Warning: This is a complete rant that was pounded out in 20 minutes…
I recently purchased a PC World to pass the time at the airport. They offered the “best upgrade solutions for your buck” and I figured I’d look it over since I have several computers that can be upgraded (it was more to pass the time.)
After opening it up, once again, I was disappointed by a beginners (idiots?) guide to upgrades. It explained that memory was a good bet, hard drive upgrades where good, but the kicker was the Graphics system…
As I read along, it confirmed that a graphics card may be all you need to run the latest games at decent levels. That mixed with a memory upgrade, and you’d be riding in style (obviously paraphrased). Soon after, they categorized integrated and sub $100 graphics cards in the same boat. Um… I’m currently running an nVidia FX5500 PCI (Ack! a PCI graphics card! The Horror!) for a dual monitor setup plus a primary graphics card for gaming (Triple Display Heaven baby!). The FX5500 handles itself just fine with everything I throw at it, including my 19inch wide screen watching movies… But then, they recommended the nVidia GeForce 7950 GX2.
Oh, but I didn’t tell the whole story. You see, they actually recommended 2(!) 7950 GX2’s as an upgrade. The article goes on to say that you may need a bigger motherboard and/or power supply for this upgrade. In my opinion, you might as well buy a whole new computer for that price.
I’m normally level headed, but who in the world is going to upgrade to two of these graphic cards? My ENTIRE custom built computer, minus the monitors was just above that price (I shopped for months to get the lowest prices) and its considered great for gaming. For the price they named, the cards better come dipped in Platinum, have Gold Leaf Manuals and include the personal phone number of someone that can pick your nose while you game.
Oh, but there’s still more my friend. You see, the article has a nice neat picture with the card on it and has a “How to install a new graphics “board” section. At the end of the article, it has a little bitty red arrow that points to the Ad for Lenovo Laptops next to it. So, you turn the page and you get…another Lenovo ad. When you follow onto the next page, you see a paragraph with no heading (no continued….) and a quick blurb on graphics cards ranging from $100 and up. Notice I mentioned they put integrated and sub $100 cards in the same boat earlier? Funny eh? The little red arrow is used in the other stories to move you on to the next part. For instance, the red arrow under memory moves you through 3 ads and into the Hard Drive story, in which they offer the Seagate 750GB Barracuda ($420).
PC World use to be a decent magazine where you could learn about a wealth of stuff. Now, the stories are riddled with advertisements. Seriously, why offer an issue on upgrades and only mention specific manufacturers? I’m tired of magazines being more ad than content.
If the articles where written by me, I wouldn’t have gone nearly that far. Upgrade your graphics card to the max you can afford for that one component. When you change computers, you’ll more than likely want to take it along and either keep using it or use it as a secondary card for dual screen graphics (I’ve shuffled my RivaTNT around between 3 computers - works great on FreeBSD), upgrade your memory to the max your motherboard can handle and throw in a newer hard drive that effectively doubles your storage space. All of that should be around the same price as the 1 graphics card they recomended.
Whats the craziest or most expensive upgrade you’ve seen recently?
