A mate of mine, 2 months after AMD64 S939 came out, got a new PC from a small shop in Scotland where his dad lives.
3000+ 32bit
1GB Ram
200GB 7200RPM 2mb cache HDD
9700Pro
£1800.
Anyway, earlier this month, he saw my rig running San Andreas and Half Life 2, maxxed out. He wanted a new PC, and me to build it. His dad said no. So what we decided to do was make a spec list for a new one which this PC builder would follow to build his new one. The list was:-
3200+ AMD64
300GB Maxtor 7200RPM 16MB Cache HDD alongside his 200GB POS
GeForce 6600GT
A8N SLI motherboard
Tagan/Thermaltake PSU Power Supply (over 400w) (Only ones i have used and 100% trust)
So, yesterday his PC arrives. The builder didnt bother to install the nVidia drivers at all. So i had to do that. Reboot, fine.Benchamrk, fine, reboot, fine. The PC is fine, for four hours.
Today i brought the PC to my house to look over it as it won't get past the "Windows is starting up" screen. One format and re-installation of XP later, all is looking good. Then I open the case panel which has been BENT TO FIT! Thats umm....<thinks of lesser an expletive> crap....
Q-TEC 550W stares me in the face. <insert crying smilie here> Seems to be a nightmare PC upto now....then...
There, sat at the bottom of the case is a ramsink from the Asus 6600GT. Simple job of sticking it back on, not the builders problem i suppose.
Take a look at the ram, 2 x 512 sticks of matched Twinmoss - Running in SINGLE channel? So I have moved them into dual channel.
What I'm getting at, is how can I, someone who doesnt work in the I.T industry spot all these problems that a "very professional PC builder" has made?
That Q-Tec is getting thrown away Monday. And the PC is sat the my right copying files so i can re-partition his 200GB drive that, from the looks of the partitions, has been connected to a PC thats been left next to a 3 year old with partition magic running....
It just gets my goat how these so-called "professionals" build them with such cheap and nasty parts and don't know next to nothing about them, yet are on huge incomes to build computers that are a.) a POS b.) fail hence needing more work....
It's just greed if you ask me. They build them crap. so you come back & upgrade. Or they build them cheap, so parts fail and you need replacements hence go to them.
I know it's not all PC builders but I'm just fuming that his dad has been ripped off for these 2 PC's, and God knows how many others as he supplies my mates dad with 20 PC's once per year. I've also seen this happen loads of times with different companys, even the big ones like PC World.
Stupid
And considering this builder says a 6600GT is "a VERY VERY high end card and costs £200!" I'd love to see the final price of both PC's. Maybe he shops in PC World? Because thats the only place I've seen a comapny dumb enough to sell a £130 card for £200.
Woowsah