xxvietxjustinxx
Member
17 inch sony lcd for 400 bucks! what a bargin, sonly monitor + dell comp+ 400 watt altecs cant be beaten! unless u have klipsch of cours 
audiofile i am!
audiofile i am!
OT - My new computer
- Thread starter bradttu
- Start date
entice59
Active Member
i decided to get the first case. Should i 2x 256 opposed to one 1 512? i am planing to use xp, but also plan to upgrade when i need to later on... As for the powersupply, my friend said it should be fine. Asus, was recommended, i guess that was a good choice. The RAID option is only a 10 dollar difference and i think theres some other features missing, so i would just go for it. As for a hard drive and videocard, what do you recommend for those? i just want a 40 gig hard drive with 7200rpm, is there any good brands that wont mess up(ive had 2 friends with HPs that just went dead for no reason) and what about a video card, is there a good videocard you guys recommend me getting that i can use for games like command and conquer generals and the upcoming Halo, i have 200 dollars to spend on these two things since they are coming out of my pocket
Thanks guys for your quick responses
. The RAID option is only a 10 dollar difference and i think theres some other features missing, so i would just go for it. As for a hard drive and videocard, what do you recommend for those? i just want a 40 gig hard drive with 7200rpm, is there any good brands that wont mess up(ive had 2 friends with HPs that just went dead for no reason) and what about a video card, is there a good videocard you guys recommend me getting that i can use for games like command and conquer generals and the upcoming Halo, i have 200 dollars to spend on these two things since they are coming out of my pocket Thanks guys for your quick responses
yellowg555
Member
You can get a cheap GF4 Ti4200 for under 100, and an 80 gig Western Digital Special Edition for about 80-100 bux. I have (2) of the 120 gig versions, and the 8 megs of cache in them really make a huge difference performance wise. I believe Maxtor has come out with their own line of 8 meg cache hard drives as well. I'd highly recommend getting these versions of hard drives as most bottlenecks in computer systems occur at either the speed of the RAM or the speed of the hard drive. Speaking of which, you might wanna look into Corsair XMS memory or Mushkin memory...I run an AMD 1700+ with Mushkin Level 2 PC2100 RAM and beat out most ppl running P4 2.x GHz cuz they have slower RAM and hard drives; this is with my GF3 Ti200 too...
splash1914
Member
I like Sachs marine aquarium.... its on my last thread on the laptop on the left.. it has bubbles, sounds and the fish look like their really swimming..... plus you pick from a variety of fish..... or webshots has some cool photos you can use as screensavers...
entice59
Active Member
compusa is actually having a sale on COMPUSA brand(maxtor) hard drives 7200 RPM 8mb chache for 129.99 - mail in rebate 60. = 69.99 im giong to get that
GF4 Ti4200, do you know any good brands? most i see right now is $129 for only 64 megs and i only want to spend 100 or less....
is there something a geforce4 does that a geforce3 doesnt do. I think i'll go with a 64meg... any opinions?
GF4 Ti4200, do you know any good brands? most i see right now is $129 for only 64 megs and i only want to spend 100 or less....
is there something a geforce4 does that a geforce3 doesnt do. I think i'll go with a 64meg... any opinions?
j21kickster
Active Member
19"- JBL speakers- not much but i like it
yellowg555
Member
There's a lot more a GF4 does over a GF3. I'm not really knowledgeable about the specific differences, but in a nutshell, it has more "pipelines" which in theory allows it to process more data in the same amount of time it would take a GF3...or something like that. If you can wait like a couple more months, maybe even one, you could probably snag a good GF4, albeit 4200 or 4600, for much less. This all depends on when the Geforce FX and the new version of ATI's Radeon 9700 pro duke it out for bragging rights.
A word to the wise...you TRULY get what you pay for when it comes to computer parts. I've skimped out on components before and have regretted doing so later. El cheapo parts always seem to break down at the most inopportune of times. I'd suggest spending a bit more to get a good card. Read up about that stuff at www.anandtech.com, www.firingsquad.com, www.tomshardware.com, just to name a few...I haven't been up to date on all this stuff since I picked up this expensive fish hobby.
A word to the wise...you TRULY get what you pay for when it comes to computer parts. I've skimped out on components before and have regretted doing so later. El cheapo parts always seem to break down at the most inopportune of times. I'd suggest spending a bit more to get a good card. Read up about that stuff at www.anandtech.com, www.firingsquad.com, www.tomshardware.com, just to name a few...I haven't been up to date on all this stuff since I picked up this expensive fish hobby.
yellowg555
Member
Originally posted by j21kickster
19"- JBL speakers- not much but i like it
Hehe, not meaning to brag, but I LOVE my Klipsch Promedia 5.1's! They are the bomb diggity! The clarity and crispness of them are simply amazing for computer speakers.
j21kickster
Active Member
those are some good speakers- heard em'
richard rendos
Active Member
Here is my system. I build all mine myself.
Asus A7N8X deluxe nVidia geforce 2 mainboard, AMD Athlon XP 2400+, 1.0 GB ram PC3200 with cooper heat spreaders, DVD-Rom, CD-RW, 30 GB 7200 RPM IDE HD ATA 133, GeForce 4 Ti4200 128 MB video card (asus), integrated sound and NIC on mainboard, ThermalTake HD cooler, 5 80mm case fans, RaidMax 400 watt power supply with 2 fans, rounded cables, blue cold cathode light, Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse, Microtek 18" flat panel LCD monitor, Titanium GT su
oofer speaker set, D-Link broadband router, D-Link cable modem. Computer case was modded with clear acrylic windows in side and top and painted with auto paint (gun metal grey) 2 coats primer, 2 coats paint, 2 coats clear coat.
Asus A7N8X deluxe nVidia geforce 2 mainboard, AMD Athlon XP 2400+, 1.0 GB ram PC3200 with cooper heat spreaders, DVD-Rom, CD-RW, 30 GB 7200 RPM IDE HD ATA 133, GeForce 4 Ti4200 128 MB video card (asus), integrated sound and NIC on mainboard, ThermalTake HD cooler, 5 80mm case fans, RaidMax 400 watt power supply with 2 fans, rounded cables, blue cold cathode light, Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse, Microtek 18" flat panel LCD monitor, Titanium GT su
fshhub
Active Member
definitely a 350 is adequate for power, but my point wasmore to get a good brand adn pay a few extra bucks
TRUST ME HERE!
we had to recall about 400 systems that were built with power supplies built in taiwan. After replacing quite a few, and finding that about 40% of those needed much more than just a power supply(but damaged by the ps) . We decided to put out a recall adn replace the ps's. These power supplies came with the standard 1yr warranty. But the manufacturer did not honor them and we wound up dishing out 1000s(6 to 9) each month to correct the issue, until we jsut recalled and replaced them all.
Go ANTEC OR ENLIGHT for a power supply. Not saying it will happen, but the odds are not nearly as poor as many of us would think. I never thought that they would be that big of a problem, but I honestly believe that had they been left alone, not more than 10 would have survived a full year. Most were croaking right at 7 months(give or take a few weeks), even ones that were barely used. And as mentioned many of them had fried mobos hard drives and even processors as well as accessories with their deaths.
I agree with the logic of the 512 MB of ram, 1 is a better choice. And unless they had changed quite a bit, I would go with 333 not the 400. The price was not worth the difference, when I had looked just before Christmas, in fact, I had found that the 333 was more stable and faster(at that time).
As for hard drives, I like Western Digital, easy to set up and use and they do honor their warranties, IF anything happens. I have had very good luck with them as far as not having problems but on the rare occasion that we did, it was a fast and painless return policy that keeps me happy. Maxtors, are my 2d choice, yes the ATA133 is nice(in theory) but I have not seen an improvement over the WD ATA100.
Pay the few extra bucks and get the ti4200(128meg), IMO. It is worth thte extra few bucks. If you want to skimp, on money, get a slower processor, the 2200 vs the 2400 would be less of a step back than the vidoe card.
Oh, backt o the ps, decied on a video card, first. A few of the new ones require a minimum of a 350 watt supply, alone.
TRUST ME HERE!
we had to recall about 400 systems that were built with power supplies built in taiwan. After replacing quite a few, and finding that about 40% of those needed much more than just a power supply(but damaged by the ps) . We decided to put out a recall adn replace the ps's. These power supplies came with the standard 1yr warranty. But the manufacturer did not honor them and we wound up dishing out 1000s(6 to 9) each month to correct the issue, until we jsut recalled and replaced them all.
Go ANTEC OR ENLIGHT for a power supply. Not saying it will happen, but the odds are not nearly as poor as many of us would think. I never thought that they would be that big of a problem, but I honestly believe that had they been left alone, not more than 10 would have survived a full year. Most were croaking right at 7 months(give or take a few weeks), even ones that were barely used. And as mentioned many of them had fried mobos hard drives and even processors as well as accessories with their deaths.
I agree with the logic of the 512 MB of ram, 1 is a better choice. And unless they had changed quite a bit, I would go with 333 not the 400. The price was not worth the difference, when I had looked just before Christmas, in fact, I had found that the 333 was more stable and faster(at that time).
As for hard drives, I like Western Digital, easy to set up and use and they do honor their warranties, IF anything happens. I have had very good luck with them as far as not having problems but on the rare occasion that we did, it was a fast and painless return policy that keeps me happy. Maxtors, are my 2d choice, yes the ATA133 is nice(in theory) but I have not seen an improvement over the WD ATA100.
Pay the few extra bucks and get the ti4200(128meg), IMO. It is worth thte extra few bucks. If you want to skimp, on money, get a slower processor, the 2200 vs the 2400 would be less of a step back than the vidoe card.
Oh, backt o the ps, decied on a video card, first. A few of the new ones require a minimum of a 350 watt supply, alone.
entice59
Active Member
whoa didnt know that, the powersupply it comes with is a RAIDMAX, ever heard of it? antec PS is 50 dollars for 350, is this worth it, or will the RAIDMAX be reliable enough? i already put in the order online.
heres a link to the powersupply that comes with the case
http://www.dealsonic.com/raid35pen4am.html
if you still think its crappy i think i will invest in another PS.
heres a link to the powersupply that comes with the case
http://www.dealsonic.com/raid35pen4am.html
if you still think its crappy i think i will invest in another PS.
yellowg555
Member
Try Enermax too...those are rock solid and will never fail. Enermax is kinda expensive though...I paid $50-60 for my 350 watt. But I've never had a power issue, and I have 3 cd-roms, 4 hard drives, 3 case fans and a Thermaltake Volcano7+ heatsink running at 6000 rpm running off of it.
fshhub
Active Member
not trying to be ignorant, but never heard of them adn at that price, can honestly say that I personally would avoid buying them just for that reason.
If you need to save, enlights are generally cheaper than antec
and We have had real ggod luck with startechs which are definitely cheaper than antec. i paid almost 90 bucks for mine jsut the other month.
and if your video is a g4 or something that doesn't need a bigger suply, a 300 watt should be fine. You could save a few bucks there. Prices do go up pretty good after 300 watts
If you need to save, enlights are generally cheaper than antec
and We have had real ggod luck with startechs which are definitely cheaper than antec. i paid almost 90 bucks for mine jsut the other month.
and if your video is a g4 or something that doesn't need a bigger suply, a 300 watt should be fine. You could save a few bucks there. Prices do go up pretty good after 300 watts
entice59
Active Member
im just curious, what would happen if i got 300 watt and i got a videocard that needed 350 watts? i seriously doubt i will buy another harddrive, overclock my computer. I probably will add a dvd drive later on and also just upgrade the CPU and the video card
Ok what i have done is emailed the company to drop the 12 dollar powersupply and i will buy find one of the recommended powersupplies you said, probably not enermax since its really pricey right now. Hopefully it will come through before they pack it all up. If not i'll just get another powersupply anyways.
Ok what i have done is emailed the company to drop the 12 dollar powersupply and i will buy find one of the recommended powersupplies you said, probably not enermax since its really pricey right now. Hopefully it will come through before they pack it all up. If not i'll just get another powersupply anyways.
entice59
Active Member
not right now, im unemployed, i can not afford a high end videocard. A decent one that would probably last me a year would be nice. Either a geforce or an ATI, which one would you recommend for under 100? probably will wait until next sunday to see whats on sale.
right now compusa has this on sale
[
http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...867&pfp=BROWSE
these are on sale now, do you recommend this?
(i know i seem like im worrying about the videocard, but im using an HP with an integrated video motherboard, i didnt know what i got myself into until it was too late. I want enjoy the power of AGP instead of the crap PCI radeon im using now)
i will probably spend a little more so i wont have to upgrade my powersupply later on, i will probably just get 350
right now compusa has this on sale
[
http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...867&pfp=BROWSE
these are on sale now, do you recommend this?
(i know i seem like im worrying about the videocard, but im using an HP with an integrated video motherboard
, i didnt know what i got myself into until it was too late. I want enjoy the power of AGP instead of the crap PCI radeon im using now) i will probably spend a little more so i wont have to upgrade my powersupply later on, i will probably just get 350