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PC gaming future non existant?

M

MrWizard6600

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jan 15, 2006
Messages
5,791
first off i read this artical, and this is what got me thinking..

http://www.firingsquad.com/features/epic_games_rein_interview/default.asp

Its true. futureshop, best buy and other such walk in computer sellers all have mostly integrated graphics into there $1000 (cdn) machines. why? a few of my friends have bought these machines, about two, and when they tried to play doom3, the computer simply said "nope", and my friend thought it meant that he had to have uber powerful graphics to play it. i knew better, and told him, but otherpeople are going to be making this assumption. so for the non-[H]ard educated person, pc games have already flown them by, and they just accept it. whats that mean? well this person is gonna believe that theres no point in buying FEAR2 or doom4, cs:s:s simply because you have to spend thousands on graphics to play it, when in fact something as old as a 5500, or X600 will do ya fine. so this means game manufacturers are not going to go out on a limb producing the most powerful graphics games, cuz the majority of people will return them!

the machines that DO have graphics cards in them have mostly X300, which puts people in an even WORSE situation, cuz now if you wanna upgrade, your throwing the $50 bucks you put into that card in the first place in the trash, no ones buying an X300.

intel, my question to you, wtf? (the majority of onboard graphics being intel, and some not even haveing agp or pci-e slots! my sony Viao was one of those machines! pissed the bejeesus outta me spent $800 on a machine that couldnt be upgraded!)

intel has no position in console market, and less and less in pc gaming market cuz most people are becoming amd (lets exclude CONROE for this post). so why wouldnt they push the gaming market, make themselves a place in it.

your thoughts much appreciated.
 
Trust me the majority of people who want to play games on their computer, either build themselves, or buy from a place like Alienware, Ibuypower, Overdrive PC, etc. If you're going to Best Buy to buy a PC and buy something with IGP, then you haven't done your research and you deserved to be scammed.
 
i donno about that man. if you agree the source engine is powerful, then most people buy from people like futureshop, including my cal buddies.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
i donno about that man. if you agree the source engine is powerful, then most people buy from people like futureshop, including my cal buddies.
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I advertise building PCs when I play CSS because a good # of the people on there came from CS1.6 and are usually bitchy about crap. Well HL1 came out 8 years ago, and it's based off the Quake 1-2 Engine which is 9 years old. So Integrated Graphics had plenty of time to catch up. And like I said, if you're going to put out $500 or more on something, you need to look into it, not just immediatly buy it. There is always a reason why a computer costs what it does.
 
Ehh. That guy sounds a little dramatic if you ask me. The same stores that sell computers with integrated graphics (Best Buy, Circut City, etc...) also sell video cards - normally with an offering from Nvidia and Ati in the low, mid, and high end range. Most of the emachines, and likely other models, even have a sticker on the front of the tower which says whether it has an available pci express or agp slot.

I've only been playing PC games for about 3 years, but as far as I know, computers have never really had integrated graphics capable of playing games well. People buy computers based on there personal needs, someone who needs an email machine isnt gonna buy an uber gaming rig and toss the video card in the trash because they dont need it, but people (who arent building their own machine) will buy a prebuilt and add a graphics card cause they need it. PCs are customizable depending on a person's needs, if I needed firewire or something I'd buy a firewire PCI card.

The game boxes say what the hardware requirements are - I don't see the big deal.

PC games will probably phase out as PCs are phased out by new technology - Like the advent and popularity of flying cars will eventually phase out cars as we know them.
 
what he is saying is true...espeically in places like england...

for a £1200 comp or around $2000 you could buy an amazing gaming comp couldnt you? with a x1900xt 2 gigs of ram opty 170 etc.

if you go into the most popular computer shop in englad: PC World, for that price you will get a 6600gt with a 3800+ and 1-2 gigs of ram...and theyre advertising it as a GAMING PC...now that is a bit out of proportion wouldnt you say? If this carries on, it is more than likely that pc gaming will be dimished slightly but not fully.

as other people stated, if your going to spend a large sum of money on a computer, then you would be stupid not to do any research
 
One thing you might stick in your pipe and smoke is the resurgence of sub-$1000 gaming systems of notable respect. Speaking of BB, VM is going to have a very nice $1000 system to complement the $1500 system we evaluated not long ago.

The future of PC gaming is far from insecure, but it indeed is at risk. We have to hope that the future of gamer enthusiasts know what to look for. If not, there's always this site and naturally, this site.
 
but thats the thing. the lamen who wants to play doom3 or hl2, is gonna be shocked to realize that the $1200 machine he just bought (which is alot of money to me for a comp anyways) is actually on board graphics (which s/he has no idea as to what onboard gfx means) and there are computers like that.

and people dont know what to look for ether. what do you type in in google to educate yourslef about people-ripping-you-off and good buy computers? and even companies like alienware (who i personally dont think is that great, but atleast better then best buy) how do you find out about them? type good computers in google?
 
I think people have forgotten that you don't need the latest of the latest to play a game at a reasonable FPS. I was using a Voodoo 3 up till 2002, and from there I was using a Radeon 9800 128MB NP till Mid 2005. And seeing as how nVidia and ATi are striving to make kick ass Mid-range cards there is starting to be no excuse to not include a decent graphics card in all systems. Since 2002 I haven't built a PC that didn't at least have a low-end graphics card. However I believe Windows Vista will actually help the gaming world. Seeing as how it requires you to have a Graphics card to truly enjoy it.
 
Good point on the Vista requiring a graphics card - then again it only needs something like an X300. Game technology will become more richer and deeper at that time that an X300 wouldn't be good enough.

-J.
 
The reason why the computers that you find in a retail store have either integrated graphics or really low-end graphics cards is because of the price. The Wal-Marts and Best Buys have really cheap systems because they cater to that crowd. However Best Buy has started selling Velocity Micro PCs in their stores, it still doesn't account for much of the computer sales. I would have to say that at least 75% maybe even 85% of the population buy computers for work. The number of the people buying computers to play games is small. By addiing a fast graphics card, that only adds to the price. So in short, I think retailers would like to sell lower priced computers because the people who come into the stores aren't looking for the latest greatest most expensive computer. The people who want a fast gaming computer know where to look. Either a build-to-order website or building your own computer.

By saying PC gaming has no future is bullcrap.
 
thats great. that doesnt give Dell the right to call the X300 "one of the most powerful graphics cards..." or anycompany to put these cards in a GAMING (or posing as a gaming) computer!

>.<
 
Just thought I'd throw a bone for you uys to fetch...

Crappy, integrated/stock graphics is why people are buying next-gen consoles.

It's much cheaper, everything is garunteed to play, and many people find them much easier to use.
 
I work for another chain store that sells computers. Not going to mention who, but they aren't listed previously.

Anyway, when I get customer X in the store and they are wanting to buy a new PC, I always ask what they are going to be doing with the computer. The number one response is "Checking e-mail, browsing the net, dealing with photos from my digital camera I still can't figure out, and play games on Yahoo / iWon/ Pogo / insert other site here." The second thing to come out of their mouth is "I want the cheapest thing you have." I can say that in the last 6 months I have had maybe two customers come in and tell me they want to play real games. When that happens I tell them that none of our systems will work for them. In fact we don't even have any stores in town that will build a system for you.

Point is 99% of your average consumers want cheap and fast. That I can give them, seeing as how they are upgrading from their crusty Gateway 2000. They don't care about Doom 3 or Halflife 2. If you want to play those you know where/who to go to get that kind of system.
 
Spaceninja said:
I work for another chain store that sells computers. Not going to mention who, but they aren't listed previously.

Anyway, when I get customer X in the store and they are wanting to buy a new PC, I always ask what they are going to be doing with the computer. The number one response is "Checking e-mail, browsing the net, dealing with photos from my digital camera I still can't figure out, and play games on Yahoo / iWon/ Pogo / insert other site here." The second thing to come out of their mouth is "I want the cheapest thing you have." I can say that in the last 6 months I have had maybe two customers come in and tell me they want to play real games. When that happens I tell them that none of our systems will work for them. In fact we don't even have any stores in town that will build a system for you.

Point is 99% of your average consumers want cheap and fast. That I can give them, seeing as how they are upgrading from their crusty Gateway 2000. They don't care about Doom 3 or Halflife 2. If you want to play those you know where/who to go to get that kind of system.
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OFT
 
Companies should have to label pc's as having upgradable graphics end of story. A friend of mine bought a packard bell 450 p3 years ago, on the box it stated "16 mb voodoo 3 agp graphics". I opened it up after he had bought a geforce 256 to replace the voodoo and it was integrated onto the board even though the box and specs stated AGP graphics. :mad:

And half these people working at the places that sell thse machines have no idea wtf theyre talkig about. Its so easy to walk into aplace like pc world or dixons and ask something vaguely technical to receive a blank stare back, and these are the guys selling you the machines that are meant to know about them. :rolleyes:
 
This is kinda funny, I play a lot of playstation, more than computer, but the fact is, any hardcore gamer i play with online also has a gaming pc. It is very surprising that we play socom together when we all could have been playing battlefield 2 and didnt even know. BTW,most 1000 machines are very upgradable, my Hp x2-4200 was 1000 and i added a powerstream for 100,x1600xt for 200, and a fan for 20$. So for 320 CAN i got a decent gaming machine, it pulls close to 5900 3dmark05,in fact im probaly going up to a x1800xt right away as the price is great on them,and that is truley all most games need on a 17 or 19' moniter anyways. I think most consoles are expensive when you really sit down and try to compare the apples to oranges.
 
I get sick when I am in the pc/laptop area of some of these stores. Bad habit of mine is to go to every laptop and bring up the displlay propeties then go to the advance tab if its got one to see what card is in it. Its always somthing like s3 this or intl this and I'am like WTF, can't I find one decent card in the bunch like a 6800 or 7300 without having to be rockafeller!!! I mean when I had the chance I bought a laptop from hp with AMD 64 and Nvidia 440 which shocked me cause it did not suck when gaming and came with a 1920x1200 screen which was sweet, but if I want anything with new 68/7000 series I need to sell a kidney or something. I build my own pc's but can't really do the same with a laptop and I don't really do a lot of traveling just like take it to work and back so size and weight don't bother me like most. Like last week I was in the store just looking for a good harddrive to purchase and I am like checking out the lcds and I see this 19inch lcd with display of 1600x1050 and one of the blue shirts says ya thats are best model and I just give him the evil look, he just kind of wandered away after that. Sorry its just I know how it feels knowing that these places could do so much more and it sickens me when its like looking for 1 good peice of fruit and 99% are rotten.
 
average consumer isn't a gamer

we're almost already caught up to the promised technology for PS3, and in...err..i guess february or march of next year when vista is the standard, all this will be out and gone just like every other console launch

and the whole gaming storing thing is just...i dont know

but i was shocked when i looked around when i saw gateway, 1 gig ram ddr400 (dont know timings), 200 gig hd 7200rpm, and 4200+ X2 for 850 dollars - crazy i know, brand new
 
HopePoisoned said:
average consumer isn't a gamer

we're almost already caught up to the promised technology for PS3, and in...err..i guess february or march of next year when vista is the standard, all this will be out and gone just like every other console launch

and the whole gaming storing thing is just...i dont know

but i was shocked when i looked around when i saw gateway, 1 gig ram ddr400 (dont know timings), 200 gig hd 7200rpm, and 4400+ X2 for 850 dollars - crazy i know, brand new
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Yeah, it's pretty damn cool.
 
This is a great article. As a Director of Technology / 5-8th grade Design Technology teacher, I get it from both sides of the fence. Not only to my above job title, I play geek for all my family members for free. (I could make some serious money if they were business clients)

My mother bought a new Dell system 4 years ago. She payed about $1250 for the entire system, pretty standard fair. She wanted the typical email, internet, aol, word, ect ect. The only thing I have had to do to that machine is upgrade the ram to 1GB. Other then the occasional cleaning of the OS, she has not had any problems at all. The machine has AGP 4X card (ATI Radeon 7000 32MB)

My sister made the mistake of buying an HP system. SHe got jipped b/c she did not wait for me. Her husband played the playstation all the time, but when he saw my old machine and monitor, he really got into PC gaming. This HP had on board intergrated graphics (Intel) 128MB of ram, ect ect....I brought the machine up to 512 of RAM & that is it. The sound card went bad, what a chore to replace, I just put in my old sound blaster PCI that I had lying around.

Even all my dells @ the school NOW have intergrated graphics, it drives down the price of the machine. I can't blame them for moving that many units. Dell started as a gaming system back in the day, but they are long gone now. :(
 
The Cobra said:
Even all my dells @ the school NOW have intergrated graphics, it drives down the price of the machine. I can't blame them for moving that many units. Dell started as a gaming system back in the day, but they are long gone now. :(
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Just a quick, slightly off-topic question: who remembers the original Dell XPS? The beige XPS? I have pictures of an original Dell XPS powering a kiosk/TV in a Grand Canyon National Park welcome center. I'll post it if anyone wants the see Dell's former glory...

Okay, back on topic. PC gaming will only survive if the people in the know educate the morons of this world. It's almost that simple, other than driving down the cost of gaming PCs compared to consoles.
 
why in the world does HardOCP continually pimp BestBuy?

they have a ridiculously pitiful rating at resellerratings.com, and are generally known as a crap merchant. whatever happened to the high-rating requirement for advertisers? did that go away when a higher price was offered? over the past year Best Buy has been endorsed by the news posters on more than a few occasions, and it gets a little old.

smells like a payoff, pure and simple. thanks for watching out for the consumers. you sure are giving a reputable merchant a lot of attention. :rolleyes:
 
Leon2ky said:
I think people have forgotten that you don't need the latest of the latest to play a game at a reasonable FPS. .
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I was using a 500Mhz K7 athlon, 384Mb ram, and a GeForce 2 ultra 64 up untill 2004. GTA 3, GTA vice city, Mafia. 800x600 with draw distance down, it was doable. I built that rig in 2001 with parts I picked up used off FleaBay and hardforum. Then I bought Theif III and it needed this damn pixel-shading Direct-x 9 crap... Enter the 6600Gt for $129.99 (plus a new mobo, case, cpu...).
 
The Video card manufacturers are killing thier golden goose to get the eggs...seems to be a classic mistake for alot of companies these days. If things stay the coarse, gamming will be relegated to consoles in a few years. I remember paying $90 for a VooDoo1 and spent a week trying to talk myself into justifying the cost...when you pay more for the latest video card than you do for a whole Xbox or PS2...there is a problem. I feel pricing has got to get reigned in, what happened to the old model of supply/demand or cost + reasonable margin? Now it's a bunch of marketing know nothings trying to get as much as possible for each card instead of charging a fair price to keep the industry healthy and competative.
 
PC GAMING IS NOT FUCKING DIEING FOR GOD SAKES!

another thread like this and ARGH!

you know how MANY people buy integrated graphics? typical joe blow - NON GAMERS are in larger numbers then gamers - most people who buy integrated are your grandma and mom who want email and to use office.

Ask Dell and i am sure theywill tell you they sell more cheap $500 integrated graphics systems then their $2k SLI or PCIe 7900GTX systems.

I remember paying $90 for a VooDoo1 and spent a week trying to talk myself into justifying the cost...
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yeah $90 for video card and $500 for a 40G harddrive (yes a 40G HD was $500 Canadian 7-8 years ago) and $300 for 256mb of pc133 ram - Prices for computers are still relative, but the price of components has moved - Vid cards and CPU's are expensive now - 5-8 years ago RAM and HardDrive's were more expensive.
 
M4rk said:
Just a quick, slightly off-topic question: who remembers the original Dell XPS? The beige XPS? I have pictures of an original Dell XPS powering a kiosk/TV in a Grand Canyon National Park welcome center. I'll post it if anyone wants the see Dell's former glory...
Do you mean like a Dimension XPS? I have one of those from a few years ago.

On topic. I was in a local computer store today They have an " Extreme gaming" computer set up. Now to me, extreme gaming means an FX-60 (or 955) and SLI with 7900GTXs or Crossfire with X1900XTXs, not a 6200TC on a Celeron D. What was even more interesting, was a computer similar to this was lent to some friends and I when we were running a LanParty. The store's owner demonstrated it's gaming prowess with 3Dmark05. A score of around 1300 (I think, I was a little sleep deprived). That's scary that someone would consider that for even more than light gaming.
And thing that really gets me is that people buy computers like that. A friend of mine was actually considering buying it (for a quite unreasonable price) until we showed him that for less money, and a better computer, we could get over 4000 in 3Dmark05.
I too think that this could be potentially damaging to PC gaming. A computer advertised as a gaming computer that performs badly with games could cause the purchaser to stop buying computer games and instead get themselves a 360 (or other console).
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opus13 said:
why in the world does HardOCP continually pimp BestBuy?
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Maybe they Pimp BBY because they are the single largest retailer of consumer electronics in the world? CompUSA and CC's market share gets limp at the sight of what BBY does on Wall Street.

BBY has destroyed everyone else in the Consumer Electronics game (at least at the national level)- They've moved thier sights onto bigger fish, AKA Walmart-

Remember guys, the people (me and you) that read hardware sites account for about 1% of the consumer PC sales- The brick and mortor retails aren't built for us and don't cater to us- of course we arent going to shop there or understand why someone else would- But I can tell you this, people do- daily- in huge numbers- so get over it.

Also, you ever think they mentioned this becuase of [H]'s relationship with VM and the point of the news post was to point out VM's entry into the brick and motor retail market with the biggest game in town?
 
opus13 said:
why in the world does HardOCP continually pimp BestBuy?

they have a ridiculously pitiful rating at resellerratings.com, and are generally known as a crap merchant. whatever happened to the high-rating requirement for advertisers? did that go away when a higher price was offered? over the past year Best Buy has been endorsed by the news posters on more than a few occasions, and it gets a little old.

smells like a payoff, pure and simple. thanks for watching out for the consumers. you sure are giving a reputable merchant a lot of attention. :rolleyes:
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And just how many OTHER chain places that sell computers and video cards are you going to find in any American city of decent size? Let's see:

Microcenter - Nope, not in all 50 states. (Only 19 locations nationwide)

Fry's Electronics - Nope. Only on the West Coast, Texas, Great Lakes region and Georgia. (32 stores nationwide)

CompUSA - Yes, but just how bad do they suck as compared to BB? CompUSA has terrible return policies. BB does not. CompUSA not in all 50 states. Has about 150 stores natiowide)

Circuit City - Yes, but just how bad do they suck as compared to BB? If it it was between the two I'd sure go to BB. At least at BB you can find a decent selection of video cards. Does CC even sell video cards? Yes? but of low-end variety. (CC is in all 50 states, 600 stores natiowide)

So what other major chain places exist nationwide? None that I can find.

BB has over 930 stores in the US and Canada. They sell high end video cards.

So it looks like by default if you want to find a place that sells a decent selection of video cards in B&M locations in all 50 states, you have, you guessed it.... One choice Best Buy.

BTW, I have no connection to any of the stores mentioned above, so I'm not pimping for anyone. And the only thing that smells is your puerile attempt to slam the [H] without doing a little research before hand.
 
I was a retail notebook tech but I got questions all the time from people who bought a mid range or so pc from best buy or compusa(compusa had/has more choices) and wanted to play games on it. I hated seeing like 3 ghz p4 systems without a pci express or agp slot in them. What made it really bad though was the 400 dollar emachine had an agp slot in it. It made no sence. The issue is that many people buy a "good" pc from compusa/best buy/ where ever that has pretty good specs that cost them prob like 800 to 1200 bucks with monitor that will do everything but game and has no upgrade options in that field. Maybe it is a parent buying the system for the family maybe it is someone that wanted a good pc but found out they then wanted to play some games. It doesn't matter. With any luck vista will bring some push for graphics to run the higher end eye candy that will make the oems put in some better video. Anyother issue is that the oem power supplys can't handle the better video cards but most people don't need that. Hell a x600 or something like a 6600 plus is more then enough for many of the customers I ran accross that wanted a casual gaming experience.
 
sonofwang said:
The game boxes say what the hardware requirements are - I don't see the big deal.
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To the layman, the minimum system requirements relating to video is just confusing. For example: FEAR lists the minimum requirements as "64MB GeForce 4 Ti or Radeon 9000 video card." Is the eMachines for sale at the B&M with the nvidia 6100 better than this? Someone might think so since it has 128 or 256MB of (shared) video memory and that is more than 64MB. Unfortunately, not everyone has a friend who is a knowledgeable pc gamer.
 
The problem these days is that our PC games and PC hardware are moving way too fast for the average Joe to keep up with. And I also find the staff at most PC stores, such as Best Buy, Futureshop, and even small local computer stores do not have the knowledge or interest in PC gaming. I walked into Best Buy and asked a sales person in the PC department specifically for a "High-End" system that will allow me to play online games like BF2 and CSS, and I said, " I want to max out my video settings in these games, and money is not a factor for me!" The sales rep simply had a rather large grin on his face and pointed at a $2000+ system (without monitor) and it was an AMD X2 3800+ with an ATi chipset and the Express Radeon 200 IGP!!! He assured me that the AMD processor and the ATi graphics are top notch for gaming and that is what he reccomends for my games.

I mean, to any Joe that walks into these stores hoping to get answers to his questions are sadly being mislead by these under-knowledged sales people.

I blame the staff at the stores in which people buy PCs for people being pushed away from PC gaming and towards console gaming. Yes I know that the buyer should of done his research on google, but let me ask you this: If you wanted to build a shed in your backyard and had no idea how to do it, do you do ur research on the net first, or would you rather call up a contractor and expect them to know everything about building sheds and pay them to do it?


These stores need better educated staff! Period.
 
IceyN1pPles said:
These stores need better educated staff! Period.
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QFT

I know there are some knowledgeable gamers in the B&M computer departments out there, but the majority are not. HardOCP and the HardForums should be required reading.
 
ok well i think some of you are missing the point. yea average isnt gaming, and for the average consumer, no gfx card needed. but saying the X300 is all pro gfx card, saying that your extreem gaming edition contains a 6600gt (free mag coverage on CES2006, some small business guy) sickens me, because it makes people think that you really do need to be a millionarre to play games! like what X1800 for $300, 7800gtx for $400.

and not only that but computers are beginning to be shaped by peoples serious lack of knowladge about computers. for example the 2.6Ghz CPU costs $1200, and the 3.2Ghz one costs $400. "oh well the 3.2Ghz one must be better cuz it has more Hz!" when infact in this comparison im comparing the 2.6ghz FX-60, to a p4, possibly supporting HT. and ram is another one. people! DDR400 is more then 2x better then DDR133! this means 1gb of DDR133, is less ... oh comon you in [H]forum you gotta be getting at what im saying.

mdg is my favorite tho. im in vancouver BC, and its a canadian company, and proud of it. when they discribe there computer they say "you get five-hundred and twelve megabytes! a CDRW! and a pentium 4 PRAAAcesser at 2.8GHz!"

but yea thats the thing too, people buy a $500 machine and wanna try hl2 on it. they dont say when they go into a store "im gonna play games on this" they just end up trying it cuz some friend says its fun. and when your inel 955e whatever says "F*** off" when you try to play HL2 on your computer, you become shocked and amazed, you dont go to the store and spend another hundred dollers on a new gfx card, you just figure your machine has to be over $500 to play games!

summery:
oems are creating smoke and mirros, decieving, and the gaming audience is becoming less and less cuz of it.
 
It's clear Best Buy has the best position in North America to up the average customers' expecatation for what a PC should be able to do. I think they are right on target to bring in a credible brand like Velocity Micro, who has a great reputation and builds exquisite gaming systems at "reasonable" prices. It's a pure aluminum case with Asus boards and all the stuff I'd use if building my own systems was still fun for me.

Several of the BB stores here in Northern Virginia have product in stock and on display for customers to check out a real gaming system, including a VM system with an FX-60 and 7800GTX. Even if every customer does not want to drop down $3200 for that type of system, I give BB credit for raising the bar for what a PC experience should/could be like. The VM in stock for $1999 is very good in performance and value, and the sales guy knew his stuff about the VM systems and was a gamer. Overall, this is the experience every BB should be able to offer and I hope more stores will pick up VM.

In short, I'm glad to see BB fighting back in this space with Velocity, and hope the OEMs who seem to be giving up on gaming take notice. They might not have the "street cred" to compete against VM or other gaming systems, but it adds reason to beef up their systems for 3D.
 
Yeah this is basically how I look at most 'OEM' systems.. Its really sad that they don't try to put in better equipment... However, we should also be blaming ATI and Nvidia for the CRAZY EXPENSIVE video cards they got!

I mean to get what 'we' would call decent performance, it would be a minimum $300 videocard. Add another $150-$200 for the rock solid mobo with sli. Even without any other parts, we have now gone over the price of all the low-ender OEM systems. The out-of-pocket sacrifice the enthusiasts have to make is huge.. and is why consoles are soo big, especially since the Xbox360 has the same PC games on it (see Oblivion and Call of Duty 2).

One last thing, I really really love the MDG commercials, they used to be REALLY dumb, they had one that spoofed the dance song 'I am really not alone' for 'I really don't want a clone'. lolz.
 
Here is a good example.
My Gateway that I'm running now came with a P4@2.8GHz, 512MB RAM, and an FX5200. And it was marketed "Gamer Edition". :rolleyes: :mad:
I'm sure they sold tons of them, getting people to think it could play games.
 
opus13 said:
why in the world does HardOCP continually pimp BestBuy?

they have a ridiculously pitiful rating at resellerratings.com, and are generally known as a crap merchant. whatever happened to the high-rating requirement for advertisers? did that go away when a higher price was offered? over the past year Best Buy has been endorsed by the news posters on more than a few occasions, and it gets a little old.

smells like a payoff, pure and simple. thanks for watching out for the consumers. you sure are giving a reputable merchant a lot of attention. :rolleyes:
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We dropped the RR system quite some time ago as it did not seem to be working out correctly. Keep in mind that I was the one that came up with the entire plan to begin with, and I was the one to get rid of it because it was not working.

Your suggestions about payoffs are insulting. BB is overall a solid company with good procedures and products. If you dont like them, then don't shop there. Oh yeah, let me know where I can pick my check up becuase apparently I have been overlooking getting my payoff, pure and simple.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
summery:
oems are creating smoke and mirros, decieving, and the gaming audience is becoming less and less cuz of it.
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I dont think all OEM's - places like dell usually state clearly on their site what each system in each range is capable of, even with purdy little circles showing the level @ which a system, can do each task. (gaming / multimedia / productivity et cetera.

The smoke screen is coming from greedy stores and people who are working in those stores who want to sell a system for their commision, or just dont know any better.

Computer stores should have mandatory tests monthly, or bi monthly to test their employee's directly interacting with customers for their knowledge of current computer technology, at least so they have a basis to help give customers a better end product for their money.
 
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