the hyperthreading and an extra 2MB L3 only tends to be good if you have very specific software.

And some of that software, if it´s anything that prefers having maximum number of real cores, you should look at an AMD cpu instead.
(as the only other good option would be the extreme 49xx series i7 cpu, and those are freakishly overpriced for the benefits they give)

We've gone a bit med-high end for ours Fireflair, but the ones we were discussing were very high end ones with all in one form factor, which carries a hefty price premium here.


My personal systems going to be about $850 US , with buying everything off second hand websites and store sales, and with a free copy of win 7 given to me by uni. Its going to be a very powerful machine for me, and overkill for most.

B85m motherboard, i5 4570, 8gb ram, r9 280x, 22' full hd, case, 500w psu, mouse, keyboard, 1tb plus 64gb ssd.

Im just going for that because i want to play games at near max for the next 3 years or so, and plan on using it for coding, web use, emails, vids, ripping dvds, and whatever else comes along in the next few years.

If I was to go top end like the apple and other high ends are supposed to have, My system would cost around double or more. Add another 250 for an i7 k as opposed to an i5, add 75 for a z97 instead of b85, 30 for a stronger power unit, 400 more to go to the best graphics, another 200 for a decent sized ssd, it all adds up.

For a normal, non gamer, i could cut mine down by about $250 easy. I3 instead of i5, ditch the extra hdd or the ssd depending on how much they need, reduce the power supply, drop the graphics and run them on integrated.

Tenshinai wrote:

I can't imagine these prices y'all are bringing up. I recently built my wife a new computer. (She's horribly abusive on them) I think I spent, maybe, $500.

Nah, that´s a perfectly realistic pricetag nowadays if you don´t need something specific.
It´s about what i got my mom´s and aunt´s systems for.

And my own current system came up to about $800, almost 6 years ago now, and it is still going fairly strong even if it´s with a 20% OC(and some upgrades over time), but since my system runs maybe 16/24 7 days a week, definitely have to start looking for replacement in the near future.

Asus Z97-AR ATX MB, i7 3.4GhZ processor, 16GB RAM (added 8GB), and 4GB GeForce GTX 745 video card.

A nice setup. Although you would likely have been better off with a i5 cpu, it´s only lately with the addition of the 4790K that the i7 have become truly interesting, otherwise just adding the hyperthreading and an extra 2MB L3 only tends to be good if you have very specific software.

And some of that software, if it´s anything that prefers having maximum number of real cores, you should look at an AMD cpu instead.
(as the only other good option would be the extreme 49xx series i7 cpu, and those are freakishly overpriced for the benefits they give)

Wow! I just went uninstalled every program that I do not use. Then I ran malware bytes, adwcleaner, and avast (boot scan). Also, I went and ran msconfig. Nothing except avast is running in my startup. The computer started running about 2x as fast. Where I really noticed the speed was when I was browsing.

That's a good thing to do every few months. More frequently if you have unsafe users on a machine. I hit my kid's computers up monthly. My wife's every three months, or so. I do my own whenever I seem to have a noticeable drag in operations.

Another thing to do, which will improve your machine's speed (Minor effect) and extend the life of the hardware (major effect), is to dust it out. Unless you have good external filters your computer collects all sorts of dust. It doesn't take long to built up a fine layer of dust on the heat sinks and fans. The dust causes more heat to be generated in the components, degrading performance over time by thermal damage.

The first time my wife saw me dust out her computer she was amazed at how much dust came billowing out. All the fins for the heat sinks, fans, the power supply and random nook and crannies really build up some dirt.

I don't buy compressed air cans, a hideous waste of money when cleaning out multiple computers in a thorough fashion, but use my air compressor. I have a small half gallon portable tank that I bought from Harbor Freight, which I fill up from my main compressor in the garage. Then I carry that tank around and clean the computers and key boards out. The first time you do this, I'd also recommend having a vacuum on hand to suck up all the dust.

I will have to try your method. My father has big red portable tank. One question: How does a person clean the insides of a laptop?

Fireflair wrote:That's a good thing to do every few months. More frequently if you have unsafe users on a machine. I hit my kid's computers up monthly. My wife's every three months, or so. I do my own whenever I seem to have a noticeable drag in operations.

Another thing to do, which will improve your machine's speed (Minor effect) and extend the life of the hardware (major effect), is to dust it out. Unless you have good external filters your computer collects all sorts of dust. It doesn't take long to built up a fine layer of dust on the heat sinks and fans. The dust causes more heat to be generated in the components, degrading performance over time by thermal damage.

The first time my wife saw me dust out her computer she was amazed at how much dust came billowing out. All the fins for the heat sinks, fans, the power supply and random nook and crannies really build up some dirt.

I don't buy compressed air cans, a hideous waste of money when cleaning out multiple computers in a thorough fashion, but use my air compressor. I have a small half gallon portable tank that I bought from Harbor Freight, which I fill up from my main compressor in the garage. Then I carry that tank around and clean the computers and key boards out. The first time you do this, I'd also recommend having a vacuum on hand to suck up all the dust.

Laptops are trickier, but it can be done. I've done it with all three of my laptops. The oldest laptop showed remarkable improvement in battery life and system performance over time after I cleaned it out.

You'll likely need a set of jeweler's screw-driver (Philips and flat head), a delicate and patient touch and it wouldn't hurt to look it up on U-Tube.

Basically, you remove any removable covers on the bottom first, and gently blow air in there.

Your CPU will likely have a dedicated heat sink and cooling path with an inlet and outlet grill. Laptops that are designed for extended battery life don't use fans, so air circulates based on natural convection flow over the heat sink for the CPU. It also means that dust finds it easy to settle there. So that is a good place to blow out.

The keyboard can generally be removed by removing the strip at the top and lifting it out. Be mindful of the ribbon cable or the pin connections on the back. This is a good chance to blow out the keyboard, as well.

The hard drive is typically replace-able, and another spot you can blow out. The same for most of the card slots.

If your laptop has a case that can be opened, that would be the next step. Dust out and re-assemble the entire thing.

When using compressed air to clean out any electronics you should not turn up the air pressure to full blast. Compressed air you buy at the store is designed to project a certain amount of pressure. Besides health hazards, it's also to prevent dusting out electronics from making it worse. If you blast 100psi air into your computer, you'll certainly get lots of dirt and dust out. BUT you'll also push dust and dirt in deeper at the same time. This impregnation pushes the particles in too deep to get out later. And can cause shorts in the hardware.

I don't recommend going any higher than 50psi output from your wand. 35psi is probably better. You also don't want your wand (preferably a plastic one, and not the metal attachment) in close to the components.

For those who don't like to/don't want to take the time to dust their computer, you can put Scott Foam filters on your computer. Scott Foam is a very porous foam that is used to keep fine debris out of motors operating in high particulate environments. Places where there is a lot of grinding and dust. It allows plenty of air flow while trapping the particulates. You can simply tape this foam in place, vacuuming it off when you clean the floor.

There are also professional kits which are easily installed. Or do it yourself, like this article describes: http://www.techradar.com/us/news/comput ... -pc-663270

Each laptop is slightly different, but thye are still easyish to clean, they just require more time and care. youtube videos of your particular brand are good starting points, follwed by what fireflair noted.

Just remember however, the smaller the laptop the more fiddly it gets. Except for Apple products. all of those are difficult.

smr wrote:I will have to try your method. My father has big red portable tank. One question: How does a person clean the insides of a laptop?

Fireflair wrote:That's a good thing to do every few months. More frequently if you have unsafe users on a machine. I hit my kid's computers up monthly. My wife's every three months, or so. I do my own whenever I seem to have a noticeable drag in operations.

Another thing to do, which will improve your machine's speed (Minor effect) and extend the life of the hardware (major effect), is to dust it out. Unless you have good external filters your computer collects all sorts of dust. It doesn't take long to built up a fine layer of dust on the heat sinks and fans. The dust causes more heat to be generated in the components, degrading performance over time by thermal damage.

The first time my wife saw me dust out her computer she was amazed at how much dust came billowing out. All the fins for the heat sinks, fans, the power supply and random nook and crannies really build up some dirt.

I don't buy compressed air cans, a hideous waste of money when cleaning out multiple computers in a thorough fashion, but use my air compressor. I have a small half gallon portable tank that I bought from Harbor Freight, which I fill up from my main compressor in the garage. Then I carry that tank around and clean the computers and key boards out. The first time you do this, I'd also recommend having a vacuum on hand to suck up all the dust.

I went to a normal website and avast anti virus went off. I do not if website was infected or the website was under construction and the anti virus went off as a result.