For the masses

This is *NOT* a CPU.

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~wayrich...atx-case-1.jpg

*THIS* is a CPU.

http://www.hardwareoc.at/Prozessor/I...8400_small.jpg

I swear that if I read a single article on the internet again referring to the case of a PC being the "CPU", I might just lose it!!! :mad:

This thread is useless without links... :afrog:

Some everyday occurrences for me...

Customer "I need a new hard drive/modem/mainframe/server/box/cpu" *delete as appropriate*
Me "Don't you mean, you need a new computer?"
Customer "Er... yes"
Me *slap*

That doesn't look like a half bad CPU, either.

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Originally Posted by timeshifter

That doesn't look like a half bad CPU, either.

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Yep. The E8400. :cool: 3GHz of Dual Core, 1333 FSB, 6MB L2 Cache processing power. :afrog:

I have an E8400. It is teh secksy

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Originally Posted by BillGeek

This is *NOT* a CPU.

http://www.vbforums.com/

*THIS* is a CPU.

http://www.vbforums.com/

I swear that if I read a single article on the internet again referring to the case of a PC being the "CPU", I might just lose it!!! :mad:

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Settle down, Francis. :afrog:

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Originally Posted by BillGeek

Yep. The E8400. :cool: 3GHz of Dual Core, 1333 FSB, 6MB L2 Cache processing power. :afrog:

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Yeah? Well.. I've got a Q9300.. quad core 2.5GHz, 1333 FSB, 6MB L2 cache... :afrog:

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Originally Posted by Arrow_Raider

I have an E8400. It is teh secksy

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:afrog:

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Originally Posted by timeshifter

Yeah? Well.. I've got a Q9300.. quad core 2.5GHz, 1333 FSB, 6MB L2 cache...

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Nice... :cool:

I sleep in a racing car.

I've always thought that language fell flat in this case. There is a name for the monitor, but there isn't a good name for the box. The name 'computer' won't really do, as to most people the computer is the name for the collection of components that includes even the mouse and the monitor. Few people order a new computer and expect to get only the box. In fact, we default to including the monitor in that term, as people rarely say "I bought a new computer and new monitor" and it is more common to hear, "I bought a new computer but kept my old monitor." Therefore, computer refers to different things in different sentences, which is not a recipe for good communication.

While I disagree with it, I am sympathetic to those who call the box the hard drive, especially if they are my age or older, as I remember when the hard drive WAS the box, and I remember when the monitor WAS the computer (only for personal computers, not mainframes).

Times have changed, but our language has not kept up.

There are lots of things that are misnamed by users. A lot of people mix up desktop and screensaver; they call the screensaver the desktop and the desktop the screensaver. Forward slash '/' and backwards slash '\' also get mixed up by users. I have even heard commercials on the radio that call the slashes in the product's URL backwards slashes. Eg.: "Visit us at w, w, w dot company dot com backwards slash product"

Someone in our office asked for a desktop replacement. When he got a new laptop he was most confused; re wanted a desktop to replace his broken computer :D

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Originally Posted by BillGeek

This is *NOT* a CPU.

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Indeed, nor is it a "base unit". It's just a computer.

The last time someone asked me to help them fix their "base unit" I installed Solaris on it.

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Originally Posted by Arrow_Raider

There are lots of things that are misnamed by users. A lot of people mix up desktop and screensaver; they call the screensaver the desktop and the desktop the screensaver. Forward slash '/' and backwards slash '\' also get mixed up by users. I have even heard commercials on the radio that call the slashes in the product's URL backwards slashes. Eg.: "Visit us at w, w, w dot company dot com backwards slash product"

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Hell I'm a programmer and the slash terminology still trips me at times. It all depends on how you define 'forward'.

This can be forward if you start from the top: \ (the slash is swinging forward at the top)

This can be forward if you start from the bottom: / (when reading left to right, it appears to swing forward from the bottom)


But truth is the backward slash ( \ ) is really only used in folder paths. It is uncommon to see it anywhere else.

I can never keep those two straight, either. Of course, I'm not really left or right handed, so I often do things right handed as a mirror image of normal, so something with rotational symmetry does tend to trip me up.

i agree with the OP. it bothers me when people call the tower the CPU. it just doesn't make sense. but thats the world we live. people are uninformed.

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Originally Posted by nemaroller

Hell I'm a programmer and the slash terminology still trips me at times. It all depends on how you define 'forward'.

This can be forward if you start from the top: \ (the slash is swinging forward at the top)

This can be forward if you start from the bottom: / (when reading left to right, it appears to swing forward from the bottom)


But truth is the backward slash ( \ ) is really only used in folder paths. It is uncommon to see it anywhere else.

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The top of the slash in relation to which way the text is read determines forward or back. / leans forward, \ leans back.

And \ is an escape character in C# and JavaScript, and probably a lot more than those two.

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Originally Posted by timeshifter

And \ is an escape character in C# and JavaScript, and probably a lot more than those two.

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*cough* php *cough*

Nobody cares about that sorry attempt at a scripting language.

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Originally Posted by bflosabre91

i agree with the OP. it bothers me when people call the tower the CPU. it just doesn't make sense.

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It does: CPU is an initialism of 'central processing unit' — in other words, the control unit to which peripherals such as the keyboard and display are connected.

But that usage only confuses.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by timeshifter

And \ is an escape character in C# and JavaScript, and probably a lot more than those two.

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It is really irritating that Windows uses the backslash as the path delimiter. Just the other day I was reading an article about Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ) which seemed to imply that the delimiter in a queue path was \\. Then I read the code sample and it became clear that the author was escaping each backslash in the path, without mentioning this in the article body itself. (He was using C#, so use of verbatim literals would have eliminated the confusion, and saved me about ten minutes of head-scratching.)

For anyone interested: According to Wikipedia, the backslash was chosen for MS-DOS so that the forward slash could be used as the command-line option indicator, to retain compatibility with CP-M.

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Originally Posted by timeshifter

Nobody cares about that sorry attempt at a scripting language.

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I lol'd.

Me too :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by timeshifter

And \ is an escape character in C# and JavaScript, and probably a lot more than those two.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by timeshifter

Yeah? Well.. I've got a Q9300.. quad core 2.5GHz, 1333 FSB, 6MB L2 cache... :afrog:

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The 9300 sucks in comparison to Q6600... locked multiplyer for the LOSE!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by timeshifter

The top of the slash in relation to which way the text is read determines forward or back. / leans forward, \ leans back.

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So in cultures where they read from right to left, the forward slash is actually the back slash?

As far as C#, I thank god every day for the @ operator.

Code:

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string folderPath = @"C:\thankyouuniverse\forthe@operator\forwhichyenameexcapesme\butsavesmefromperformingmonkeyprogramming\wheneeverIneedtouse\abackslashinafolderpath\"

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Hay guise! Look at mah CPU!!

http://colins.tv/shop/images/TLA-436.jpg


*Runs like Linford Christie*

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Originally Posted by BillGeek

This is *NOT* a CPU.

http://www.vbforums.com/

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I have always known it as a 'tower' of course, they are getting smaller, so that name is going to be thrown out the window soon...

I disagree. Get a full ATX tower. They're big.

Or get a Mini-ATX case. Like the one below:

http://www.biztoolbelt.com/uploads/2...1300-thumb.jpg

At the end of the day, there will be a market for both... until Microsoft Surface is cheap enough for home use... *drools*

The problem with that case is its' lack of size. The reason for my full ATX tower is four hard drives and two video cards. Needs more space.

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Originally Posted by timeshifter

The problem with that case is its' lack of size.

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Agreed.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by timeshifter

The reason for my full ATX tower is four hard drives and two video cards. Needs more space.

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Same problem. The case I'm using has just enough space for everything, but given the graphics accelerator's size, it grealy reduces airflow... :(

Is there any specific advantage to dual video cards? How many games are actually able to take advantage of that?

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Originally Posted by Max

Is there any specific advantage to dual video cards? How many games are actually able to take advantage of that?

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I know of a couple of games (crysis being one) that will function scweetly on SLI or X-Fire. The game doesn't require it as such, but let's just say: With my machine, I'll struggle to play crysis. :( At least I can play ANY other game max res and max detail at full FPS. (Excluding C&C3... for some reason this game slows down IMMENSELY when I have more than 200 juggernauts on the screen... :rolleyes: )

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Originally Posted by MaximilianMayrhofer

Is there any specific advantage to dual video cards? How many games are actually able to take advantage of that?

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All games can take advantage of it.
It simply is a bridge between the GPU's and the memories of both cards.

Though for excellent performance you need to finetune the settings, but for most games nVIDIA has done this already.
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone2_game.html

All games should get a performance boost, but a small few have glitches when using SLi. Spore is a recently released game that has graphically glitches when SLi mode is enabled. Textures don't map properly and some of the texture layers aren't visible. But Spore doesn't really have complex graphics, so it still runs very smoothly for me with SLi off. You can configure application specific settings, so I just have Spore marked to not use SLi. At least I don't have to manually toggle SLi on and off every time I want to play Spore. I'd be interested to know why Spore has the glitches with SLi enabled.

Spore is fun all the way until civilisation/space faring... :(

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Originally Posted by BillGeek

With my machine, I'll struggle to play crysis.

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Sure, blame it on the tools.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by timeshifter

The reason for my full ATX tower is four hard drives and two video cards.

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Four hard drives?? What are you trying to do? Download the internet?

And two video cards?? What are you trying to do? Render the internet?

I have 4 hard drives and 2 video cards. The reason for this should be very obvious. By bragging about my 4 hard drives and 2 video cards on forums, my e-manliness increases drastically.