I have about 10 games on both SW Pro and DI. Maybe a little less on DI.

Quickly, SW draws you in much faster than DI (in my opinion).

It's my experience that you need 2 hours+ on JJP games to start getting the feel of them, and get your head around their "grandeur". That's why JJP games are great in a home environment. The game becomes a sustained pleasure, that burns bright, but slower.

SW was fun. It kicked me in the Jimmy right away with its theme and music, and fast balls. It was like a quickie. It left me satisfied, but I walked away from it easily too... I haven't craved its gameplay since.

Is that bad?

I work with server and desktop hardware.

You cannot blame JJP for a faulty SSD. They are made in another country, and often fail regardless of what machine they are installed in.

Come on.

Same is true for SD cards. They often fail. Stern cannot be blamed for premature SD card failures.

Right?

At least the CPU portion of JJP games are not some proprietary hardware. Surely you see the value in that...

Hm. Let's compare apples with apples here.

The whole PC in that metal case does all CPU, graphic and sound processing.

A SD card is only for storage.

How much is the CPU board in modern Stern? I think I read about $500?

How much is the computer in the metal box (which again, includes a motherboard, a CPU with heatsink, a SSD and RAM (memory))?

$200, on sale on JJP.com.

OK, I will grant you this, a little. If the motherboard's chipset and x64 infrastructure stays generic (for Ubuntu drivers and such), swapping a motherboard should not cause an issue. BUT, you're right. If Ubuntu's missing a device driver that is needed and not found on the new motherboard, then yes, there's a negative impact here. You're right. But Linux's known to "run on practically anything"...

Again though, pros and cons, and $500 proprietary versus $200 generic. I don't call that a "shitty" design, but a smart choice.

No. Wait. What? I never mentioned what I think Stern pays for their boards. Of course it's cheaper wholesale. I thought I had read that Stern charges the consumers $500 for their proprietary CPU boards (the main board, correct?). That's all I said.

Well, maybe in 10-15 years we won't mind that there's more cabling in WOZ when compared to node boards that you can't find or repair anymore? There's a whole forum thread about the sustainability of Stern's new node boards, so I won't summarize it here.

Of course we can. I mean, you're wrong, but sure.

Seriously, I enjoyed my time on SW when I played it. I also enjoyed my time on AS (Pro and LE). I also like playing GB. I'm not a Stern hater. Just saying, it's fair to mention hardware in this thread because for me and others, hardware is a factor when purchasing.

Having said that, I really wanted to say "Wow!" when I saw SW Pro. SW is my dream theme. I had fun playing, but I didn't say "Wow". Is that bad?