Michael's MX8 Viper....

[Moose777]

Wasn't sure where to put this so, if it's in the wrong board plese move.

Ok heres the skinny. A friend of mine just bought this guys rig. And she's happy with it overall but when I asked about what is in it the question gets dodged by Michael (the guy who makes it).

He touted his rig as the best thing come to man. And when another friend of mine mentioned my computer he was told that anything anyone makes doesn't compare to his machine.

So, I did some digging and found a few other threads on various boards across the 'net that state very clearly that this guy is a tool whom doesn't know anything about computers.

Such as here: http://xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=43494


So, I want to know what makes his rig the best in the world. Does anyone know anything about it?

I'm not looking to buy it I just want to make this guy feel like an idiot.

 

[Ch1m3r4]

I'll tell you but only if you start folding for the [H]orde.

 

[nirelan]

Just tell him to go to Alienware's site.

 

[Moose777]

I'll tell you but only if you start folding for the [H]orde.

I'm in. What's the [H]orde though? I hope it's a good thing.

 

[BillR]

Nothing there that newegg and a credit card can’t get you for a whole hell of a lot less

 

[Carnival Forces]

Q: When a client says “But what about support? We have always chosen Dell"

A: The United States Navy couldn’t have said it better, “Michael, I have associates who say they want Dell because of the support of when something goes wrong (laughing) and something will always go wrong with a Dell. And getting assistance was extremely troublesome. I went through the same thing with Gateway and Compaq. When you need the support, who are going to end up speaking with? The maker of the system or some hired phone support of Dell, who doesn’t even know the specifics of your system, but only by a textbook they have in front of them that may only solve half of the problem. I only choose Michael's Computers over any other company because it’s far better to know the maker and someone you can trust and is a Christian.”

 

[Moose777]

Nothing there that newegg and a credit card can’t get you for a whole hell of a lot less

Exactly. Now he's trying to tell me that the P4 560 3600 is far superior to teh AMD 4000+.

After reading I've come to the conclusion that both processors are similar in performance and that the AMD only performed slower on one thing.

 

[Chugiak]

Nothing there that newegg and a credit card can’t get you for a whole hell of a lot less

The MX8 Viper specs.

About $600 less I reckon. I just tallied up a Viper system on Newegg with as close to teh specs as I could match to the UltimateMX, and I totalled $3,300 sans shipping. This was for a lowly P4EE 3.4 GHz though, the Egg doesn't list a 3.6 GHz. Of course if I were to not have every item be XTREME!!! I could get damn near that performance for far less. But that isn't what Michael's is selling. No, if you buy Muchael's you are buying teh bomb! But I wonder why he's neglecting the most crucial aspect of the system, the AC power cord

 

[Moose777]

Maybe he hasn't discovered that particular cord yet.

I like how he dodges every question I ask him.

Oh yeah, as for the P4 3600 it's actually a P4 560 3.6mhz. And i just did a side by side comparison of the AMD 4K+ and the P4 560 3.6 and they are very close in performance. but when I told him that on the other forum and backed it up with games it was tested on and graphs and allt hat good stuff my post got deleted on another forum he frequents.

 

[Bodega]

take a look at this

toms looks into micheals a while ago and came up with some interesting results

 

[Moose777]

Thats a great find. I began to tell my friend that his rig wasn't all that it's cracked up to be but I stopped short. If she's happy with his POS then so be it. But I dont' like the fact that he's supplying false information to the people of the forum I belong to and will start PMing them this article so they are warned.

Thanks a lot.

 

[Ch1m3r4]

I'm in. What's the [H]orde though? I hope it's a good thing.

now someone tell this man about the [H]orde!!!

I personally have to go kick some ass in a soccer game.

 

[Moose777]

Yeah, I kinda saw the thread on the Folding [H]orde but I'm not sure what it is I have to do with that program. Could someone please explain it to me?

 

[CIWS]

Here's the answer to your Folding question

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=759399

This forum is for the PC hardware question.

 

[Moose777]

Okies, so I download it then what? What am I supposed to do?

That's it? Thats all I do is let it run in the background?

 

[rogue_jedi]

make sure it's on team 33, then let it run in the background. you shouldn't notice a thing.

as to the MX8 (uberl33t version), i'm torn about the THG thing. THG sucks, but they say michael's sucks, too.

THG has this:

The only 500 GB drives are external firewire/USB2.0 drives, such as the ones made by LaCie.

those are a pair of 250gb drives in raid 0, not a single one... no reason michael doesn't do the same thing
and the obvious, THG is THG.

Michael's has this, though:

MX8 - P4 UltimateMX
INTEL 3600MHz Pentium 4 'E' Extreme Edition or AMD 64-BIT 4000+ Processor!
6 PCI, 5 USB 2.0, 1 8XAGP, 3 IEEE
...
ATI RADEON X800XT PCI EXPRESS DDR3 256MB VIVO (2X Faster than 8X AGP)

so i'd guess he is guilty of the same inflated specs other companies are guilty of. he just happens to be stupider. but better at coming up with 3xtr3m3 nam3s so the l33t haXorz will buy his stuff.

i think i agree with the general consensus on this guy.

 

[norky]

the watchdog section of maximumpc had a little thing about michaels a while ago. bad news.

 

[Moose777]

make sure it's on team 33, then let it run in the background. you shouldn't notice a thing.

as to the MX8 (uberl33t version), i'm torn about the THG thing. THG sucks, but they say michael's sucks, too.

THG has this:
those are a pair of 250gb drives in raid 0, not a single one... no reason michael doesn't do the same thing
and the obvious, THG is THG.

Michael's has this, though:

so i'd guess he is guilty of the same inflated specs other companies are guilty of. he just happens to be stupider. but better at coming up with 3xtr3m3 nam3s so the l33t haXorz will buy his stuff.

i think i agree with the general consensus on this guy.

I am now one of the [H]orde, it's been running in the background all day long. But I do have a question, why is it doing that? Does it ever stop and what happens when it does stop? Am I supposed to do something with it?

And I just tore him a new one. Some of the things he's said to me today:

Actually No computers match the speed of the MX8 Viper....

It goes a bit beyond (actually way beyond) what Nick does on his own.

Yes, my name is Nick.

Some other things he's said today which I found friggin' hilarious.

We personally test AMD and INTEL. Intel exists in 80% of all systems worldwide. When AMD's latest 4000+ Processor was tested against Intel's Pentium 4 3600 Processor, speeds in every area were far more consistent and faster. AMD is cheaper for a reason....they are trying to compete and stay alive and gain market share, when in reality Intel always holds the best in performance. And again, that is just part of the picture. It always does make a difference in the total parts of a computer system....but processors alone, Intel wins...not just typed, or said but proven side by side

I especially like the part where he says that AMD is cheap. A quick price comparison between teh AMD 4k+ and the Intel P4 560 3.6 (his so called 3600) showed that the AMD is $278 more expensive than the P4.

 

[rogue_jedi]

I am now one of the [H]orde, it's been running in the background all day long. But I do have a question, why is it doing that? Does it ever stop and what happens when it does stop? Am I supposed to do something with it?

folding is a distributed computing project that researches how proteins fold (and misfold) misfolding causes cancer, alzheimers, etc. http://folding.stanford.edu/faq.html for more info.

 

[Moose777]

folding is a distributed computing project that researches how proteins fold (and misfold) misfolding causes cancer, alzheimers, etc. http://folding.stanford.edu/faq.html for more info.

Yes, I got that. I read the website a few times before DLing the program. It's been running since this morning.

I was just curious as to its function on my computer. How does the U of S know when it's done if it's on my computer?

 

[Shane]

Tomshardware or maybe it was Anandtech found the guy and basically hes just con artist.

 

[rogue_jedi]

Yes, I got that. I read the website a few times before DLing the program. It's been running since this morning.

I was just curious as to its function on my computer. How does the U of S know when it's done if it's on my computer?

F@H gets and sends WUs from the stanford servers. it works on a WU (work unit) until it finishes the folding simulation, then sends the results back to stanford and gets a new one. so it'll keep going until they finish with all the protein simulations ()

wrt Michaels (in an attempt to keep this on topic) i'd say that as long as the machine doesn't explode and she's happy with it, the machine is fine and more power to her. they seem to be built with decent components (well, at least high-end, n/s on brands) so they're probably pretty fast.

 

[Moose777]

Ok, it's official, this guy is a fucking t00l. BTW, Crazy Squee is my screen name for a Dodge forum I am on.

Heres what he said today:

Well Crazy Squee is typical of most...jealous of not having the fastest. That's the bottom line.

If he can run Futuremark's 3D Benchmark and come up higher than ours, then do so and post it....we always outrun all others. Period...it's proven in our benchmarks...and AMD doesn't run at true MHZ as they post, that is why when we tested the AMD 4000+ 64-Bit Processor, it couldn't outrun the Pentium 4 3600MHz.

And Crazy Squee...INTEL is about true MHZ....your AMD Processor runs at 2200MHz...that's far too slow and AMD's strategy to class their processors with higher numbers than INTEL is exactly what CYRIX did years ago and look at what happened to them?

Sorry Crazy Squee, but that's the truth....and truth is what sells in this world

What I find truly astounding is that his last statement he claims that he speaks the truth. And on numerous occasions I asked him to backup his claims. To actualyl show me the truth in his comments. And each time I got responses exactly like the one above. My friend Mandy, eventually closed the thread. Then sent me a PM stating her disdain for my actions. The thing is, I am glad Mandy is happy with her computer. In fact, I support her in her descicion to purchase it. And I will stand by her.

He takes me for some idiot. I'm well aware of what my AMD Athalon runs. And if I wanted to change that it's easy, a few clicks of the mouse, a few keystrokes in the BIOS and viola, I've changed my processor speed.

So, below is my resoponse to his last idiotic statement. I didn't have a chance to actually reply to the thread, but I did shoot him a PM.

You know dude, I personally have no issue with you or with MC. Or with the MX8 Viper. In fact, before I decided to build myu computer I had shopped MC because I was going to buy a pre-built computer.

However, the continous slandering is getting out of hand.

I'm not jealous. I could actually care less what you claim. I actually didn't see any type of proof on the site either. Just a lot of claims. Believe me I looked on the site and all over the web. And do you know what I came up with? The same thing.

Michael's Computers makes claims they just can't back up.

You are absolutely right, My 3500+ DOES run at 2200. But, if I really wanted to change that all I'd have to do is go into the BIOS change some voltages and viola I can run my AMD at 2400. It's really not that hard to do. And where, did I ever in that thread discredit your computer? No where. I repeatedly said I liked it and that I believed it was fast.

But where are your graphs? Charts? I didn't see them listed on your site, nor did I see anything on the web about how "fast" they are.

Oh, by the way. I don't care how fast your rigs are. Or how good they are. I'll be in the market for a new rig within 6-8 months because I generally build a new machine every 12 months. However, I won't be considering your machine like I did last year or like I was contemplating at the start of Mandy's thread.

Why? Because you are an ass. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. If you want to sell computers and move product telling someone they are stupid in so many words or saying they are jealous of something they have never ever seen before won't sell.

Saying I'm typical of someone is jealous just proves to me that you seriously think your machine is better than the Cray. If that's true, why aren't your "super-god-like" rigs in government facilities? In banks?

As far as I'm concerned, this conversation is over. Because not once have you actually backed anything you've claimed up. You merely say that "My copmuter is the fastest known to man." or "He's just jealous he doesn't own one."

No, I'm not jealous. In the very least. Personally, I don't want one. It's not that appealing to me. And FYI, Mandy could've built a nicer rig for a lot less money herself. Sure, it might not be as "FAST" or "Cool" looking or just the "Best piece of hardware since the bread slicer." But at least she'd know what was in it and knows that the people who supplied her with the components can back up their claims.

You know those TV commercials for cars where they say, "Best in it's class." Do you know what that means? It means best in it's class by itself. They don't actually comparing to anything. Because if you put Dodge, Toyota, Nissan, Ford all side by side they all have the same exact tagline, "Best in it's class."

Which is the same damn thing you do. Your rig, is the best in it's class, by itself.

You act like every other performance car part company that has come and gone over the past 6 years. You act like you are the greatest gift to mankind. But you don't have the business skills, or person skills to make a would be customer feel like they can buy from you. Instead, anytime someone says something that you don't agree with or can't reply to with an intelligent and informed answer you instead retort with, "It's typical, he's acting like someone who is jealous that he doesn't own one." or with the "We personally tested this. And it outperformed all others." But not once, do you back anything up with actual proof. So, as far as I'm concerned, there goes your credibility for the truth.

You are right, most people do buy things based on truth. And this: "Micheal's Computers are the fastest, greatest, best thing EV@R to cross the hands of humanity and everyone else's computer is just so inferior because they don't have the 3xtr3m3 Intel 3600 overclocked to one billion giga hertz!!!." Is not truth. Its arogance.

Like I said. I'm not jealous. I just think you are an idiot.

And yes, I was contemplating on one of his machines based on Mandy's rig. I however would not buy it unless I knew exactly what was in it. I wanted proof of the claims he makes. But since I got none.

It must truly pain him to know that he's actually found a person with some semblence of intelligence. Who isn't afraid to stand up on a sop box and ask the questions: "WHY?" "WHAT MAKES YOURS SO SPECIAL?" Especially since he can't formulate an intelligent response or back anything up.