How many things wrong can you find with this statement?

[veristic]

I work on Macs at my job.

[VT-Vincent]

I work on Macs at my job.

 

Ditto. The school district I work in is about 90% Mac.

[veristic]

Yeah and the industry still thinks Macs are better for graphic design so i'm stuck on this PPC G5. :/

 

BUT i'll be damned if i'm stuck with a one-button soap bar mouse. I started working here in March and found one of the two-button mac mice with the tiny ball scroll wheel, and when some of my bosses would get on my machine to use it they'd treat it like it was a one-button. People still using those things christ.

[VT-Vincent]

That is one thing that has always perplexed me... "Macs are good for graphics", "PCs are good for business", etc... Neither is "good" at either of those uses per se, it is simply a matter of the platform having the software you need for a specific purpose. Adobe's products exist on both sides and they don't run "good" on one versus the other. It's like people think there is some sort of magical fairy dust that somehow makes one machine better than another and locks both PCs and Macs in to only specific uses and nothing more.

 

I know these people are VERY knowledgeable and really understand the fundamentals of computer science... but it was always my understanding that both Windows and OS X were designed to be multi-purpose operating systems capable of running software for whatever use the user desired. I could be wrong on that though.

Edited November 10, 2009 by VT-Vincent

[Mooney]

During my senior year of high school, my school switched from fairly old Dell computers to iMacs for the graphic art class. We had so many technical problems with them and had such a hard time learning how to deal with their finickiness that we would've been better off with even older Dells. Seriously, anyone who says that Apple products "just work" has never used a product that works well.

 

I've also heard how amazing iPods are from so many people, but then they burn out and die after a couple years, or they get a new computer so they lose all of their iTunes, or they have to spend hundreds of dollars per year because of all the new models that come out. If iPods are so great, why do they seem to have to update them every few months? I've had my Creative Zen for quite a few years now and it has never given me any problems. I could use it on Windows and Linux, my computer or someone else's, and any number of media players to sync it. I only stopped using the Kingston K-PEX I had before it because I got more music and I lost the charging cables :/

 

Anyway, the point is: Fuck Steve Jobs with his black turtlenecks and his creepy obsession with the word "revolutionize."

[emsley]

Acorn poons mac.

[Shibathedog]

I'd disagree about Macs looking the best. I think they look kind of stupid. There are a lot of interesting cases out there. I'm in love with my thermaltake armor (NOT the armor +, that one has too much plastic shit on it) but I realize it's not for everyone and I would understand a lot of people hating it. There are many other cool options too. Some that I think look even cooler but the armor just has so much room inside that is one of the main reasons I picked it.

[veristic]

I wanna get the nzxt tempest next, or maybe lian-li lancool pc-k62.

[Shibathedog]

Lian Li cases are nice, but not worth the extreme price premium IMO. You can get cases just as good for much less. I hear the tempest is very nice but I have never used one or even seen one in person.

[veristic]

This particular Lancool isn't that expensive – $120 before tax. It's got all black interior finish, three 140mm fans (front and two top exhausts) and one 120mm fan at the back compared to the tempest's four 120mm fans (two front, one side and one back exhaust) and two 140mm (top exhaust), e-sata port and no black interior for $10 less. So i'm not sure – i'm assuming the tempest has better airflow? The black interior finish is pretty nice though..

[ken_cinder]

This particular Lancool isn't that expensive – $120 before tax. It's got all black interior finish, three 140mm fans (front and two top exhausts) and one 120mm fan at the back compared to the tempest's four 120mm fans (two front, one side and one back exhaust) and two 140mm (top exhaust), e-sata port and no black interior for $10 less. So i'm not sure – i'm assuming the tempest has better airflow? The black interior finish is pretty nice though..

 

$120 for an empty case is laughable. Companies pour $5-$10 worth of plastic resin in a mould/$5-$10 worth of aluminum shaped and even after factoring labor costs are making a tenfold profit off you because you had to have the "Cool looking" case. Bet you own a Honda Civic with underglow, a big system and a fart pipe too where the shit ON/IN your car is worth nearly as much as the car is huh? hehe

[veristic]

This particular Lancool isn't that expensive – $120 before tax. It's got all black interior finish, three 140mm fans (front and two top exhausts) and one 120mm fan at the back compared to the tempest's four 120mm fans (two front, one side and one back exhaust) and two 140mm (top exhaust), e-sata port and no black interior for $10 less. So i'm not sure – i'm assuming the tempest has better airflow? The black interior finish is pretty nice though..

 

$120 for an empty case is laughable. Companies pour $5-$10 worth of plastic resin in a mould/$5-$10 worth of aluminum shaped and even after factoring labor costs are making a tenfold profit off you because you had to have the "Cool looking" case. Bet you own a Honda Civic with underglow, a big system and a fart pipe too where the shit ON/IN your car is worth nearly as much as the car is huh? hehe

Dude I drive a pilot lol. And so what if I pay a little extra for aesthetics, like you never cashed out a little for something based on that? I have to look at the damn thing all the time why wouldn't I want it to look good. As if i'm trying to make some kind of statement by paying to the business who puts out the product of the "cool looking" case i'm considering in contrast to you making a statement about them taking a profit off me. As if that isn't sanctimonious in itself being all "anti-establishment".

[Shibathedog]

Well it depends on the case. With certain cases yeah, but some of them (like mine) come with extra thick metal and have almost no plastic. If I remember right it weighs 40 pounds completely empty. I at first thought anything over 50 bucks was ridiculous for a case. But when I actually started using more expensive cases I began to see the advantages. There are many little things about most of them that make it very convenient and they tend to last longer/not get as fucked up looking just from normal use. (My friend bought a Sunbeam Transformer and a slight knock to the side caused the entire front to break off unable to be reattached, before that happened the bay cover door broke off) Screwless PCI brackets are ALWAYS fucked up though, I could never get them to hold most things right. I just took mine out and used screws I didn't even use the tool less bays in my case even though they seem to work well. Actually screwing it in is always the best way. Also if you want to build something really really high end (4 Graphics cards, 8 HDDs, Double Loop water cooling/peltier, etc.) you pretty much NEED one of these more expensive cases.

 

As far as those two cases though, the Tempest PROBABLY has better airflow. The design of the cases seems pretty similar but the Tempest has more fans. (keep in mind more fans usually=louder) Of course they could be really crappy fans. I doubt they are absolutely terrible though and you could always replace them anyway. The placement of the fans on the Tempest seems better to me too, but that could be because they are obviously going for the brute force method here, the Lian Li might be more efficient. The Lian Li might have better features because it is a Lian Li, but then again it might not because they want you to buy one of the even more expensive cases they sell. The NZXT might have better features because it is one of the higher end NZXT cases so they are going all out. If I where you I would read as many reviews on both as possible. After some skimming reviews seem to be slightly in favor of the Lian Li, but it is important to check out why. It may be because of something you do not care about. (I don't really ever use those front mounted ports for example) or just fanboyism. Check out the pictures and see if it has everything you want. Also try to imagine your particular hardware (and any upgrades that are even a remote possibility) in that case. You gotta make sure everything is going to go together well. My friend bought a small case so he could tuck it away in the corner, this was fine at the time because his video card was single slot and no longer than the mobo, but when he wanted to upgrade his GPU one day he was screwed out of anything high end because it was too big. Both of these cases seem like good cases though so either way your not going to end up with shit. I know the tempest was pretty popular in the OCing community for awhile, and they usually don't do any fucking around if that does anything for you. Lian Li's are usually popular there too but I am not familiar with this particular model so I can't recall anything specific. (It seems like I should be though, it is a nice case)

 

As far as black interiors go it is extremely easy to do this yourself. Especially if nothing is put together yet. I've debated doing it with my case but I'm not sure if it's a good idea. Wouldn't a black interior attract/hold more heat? Would the paint effect the metals ability to transfer/dissipate heat? Or would it be such a minuscule difference that it wouldn't matter? I'm not really sure.

[Shibathedog]

Oh and the NZXT looks like it has more plastic on it. I don't really like looking at plastic so this kinda makes me like the Lian Li more, but it might be fine. I would have to examine them both in person. See if you can find a bunch of close up pics of all the plastic parts/where it connects and make sure it isn't something that will easily break. If it looks sturdy go for it.

 

Either that or ignore everything but raw performance. I built a PC like this and DAMN was it ugly and loud but it ran cool/fast as fuck.

[veristic]

Yeah i was watching video reviews and the Lancool looks like it has better tool-less design overall while the Tempest has better airflow. If I get the Tempest i'll consider spraying it black inside myself. I prefer the outside of the Tempest but the inside of the Lancool lol its always impossible to find a case with the perfect features exactly as you'd want them to the small details but i'm probably just splitting hairs for things like that as both are nice. I wouldn't do more than two video cards crossfire'd though, looking into the new 5770's and the Eyefinity feature. It's pretty sick if I could play WoW like this :