He won't believe me... So how about you tell him?

[AmuseMe]

My friend bough a computer from a computer shop here in town about one year ago. Just yesterday he called me up to come see what is wrong with it. It was crashing whenever he switched profiles, or whenever he, well, did anything. Or nothing, it didn't mater. (have a thread on here about it).

Anyways, he decided to back up his stuff and just do a clean boot of Windows XP and he said "I'm a little disappointed with this computer. I paid '$X' amount of money and it is slow as heck." Well, he hasn't done a virus scan since he got it (last December) and probably hasn't even deleted a file Anyways, I open up his Task Manager and he has seventy-five programs running at boot No wonder why it is slow... Not to mention I sit for ten minutes waiting for a plethora of files to open. Well, I have him on a clean install now, with drivers etc installed. Twenty-nine programs running including Fire Fox, and iTunes (and associated garbage with it) and things like that. On a fresh boot, about twenty-four files. Ill tweak the start-up programs later.

I told him, for about $30 (Hyper 212+, or Vendetta 2), you can get yourself a new heat sink for your CPU and overclock it enough that you would definitely notice. However, he is cheap as cheap gets and keeps saying "Umm... Hmm... I'm not sure, that's kinds of expensive for a bigger fan". [I than slap his face and make an example of my 120.4 radiator with 8 fans... plus the 120.2]

So... The point of this post is to 1.) Figure out which is better for his processor (see below), the Hyper 212+ or the Vendetta 2 and 2.) to try to get some examples of how overclocking his duel-core will increase his performance greatly.

CPU: Intel Pentium E5200 @ 2.5GHz
GPU: ASUS 8800GS
PSU: CoolerMaster something rather 460W
MOBO: MSI G31M3 M-ATX
RAM: 2GB OCZ 800MHz

Really, just post your personal thoughts. Should he spend $30 on his E5200 and OC it? Or not?

[Andy]

Well .. he will definitely see an improvement from overclocking that processor, as I remember hearing it should clock up quite well. However it seems that he would benefit more from some direction when it comes to using and organizing his files and programs. As I've told many people you can have the fastest computer in the world, but if you don't manage it properly it will never live up to its potential.

[MonsterSound]

You've already done enough.
I find that if you've explained everything and they aren't showing interest in overclocking, heatsinks, RAIDO, or whatever, then let them be.
Just my BIOS I guess.

[AmuseMe]

Maybe I will see what it can do on the stock heat sink. I'm sure it can do 2.7GHz no problem at all. Maybe 3GHz. Along with that I'll show him how to maintain stuff better. I'm sure with a good heatsink, I could push 3.5GHz no problem.

Never a good idea to overclock someone's computer especially when it isn't yours. If he spends money on a cooler and you OC it and "yeh ok" its a bit faster and then it dies... guess who is on the hook. Like someone else pointed out you have done enough bro. Not all of us waste money on computer stuffs

[AmuseMe]

Originally Posted by HaDeS

Never a good idea to overclock someone's computer especially when it isn't yours. If he spends money on a cooler and you OC it and "yeh ok" its a bit faster and then it dies... guess who is on the hook. Like someone else pointed out you have done enough bro. Not all of us waste money on computer stuffs

I see where you are coming from with your opinion. If he doesn't want to I shouldn't bother - I'll just tell him to find someone else when he starts to complain about his PC slowing down

[gingerbee]

forget it clients/friends like this that are this cheap send them to futureshop and be done. I know that sounds cold but people like this don't care so why should you

[jay51]

Originally Posted by AmuseMe

I see where you are coming from with your opinion. If he doesn't want to I shouldn't bother - I'll just tell him to find someone else when he starts to complain about his PC slowing down

might be your best bet..after you clean it for him who's to say he won't blame you for any and all future problems..
I been there and learned the hard way....i cat do free work nomore...just sets me up for more free work and get to listen to em complain how I ruined it...lol
so as gingerbee said maybe recommend he take it in...good luck

[Chilly]

This is why you don't do free work from the get go, you charge them every time! Sometimes you can lower the price and waive some fees and charge them cheaper than usual, but charge every time.

Otherwise you will just become free tech support and blamed for every issue.

[jay51]

Originally Posted by Chilly

This is why you don't do free work from the get go, you charge them every time! Sometimes you can lower the price and waive some fees and charge them cheaper than usual, but charge every time.

Otherwise you will just become free tech support and blamed for every issue.

yup...figured that out the hard way....ppl actually have threatened me before...go figure