And lo on Wed, 06 Feb 2008 15:17:31 -0000, Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> did  
spake, saying:

>>> In fairness, it's much harder to design hardware this way. Current  
>>> hardware is "easy enough" that most people can manage it, and there's  
>>> no real large pressure for that to change.
>>  But there should be. From the hardware side a much easier to install  
>> system means cutting out the middle-men of computer dealers and selling  
>> direct to the consumer. Sure you don't get the high volume sales, but  
>> conversely you don't have the high volume discounts. You can sell less  
>> for more.
>
> Yeah, well, until the idea reaches the people who can make it happen.  
> Oh, and somebody comes up with a *standard* system... and everybody  
> actually *uses* it... These are the main barriers, I think.

Inertia, we need a halfway house. A motherboard manufacturer creates the  
standard system and offers cases that allow the current standard of video  
cards/CPUs etc. to be used.

>>  From the consumers side it makes life easier to upgrade a machine  
>> without considering an entire new box, encourages greater competition  
>> between hardware providers. Plus the older parts can be recycled into  
>> older machines more easily rather then an entire box beig scrapped.
>>  The only ones who wouldn't like it are those who charge a premium for  
>> assembling these products for you.
>
> AFAIK, manufacturers want to *reduce* competition, not increase it. ;-)

Hence my splitting up into consumer and manufacturer arguments :-)

>>> In fairness, if you want to replace the CPU, you will probably end up  
>>> having to replace virtually the entire PC anyway.
>>  If you have a motherboard fitted with an Athlon XP 1500+ you can  
>> switch if for an Athlon XP 3100+ which would be a major jump, it's only  
>> if you're switching from one 'type' to another that you would need to  
>> change the motherboard.
>
> Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't pay several hundred pounds for a new  
> component unless it yields a *massive* performance increase. And that  
> virtually guarantees that it's going to be a completely different CPU  
> socket...

Except then you're not paying several hundred pounds for a CPU you're  
paying several hundred pounds for a CPU, a motherboard, and memory. If you  



for that motherboard may be just the thing.

>> so I've a white , green, black, and white set of separate connectors  
>> (IIRC) so this helps me how? Seriously can you imagine if a non-tech  
>> tried to do this, imagine if they had to play match the wires for every  
>> USB device they plugged in. Oops silly me all this is detailed in the  
>> case manual... now what did I do with that?
>
> If you can show me a motherboard manual that *isn't* translated from  
> Tiawaniis by Google Translate, I'd consider buying that motherboard! ;-)

This one was surprisingly good it was the Technanese that could have been  
a problem.

"3. Hold components by the edges and do not touch the ICs."
Don't touch the what now?

and my favourite

"... a multimedia PC-DIY live demo, which shows you how to install your  
own PC system step by step... You can find the file in the Support CD..."

So I'm building my first computer from scratch and they want to me to  
watch a video on the CD that's telling me how to install the components so  
I can watch this video?

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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