Epinions Computers Q&A: Week 2
Jan 02 '01
(Note to those who read last week's Q&A: the following intro is the same as the first one in the series. If you already read the intro the first time, you can skip directly to the questions below)
They say one of the best ways to learn is from other people's mistakes, and that's no exception when it comes to learning computer skills. One of the best examples is the long standing tradition of PC "Q&A's" in computer magazines and websites, where readers submit their various questions on topics such as troubleshooting, buying advice, and upgrade advice, in hopes of getting their question (and, more importantly, the answer) published. Who knows how many hours I've saved by reading these Q&A's, and avoiding the same pitfalls that other computer users have already fallen into?
With that in mind, I've decided to try a little something new for my next couple reviews. I've created an email address at "computers_qa@yahoo.com" where you can send any computer-related questions you may have, and I'll "publish" the answers to the best questions in my next editorial. At least for the time being, I'll promise to also respond via email to all questions received, even if they don't end up appearing in the actual Q&A.
I also promise to make each Q&A as educational and pertinent to the topic of "developing computer skills" as possible--not just to the people asking the question, but to everyone reading it as well. The last thing I want to do is fill my articles with esoteric solutions to obscure problems, with little relevance to anyone except the person asking the question. My goal is to make this a series of "Developing Computer Skills" editorials, but about the topics you're interested in, not just the ones I want to write about.
As far as what makes a good question goes, basically any question relating to computers is fair game. It doesn't even need to be about a specific problem or situation, but can be as general as "What's the best fastest processor today" or "How can I get my computer to run faster"? As readers of my prior epinions can probably tell, my main areas of interest deal in upgrading advice, hardware buying advice, CPU's, system optimization, and troubleshooting, although of course questions needn't be limited to these topics.
Again, please send all questions to computers_qa@yahoo.com and also let me know, if your question makes the next Q&A, whether you would like your Epinions member name published or if you'd rather stay anonymous.
This Week's Questions:
-Does Opening the Computer Case Void the Warranty?
-Building a System: Advice On Computer Specs?
-Asus A7V Motherboard: Unstable?
-Does Opening the Computer Case Void the Warranty?
-Can I Use an Applet As My Profile Pic?
-How Can I Drive More Traffic To My Reviews?
Does Opening the Computer Case Void the Warranty?
Submitted by bishop
Q: I'm thinking about buying a pre-built system, but I'm scared that if I open the computer case it will void the warranty.
A: Although it is technically true that opening your case often voids your warranty, I've personally never heard of warranty service being denied for that reason alone. I honestly can't imagine any reputable major manufacturer saying "no, you opened the case so we won't honor your warranty" when the system is perfectly normal otherwise.
Why do they even have such a policy then? I'd say it's to protect themselves from fraudulent warranty claims. For example, if somebody obviously tampered with the components and sabotaged the PC, then wanted the PC replaced, their claim could be denied on those grounds. Or it could be something as simple as a drink spilled into the inside of the case (I've heard of some unbelievable things being found in PC's by tech-support technicians, including just about any food item you can think of). Such a policy also prevents the manufacturer from being liable from damage caused by another company's add-in components--for example, if a defective 3rd-party sound card fried someone's Dell PC, and they wanted Dell to cover it under warranty.
The bottom line is, just make sure that everything is in the original configuration if you send your PC in for service, and remove any parts you've added or replaced. As long as there are no obvious signs that the case has been opened and the insides tampered with, you should be fine. And of course, the safest thing is to ask the manufacturer about their "open case policy" before buying a system from them. Some companies may not even have such a policy in the first place.
Building a System: Advice On Computer Specs?
Q: What advice might you have about my computer specs? I'm going to use it for Word, Excel, and a lot of internet activity (videos, downloading mp3's, surfing web). I also want to play a lot of games. My budget is about $1000-1200.
Specs:
Asus A7V
Athlon Thunderbird 800Mhz
SB Live! Value
Asus V7100 GeForce 2 MX (?)
Samsung Monitor 19"
128MB PC133 Mushkin (Name brand or generic?/133 or 100?)
IBM 15 or 30 gig Deskstar
A: Actually, your specs sound almost exactly like what I would recommend for someone with your budget..
> Specs: Asus A7V
Same motherboard I have, and one of the best Socket-A boards available. Plus, since it has the "multiplier dipswitches", you can overclock your system in the future if you want to.
> Athlon Thunderbird 800Mhz
Good choice, although you might want to go with the Duron since performance is similar to the Thunderbird in the 700-900 mhz range, while being much cheaper. The benefit of the Thunderbird is that you can buy it at speeds higher than 800 (the fastest Duron is the 800), and the Thunderbird can "scale" better at high speeds (over 1 ghz). In other words, the differences between the two are not really significant until you reach 1 ghz and higher, where the Thunderbird really starts to show its superiority. If you're looking for something around 800 mhz though, the Duron will provide very similar performance for much less cost.
> SB Live! Value
Definitely a good choice. Besides being the best overall card on the market (and in some ways THE "standard" card these days), A3D/Aureal cards tend to have issues with A7V boards. As far as I'm aware, SB Live! cards work great with Athlon systems.
> Asus V7100 GeForce 2 MX (?)
Also a great choice. Especially when overclocked, Geforce 2 MX's are one of the best deals for your money. If you get the Asus, be careful because some of the Asus boards have only 16 megs of RAM, instead of the 32 on most MX cards. You'll definitely want to make sure you get a 32 meg version. You might even consider a Geforce 2 GTS (non-MX), since they've dropped so much in price in the past month. Pricewatch.com shows them for as cheap as $158 right now, much less than the $300+ they were selling for just a few months ago.
> Samsung Monitor 19"
> 128MB PC133 Mushkin (Name brand or
> generic?/133 or 100?)
> IBM 15 or 30 gig Deskstar
This all sounds good. There's really no reason to get PC100 instead of PC133, since the price is almost the same. Name brand is always good if it's not too expensive, since it will tend to have fewer problems, although all my RAM has been generic without any issues. You might want to get 256 megs instead of 128, since RAM is so insanely cheap right now. I just ordered a 256 meg PC133 DIMM from www.jc-shopper.com for only $90 and it works great.
If you want "name brand RAM", the best deal I know of right now is 128 megs of Kingston PC133 CL3 SDRAM for $50 after rebate, with free next-day shipping from Outpost.com. Unfortunately the URL is WAY too long to include here, but you can find it by going to www.techbargains.com and searching for "Kingston."
Great choice with the Desktar hard drive, since they're easily the best drives available right now. Although I'd suggest buying the 30 or 45 gig Deskstar instead of the 15, since the price difference isn't that much. Buy.com has the 45 gig version right now for only $167.95, or $137.95 when the online-coupon for $30 off $150 is available (see techbargains.com).
Asus A7V Motherboard: Unstable?
Submitted by bishop
Q: Lately I've been reading comments and discussions about the Asus A7V motherboard on Anandtech and many people, although they love the board, say it is very unstable. They say that it takes patience and a lot of time to get it stable, but once it is stable it's an awesome board. What do you think of that? What does that mean?
Many of the users on anandtech said the Microstar K7T Pro 2??? is much more stable, but that it doesn't have ATA/100 capability. Have you had much trouble with it?
A: This is actually the first time I've heard of "stability" problems related to the A7V. In fact, every review I've seen has said it has excellent stability, with no stability issues to speak of.
It might have something to do with the Beta (unfinished) BIOS updates that have been circulating around the internet recently, which have caused stability problems for many users who installed them. It should be noted, though, that these were NOT officially released by Asus, and the newest official BIOS, (available through the Asus website) seems to be perfectly fine.
Usually "stability" just refers to how often a computer using the motherboard crashes. That's why it's usually so subjective: there are infinite potential causes of crashes, so it's usually just speculation when people attribute the cause to the motherboard (instead of the OS, application, processor, etc). I can say, though, that the vast majority of crashes are in some way related to the operating system or software, and not hardware, which makes "motherboard stability" less of an issue than one might think.
I do notice that Anandtech.com has declared the Microstar (MSI) K7T Pro 2 "the most stable Socket-A board available," (a title previously held by the A7V) although it's interesting that SocketA.com has said " I could discern no difference between it and the Asus A7V." I personally haven't had any problems with my A7V board in the four months I've been using it. I'm sure you really couldn't go wrong with either board, since if there's one thing reviewers have agreed on, it's that the A7V and K7T Pro 2 (along with the Abit KT-7) are the best Socket-A motherboards available.
Can I Use an Applet As My Profile Pic?
Submitted by caprig
Q: Instead of a photo of me that is on personal and review pages, I would like to have a small slide show. I have an applet on a web page of mine that I would like to use, but it is a .jpg slide show and I am not sure how to get the applet to work on my personal page. Or do I have to take the same photos and make an animated .gif out of them with 7 or 8 frames the same of each picture in order to make it look like a slide show?
A: I would assume the profile pic (the primary one at least) is GIF/JPEG only, simply due to the way it is placed on all our reviews. In other words, I would tend to doubt Epinions would allow for an applet to run each time one of our reviews is read and our profile pic is loaded. Of course, putting such an applet on our profile page might be possible, although I haven't seen such a thing. Lots of animated GIFS but not JPEG slide shows as far as I'm aware. (can anyone else help out caprig on this one?)
How Can I Drive More Traffic To My Reviews?
Submitted by caprig
Q: I would like to know how to make links on my personal pages so I can organize some of my reviews into sections where people can read them more easily (get more traffic, IOW).
A: Ptiemann wrote a couple of excellent articles about that, if I understand what you're trying to create. His idea was to create an online "article" from each epinion, upload those "articles" to your website, and then submit those articles to search engines. Each "article" is basically a web page containing a portion of an epinion/review, with a link to read the "full version" which leads to the copy at Epinions. At the very least, you could do something like what I did on my home page, where I simply added links to many of my epinions (http://vicwang.tripod.com), then you can submit your home page to search engines. Here's the URL's to those articles by ptiemann, both of which are must-reads:
http://www.epinions.com/utwo-review-6F48-59F0B17-3A297833-prod1
http://www.epinions.com/book-review-338F-63D4F94-3A2B0D5A-prod1
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Epinions.com ID:
vicwang
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Member: Vic Wang
Location: Texas
Reviews written: 45
Trusted by: 216 members
About Me:
Systems Analyst and all-around computer guru who's always keeping up with the latest technology.
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