khunsanuk Posted August 5, 2004 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 Hi, "As always I am available for 'live' help if required..... heck you can turn on your webcam and I can watch" Uh... and how would that work if my PC is CPU-less ??? BTW, I do not have any thermal paste. Do I need that, or can I do without? Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
short-time Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 It may however be seated crooked, or not aligned properly and you would have to look carefully to see this once it's locked down. This misalignment when attaching a heatsink is easy enough to do. My previous desktop machine had an AMD 1.2 GHz processor which I ran for over a week with a serious gap on one side not knowing it wasn?t making flush contact with the CPU surface. Also, with my new P4 I broke one of the fasten down levers during installation? duh . That?s the reason I ended up with an after market heatsink? be careful. You definitely need the heatsink compound to do the job. And again - the Arctic Silver is one of the best. There are two kinds though. One type is an epoxy mix that hardens, the other stays soft ? this is the one you want, probably available at Pantip. Good luck. ST Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 If there is a moral to the story, it's buy a pre-made system from Dell! You pay more, but it works. I've built many a system over the years from scratch including my current one and they've all had gremlins to deal with. Build your own is cheaper, but parts aren't as plug and play as you would hope. A company like Dell has done all the compatiblity testing and assures everything in it works well together. They also do burn in testing to make sure when you plug it in everything is a go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 Until you try to upgrade or replace parts as many of them are proprietory for Dell so unless you are near a Dell Service depot....... be prepared for LONG waits to get replacements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 AMD not only makes a superior chip for the money, but the heatsink/fan even the 'in the box' one is far better than the one pkg'd with Intels and child's play to install comparatively. And concur of course that Thermal Paste is imperative and yes, only the soft one please, someone may have to replace that fan someday and not want to use a chisel to get it off. (actually liquid Nitrogen works pretty swift to free epoxy.. or so I've been told.. I'm too much of a coward to ever try it....... well maybe I would ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 5, 2004 Report Share Posted August 5, 2004 khunsanuk said:Hi, "As always I am available for 'live' help if required..... heck you can turn on your webcam and I can watch" Uh... and how would that work if my PC is CPU-less ??? BTW, I do not have any thermal paste. Do I need that, or can I do without? Sanuk! Throw away your laptop did you? YES, get the paste. (now I'm going back to doing register edits ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
short-time Posted August 6, 2004 Report Share Posted August 6, 2004 If there is a moral to the story, it's buy a pre-made system from Dell! You pay more, but it works? This is true and you also get a guarantee. However, if you take that route you don?t have much to say about what?s inside the box. With my latest system I wanted a particular motherboard, a certain CPU, a certain case (which I customized), a certain power supply (which I customized) and memory modules and display card of my choice. Also, I wanted the new 10K SATA hard drives, a Plextor DVD and other stuff of my choosing. About the only way to do this is to buy all the parts separately from different vendors and assemble it yourself. Yes, it?s a major chore and you are guaranteed to have some issues, but in the end you have the dream machine you really want, so for me at least it was worth the effort. One additional plus is that since you can shop around for the best prices on the individual components and do the work yourself, you get the maximum bang for your bucks. PS: If I lived in LOS I would probably have better things to do in my spare time. ST Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adikgede Posted August 6, 2004 Report Share Posted August 6, 2004 short-time said:If there is a moral to the story, it's buy a pre-made system from Dell! You pay more, but it works? .... This is true and you also get a guarantee. However, if you take that route you don?t have much to say about what?s inside the box. ST Actually there are plenty of value added retailers and online merchants who will put together what ever you want and if the do charge for assembly its a fraction of what your time is worth. The other thing to think about is when you buy it bit by bit you will probably not be able to go to the store for any warranty work after a week or 30 days. They will refer you to the manufacture. So for that price of assembly you will also likely get a warranty (a year parts 2 or 3 years labour). I'm sick of computers at the end of the day, the cold, the roar of fans and air conditioning, I'll probably be coughing up zinc whiskers in a few years. A $40 assembly fee for a proper warranty and some extra free time seems like a bargain to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJsushi Posted August 7, 2004 Report Share Posted August 7, 2004 If I am buying a new cheap box for ordinary or general use, then I would buy an entry level Dell simply because you really can't build a cheap box better than them and if something goes wrong you send it back and they send u a new one. No muss no fuss. If i need a specialized high end machine and I want particular components then I will build it myself. Dell cannot build it cheaper than I could and the only inconvenience is that if something goes wrong then I have take care of it myself. this really no problem because at least i will know "what" went wrong and "why" it went wrong. I won't need someone from tech support to figure it out. I can also take care of the problem immediately paying for what i want instead of sending the machine to a service center and wait for my machine to be fixed and incur extra expenses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straycat Posted August 7, 2004 Report Share Posted August 7, 2004 I can also take care of the problem immediately paying for what i want instead of sending the machine to a service center and wait for my machine to be fixed and incur extra expenses. Or you can just do what I do -- buy Dell's top products with 3 Year At-Home Service Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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