Since I am getting a monster PC for my digital photography, I didn't feel right with my wife using the old PC (PII, 300 Mhz). This one should smoke the old one for a decent price. I will use the monitor and speakers from the old PC.
Let me know what you think? Here is the link:
http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishR.asp?ID=389112
Looks good. A couple of suggestions:
Substitute a Samsung or LG CD-RW for the Lite-On (or get an extended warranty) -- Lite-on is very good at making drives that seem to last about 13-15 months (we've had a lot of them die; fortunately we've got all Dells with 3-year warranties so the replacements are free). If you are considering Sony, realize that their CD-RWs all come from Lite-On.
Upgrade and get PC3200 RAM - that way you are set if you upgrade the CPU (or for that matter, for now - you can run at 400 MHz on memory even with a 333 CPU on this board - that is what I'm typing this on).
You'll need a copy of Windows for the system as well. Cheapest way to buy it is with the hardware.
One other thing - get the JB version of the WD drive -- besides the advantage of the larger cache (8 vs. 2 meg), the warranty is 3 years instead of 1.
very nice. A couple of points:
1) does she like beige? You can get equivalent cases from Chieftec or Chenming in various colors, but you would need to purchase the power supply separately.
2) On the Antec SmartFans, I have the similar Vantec ThermoFlow, and the thermal sensor is located near the fan hub on the intake side. This means that it measures the temperature of incoming air. Therefore, you would want to use them only on fans oriented to blow out (typically the rear case fans, but not the front).
Thanks! I will replace the CD writer with another brand. As for the operating system, I will use Windows 2000 pro which I am running on this old system. For the color, my wife specifically picked beige, because it matches our current monitor. She is not one for flashy looking PCs. The fans will be on the intake, but I will run them at full power with the exaust fans connected to the mobo. I just wanted the fans I chose for the ball bearings.
I will upgrade the RAM to PC3200. When the AMD 3200+ price drops, I may get it so the RAM upgrade makes sense.
what does she do on it?!?!
that system is a lot better than mine and im a medium-core gamer...
you can replace the vid card for a radeon 9200 64mb for 70...
That system would do practicly anything she wanted to do on it. Looks good to me. BTW, I only saw 1 CD drive meaning you can't burn on the fly. If you don't burn often, it's ok, but i always like having atleast 2 CD drives. Also so you don't have to switch CD as often when using programs that require them. A standard CD-ROM would probably cost $30-$40 to add on. Or you could make it DVD. All depends what she's gonn use it for, and how much you want to spend. And you can of course always add the latest medium technology later instead of getting an extra drive now. Just a thought. Good Luck!! ;)
The Radeon 8500LE 128mb is $82 at Newegg and is better than a Radeon 9200
What about a 60 GB HDD? 40 is pretty much low-end now. Of course, 512 MB of RAM wouldn't hurt.
Good suggestion since volume is cheap now in days. The 40 was selected because no video or graphics was going to be saved to this machine - just OS, MS Office, and a couple other programs. My second new machine will house all the large volumes of information. Even so, I will look into a 60 or 80 gig drive.
Mark
I just bought one of the Maxtor 120g hard drives, the 8 meg model with 3 year warranty, it cost 112.50 that's just over 90 cents a gig. Amazing when you think about what hard drives cost just a few short years ago.
I?m really not so sure how they stack up against the Western Digital, but it is virtually silent, I have to get down next to the box to even here it.
The only other thing is, if you are going to buy Crucial anyway, perhaps you might consider using the link over to the left there. You would most likely qualify for free 2nd day shipping, the warranty is great and a small percentage of the sale helps support this site. ;)
Thanks for plugging our "Crucial Tech" link. It's true that a small percentage of the sale helps support Poasters.com.
We've been reluctant to bring back banner ads to this site, and opted for the low-tech approach of a link instead. Although it keeps the eye-clutter down, it doesn't bring in much revenue. Of course, that means more out-of-pocket expenses. The fact is, we are always in the hole. We have never made a profit from Poasters.
Some day the banner ads may return. But if they do, they will be kept to a minimum. The longer we can go without the ads, the better.
So how does Poasters survive? It is 100% staffed by volunteers, who are computer knowledgeable, selfless, and dedicated to helping others.
Is there a network card on the computer you're buying...er...making? Unless you're doing wireless, you'll need it if you don't want to lug your camera or a CD over to your computer every time you want to put some information onto the other PC. If you're networked, a 60 GB HDD should be all that computer will ever need.
A network port is on the motherboard and I am getting an 80 gig drive for 101 dollars. Best volume/dollar ratio I have seen.
Quote from: mwhals on August 15, 2003, 19:43 hrs
A network port is on the motherboard and I am getting an 80 gig drive for 101 dollars. Best volume/dollar ratio I have seen.
That's way too expensive. You can buy a 120GB Western Digital 7200 rpm hard drive from NewEgg.com (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=14&manufactory=1306&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1) for a total of $96, with free delivery. Or, an 80GB for only $72, with free delivery.
It's worth getting the 120JB for $101 vs. the 120BB at $96 -- even if the speed difference doesn't matter to you (8 MB cache on the JB, 2 on the BB), the warranty difference (3 years for the JB, 1 for the BB) is worth the small price premium.
Quote from: Scuzzy on August 15, 2003, 19:46 hrs
Quote from: mwhals on August 15, 2003, 19:43 hrs
A network port is on the motherboard and I am getting an 80 gig drive for 101 dollars. Best volume/dollar ratio I have seen.
That's way too expensive. You can buy a 120GB Western Digital 7200 rpm hard drive from NewEgg.com (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=14&manufactory=1306&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1) for a total of $96, with free delivery. Or, an 80GB for only $72, with free delivery.
Oops! I meant a 120 gig WD drive for 101 dollars. This is the one that Query mentions in his posts (I guess he didn't catch my typo or knew what I meant).
I have ordered the stuff from Newegg.com, except the Crucial RAM, which I ordered through this site's link.
Here is the rundown:
ANTEC| KSTN TOWER SX835II ($80.00)
ASUS A7N8X DELUXE ($119.99)
AMD 2500/333 ATHLON XP BARTON Retail ($88.00)
ATI RADEON 9200 128M TV ($119.00)
Two 256 MB PC3200 Crucial RAM ($108)
WD 7200 RPM 120 GIG HD 8MB-CACHE ($101.00)
PLEXTOR DVD ROM ($33.99)
SAMSUNG CDRW 52x24x52 ($48.99)
ALPS Floppy disk ($7.00)
MS WINDOWS XP PRO w/SP1a ($143.00)
Total: $848.97
It's a couple of hundred more than when I started, but I upgraded the video, hard drive,added a DVD ROM and went with Win XP rather than Win 2000, which we have on the current machine.
If I can't get Win XP to work with our scanner, I will install 2000 on the new machine and hold Win XP for my digital photography PC (next build)
I will use our 19" Hitachi monitor and Advent speakers from our current PC. My wife picked out the case (with my approval) and I picked out the rest.
Now for the hard part: Waiting.
Mark
Wow. Excellent choice. That system should smoke once completed. I'm looking forward to your review.
Hey, nice system.
I think you?ll like that case, I sure like mine, (ok, so I like beige ::)) the power supply runs very quiet. I haven?t used a real power supply tester, but the utility that came with my Board show consistent voltage readouts.
Thanks for using our link for the ram.
I got the parts yesterday and put them together yesterday evening. I put windows XP on it yesterday as well. It has been burning in for the last 12 hours.
Now I need to network it with my old PC box, so that I can pull some files over. Much easier than installing the old hard drive into the new PC temporarily.
I can say that it is MUCH faster than my old 300 Mhz PII.
Mark
how bout a cross over cable?
just make sure both pcs have NIC/ integrated LAN
Or why not just get a switch and network all three computers?
I have a router, which seems to work. Now to configure the old PC for my mother-in-law.
Mark H
PS - Why can't I get the smilies to work on any PC I use (my old one, my new one, and my work PC)?
QuoteWhy can't I get the smilies to work on any PC I use (my old one, my new one, and my work PC)?
There is a problem with the code.
At least I know its not me.
Do you think you could configure the board to show the new posts on a thread since you left it? That would be useful...
you should see (http://www.poasters.com/forum/YaBBImages/new.gif) next to subjects that contain poasts that are new since your last forum visit.
I see that, but I wish that on the thread posts which were new would be marked that way...if that's not a whole bunch of work...
They are timed and dated.
Just write down the time and date of your last visit and compare that to the current time. ;D
Quote from: iansl on August 27, 2003, 07:56 hrs
I see that, but I wish that on the thread posts which were new would be marked that way...if that's not a whole bunch of work...
I don't understand what you are saying.
I was saying that I wish that the newest (unread) posts of a thread would be marked by something.