Re: Strategy on the Decline

JAB wrote:

On 29/05/2024 14:59, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

This depends.
A local computer shop offers prebuilts that are not bad value at all.
The caveat is they have almost no upgrade path except swapping out the
video card, since they tend to have lower end motherboards and have all
the ram slots filled already.
>
You are correct if it's brand name junk like Alienware or any other big
name, you get charged $500-1000 just to have their name on it.

I agree.
>
My last two PCs were pre-builts. I could have -and in the past/have/-
built my own computers, but it's just easier to have somebody else do
all the work for me. Will that motherboard fit in the case? Is the
cooling sufficient? Etc.
>
But of course, the price was an issue. EVERYONE knows prebuilts are
more expensive. But you know what? Not necessarily.

 I haven't bought a pre-built for over twenty years but I think the price margins between them and DIY just aren't the same as before and also now there's lot's of companies that will allow you to pick pretty much the parts you want. That was previously one of the big draws for me.
 I did cheat a little bit with my last upgrade though as I had RAM + CPU pre-installed because installing the CPU is the one bit I never liked doing.

As far as strategy goes, I would have to say Dawn of War II is better than I had represented it as.  Thinking through what I own, if I were to play a strategy game right now, I would choose it.  Of other games, I'm patiently waiting for Starcraft III.  For some unusual reason Starcraft II is corrupted from install on my machine and haven't had any luck over a number of installs.