What do you want in the hardware/software forum?

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » December 14th, 2006, 4:46

Right, seeing as wey gave me mod stuff here I wanna try to improve the sticky'd content a little.

So what do you wanna see in here?

Currently i'm thinking of

<strike> Store Reviews thread Done
Hard/Software Reviews thread</strike> Done (use the games review forum for software)
More Hardware info (lots of general stuff that people often want to know) maybe with guides.

Beyond that, I really dunno what people will want here, so tell me.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » December 14th, 2006, 8:10

I think a very simple hardware list would be good. My plan would be for a list of, say, GFX cards with a recommendation or two for each £50 price-bracket. This could be repeated for Hard drives, CPUs etc etc. A line or two about each one would be useful too, but keep it as a short reference guide rather than an in-depth discussion, which we could have elsewhere.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » December 14th, 2006, 8:14

Lateralus wrote:I think a very simple hardware list would be good. My plan would be for a list of, say, GFX cards with a recommendation or two for each £50 price-bracket. This could be repeated for Hard drives, CPUs etc etc. A line or two about each one would be useful too, but keep it as a short reference guide rather than an in-depth discussion, which we could have elsewhere.

good idea, i'll do that. at some point.

Post by **Dog Pants** » December 14th, 2006, 8:36

Yeah, to extend Lat's idea slightly: PCG have a section every month that just has three different recommended pieces of each component - one that's the best you can buy, one that's the best for reasonable, and one that's cheap but'll do a good job. I've always found it very handy.

IIRC Deject's guides were quite handy too and should maybe be stickied/updated/re-written. A lot of people don't really know about processor/mobo types, advantages of the different types of graphics cards, importance of PSUs, etc.

amblin · Post by **amblin** » December 14th, 2006, 11:22

Post by **fabyak** » December 14th, 2006, 11:33

I would certainly like a 'store reviews' thread as I have more than a few choice words to say about the bastards at Scan.

Pains me to do it really as they had been so good for so long but lately they appear to have outsourced their tech support to NTL, their ethics to Guantanamo Bay, and stock monitoring system to the WMD Search team who provided the 'intelligence' for the Iraq war

*mutters very darkly*

Post by **Dog Pants** » December 14th, 2006, 11:36

Good idea Fabyak. There's a lot of conflicting views on suppliers, but by amalgamating them all into a list of one-line summaries from everyone who's used them you can at least see how good service generally is and make an educated decision.

Woo Elephant Yeah · Post by **Woo Elephant Yeah** » December 14th, 2006, 11:37

I think maybe an update to my good housekeeping guide thingy would be good.

cashy · Post by **cashy** » December 14th, 2006, 12:10

Good ideas.

By the way, what happened to the "Greatest how to build a pc picture guide evar" Berk? Get bored i take it?

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » December 14th, 2006, 13:38

Grrr, you lot knicked my idea while I was sleeping. Yes for the hardware review bits, even if it's just links to other sites. I use to be reasonably good at keep up with what's going on in the computer industry, but there's days I'm really out of date.

mrbobbins · Post by **mrbobbins** » December 14th, 2006, 13:58

Hehulk wrote:I'm really out of date.

*pinches nose, puts hehulk back in the bottom of the fridge*

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » December 17th, 2006, 20:03

so far for the all powerful lists of lists, i've got (thanks to the help from eion)

Hardware

Processors
Sockets
Types
Cores
Temperatures

Memory
Makes/Quality
Types
Speeds

Motherboards
Connectors
Layouts
Badgers
Heatpipes

Optical Drives
Types
Common problems
Interfaces

Hard Drives
Types
RAID
Common problems
Interfaces

Video Cards
Onboard Vs. Video Cards
Multi-Card Solutions
Brands
Memory
TV out
Connectors
Overclocking
Power Consumption

Sound Cards
Onboard vs. Soundcard
Reccomended cards
Surround, digital etc.

Power Supplies
General
Wattages
Modding

Cooling
CPU Heatsinks
Graphics Coolers
Fans
Extreme Cooling

Cases
Types
Materials
Layouts
Modding

BIOS
General Info
Basic Setup
Advanced Setup
Flashing/updating
help me it's all gone wrong!

Monitors
LCD Vs. CRT
Refresh Rates
connectors

Peripherals
Keyboards
Mice
Graphics Tablets
Joysticks
Gamepads
Adaptors and connectors
Card Readers

Is there anything else anyone wants to see in here?

Post by **Dog Pants** » December 17th, 2006, 20:23

Crikey, that's an awfully large list. Suggestimications....

In RAM: How important is the make (and presumably therefore quality)? If it's important maybe a few words about common manufacturers.

In Peripherals: Graphics tablets? Not gaming, but quite a few people here use them.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » December 17th, 2006, 20:25

Dog Pants wrote:Crikey, that's an awfully large list. Suggestimications....

In RAM: How important is the make (and presumably therefore quality)? If it's important maybe a few words about common manufacturers.

In Peripherals: Graphics tablets? Not gaming, but quite a few people here use them.

Wiseness, will add those after eating.

Post by **FatherJack** » December 17th, 2006, 21:24

Some other ideas, although they may already be covered:

Processors
Manufacturers
Determines a lot of other things especially motherboard, possibly the first choice to make
Overclocking
Potential of given types, risks and gains, low-cost options

Memory
Speeds
Setting of speed, and fitting heatsinks

Other Drive Types

Video Cards
Multi-Card Solutions
Nice to see some infos with pics on this - I've seen supposedly dual-card motherboards where it's unclear where the second card goes, plus I've seen dual-capable cards come with the little connector, but it not be obvious where it connects

Cases
Cases to avoid
Had some where they have custom floppy/CD mechanisms which don't actually function

Peripherals
USB hubs
Networking
Effect of many peripherals
Mainly power concerns

Post by **Dog Pants** » December 18th, 2006, 8:13

How about something about routers and their ilk. After my experience of last night when I reset mine and now can't get my connection back I might be doing some emergency router shopping (assuming it's not BT being bastards).

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » December 18th, 2006, 8:13

that can go in too

unplug everything from your phoneline for ~45 minutes, it'll make your linecard reset at the exchange. (can often fix such problems)

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » December 18th, 2006, 8:22

also try your standard modem, they sometimes sync better than routers (or at least rule out the router)

Post by **Dog Pants** » December 18th, 2006, 8:30

Cheers dude, I'll get Mrs Pants onto that one now ('cos I'm at work). As for the modem, I tried that but I got no ADSL light and I couldn't remember my logon username. The router says there's an ADSL connection but that it's not being authenticated. Most confusing.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » December 18th, 2006, 8:37

sounds like it's most likely an auth issue on BT's end then, or that your router lost your login.