Gigabyte beats Intel every time

The truth is most independent hardware vendors can beat Intel in customer service. Intel still takes the lead in sheer technological achievement and development, but the flip side of that is the arrogance that comes from being the dominant player in the computer industry. I switched to using Gigabyte motherboards a couple of years ago and haven’t yet regretted it. There are numbers of independent hardware vendors that have taken Intel’s chips and made a much better job of producing something that works than the chipmaker itself. Over and over we have seen sagas over bad drivers and inbuilt obsolescence. Intel really got my goat when Windows Vista came out and they pressured Microsoft to certify the D915 and related chipsets as “Vista Ready” when they could not work under the Aero display model that was a core feature of the new OS graphics architecture. Then when I got into small form factor boards more recently, the Intel Atom D2700 offerings turned out to be very lacking in video drivers and could not meet up to the claims made of them. Further sagas have followed with onboard USB3 drivers and now the graphics drivers for the H97 motherboard in my main PC.

So this week I put a graphics card into my Gigabyte H97-D3H system. I have a couple of these NV210SL-1G1 cards in different computers and while the performance for gaming would be pretty light, it is just what is needed for the kind of stuff I do; more importantly, NVidia is much better at this job than Intel. After months of display driver problems it is really refreshing to have everything working properly again. If you followed my saga on my FB page, this was the card that the system wouldn’t boot up seemingly when I first built it. Just as with the DB75EN that wouldn’t boot my new quad head NVidia card, I put in the latest BIOS update for the motherboard and everything has come up brilliantly. Even though the Intel onboard chipset can handle three outputs compared to the NVidia card’s two, the latter is much more reliable overall, and this computer only has two displays.

Cameras

Still thinking about that DSLR and planning on maybe a EOS 600D with just one lens. Although to make it harder Canon has just brought out the compact EOS 100D, about $200 dearer though. Currently an EOS 600D with the kit 18-55 lens is $890, body only is $798. You can have the twin lens kit for $1250. However you could also pick up the body and fit it with a separate Tamron or something for close to $1200-1300. At this stage I may just go with the 18-55 and maybe pick up something else later. Tamron do have an 18-200 quite cheap about $330, there is also a similar but slightly dearer Sigma. Probably will buy the 600D with the single lens and maybe add another lens later.

Not providing any new camera totals as I have pretty well stopped taking lots of photos of the city since the 2nd earthquake anniversary. Most of the reason is no one is looking at them. The SX150 has had a handful taken, while the SX260 has hardly been used at all.

Other options are the new 100D and 700D. The latter is just an updated 650D and therefore offers very little. If it was as small as the 100D with the 600D’s screen it might be worth looking at but that is not the case. The 100D is interesting but is notably missing the articulated screen, if it had one fitted it would be worthy of consideration. But I might still have a look at it in the shop. After a great deal of consideration I think the 600D twin lens kit is the one I would probably go for, with a case that can accommodate it plus the flash. The standard twin lens kit of the 100D is about $200 more so it will be a tough choice. I think on reflection one of these twin lens kits is the one I will go for, possibly the 600D with one. Also looking at opportunities within one of the schools to do some voluntary photography for them.