The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

A fellow AAC Direct client found my blog and got in contact with me, so I have learned more about what happened to the fabled, ill-fated AAC Direct / All American Computers (AAC), owned and operated by Kyle Felstein.

The Downfall
In the closing months of AAC, when you purchased a computer, the money you paid wasn't spent on your parts, but the computer that had been built before it. AAC was using each new order to pay for the one before it - they were behind, but it was manageable for a time.

The hardware resellers, however, were not amused; their payments had to wait until the next computer was ordered at AAC. Because of this, they were reticent to send out new equipment to a buyer (AAC) who didn't pay them on time; this delay, in turn, prolonged the build of each computer, which made things worse for both AAC and the resellers expecting payment.

Some venture capitalists became a glimmer of hope; however, negotiations not only fell through, but because the LiquidXS the potential investors had ordered was two months overdue, they threatened to sue AAC for the bill.

The carpet was pulled out from under them rather rapidly after that.

The Fallout
I am not certain, nor was the customer, who had ordered a LiquidXS prior to my PureXS, but apparently Kyle's assets were liable for AAC's debt. This would include his car, his house, bad things. We speculated on that based on what rumors we've found on teh interwebs and a few forums.

A week or so prior to folding their store doors closed; gleaned from a local computer store mentioned in the comments of this blog.

Apparently my PureXS may have been one of the last complete computers built there, if not the last. I can't find anyone who had a full, successful build after mine, in which case I have a bit of a collector's item.

There was at least two computers that went out immediately after mine, and both were shipped incomplete - if debt collectors are after Kyle's personal assets, I'm sure everything in the building was seized. Since Kyle didn't have the parts needed to complete the order, he had the option of leaving it with the store to be seized or shipping it as it was to the customer.

Things went bad quickly after that; Kyle never had a chance to e-mail the customer what happened, so imagine his surprise. This created a bit of a stink online - as the customers couldn't reach anyone at AAC or find any way to contact Kyle.

My Initial Reluctance to Post My Findings
The initial reports came in badly worded English, slathered in vitriolic phrases. All I knew for sure (I checked) was that AAC was indeed dead; I wasn't about to publish what could have been slander without knowing what happened - it has taken this long for the picture to become clear.

The poor unlucky souls whose orders were after mine - they spent money and got an incomplete system back - at best. If I had known AAC was going under I would have gotten a Dell XPS; I wanted the support. Having the complete PureXS in my house, I have no regrets; I've seen Dell XPS's up close to compare the quality and performance and I can deal with one last computer I support, despite having four children.

To the people who were burned for hundreds or thousands of dollars, there is no amount of anger at the service rendered that is unjustified. I would tender to my fellow AAC clientele that it appears AAC tried to hold back the end; their last bid failed, and everyone suffered in the end.

[All My Blogs about AAC Direct / All American Computers]

Got TV-Out Working!

All I had to do was plug the Adapter to the secondary port of my Master X1900 XT, not the main one, and turn off Crossfire, and then Pharra can "see" the TV and start outputting to it.

MAME LOOKS GREAT!

DVI to Component Out Adapter doesn't work

The darn ATI DVI -> Component Out adapter [see post] I bought does nothing.

I set my resolution to 800x600, then went to Advanced, Adapter Tab, "See All Modes," set 640x480, 32bit color, 60MHz (didn't see 30MHz for interlaced TV), and shut Pharra, my PureXS [blogs|shrine], down. I turned on the Sharp 32" TV, rebooted, and nothing. The TV never got a signal.

Perhaps X1900 XT's can't do this. Perhaps I should turn off Crossfire... but not, it should have gotten a signal at least.

Bleh. $25 for the adapter and $20 for the (far too short) component cable). And here all I wanted to do was run MAME.

ATI DVI -> Component Adapter and Component Cables en route

They're on their way!

Brand	SAPPHIRE
Model	100907
Features	DVI to HDTV Adapter

Brand	CABLES TO GO
Model	29112
Features:
	Velocity component video interconnects by Impact Acoustics will improve the performance of your progressive scan video sources by providing a much better interconnect solution than the “throw away” cables that are included with most consumer electronics products. The oxygen free copper center conductor and foamed PE dielectric work to maintain 75 ohm characteristic impedance. The dual braided oxygen free copper shields and aluminum foil sheath offer protection from environmental noise and interference. Robustly constructed using color coded molded connectors that attach to an ultra flexible jacket, Velocity cables are the epitome of easy installation and identification. 24K gold plated heavy duty connectors ensure long lasting, highly conductive signal connections. Connectors: RCA Plug x3 to RCA Plug x3 Oxygen free copper conductors for efficient signal transmission 100% Aluminum foil and braided OFC shield protect against noise and interference Bonded cable construction provides for neat and easy component video connections Molded connectors feature precision made 24K gold plated contacts to ensure long lasting quality Ultra flexible jacket for easy installation UL listed
Specifications:
Type	Component Cables
Length	3 FT
Color	Blue
	A high quality component video interconnect, a perfect upgrade to the cables that come with consumer electronic components. Ideal for connecting progressive scan video components to monitors and other devices. Weight: 0.38 lbs

Hopefully this will get my PureXS working with MAME on the 32" TV.

Good Weekend

Connections
Well Maria's school took precedence over her watching Connections and answering more questions, but that's not for lack of trying on her part: her mother told her to wait for summer. She asked me if I would promise to work with her on it after school.

How many kids ask for that? Connections was made in the late 70's, right?

Maria's Weekend Out
My mom and dad kept Maria for most of the weekend and they had a fabulous time. Dulce got a chance to be the biggest daughter and boy did she have work to do, but she enjoyed it. Still, at the end of it all, when Sunday at 3pm came and Maria came home, Dulce was the first to run up and hug her sister, followed closely by me, then Alejandrita. Jose Francisco, who had been napping, stirred, and Maria ran off to greet him with as much enthusiasm as we greeted her with.

Mom took her to see a retired horse ranch in Alachua. The ranch isn't retired, the horses are... former Police horses, race horses... all kinds of horses and ponies.

Disk Space!
Jock gave me a SATA cable for my new 400GB Western Digital Hard Drive because frickingFrys.com / Outpost.com didn't label the item as OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer, which often means "You get nothing but the bare unit, no cables, no box, no software." I couldn't use it. For three days it was very pretty, and utterly useless. Jock solved all that by bringing a SATA power adapter and controller cable.

2nd Hard Drive Cures Ills
Having my SWAP file on the 2ndary drive has made Supreme Commander imminently more playable, but far from smooth. I can now complete my 1v1 games with 500 units apiece without much problem, and a disastrous 4v4 game that was simply too stuttery to control on my $3,600 behemoth (PureXS) became choppy, but playable. I can't stand choppy, so I refuse to face more than 2 AI (no 2v2) which severely cripples the game still.

Armed Assault also runs a lot better in this configuration, and I have a feeling Oblivion would a well, if I could but run it - there's the Oblivion official patch, the new unofficial patch, and all the MODs that I needed to find new versions of, or find if the old ones worked with the newest patch(es). By the time I got all of that sorted out, I'd lost my motivation to play.

Marguerite
Billy came over with his son, Zach, and his daughter, Marguerite, who is Dulce's friend. They spent an hour here, which was all Billy had - poor guy has been so busy with the migration to Outlook (e-mail) at work. It was good of him to take what time he had and let us know he hadn't fallen off the face of the planet, his children screaming as he hurtles away at 1,700 kilometers per hour, being left in space a burnt husk as the planet careens away on it's orbit.

Betcha don't usually get that visual.

Supreme Commander Beta Review

Executive Summary:
Supreme Commander is, along with Company of Heroes and Rise of Nations, one of the best Real-Time Strategy games I have had the pleasure of playing. However, it's taxing to a $3,600 gaming rig.

Review Proper:
I found a MOD that allows me to play skirmish mode online, choosing how many and what kind of AI to go against, which is of immense value. I've played many games, one with a human ally, and here are my findings:

1. Pharra's E6700 Core Two Duo (2.66GHz) cannot handle four players with a 750 unit cap, which is a notch above the default 500 unit cap. 750*4=3,000.
   
2. There are up to 8 players in a game. 500*8=4,000. Pharra, a $3,600 computer, won't be able to max out the number of possible players in the game.
   
3. Three players at 500 unit cap appears to work fine - I'm not sure what four at 500uc would do. So while 3,000 killed, 1,500 was fine, and hopefully 2,000 will be too. I'll have to test this.
   

The AI is refreshing because most games feature: Easy, Normal, Hard, and Cheats; Supreme Commander, on the other hand, offers flavors. When playing RTS games you're really interested in changing what kind of game you're playing against the AI - are you attacking or digging in for a defense? Usually you can only control this by hand-selecting what kind of maps you play or making your own maps. Supreme Commander allows you to choose AI's that rush, build up a great economy and then rape you, or turtle in a difficult defense (and also still attacks, but not as much as the other two). This makes Supreme Commander highly enjoyable.

In my playtesting, I usually played against a Turtle AI with one ally, a Balanced AI. The Turtle is more than capable of countering everything the balanced throws at it until the Balanced AI reaches tech level 3, and then it can get hurt. However, Balanced AI never won by itself, it always needed me to help tear town Turtle AI's incredible defenses. Never in an RTS have I seen an AI turtle so well, with force fields galore, and so many AA guns even spy planes can't survive. We're talking SPAM amounts of AA guns, it's just incredible. I sent my ultimate Spiderbot monstrosity supported by waves of airpower and it was annihilated before it could tear down the shield generators, or even get in range of them. Nothing survives. Turtle AI lives up to the name.

Where Turtle AI falls short is defending it's perimeter. It usually picks two or three main bases and bulks those up like Sumo contenders, and leaves its outlying areas unguarded. It will respond via airpower when attacked, but if you just SPAM air superiority fighters, you'll counter it's counter-attack and win.

Where all the AI I've played with so far falls short is Navy. On a map where Turtle AI and me and my Balanced AI ally were separated by water, neither attacked each other except by air, and I saw no major troop landings from air transports. On ground maps, Turtle AI killed me once by overwhelming me with lame Tech 1 and Tech 2 units after it had built it's impenetrable defense - I'd wasted my resources trying to get to Tech 3 and didn't have enough forces to stop him.

In short, Supreme Commander looks brilliant, but I'm saddened that the game is so taxing. After the poorly coded Oblivion and Gothic 3, it is the only game that slows Pharra down. If the release is just as bad, than it will be the first well-coded game to do so. (If you don't believe Oblivion and Gothic 3 are coded poorly, then look at their bug fix logs and research Oblivion's development for the XBOX 360 prior to PC release, and how much money was spent optimizing for the XBOX 360, not the PC).

Multiplayer Review:
This is for those who love getting their game on against humans. Supreme Commander is all about pacing and balance. Resources cannot be depleted, the only thing that limits your growth is how fast you are gathering versus spending them. With the games revolutionary cueing system, the likes of which I have never seen done so well before, this game flows like water.

As I am, now being a father of four, mostly neutered and don't care to OwnZor other males in videogames as much, I can't speak further. I will say that the possibility remains that this game will net an intense multiplayer following. Longevity is based on MODdability, and Chris Taylor (Dungeon Siege) loves to make his games moddable.

Long live All American Computers, or rather, Kyle Felstein

All American Computers is gone, and with it, my warranty, but hopefully not Kyle's house, the owner of AAC.

My hat is off to the man who had a great company, a great product, great customer service, and knowledge so deep you couldn't shove a spear all the way through it.

I hope he does better in the future, and that his wife supports him.

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

I love my PureXS!

I haven't been well motivated to post because I have my computer (see below) and we're in the middle of Election season. But I'm happy and doing well.

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

PureXS Arrival Photographs

It's here!

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

PEEEUUUUURRRRE EEEEX EEEESSSS

Maria (my lovely lady) just called and told me something has arrived. Baxworld's shipping information still doesn't show it but who cares! I'm on my way home for lunch. So sad we'll be so soon to part. I probably won't open it so I can open it with my cousin Paul tonight.

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

PureXS arrives in ORLANDO, Florida

See the tracking information page.

Yes, it's true! My PureXS is in Orlando, FL. I doubt it will arrive at my place today, which is sad.

Ironically, my PureXS will be closer to my friend Chris Brown, in Kissimmee, who is South of me and farther away from its origin (Indiana) than I am. Maybe the plane flew over Alachua County or the City of Gainesville before landing there... it MUST have come by plane to have such a wierd route.

THE BIG E-MAIL
I sent the guys this e-mail.

FRIDAY before SATURDAY'S LAN PARTY
Since my cousin Paul is stuck at home guarding the house and tending the aging dog, Yogi, with his folks gone, I plan on taking my system over to his place and messing around there, getting stuff installed, going "Wow" and making "whooping" noises. I'll get to bed at a responsible time for Saturday, but I'm going to ask him if I can sleep over.

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

PureXS to arrive in Atlanta tomorrow...

Shipping update (see my Google Page for complete info) Oh well. I suppose 10:30PM versus 9:37PM today is about the same to me as "ETA ATLANTA 0712/14" which I would guess is 7:12AM tomorrow? I have no idea. I can't imagine them guessing the minutes like that but there you go. Hopefully it will be here tomorrow evening.

Mmmm mmm can't wait. Sitting here doping around with Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. Glee. Yay. Bleh.

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

PureXS Shipping Update 1

"2148/13" my PureXS is arriving in Atlanta sooner than 10:30PM? The time changed.

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

PureXS is SHIPPING

The copy/paste won't fit here so check my Google Page on my PureXS shipping!

My Computer Ships Today, to arrive Friday!

David with AAC called me (called my house first and got my 6yo) at work and said the shipping price comes to a whopping $100.89 (ouch - that's over half the cost of Maria's new 19" widescreen LCD) and will arrive no later than Friday at 5pm.

So now all I have to do is... WAIT MORE.

Ooh and Kyle just called me and is going to sign my PureXS with his scrawl and printed name! Oboy! He says the guy who is going to take it is due any minute so he has to sign it and box it up right now. Fun fun!

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

"All Circuits are Busy Now" - I can't reach AAC

I can't reach All American Computers by phone. I get the message "All Circuits are Busy Now" in a woman's nasal tone from the phone company. The call never actually gets to them. If they've got major phone problems up there in Indiana they might not be able to reach me, either. Curse the phone conglomorates!

I am going insane. They need me to give them Maria's credit card information so they can charge me shipping so they can ship the PureXS so it can arrive in time for Saturday the 16th, when my big, bad LAN Party is, so the guys and I can have fun so I don't have to call them all and say "Sorry no party" after four weeks of planning. Aaaah!

I'm okay, I'm okay.

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

I called All American Computers

The LAN Party is a Go
The bottom line is good: My PC will be with me in time for the LAN Party on Saturday, September 16th!

Kyle says if the LIAN LI side-panel doesn't arrive by Tuesday he'll ship the case with the default panel and ship the clear side-panel later.

The RAM issue hasn't been resolved, it's still running at 677MHz, however, a BIOS revision will probably fix that later, and as he put it "The motherboard is built to have RAM at this speed. When folks overclock their RAM they can actually mess up their timings and slow their system down. I don't think that would happen here but the point is the benefit is negligible and probably not worth waiting for (with an update down the road)."

So I'm a stickler and I want that 800MHz - at the very least I want to try it out and see my 3dMark 2006 scores to check for what difference it makes - but I'm content to do that on my own and not let it hold up my system any longer.

One More Weekend with Mrs. Chop-Fest
I guess I have one more weekend with Clara, my 4yo gaming rig, humdrumming around, trying to find games made between 2001-2003 that I might actually like to play. I'm so sick of low-frame rates.

I tried Star Wars: Empire at War, which is actually a fun little RTS due to its "conquer the galaxy" mode where you collect planets, have them build stuff and send those fleets places to invade other planets. Super keen. As an RTS it's very bland, standard "overwhelm the enemy" and "watch out for air power" when on the ground, instead of space. Anyway, it was running all right on Clara, until I had a lot of planets pumping out stuff, and then just the UNIVERSE map was slow, never mind once I got big fleets of ships going, even with a unit cap. Talk about stupid! So I stopped playing it.

Future Gaming
I got Call of Juarez but I can't play it on Clara - so I'll have to wait for my PureXS, and when I get that I'm pretty sure all I'll be doing is playing Oblivion, so I'm not sure why I got it. It looked Western.

I also want to try out X3, Rise of Legends, F.E.A.R. multiplayer and... a bunch of other stuff.

In the mean time, I have the Soundtrack to Oblivion (awards), and I listen to that almost daily at work. I dream not of Oblivion, but of Draco, Shila and the lands of the Ancient Dragon, not dissimilar in setting and genre.

Hearing my Baby Humm...
I had a very odd sensation while on the phone with Kyle. He asked me to listen and then he said "I'm turning on your (PureXS)." I heard the switch and then her jump to life, all fans ablaze. One immediately died down a bit, and the other waited longer - X1900's in Crossfire, only one will immediately slow down, the other waits for Windows to post back to it. I heard her quiet way down once Windows was at the login prompt.

It struck that cord in me, not nearly as sharply, as when I've seen my children in ultrasounds, or heard them thumping and felt them moving about. It was oddly surreal, and I was kind of disappointed in myself for feeling that way - but there it is. Granted, my children made me cry with joy when hearing them - this did not. But I did feel the pangs. It struck the same cord.

Wierd, huh? He was just trying to demonstrate the minor differences between the X1950's and the X1900's (in Crossfire, both X1950's slow down immediately, whoopdiedoo).

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

I kind of WANT MY COMPUTER

I have no more pictures to lavish upon my Internet Shrine to my future PureXS, and now I'm worried that I will have to cancel the Sept. 16th Saturday LAN Party.

Kyle at All American Computers is still working on the RAM issue and waiting for the side-panel from LIAN LI, the case manufacturer. I'll call him after lunch today.

David's PureXS - Photograph!

What's to say? It looks freaking awesome! (click to enlarge)
Side panel and Seagate Barracuda 320GB's are the last parts Kyle & company are waiting for.

See it on my Google Page

My PureXS from All American Computers

See my Google Page / Shrine on this PC, complete with pictures, a link to every blog post, and thoughts.

• CPU:
  INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6700 2.66GHZ 4MB CACHE
• MOTHERBOARD:
  INTEL D975XBX 1066FSB CF CORE 2 MB
• RAM:
  OCZ 800MHZ DDR2 2X1024MB GOLD XTC DIMMS
• CASE:
  LIAN LI PC-V1000 B BLACK ALUMINUM CASE
  CLEAR SIDE PANEL
• FANS:
  120MM RED LED CASE FAN (TWO)
• POWER SUPPLY:
  620 WATT ENERMAX LIBERTY POWER SUPPLY
• VIDEOCARDS:
  ATI 512MB X1900 XT PCI-E CROSSFIRE CARD
  ATI 512MB X1900 XT PCI-E CARD
• HARD DRIVES (RAID 0):
  SEAGATE 320 GIG 7200 RPM SERIAL ATA HD
  SEAGATE 320 GIG 7200 RPM SERIAL ATA HD
• DVD/CD DRIVE:
  NEC ND-3550AGBP DVD+/-RW DUAL LAYER BK
• OPERATING SYSTEM:
  MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION
• SOUNDCARD:
  CREATIVE X-FI XTREME MUSIC EDITION
• SPEAKERS:
  1X-530 Logitech 5.1 Speaker set
  
• WARRANTY & SUPPORT:
  SYSTEM / 1 YEAR PART-3 YEAR LABOR WARR.

Mmmmmm... E6700 with Crossfire...
I should have this next week.

I have a lot of friends who want to see this rig (7 of them). An old high-school buddy invited me to Kissimmee to see it! I can remember when his Silicon Graphics (SGI) Indigo 2 was incredible - saw bump-mapping in hardware on a then $20,000 SGI workstation, 8 copies of non-multithreaded Unix DOOM ran on it. Now even my old gaming rig outperforms it for video (but not rendering, I think).

I digress. That is normal.

Paul (cousin), Billy (the Pitbull), Brandon, Dennis, Chris (Kissimmee), Jock & Christian!